Year: 2018

With Facebook holding a dominant role in the VR space, one would think that the social networking implications are all taken care of, but for the time being it actually seems to be one of the best areas for virtual reality startups to get creative and find an audience.

VR and AR has the potential to really change how we interact with other people but who says it has to be standing next to each other over a virtual cup of coffee? At our one-day TC Sessions: AR/VR event in LA later this month at UCLA, we’ll be chatting with founders of startups that are taking some more creative viewpoints for how people are going to interact with virtual worlds.

We’ll be chatting with TheWaveVR CEO Adam Arrigo, SVRF CEO Sophia Dominguez, and Mindshow CEO Gil Baron about the social possibilities of world where you can share so much and so little at the same time.

TheWaveVR is aiming to be an impossible VR Burning Man for virtual reality, SVRF wants to become Giphy of the AR/VR world and let people step into creations while Mindshow is getting people to step into VR to create and share their own cinematic storylines. I’m excited about all of the speakers we have coming to this event, but I’m especially excited about this panel.

We’ll chat about these startups are leveraging network effects to get people onto their platforms, how they’re making the most of the technology while not promoting gimmicks and how they’re thinking about their future success in an industry essentially owned by Facebook.

As a special offer to our fans, save 35% on $149 General Admission tickets when you use code TCFAN. Spots are filling up fast – purchase yours today. Students, get your tickets for just $45 here.

With Facebook holding a dominant role in the VR space, one would think that the social networking implications are all taken care of, but for the time being it actually seems to be one of the best areas for virtual reality startups to get creative and find an audience.

VR and AR has the potential to really change how we interact with other people but who says it has to be standing next to each other over a virtual cup of coffee? At our one-day TC Sessions: AR/VR event in LA later this month at UCLA, we’ll be chatting with founders of startups that are taking some more creative viewpoints for how people are going to interact with virtual worlds.

We’ll be chatting with TheWaveVR CEO Adam Arrigo, SVRF CEO Sophia Dominguez, and Mindshow CEO Gil Baron about the social possibilities of world where you can share so much and so little at the same time.

TheWaveVR is aiming to be an impossible VR Burning Man for virtual reality, SVRF wants to become Giphy of the AR/VR world and let people step into creations while Mindshow is getting people to step into VR to create and share their own cinematic storylines. I’m excited about all of the speakers we have coming to this event, but I’m especially excited about this panel.

We’ll chat about these startups are leveraging network effects to get people onto their platforms, how they’re making the most of the technology while not promoting gimmicks and how they’re thinking about their future success in an industry essentially owned by Facebook.

As a special offer to our fans, save 35% on $149 General Admission tickets when you use code TCFAN. Spots are filling up fast – purchase yours today. Students, get your tickets for just $45 here.

Cratejoy, a startup that runs a marketplace for subscription businesses and helps founders launch and scale their own subscription box services, has laid off 18 members of its 43-person team.

The company’s co-founder and chief executive officer Amir Elaguizy confirmed the lay-offs to TechCrunch. He says the cuts are part of a restructuring effort to keep costs in line and that subscribers and merchants will not be impacted.

The startup has raised a total of $10 million to date from investors, including Charles River Ventures, SV Angel, Andreessen Horowitz, Maverick Capital, Start Fund and ACE Venture Fund. Cratejoy completed the Y Combinator accelerator program in the summer of 2013 alongside DoorDash, Le Tote and Bloom That, which itself recently hit pause on its on-demand flower service.

Cratejoy, a startup that runs a marketplace for subscription businesses and helps founders launch and scale their own subscription box services, has laid off 18 members of its 43-person team.

The company’s co-founder and chief executive officer Amir Elaguizy confirmed the lay-offs to TechCrunch. He says the cuts are part of a restructuring effort to keep costs in line and that subscribers and merchants will not be impacted.

The startup has raised a total of $10 million to date from investors, including Charles River Ventures, SV Angel, Andreessen Horowitz, Maverick Capital, Start Fund and ACE Venture Fund. Cratejoy completed the Y Combinator accelerator program in the summer of 2013 alongside DoorDash, Le Tote and Bloom That, which itself recently hit pause on its on-demand flower service.

Finding a job can be tricky. And once you find that job, it can be difficult to succeed and excel in it. HireClub wants to help with all of that.

HireClub started as a job-posting group on Facebook back in 2011 and has since expanded to a full-fledged business that helps people find jobs, prepare for interviews, negotiate salaries and generally navigate the workplace.

Today, HireClub has about 20,000 members in that Facebook group and offers coaching subscriptions across three tiers: standard, pro and executive. The pro plan, for example, costs $149 a month and gets you one hour’s worth of phone-based coaching and unlimited texting with your coach.

Compared to some other career-coaching services, HireClub is a steal. One career-coaching service I came across costs $2,900 for 10, one-hour sessions. That comes out to $290 a session. Another one costs $50 for 30 minutes, which is cheaper than HireClub’s $89 per month service that gets you one 30-minute call.

HireClub, which counts $6,500 in monthly revenues, currently has 60 clients on board who are supported by 40 coaches. The company says 90 percent of its clients find a job within 60 days.

HireClub’s marketplace of coaches range from professional, certified coaches looking to expand their client base to human resources professionals who have been doing work on the side. With HireClub, you also can book single sessions for a resume review, job interview prep and salary negotiation. For $39, you can book a resume review and for $99, you can book a mock interview.

People rarely get to practice interviewing, and most companies don’t give feedback after an interview, HireClub founder Ketan Anjaria told me. That’s what makes it hard to improve.

“I want to make coaching more accessible,” Anjaria said.

HireClub’s target customers are people changing careers, college graduates and women. The latter is because of a lack of support in the workplace and issues of discrimination, Anjaria said. Today, 60 percent of HireClub’s customers are women.

The small startup has raised just $50,000 from its members. HireClub is currently looking to raise a seed round from traditional investors, but Anjaria said it’s been a tough journey. With funding, Anjaria says HireClub would be able to employ its staffers full-time, and launch an iPhone and Android app.

Finding a job can be tricky. And once you find that job, it can be difficult to succeed and excel in it. HireClub wants to help with all of that.

HireClub started as a job-posting group on Facebook back in 2011 and has since expanded to a full-fledged business that helps people find jobs, prepare for interviews, negotiate salaries and generally navigate the workplace.

Today, HireClub has about 20,000 members in that Facebook group and offers coaching subscriptions across three tiers: standard, pro and executive. The pro plan, for example, costs $149 a month and gets you one hour’s worth of phone-based coaching and unlimited texting with your coach.

Compared to some other career-coaching services, HireClub is a steal. One career-coaching service I came across costs $2,900 for 10, one-hour sessions. That comes out to $290 a session. Another one costs $50 for 30 minutes, which is cheaper than HireClub’s $89 per month service that gets you one 30-minute call.

HireClub, which counts $6,500 in monthly revenues, currently has 60 clients on board who are supported by 40 coaches. The company says 90 percent of its clients find a job within 60 days.

HireClub’s marketplace of coaches range from professional, certified coaches looking to expand their client base to human resources professionals who have been doing work on the side. With HireClub, you also can book single sessions for a resume review, job interview prep and salary negotiation. For $39, you can book a resume review and for $99, you can book a mock interview.

People rarely get to practice interviewing, and most companies don’t give feedback after an interview, HireClub founder Ketan Anjaria told me. That’s what makes it hard to improve.

“I want to make coaching more accessible,” Anjaria said.

HireClub’s target customers are people changing careers, college graduates and women. The latter is because of a lack of support in the workplace and issues of discrimination, Anjaria said. Today, 60 percent of HireClub’s customers are women.

The small startup has raised just $50,000 from its members. HireClub is currently looking to raise a seed round from traditional investors, but Anjaria said it’s been a tough journey. With funding, Anjaria says HireClub would be able to employ its staffers full-time, and launch an iPhone and Android app.

The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to a trio of researchers whose work in lasers enabled all kinds of new experiments and treatments. Arthur Ashkin is the primary recipient, sharing the prize with Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland; notably, the latter is the first woman to receive the prize (in physics, to be clear) since 1963, and only the third in history.

“This year’s prize is about tools made from light,” the Swedish foundation said in its announcement of the prize. ”

The work that won the award stretches over decades. Ashkin’s began during his tenure at Bell Labs in the ’60s and ’70s,  where he discovered that tiny particles and in fact cells and monocellular creatures could be trapped and manipulated using microscopic lasers.

In 1987 he used his “optical tweezers” to capture a bacterium without harming it, opening the possibility of the tool being used for all kinds of biological applications.

Mourou and Strickland, meanwhile, were also making strides in laser technology. They approached the open question of how to compress a powerful laser into a brief but equally powerful pulse, publishing a breakthrough paper in 1985.

The CPA technique described by Mourou and Strickland’s landmark research.

By “stretching” the beam out, then amplifying it, then compressing it again (as you see in the diagram above), they created the first “chirped pulse amplification,” which would become a standard tool. If you’ve gotten laser eye surgery, for instance, you’ve enjoyed the benefit of their research.

“The innumerable areas of application have not yet been completely explored,” the Nobel press release reads. “However, even now these celebrated inventions allow us to rummage around in the microworld in the best spirit of Alfred Nobel – for the greatest benefit to humankind.”

Strickland joins the very small club of women who have received the prestigious prize (again, in Physics; many women have won it in the other categories). It was given in 1963 to Maria Goeppert-Mayer, who created the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus, and before that in 1903 to Marie Curie for, of course, her work on radium. (She won the Nobel for Chemistry 8 years later, making her the only woman to win two Nobels and the only person to win one in two different fields.)

Speaking to NPR, Strickland expressed surprise that so few women had been honored. “Really? I thought there might’ve been more,” she said. “Obviously, we need to celebrate women physicists, because we’re out there … I don’t know what to say, I’m honored to be one of these women.”

If you’re curious about the specifics of the research honored today, feel free to check out this writeup by the Nobel Foundation.

The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to a trio of researchers whose work in lasers enabled all kinds of new experiments and treatments. Arthur Ashkin is the primary recipient, sharing the prize with Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland; notably, the latter is the first woman to receive the prize (in physics, to be clear) since 1963, and only the third in history.

“This year’s prize is about tools made from light,” the Swedish foundation said in its announcement of the prize. ”

The work that won the award stretches over decades. Ashkin’s began during his tenure at Bell Labs in the ’60s and ’70s,  where he discovered that tiny particles and in fact cells and monocellular creatures could be trapped and manipulated using microscopic lasers.

In 1987 he used his “optical tweezers” to capture a bacterium without harming it, opening the possibility of the tool being used for all kinds of biological applications.

Mourou and Strickland, meanwhile, were also making strides in laser technology. They approached the open question of how to compress a powerful laser into a brief but equally powerful pulse, publishing a breakthrough paper in 1985.

The CPA technique described by Mourou and Strickland’s landmark research.

By “stretching” the beam out, then amplifying it, then compressing it again (as you see in the diagram above), they created the first “chirped pulse amplification,” which would become a standard tool. If you’ve gotten laser eye surgery, for instance, you’ve enjoyed the benefit of their research.

“The innumerable areas of application have not yet been completely explored,” the Nobel press release reads. “However, even now these celebrated inventions allow us to rummage around in the microworld in the best spirit of Alfred Nobel – for the greatest benefit to humankind.”

Strickland joins the very small club of women who have received the prestigious prize (again, in Physics; many women have won it in the other categories). It was given in 1963 to Maria Goeppert-Mayer, who created the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus, and before that in 1903 to Marie Curie for, of course, her work on radium. (She won the Nobel for Chemistry 8 years later, making her the only woman to win two Nobels and the only person to win one in two different fields.)

Speaking to NPR, Strickland expressed surprise that so few women had been honored. “Really? I thought there might’ve been more,” she said. “Obviously, we need to celebrate women physicists, because we’re out there … I don’t know what to say, I’m honored to be one of these women.”

If you’re curious about the specifics of the research honored today, feel free to check out this writeup by the Nobel Foundation.

Tesla plans to speed up construction of a factory in Shanghai as tariffs, shipping costs and missed incentives continue to drive up the price of the company’s electric vehicles and dampen demand.

Trade tensions between the U.S. and China have led to 40 percent tariffs on Tesla vehicles compared to 15 percent duties placed on imported autos from other countries, the company said in its production and delivery report issued Tuesday. The tariffs, combined with the cost of shipping its vehicles via ocean carrier and the lack of access to cash incentives that are available to locally produced electric vehicles, has put the company at a disadvantage, the company warned.

As a result, Tesla said it’s now operating at a 55 percent to 60 percent cost disadvantage compared to the exact same car locally produced in China.

“This makes for a challenging competitive environment, given that China is by far the largest market for electric vehicles,” the company said. “To address this issue, we are accelerating construction of our Shanghai factory, which we expect to be a capital efficient and rapid buildout, using many lessons learned from the Model 3 ramp in North America.”

Even with an accelerated timeline it will be months, if not years before Tesla will be able to mass-produce vehicles in China.

Tesla hasn’t responded to questions about the factory, including the construction timeline and when it might come online.

Tesla doesn’t break out delivery numbers by country, making it difficult to accurately assess how tariffs and other costs have impacted sales in China even as total deliveries grew.

The company reported Tuesday that it delivered 83,500 electric vehicles in the third quarter, more than double from the previous period. The delivery numbers initially boosted Tesla shares until concerns about the company’s warnings on China began to sink in. Tesla shares were $306.36, down 1.4 percent in afternoon trading in New York. 

It also isn’t clear what “lessons” Tesla might apply in China. It’s possible the company might turn to unconventional production tactics it used in the U.S., notably the giant tent it erected to produce the Model 3.

Tesla has been eyeing the Chinese market for years, and has some operations there. But Tesla can’t fully realize the opportunity to sell electric cars in the world’s largest EV market until it can produce its vehicles in China.

Tesla reached a deal in July with the Shanghai government to build a factory capable of producing 500,000 electric vehicles a year. Once construction begins, it will take about two years until Tesla can produce vehicles. It will be another “two to three years before the factory is fully ramped up to produce around 500,000 vehicles per year for Chinese customers,” a Tesla spokesman said at the time.

The Shanghai factory deal marks a shift within the Chinese government to allow foreign companies to build and operate wholly owned facilities there. Foreign companies have historically had to form a 50-50 joint venture with a local partner to build a factory in China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has pushed forward plans to phase out by 2022 joint-venture rules for foreign automakers. Tesla is one of the first beneficiaries of this rule change.

Tesla plans to speed up construction of a factory in Shanghai as tariffs, shipping costs and missed incentives continue to drive up the price of the company’s electric vehicles and dampen demand.

Trade tensions between the U.S. and China have led to 40 percent tariffs on Tesla vehicles compared to 15 percent duties placed on imported autos from other countries, the company said in its production and delivery report issued Tuesday. The tariffs, combined with the cost of shipping its vehicles via ocean carrier and the lack of access to cash incentives that are available to locally produced electric vehicles, has put the company at a disadvantage, the company warned.

As a result, Tesla said it’s now operating at a 55 percent to 60 percent cost disadvantage compared to the exact same car locally produced in China.

“This makes for a challenging competitive environment, given that China is by far the largest market for electric vehicles,” the company said. “To address this issue, we are accelerating construction of our Shanghai factory, which we expect to be a capital efficient and rapid buildout, using many lessons learned from the Model 3 ramp in North America.”

Even with an accelerated timeline it will be months, if not years before Tesla will be able to mass-produce vehicles in China.

Tesla hasn’t responded to questions about the factory, including the construction timeline and when it might come online.

Tesla doesn’t break out delivery numbers by country, making it difficult to accurately assess how tariffs and other costs have impacted sales in China even as total deliveries grew.

The company reported Tuesday that it delivered 83,500 electric vehicles in the third quarter, more than double from the previous period. The delivery numbers initially boosted Tesla shares until concerns about the company’s warnings on China began to sink in. Tesla shares were $306.36, down 1.4 percent in afternoon trading in New York. 

It also isn’t clear what “lessons” Tesla might apply in China. It’s possible the company might turn to unconventional production tactics it used in the U.S., notably the giant tent it erected to produce the Model 3.

Tesla has been eyeing the Chinese market for years, and has some operations there. But Tesla can’t fully realize the opportunity to sell electric cars in the world’s largest EV market until it can produce its vehicles in China.

Tesla reached a deal in July with the Shanghai government to build a factory capable of producing 500,000 electric vehicles a year. Once construction begins, it will take about two years until Tesla can produce vehicles. It will be another “two to three years before the factory is fully ramped up to produce around 500,000 vehicles per year for Chinese customers,” a Tesla spokesman said at the time.

The Shanghai factory deal marks a shift within the Chinese government to allow foreign companies to build and operate wholly owned facilities there. Foreign companies have historically had to form a 50-50 joint venture with a local partner to build a factory in China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has pushed forward plans to phase out by 2022 joint-venture rules for foreign automakers. Tesla is one of the first beneficiaries of this rule change.