Prete splits from Treat to bring unlimited blowouts to SF
Prete is a new blowout startup launching today in San Francisco and Los Angeles that wants to hook you up with unlimited hair styling. No cuts, color or anything else, just as many blowouts as you want for $129 a month. Some of you may recall a story I wrote about a similar blowout service coming to SF called Treat that wanted to use established salon space for unlimited blowouts. Treat gained… Read MoreInstacart, PlateJoy partner to deliver recommended groceries to dieters
The makers of a virtual nutritionist app, PlateJoy, have partnered with Instacart to offer same-day delivery of the foods that they recommended to users through the PlateJoy app A subscription to PlateJoy costs $59 for six months. Users get food recommendations for themselves and family, cooking tips and recipes, and access to a personal nutritionist they can consult through PlateJoy. Founder… Read MoreParachute lets organizations receive live-streamed emergency incidents recorded with your iPhone
While there are a number of mobile apps that serve as a panic button of sorts – alerting friends or family when you feel you’re in danger – last year’s TechCrunch Disrupt NY hackathon winner Witness resonated with the event’s audience because it also promised a way to discreetly record incidents of civil disobedience and police brutality at a time when… Read MoreTechCrunch is coming to Austin and Seattle in June
It’s that time again. TechCrunch is headed to Austin and Seattle for the 2016 TC Meetup + Pitch-off. If you were looking to pitch your startup to the TechCrunch team, local VCs and your local community, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for. Ten companies will be selected to participate in the pitch-off. Each will have exactly 60 seconds to pitch their wares to a panel of… Read MoreGiphy launches a keyboard for iOS called Giphy Keys
With all of Giphy’s integrations with chat platforms, it was only a matter of time before the betaworks-backed GIF platform launched its own keyboard. World, welcome Giphy Keys into the mix. The Giphy Keys third-party keyboard launches on iOS today, and lets users send GIFs from any app they want. Even Snapchat. Here’s how it works: Once you’ve downloaded the Giphy Keys app… Read MoreShenzhen Valley Ventures has a new incubator for hardware startups
Shenzhen Valley Ventures in Palo Alto, Calif. is launching an incubator for hardware startups in partnership with one of its largest limited partners, Zowee, a factory that works with hardware giants like Xiaomi Technology Co. and Samsung Ltd. Zowee’s Shenzhen facility includes unique prototyping and manufacturing equipment, and testing labs for electromagnetic interference and… Read MoreUber Offers get merchants to pay for your ride
Uber wants to be your car, and the billboard. It’s turning its frequently used app into a surface for external commerce promotions in hopes of rewarding users with special deals. If Uber will give you $20 off for shopping with its partners, you might stick with it over competitors. Eventually, pushing riders to make purchases could potentially earn Uber referral fees that might boost… Read MoreFormlabs acquires Pinshape, an online 3D printing community/marketplace
By the time the Form 1 began shipping to Kickstarter backers, the market was already flooded with countless 3D printers built around the same basic plastic extruding technology. But Formlabs offered something different. The Massachusetts-based startup eschewed the RepRap process offered up in popular consumer machines from companies like MakerBot and 3D Systems in favor of a more complex… Read MoreAdBlock Plus teams up with Flattr to help readers pay publishers
Ad blockers are often painted as the enemy of online publishers, but sometimes things are more complicated. AdBlock Plus, for example, just announced that they’re working with startup Flattr on a new product that allows readers to pay the publishers who produce the content they read, listen to and watch. As a result of the partnership, AdBlock Plus said it has also made a small investment… Read More
Asos and Telefónica’s Wayra launch fashion tech accelerator
Fashion retailer Asos already has its own corporate venture arm, the aptly-named Asos Ventures. And now the publicly listed U.K. company is getting into to the startup accelerator business with a new fashion tech program being run in partnership with (and by) Telefónica’s Wayra. Read MoreCasey Neistat’s video app Beme has finally left beta and is now on Android
When Casey Neistat launched his new social networking app Beme last Summer, nothing was really ready yet. The product was underdeveloped, the team understaffed, and users weren’t exactly sure why they needed a version of Snapchat where the only main difference was that you had to cover the iPhone’s proximity sensor to record. But none of this really matters when you have a… Read More- CRUNCH NETWORK
The future of digital lead generation
Lead generation has come a long way. The way in which leads were developed during Roman times was through word of mouth. As technology advances, the way in which leads are acquired also changes. Before understanding how far we’ve come today, and where we’re going, we must understand where lead generation started. Read More Venture investments in new manufacturing technologies could reshape American industry
A wave of venture investment into new manufacturing startups looks set to transform American manufacturing. While the foundations for these companies may have been laid in cities like Boston, New York and San Francisco, the startups that are driving this next industrial revolution hail from more unlikely hubs of technology innovation in the smaller urban centers of the Sun Belt and the Southeast. Read MoreShopping Quizzes is a quiz-based recommendation engine for e-commerce sites
A key tenet of e-commerce is the recommendation engine. If implemented correctly, it can be a major sales driver for online retailers. However, most sites normally just implement a basic engine that guesses what shoppers want, without any input from the shoppers themselves. Shopping Quizzes has created a recommendation engine that actually asks shoppers what they’re looking… Read MoreTastemates helps you find people who like what you like
If you’ve ever forged a connection with someone because you had the same favorite movie or TV show or book, a new startup called Tastemates has built a social network around that experience. Or as CEO Jon Vlassopulos put it, “We’re trying to codify serendipity” — those surprising moments of, “Oh my God, I can’t believe anyone else likes that as much as… Read MoreShyp rolls out its new packaging pricing model to all customers
Shyp has finished rolling out a new packaging pricing model to all its customers that includes variable shipment pricing based on the packaging that the company provides. Shyp is still playing around with its business model and, to be sure, over time these tweaks will add up. The unit economics of on-demand services aren’t quite as simple as a $5 fee (plus postage) and require a… Read MoreUber is facing a nationwide class-action lawsuit
Less than a month after Uber settled two class-action lawsuits in California and Massachusetts, another one has popped up. This time, the suit pertains to all current and former Uber drivers in the United States, except for those in California and Massachusetts. The suit, filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Chicago division, asks the court… Read MoreEasilyDo’s speedy new mail app puts a smart assistant in your inbox
Productivity app maker EasilyDo is best known for its smart assistant for iPhone that lets you do things like organize your travel plans, track shipments, update your contacts, create personalized email alerts, and more. Now the company is taking some of its best features to a just-launched email application that has this assistant feature built in. In addition, the new EasilyDo Mail app… Read More- CRUNCH NETWORK
Here’s why we only did three deals last year
There has been a huge disconnect between private and public company valuations over the last few years. This isn’t the first time I’ve said it. It probably won’t be the last. During this period of froth, companies were able to raise capital at increasingly ludicrous valuations, and entrepreneurs turned fundraising into a sport. Deals closed peaked in 2014, but all-time… Read More
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