Category: UNCATEGORIZED

We’re back with another episode of Mixtape. This week Marah Lidey, co-founder and co-CEO of Shine, joins us to discuss mental health, venture capital, portfolio diversity and connecting with other founders trying to make it all work.

It’s easy to look at 2020 and identify perfectly valid reasons to pursue mental health. But that’s not the right way to think about it. Mental health just is. It’s for everyone, every day — no matter what fresh hell is going on in the world.

And it doesn’t have to take the form of therapy once, or even twice, per week. Stretch for five minutes after waking up or when you need to get away from your computer. Sit with your eyes closed. Chat with a friend. Or, if it’s your thing, go ahead and find some therapy. Do you.

Lidey says Shine seeks to make wellness accessible, and that is something that is becoming more and more necessary.

“Since we started, we’ve been on this mission to make caring for your mental and emotional health easier, more inclusive and more representative than it’s ever been,” Lidey tells us, referring to the premise she and her co-founder Naomi Hirabayashi designed for Shine.

It’s the company’s focus on inclusivity that sets it apart from other wellness apps on the market. Lidey says she and Hirabayashi met in New York while working at a nonprofit 10 years ago. They bonded on the shared feeling of alienation resulting from the need to subdue their intersectional identities.

“When I found myself in New York, and this cool job a few years later, and I was one of the only senior women of color in my environment on this management team, I was struggling, like I said, to kind of reconcile who I was and who I was expressing myself as in this new environment — the things that I would maybe subdue about myself or hide or, you know, feel like I couldn’t fully express,” Lidey says. “And a lot of the messaging that I think we get, that’s where me and my now co-founder really bonded.”

This year has also come with an awakening of sorts around diversity, or lack thereof, in the workplace, and diversity, or lack thereof, in venture capital. We’ll have to wait to see how long it lasts, but Lidey does recognize the efforts by some firms that have taken a look at their portfolios and had a bit of an “oh shit” moment.

“What people recognized was not just the accountability that they were going to be held to for maybe the first time, but also what they were missing out on,” Lidey says. “They don’t have any perspectives on their teams for how to deal with this and how to navigate it and how to support maybe their founders or how to support the wider community or how to be relevant right now. People, I think, were struggling with that.”

Click play above for the entire chat. It’s a good one. And while you’re at it, subscribe on your favorite podcatcher.

NASA has issued a new request for proposals from partners that would be able to help it supplement its own storytelling in new and innovative ways, including potentially through use of robotic camera systems, high-resolution and 360-degree video capture, immersive VR content and more. The agency has noted that it’s looking for responses form a vast range of potential partners, including broadcasters and studios, as well as aerospace-specific companies, nonprofits and school.

This could be a prime opportunity for tech startups and younger companies working on robotic camera capture systems, highly portable cameras with unique features, software that automates or enhances media capture or editing, or even broadband video compression to land a significant partner. Artemis, NASA’s series of missions that will include a return trip to the Moon’s surface currently set for 2024, will also be squarely in the public eye over the course of the next decade at least.

Proposals could result in actually sending equipment along for the ride on forthcoming Artemis missions, including the crewed lunar orbital fly-by set for 2023. Based on the language NASA uses in its release, it’s really looking for ideas that could maximize the reach and impact of its groundbreaking effort to return to the Moon, and ultimately set up a more permanent research base – and it seems up for just about anything, as long as it sounds like it’ll go beyond standard TV and broadcast approaches.

The officially Announcement for Proposals from the agency can be found here, and any proposals are due by December 11, 2020 before midnight in order to qualify for consideration.

Meet Reposite, a software-as-a-service startup that wants to help travel agents of all kinds deal with their daily tasks. While the travel agency industry is huge, most people who work in this industry still don’t have a good system in place to deal with information, orders and communication.

Reposite wants to be a one-stop shop for tour operators, event planners and more. The platform lets you centralize all information in one repository. It lets you upload client information and your supplier database so that you don’t have to juggle with Excel files and good old binders.

Compared to traditional CRM systems, such as Salesforce, Reposite is specifically tailored for the travel and events industry.

You can invite your suppliers to join Reposite and update their profile. This way, information always remains up-to-date. Travel agents looking for a specific place will have a higher chance of finding a specific supplier if there’s a lot of information on the profile.

For suppliers, maintaining a Reposite profile shouldn’t be too intensive as you only need to update a single profile. All your travel partners will get the most recent profile automatically.

After that, Reposite helps you stay on top of your projects. As a travel agent, chances are you spend most of your time interacting with clients and suppliers. You can save email templates, track your meetings and calls from the platform. There are also some task management features built in, which should help you keep an eye on your pipeline.

When you’re ready to go ahead and sign a contract, you can invoice your clients and pay your suppliers from Reposite. You can see if there are any pending payment.

The startup is still quite young and recently raised a seed round of $2.5 million. Liberty City Ventures is leading the round, with Greycroft, Pritzker and Raine also participating.

While there isn’t a ton of travel activity during the pandemic, the startup thinks its product can help the industry as a whole for a better recovery. It should certainly help some travel agents become more efficient, which could improve the bottom line.

Yes, there is an election, but that’s getting pretty boring at this point. What’s far more interesting is the future of enterprise and cybersecurity startups, markets where companies are dumping billions of dollars in the wake of the largest change in office work in decades. Old notions are being discarded, new ideas are in — and all that portends huge potential opportunities for ambitious founders.

That’s why I am so excited to be hosting the next edition of our Extra Crunch Live interview series with the superlative enterprise venture capitalist Asheem Chandna of Greylock. We’re live in about two hours today at 3pm EST / 11am PST / 8pm GMT. Details to join are below the fold, and if you don’t have an Extra Crunch membership, click through to signup in advance.

For nearly two decades, Asheem Chandna has been investing in enterprise and security startups at Greylock, with massive investment wins in Palo Alto Networks, AppDynamics, and Sumo Logic. These days, he continues to invest in cybersecurity with companies like Awake Security and Abnormal Security, data platforms like Rubrik and Delphix, and the stealthy search engine company Neeva. As a leading early-stage investor and mentor in the space, he’s seen a multitude of companies transition from inception to product-market fit to IPO.

We’re going to be talking about the current landscape for enterprise and cybersecurity startups and then also talking about company building in these contexts, an area that Chandna has been particularly focused over his career. Plus, as always with ECL, we’ll be taking questions from you, our always inquisitive audience.

So come prepared for a great conversation, and join us shortly for another ECL live broadcast.

Event Details

Since Uber’s launch in 2010, ride-hailing has grown to one of the most dominant transportation modes in many cities. Thanks to ride-hailing, travelers no longer need to wave a hand to taxicabs in hope of getting picked up. Even if you are fortunate enough to own a car in a city, you are free from driving after drinking and don’t need to find an elusive parking spot, which often seems to equate to winning a lottery.

Along with their exponential growth, however, companies such as Uber and Lyft have had to endure a number of criticisms and scandals. One of such crises is that there have been a number of incidents where its drivers committed sexual assault or other crimes. But our research provides a surprising finding: Ride-hailing, in fact, reduces the occurrences of sexual assault.

In our article “The Deterrent Effect of Ride-Sharing on Sexual Assault and Investigation of Situational Contingencies,” we analyzed data from New York City in 2015, which include Uber transaction records and crime reports. We found that the more Uber pickups take place in a neighborhood, the less likely it is for a rape incident to be reported in the same area. Our results suggest that a 1% increase in Uber pickups lead to a decrease in reported cases of sexual assault by as many as 48 cases per year in NYC.

Our in-depth analysis reveals more interesting insights. Specifically, we find that ride-hailing contributes to a greater reduction in rape cases in areas and situations where the transport supply rarely meets the demand, such as:

• at the areas where fewer taxi pickups occur.
• in the outer boroughs of NYC (Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and The Bronx) — rather than in Manhattan.
• in the areas with a greater percentage of nonwhite residents.
• at nighttime.
• in the areas with more alcohol-serving places during Friday-Saturday nights than during weekday nights.
• when a greater number of other crimes occur in the same area.

So, how is this possible? How can ride-hailing decrease, rather than increase, reported sexual assault incidents? Simply put, it helps potential vulnerable victims by moving them to safer places (home) as quickly as possible.

Waiting for a taxi on the street, walking eight blocks to a subway station or even riding the subway home alone may be undesirable options late at night, but ride-hailing affords travelers with an option to escape such a situation. Our data shows that wait times for Uber are substantially shorter than it is for taxis, and in the outskirts of a city, Uber is more widely available. In 2015, in the outer boroughs of NYC, about 23% of the rides were provided by Uber, which was twice as much as in Manhattan (12%), increasing up to 91% in the areas farthest from Manhattan (e.g., Bensonhurst, Queens Village, Cambria Heights).

This is thanks to real-time matching of supply (drivers) and demand (passengers) through Uber’s mobile platform. Its platform knows exactly where both passengers and drivers are and can instantly match a passenger to the nearest driver, whom it can direct to the exact location of the passenger. Dynamic pricing also allows drivers to respond to market demands instantly, which helps match supply and demand closely.

This platform’s real-time matching and dynamic pricing also explain why the crime-deterrent effect of ride-hailing is stronger outside Manhattan. As said, it is difficult for a passenger to find a taxi out on the street; by the same token, it’s difficult for taxi drivers to find passengers on the street. Taxi drivers usually drive around or wait at popular pickup spots (e.g., airports, train stations, hotels), but it is not economical for them to do this in the outer boroughs. Because of this difficulty in finding passengers, most of them tend to operate at heavily populated areas. Ride-sharing fills this transportation gap, allowing potential crime victims to easily transport themselves to their homes.

We have also observed this effect across other cities in the U.S. between 2005 and 2017. We found that when Uber commences its service in a city, the number of reported rape incidents has declined by up to 6%.

So, what do our findings mean for policymakers? Our research echoes that public safety and transportation are interrelated matters, and reliable, convenient transportation infrastructures for citizens can be one of the mechanisms to deter crimes.

For instance, many areas with underprivileged populations suffer from persistent crime and are typically underserved by public transportation. As we mentioned, ride-hailing has a greater crime-prevention role in the outer boroughs or in more economically deprived areas. Our research informs us that by improving transportation infrastructures in such areas, we can bring multifaceted values to the citizens, including crime prevention.

To fill the transportation gap, some local governments are starting to operate on-demand transportation services. Under this service, instead of buses running over fixed routes on a predetermined schedule, passengers can request a ride anywhere, and a bus will respond and transport the passengers. Many universities also operate safe-ride programs for students around the campus. These types of flexible transportation systems can be more cost-effective for municipalities and while playing a role in crime deterrence.

Companies that aim to provide customers and employees with reliable transportation could benefit from IT-enabled transportation platforms, where new technology startups can play a role. For example, healthcare organizations have partnered with major ride-hailing companies to provide reliable transportation for their patients (e.g., Uber Health, Lyft Health), so that they can easily reach to care providers.

Ride-hailing drivers can be dangerous people. We’re certainly not saying that they’re not committing crimes — however, the good people who work for Uber or Lyft might also be helping to keep the innocent away from other potential dangerous people, too.

Two days ago, about $1 billion worth of bitcoin that had sat dormant since the seizure of the Silk Road marketplace in 2013, one of the biggest underground drug websites on the dark web, suddenly changed hands.

Who took it? Mystery over. It was the U.S. government.

In a statement Thursday, the Justice Department confirmed it had seized the 70,000 bitcoins generated in revenue from drug sales on the Silk Web marketplace. At the time of the seizure, the bitcoin was worth more than $1 billion.

“Silk Road was the most notorious online criminal marketplace of its day. The successful prosecution of Silk Road’s founder in 2015 left open a billion-dollar question. Where did the money go? Today’s forfeiture complaint answers this open question at least in part,” said U.S. Attorney David Anderson in remarks.

“$1 billion of these criminal proceeds are now in the United States’ possession,” he said.

Silk Road was for a time the “most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet,” per the Justice Department statement. In 2013, its founder and administrator Ross Ulbricht was arrested and the site seized. Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 and sentenced to two life terms and an additional 40 years, for his role in the operation. Prosecutors said the site had close to 13,000 listings for drugs and other illegal services, and generated millions of bitcoin.

The Justice Department said Thursday that the seized bitcoin would be subject to forfeiture proceedings.

More soon…

Building a SaaS company from the ground up is never easy. In fact, it’s generally a grueling, all-consuming process that strains every fiber in your being.

But it is much, much more difficult if you approach it without a tried and true process. After starting and scaling five successful companies, I can tell you that there absolutely is a repeatable process to building a successful SaaS business, one that can reliably guide you to product-market fit and then help you quickly scale.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy, but it does mean that you won’t waste years of your life pursuing a solution that nobody wants.

Begin with finding the right problem

In the earliest stages, the process begins by finding the right problem to solve. At this point, you likely already have a few hypotheses about that problem. But no matter your conviction, you must test those hypotheses against a consistent set of criteria. For example, these are the questions that my co-founder and I used to evaluate the earliest concept of our current company, Drift:

• Is the problem big enough?
• Is the market big enough?
• Does the problem have a recurring use case?
• Can we build the solution for the problem?

If this sounds like a simple, straightforward exercise, it’s because it is. But not enough entrepreneurs ask themselves these questions at the beginning of their journey. We successfully avoided wasting months or even years of precious time building products that didn’t fit these criteria. This simple step will save you an incredible amount of pain and aggravation.

The only way to find product-market fit

Once you settle on a problem to solve, it’s time to build a barebones product that solves it and to then test that product against the market.

My co-founder Elias and I approached it this way: First, we personally spent hours each day in communities like LinkedIn, Twitter and Product Hunt, giving folks early access to our product and asking them for as much feedback as they could offer.

We were happy if they responded in the comments or to our direct messages, but we always went deeper by asking them to speak over the phone or on a video chat. We also hit the pavement by going to in-person Meetups and events around our hometown of Boston. We even took flights out to small events around the country so that we could interact with potential customers in-person.

If this sounds inordinate, it isn’t. This is the kind of attention that you need to devote to gathering intelligence from potential customers, so that you can relentlessly laser in on a product that they will actually use, value and pay for.

A small wrinkle in the console wars. Sony took to Twitter today to note that the PlayStation 5 won’t be available for in-store purchases on launch day (November 12 or 19, depending on what part of the world you live in). Instead, users will only be able to but it online at that date. The next-gen console went up for pre-order in mid-September, though a rush on purchasing caused a bit of a hiccup early on.

Sony specifies in a blog post that the decision was made — at least in part — over safety concerns surrounding the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.

“In the interest of keeping our gamers, retailers, and staff safe amidst COVID-19, today we are confirming that all day-of launch sales will be conducted through the online stores of our retail partners,” the company writes. “[P]lease don’t plan on camping out or lining up at your local retailer on launch day in hopes of finding a PS5 console for purchase. Be safe, stay home, and place your order online.”

Microsoft’s latest — the Xbox Series X/S — will launch globally two days prior. Lucas just posted up an on-going review of the system earlier today. On the Sony side, Devin has thus far featured this hands-on with the console’s controller.

It’s hard to imagine anything more thrilling than turning science fiction into science fact. If you’re forging new frontier technology — or ready to tackle the challenge — than join a growing, global community of startup visionaries at TC Sessions: Space 2020, on December 16-17.

Take advantage of early-bird pricing and secure your seat at the virtual table for $125 and access to all live sessions. Don’t worry about missing out due to schedule conflicts, because video on demand comes with the price of admission. But don’t delay — buy your pass now. Early-bird pricing remains in play until November 13 at 11:59 p.m. (PT).

Place yourself in the influential orbit of space experts across public, private and defense sectors. We’re talking the leading voices on space commercialization, deep tech software, defense capabilities, mineral exploration, 3D-printed rockets, global mapping of the Earth from space, the future of agriculture and food technology — and the investors and strategies that could make it all happen.

Check out the event agenda. It’s loaded with main stage presentations, fireside chats and interviews. Don’t skip the breakout sessions, which focus on specialized topics, or the interactive Q&As with main stage speakers.

Spend time in the expo area discovering and connecting with outstanding early-stage space startups and partners. And don’t miss their pitches! Each exhibiting founder will get five minutes to pitch to thousands of attendees from around the world.

Networking plays an essential role, and we’ve got you covered there, too. Take advantage of CrunchMatch, our free AI-powered platform, to connect and schedule 1:1 video meetings with the people who align with your business goals. Who’s at the top your must-meet list? Investors, founders, engineers, R&D teams, supply-chain experts? You never know who you’ll meet at a TechCrunch event or where one connection might lead.

Super savings: Get your group on early-bird style. Tickets cost $100 each — bring four team members and get the fifth one free. Get discount passes for students ($50), government, military and non-profits ($95). Want to pitch your startup? Simply buy an Early-Stage Startup Exhibitor Package ($360 gets you three tickets, digital exhibition space and the ability to generate leads). Bonus savings: Are you an Extra Crunch subscriber? Sweet — you score a 20 percent discount.

TC Sessions: Space 2020 takes place on December 16-17, and you have just one week left to buy an early-bird pass. The prices go up November 13 at 11:59 p.m. (PT). Get ready to forge a new frontier by turning science fiction into science fact. We can’t wait to see what you’ve got.

Is your company interested in sponsoring TC Sessions: Space 2020? Click here to talk with us about available opportunities.

It’s hard to imagine anything more thrilling than turning science fiction into science fact. If you’re forging new frontier technology — or ready to tackle the challenge — than join a growing, global community of startup visionaries at TC Sessions: Space 2020, on December 16-17.

Take advantage of early-bird pricing and secure your seat at the virtual table for $125 and access to all live sessions. Don’t worry about missing out due to schedule conflicts, because video on demand comes with the price of admission. But don’t delay — buy your pass now. Early-bird pricing remains in play until November 13 at 11:59 p.m. (PT).

Place yourself in the influential orbit of space experts across public, private and defense sectors. We’re talking the leading voices on space commercialization, deep tech software, defense capabilities, mineral exploration, 3D-printed rockets, global mapping of the Earth from space, the future of agriculture and food technology — and the investors and strategies that could make it all happen.

Check out the event agenda. It’s loaded with main stage presentations, fireside chats and interviews. Don’t skip the breakout sessions, which focus on specialized topics, or the interactive Q&As with main stage speakers.

Spend time in the expo area discovering and connecting with outstanding early-stage space startups and partners. And don’t miss their pitches! Each exhibiting founder will get five minutes to pitch to thousands of attendees from around the world.

Networking plays an essential role, and we’ve got you covered there, too. Take advantage of CrunchMatch, our free AI-powered platform, to connect and schedule 1:1 video meetings with the people who align with your business goals. Who’s at the top your must-meet list? Investors, founders, engineers, R&D teams, supply-chain experts? You never know who you’ll meet at a TechCrunch event or where one connection might lead.

Super savings: Get your group on early-bird style. Tickets cost $100 each — bring four team members and get the fifth one free. Get discount passes for students ($50), government, military and non-profits ($95). Want to pitch your startup? Simply buy an Early-Stage Startup Exhibitor Package ($360 gets you three tickets, digital exhibition space and the ability to generate leads). Bonus savings: Are you an Extra Crunch subscriber? Sweet — you score a 20 percent discount.

TC Sessions: Space 2020 takes place on December 16-17, and you have just one week left to buy an early-bird pass. The prices go up November 13 at 11:59 p.m. (PT). Get ready to forge a new frontier by turning science fiction into science fact. We can’t wait to see what you’ve got.

Is your company interested in sponsoring TC Sessions: Space 2020? Click here to talk with us about available opportunities.