Category: UNCATEGORIZED

LaunchNotes, a startup founded by the team behind Statuspage (which Atlassian later acquired) and the former head of marketing for Jira, today announced that it has raised a $1.8 million seed round co-led by Cowboy Ventures and Bull City Ventures. In addition, Tim Chen (general partner, Essence Ventures), Eric Wittman (chief growth officer, JLL Technologies), Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan (VP Product, LinkedIn), Scot Wingo (co-founder & CEO, Spiffy), Lin-Hua Wu (chief communications officer, Dropbox) and Steve Klein (co-founder, Statuspage) are participating in this round.

The general idea behind LaunchNotes is to help businesses communicate their software updates to internal and external customers, something that has become increasingly important as the speed of software developments — and launches — has increased.

In addition to announcing the new funding round, LaunchNotes also today said that it will revamp its free tier to include the ability to communicate updates externally through public embeds as well. Previously, users needed to be on a paid plan to do so. The team also now allows businesses to customize the look and feel of these public streams more and it did away with subscriber limits.

“The reason we’re doing this is largely because […] our long-term goal is to drive this shift in how release communications is done,” LaunchNotes co-founder Jake Brereton told me. “And the easiest way we can do that and get as many teams on board as possible is to lower the barrier to entry. Right now, that barrier to entry is asking users to pay for it.”

As Brereton told me, the company gained about 100 active users since it launched three months ago.

Image Credits: LaunchNotes

“I think, more than anything, our original thesis has been validated much more than I expected,” co-founder and CEO Tyler Davis added. “This problem really does scale with team size and in a very linear way and the interest that we’ve had has largely been on the much larger, enterprise team side. It’s just become very clear that that specific problem — while it is an issue for smaller teams — is much more of a critical problem as you grow and as you scale out into multiple teams and multiple business units.”

It’s maybe no surprise then that many of the next items on the team’s roadmap include features that large companies would want from a tool like this, including integrations with issue trackers, starting with Jira, single sign-on solutions and better team management tools.

“With that initial cohort being on the larger team size and more towards enterprise, issue tracker integration is a natural first step into our integrations platform, because a lot of change status currently lives in all these different tools and all these different processes and LaunchNotes is kind of the layer on top of that,” explained co-founder Tony Ramirez. “There are other integrations with things like feature flagging systems or git tools, where we want LaunchNotes to be the one place where people can go. And for these larger teams, that pain is more acute.”

The fact that LaunchNotes is essentially trying to create a system of record for product teams was also part of what attracted Cowboy Ventures founder Aileen Lee to the company.

Image Credits: LaunchNotes

“One of the things that I thought was kind of exciting is that this is potentially a new system of record for product people to use that kind of lives in different places right now — you might have some of it in Jira and some in Trello, or Asana, and some of that in Sheets and some of it in Airtable or Slack,” she said. She also believes that LaunchNotes will make a useful tool when bringing on new team members or handing off a product to another developer.

She also noted that the founding team, which she believes has the ideal background for building this product, was quite upfront about the fact that it needs to bring more diversity to the company. “They recognized, even in the first meeting, ‘hey, we understand we’re three guys, and it’s really important to us to actually build out [diversity] on our cap table and in our investing team, but then also in all of our future hires so that we are setting our company up to be able to attract all kinds of people,” she said.

Given the number of rooms I’ve stayed in over the past couple of years that still sported a 30-pin iPod alarm clock, I think it’s a safe bet that refreshing a new technology isn’t high up on the list of priorities for most hotels. For those looking to offer a little tech hospitality beyond the TV set and a USB port or two, Google’s angling for a place with its Nest Hub.

This week the company is announcing an update for the hotel industry aimed at bringing its smart screen to more hotel rooms. Tailored for the hotel experience, the update is focused on key features like wake-up calls, weather and information and local businesses. It’s also designed to let guests check out quickly and request things like towels from the concierge — essentially attempting to replace having to dial “0” on the hotel phone.

Honestly, it seems like a no-brainer for hotels looking to upgrade the experience. And, importantly, the Hub doesn’t have a built-in camera (as opposed to the Hub Max). That was a conscious omission on Google’s part that’s really welcome when inviting a device into an intimate setting like a hotel room. The company notes that guests won’t be able to sign in on the device, so no personal info will be shared. No audio is stored on the device either, and activities are wiped when the guest checks out.

The Hub is already being offered in a handful of boutique hotels across the U.S. and one in the U.K. Additional locations will be announced soon, and perhaps will be in place by the time people start heading to hotels again.

Hundreds of founders have launched their startups with an aim to change the world. But uttering the words “making the world a better place,” isn’t the same as doing it or doing it well.

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, founder of Promise, and Jessica O. Matthews, founder of Uncharted Power, have not only launched companies that “do good,” the pair have shown how to properly and successfully scale their businesses. We’re excited to announce that Ellis-Lamkins and Matthews will join TechCrunch on our virtual stage at Disrupt 2020 on September 14-18 to offer guidance to other founders and entrepreneurial hopefuls who want to build social impact companies.

Ellis-Lamkins has a long history as a labor and community organizer as well as a businesswoman. Her labor and community organizing experience includes a stint as the executive officer of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council, an organized labor federation representing more than 100 unions and more than 110,000 members in California’s Santa Clara and San Benito counties. She was also executive director of Working Partnerships USA, a coalition working to address economic disparities in California’s Silicon Valley. She also served as the CEO of the anti-poverty organization Green For All.

Prior to co-founding Promise, Ellis-Lamkins ran revenue and operations at Honor. She previously worked with the musician Prince and led the effort to secure ownership of his masters. Ellis-Lamkins is currently a board member of the Tipping Point.

Matthews founded Uncharted Power at the age of 22. The company, which she leads, has developed technology that can interconnect decentralized power applications  such as residential solar, electric vehicle charging stations and IoT sensors into one sustainable network. The goal is to bridge the power access gap between current grid and off-grid solutions. Her experience includes raising what was at the time the largest Series A round ever raised by a black female founder in history.

Matthews, a dual citizen of Nigeria and the United States, has a degree in Psychology and Economics from Harvard University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and is listed on over 12 patents and patents pending, including her first invention of the SOCCKET, an energy generating soccer ball, at the age of 19.

Her success led to a White House invitation from President Barack Obama to represent small companies for the signing of the America Invents Act in 2012.

You may have heard that we’re taking Disrupt virtual this year, a move that lets us make the event accessible to more people than ever before while keeping everyone safe. Disrupt 2020 is scheduled to run from September 14 through September 19. Buy the Disrupt Digital Pro Pass or a Digital Startup Alley Exhibitor Package today and get access to all the interviews on our main stage, workshops over on the Extra Crunch Stage where you can get actionable tips as well as CrunchMatch, our free, AI-powered networking platform. As soon as you register for Disrupt, you will have access to CrunchMatch and can start connecting with people now. Use the tool to schedule one-on-one video calls with potential customers and investors or to recruit and interview prospective employees. If you act fast, you can even save an additional $100 during our flash sale that runs until Thursday, August 27 at 11:59pm PT.

Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group has put on hold plans to invest in Indian startups amid geo-political tensions between the two countries, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing two unnamed sources.

The Chinese group, which has invested more than $2 billion in Indian startups since 2015, plans to freeze new investments in Indian startups for at least six months, the report said.

Alibaba Group, and its affiliate Ant, are major investors in a handful of unicorns in India including Paytm, the most valued Indian startup in which it owns about 30% stake, food delivery startup Zomato, grocery delivery startup BigBasket, and e-commerce firm Snapdeal.

The decision comes amid geo-political tensions between the two neighboring nations, which escalated when more than 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a military clash in the Himalayas in June. Ever since, “Boycott China” — and variations of it — has been trending on Twitter in India as a growing number of people posted videos demonstrating destruction of Chinese-made smartphones, TVs and other products.

New Delhi blocked TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps in the country in late June and extended the ban to several dozen more apps weeks later. India, the world’s second largest internet market, also amended its foreign direct investment policy earlier this year to make it difficult for Chinese investors to write new checks to Indian firms.

More to follow…

The coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on the music industry, as artists who relied on live performances and concerts suddenly had the rug pulled out beneath them, impacting their ability to generate income. An upcoming feature in development at Spotify could help turn things around, by again connecting artists with their fans through ticketed live music events. This time, however, instead of helping fans find live concerts, as in the pre-pandemic days, the new feature will alert fans to the artist’s upcoming “virtual events.”

The feature was first discovered by reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong and isn’t yet available in the public-facing version of the Spotify app.

Wong’s photos of the feature show the Spotify profile page for the artist BTS, where a new “Upcoming Virtual Events” section now appears. After tapping on the event, fans are informed that BTS will appear at a virtual concert on September 19. The event here is the 2020 iHeartRadio Music Festival, where BTS is scheduled to perform. In the example photos, Songkick is listed as the ticketing partner for this event.

A shift to include virtual event listings instead of live concerts wouldn’t be difficult for Spotify to implement. The company already works with ticketing partners including Ticketmaster, Songkick, Resident Advisor, Eventbrite, AXS and eplus in Japan. These ticketing sites have embraced virtual events amid the pandemic as way to keep their businesses afloat while in-person events were delayed and shut down over health concerns — or even became illegal under government lockdowns.

Spotify has a long history in connecting fans with artists. The company first added a concert discovery feature back in 2015. Though Spotify still doesn’t sell event tickets directly, it’s able to leverage its listening data and knowledge of a user’s location to suggest concerts to fans who may be interested in attending. Now it could push out these recommendations more broadly, as virtual events allow fans anywhere to attend — not just those nearby.

To launch a virtual events feature, Spotify would only need to slightly tweak existing partner agreements to gain access to their virtual event listings. Given the pandemic, it’s hard to imagine a partner would decline such an offer. And doing so also serves Spotify’s larger goal of being the preferred platform for artists.

Image Credits: Jane Manchun Wong via Twitter

What’s less clear is whether Spotify considers the addition of virtual events a temporary measure to help artists manage their income before things return to normal, or if it believes there’s room to grow in the virtual events market in the long-term.

At present, virtual events have been helping musical artists weather the pandemic, but they’re not a replacement for live concerts for most. There are a few exceptions, of course. A group like BTS can pull in a record $20 million for one virtual show, but this is atypical. Elsewhere, the revenue loss from the pandemic can be extreme. This was apparent in Live Nation’s recently announced earnings, for example, where it said its revenue declined 98% due to pandemic shut downs.

Before the global health crisis, live performances had been a significant part of how musicians make money, with estimates putting earnings from live gigs at as much as 75% of top musicians’ earnings. While some artists have been trying to play around with newer formats like offering “tip jars” or broadcasting small performances over Facebook Live, this doesn’t necessary scale in the way that a larger performance or concert would have done. That’s opened the door for bigger event organizers, dedicated streaming companies, and larger music players to get involved.

Indeed, Spotify’s test and work on live events is coming at a time when we’re seeing a number of similar moves from streaming music companies. Just today, eMusic announced a partnership with 7Digital to launch eMusicLive (www.emusiclive.com), which it describes as a “virtual concert and monetisation platform.”

And yesterday, Rhapsody, which owns Napster, was acquired by an immersive music performance startup, MelodyVR, which has built a business around virtual concert performances. It has also been working on events with big organizers like Live Nation and others in the wake of COVID-19 rules preventing large in-person gatherings. MelodyVR has large ambitions to take its virtual concerts up a gear, now with the added benefit of providing a large streaming catalogue alongside those video experiences.

Others reportedly interested in building up virtual music performance services include Twitch, which is deepening its ties to the music industry. And don’t forget that Apple in 2018 quietly acquired Platoon, a group of A&R experts that could help the company be closer to sourcing and discovering talent and working with artists, perhaps also in the name of developing live performances.

Combined, these efforts could help push the livestream market forward, after steady increases on the monetization front over the years. Data from virtual concert platform StageIt, as reported by Billboard, noted fans were paying just $3.75, on average, for a 30-minute livestream in 2011. This has since grown to $16.50. Ahead of the pandemic, PricewaterhouseCoopers had projected live music events would generate $28.8 billion in revenue in 2020. But whether Spotify taps into the full potential of the market remains to be seen.

Spotify isn’t commenting on the feature.

Turning away from the public markets, IPOs, SPACs and Palantir for a moment, would you like to talk about startups again? I would.

This morning, I pored over venture capital funding patterns for wellness-focused startups. Broadly, according to a new report, these startups raised less money in the first half of 2020 than they did in the first two quarters of 2019. Deal volume fell from nearly 600 in H1 2019 to just under 500 in H1 2020, and dollars invested slipped from $6.1 billion to $4.6 billion in the same timeframe.

But, if we peer a bit deeper and look at the subcategories of wellness startups, interesting hotspots become clear.

The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. You can read it every morning on Extra Crunch, or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday.

Inside the sub-categories of wellness startups that CB Insights dug through while compiling the dataset, some, like fitness tech and sleep tech, saw fewer deals and dollars than they did in the first half of 2019. But one particular varietal is doing very well this year: mental-health focused companies.

The strong venture results that these startups have recorded in 2020 are not entirely due to a pandemic, a recession and political unrest that’s causing more anguish than usual, though I’d be surprised if those factors didn’t provide a tailwind of sorts.

Stepping back a few quarters, there’s a bit more to the business side of mental-health startups that I want to unpack.

This morning, let’s remind ourselves about how startups like Calm and Headspace proved that their market was large and lucrative, review the venture capital data and see if the pattern of strong investment in the space is continuing in the current quarter.

We should see another unicorn or two out of the group, we reckon, before the eventual tech downturn. So let’s work to understand where the category is today.

GM provided a glimpse Wednesday of not one, but two versions of the Chevrolet Bolt, the all-electric vehicle that first launched in 2017 with an aim at hitting the market before — and carving sales away from — the Tesla Model 3.

The all-electric hatchback, which came to market with 238 miles of range, had its followers. But it languished behind the Tesla Model 3 in recent years even as its range improved. Now, GM is preparing to bring a refreshed version of the original Bolt EV as well as an extended crossover variant of the Bolt to market next summer. Both vehicles will go into production in summer 2021, according to GM.

That leaves months of teasers ahead us, including the short clip below.

Image Credits: GM

GM revealed a few details about the refreshed Bolt EV and new Bolt EUV — the automaker’s acronym — this spring during its EV day. Today, the company lifted the veil, just a skosh, to show off its profile.

It’s worth noting that the new Bolt EUV will come equipped with GM’s hands-free active driver assistance system Super Cruise, which uses a combination of lidar map data, high-precision GPS, cameras and radar sensors, as well as a driver attention system, which monitors the person behind the wheel to ensure they’re paying attention.

Super Cruise is considered one of the more capable on the market today, but it has been relegated to just a couple Cadillac models. When GM launched Super Cruise in 2017, it was only available in one Cadillac model — the full-size CT6 sedan — and restricted to divided highways. GM has slowly rolled it out to other Cadillac models and has said it would eventually make its way to other brands.

Santa Monica, Calif.-based Atom Tickets, the ticketing and concessions buying app, is finally launching its branded ticket buying experience inside Snapchat. 

The new Movie Tickets by Atom joins a slew of mini apps released by companies like Headspace, which are using Snap’s new mini app-distribution platform to offer services directly inside the Snapchat app.

Atom Tickets had planned to launch earlier in the summer, but its plans were put on hold by the pandemic-induced shutdown of movie theaters around the country.

With theaters reopening and new titles like Tenet, Bill and Ted Face the Music, Wonder Woman, and The New Mutants all coming to the silver screen, the time seemed right to pitch the new service.

“With safety measures in place and movie fans eager to return to the movies, we knew the timing was right to launch Atom’s ticketing experience on Snapchat,” said Matthew Bakal, Co-Founder and Chairman of Atom Tickets, in a statement. “We’re happy to provide a safe, contactless digital service that gives movie fans what they want – a little time to escape and enjoy a movie. We’re sure the new Movie Tickets by Atom Mini, which builds upon our existing DNA as a socially driven platform, will make moviegoing easier and bring friends together.”

Snap Minis are services that are offered within Snapchat and can be accessed through the company’s messaging interface. With Movie Tickets by Atom, users can buy a ticket, share a post with the details in a direct message, group chat or story and include a link to allow friends to find seats nearby.

“We couldn’t be more excited to have Movie Tickets by Atom launch on Snapchat. Atom has built a seamless ecommerce experience for the Snap Minis platform, bringing the best of Atom Tickets to Snapchatters across North America,” said Alston Cheek, Director of Platform Partnerships at Snap, Inc., in a statement.

Atom has relationships with a slew of newly reopening movie theaters including: AMC Theatres, Cinemark, Harkins Theatres, National Amusements’ Showcase Cinemas, CMX Cinemas, Landmark in Cinemas of Canada, Studio Movie Grill, Malco Theatres, Landmark Theatres, ArcLight Cinemas, and Larry H. Miller Megaplex Theatres, among others.

Beyond the drones it’s known for, DJI has carved out a nice niche for itself in the camera stabilization market. Building on the technology it has developed for the aerial imaging space, the company’s got a number of products, running the gamut from professional video to consumer smartphone accessories.

Today the company took the wraps off its latest. The new Osmo arrives with a handful of new features and a pithy rebrand. The biggest upgrade for the OM 4 is its new attachment system. The mobile gimbal snaps onto the back of a handset magnetically using a permanent adhesive backing or a slide-on accessory. Your preference will likely be based on how often you plan to use the new accessory.

Image Credits: DJI

When two of our video editors reviewed the Osmo 3 last year, their main quibble was that the product was a bit too heavily focused on consumers and didn’t really offer the kind of options they were looking for in such a product. Understandably so. While a number of pro videographers are looking to add smartphone production to their tool box, the truth is DJI’s main focus continues to be consumers. As such, ease of use is paramount here, including the ability to easily use it with a single hand.

Beyond the new casing, most of the upgrades are new and upgraded shooting modes. Here’s the full break down, per DJI:

• DynamicZoom: A visually appealing cinematic look, the DJI OM 4 automatically adjusts the zoom function to create the dramatic background shift made popular by Alfred Hitchcock.
• Timelapse, Motionlapse, Hyperlapse: Show the passing of time in a sped-up form using TimeLapse; Motionlapse, which adds set movement points for the gimbal; or HyperLapse to physically move with the gimbal. All three modes use Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) technology as well as the three-axis gimbal for an added level of smoothness. Easily share these creative videos on social media for the world to enjoy.
• Slow-motion: Slow down the world around you in stunning detail with the Slow-motion feature.
• Sport Mode: The DJI OM 4 will respond and follow subjects and movements faster to add a level of action to the scene.
• Panoramas: Choose from three creative panorama options to capture a wider perspective, including 3X3 panorama, 240° panorama and a new “CloneMe” panorama, which allows the user to add multiple versions of a person or subject into one shot for a unique and creative effect.
• Spin Shot Gimbal Movement: Activated in the DJI Mimo app and using the joystick, the gimbal will rotate the phone to give a spinning effect.
• Story Mode Templates: Choose from one of the preset templates to add a creative spin to your content. The DJI OM 4 uses preset movements, music and color palates for quick videos perfect for sharing on social media.

ActiveTrack gets an upgrade as well, here, making it easier to distinguish between and follow a range of different subjects, including people and pets. Users can manually flip between them using the on-board joystick. There’s new gesture control, as well. The feature, borrowed from DJI’s drone line, uses movement to perform tasks like snapping a selfie.

The OM 4 is available starting today, priced at $150.

Messenger Rooms, Facebook’s social Zoom competitor, is today rolling out new features aimed at making Rooms easier to both create and discover as well as those for further personalizing your Rooms experience. The changes follow Messenger’s recent slight dip from the top of the U.S. App Store charts, where typically it ranks in the top 10. Last week, the app got as low as No. 15, according to data from mobile data and analytics firm, App Annie.

The app has since re-entered the top 10. But as virtual school begins in the U.S., it could see usage decline as kids grow more comfortable with alternative solutions, like Zoom and Google Meet, and begin to use them for after-school chats, as well. Already, Meet has climbed to No. 15 as some schools started classes in August, for example. And Zoom is No. 1 on the U.S. App Store.

The new version of Messenger Rooms will now display the Rooms you’ve been invited to up at the top of your Chats tab in your inbox to make them easier to find. It will also make the ability to create a new Room more visible, by placing the option front and center in the Chats tab.

Other changes impact Rooms management. You can now create a Room with a default, suggested, or custom activity, set a future start date, and customize your audience selection, Facebook says. In addition, the Manage Rooms feature will let you view,  join, edit, or later delete the rooms you have created, or invite more people to join an existing Room.

A Share Rooms option will also make it easier to send a notification to a friend to remind them of their invite.

On the personalization front, Messenger is beginning to roll out a new way to customize your own Rooms experience. You’ll now be able to decorate the background of the Room with your own photos, in addition to the previously offered options to use 360-degree backgrounds and mood lighting filters.

Not coincidentally, Rooms rival Houseparty recently introduced a new personalization feature of its own: Frames, which are original collections designed by independent artists for use as video chat backgrounds.

Facebook rolled out Messenger Rooms globally this May, with the aim of offering a social video chat experience amid growing popularity for video communications seen during the coronavirus pandemic. The health crisis has led to sharp increases for Messenger competitors, including not only Zoom, which continues to sit at the top of the U.S. App Store, but also social video apps like Houseparty, Fam, Bunch and many others. Gen Z users are also increasingly socializing on non-Facebook properties, including TikTok and even gaming platforms like Roblox and Fortnite. That means Facebook could be losing its grip on the network effects by being tied to Facebook that helped make Messenger a top mobile app.

The company seems to be aware of that potential concern. Earlier this month, it began integrating the chat systems for Instagram and Messenger, to help Messenger retain its top app status.