Year: 2020

When SEO and marketing company Conductor sold to WeWork in March 2018, it was a bit of a last-ditch effort. Leading up to the sale, Conductor’s executives and employees owned around 9% of the company, which had about $28 million in revenue. To make its mission a reality, Conductor needed more funding, which meant more dilution, CEO Seth Besmertnik tells TechCrunch.

That’s when WeWork came along and offered Conductor as much money as it wanted to grow, along with an unconstrained, autonomous environment.

“So they said we were basically going to have a lot more upside and a lot more ownership, and there weren’t really a lot of strings attached to it, other than making WeWork really good at doing organic marketing,” Besmertnik says.

The deal closed and Conductor went on to have a phenomenal rest of 2018, Besmertnik says. Last year, however, Conductor began to realize being part of WeWork wasn’t serving them.

“There turned out to be no synergies,” he says. “All of the efforts we made to do integration and have them sell our product and integrate into their platform — none of them happened and there was no plan for that to happen. On top of that, all we were really getting from WeWork was money but we had no board, we had no governance. We actually didn’t own any equity in Conductor, so no matter what we did as a company, it wasn’t tied to our compensation. More importantly, WeWork was pretty clear that they didn’t care how well we did or if we grew the business. It didn’t matter to them. This was demotivating and ultimately it became difficult to run the company.”

That’s when Besmertnik started exploring how to spin out Conductor from WeWork.

From long payment cycles to antiquated processes on how to bill workers, the hefty inefficiencies of the construction industry are long overdue for innovation. 

Enter startups such as the large venture-backed Katerra and recently public companies such as Procore. Still, independent contractors or workers from small family businesses often can’t afford hefty fees from SaaS platforms promising better management. Or, they don’t have a parent company behind them to foot the bill. 

To help the Bob’s Plumbings and Nicky Roofings of the world get paid on time, Handle.com has raised $4.5 million in known venture capital funding and $20 million in debt financing. The startup was a YC grad, born from a trio of founders: Blake Robertson, Chris Woodard and Patrick Hogan.

The startup uses a mix of software and a financing line to help construction workers get paid on time, a weakness in the current industry, per co-founder Hogan. 

“Construction is one of the largest operations in the country in terms of amount spent,” co-founder Hogan said. “We have a contractor that we work with, that if he does a job for Hilton Hotels and has a $2,000 invoice, it takes over one year for them to pay him back. The impact on his business is substantial.” 

In the construction industry, workers often have to submit their own billing, which is lengthy, and there’s room for error. Using software, the startup helps workers automate invoices to limit mistakes, and get documentation to clients on time. 

In a legacy industry, oftentimes it’s hard to get both parties to adopt. So that’s why Handle.com made it so only the workers need to use the platform.

“It’s not a two-way street: it only requires the party who is going to be receiving the payment to use it,” Hogan said. “If you have to get two parties to agree to use a solution, it’s very difficult, because you have a two-sided marketplace type of problem. In construction, one party has more leverage than the other party. You may have reasons for one party to not have things more efficient.”

Now on to Handle.com’s financing side of its business. As every startup ever becomes a bank, Handle.com differs from the group in that it had a software fintech mix since launching out of YC. And in this case, Handle.com secured $20 million in debt equity so credit financing could be part of its business model. 

Handle.com uses a credit line to become a lender to construction workers who are waiting for a check to process and need capital before they can head to their next project. The startup claims that construction workers traditionally have a hard time securing capital loans from banks. “Contractors and subcontractors, Woodward said, “don’t have access [to capital], and it’s the ceiling on their business because they can only grow as fast as they’re getting back.”

The startup says that of the customers that use its software, “a growing portion” use the financing option too. 

As for growth, when Handle.com left YC it was six weeks in and collected $22,800 in monthly revenue. The startup declined to share revenue and growth statistics on the cuff of this funding round, beyond that it has been increasing its customer base by “an average of 30% month over month over the past year.”  

Employees of online software collaboration tool Glitch today announced their intentions to unionize. The news was made official by the Communications Workers of America Union, the largest media and communications labor union in the U.S. The move comes after “90% of the workers indicated their support for joining CWA and authorized CWA to be their bargaining representative,” according to a release.

The company is the latest in a recent string of startups whose employees have sought to unionize. Most notable among them is Kickstarter, which announced the decision last month. The list also includes Spin, Instacart and Pittsburgh-based Google employees.

Glitch will join the CWA Local 1101, as part of the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE-CWA) initiative, which was launched back in January.

“CODE-CWA is committed to helping workers fight for improvements throughout the tech and game development industries, which too often take advantage of workers’ skills without listening to their input on issues that affect them on the job,” CODE’s Emma Kinema, said in a release. “Glitch workers’ overwhelming support for forming a union highlights the importance of organizing efforts in the industry, as well as CWA’s success in driving progressive changes for workers across corporations both large and small in the telecom, media, tech and game development industries.”

Today also marks Glitch’s third anniversary, as noted by founder Anil Dash. The service was launched as Fog Creek Software, designed to provide an online community where users can upload and remix software projects. We have reached out to Glitch and Dash about the news. We will update accordingly. From the release, however, the bargaining sounds like it has thus far been more painless than other companies’ efforts. 

“We look forward to bargaining with Glitch management,” CWA Local 1101 president, Keith Purce, said in the release. “We appreciate that unlike so many employers, the Glitch management team decided to respect the rights of its workforce to choose union representation without fear or coercion.”

A just-approved test could speed up the rate of coronavirus testing, the stock market had a historically bad day yesterday and Russian trolls shift to outsourcing. Here’s your Daily Crunch for March 13, 2020.

PS: Hope you’re all staying safe!

1. FDA approves new coronavirus test that could speed rate of testing up to tenfold

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency approval for use of a new test that can increase the rate of testing patients by up to 10 times compared to methods in use currently, Bloomberg reports.

That speed improvement refers specifically to the technical capabilities of the testing process, meaning access to testing is still a separate issue, but it’s still the first commercially available test that has received emergency approval and for which equipment exists in fairly high volume across the United States.

2. Stocks dive on Dow’s worst day since 1987, tech crashes and Bitcoin is no haven

Yesterday was a terrible day for the stock market, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping by just under 10% — the largest single-day percentage decline since the stock market crash of 1987.

3. Russian trolls are outsourcing to Africa to stoke US racial tensions

According to a pair of reports out from Facebook and Twitter, a disinformation campaign run by individuals linked to Russia’s Internet Research Agency is back and focused on the U.S., but this time it’s being run out of Africa.

4. Slack shares plummet 20% after its growth forecast fails to excite investors

Slack’s current-quarter revenue guidance is a tiny bit light, while its full-year revenue guidance is in the middle of expectations. Why is the company being punished, then? Because the world has changed in the last two weeks, and Slack had a very rich valuation.

5. Maintain data security when staff is working from home

Remote work policies are increasingly popular across the tech industry as companies push flexible working arrangements. In doing so, these companies have to prepare their IT infrastructure to accommodate remote working. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

6. Verizon increases network infrastructure investment by $500M

Verizon (which owns TechCrunch) said Thursday it will boost investment in network infrastructure to prepare for the rise in telecommuting and online learning amid the coronavirus outbreak.

7. Reporters Without Borders uses Minecraft to sneak censored works across borders

The organization — collaborating with reporters, Minecraft pros and, of course, a creative agency — has produced an enormous in-game “Uncensored Library” that hosts a variety of suppressed reportage from places like Saudi Arabia, Russia and Vietnam.

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 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

A just-approved test could speed up the rate of coronavirus testing, the stock market had a historically bad day yesterday and Russian trolls shift to outsourcing. Here’s your Daily Crunch for March 13, 2020.

PS: Hope you’re all staying safe!

1. FDA approves new coronavirus test that could speed rate of testing up to tenfold

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency approval for use of a new test that can increase the rate of testing patients by up to 10 times compared to methods in use currently, Bloomberg reports.

That speed improvement refers specifically to the technical capabilities of the testing process, meaning access to testing is still a separate issue, but it’s still the first commercially available test that has received emergency approval and for which equipment exists in fairly high volume across the United States.

2. Stocks dive on Dow’s worst day since 1987, tech crashes and Bitcoin is no haven

Yesterday was a terrible day for the stock market, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping by just under 10% — the largest single-day percentage decline since the stock market crash of 1987.

3. Russian trolls are outsourcing to Africa to stoke US racial tensions

According to a pair of reports out from Facebook and Twitter, a disinformation campaign run by individuals linked to Russia’s Internet Research Agency is back and focused on the U.S., but this time it’s being run out of Africa.

4. Slack shares plummet 20% after its growth forecast fails to excite investors

Slack’s current-quarter revenue guidance is a tiny bit light, while its full-year revenue guidance is in the middle of expectations. Why is the company being punished, then? Because the world has changed in the last two weeks, and Slack had a very rich valuation.

5. Maintain data security when staff is working from home

Remote work policies are increasingly popular across the tech industry as companies push flexible working arrangements. In doing so, these companies have to prepare their IT infrastructure to accommodate remote working. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

6. Verizon increases network infrastructure investment by $500M

Verizon (which owns TechCrunch) said Thursday it will boost investment in network infrastructure to prepare for the rise in telecommuting and online learning amid the coronavirus outbreak.

7. Reporters Without Borders uses Minecraft to sneak censored works across borders

The organization — collaborating with reporters, Minecraft pros and, of course, a creative agency — has produced an enormous in-game “Uncensored Library” that hosts a variety of suppressed reportage from places like Saudi Arabia, Russia and Vietnam.

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 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

NASA is supplementing its standard protocols and processes for ensuring the health of the astronauts meant to take part in the initial commercial crew spaceflight program with added measures designed to protect them against the possibility of contracting COVID-19, Business Insider reports. Already, it’s standard practice for the U.S. space agency to institute practices designed to reduce the chances any crew flying to space will contract any illnesses on the ground prior to their trip, but extra steps are now in place to specifically address coronavirus risks.

BI’s report notes the added measures in place in addition to the standard two-week quarantine leading up to the commercial crew mission, which is currently set to take place sometime in either April, May or June aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. These include an improved emphasis on surface cleaning and disinfection, social distancing and hand cleaning, all of which is in keeping with the CDC’s recommendations when it comes to prevention among the general population.

NASA has also suspended tours at the facilities where the astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, undergo training ahead of their flight, and it’s asking its own staff to say home if they have any felling that they might potentially be sick to further limit potential exposure.

Health of anyone tasked with traveling to, and working while in space, is obviously paramount. NASA’s existing procedures, which include extensive testing and monitoring leading up to the actual flights, have a great track record of preventing anyone from taking any unwanted viral guests on their trips to space. Coronavirus may present a new challenge to the agency’s precautionary measures, but it shouldn’t functionally differ all that much from the other viral illnesses that astronauts typically seek to avoid before a mission.

Facebook said on Friday that it is committing to match $20 million in donations, a tiny fraction of its quarterly profit, to support global relief efforts for COVID-19 coronavirus.

Mark Zuckerberg, the social juggernaut’s chief executive, said Facebook was committing $10 million for the United Nations Foundation (UNF) and World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, and Facebook Fundraiser, and the remainder $10 million for the CDC Foundation, which will launch its Facebook Fundraiser in the coming weeks.

“More to come soon,” Zuckerberg said, possibly hinting that the company, which said this week that at least some of its contractors can’t work from home for a number of reasons, will do more in the future.

Also on Friday, Chinese ride-hailing giant DiDi Chuxing said it was committing to a $10 million special relief fund for ridesharing drivers and couriers in its international markets.

Microsoft and Amazon, two major Seattle-based tech companies, this week committed $1 million each to COVID-19 Response Fund.

Apple today announced that it would follow moves by other major tech firms by canceling the in-person element of its annual World Wide Developers Conference in June. Rather than holding the big event in San Jose as it has in recent years, the company will move to an online-only format.

“We are delivering WWDC 2020 this June in an innovative way to millions of developers around the world, bringing the entire developer community together with a new experience,” SVP Phil Schiller said in a release. “The current health situation has required that we create a new WWDC 2020 format that delivers a full program with an online keynote and sessions, offering a great learning experience for our entire developer community, all around the world. We will be sharing all of the details in the weeks ahead.”

Now entering its 31st year, the show has become a major event for developers and consumers alike, showcasing the latest developments for software like iOS and macOS, often accompanied by hardware releases. Beyond the opening keynote, the show consists of several days of workshops aimed at developers. Apple has long offered video of many of the workshops afterward, along with some live streamed elements. The announcement so far is light on the details of how it will approach them this June.

Developing…

Airbnb has announced updates to its policies that provide reservation cancellations without charge for stays booked in specific areas, as a result of the current state of the global coronavirus pandemic. Guests that booked reservations through Airbnb in mainland China, South Korea, Italy and the United States are now eligible to cancel their stays without incurring any fees.

The policy, detailed by Airbnb on their newsroom page, specifies that for bookings made in the U.S., it applies to all reservations booked before and including today, March 13, that have a check-in date of April 1, 2020 or earlier. This time-bounding seems reasonable, since it’s basically covering bookings made by people uninformed about the situation in the U.S. and extending to an endpoint that fits with most of the existing measures being taken by states and communities around social distancing and travel limitations. Airbnb also notes in its news release that it’ll continue to assess the situation, meaning the specifics of its extenuating circumstances coverage could change.

In addition to the specific countries mentioned above, Airbnb is also extending the no-charge cancellation policy to anyone from the U.S. who has a reservation in Europen’s Schengen Area, and to anyone globally, including both hosts and guests, who has to cancel a reservation:

• In order to comply with disease control restrictions implemented by relevant governmental or health authorities
• In order to perform medical or disease control duties in connection with the COVID-19 outbreak;
• As a result of flight or ground transportation cancellations initiated by an airline or ground transportation provider due to the COVID-19 outbreak;
• In the event that they are diagnosed or suspected of being infected with COVID-19 by a medical or health authority.

This is a pretty laudable coverage policy by Airbnb that would seem to cover just about anyone whose travel plans are directly affected by the coronavirus pandemic. That said, it’s likely that anyone considering any kind of global travel is at least reconsidering their plans – including any and all Airbnb bookings.

The 36th annual Space Symposium event, which was set to take place between March 30 and April 2 this year, has officially been postponed in light of the current coronavirus pandemic. There isn’t currently any timetable for specific rescheduling of the event, and organizers the Space Foundation says it’s working with its stakeholders on future dates and “additional guidance” around next steps.

This event, which takes place in Colorado, is likely the single most important space-focused event on the calendar in terms of bringing together influential members of the industry, government and general space community. It’s not surprising to see the event postponed in light of the situation around COVID-19, which has been defined officially as a pandemic by the world health organization (WHO) as of earlier this week.

Space Symposium’s decision to put off the event is definitely not surprising, but it is interesting to see that the organizers have opted to go with a reschedule rather than a conversion of the event to a remote or virtual conference. Arguably a lot of the benefits that result from the yearly gathering result from in-person and chance meeting among the high-caliber attendees, so in that regard this course of action does make the most sense.