Category: Success Stories

There is Atlanta, Georgia. It has emerged as one of the busiest innovation hubs in the country, with a number of investors backing the enterprise, cyber security and SaaS sectors, as well as the hot new startups coming out of the city. Some notable companies from Atlanta include Calendly, Kabbage, One Trust, and FullStory—all unicorns, by the way. Many, like Calendley, have passed through the Atlanta Tech Village since it was founded by David Cummings in 2012, serving as an incubator for the city’s talent ecosystem. Register for this free…

First Republic Banks was on the cusp, Silicon Valley didn’t panic or throw itself into a social media frenzy. Instead of panic in the startup community when a Silicon Valley bank declared trouble in March, there was widespread malaise. Part of the reason for that may be that we’ve been here before, and part of the reason may be that the FRB had a quicker resolution than the SVB: earlier this week, the FRB was under FDIC receivership and its assets were put up for sale. Tender. As startups weary…

Several years ago, entrepreneur Dheeraj Sharma’s first company, a software consultancy, was hired by an HR tech firm to develop an app to improve the employee onboarding experience. Instead of creating a one-time, ad hoc solution, Sharma led a platform called Simpler, which he later spun off into his own company. Today, Simpler primarily sells an internal social network to companies—one that allows employees to create profiles, share content, follow users, and participate in polls or surveys via a customized Internet interface. Administrators can create an employee directory, as well…

On AnnBullpen Capital’s general partner has been fired from the firm, she says. The investor described the termination experience as “discriminatory and counterproductive” in a LinkedIn post published Monday. La was named an equal partner in Bullpen Capital’s latest fund, a $145 million investment vehicle. Prior to joining Bullpen Capital in September 2020, Lai was a principal at Binary Capital, co-founded by investor Justin Caldbeck. When she resigned from that company, she said it was related to alleged sexual behavior she witnessed while there. Caldbeck, who has previously been accused…

Bolt founder and former CEO Ryan Breslow told TechCrunch in 2022 that he left the one-click checkout company to start a new health and wellness company called Love. Well, today is not only World Love Day, but also the inauguration of love. Love raised $7.5 million last year from investors including Human Capital and Massey Venture Capital. Breslow told TechCrunch that the company has raised another round (bringing total funding to just under $20 million) from a group of new and existing investors that have backed Bolt in the past,…

To get TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3pm PDT; Register here. The world we live in is a curious world. Banks are one-collapsing, and the world continues one-turning. And oh, hey, look! OpenAI is now richer! Alex It’s back to the microphone with your Monday details, and as usual, we’ve got a lot to cover: we’re digging into OpenAI, earnings, First Republic Bank, some fun startups, and the ARM IPO in today’s equity episode. Listen here. – Christine And came TechCrunch’s Top…

You blink, and suddenly you’re only two weeks away from applying for the Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023. Maybe you want to submit or finish your application, but life is full of things. So consider this a reminder of how often you get high visibility. Don’t let it slide. Apply to Startup Battlefield 200 on May 15 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. (If you’ve started an application, check your email for a link to complete the second part). Join the best beginner battlefield 200 in TC Riot 2023! TechCrunch’s…

It lasts for many years. Question for entry-level startups: How does one find product marketing (PMF)? What do you do to ensure that your idea meets the needs of your target market? How do you get your ideas heard in the world? At TechCrunch’s Early Stage event in Boston a few weeks ago, David Tucker, general partner at Greylock, advised startups to keep it simple: focus, adjust and adapt. The definition of PMF is, for the most part, subjective, but Tucker wants something more concrete. “It’s not like you bring…

Jonathan Martinez Contributor Jonathan Martinez is a former YouTuber, UC Berkeley alum, and growth marketing nerd who helped scale Uber, Postmates, Chime, and various other startups. More posts by this contributor 3 Ways to Boost Your Short Form Video and TikTok Growth Strategy 5 Growth Lessons I Learned from Scaling from $0 to $1M ARR Many data-driven startups They find that having a single user onboarding experience can ultimately make or break them. This is what I call the single boarding misconception. Take Twitter as a prime example, a company…

In this increasingly AI-driven era, creative and media teams must use the technology to step up their game by analyzing their creative assets and A/B testing – or someone else will simply beat them to the punch. Allison is a startup from Israel that analyzes creative works such as fonts, colors, sounds and texts. It then provides the creative team with a data-driven creative brief that they can use to feed into a generative AI production platform like Midjourney or (even!). Man Creative team. The company has now raised $5.1M,…