Spill, a platform founded by ex-Twitter employees, is closing out its first year on the market by opening up its beta to all users, whether they’re on iOS or Android.
Spill is like the polar opposite of X, a platform that continues to alienate users with platform policies that make the app actively less inclusive.
Around his one-year anniversary of being laid off from Twitter, Spill CEO Alphonzo Terrell told TechCrunch that the app has amassed around 200,000 users.
Spill may not be growing as quickly as other Twitter competitors like Bluesky, Mastodon or Threads, but Terrell isn’t worried.
“People are looking for something new,” Terrell told TechCrunch last month.
Even though the economy is signaling a bit of a bounce-back, 2024 might not be much better than 2023 when it comes to startups sharing a piece of the budget pie.
If startups want a chance of making it through yet another bumpy year, they need to prove their worth now more than ever.
Investors told TechCrunch’s Ron Miller and Rebecca Szkutak that they’re still expecting some pockets of growth.
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For example, 70% of respondents said they plan to hire next year and none are looking to downsize.
Those visceral reactions are why so many content creators are investing in these pricey advent calendars for their TikTok and YouTube channels.
“I really did spend over $20,000 on advent calendars,” said Mary Berry, who has been posting daily unboxing videos of luxury advent calendars on TikTok.
Advent calendar videos scratch the same itch as online window shopping.
Given the changes, advent calendar videos may be more lucrative than ever this year.
“These advent calendars may seem like they’re not loaded with significance, but actually they are.
TechCrunch Early Stage returns to Boston on April 25, 2024, and the agenda for our flagship founder event is shaping up.
For builders who are just starting on their founder journey, TechCrunch Early Stage is absolutely the place to be.
Submit your application to our call for content by the January 10 deadline, and you could win a roundtable slot at TechCrunch Early Stage.
TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 takes place in Boston on April 25.
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024?
Apple will be halting sales of its Series 9 smartwatch, TechCrunch has confirmed.
The news, shared by 9to5Mac, follows an October ruling by the International Trade Commission (ITC), owing to a patent dispute with California-based med tech firm, Masimo.
This includes pausing sales of Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 from Apple.com starting December 21, and from Apple retail locations after December 24.
Apple strongly disagrees with the order and is pursuing a range of legal and technical options to ensure that Apple Watch is available to customers.
Should the order stand, Apple will continue to take all measures to return Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 to customers in the U.S. as soon as possible.
Welcome to the TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter.
It’s inspired by the daily TechCrunch+ column where it gets its name.
This week, I’m reminded that democracies are fragile but that technology can help.
On a side note, this newsletter will be taking a break until January 6 next year, so wishing you all happy holidays.
— AnnaWhy agentic tech?
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to raising money, but David walks through some of the options to help you choose the right one for your business.
— Emerging EntrepreneurHere’s where founders screw up their pitch decks most oftenResident pitch expert Haje Jan Kamps trained an AI model on thousands of pitch decks; the tool analyzes pitch decks and offers feedback.
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Before choosing your deep tech fund manager, it’s probably a good idea to answer some questions like: Does their investment approach make sense?
A good CRM can help you track interactions, remind you to follow up with people, and produce in-depth reports.
Credit Karma co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer Nichole Mustard is leaving the company after 16-and-a-half years, TechCrunch has exclusively learned today.
Chief people officer Colleen McCreary left her role in January before joining Ribbit Capital as an investor in June.
Intuit closed on its $8.1 billion cash and stock purchase of Credit Karma in 2020 and things have been a bit bumpy since.
Last November, Credit Karma confirmed to TechCrunch that it had “decided to pause almost all hiring,” citing “revenue challenges due to the uncertain environment.” At that time, the company shared that all Credit Karma verticals had been “negatively impacted by macro uncertainty.
Credit Karma experienced further deterioration in these verticals during the last few weeks of the first quarter [of 2022].”In August, Intuit reported that Credit Karma had seen its revenue decline by 9% to $1.6 billion for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2023.
Two days after our short look into the rivalry, Temu filed suit against Shein.
Now, Temu is back with a fresh lawsuit that alleges a battery of illegal acts by Shein.
It’d be useful to recall at this point that Temu’s parent company PDD recently overtook Alibaba in market cap, and Shein wants to go public in the United States.
A Shein spokesperson told TechCrunch+ that the company “believe[s] this lawsuit is without merit and will vigorously defend” itself.
Some deal with Temu’s view that Shein is filing myriad “dubious copyright infringement lawsuits” against it, and alleges that the latter is issuing “voluminous, bad-faith DMCA takedown notices” against its rival.
The future of vertical farming is shrouded in both promise and peril. The technology presents the hope of slashing food safety concerns, aging populations, and potential environmental collapse. It simultaneously…
