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Jet-lagged and post-COVID-fatigued, Haje is back, joining Christine to bring you fine morsels of tech news in this very newsletter. Also, hearsay (and the calendar) suggests that it might be Friday. If that almost unverifiable rumor is, in fact, true, then have a delightful weekend. — Christine and Haje
Coalition, a San Francisco–based startup that combines cyber insurance and proactive cybersecurity tools, is preparing to expand outside of the U.S. for the first time following a mega $250 million Series F round that takes its valuation to a whopping $5 billion, Carly reports.
We also particularly enjoyed the interview Connie did with Sequoia Capital’s Jess Lee, regarding its new Arc program, and whether or not it’s a competitor to Y Combinator. “We’re really looking for founders who want to build long-term, transformational, category-defining companies … that carve out a new market. There is no one we’d rule out, but it’s more about the scale of ambition,” Lee shares.
Our money doesn’t jiggle jiggle, it folds:
Image Credits: MirageC (opens in a new window) / Getty Images
Image Credits: MirageC (opens in a new window) / Getty Images
For her latest TC+ post, we asked veteran investor Marjorie Radlo-Zandi to share her playbook for helping first-time founders steer their companies through a pivot.
Changing direction is a massive undertaking, but she breaks the process down into several steps that will help entrepreneurs get buy-in from investors (and employees).
“There’s no shame in pivoting,” writes Radlo-Zandi. “On the contrary, it’s a sign of strength.”
The art of the pivot: Work closely with investors to improve your odds
(TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)
We first focus on a story Taylor put together this afternoon about a Congress investigation into period tracking apps and the data associated. With Roe repealed, there is concern that this kind of data may pose a threat to those seeking reproductive care.
We can sum up today’s — well, technically late yesterday’s — big tech news in three words: Twitter, cars, yacht. Not to be confused with gym, tan, laundry.
Amanda reported on Twitter targeting its talent acquisition team by laying off 30% of that workforce. The company declined to go into specifics, so we don’t know exactly how many people that is, but it’s safe to say jobs at Twitter will not be filled for a while. If that wasn’t already enough Twitter trouble, Taylor follows up on a report that suggests Elon Musk is not interested in buying the company anymore.
But wait, there’s more: