Category: UNCATEGORIZED

Jason Sherman, founder and CEO of TapRm (pronounced “taproom”), says it’s time for beer-lovers to do more of their shopping online.

It’s an industry that Sherman knows well, having worked as an attorney at Anheuser Busch and at the alcohol giant’s ZX Ventures incubator. He said it was through the job that he began wondering why only 0.2% of beer purchases take place online.

The answer, he suggested, is fundamentally regulatory, with different rules in different states, but each of them adhering to some form of the three-tier system —where alcohol is produced by one group of businesses, distributed by another group and finally sold to consumers by a third. That means a brewery could get into legal trouble for selling its beer online.

Sherman said his startup TapRm — which has raised $1.5 million in funding — accommodates these rules by “finding unique licenses that have existed and [bringing] certain licenses together,” ultimately allowing it to find “legal ways to combine those tiers.”

In other words, TapRm is able to serve as both distributor and retailer. So it works with breweries to sell their beer to more than 600 bars, restaurants and supermarkets, but it also allows them to sell their beer directly to consumers, via branded websites. In fact, Sherman said TapRm rewards breweries for prioritizing online sales.

Jason Sherman

“We give back a portion of all sales for everything they sell online, so they have an incentive to push traffic to their … site,” he said. “If you sell through TapRm, you get back $2 to $8 on every case, depending on your volume.”

Sherman acknowledged that as a consumer, you may be perfectly happy to “go down the road to get your Corona or your Heineken any day of the week” — and if so, there may not be any reason for you to buy from TapRm. But if you’re a fan of a brewery that you can’t find in stores, or if you’re you’re simply “tired of having to rely on what’s on the shelf” and you want to try something new, then online purchases could be your best bet.

That focus on enabling craft breweries to sell to consumers, rather than simply serving as a delivery system for brick-and-mortar liquor stores, is also what distinguishes TapRm from startups like Drizly.

In addition, the company operates an online marketplace of its own and provides beer recommendations across its different online storefronts. When I wondered whether any customers were concerned about the startup promoting competing breweries, Sherman said he hasn’t gotten any complaints, because breweries see the TapRm marketplace as “another retail outlet.”

He added, “We would never up-sell and cross-sell completely competitive products, ever.”

The startup currently delivers throughout New York state, with two-hour delivery in Brooklyn. Sherman said he remains focused on “building our footprint in New York City,” but he also plans to launch in three additional cities next year.

The funding was led by The Broe Group, with participation from VU Venture Partners, Branded Strategic Hospitality and others.

How should a growth company manage its budget? Does an annual budget approval process even make sense in a fast-moving firm?

My friends who are executives at large, established companies complain about how fixed budgets lead to gamesmanship. An executive who wastefully spends down their travel and expense budget at year-end to justify an equal or larger budget next year may also fail to take advantage of a great marketing opportunity with a December 31 deadline — because they spent their budget on T&E.

However, in a startup, the most common scenario is that projections get missed. Paul Bianco, CEO of Graphite Financial*, says “entrepreneurs are characteristically optimistic by nature and often present their board best-case-scenario budgets and projections. Inevitably, things cost more and take longer than expected. I encourage entrepreneurs to correct course with a re-forecast early and often. The worst thing you can do is dig in your heels and hope things will miraculously get better. Being transparent enough to say ‘look, we expected X to happen, but now we expect Y to happen, this is why, and this is what we’re doing about it’ is an admirable trait.”  

Here’s the solution I have recommended to some of my portfolio companies: “agile budgeting,” i.e., monitoring a few key variables, while giving managers significant flexibility. Entrepreneur Jeff Magnusson provides a sample agile budgeting workbook. Sean Colrock, Director of Client Partnerships at Wiss & Company, suggests at a minimum you track: cash on hand; fume date, and burn rate. The next most important set of metrics are sales by category; working capital (cash and other current assets, less current liabilities); EBITA and gross margin. Ben Horowitz writes that you can ruin your company with a bad budgeting process and recommends a similar approach.

Regardless of whether you take a traditional or agile budgeting approach, Robert A. Howell, Professor of Business Administration at Tuck, writes that you should turn your budgeting process upside down by “reformat[ting] planning and budgeting templates to highlight cash rather than accounting net income.”

This agile approach is not restricted to small startups. In Stop Budgeting, Start Improving, Brad Power writes:

How should a growth company manage its budget? Does an annual budget approval process even make sense in a fast-moving firm?

My friends who are executives at large, established companies complain about how fixed budgets lead to gamesmanship. An executive who wastefully spends down their travel and expense budget at year-end to justify an equal or larger budget next year may also fail to take advantage of a great marketing opportunity with a December 31 deadline — because they spent their budget on T&E.

However, in a startup, the most common scenario is that projections get missed. Paul Bianco, CEO of Graphite Financial*, says “entrepreneurs are characteristically optimistic by nature and often present their board best-case-scenario budgets and projections. Inevitably, things cost more and take longer than expected. I encourage entrepreneurs to correct course with a re-forecast early and often. The worst thing you can do is dig in your heels and hope things will miraculously get better. Being transparent enough to say ‘look, we expected X to happen, but now we expect Y to happen, this is why, and this is what we’re doing about it’ is an admirable trait.”  

Here’s the solution I have recommended to some of my portfolio companies: “agile budgeting,” i.e., monitoring a few key variables, while giving managers significant flexibility. Entrepreneur Jeff Magnusson provides a sample agile budgeting workbook. Sean Colrock, Director of Client Partnerships at Wiss & Company, suggests at a minimum you track: cash on hand; fume date, and burn rate. The next most important set of metrics are sales by category; working capital (cash and other current assets, less current liabilities); EBITA and gross margin. Ben Horowitz writes that you can ruin your company with a bad budgeting process and recommends a similar approach.

Regardless of whether you take a traditional or agile budgeting approach, Robert A. Howell, Professor of Business Administration at Tuck, writes that you should turn your budgeting process upside down by “reformat[ting] planning and budgeting templates to highlight cash rather than accounting net income.”

This agile approach is not restricted to small startups. In Stop Budgeting, Start Improving, Brad Power writes:

Welcome to TechCrunch’s 2019 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, so check back regularly.

We’ve refreshed our annual STEM toy gift guide with the latest wares clamoring to entice and inspire kids with coding tricks and electronic wizardry. Yes folks! Another year, another clutch of shiny gizmos making grand claims of computing smarts in child-friendly packaging.

But lean in to this market and you’ll find a number of STEM toy makers have winked out of existence since this time last year, or else been folded into others’ empires. Such as littleBits selling to Sphero this fall, or Root Robotics being picked up by robot vac giant iRobot in June.

Some of the remaining indie players are leaning heavily on IP licensing deals from big brands (e.g Kano’s co-branded Disney kit) as a tactic to grab attention. Others are concentrating their effort on selling direct to schools (e.g. Sphero, after a pivot last year — now with an expanded educational toolbox having picked up littleBits). Ozobot is another that’s been dialing up its focus on classrooms. Though, as we’ve reported, selling complex STEM learning devices to schools isn’t always easy. More consolidation and exits seem highly likely.

It’s perhaps also a sign of tricky times in the kid-tech/edtech category that Kano, one of the earliest of the alternative STEM computer makers, has jumped into bed with tech giant Microsoft too — selling its first Windows powered PC this year.

It’s clear that some of the experimental energy which fired up the category a few years ago has faded, as sales and outcomes haven’t gone the distance or lived up to the hype. Kids are fickle customers, as parents know. The market has responded by shaking out a bit. It also means some of what’s offered is starting to feel a bit formulaic and same-y. (And, well, Disney.)

Still, kids of all ages remain roundly spoilt for techie stuff to interact with. Not least because it’s never been easier for toymakers to bolt-on a bit of drag-and-drop in-app coding to give their plaything a STEM dimension. Mainstream giants like LEGO are also staying the course to try and grab a bigger chunk of the action. Generally you’ll find products with more polish than in years past, if not always as original and ambitious.

It’s also fair to say that promises of clever gadgets to power a kids’ coding revolution are looking rather less pristine than they used to after all the unboxing and, er, abandoning. Reality bytes, you could say.

Affordable smartphones and tablets maintain their competitive squeeze at the top of the category. They can be a more versatile option than most STEM gizmos, though rising concern about children’s screen time may push parents to seek out physical and tactile alternatives. Meanwhile, a mobile device is typically required to bring a STEM toy to life — as most (though not all) are essentially Bluetooth add-ons.

All that said there are still original and inspiring gifts to be had — and it’s good to see more focus on teaching creative skills, not only tech and engineering. Of course it’s always a case of horses for courses in this category. If your child won’t touch anything unless it’s wearing a Frozen princess dress/Star Wars cloak then you’ll be resigned to shelling out for the usual merch. May the tech force be with you as you search!

Adafruit

Product: Python for Kids
Price: $35
Age: 10+

Description: Maker-focused and electronics hobbyist brand Adafruit sells all sorts of electronics goodies. It also has a dedicated sub-section for Young Engineers where it offers a range of own brand kits and third party wares for kids of all ages with the aim of sparking an interest in computing and electronics. Such as this Python for Kids book which takes a child-friendly approaching to seriously learning the Python programming language — so instead of a dull grey textbook you get text interspersed with cartoony illustrations, fun examples, puzzles and plenty of color. The book is intended for kids aged 10+.

For even younger children Adafruit is ranging this Snap Circuits Jr kit: A tool-free box for kids aged 8+ which gives them more than 100 projects to build from snap together modules.

For older children comfortable with a little soldering, there’s this Solar Powered SKULL Blinky LED Pendant, devised by Lumen Electronic Jewellery — for a little creative, battery-less maker bling.

Adafruit also ranges kits from UK startup, Tech Will Save Us — such as this DIY Gamer Kit for budding techies. The first challenge is to put all its pieces together (soldering required). If done right your child will have an Arduino-based handheld games console with a matrix screen perfect for playing classics like Snake and Tetris.

That’s just a taster. Adafruit’s marketplace site offers plenty more ideas and kits for little makers.

Brilliant

Product: Gift subscription courses
Price: From $25 for one month
Age: 13+

Description: If you don’t want to gift a learning toy, Brilliant.org has you covered with gift subscriptions for its STEM-focused digital courses (options include one month, or a full year). The philosophy behind its courses is to teach core concepts in math, science, and engineering through fun but challenging puzzles and problem solving — with the visual sweetener of surreal cartoony illustrations to keep you inspired.

The courses aren’t exclusively designed for children so may not suit every teen. But for children already firmly engaged with math and science there’s plenty of mind-tickling stuff here to push logic and curiosity further.

GoldieBlox

Product: DIY Floating Cloud Light
Price: $30
Age: 8+

Description: Slime-wrangling, glitter-bespeckled tween YouTuber (stuff) hackers, GoldieBlox, have put a crafty twist on STEM maker kits this year. The children’s multimedia company has built up a maker following online for its DIY project videos. You can see them assemble this DIY cloud light in this video — and gift it to your own budding hardware hacker in handy kit form. The box includes all the necessary parts to put the lamp together, plus a couple of cards offering STEM facts. It’s pretty light touch learning, though. The main focus is clearly on fun and practical making. Glue and scissors at the ready!

Kano

Product: Disney Frozen II Coding Kit
Price: $80
Age: 6+

Description: UK startup Kano was one of the first in the modern wave of STEM device builders. It began with the idea of offering kids a build-it-yourself computer to learn coding, before expanding into brightly colored DIY IoT gizmos. More recently it’s got into co-branded e-products. First a Harry Potter Coding Kit — offering a motion-sensitive wand as the interface between real-world gestures and on-screen code. Now it’s thrown its lot in with Disney, inking a two-year IP licensing deal. So enter the Disney Frozen II Coding Kit, new for 2019, which packages a build-it-yourself gesture-sensor with a Disney-flavored block-based coding bundle accessed via the companion app. Kids use hand gestures to manipulate cartoon versions of their favorite characters and Disney landscapes on screen. So the e-product requires a compatible tablet or computer to function.

For parents of youngsters who prefer Disney’s other mega franchise, Star Wars, to Frozen‘s singing princesses and snowmen you only need point your peepers at Kano’s The Force Coding Kit instead, which offers much the same experience — but in a sci-fi wrapper. 

Product: Kano PC

Price: $300
Age: K-12 (from 4+ to 19)

Description: Kano has more learn-to-code machinery to sell you this year. It’s latest DIY computer — the Kano PC — is a fully fledged Windows 10 computer. This is a radical departure from its alternative origins building atop the single-board Raspberry Pi. Now your Kano dollars get you an Intel Atom Quad core chipset running at 1.44 GHz powering a plug-and-play hardware bundle comprised of a touchscreen unit plus keyboard case. If the Microsoft Surface had a kid this would basically be it.

At this point, and at this price-point, you might be wondering why not just buy an actual Windows PC? To try to answer that Kano is touting “exclusive apps” of its own design that come pre-loaded on the device — offering guided learning in the areas of coding skills, programmable graphics and for understanding the inner workings of computers. The company’s approach to teaching coding runs the gamut from block-based drag-and-drop interfaces through to typed code, with projects offered in Python, Javascript and Terminal commands. Hence the Kano PC is targeted at a very broad age range. Though, as it’s also a Windows PC, you might find your kids just using it to play Minecraft instead…  

KinderLab

Product: KIBO robot kits
Price: From $200
Age: 4-7

Description: KinderLab has been making screen-free programmable STEAM (that ‘A’ is for arts) robotics kits since 2014 but the company is now making a wider push to get individual parents on board by selling its kits on Amazon. How does Kibo work? Kids play and learn by plugging a variety of proprietary sensors and outputs into ports on the wheeled bot. Such as motion and light sensors. Another add-on, which company calls an “art platform”, lets kids embellish and customize the robot by designing paper hats to stick on it to dress it in a new context or character. The coding element comes in via a built in barcode scanner that’s used to read instructions off of physical wooden code blocks. This means kids can ‘program’ the robot without using any screens at all. 

KinderLab’s approach to teaching foundational engineering design concepts began life as a publicly funded research project. The company says Kibo draws on 20 years of learning science (as well as several years of active prototype testing in classrooms) to firm up its educational value. The academic backstory means there’s a wealth of curriculum-aligned content accompanying Kibo. This definitely feels like one of the more substantial and thoughtful STEM products on the market. It’s also great to see a product that leaves room for kids to introduce their own ideas.

Learning Resources

Product: Coding Critters
Price: $40
Age: 4-10

Description: Learning Resources has been teaching young kids to grok the basics of sequential coding since late 2017, with its Botley programmable robot. New in its range of STEM toys for 2019 are Coding Critters: Remote control programmable pets targeted at young preschoolers. The entirely screen-free approach to teaching basic STEM concepts combines button-based controls on the battery-powered animal characters, themed code cards for reference and a storybook for parents to play a role in the narrative.

LEGO

Product: Star Wars Boost Droid Commander set
Price: $200
Age: 8+

Another one for Star Wars fans: This Lego Boost kit gives kids a bunch of Lego bricks and robot parts to put together three classic droids from the Disney-owned movie franchise. Boost being Lego’s more elementary robotics kit offering (vs the veteran Mindstorms platform). Once the Bluetooth-controlled droids have been assembled the companion app lets kids control and program them to carry out a series of missions, using a simple, block-based drag-and-drop coding interface.

Star Wars sound effects and music are included. But you’ll need to supply your own tablet to run the software. Or, well, you could just buy your kids a box of basic Lego bricks and let their imagination go wild.

Makeblock

Product: mTiny

Price: $180
Age: 4+
Description: Shenzhen-based STEM kit maker, Makeblock, has unboxed a new cutesy learning robot for toddlers this year. Given the preschooler target there’s no screens on mTiny (unless you count the bot’s emotive, shape-shifting eyes). Instead the package includes coding cards, themed map pieces and a storybook for controlling and interacting with the sensor-laden bot. The company says the product is designed to foster logical thinking via interactive play. And its marketing materials make grand claims about exposing kids to a range of cross-curricular concepts, from math to art, as well as coding logic.

To control mTiny, kids use the companion tap pen. Either as a joystick, or to execute code-based programming — by tapping it on the code cards. The sequence of these cards determines its movements and actions. The bot can also read and respond to scenery markings on the themed floor tiles.

Mand Labs

Produce: KIT-1
Price: $150
Age: 8+

Description: Budding engineers won’t be short of experiments if gifted this electronics breadboarding project kit from Mand Labs. Kit-1 contains 165 electronics components — the real-deal; not adapted for child’s play — plus tools and reference books for carrying out 54+ projects and experiments. Step-by-step projects like building an automatic night lamp, a security alarm or temperature sensor. The kit is intended as an entry into electronics so kids build circuits on a breadboard, rather than messing around with soldering. The kit is housed in a toolbox-style carry-case so it’s portable enough to take to a friend’s house. The product also comes with nine-hours’ worth of HD learning videos for extended learning support.

Pai Technology

Product: Botzees Robotics Kit
Price: $100
Age: 4+
Description: Pai Technology‘s range of STEM toys have an augmented reality twist. So as well as physical stuff to play with — block-based robots in this case — there’s a ‘code your own’ virtual adventure element adding a digital dimension. New in its range for this year is the Botzees Robotics Kit. In the box are six sensor-laden programmable robots in press-together block form. They’re controlled via a companion app with a basic, block-based coding interface. The app also offers 30 interactive AR puzzles for blended real-and-virtual world play, which the company says help teach foundational coding concepts like sequencing, looping, and conditional coding. Although tor parents wanting to reduce kids’ screen time the focus on AR probably won’t be welcomed as kids will need to be stuck in front of a tablet to get the most out of Botzees.

Raspberry Pi

Product: Raspberry Pi 4 Model B
Price: $35
Age: It depends

Description: The latest Raspberry Pi single board computer, the Pi 4, dials up memory, speed and power, packs plenty of ports and boasts onboard wireless networking and Bluetooth. For seasoned makers the possibilities really are endless. But for parents wanting to inspire kids to learn coding the Pi Foundation‘s philosophy may look daunting. It’s not one of lots of hand-holding out of the box. The theory is that hard challenge to required to really learn. That means if you buy Pi as is you’re getting the raw board, an OS to grapple with and an engaged community for learning support. It certainly won’t suit every child — but if you want to challenge a capable young mind that’s already showing a talent for digging into detail and figuring things out the Pi 4 is a low budget, high potential option vs the many more basic (but pricey) plug-and-play devices which have piled into the market since Pi arrived to shake up the microprocessor scene.

Sphero

Product: RVR
Price: $250
Age: 5+
Description: Sphero is best know for its spherical remote-controlled robots but the company has this year branched out with a crowdsourced rover robot design called RVR. The more traditional four-wheeled design is sensor-packed and touted as an all terrain beast. The RVR can be driven (via app) right out of the box but has been designed for customization, with ports to accommodate third-party hardware — such as Raspberry Pi, Arduino, BBC micro:bit, or Sphero’s own littleBits. So it’s an extensible, hardware hackable, programmable robotics platform. On the software side, the Sphero Edu app offers a choice of coding styles to expand its educational potential — namely: Draw & Drive, Scratch Blocks and JavaScript.

Product: Specdrums 

Price: From $65
Age: 5+

Description: Musical edtech startup Specdrums is another Sphero acquisition. The premise behind its learning product is simple: Tap a color to make a sound. It achieves this with a wearable — a Bluetooth-connected, light-sensing ring (or pair of rings) — linked to its app. So it’s learning to jam, rather than learning to code but with plenty of techie smarts. The Specdrums’ Mix app offers musical loops and curated sound packs; playback and sound production tools; plus the ability to record your own samples. Aka everything a budding musician needs to tap out and mix impromptu beats, while looping in the real world as their musical playground.

Note the standard kit only contains one ring plus a colored playpad; for two rings the price steps up to $100. For the kit to work your child needs access to a smartphone or tablet to run the app and playback the music.

Ubtech

Product: JIMU Robot Mythical Series: FireBot Kit
Price: $130
Age: 8+

Description: Shenzhen-based Ubtech has been in the STEM robotics kit game for a number of years. New for 2019 is this motorized, LED-light-breathing dragon. As with previous kits in its brick-based JIMU series, the first step for the budding techie is to follow instructions and assemble their robot from all the constituent parts. Then the companion app offers a drag-and-drop code-block interface for programming FireBot and bringing its sensing powers to life.

Xerox fired the latest volley in the Xerox -HP merger letter wars today. Xerox CEO John Visentin wrote to the HP Board that his company planned to take its $33.5 billion offer directly to HP shareholders.

He began his letter with hostile tone befitting a hostile takeover attempt, stating that their refusal to negotiate defied logic. “We have put forth a compelling proposal – one that would allow HP shareholders to both realize immediate cash value and enjoy equal participation in the substantial upside expected to result from a combination. Our offer is neither “highly conditional” nor “uncertain” as you claim,” Visentin wrote in his letter.

He added, “We plan to engage directly with HP shareholders to solicit their support in urging the HP Board to do the right thing and pursue this compelling opportunity.”

The letter was in response to one yesterday from HP in which it turned down Xerox’s latest overture, stating that the deal seemed beyond Xerox’s ability to afford it. It called into question Xerox’s current financial situation, citing Xerox’s own financial reports, and took exception to the way in which Xerox was courting the company.

“It is clear in your aggressive words and actions that Xerox is intent on forcing a potential combination on opportunistic terms and without providing adequate information,” the company wrote.

Visentin fired back in his letter, “While you may not appreciate our “aggressive” tactics, we will not apologize for them. The most efficient way to prove out the scope of this opportunity with certainty is through mutual due diligence, which you continue to refuse, and we are obligated to require.”

He further pulled no punches writing that he believes the deal is good for both companies and good for the shareholders. “The potential benefits of a combination between HP and Xerox are self-evident. Together, we could create an industry leader – with enhanced scale and best-in-class offerings across a complete product portfolio — that will be positioned to invest more in innovation and generate greater returns for shareholders.”

It would seem that the game is now on as Xerox is taking a no-holds barred approach to the situation. The pen is now in HP’s hands as we await the next letter and see how the printing giant intends to respond to the latest missive from Xerox.

Virtual reality doesn’t have many hit games yet, but Facebook is buying the studio behind one of the platform’s biggest titles.

Facebook announced today that it will be buying Beat Games, the game studio behind Beat Saber, a rhythm game that’s equal parts Fruit Ninja and Guitar Hero — with light sabers of course.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but we’re sniffing around for a price tag. The studio will join Oculus Studios but will continue to operate independently at their HQ in Prague.

This is an interesting direction change for Oculus, which has spent much of the past four years refining how it grows the content ecosystem for its virtual reality headsets.

Initially the studio produced some of the content in-house while dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into tons of exclusives from indie studios that were interested in playing around with the VR medium. In the past couple years there’s been a new direction change as the company has funneled more money into fewer high-profile studios, trying to court big titles to the Oculus platform. slowly moving away from in-house VR content production over the past several years, instead opting to back third-party studios building content.

Buying Beat Games and bringing it into the fold of Oculus Studios suggest Facebook may be interested in following the strategies Microsoft and Sony have employed as they’ve bought up small studios and funded new titles. One thing Facebook is claiming they aren’t after is platform exclusivity, saying Beat Games will continue to support the platforms that they are already on.

So, what’s in all of this for Facebook then?

Beat Games was one of the more successful VR game studios out there — they had announced earlier this year that they had sold more than 1 million copies of the game — but part of the reason they were prosperous was because they were so lean. When I profiled the studio last year, they had just 8 employees and had opted out of raising any VC funding.

Meanwhile, as VR’s most popular game, Facebook had a bit riding on their continued success. Facebook highlighted the studio’s success specifically at its its VR developer conference and had included a limited version of the studio’s game for free on its Oculus Quest headsets. Buying the studio means allowing them to expand ambitions without being concerned about profitability.

Beat Games had begun expansion by partnering with musicians to release their songs as levels in the game, partnering with artists like Imagine Dragons and Panic at the Disco to bring paid level packs to Beat Saber. One can imagine that Facebook will have a much easier time making conversations happen with top artists.

One thing that die-hard fans of the game will likely not enjoy is how this acquisition will impact user mods. The studio had introduced tools for users to create their own songs with uploaded audio files and unsurprisingly there’s a good deal of content that’s probably not supposed to be on there. With a small game studio that stuff was more likely to slide, but Facebook has the resources to crack down on it so I’m guessing they’ll have to.

In a blog post, the company acknowledged as much, “We understand and appreciate the value that modding brings to Beat Saber when done so legally and within our policies. We’re going to do our best to preserve the value that mods bring to the Beat Saber player base.”

Exiting to Facebook is one of the few ideal M&A outcomes in mind for investors that are looking to back a consumer VR startup. Beat Games got there without any venture backing. I profiled Beat Games earlier summer, and spoke with co-founder Jaroslav Beck about his desire to keep the team small and his concerns about survival.

Those who’ve attempted to snag their preferred Twitter handle know what a pain the process can be. Users can squat on an account for years, holding onto handles in spite of long stretches of inactivity. As spotted by a BBC reporter, Twitter looks to finally be getting proactive about the situation.

The service confirmed the move in an email to TechCrunch, writing,

As part of our commitment to serve the public conversation, we’re working to clean up inactive accounts to present more accurate, credible information people can trust across Twitter. Part of this effort is encouraging people to actively log-in and use Twitter when they register an account, as stated in our Inactive Accounts Policy. We have begun proactive outreach to many accounts who have not logged into Twitter in over six months to inform them that their accounts may be permanently removed due to prolonged inactivity.

As noted, the service has an inactive account policy in place, though it traditionally hasn’t done much to enforce this. The company encourages users to, at the very least, log in and Tweet ever six months. Now it’s taking the added measure of reaching out to inactive users, prompting them to log in prior to December 11, or risk being deleted.

As for the timeline of opening up those accounts, Twitter’s not saying. And the fine print on the inactive account policy page still notes that the service does not “generally accept requests for usernames that seem inactive,” short of perceived trademark infringement. A spokesperson noted in an email to TechCrunch that the accounts “may” become available, though the process of removing old accounts will likely take a number of months. 

It was the challenge heard around the electric vehicle world. And now it seems, the Ford F-150 versus Tesla Cybertruck tow battle that we were all ready for, probably won’t happen.

A quick recap: Tesla CEO Elon Musk poked the figurative Dearborn, Michigan bear in the middle of the company’s Cybertruck unveiling when he played a video of the futuristic electric truck pulling an F-150 in what was pitched as a head-to-head contest.

Many were quick to question whether it was a fair fight, including astrophysicist and author Neil deGrasse Tyson. But what really got Musk’s attention was a tweet from Sundeep Madra, VP of Ford X, the automaker’s venture incubator.

Madra tweeted to Musk challenging the CEO to send Ford a Cybertruck to do an “apples to apples” test. Musk, who is well versed in the Twitter troll, responded with a “bring it on.”

It seems Madra’s tweet wasn’t meant to be a serious challenge, but a “tongue in cheek” troll, according to Ford.

“Sunny’s tweet was tongue in cheek to point out the absurdity of Tesla’s video, nothing more,” a Ford spokesperson said in an email to TechCrunch. “With America’s best-selling truck for 42 years, we’ve always focused on serving our truck customers regardless of what others say or do. We look forward to our all-new F-150 hybrid coming next year and all-electric F-150 in a few years.”

Perhaps, Ford will change its mind. But for now, the tow battle rematch will be left to Tesla.

Google is hoping to juice holiday sales of Chromebooks by tacking on a subscription to the hot new streaming service, Disney+. The company on Monday announced it would give Chromebook buyers three, free months of Disney+ with the purchase of new devices.

Specifically, the deal is valid for Chromebooks bought between November 25, 2019 and January 21, 2020, or while supplies last. And the free streaming offer has to be redeemed by January 31, 2020, Google tells us.

Customers will need to redeem the offer by way of the Chromebooks Offers Site, where they’ll receive a promo code. After downloading the Disney+ app from the Play Store on their Chromebook, users will then create an account, accept the Disney+ Subscriber Agreement, then click “Redeem Code” at checkout.

Note that you’re agreeing to an ongoing subscription here — if you only want the three, free months, you’ll need to cancel before the subscription auto-renews.

The promotion isn’t just a nice perk for Chromebook owners, however.

Marketing partnerships like this are helping Disney quickly get its new streaming service into customers’ hands. And giveaway deals like this also helps consumers to get over their initial hesitation about adding on yet another subscription to their monthly expenses. For now, it’s free. And Disney, of course, hopes you’ll forget to cancel later on and start paying — or see the value in the subscription after the free period ends.

This isn’t the first big promo for Disney+ following its debut. Disney already partnered with (TechCrunch parent) Verizon on a broader deal, which gave new and existing Verizon Wireless customers on unlimited plans a full year of Disney+ for free.

These partnerships are already paying off.

Disney said it signed up 10 million customers for Disney+ within the first day of its broad international launch. That’s more than other streamers — including CBS All Access + Showtime, ESPN+, HBO NOW, and others — have signed up in their entirety, noted CNBC at the time.

According to new figures from Apptopia, the Disney+ app has been downloaded 15.5 million times since its launch earlier this month — meaning it’s been averaging around 1 million sign-ups per day. The firm estimated it had generated $5 million through in-app purchases, after app store fees.

Google is selling a wide range of Chromebooks on its site ahead of the holidays, starting with sub-$200 basic models, all the way up to its high-end Pixelbook at $999. It’s worth noting that only new Chromebooks qualify for the Disney+ deal — if you’re picking up a refurb or buying used from an online classified ad, you’re out of luck.

Disney+ is $6.99 per month when the promo ends.

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1. Google employee activist says she’s been fired

Employee activist Rebecca Rivers (who was involved in a campaign pressuring Google to end its contract with U.S. Customs and Border Protection) said yesterday that she’d been fired. Google declined to comment but confirmed an internal note published by Bloomberg, which said the company fired a total of four employees for repeatedly violating its data-security policies.

Earlier this month, Google put Rivers and Laurence Berland on leave for allegedly violating company policies. Ahead of an employee rally last week, however, organizers said the “attack” on Rivers and Berland “is an attack on all people who care about transparency and accountability for tech.”

2. Facebook Viewpoints pays users for well-being surveys & tasks

People in the U.S. who are over 18 can now download Viewpoints and participate in a survey to help Facebook can learn to “limit the negative impacts of social media and enhance the benefits.” Other opportunities include completing online chores on behalf of Facebook or trying out new apps or devices ahead of launch so Facebook can refine them.

3. Announcing the complete Disrupt Berlin agenda

Join us December 11 and December 12 as we sit down with CEOs from big-name companies such as UIPath, Samsung and Naspers, as well as leading investors from Atomico, SoftBank and Index.

4. Leavy.co, the app for millennials who want to rent out their room while traveling, discloses $14M funding

The Leavy.co app is described as a “travel community and marketplace” that wants to help millennials travel more for less. At the heart of its offering is a way for travelers (dubbed “Happy Leavers”) to rent out their room or apartment when they are away to help fund their trip.

5. NASA’s second free-flying assistant robot gets to work

NASA activated a free-floating autonomous robot called ‘Bumble’ earlier this year, and now Bumble has a new companion called Honey. Both are Astrobee robots, cube-like “robotic teammates” for ISS astronauts, that are designed to help with experiments, day-to-day activities and more.

6. Argentine fintech Ualá raises $150M led by Tencent and SoftBank

Founder and CEO Pierpaolo Barbieri, a Buenos Aires native and Harvard University graduate, says his ambition was to create a platform that would bring all financial services into one app linked to one card. As it exists now, Ualá is linked to a prepaid, global Mastercard and allows users to transfer money, invest in mutual funds, request loans, pay bills and top-up prepaid services.

7. The herd sours on unprofitable unicorns again

Wasabi CEO David Friend looks at why venture and private equity funds have been chasing unprofitable unicorns, and why they’ve soured on those unicorns lately. (Extra Crunch membership required.)