I often begin calls with founders by asking why they’re willing to bet their livelihoods on an idea that will most likely fail. It’s a small hack that lets me see how vulnerable a founder is, and how much conviction they have behind their ideas. Sometimes, if they answer, it’s the lede of my story. And sometimes, if they don’t answer, it’s the reason I don’t write the story.

As blunt as the question sounds, it can spark the best answers — especially when the founder is working on an idea that is a moonshot in and of itself.

Speaking of wild bets, our own Kirsten Korosec caught up with Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson about his electric robotaxi, a six-year effort that was unveiled this week, outpacing competitors. Levinson was heads down on an idea that wasn’t just likely to fail, it almost did: Zoox’s Series C fell apart in March due to the pandemic.

Korosec: What was your trick or how did you remain focused for six years on something that is futuristic, expensive and possibly could fail? What did you personally do to keep that focus?

Levinson: Well, doing something like this is definitely challenging and it requires patience. I think the advice I would give is first to convince yourself that what you’re doing makes sense and is important and worth doing. If you’re starting a company because your goal is to make as much money as possible, if it turns out to be hard it’s going to be really difficult to convince yourself and your team and investors to stick with the idea.

One of the great things about Zoox is that the idea itself just makes a lot of sense. From first principles, there’s really a compelling reason to solve the problem the way we’ve been solving it and the market opportunity is unquestionably enormous. So armed with those facts and a team of wonderful employees and investors who strongly believed in that, we were able to weather some of the ups and downs of the industry, even though it’s not always been an easy ride.

It didn’t hurt that Amazon saved Zoox after its failed Series C, considering deep pockets and futuristic technology go well together. Still, Zoox’s ability to turn failure into focus is impressive, and part of what makes startups successful.

Before we jump into the rest of the newsletter, I wanted to formally introduce myself as your new Startups Weekly author. Thanks in advance for reading along and trusting me to bring you startup-relevant news each week. This should be fun, and the absolute expected dose of existential. Want it in your inbox every Saturday morning? Sign up here.

And from now on, you are invited to send me tips and thoughts to natasha.mascarenhas@techcrunch.com or tweet me @Nmasc_. TechCrunch also launched a secure and anonymous way to submit tips to our staff that you can start throwing information at.

The Palantir ‘Diaspora’

Everyone wants to invest in the next big tech mafia. This year, given the number of successful IPOs on the market, newly minted and cash-rich thinkers are entering the startup landscape from legendary companies, including Snowflake, Airbnb and Palantir. Stripe engineers, even pre-IPO, seem to be the hottest commodity out there.

So, investors are hoping to bet on exiting talent – and one has had the upper edge for a while now. Ross Fubin of XYZ Ventures introduced Palantir’s first business hire to its first engineer, which he describes as “the highest-value thing” he’s ever done. Now, after helping Palantir scale up its senior talent (and pocketing some advisor shares for himself) he invests in the Palantir diaspora out of his fund.

Connie Loizos, TechCrunch’s Silicon Valley editor, has the story, including where XYZ is looking for startups outside of the once-secretive public company’s staff.

Loizos also profiled Lux Capital’s Deena Shakir, who sees space and frontier tech going mainstream right now. Anyone else feel a moonshot theme arising in 2021?

Further reading:

• How to pick an investor in good or bad times (EC)

Why Singapore might become Asia’s Silicon Valley

In this Extra Crunch story, Catherine Shu argues that Singapore might become Asia’s next Silicon Valley. The long-time global financial hub will expect hundreds of new jobs in the next few years as ByteDance and Alibaba reportedly plan regional offices in the city-state. The interest comes as Google, Facebook, and Twilio already have operations in Singapore.

The spotlight comes with pressure on companies to find the best tech talent in Singapore, which has a population of 5.6 million.

Kuo-Yi Lim, co-founder and managing partner at early-stage investment firm Monk’s Hill Ventures, detailed the talent dynamics:

“My view is that there will always be the need to bring in folks who are not from Singapore because we’re just not big enough,” he said.

“The competition is more on a global basis, because even local startups will always be looking at global talent, from the region, Australia, India, China or beyond,” he added. “I think it actually cultivates the instinct for startups to really compete for talent in a thoughtful way. I think startups will have to become more creative and sharper in terms of how they position themselves as an attractive employer to spend time with, as opposed to the big companies.”

Quick IPO update

After Roblox and Affirm pushed their IPOs because market conditions were too hot, the delay proved to be an opportunity for others. Bumble, UiPath and Coinbase filed to go public confidentially, meaning that the intent is now known but there are no numbers for us to go through. Finally, Poshmark filed its S-1 and StockX raised a round that Alex Wilhelm thinks could be pre-IPO money.

Around TechCrunch

Gift the gift of Extra Crunch this season with an exclusive 25% off deal

Extra Crunch memberships are now available in Switzerland, Croatia, and Czech Republic.

Across the week

Seen on TechCrunch

PrivacyGrader is a free tool to help companies get smarter about data and disclosures

With Bambee, Allan Jones wants to give small businesses HR services their employees can trust

The venture firm SOSV has hired former TechCrunch COO Ned Desmond to help grow its startups

From India’s richest man to Amazon and 100s of startups: The great rush to win neighborhood stores

Seen on Extra Crunch

Startup valuations have recovered from summer lows

Dear Sophie: How did immigration change for startup founders in 2020?

An even bigger battle for gig worker rights is on the horizon

From startups to Starbucks: The embedded API opportunity

@EquityPod

There have to be some users that want to use Bitcoin for their OnlyFans, right?

In this week’s rare Danny-less Equity episode, Alex and I teamed up to chat about Public’s latest raise, Substack’s newest tool, and Bitcoin’s busiest week. The conversation devolved, as it usually does, into books, snow, and startups that prepare you for life before and after death.

Take a listen here, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts if you’d like to support the show!

Equity drops every Friday at 6:00 am PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

 

 

 

Yesterday the U.S. Department of Commerce included DJI among the 77 new entries on its ‘entity list.’ Precisely what this means for the company’s future in the States remains uncertain, but it has since responded to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

“DJI is disappointed in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s decision,” a spokesperson for the drone giant tells TechCrunch. “Customers in America can continue to buy and use DJI products normally. DJI remains committed to developing the industry’s most innovative products that define our company and benefit the world.”

As the prior example of Huawei demonstrated, repercussions for inclusion on the list can evolve over time, depending on – among other things – the strength of relations between the U.S. and China. The smartphone giant was dealt a major blow after being cutoff from access to key U.S. originated technology, including Google’s Android.

The reason for DJI’s inclusion is part of a broad focus on “wide-scale human rights abuse” – likely more specifically focused on the subset of “high-technology surveillance.” Here’s the entry:

The ERC determined to add the entities AGCU Scientech; China National Scientific Instruments and Materials (CNSIM); DJI; and Kuang-Chi Group for activities contrary to U.S. foreign policy interests. Specifically, these four entities have enabled wide-scale human rights abuses within China through abusive genetic collection and analysis or high-technology surveillance, and/or facilitated the export of items by China that aid repressive regimes around the world, contrary to U.S. foreign policy interests.

Among the many larger factors at play in DJI’s position in the U.S. is the shape of relations with China under the incoming Biden administration. The decision could have an even more immediate impact on the many state and federal agencies that currently utilize the drone-maker’s products.

 

Welcome back to This Week in Apps,  href="https://techcrunch.com/tag/this-week-in-apps/">the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app industry is as hot as ever, with a record 204 billion downloads and $120 billion in global consumer spend in 2019. Not including third-party Chinese app stores, iOS and Android users downloaded 130 billion apps in 2020. Consumer spend also hit a record $112 billion across iOS and Android alone. In 2019, people spent three hours and 40 minutes per day using apps, rivaling TV. Due to COVID-19, time spent in apps jumped 25% year-over-year on Android.

Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus.

Top Stories

Apple launches App Store privacy labels

Apple this week launched its promised App Store privacy labels across all its App Stores, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS. The labels aim to give Apple customers an easier way to understand what sort of information an app collects across three categories: data used to track you, data linked to you and data not linked to you. Tracking, Apple explains, refers to the act of linking either user or device data collected from an app with user or device data collected from other apps, websites or even offline properties (like data aggregated from retail receipts) that’s used for targeted advertising or advertisement measurement. It can also include sharing user or device data with data brokers.

This aspect alone will expose the industry of third-party adtech and analytics SDKs (software development kits) — basically code from external vendors that developers add to their apps to boost their revenues.

Meanwhile, “data linked to you” is the personal information tied to your identity through your user account on the app, your device or other details. (You can read more about the program here.)

Axios compared how various social media and messaging apps compare as determined by the labels. Not surprisingly, it found that Facebook-owned apps collected more data than apps like Telegram, Signal and Apple’s Messages. It also found that Snap collected less data than the other major social networks.

Others noticed that Google had yet to provide any privacy label information for its biggest apps like Gmail, Googel Maps or Google Search.

Apple and Facebook fight over privacy changes

Also this week, Facebook took out full-page newspaper ads to attack Apple’s upcoming privacy-centered changes, alleging that the decision will have negative impacts on small businesses. With a forthcoming update to iOS 14, developers will have to ask users permission to use their IDFA identifiers for ad targeting purposes, and they’ll have very few characters to explain why it’s necessary. Most users, who are sick of having their data taken and resold without any personal control over that process, will likely just say “No.”

On the one hand, Facebook has much to lose as it already warned that without targeting and personalization, mobile app install campaigns brought in 50% less revenue for publishers. And the impacts to Facebook Audience Network on iOS will be even worse. But Facebook says it’s well-diversified enough so this one change won’t hurt its business as much as it will smaller ones run by “aspiring entrepreneurs.”

It also pointed out that Apple’s interests aren’t fully about consumer choice. When developers make less money from the traditional targeted ads, they’ll turn to other means of generating revenues — like in-app purchases and subscriptions, benefiting Apple.

We should also point out that Apple does a lot of data gathering and targeting of its own. In your iOS Privacy Settings, when you scroll way down to the bottom of the page, then click on Apple Advertising followed by View Ad Targeting Information, you’ll find Apple’s own admissions of how it tracks you across its platform, including data from your account info (age, gender, location), and by what content you’ve downloaded on Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Books and the App Store. It uses this data to target you with personalized ads on the App Store, in Apple News and in Stocks.

Apple, meanwhile, has presented Facebook’s tracking business as one that aims to “collect as much data as possible,” in order to “develop and monetize detailed profiles of their users,” in a “disregard to user privacy.” And while it’s true that Facebook’s network spans apps and websites, Apple is doing the same thing within its own ecosystem…of a billion iPhones and other devices. Devices where Apple’s own apps are often pre-installed and compete with third-party services in areas like books, music, TV, fitness, news and more.

Plus, Apple told developers when it launched the new App Store privacy labels this week, that developers don’t have to disclose the data collected by Apple itself. Uh, wonder why that is?

Instead, developers have to come clean about all the other ways they collect and use customer data, including if data brokers are involved.

The move of course is a big gain for consumer privacy, as it establishes a new baseline for the industry, lays bare the amount to which users are tracked and forces companies to re-establishment trust with their customers instead of sneaking behind their back to gather and sell their data. But it’s simultaneously a smokescreen for Apple’s own interests, and Apple should not get a pass on that aspect just because it’s also “a good thing.” Apple wanted a bigger portion of the adtech market and to grow its subscription business and it wants to fight for consumer privacy. But it largely only highlights the latter when speaking to reporters or making public statements.

Twitter kills Periscope

Twitter this week announced it’s shutting down its standalone livestreaming app Periscope, which it acquired in 2015. The company said the app had been “an unsustainable maintenance-mode state” for some time, and Twitter has seen its usage decline as costs went up. The app will no longer function by March 2021, but Twitter says it’s not giving up on live video. It notes that it brought most of Periscope’s core capabilities to Twitter over the years.

Users will be able to download an archive of their Periscope broadcasts and data before the app is removed and those that have been published to Twitter will continue to live on as replays.

Twitter has a history of making bad calls on its standalone apps that seemed like smart decisions at the time. The company was early to the idea that music and social could work well when tied together when it launched a standalone Twitter Music app in 2013. Years later, other companies have proven that to be true — TikTok said this week its app is driving hits, and got 70-some artists major label record deals. In 2020, over 176 songs passed 1 billion views as TikTok sounds.

Another idea Twitter killed, of course, was Vine, the app that could have been TikTok, had it lasted.

Now Twitter is killing its live video app, a project it abandoned, as everyone else is figuring out how to turn live video streams into e-commerce transactions. Today, Facebook and Instagram offer live video shopping, including in Instagram Reels, its TikTok rival. And TikTok itself launched its first big test of livestreamed video shopping in partnership with Walmart. Other big names who are investing in live video shopping include Amazon through its QVC-like Amazon Live, Alibaba through AliExpress, JD.com, Pinduoduo, WeChat and TikTok’s Chinese sister app, Douyin.

One could argue that Twitter just wants to stake out its own place and not follow the crowd, but its latest big feature was Stories, er, Fleets, a format that’s just about everywhere. And its current test product is Spaces, a rival to Clubhouse and a handful of other audio-networking startups.

Weekly News

Platforms: Apple

• Apple launches App Store privacy labels.
• Apple releases macOS Big Sur version 11.1, which allows iPhone and iPad apps without resizable windows to enter into full-screen mode on Macs with the M1 chip. HBO Max will benefit from this, as well as some mobile games.
• The Mac App Store publishes a list of apps that take advantage of the new M1 chip.
• Apple talks about how to design an App Clip URL more efficiently in new blog post. It also announced that App Clip Codes — the visual image that encodes a URL and can incorporate an NFC tag — are also now available for creation in App Store Connect or with the new command line App Clip Code Generator.
• Apple launched iOS 12.5 for older phones that don’t support iOS 14. The update brings the COVID-19 exposure notification support to these older devices and other security fixes.
• Apple releases iPadOS 14.4 public beta.
• Apple publishes a guide to locking down your Apple devices, which could be particularly useful for domestic abuse survivors.

Platforms: Google

• Google announced the Play Store is now open to more car apps, including navigation, parking and charging apps for Android Auto.
• Google Play Store opens up to 22 new countries in Africa, Oceania and elsewhere.
• Google announces Android Things platform shutdown is January 5, 2021.

Services

• Amazon’s AWS announced the preview of Amazon Location, a service that will allow developers to add location-based features to their web-based and mobile applications. Amazon Location is based on mapping data from Esri and HERE Technologies, and includes built-in tracking and geofencing, but not routing.

Gaming

• Game engine maker Unity teamed up with Snap to bring its Unity Ads supply to Snap Audience Network and bring Snap Kit to game developers. From the Unity Asset Store, game developers can use Snap Kit’s Login Kit and Creative Kit, the latter which allows users to decorate their videos with stickers or ad AR lenses. Bitmoji avatars will be integrated with Unity in early 2021.
• PUBG Mobile tops the list of billion-dollar mobile games in 2020, reports Sensor Tower. Five games topped $1 billion this year, including also Honor of Kings, Pokémon GO, Coin Master and Roblox.
• Amazon’s Luna cloud gaming service arrives on Android. Like the iOS version, the service works through the web browser in the U.S. It supports some Pixel, Samsung and OnePlus devices for now, with expanded device support arriving in time.
• Roblox delays IPO to 2021. The company said the IPO performance of Airbnb and DoorDash, which soared on their debut leaving money on the table, made it too difficult to price shares.
• A judge orders Apple to produce documentation from Tim Cook and Craig Federighi in the Epic Games/Fortnite lawsuit. The execs may also be called to testify, along with Eddy Cue, if Epic gets its way. Facebook also said this week it would aid Epic in its legal battle by providing supporting materials and documents, as a part of the discovery process.
• Google’s cloud gaming service, Google Stadia, arrives on iOS. The service bypasses the App Store to instead use a web app. It works on both iPhone and iPad (iOS 14.3 is required). Most games will need a gamepad to work.

Augmented Reality

• The Unity/Snap deal, mentioned above, includes an AR component. Snap’s Creative Kits allows users to share their gameplay, decorating still shots or 15-second videos with branded stickers, or attaching an AR lens that has been created with game branding to share with their Snapchat friends. These shares work to acquire new users as well, as they include referral links back to the game.
• Facebook’s Messenger Kids app updates with seasonal AR effects, as well as a way for parents to play Santa to kids.
• Google adds an AR Baby Yoda in its Google Search app.

• Google also adds an AR-powered virtual makeup try-on feature to its Google Search app in partnership with top beauty brands.

Social & Photos

• Facebook launches a TikTok-like app, Collab, that focuses on collaborative music making. TechCrunch had the exclusive interview.
• Twitter launches its voice-based Spaces social networking feature, a Clubhouse rival, into beta testing. The feature lets select Twitter testers for the time being gather in audio-only chat rooms on Twitter’s platform.
• Discord rolls out mobile screen sharing, allowing users to “hang out” and watch videos or anything else on their phone.
• Facebook relaunches Instagram Lite app, starting with a test in India before a global rollout. The app is under 2MB in size and is faster and more responsive. But it also lacks features like Reels, Shopping and IGTV.
• Dating and friend-making app Bumble confidentially files for a February 2021 IPO.
• Google Photos adds 3D “Cinematic” photos feature that uses machine learning to turn 2D photos into 3D — even if the original didn’t include depth information from the camera. A virtual camera then animates a smooth panning effect for a more vivid experience.
• TikTok’s new guidelines strengthen policies on harassment, self-harm, violence and dangerous acts. The social app also rolled out new well-being features, like opt-in viewing screens that hide distressing content, a text-to-voice feature to make TikTok more accessible and COVID-19 vaccine info.
• Halide’s developer offers a deep dive on Apple’s new ProRAW image format, which it describes as not just making RAW more powerful, but also more approachable. “ProRAW could very well change how everyone shoots and edits photos, beginners and experts alike,” a Halide blog post says. They’re not the only one singing ProRAW’s praises — Halide pointed to photographer Austin Mann’s blog post as well.

Streaming and entertainment

• Netflix added a new audio-only mode on Android that allows users to save bandwidth and instead only listen to their program. The feature aims appeal to emerging markets users but could also serve as a way to turn Netflix into an alternative to listening to podcasts, at times.
• Spotify launched on the Epic Games Store — a marketplace that’s shaping up to become a third-party app store. The two companies are both engaged with fighting Apple over its commission structure and rules on purchases.
• TikTok released its first-ever U.S. music report which revealed the social app’s outsized influence on the music industry. According to the report, more than 176 different songs surpassed 1 billion video views as TikTok sounds, over 70 artists that have broken on TikTok’s platform have received major label deals, including Claire Rosinkranz, Dixie D’Amelio, Powfu, Priscilla Block and Tai Verdes, and others.
• TikTok launches on TVs. The app is first available on Samsung smart TV models in Europe, but the Samsung partnership will allow it to be pre-installed going forward. The TV experience will be curated for family-friendly videos only.
• Apple redesigns Shazam for iOS so it better fits with Apple Music’s design language. The app is also now available on the web. Apple recently said Shazam had over 200M MAUs across iOS and Android.

E-commerce

• Walmart partners with TikTok on a test of a new shoppable product that will allow TikTok users to transact within the app. The retailer will run a holiday shopping event inside TikTok, where users can shop from influencer videos. After the event, users can continue to shop from Walmart’s TikTok profile.
• Shoploop, an app founded within Area 120, Google’s in-house incubator, has graduated to Google Search. The app competes with efforts in video-based shopping from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and others. Google has now brought Shoploop’s short-form influencer videos to Google Shopping.
• Discount e-commerce marketplace app Wish dropped below IPO price in its market debut. Wish opened at $22.75, below its $24 per share IPO pricing. Investors may be responding to the fact that Wish is growing slower and has a much smaller user base than top retailers, like Amazon and Walmart.
• App Annie predicts U.S. users on Android will spend more than 1 billion hours in shopping apps in Q4 2020, a 50% YoY increase. Mobile sales are expected to reach $314 billion by year-end.

Security and Privacy

• New mobile malware Goontact is targeting iOS and Android users in Chinese language-speaking countries, Korea and Japan. The spyware can steal contacts, SMS messages, photos and location information after a user is lured to a website hosting the spyware, which convinces them to sideload it on Android devices. On iOS, it primarily steals a phone number and contact list.
• Secure messaging app Signal launches encrypted group calls on iOS and Android. The feature allows for up to five participants to chat.

Government and Policy

• The FTC is launching an inquiry into the privacy and data collection practices of major tech firms, including Amazon, ByteDance (TikTok’s owner), YouTube, Reddit, Snap, Discord Twitter and Facebook (including WhatsApp). The companies have 45 days to comply with requests.
• An organization representing news publishers join the Coalition for App Fairness, the advocacy group pushing for regulation of the App Store and elimination of the “Apple tax.”

Fintech

• Stock app Robinhood pays $65 million to settle SEC charges over its past inferior pricing execution which misled customers.

Health & Fitness

• The NYT takes a look at how COVID-19 health pass apps could help reopen businesses and restore the economy by allowing people to confirm their vaccinated status.
• Apple Fitness+ arrives, and it’s pretty good.

Funding and M&A

• Reddit acquires TikTok rival Dubsmash to aid with Reddit’s video push. The company says it will integrate Dubsmash’s video creation tools into Reddit directly. Reddit had raised $20 million+ in venture funding.
• MessageBird acquires real-time notifications and in-app messaging platform Pusher, based in London, for $35 million.
• IntellectoKids raises $3 million from Allrise Capital and others for its edtech apps for kids aged 3 to 7 years old.
• Mobile edtech startup Aceable raises $50 million to accelerate the expansion of its service for state-accredited classes.
• Brainly raises $80 million for its crowdsourced homework help app now used by 350 million users.
• Tap Network, a customizable rewards program used by app makers like Uber, raises $4 million.
• Canadian challenger banking app Neo Financial raises $50 million CAD and expands into savings accounts.

Downloads

Canvas

Canvas is a new iPhone app from Occipital, the company behind RedLaster and 360 Panorama — apps that were ahead of the curve on the next frontier for iPhones. Canvas leverages the lidar scanner in the iPhone 12 Pro to create 3D scans of your home. 9to5Mac reviewed the app this week, describing the process of using Canvas as “pretty simple.” You just stand in the center of the room, then moved the photo up and down as you turn as the app overlays an AR grid on your room. The app did have some glitches with smaller rooms and alcoves. When the scan is done, you can pay a fee to have it turned into a professional CAD model for using in remodeling plans.

Gawq

Gawq’s newly launched news aggregator app aims to tackle the problem of fake news and the “echo chamber” problem created by social media, where our view of the world is shaped by manipulative algorithms and personalized feeds. The app aims to present news from a range of sources, while allowing users to filter between news, opinion, paid content and more, as well as compare sources, check facts and even review the publication’s content for accuracy.

PhotoRoom

TechCrunch’s Romain Dillet looked this week at PhotoRoom, a new Android photography app that can automatically remove the background from your photo and swap it with another. The app, a YC alum, had previously been available on iOS where it competes with a variety of photo editing apps offering similar functionality.

Soosee

Soosee already operates a clever app that uses your iPhone camera to scan food labels for things you want to avoid — like dietary constraints, allergens, microplastics or antibiotics, for example. But we have to get this company a shoutout for having one of the cleanest App Store privacy labels around.

The company tweeted this in November (see below), but at the time of publication the label had been updated with exactly one item. It now collects Purchase data, under the “Data Not Linked to You” section. Good job, Soosee! Support apps like this.

Apple has placed its contract manufacturing partner Wistron on probation and won’t give the Taiwanese firm any new business until it took “complete corrective actions” following lapses at its southern India plant.

The iPhone maker said on Saturday that its employees and independent auditors hired by the company to investigate the issues at Wistron’s Narasapura facility found that Apple’s ‘Supplier Code of Conduct’ was violated at the facility and Wistron failed to implement proper working hour management processes. This led to “payment delays for some workers in October and November,” Apple said, citing preliminary findings.

“As always, our focus is on making sure everyone in our supply chain is protected and treated with dignity and respect. We are very disappointed and taking immediate steps to address these issues. Wistron has taken disciplinary action and is restructuring their recruitment and payroll teams in Narasapura,” Apple said in a statement. “Apple employees, along with independent auditors, will monitor their progress.”

Thousands of workers rioted over unpaid salaries — of about $200 a month — on December 12 at Wistron’s Narasapura facility — situated about 50 kilometres outside of the tech hub Bangalore — destroying property, iPhones, and factory equipments. Wistron, a key manufacturing partner for Apple in India, has this year more than quadrupled workers and ramped up its production capacity in the South Asian nation.

In a statement earlier today, Wistron acknowledged that some workers at its plant had not been paid properly. It also announced it was removing a top executive who oversaw Taiwanese firm’s India business. “Some of the processes we put in place to manage labor agencies and payments need to be strengthened and upgraded,” it said.

Wistron assembles older iPhone models at its Indian facility. In recent years, Apple has broadened its partnership with others — including Foxconn — to expand the iPhone production capacity in India. Earlier this year, Foxconn had started to assemble the iPhone 11 models in India.

More to follow…

It’s probably no wonder that when Founders Fund was still a very young venture firm 13 years ago, it brought aboard as its first principal Justin Fishner-Wolfson. Having nabbed two computer science degrees from Stanford and spent two years as CEO of an organization that provides asset management services to the school’s student organizations, Fishner-Wolfson wasn’t shy about voicing his opinions at the venture fund. In fact, he says Founders Fund made a much bigger bet on SpaceX than it originally planned because he pushed for it.

He stayed three years before spying what he thought was an even better opportunity, owing to friends who worked at Facebook before the company’s 2012 IPO. They were beginning to look for ways to liquidate their shares, and while they had options, to his mind, they weren’t great. More, Fishner-Wolfson says he foresaw more companies like Facebook staying private longer. He said goodbye to Founders Fund and formed 137 Ventures to acquire secondary shares from founders, investors, and employees.

That was 10 years ago, and the firm seems to be doing just fine for itself. Last year, it closed its fourth fund with $210 million in capital commitments, bringing its assets under management to more than $1 billion. Its approach of focusing on roughly 10 to 12 companies per fund appears to be paying off, too. Since late September, it has seen three of its portfolio companies — Palantir, Airbnb, and Wish — hit the public market.

We talked at length with Fishner-Wolfson this week to learn more about how 137 Ventures works, from how it screens companies, to the impact it has seen from companies that are giving their employees longer windows in which to keep their vested stock options. (“It has certainly stopped the desperate calls from people who have huge amounts of equity that’s about to expire, which, I’m totally happy to not get those phone calls, because I feel terrible for people who are in that sort of situation,” he said.) We also talked about that early deal in SpaceX, which also appears in 137 Ventures’s portfolio.

You can listen to that longer conversation here. In the meantime, we’re pulling out part of our conversation that centered on Wish, the discount e-commerce company whose IPO this week has been called a dud.

TC: Two of your portfolio companies have done very well as they’ve entered the public market — Palantir and Airbnb. Wish was a different story, dropping in its debut. What do you make of its IPO? Do you think investors misunderstand this company?

JFW: I think it takes the investment community a long time to understand any newly public company. At the end of the day, the IPO is just one day, right? What really matters is how companies perform over the next 10 or 20 years.

I would look at Microsoft or Amazon or more recently, Facebook, whose [share price] dropped 50% in the week or two following its offering and Facebook has gone on to be an incredible business. I have no idea what the market is going to do tomorrow [or] the day after. But over a decade, if you can really build a great sustainable business that compounds, it all comes out in the wash.

Wish has done an incredible job of scaling the business. I think [cofounder and CEO] Peter [Szulczewski] is one of the best operators I’ve met in this industry. And they’ve done a lot of innovative things in terms of mobile. There’s a lot more discovery on the Wish platform. The whole in-store pickup has been really innovative; they’re helping consumers get products quickly in an asset-light kind of way where you don’t need to buy millions and millions of square feet of warehouses.

TC: You’re talking about these partnerships that Wish starting striking with mom-and-pop shops in the U.S. and Europe, where those who have extra storage space will now take receipt of Wish goods, which in turn gives them a little bit more foot traffic when people come in to pick up their items. That’s a big shift from how Wish used to operate, which was by shipping things very cheaply from China through a USPS deal whose economics have since changed. Is that right?

JFW: Right. They’re helping small and medium-size businesses drive foot traffic, which was always valuable but in the current environment, going to become even more important to these sorts of businesses. They’re [also] helping those businesses leverage the data they have across their entire platform because Wish understands what consumers in that geography are looking for, and they can help those businesses merchandise better. And then, because they’re shipping product to one location, they’re aggregating orders from a whole bunch of people who don’t know each other, and that reduces logistics and shipping time and costs. So they send that stuff in, and it’s easier for the consumer to walk or drive five to 15 minutes, and go pick it up. That allows Wish to focus on the value-conscious consumer who is willing to trade a little bit of time for a much better price on things.

TC: Wish is known as a place to get tchotchkes from China. Now that it’s trying to sell more mainstream goods, how does it go about changing the perception that it has in the marketplace?

JFW: I’m not sure they need to do a whole lot to change that perception, because I still think they haven’t penetrated the market as a whole. There are lots of people who don’t even know about them quite frankly. And as [I’ve] watched the marketplace evolve, you’ve just seen more and more merchants, and more and more data back from customers about both the merchants and the quality of the merchandise, and all those things feed back into this very powerful system, where they can leverage the data to improve product quality and make sure that they’re selling what people want.

TC: Do you think uneven quality explains the company’s uneven revenue? It grew something like 57% in 2018, then 10% in 2019, and picked up again in the first nine months of this year. Why do you think it’s been topsy turvy?

JFW: All businesses go through these cycles of growth, and then focusing on efficiency. If you just focus on growth, you tend to grow, and then break things, and then do things in relatively inefficient ways. And then ultimately, you need to turn around and focus on how you drive operational efficiencies. So I think the cycles that you’re describing, if you look at the underlying metrics, you [see] improvement in operating efficiency.

TC: Wish’s shares did not “pop.” On the other hand, former Snap executive Imran Khan told CNBC on Tuesday that the recent post IPO stock pops, including those of Airbnb and Doordash, represent an “epic level of incompetency” from the bankers who underwrote the stocks. Do you believe it was incompetency on the part of the bankers or just market volatility that caused those stocks to pop as high as they did?

JFW: I think no one actually knows the answer to that question. I think it makes for a good sound bite. At the end of the day, I don’t think the price on the first day is a meaningful indicator of anything.

TC: Are the feverish embrace of these companies driving prices up in the secondary market? What are you seeing?

It really does matter what the public prices are [because] that ultimately trickles into the private markets and also vice versa. At some point, things can’t have massive differences in value between their private market valuations and their public market valuations. So you definitely see multiples shift as the market shifts. But these things are often averages. People focus on one company or one example of these things without necessarily looking at all the companies because that would be quite difficult.

But there are always examples of things that are overpriced. There are also examples of things that are under priced. As an investor, you want to try to invest more of your money in the good companies that are on the lower end of that spectrum, certainly. But the focus is always on good companies. If you can find companies that are going to compound over long periods of time, as long as you’re not too crazy on multiples or valuations, you end up being in a good spot.

TC: Who are you tracking right now? What’s an investment that’s not up on your website yet?

JFW: Snapdocs [a company that helps real estate professionals to digitally manage the mortgage process and other paperwork and which just closed on $60 million in funding in October].

Aaron [King], who is the founder and CEO of the company, has done really a fantastic job of building a product that that people are willing to adopt, and this is the right moment in time for that growth to really accelerate. They’ve been having a good year.

Pictured above: The 137 Ventures’ team, with Wolfson center (in glasses).

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, as expected after an independent panel commissioned by the administration recommended its approval earlier this week. This is the second vaccine now authorized for use in the U.S. under EUA, after the Pfizer -BioNTech vaccine was approved last week.

Moderna’s vaccine could begin being administered to Americans by “Monday or Tuesday” next week, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci speaking to NBC’s Today show in a new interview. That’s in keeping with the timelines between the Pfizer EUA and the first patients actually receiving the vaccine last week.

Like Pfizer’s vaccine, Moderna’s is an mRNA therapy. That means that it contains no actual virus — just genetic instructions that tell a person’s body to create a specific protein. That protein is more or less identical to the one that SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, uses to attach to a host’s cells and replicate. Moderna’s vaccine causes a person to create just the protein, which on its own is harmless, and then their natural defenses via their immune system react to that and develop a method for fighting it off. That defense system is “remembered” by the body, while the vaccine itself naturally dissolves after a brief time, leaving a person with immunity but nothing else.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which has yet to be approved for use in the U.S., uses a weakened and modified common cold virus that doesn’t spread in humans to create the spike protein in recipients, resulting in the body generating its own immune response. That’s a much more tried-and-tested method for creating a vaccine, but both Moderna and Pfizer’s mRNA therapies have shown to be very effective in preliminary data from their large Phase 3 clinical trials.

The rest of the world may be slowing down as we prepare for Christmas and the new year, but we are not taking our foot off the gas.

Alex Wilhelm keeps a close watch on the public markets in his column The Exchange, but this week, he branched out to look at some of the metrics underpinning soaring cryptocurrency prices and turned his gaze on StockX, the consumer reseller marketplace that just raised $275 million in a Series E that values the company at approximately $2.8 billion.

“Selling a tenth of your company for north of a quarter-billion may be somewhat common among late-stage software startups with tremendous growth,” he says, but “don’t laugh — the round actually makes pretty OK sense.”

Our staff continues to file their end-of-year stories: We ran a post this morning by Manish Singh that studies India’s massive total addressable market for retail. The nation has more than 60 million mom-and-pop neighborhood stores, and companies like Walmart and Amazon are eager to offer help with payments, logistics and inventory management — as are hundreds of native and foreign startups.

In an interview with author and MIT professor Sinan Aral, Managing Editor Danny Crichton discussed some of the debates currently swirling around the desire in some quarters to regulate social media platforms. In “The Hype Machine,” Aral explores topics like neuroscience, economics and misinformation before offering potential solutions for resolving what he calls “a full-blown social media crisis.”

The stories that follow are an overview of Extra Crunch from the last five days. Complete articles are only available to members, but you can use discount code ECFriday to save 20% off a one or two-year subscription. Details here.

Thank you very much for reading Extra Crunch this week; I hope you have a safe, relaxing weekend!

Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch
@yourprotagonist

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Unpacking Poshmark’s IPO filing

How did fashion marketplace Poshmark go from posting regular losses in 2019 to generating net income in 2020?

After the company filed a public S-1 last night, Alex Wilhelm pondered the question this morning in The Exchange.

Like many e-commerce platforms, Poshmark saw a surge in activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it also slashed its marketing spend, which helped boost profits. As the cash-rich company prepares its road show, “Poshmark is valuable,” Alex concluded.

“How valuable the market will decide. But who will it enrich with its final pricing decision?”

Just how bad is that hack that hit US government agencies?

The breach of FireEye and SolarWinds by hackers working on behalf of Russian intelligence is “the nightmare scenario that has worried cybersecurity experts for years,” reports Zack Whittaker.

The intrusion began several months ago, but news of the breach wasn’t made public until this week.

“Given that potential victims include defense contractors, telecoms, banks, and tech companies, the implications for critical infrastructure and national security, although untold at this point, could be significant,” said Erin Kenneally, director of cyber risk analytics at Guidewire, an industry platform for insurance carriers.

In his analysis for Extra Crunch, Zack breaks down the rippling effects of supply-chain attacks that can compromise platforms like SolarWinds, which is used by more than 420 of the Fortune 500.

From startups to Starbucks: The embedded API opportunity

Embedded finance connects services like payment processing with everyday activities like grabbing a coffee before unlocking an e-scooter.

“The ability to be at the right place at the right time, supporting consumers and merchants alike, where they want it, how they want it and when they want it — cannot be understated,” says Simon Wu, an investment director with Cathay Innovation.

In a post that identifies embedded finance’s top providers and enablers, he offers advice for startups and established brands that are hoping to “earn and build customer loyalty while generating new revenue streams.”

Is rising usage driving crypto’s recent price boom?

Bitcoin is at an all-time high.

CoinMarketCap reports that crypto market values have reached almost $659 billion; that figure was just $140 billion in March 2020.

“These gains have created a huge amount of wealth for crypto holders,” Alex Wilhelm wrote yesterday.

To get a better handle on why crypto values are sky-bound, he parsed some basic industry metrics, including the number of unique bitcoin addresses, fees paid and transactions per day.

“Do the price gains make sense in the short term? Who knows,” he wrote, “but they are not based on nothing.”

2020 was a disaster, but the pandemic put security in the spotlight

For his year-end Extra Crunch story, security reporter Zack Whittaker looked back at the myriad security challenges and vulnerabilities COVID-19 brought to the fore.

The hacks of Fire Eyes and SolarWinds were just one link in the chain: How well is your company prepared to deal with file-encrypting malware, hackers backed by nation-states or employees accessing secure systems from home?

“With 2020 wrapping up, much of the security headaches exposed by the pandemic will linger into the new year,” says Zack.

Inside Zoox’s six-year ride from prototype to product

After six years of research and development, autonomous vehicle company Zoox this week unveiled an electric robotaxi that can carry four people at a maximum speed of 75 miles per hour.

Automotive writer Kirsten Korosec interviewed Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson to learn more about the vehicle’s development and how the company overcame a series of technical and legal challenges.

“I would say that if you have a big idea and you’re confident that it makes sense, you should at least explore the idea, rather than giving up because the current regulations aren’t designed for it,” said Levinson.

Kirsten only had 15 minutes to interview Levinson, but this comprehensive interview covers topics like regulatory compliance, Zoox’s relationship with parent company Amazon and the highest (and lowest) moments he experienced along the way.

Pluralsight $3.5B deal signals a matured edtech market

In one of the largest enterprise acquisitions of 2020, Visa Equity Partners this week purchased Utah-based edtech startup Pluralsight for $3.5 billion.

According to the entrepreneurs and investors reporter Natasha Mascarenhas spoke to, this deal “shows the strength of edtech’s capital options as the pandemic continues.”

“What’s happening in edtech is that capital markets are liquidating,” a major change from “the old days where the options to exit were very narrow,” says Deborah Quazzo, a managing partner at GSV Advisors and seed investor in Pluralsight.

Dear Sophie: How did immigration change for startup founders in 2020?

Dear Sophie:

I’m on an F1 OPT and am about to incorporate a startup with my two American co-founders.

What were the biggest immigration changes in 2020 affecting us?

—Ambitious in Albany

How to pick an investor in good or bad times

Founders and the VCs who back them may not be friends, but they’re usually friendly.

Investors are on a first-name basis with entrepreneurs from their portfolio companies and frequently have candid conversations with them about life, work and the world in general. In the before times, they might even have shared a meal or attended a baseball game together.

But make no mistake, it is a top-down relationship — the investor will always have the upper hand. When an entrepreneur accepts a check, they are hiring their next boss.

In an Extra Crunch guest post, Quiq CEO and founder Mike Myer poses two questions for founders who are considering a new relationship with a VC:

• How can the investor help the business?
• What’s the risk that the investor will hurt the business?

From India’s richest man to Amazon and 100s of startups: The great rush to win neighborhood stores

In India, about 90% of consumers buy their everyday goods from neighborhood-based kirana stores instead of supermarkets.

As a result, U.S. retail giants like Walmart and Amazon have adopted an “if you can’t beat them, join them” approach, offering the nation’s 60 million mom-and-pop shops software for inventory control, payments and e-commerce.

India’s retail market will be worth an estimated $1.3 trillion by 2025, but e-commerce represents just 3% of that activity today, reports Manish Singh.

For his final Extra Crunch story of 2020, he looked at the startups and major players who are hoping to carve out their niche in one of the world’s largest retail ecosystems.

ClickUp CEO talks hiring, raising and scaling in the white-hot productivity space

Earlier this year, business productivity software startup ClickUp raised a $35 million Series A.

Now, just six months later, the company has closed a second round of $100 million that values the San Diego-based startup at $1 billion.

Lucas Matney interviewed CEO Zeb Evans this week to learn more about how the company was buoyed by pandemic-based behavior shifts that doubled its customer base and multiplied revenue by a factor of nine.

“I think that the biggest thing that we’ve always focused on is shipping a new version of ClickUp every week. That is our differentiation,” he said. “We’ve kind of created these iterative cycles called natural product-market fit and it’s been hard to keep up with that.”

2020’s top 10 enterprise M&A deals totaled a staggering $165B

In 2018, the total value of the year’s 10 top enterprise mergers and acquisitions reached $87 billion; last year, that figure fell to just $40 billion.

But in 2020, 10 M&A deals accounted for $165.2 billion.

“Last year’s biggest deal — Salesforce buying Tableau for $15.7 billion — would have only been good for fifth place on this year’s list,” notes enterprise reporter Ron Miller. “And last year’s fourth largest deal, where VMware bought Pivotal for $2.7 billion, wouldn’t have even made this year’s list at all.”

We interview the senior senator from Minnesota about fitness trackers, Sony pulls “Cyberpunk 2077” from the PlayStation Store and Indian delivery startup Zomato raises a massive round. This is your Daily Crunch for December 18, 2020.

The big story: Amy Klobuchar discusses Amazon Halo concerns

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar recently wrote an open letter to Alex Azar of the Department of Health and Human Services, in which she discussed Amazon’s Halo fitness tracker and expressed concern that “the Halo appears to collect an unprecedented level of personal information.”

Klobuchar elaborated on these issues in an interview with TechCrunch. HHS, she said, “should play a larger role in ensuring data privacy when it comes to health” and work with the FTC “to come up with some rules to safeguard private health information.”

Klobuchar added, “I think the Amazon Halo is just the ultimate example of it, but there’s a number of other devices that have the same issues.”

The tech giants

CD Projekt Red, Sony, Microsoft offer refund to Cyberpunk 2077 customers after bug complaints — Sony has pulled “Cyberpunk 2077” from its PlayStation Store after a flood of complaints.

The big Google DOJ antitrust case probably won’t go to trial until 2023 — In a status hearing Friday, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta set a tentative date for the case.

Twitter bots and memorialized users will become ‘new account types’ in 2021 — Twitter plans to add a way of distinguishing bots and other automated accounts.

Startups, funding and venture capital

Indian food delivery giant Zomato secures $660M — The 12-year-old startup is also in the process of closing a $140 million secondary transaction.

Bumble reportedly filed confidentially for an IPO — The news that Bumble is pursuing an IPO is not a surprise.

Unfold launches lightweight, link-centric profiles called Bio Sites — Squarespace acquired social media startup Unfold last year.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

From India’s richest man to Amazon and 100s of startups: The great rush to win neighborhood stores — After spending more than a decade disrupting neighborhood stores in the U.S. and other markets, Amazon and Walmart are employing a different strategy in India.

Watch Space Force commander Gen. John Raymond explain public-private partnerships for space defense — The Space Force commander explained how the new military service operates like a startup and how startups can learn from the Space Force.

Unpacking Poshmark’s IPO filing — From posting regular losses in 2019 to generating net income in 2020.

(Extra Crunch is our membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

TechCrunch Early Stage is coming back in a big way in 2021 — TC Early Stage is all about providing founders access to the top experts across the core competencies involved in entrepreneurship.

Tips for applying an intersectional framework to AI development — What can we do to move away from using AI/ML models that demonstrate unfair bias?

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 3pm Pacific, you can subscribe here.

Welcome to TechCrunch’s 2020 Holiday Gift Guide! Need help with gift ideas? We’re here to help! We’ll be rolling out gift guides from now through the end of December. You can find our other guides right here.

Headphones! They make a pretty solid gift any year, but they’re an even better option when we’re all stuck at home. It’s hard to think (much less get anything done) when the background track of your life is a cacophony of conference calls and Zoom school.

We spent a lot of time with a lot of different headphones this year, so we thought it’d be good to highlight some of our favorites. As with all things audio-related, “best” is deeply subjective — but these ones all absolutely earned our stamp of approval. Between over-ear, on-ear, in-ear, and gaming headsets, we’ve got the bases covered.

This article contains links to affiliate partners where available. When you buy through these links, TechCrunch may earn an affiliate commission.

Over-Ear and On-ear Headphones:

Marshall Major IV

Darrell writes:

Marshall’s latest on-ear headphones combine great sound with a lightweight design, and some unique benefits – including over 80 hours of playtime on a single charge. They also charge either via USB-C, or wirelessly with most standard chargers, by folding them up and resting them on their right ear cup. The on-ear design means no noise cancellation and noise isolation is minimal, so they’re not great for commutes but a very solid choice for the home office. For the price, they’re a great deal, and a stylish accessory, to boot.

Price: $129 from Marshall

Sony WH-1000XM4

Taylor writes:

If you need really serious noise canceling and you aren’t willing to sacrifice on sound quality, Sony’s WH-1000XM4 over-ear headphones are a no-brainer.

Widely regarded as the best at what they do, these headphones actually do quite a few different things very, very well. The sleek over-ear design and sophisticated active noise canceling means they can create a totally silent work environment if that’s what you want. And if you’re just in it for the Sony’s signature killer, punchy sound, that’s enough of a reason to buy them too. (Bose’s Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are another top-tier pick for over-ear noise canceling if you prefer their look or Bose’s more neutral sound.) For a budget pick, Sony’s last-gen Sony WH-1000XM3 offer the same sound quality and noise canceling with a few fewer bells and whistles.

Price: $278 from Best Buy

 

Master & Dynamic MW65

Veanne writes:

The MW65s are Master & Dynamic’s wireless over-ear noise cancelling model. Between deejaying at dirty underground raves in my early twenties and editing videos for the next decade, I have probably gone through about two dozen headphones. By far, the MW65s are my favorite. 

They’re beautifully designed, and well-constructed with lightweight anodized aluminum and premium leather. The 40mm beryllium drivers deliver clarity throughout the spectrum and audiophiles will love their natural sound profile. The memory foam ear pads already do a decent job of muffling out garbage trucks and police sirens, but the ANC is great for shutting out the world — on high mode, it’s eerily silent. The MW65s work wirelessly via Bluetooth 4.2 with 65+ feet of signal range – a must have for grabbing snacks from the fridge while on important Zoom meetings or to avoid accidentally yanking the laptop off the table. Bonus feature: Google Assistant integration. 

They’ll cost you a steep $400+, but they’re solid headphones and you’re ultimately paying for luxury.

Price: Currently $400 on Amazon

 

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In-Ear Headphones:

Sony WF-1000XM3

Taylor writes:

It should come as no surprise that Sony’s prowess in over-ear noise canceling translates extremely well to a smaller form factor. Earbuds can’t match the sweet silence that over-ear designs provide, but if you don’t like big ol’ headphones the compromise is likely worth it. Sony’s earbuds are a great choice, tuning out a shocking amount of outside noise in a very small package. Like the Sony over-ear pick, they have incredible sound, a very attractive design and come with a huge selection of rubbery caps of different sizes and textures to make them comfortable in different ears. If you value Apple connectivity above all else, pick the AirPods pro. If sound quality or silence matter more, you won’t be disappointed here.

Price: $158 from Best Buy

Also great: Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless 2 ($269) earbuds keep pace with Sony’s earbuds, and depending on your sound/fit preferences they’re also a great pick (especially if you find them on sale.)

For the Apple devotee: AirPods Pro

Lucas writes:

Though Apple is now positioning the $249 AirPods Pro as the mid-range product in the AirPods line with the introduction of the ludicrously priced $549 AirPods Max, they are still Apple’s headphone product that seems to have the biggest lead over mainstream competitors.

Features like passthrough mode and spatial audio are nice but are likely features you will use pretty infrequently depending on your setup. As with the less expensive non-Pro AirPods, you’ll be sure to find better sound quality in bluetooth headphones at the price, but you won’t find a better total package that involves so little troubleshooting, a tight package and such quality noise cancellation. The AirPods Pro are a finessed product that just work in a way that makes using other wireless buds comparably painful.

Retailers are really looking to move product this holiday season, so if you’re prodigious, you’ll likely be able to score a good deal on these headphones so if you’re plotting an upgrade or trying to see what all the buzz is about, I recommend you take the plunge.

Price: Currently $199 from Amazon

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Gaming Headsets:

SteelSeries 7P (for Playstation) or 7X (for Xbox)

Devin writes:

Whether you’re planning on playing games on a PC or any console out there, the SteelSeries Arctis 7 gets an unreserved recommendation from me. These headphones have amazing sound in a surprisingly large soundstage, making them suitable for any gaming or media. They’re also light and comfortable while offering decent isolation (and can pipe in surrounding noise if you want). Plus there’s a built-in telescoping mic for chatting with. There are two versions, one for PlayStation and one for Xbox consoles, though both work with PC.

Their downsides are a cluttered physical interface — there’s a lot going on on the undersides of the earcups — and a corded, multi-part (rather than USB key shaped) wireless dongle. But these are minor issues considering what you get for the $150 price.

Price: $150 from SteelSeries

Budget pick: Razer Kraken X USB

Devin writes:

This is my go-to headset for when friends need something solid but inexpensive. The sound is a bit bass-heavy and it’s not wireless, but I used these personally for quite a while and found them comfortable, reliable, and the built-in mic is easily operated.

Price: $44 from Amazon

Upgrade pick: SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless

While on the pricier end for a gaming headset, SteelSeries’ Arctis Pros are outstanding. They’re extremely comfortable largely thanks to a ski-goggle inspired suspension headband, and swappable rechargeable batteries (one in the headset, one charging in the base station) help ensure you’re never caught scrambling for a charging cable mid-battle. A dedicated mixer helps you tweak the sound to your liking even in games where it’s otherwise locked, and a very visible mute indicator on the tip of the microphone makes it clear whether you’re on air or not. One catch: they’ll work with PC, Mac, and Playstation (including PS5 with an upcoming firmware update), but not Xbox.

Price: $326 from Amazon

The idea of satellites and other spacecraft being able to refuel, repair, or even add new capabilities while in orbit has generally seemed like a “nice in theory” one, but as leaders from Maxar, Astroscale, and Orbit Fab explained at TC Sessions: Space, 2021 will be the year that theory becomes reality — or at the very least, realistic.

Once they go up, satellites are generally considered fixed assets that only depreciate, become obsolete, or reach the end of their fuel supply and inevitably deorbit. But with a bit of coordination many of these phenomenally expensive spacecraft could have their lives extended in a number of ways, and considering the costs involved in lofting a new one, the prospect may be an attractive one.

“Launch costs are going down, but also launch frequency, the cadence in which things are being sent up into space is also going up,” pointed out Lucy Condakchian, GM of robotics at Maxar Technologies . “So if you can launch smaller subsystems payloads and whatnot, and then be able to assemble things in space, maybe change out a certain aspect of what that satellite is doing… Why can’t we go up and actually change out a power subsystem, change out a camera mechanism, a computing element, whatever the case may be?”

That’s what Maxar and NASA will be demonstrating next year with OSAM-1, formerly called Restore-L, in which a spacecraft will attempt to service, assemble, and manufacture items (hence the name) while on orbit.

“Just being able to demonstrate something in space shows that we can do that, proves the point of ‘Yes, it is possible,’ and hopefully it opens up much further opportunities down the road,” said Condakchian. The company’s robotic arms for Martian landers have shown their versatility, as well, and there’s no reason to think that satellite arms won’t be as broadly useful.

While Maxar is aiming to equip future spacecraft, Ron Lopez, President of Astroscale US (the original company is Japan-based), sees an opportunity in today’s aging space infrastructure.

“There are a lot of companies that are developing on orbit inspection services. That’s for the satellites that are already out there that don’t have those robotic capabilities, or can’t afford to have them in the future when the product owner-operator decides not to put them on,” he explained.

“There’s any number of different use cases for this kind of capability,” he continued. “Insurance claims if there’s an anomaly on a satellite, and it needs to be determined what it was that happened, etc, or space situational awareness. Of course, we know that this is a big concern for everybody with the increasing number of objects in space, understanding what’s where, doing what, and is it a threat to other objects in space, is very important.”

Astroscale, which recently raised a $51M series E, is about to launch a mission in just a few months that will demonstrate orbital debris detection and removal. That doesn’t mean spare screws dropped by ISS spacewalks — more likely dead satellites that have been left to drift and deorbit on their own time, which could be years from now. All they need is a little push and low-Earth orbit is that much safer and cleaner.

Daniel Faber, CEO and founder of Orbit Fab, wants to prevent that situation from occurring in the first place by building what he calls “gas stations in space.” It’s a bit different from the terrestrial ones, closer perhaps to in-flight refueling of jets, but you get the idea.

“The future that Orbit Fab sees is a fully cooperative and bustling in space economy, we don’t think that that can be achieved by relying on robotics on every spacecraft, there’s always going to be a need for tow trucks, there’s always going to be a need for complex robotic servicing when things go wrong, and things break down. And right now, nothing has been designed to be serviced. So you need a tow truck for any of these type of things,” he said.

“We failed to build a satellite gas tanker because we couldn’t find the fueling port. So we built one,” he said, referring to the company’s RAFTI connector, which dozens of partners are now looking at including in their spacecraft. “We’ve had to develop other products and technologies as well to make refueling accessible to our customers.”

The tanker will have its first orbit tests — you guessed it, next year. A recently announced investment, bringing their seed total to $6M, should help make that happen. 2021 is looking to be a big one for many areas of space, but in this particular sector it will be the moment where the capability is proven out, perhaps leading to a major expansion the following year.

That was just a fraction of what we talked about on the panel. If you missed it live, don’t worry – Extra Crunch subscribers get access to all the on-stage content from TC Sessions: Space and every other event as well. Sign up here.