Elon Musk refutes Twitter layoff timing to affect year-end compensation

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Elon Musk, Chief Twit, has refuted claims from a New York Times report this weekend that states he plans to lay off employees before Tuesday, November 1, thus cutting staff off from receiving stock grants as part of their compensation.

In response to a tweet from Eric Umansky, deputy managing editor of ProPublica, that said Musk was “making sure to fire people at Twitter before part of their year-end compensation kicks in on Tuesday,” Musk said: “This is false.” He didn’t provide any clarification about what, specifically, was false.

This is false

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 30, 2022

Umansky’s tweet included a screenshot of a highlighted portion of the NYT story that also noted stock grants make up a significant portion of an employee’s pay, and by laying off workers before that date, Musk may avoid paying the grants.

Musk did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for clarification on whether the layoffs will affect stock compensation. He may very well have been refuting the entire NYT article, which stated Musk is said to have ordered job cuts across the company, citing “four people with knowledge of the matter.” But that seems unlikely, given the layoffs that are already underway.

Previous reports said Musk would layoff 75% of Twitter’s staff, but last week when the executive visited Twitter headquarters, he said those numbers weren’t correct. Still, reports have been surfacing about various layoffs at the social media company, including of top Twitter executives like CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, General Counsel Sean Edgett and Head of Legal Policy, Trust and Safety Vijaya Gadde.

Musk’s $44 billion deal to purchase Twitter went through late on Thursday last week. The New York Stock Exchange stopped trading Twitter’s stock on Friday morning, where it had been listed since 2013. Twitter will officially be delisted from the stock exchange on November 8.

Current shareholders will be paid $54.20, Musks’s buying price, per share. It’s not clear how Twitter’s now-private status will affect current employees with stock grants.

Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

Elon Musk refutes Twitter layoff timing to affect year-end compensation by Rebecca Bellan originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/?p=2433619

GM pauses paid advertising on Twitter as Chief Twit Elon Musk takes ownership

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General Motors has temporarily paused paid advertising on Twitter, one day after billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk finalized a $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform.

CNBC was the first to report GM’s decision. TechCrunch confirmed the U.S. automaker’s decision.

“We are engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership,” the company said in an emailed statement to TechCrunch. “As is normal course of business with a significant change in a media platform, we have temporarily paused our paid advertising. Our customer care interactions on Twitter will continue.”

It’s unclear what percentage of GM’s total advertising budget is dedicated to Twitter.

Most, if not all, automakers have a presence on Twitter. Although not all of them opt for paid advertising.

Ford, GM, Stellantis, Porsche, VW and Volvo are just a handful of the established automakers along with newer companies like Rivian that have social media accounts on the platform. Fisker is still on Twitter even after its founder and CEO Henrik Fisker deleted his personal account in April following the announcement of the Musk-Twitter deal.

Musk tried to quell advertisers’ fear earlier this week with a note posted on his personal Twitter account about his intended approach to running the social media platform.

Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022

“There has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising,” Musk wrote. “Most of it has been wrong.” He went on to write that he believes Twitter has the potential to be a “common digital town square,” and that the platform cannot be “a free-for-all hellscape.”

Musk’s promises might not be enough for GM as it seeks to compete and even surpass Tesla in EV sales.

GM pauses paid advertising on Twitter as Chief Twit Elon Musk takes ownership by Kirsten Korosec originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/?p=2433512

Daily Crunch: AI content developer Jasper now valued at $1.5B following capital infusion

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To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here.

The newsletter is a little later than usual today and for the next three days. Don’t worry, it’s for fun reasons: We want to be the first to tell you about the awesomeness that is our TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield companies. Find ’em in our special Battlefield section belooooow! And, this is the first time EVER, that we are writing Daily Crunch, sitting next to each other, IRL. — Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

• Someone’s having a good day: Jasper, which calls itself an “AI content” developer, raised its first round of funding ever — and a big one at that, at $125 million, to give it a $1.5 billion valuation, Kyle reports. It also comes as the company is in the process of acquiring a grammar- and style-checking platform, Outwrite.
• Turning renters into owners: Christine provides an update on Landis, which raised $40 million in Series B funding. The company buys homes on behalf of clients while also providing a patch for them to build up their credit and eventually get a mortgage on the home they rent.
• So, Apple had an event: Romain gives you a look at the new entry-level iPad that he says looks just like the iPad Pro. Alas, it’s also more expensive, but you get a larger screen. Priorities, amirite?

Startups and VC

Venture capital funds focusing on niche sectors are “in,” according to Connie, and Will Ventures is here for it. Christine reports that the low-flying, Boston-based venture outfit just tripled the size of its second fund to $150 million thanks to its approach of investing in sports technologies with the help of its community of athlete backers who help promote and grow the portfolio companies.

Turo, the peer-to-peer car-sharing platform that’s been described as the Airbnb for cars, will expand to Australia before the end of the year, Rebecca reports. Local car owners in all major cities, including Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane, can join the waitlist on Turo’s website.

Okay, fine, have a few more:

• Giving birth to a new startup: “She Matters” is the name and mission of a BIPOC-focused postpartum-care startup, Andrew reports.
• For you, special price: Kyle reports that Enable lands $94 million to help B2B companies manage their rebate programs.
• At the P&L, turn left: Drivetrain is the “Google Maps for business growth,” writes Catherine.
• E-shopping for the win: Kenzz, an Egyptian e-commerce platform for the mass market, grabs $3.5 million seed funding, writes Tage.
• Tap to spark: Matt reports that Jane Technologies launches its first iOS app for cannabis shopping.

News Drops from Disrupt

Crypto accelerator: Andreessen Horowitz’s Chris Dixon dishes to Anita about a “Crypto Startup School,” an inaugural accelerator program that will kick off next year in Los Angeles. He also provided more info on the firm’s recent giant investment in our favorite controversial founder, Adam Neumann.
Stealthy startup: Both Harri and Tim sat in on Ingrid‘s interview with Marc Lore, who disclosed a new sports ticketing startup that he is working on called Jump Platforms and provided some insight on the Diapers.com sale to Amazon, calling it a “forced transaction.”
On cloud nine: Netflix VP of Gaming Mike Verdu spoke to Amanda about opening a new gaming studio in SoCal and getting into cloud gaming.

Startup Battlefield

It’s Disruuuuuupt! We are so excited we can barely sit still. Here’s the first batch of Battlefield companies that pitched onstage on this fine California Tuesday — and if you’re curious, Neesha revealed the 20 companies that are presenting on the Disrupt Stage earlier today. Here’s the first batch that pitched today:

NXgenPort: A Saint Paul, Minnesota–based startup that’s looking to remotely monitor cancer patients in between doctor visits using a port catheter.

Omneky: Leverages OpenAI’s DALLE-2 and GPT-3 models to generate visuals and text that can be used in ads for social platforms.

Circular Genomics: Claims its new form of genetic testing can identify which medications will work for a patient in a fraction of that time.

Anthill: Connects frontline workers to company resources through text messaging.

AppMap: Was built on the simple idea that developers should be able to see the behavior of software as they write it so they can prevent problems when the software runs.

Mother Honestly: New commerce offering aims to give employees more freedom when it comes to caregiving spending.

Digest.ai: Beyond flash cards to create an AI dialogue assistant that we can all carry around on our phones.

Swap Robotics: Paving the way for electric solar vegetation cuts and sidewalk snow plowing.

Hormona: Hopes to encourage people with periods to do just that — add hormone-monitoring to their quantified health mix.

Staax: Thinks peer-to-peer payments can onboard a new generation of stock investors.

How to combine PLG and enterprise sales to improve the funnel and drive bottom-line growth

Image Credits: Richard Drury (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Products and services that sell themselves sound great, but product-led growth (PLG) startups still launch marketing campaigns and hire sales teams.

Combining PLG with traditional sales-led growth efforts can raise retention and acquisition to the next level, says Kate Ahlering, chief revenue officer at Calendly.

In this TC+ guest post, Ahlering lays out multiple strategies that will help teams implement a “hybrid GTM strategy,” which includes suggestions for leveraging PLG data and optimizing success metrics.

How to combine PLG and enterprise sales to improve your funnel

Three more from the TC+ team:

• Better fit, fewer returns: Advances in fit technology could minimize those onerous online returns, by Christine.
• Geez, Alex, downer much: Don’t let today’s software rally improve your mood, by Alex.
• Developers, developers, developers: Developers pour into crypto space despite stagnant markets, by Jacquelyn.

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

We have even more for you from Apple’s surprise October event. Brian takes a look at the company’s new M2 iPad Pro, which got a refresh and arrives October 26. He talks about chips and inches, and a pencil…you get the picture.

Even more Apple for you to bite into:

• Lauren reports on the new Apple TV 4K, which is also getting a refresh with a performance upgrade and lower price.
• Aisha has information on some other product drops for October 24, including iPadOS 16 and macOS Ventura.
• Kirsten writes about Apple bringing its Spatial Audio to cars and will start with Mercedes-Benz.

Since we have all the Battlefield companies for your reading pleasure, here are just a few more:

• Sales block: UK’s competition watchdog is not playing around anymore. It issued a final order to Meta for it to sell Giphy. Natasha L has more.
• Turned off: Sometimes experiments fail. In this case, YouTube was testing a premium subscription to watch 4K videos, and as Ivan writes, “the company has now ended this test — probably because of uproar from users.”
• Easy button: Adobe is tapping into artificial intelligence to make selecting and deleting objects in Photoshop and Lightroom easier, Frederic writes.
• What’s going on with Do Kwon: Manish has the latest on Terra’s Do Kwon, who has charges against him related to the $40 billion wipeout of his blockchain. Kwon is saying South Korea’s charges against him are not legitimate and “politically motivated.”

Daily Crunch: AI content developer Jasper now valued at $1.5B following capital infusion by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/?p=2427229

Meta announces legs, Hulu raises prices, and Microsoft embraces DALL-E 2

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Hi, friends! It’s time for another edition of Week in Review, the newsletter where we quickly recap the most read TechCrunch stories from the past seven days.

Want it in your inbox every Saturday morning? Sign up here.

most read

LEGS: The company formerly known as Facebook held its Meta Connect conference this week, where it announced everything from a $1,500 VR headset to a work-focused partnership with Microsoft. Here’s the full roundup of all the news. The thing Zuckerberg seemed most excited about? His metaverse is getting legs.

Hulu’s price bump: Another year, another Hulu price hike. This week the ad-supported plan got bumped from $7 to $8 per month, while the ad-free plan went from $13 to $15 per month.

Microsoft x DALL-E: AI tools that can generate new images from text prompts are starting to go mainstream, with Microsoft announcing this week that it will integrate DALL-E 2 into at least two of its apps.

OG App gets KO’d: The “OG App” promised to provide an ad-free/suggestion-free Instagram experience more like that of yesteryear. Unfortunately, it didn’t have Instagram’s permission to do so. Instagram owner Meta quickly announced plans to take “all appropriate enforcement actions” against the app, which has now been pulled from both Google Play and the iOS App Store.

Google’s video calling booths get real: Last year, Google announced Project Starline, a wild, experimental “video-calling booth” that uses 3D imagery, depth sensors, and light field displays to make a video chat feel more like an in-person conversation. Until now, Starline booth prototypes were hidden away exclusively in Google’s offices; they’re now expanding that to include “the offices of various enterprise partners, including Salesforce, WeWork, T-Mobile and Hackensack Meridian Health.”

audio roundup

Been busy, and not the commuting/working out/doing housework kind of busy that lets you listen to podcasts while you get stuff done? Here’s what you missed in TC podcasts this week:

• On Equity, Natasha and Alex caught up with the incredibly insightful Sarah Guo, who recently launched a $100 million early-stage VC firm after being an investor/partner at Greylock for nearly a decade.
• Darrell and Jordan were joined on Found by Attabotics founder Scott Gravelle, who detailed how ant colonies inspired his approach to robotics.
• The Chain Reaction crew talked about why the SEC is investigating the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection and what it could mean for the crypto ecosystem.

techcrunch+

Here’s what subscribers were reading most behind the TC+ member paywall this week:

Supliful’s seed deck: “This is one of the best decks I’ve ever seen, despite being butt-ugly and riddled with mistakes,” writes Haje in the latest installment of his popular Pitch Deck Teardown series.

Growth hacking is really just growth testing: 10+ years after the term “growth hacking” was coined, what does it really mean today? Growth marketing expert Jonathan Martinez shares his insights.

Meta announces legs, Hulu raises prices, and Microsoft embraces DALL-E 2 by Greg Kumparak originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/?p=2425509

Daily Crunch: Andreessen Horowitz backs Synonym’s development of ‘fermentation farms’

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To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here.

Hot damn, it’s happening: A bunch of the TechCrunch team are on airplanes, aeroplanes and other spellings of flying vessels to come join us in San Francisco for Disrupt. To say that we are excited would be using altogether too few syllables. Lauren S made us a user’s guide to TechCrunch Disrupt along with a guide to all the receptions, parties and other cool extracurriculars. See you soon! — Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

• What’s another word for Synonym?: Ever heard of a “fermentation farm”? Well you have now. Christine covered Synonym Biotechnologies’ pre-seed round, with big backer Andreessen Horowitz, in which the company plans to build giant fermentation farms so nonpharmaceutical companies can mass-produce bioproducts like dairy proteins.
• A rose by any other name: “Ad,” “Sponsored,” whatever you want to call it, Google is making it so when you perform a mobile search, you will definitely know if it is some sponsored content or an organic search result. Ivan has more.
• Legless for a while longer: We were promised legs, but now Ivan writes that it could be another year for any Meta leg-equipped avatars to appear in Horizon Worlds.

Startups and VC

Even the largest landfills in Indonesia are at (or nearing) capacity, and the government has set an ambitious target of 30% waste reduction by 2025, reports Catherine.  Waste4Change is one of the companies that wants to help by increasing rates of recycling and enabling better waste management. The startup, which currently manages more than 8,000 tons of waste every year, announced today that it has raised $5 million in Series A funding, co-led by AC Ventures and PT Barito Mitra Investama.

And we have five more for you:

• What is this, a VC for ants ?: Connie reports that some new venture firms are so niche that, at first glance, it’s easy to laugh off their focus.
• Beyond jobs : Christine reports that Beyond Meat is cutting 19% of its workforce amid sales slump.
• The sweetest taboo : Haje gets all fanboy about Sugar Lab buying back its company from 3D Systems, to take 3D-printed foods mainstream.
• Runaway train, never coming back : Natasha M reports that Getaway launches a way for you to enjoy and own vacation homes.
• Put the Equity team in your ear-holes: We loved the newest Equity podcast and can’t wait to hear them live onstage at Disrupt next week!

DIY: 5 ways disruptive component startups can win over OEMs

 

Image Credits: Alan Rubio (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Ori Mor writes that hardware startup founders have a uniquely hard time. Only a small fraction of tech investors will even take meetings with them, and building product pipelines is often an irregular, even chaotic process.

Instead of relying on sales and marketing teams to build a customer base for his hardware components startup, Mor’s company started building devices that used his company’s tech.

“There’s no point rushing when building a hardware startup,” says Mor. “Instead, start by making just a single prototype that you can use to show OEMs.”

DIY: 5 ways disruptive component startups can win over OEMs

Three more from the TC+ team:

• Venture debt has downsides: Q3 data reminds us that venture debt is not a Hail Mary, by Becca.
• Just bouncing along: Is the venture market slowing or did crossover funds just bounce? by Alex.
• One of the best pitch decks Haje has ever seen: Pitch Deck Teardown: Supliful’s $1 million seed deck, by Haje.

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

Rebecca got the scoop on Sono Motors’ new Sion solar electric vehicle and some face time with Whoopi Goldberg (pictures to prove it). Though the family-friendly vehicle comes in at $25,000, Rebecca points out that the interior is roomier than it looks from the outside, but also that no cup holders in the back might not go over with some American families.

And we have five more for you:

• More layoffs: Jagmeet has more on Momentive Global’s layoff announcement of 11% of its workforce. If you’re thinking, “Who?” that would be SurveyMonkey’s parent company. Real estate valuation technology company Clear Capital is also reducing its staff by 27%, reports Andrew.
• Get the popcorn ready: Peacock is making the “Real Housewives” franchise its guinea pig as it tests out some new interactive features that will give viewers extended clips and interviews, Lauren reports.
• Don’t @me: Meanwhile, over at Twitter, the company is developing a way for users to control who can mention them, writes Aisha.
• It puts the lotion on its robotic skin: Brian reports that Touchlab, which won the TC Sessions: Robotics pitch-off event a few months ago, began piloting its robotic skin sensors in a hospital setting.
• Time, time, time, see what’s become of me: The owner of the Shein fashion e-commerce site was fined $1.9 million for not properly handling a 2018 data breach that compromised millions of users’ information, Rita writes.

Daily Crunch: Andreessen Horowitz backs Synonym’s development of ‘fermentation farms’ by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/?p=2425426

24 hours left to apply to volunteer at TechCrunch Disrupt and attend for free

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It takes a veritable army to make TechCrunch Disrupt — which takes place October 18–20 in San Francisco — the well-oiled experience that savvy startuppers have come to know and love. And we couldn’t do it nearly as well without our incredible volunteers.

If you’re looking for a no-budget way to experience Disrupt up close and personal, sign up to volunteer for work exchange. Not only will you get a behind-the-scenes look at how to produce events, but you’ll also earn a free pass ($1,995 value) to experience the event. The deadline to apply is tomorrow, October 3 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.

You’ll work hard, play hard and get free access to all three days of Disrupt. Whether you dream of becoming a startup founder, marketer or event coordinator, this is a great way to see what it takes to produce a world-renowned tech startup conference.

Plus, your free pass gives you access to the full Disrupt experience — the main stage, the TechCrunch+ stage, the expo floor — where you’ll find the Startup Battlefield 200 — and the Startup Battlefield competition.

Volunteers handle a variety of tasks to help make this startup conference an epic experience for everyone. At any given time, you might help with registration, wrangle speakers, direct attendees, stuff goodie bags, place signage, scan tickets or help with pre-marketing activities.

We need volunteers on October 17–20. If you can meet the following criteria, we want to hear from you:

• Attend a mandatory orientation on Monday, October 17 at Moscone Center.
• Work a minimum of 10 hours during the entire conference, starting from October 17 (the day before the conference starts) to October 20. You’ll find volunteer shift availability in the application. We might select you for some pre-event opportunities, which would count toward your hours.
• You may be scheduled for an 8- to 9-hour shift or you may be scheduled with two separate shifts of 4 to 5 hours each. Shifts can start as early as 6:30 a.m. PDT or end as late as 8:30 p.m. PDT.
• You must provide your own housing and transportation.
• Due to the high volume of applications, we will notify only the selected applicants.

Read the volunteer FAQ for more information.

Lend us a helping hand, and we’ll hand you a free pass. Save money, gain valuable experience and still have plenty of time to take in all the startup goodness that TechCrunch Disrupt has to offer. Apply to volunteer by October 3 to get your free pass, and we’ll see you in October!

24 hours left to apply to volunteer at TechCrunch Disrupt and attend for free by Lauren Simonds originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/?p=2416686