NASA orders five more astronaut transportation flights from SpaceX for $1.4 billion

NASA has finalized an agreement with SpaceX to purchase five more astronaut transportation missions to and from the International Space Station, further entrenching the space company’s position as the prime services vendor for the space agency.

The new contract — for the Crew-10, Crew-11, Crew-12, Crew-13 and Crew-14 missions — is valued at $1.4 billion. It brings the total contract value for all 14 transportation missions, part of the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) program, to $4.9 billion. The funds include use of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule to transport up to four astronauts, the Falcon 9 rocket for launch and all other return and recovery operations. NASA announced its intention to order the additional missions in June.

The CCtCap program is under the aegis of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, a series of public-private partnerships designed to develop domestic launch capabilities. NASA issued the original $2.6 billion contract to SpaceX in 2014. The space agency also awarded a CCtCap contract to Boeing for up to $4.2 billion, for six flights using its Starliner capsule, though that capsule has been beset by technical issues and has yet to complete a successful crewed mission. Late last week, Boeing and NASA said they were targeting early 2023 for the first crewed Starliner flight.

The ultimate goal is to use both Crew Dragon and Starliner for astronaut transportation services. Prior to CCtCap, NASA used Russia’s Soyuz capsule for astronaut transportation services. A 2019 report from NASA’s Office of the Inspector General found that the space agency was spending an average of $79.7 million per seat after 2017.

NASA said in a notice published in June that it was seeking the additional flights due, in part, “to the technical and schedule challenges experienced by Boeing” and “NASA projections of when alternative crew transportation systems will be available.”

The space agency went on to stress the importance of having redundant astronaut transportation capabilities to ensure the ISS is continuously crewed through the end of the station’s life in 2030.

The space agency also extended SpaceX’s CCtCap contract in February.

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Abridge founder talks about fighting ‘pajama time’ burnout in doctors

Welcome back to Found, where we get the stories behind the startups.

This week’s guest Shiv Rao founded Abridge after experiencing how unnerving it can be to go through a medical emergency with a loved one — even for a practicing doctor like himself. So he and the Abridge team created an app that doesn’t just transcribe a conversation between doctor and patient but can summarize the important parts, pull out the next steps and even define any medical terms that were said so the patient walks away with all the information they need. The same technology helps doctors take better notes and alleviate the “pajama time” burnout by recording what happened in the appointment and synthesizing it in a format that is useful to a doctor. Darrell, Jordan and Shiv talk about the importance of making an impact at scale in the medical field.

Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week.

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Let’s talk about party rounds

When it comes to types of venture capital instruments, party rounds are as controversial as they come. A party round is an early-stage financing round, usually occurring between the pre-seed and Series A stages, that includes a laundry list – or “party” – of individual investors. It’s different from a more traditional round, which may look like it’s led by one or two institutional investors with a few participating investors also taking part.

The investment vehicle has been around for over a decade and has been a subject of debate for just as long. The positives are obvious: With more investors on their cap table, startups have more avenues for distribution, introductions and advice throughout their lifecycle.

The cons are more complicated. Is the party-round investment as helpful as capital from fewer, more commitment sources? Are there too many cooks in the kitchen? Is it a negative signal that this startup had to raise from dozens of people instead of one high-conviction partner? During a downturn, is a party round all about the confetti and no allergen-friendly appetizers?

Party rounds are either the dinner party of your dreams or the one where no one shows up

While the argument is nothing new, the current market introduces dynamics that make party rounds a little more complex than just bringing a few of your favorite founders and thought leaders onto your cap table.

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Jim Jordan Mocks Image Of Top Secret Documents Strewn About

Rep. Jim Jordan, who was part of Trump's inner circle, used the House Judiciary GOP Twitter feed to attack the damning photo published by the Department of Justice late Tuesday night.

The photo shows a large number of documents marked "TOP SECRET" spread across the carpet at Mar-A-Lago. It's quite unbelievable to see US top secrets treated like they were Trump's old Hustler magazines getting ready for the bin. or maybe he just finished using them? (OK, that was icky)

Jordan, who runs the House GOP Judiciary Twitter feed, focused his ire not on all the classified documents strewn on the floor like garbage, but an image on the far right top that depicts a Time magazine cover.

That TIME Magazine cover was huge threat to national security. 🙄 https://t.co/yy0AOmxMEh

— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) August 31, 2022

Jordan is the ranking Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee should be booted off the Committee immediately for mocking the severity of this breach of national security.

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What we expect from Apple’s iPhone 14 event

Don’t you hate it when they give everything away in the headline? So, a belated spoiler warning that, indeed, the iPhone 14 is almost certainly going to be the big headline announcement at Apple’s September event. A few other things seem close to certain, as well, including the Apple Watch Series 8.

As ever, there may be one or two wildcards at the event. It will be interesting to see precisely how much Apple ends up announcing next week. The company was more than happy to spread announcements across events, in the two+ years when everything suddenly went online. The simple truth is it’s a lot easier to ask people to drop everything to cover your event when it involves sitting in front of a computer instead of flying across the U.S. This one, on the other hand, is most likely going to be worth the flight (I mean, I hope — no refunds on the tickets).

Go for launch. Tune in for a special #AppleEvent on September 7 at 10 a.m. PT. 

Tap the and we’ll send you a reminder on event day. pic.twitter.com/T9o7qJt72E

— Apple (@Apple) August 24, 2022

The company sent out invites earlier this month, sporting a galaxy formed into the Apple logo and the words “Far Out.” A subsequent animation shows the constellation spinning around to reveal a heart. There’s often some meaning hidden in the invite art, and speculation has been rampant in the intervening week.

My first thought was something to do with the company’s rumored AR/VR headset. Others have suggested that this might have something to do with the long-rumored satcom technology for Apple devices, which didn’t make it in time for last year’s event. Others still believe it might be a reference to the improved imaging on the new iPhones.

Image Credits: Brooks Kraft / Apple

So, let’s start with the iPhone 14. Hard to believe, but the device had its 15th birthday this June. So, what does Apple have planned for the crystal anniversary? Rumor has it that the high-end devices are reportedly doing the heavy lifting this time out (expect some of these upgrades to trickle down to the lower cost models in the coming year or two).

The most surprising bit of news this time around may be the long-awaited loss of the notch on the Pro and Pro Max. There’s some debate over the exact configuration, but a hole punch (as we’ve seen on a number of Android handsets over the years) is likely to arrive in its place, perhaps coupled with a secondary “pill” design. So you’re getting more real estate, but compromising with a pair of camera cutouts.

Image Credits: Apple

Another longstanding Android feature — the always-on display — is rumored for the more premium models. The main camera is said to be getting a major bump, up to a 48-megapixel sensor. That’s for the wide-angle, with is paired with a couple of 12-megapixel cameras (telephoto and ultrawide).

The chip is also getting updated to the more powerful A16 — again, that may well be a premium-only upgrade here. We know that a move to USB-C is inevitable, given recent legislation in the EU that will require device makers to embrace that universal standard. Though despite the fact that similar laws have been floated for a number of locales — including the U.S. and India — the iPhone 14 is expected to be the Lightning Port’s last stand for the line. Speaking of last stands, the iPhone Mini may be gone from the line altogether. That’s a big blow for fans of the small phone out there — a number of whom are currently employed by TechCrunch. So expect a…spirited post or two on these pages, should that come to pass. The new line is expected to come in two 6.1-inch and two 6.7-inch models, with a standard and Pro version of each.

Image Credits: Apple

The Apple Watch Series 8 is the other big expected headline here. The latest version of Apple’s market-dominating smartwatch is expected in three flavors, per rumors. There’s the SE (getting its first big update sine 2020), which will maintain the same footprint as the Series 7, along with a larger Series 8 and a new outdoor/sports model, designed to take on the Garmins of the world.

Along with upping the screen size, all three devices may also get upgraded to the new S8 chip. Along with software improvements, the system may finally get a new low-power mode, which would go a ways toward improving battery life — still the single largest problem with the Apple Watch, compared to the rest of the field.

Image Credits: Apple

Perhaps the most overdue item in the list: the AirPods Pro. The standard AirPods have gotten a few updates, but the higher-end models haven’t seen one since they were introduced way back in 2019. Three years is forever in the earbud world, and the competition has had plenty of time to catch up and even — in a few cases — pass Apple here.

Lossless audio is rumored. There may be a redesign, as well, that could remove the iconic clicking stem. That would present a fairly dramatic change to the device’s controls. Another interesting potential item is the addition of sound for the case, which can chime to work better with the Find My feature.

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA – April 20, 2021: Apple’s Raja Bose introduces the new iPad Pro, as seen in this still image from the keynote video of a special event at Apple Park. Photo Credit: Apple Inc.

Meanwhile, iPads may appear, including an M2 iPad Pro model, but the consensus appears to be that the company will throw one more final event ahead of the holidays, where we’ll also get new Macs sporting the latest chips, incluing the long-awaited — and much redesigned — return of the Mac Pro. I wouldn’t rule out either one entirely for this event, but they’re less certain than the above.

The AR/VR headset is the true wildcard in all of this. Rumors have persisted for some time, and have only gotten hotter as the company has applied for trademarks including, “Reality One,” “Reality Pro” and “Reality Processor.” It’s also already said to have shown off a version of the headset to shareholders. At best, a preview could arrive, in order to entice developers to start building for the product.

Image Credits: Apple

A couple of odds and ends:

• The return of the HomePod? We’re talking something potentially similar to the original, full-size model and, perhaps a product with a display, à la the Nest Hub or Echo Show. Apple really needs a proper hub for HomeOS.
• A new Apple TV.
• Release dates for iOS 16 and watchOS 9 seem likely. We know we’ll have to wait a bit longer for the new iPadOS. And macOS Ventura could seemingly arrive during this event, but a safer bet is the aforementioned unannounced October event.

As ever, we’ll be there, bringing you the news as it breaks.

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Clearco cuts international staff as it retracts presence, announces new partner

Clearco, a Toronto-based fintech capital provider for online companies, is walking back the international expansion it once touted as the future of the company. One month after cutting 25% of its total staff, Clearco is conducting another round of layoffs as it retracts its international presence in the U.K., Germany, Ireland and Australia.

CEO and co-founder Michele Romanow tells TechCrunch over e-mail that Clearco had to let go of approximately 60 more employees on the international teams. The latest workforce reduction is just one step Clearco has taken over the past few months, including prior rounds of layoffs, to refocus its business operations amid the changing e-commerce scene. Similar to other employees laid off by the company, those impacted will receive severance pay, a two-year window to exercise equity and job support.

As Clearco’s international workforce is cut, its global clients will now turn to Outfund, an e-commerce investor that operates in the U.K. and Australia. Clearco describes the “strategic partnership” as one where its international clients — which span Australia, the U.K., Germany and the Netherlands — will be able to now go to Outfund for support. Romanow said that customers will be transitioned to Outfund through a referral agreement, meaning that Clearco will make money off of the partnership. Outfund, claims Clearco, has committed to invest £500 million in small businesses in 2022.

Clearco, meanwhile, will return to focus on its two biggest markets: the United States and Canada, which both account for 80% of its activity. To give you a sense of scale, Clearco invested over $3.2 billion in companies across the world, but only $429 million — or 13% — of that activity was in companies outside of those core two markets. The company partnered with FirePower last year to expand its check-writing ability to back the two markets.

It’s a move that isn’t all too surprising for those who have been following the SoftBank-backed unicorn.

When Clearco cut a quarter of staff in July, Romanow said at the time that it was considering strategic options for its international operations. Clearco expanded to Germany in June but simultaneously cut 10% of its staff in Ireland, just three months after breaking into the market and announcing plans to hire over 100 employees, reports Independent.ie.

Clearco does have a host of international competition, including, but not limited to, Pipe, Divibank, Uncapped and Wayflyer. Despite the crowded space, Clearco attempted a global growth move fueled by fresh venture capital money. Romanow said “there was huge demand in line with the economic growth we were seeing during the pandemic with e-commerce businesses.”

“We were really excited and ambitious about our growth,” she said. “We just had no way to predict the current macroeconomic environment, which frankly looks worse in Europe than in the U.S. Compounded with a slowdown in e-commerce growth meant we suddenly faced significant headwinds internationally that simply didn’t exist six months ago.”

Romanow isn’t the first founder to conduct multiple rounds of layoffs in quick succession over the past few months. Robinhood, On Deck, Gemini and Hopin all make the same, troubling list.

The entrepreneur, who co-founded the business with her former partner Andrew D’Souza years ago, said that she would “probably pause more before making hiring decisions too quickly even if all of the signs in the market seem to be pointing that way.”

“The desire to build an amazing team to support rapid expansion as quickly as possible and the need to be prudent and think about sustainability and stability first and foremost is a very delicate balance,” she added. “I would encourage other founders to be as proactive as possible, especially with difficult decisions.”

As for the future of Clearco, it sounds like there’s more focus and simplification to come. Romanow admits that the product hasn’t always been “the most simple to understand” and that there are changes coming to the revenue-based financing tools they provide. The company last raised venture capital money in July 2021, a $215 million round led by SoftBank Vision Fund II. That financing event closed just weeks after Clearco completed its most recent financing, a $100 million round that quintupled its valuation to $2 billion.

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Lindsey Graham Is 'Pal-ling Around With Terrorists'

Ben Rhodes not only got "the last word" on Lawrence O'Donnell's show Monday night. He wins our own "don't sugarcoat it" award for calling out Lindsey Graham so efficiently:

BEN RHODES: Let's be clear about this, the Proud Boys are terrorists. They're domestic extremists. The Canadians have listed them as such -- they stockpile weapons. They engage in acts of violence for a political purpose. And we know that they listen to leadership. This is not subtle. Donald Trump, in a debate, said to the Proud Boys, "stand down and stand by," famously, and that's exactly what they did. They stood down for a period of time, and there they were on January 6th, engaging in the decision to overturn democracy. It's particularly disgusting and disgraceful, coming from someone like Lindsey Graham, who, Lawrence, you've been around the block, who has demagogued the issue of terrorism and extremism for a very long time. I don't know how many times we are -- national security, he's the tough guy because he wants to keep guantánamo open or something. The same guy is giving aid and comfort, and appealing to domestic terrorists, domestic extremists. The stakes are that high, these aren't people who don't believe in democracy, and who are willing to act on that belief. It's incredibly reckless and irresponsible, and dangerous, for anyone to engage in that kind of rhetoric.

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Robin Games debuts PLAYHOUSE, an interior design game you can both play and shop

Women-led mobile gaming startup Robin Games raised funding around the idea of carving out a new niche in the market of “lifestyle gaming.” The idea, the company explained at the time of its 2020 public debut, was to create a fantasy gaming experience that’s more sophisticated and stylish — something more in line with the sort of content you’d typically find in a lifestyle magazine or Instagram influencer’s profile. Today, the startup is releasing its first title to tackle this concept with the launch of a mobile game, PLAYHOUSE, which combines both gameplay and shopping in one experience.

Available on iOS and Android, PLAYHOUSE is a DIY design game that allows players to drag-and-drop furniture and décor into spaces to create original looks for rooms using elements like wall art, sofas, chairs, tables, plants and more. This alone doesn’t make the app unique — the interior design genre is a popular subgenre within the Simulation Games category on today’s app stores where competitors like Playtika’s Redecor, SayGames’ Decor Life — Home Design Game, and Crowdstar’s Design Home: Dream Makeover can be found in the Top Charts.

Instead, where PLAYHOUSE differentiates itself from others is in both its technology and its partnerships.

The company allows users to drag-and-drop pieces into the space but also move, rotate, resize and even layer items as they style the space in a much more freeform manner than some other games allow. In addition, the company is working with real-life furniture brands to make the items in its game shoppable in real life.

At launch, PLAYHOUSE features shoppable experiences that connect players to brands like Arhaus, Article, 1stDibs, Chairish, One Kings Lane, ABC Carpet & Home, Jenni Kayne, Society6, Bloomscape, Room & Board and Lulu & Georgia, among others. In other words, the game’s goal isn’t just to provide a creative outlet for art and interior design fans but to also drive the discovery of new furniture and decor.

Image Credits: Robin Games

Robin Games says that, at launch, there are over 6,000 pieces of real furniture and décor available from more than 100 home-design brands available inside the app. Players can choose to purchase the actual items they’re using to create their designs by visiting the retailer’s website.

This concept is somewhat like Pinterest’s new collage-making app Shuffles, which allows its players to create custom art experiences using their own photos and Pinterest Pins. While the Shuffles app is primarily being used as a creative tool before publishing to TikTok or Instagram, the items featured in the collages link to their Pin’s page on Pinterest — where they’re also connected with the retailer’s website and can be purchased, similar to PLAYHOUSE.

Shuffles, Pinterest’s invite-only collage-making app, is blowing up on TikTok — here’s how to get in

“One of the main reasons we wanted to make PLAYHOUSE, and ‘Lifestyle Games’ in general, is because we see a hole in the market for truly expressive, creative games,” Robin Games co-founder and CEO Jill Wilson told TechCrunch. “It’s unusual to think of an interior design-focused game as a fantasy game but we do — it’s a different type of fantasy from what is typically explored in games. Getting to design spaces with beautiful pieces as if you are an interior designer is a real-world fantasy for many people, and our company is devoted to giving players that experience,” she added.

In addition, PLAYHOUSE users can submit their design projected to be rated by other players, which allows them to earn tickets, coins and gems as well as other décor pieces that help them to level up. The company also partnered with content creators including design enthusiasts, artists, Airbnb hosts and others to create limited-time “hosted projects” aimed at inspiring players’ own designs.

And it’s working with editorial publishing houses Condé Nast, Hearst (House Beautiful), Leaf Group (Hunker) and Design Milk who will be active hosts who create design challenges and other inspiring content, the company says. House Beautiful, for instance, will host a series of design challenges based on the articles it publishes on its website.

Image Credits: Robin Games

During its soft launch period, the team refined the game mechanics, play controls, onboarding experience and the in-game economy, which is free-to-play with in-app purchases. While you can move forward without playing, players can choose to pay to unlock additional pieces with gems they purchase instead of waiting to earn them in the game through achievements. Limited-timed bundles around a particular theme are also sometimes available for purchase — like a bundle of special plants and plant-themed items that are only available in the bundle.

So far, over 1 million design challenges were submitted with the most devoted players participating in every project released daily and sticking around long term, Wilson says.

Following its $7 million seed, Robin Games closed on a $14 million Series A in 2020 and continued to develop PLAYHOUSE in the months that followed. While being a women-led startup has given them an advantage in a game that’s marketed primarily to women, Wilson believes it’s the team’s diversity that will help it to get ahead.

Image Credits: Robin Games

“I like to make games that I’d want to play myself and believe that surrounding myself with a diverse group of talented people who also want to play the game we’re making gives us the best chance of success,” Wilson explains. “At Robin Games, we have over 50% women on our board, management team and team overall — and the majority of all our team members are passionate about design. Putting creative decision-making in the hands of potential players is the key to our authenticity and why we believe true design lovers will love what we’ve made. While we anticipate our audience will be primarily women, we have tried to make it as inclusive as possible and hope that everyone who loves design will enjoy it,” she says.

PLAYHOUSE is live today on both iOS and Android as a free download.

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How Box is balancing growth and profit as it nears $1B ARR

Box reported fiscal Q2 2023 revenue of $246 million last week, up 15% from its year-ago result. While that pace was down slightly from the 18% growth Box posted in its prior quarter, the rate of expansion appears to be what the company fancies in terms of growth moving forward.

That $246 million figure puts the company on a run rate of nearly $1 billion, a magic milestone for any SaaS company. What’s more, the company’s guidance for the current quarter of between $250 million and $252 million puts it over the top in terms of reaching a 10-figure run rate.

By now, it’s well-known that Box has not had an easy time in the public markets. To get to today, it had to survive the slings and arrows of an activist investor, to pick an example, something that it has now come out the other side of.

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Amazon, facing ‘unfavorable regulatory environment’ in India, struggles to expand

Amazon is lagging its chief rival Flipkart in India on several key metrics and struggling to make inroads in smaller Indian cities and towns, according to a report by investment firm Sanford C. Bernstein.

The American e-commerce giant’s 2021 gross merchandise value in the country, where it has deployed over $6.5 billion, stood between $18 billion to $20 billion, lagging Flipkart’s $23 billion, the analysts said in a report to clients Tuesday that was obtained by TechCrunch. The company’s recent spendings for growth in India has also made profitability “elusive,” the report added.

India is a key overseas market for Amazon, where it competes with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail, Walmart-owned Flipkart and social commerce startups SoftBank-backed Meesho and Tiger Global-backed DealShare. Amazon has so far offered “a weaker proposition in ‘new’ commerce” in the country, the report added.

At stake is one of the world’s last great growth markets. The e-commerce spending in India is expected to double in size to over $130 billion by 2025.

Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Amazon has struggled to scale volumes in higher margin categories such as fashion and BPC, while the inability to operate a 1P model (inventory-led) has limited the availability of private labels vs competition which further pressures margins. Amazon’s management attrition has also increased recently, potentially signaling difficulties achieving desired scale,” the report adds.

Amazon, like Walmart’s Flipkart, operates a marketplace business in India due to local regulatory requirements. It’s facing a wide-range of other regulatory pushback in the country. Marketplaces cannot have controlling stake in sellers on their platform. Amazon and Flipkart have reduced their stakes in their largest sellers. Amazon had controlling stake in Cloudtail and Appario but has reduced it to 24%.

A single seller cannot have more than 25% share on a foreign-owned online marketplace. No e-commerce marketplace platform can mandate a seller/brand to sell exclusively on the platform. “It has also clamped down on deep discounts,” the report adds. Additionally, a new guideline proposed by India’s central bank, if enforced, will impact Amazon’s buy now pay later offering, the report added.

Other takeaways from the report:

• Amazon is less competitive in grocery and beauty and personal care categories.
• Amazon’s India Prime membership offering is much the same as in the US in terms of entertainment availability, but its logistics network size pales in comparison (13m sqft vs 375m sqft) limiting SKUs available for 1/2 day delivery.
• Amazon missing out in terms of engagement metrics and download share. Flipkart was the leader during the festival season last year, capturing a share of 62%, while Amazon had a share of 27%.
• 
• 

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Studio Ghibli films just became available to rent on major digital platforms Apple TV, Amazon, and more

It’s an exciting day for Studio Ghibli fans—fans in the United States and Canada, that is. The majority of Studio Ghibli’s film catalog has just been released to major digital rental platforms, such as Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, Microsoft, and Vudu, a report by Variety confirms. For the first time, Studio Ghibli’s films can finally be rented digitally in North America.

Critically acclaimed titles like “Howl’s Moving Castle,” “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” and the award-winning “Spirited Away” will be available to rent for as low as $3.99. However, although Google Play lists the titles at a $5.99 price point, it has a sale where the titles are available to rent for just $3.99 at present.

All films will be available in HD, and customers can rent original Japanese-language or English dubbed versions.

Other titles now available to rent are “Castle in the Sky,” “Ponyo,” “When Marnie Was There,” “Princess Mononoke,” “The Cat Returns,” “The Tale of The Princess Kaguya,” “Earwig and the Witch,” “From Up on Poppy Hill,” “My Neighbors the Yamadas,” “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind,” “Ocean Waves,” “Only Yesterday,” “Pom Poko,” “Porco Rosso,” “The Secret World of Arrietty,” “Tales from Earthsea,”  “Whisper of the Heart,” and “The Wind Rises.”

For years, the Japanese animation studio didn’t make their films available digitally, and viewers couldn’t download the titles legally. In 2017, GKIDS, a U.S. film distribution company, acquired North American theatrical distribution rights for Studio Ghibli. As of 2019, Studio Ghibli’s films have been available for download-to-own in the United States and Canada on Apple TV, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, and Microsoft.

GKIDS also struck a U.S. streaming deal with HBO Max, bringing 21 Studio Ghibli films to the platform in 2020.

Now that customers can rent the movies, they no longer have to pay for a $9.99 or $14.99 subscription to HBO Max. They also don’t have to purchase Studio Ghibli films on digital platforms for roughly $12 to $17. Viewers can enjoy the enchanting and adorable anime movies that many of us love for a significantly lower price.

HBO Max scores all 21 Studio Ghibli films

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How gender-affirming health care startups are navigating legal miasma

Kate Anthony started in the Lone Star State.

It was there, in 2019, that she launched her app Euphoria, seeking to provide information and resources on gender-affirming care. She knew the stakes were going to be high, and as the state passed anti-trans legislation, she and her company were forced to flee.

Settling in Denver, Anthony made a plan on what to do next. She decided to maintain business as usual while the fight for trans rights continues. She’s not alone in that decision. Many apps, if not all, that service the trans community are hyperexposed, under fire and seemingly undeterred.

TechCrunch conducted a vibe check to see how trans entrepreneurs servicing their communities are navigating this moment. The Human Rights Campaign told TechCrunch that legislators in state houses have introduced 344 anti-LGBTQ+ bills this session, with more than 140 specifically targeting the trans community.

“We will not allow these anti-trans people to bully us into giving information.” Aydian Dowling, founder, Trace

These proposed restrictions range from an Alabama bill that seeks to deny medical care for transitions to Iowa and Alaska bans on trans students participating in sports. Louisiana introduced a bill to bar medical professionals from offering minors translation-related care, and Florida now prohibits gender-affirming care under Medicaid.

Anthony said it’s inevitable that her company will one day be sued by someone or some state. Other founders said they are watching the court systems closely, with some rethinking strategies regarding consumer privacy and employee benefits. And for the startup and venture community, support is better late than never — it’s a critical time to defend trans founders.

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Elon Musk taps the Twitter whistleblower for help in his quest to get out of the deal

With the Twitter trial date rapidly approaching, Elon Musk’s legal team sent a subpoena to former Twitter head of security Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, who filed a whistleblower complaint against the company that was made public last week. In the complaint,  Zatko alleges that he witnessed “egregious deficiencies, negligence, willful ignorance, and threats to national security and democracy” within Twitter, which he says tried to hide its messy inner workings from regulators and investors.

Zatko, a well-respected security researcher, joined the company in 2020 after hackers gained access to a cluster of high-profile Twitter accounts — Joe Biden and Elon Musk among them — to promote a cryptocurrency scam. He was fired in January by Parag Agrawal, who replaced Jack Dorsey as the company’s chief executive.

Musk’s team is seeking a deposition and a broad swath of documents from Zatko, hoping to bolster its case before the October 17 trial in Delaware’s Chancery Court. Zatko also received a subpoena from Congress in light of the whistleblower complaint and will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee next month.

In the filing, Musk’s legal team asks for all sorts of documents, including any documents or communications related to the “impact” of spam on Twitter’s business and its use of mDAU (more on that shortly) as a “key metric.” But they’re casting a wide net, and have also requested anything about security vulnerabilities, foreign spies working at Twitter or Twitter’s “attempts to hide its security vulnerabilities from investors, regulators, and/or the public.”

In the whistleblower complaint filed with the SEC, Zatko veered outside of security territory, accusing the company of misleading Musk about the number of bots on its platform. As Musk tries to kill his agreement to buy Twitter for $44 billion, he has has repeatedly pointed to the platform’s problem with bots, claiming that the company misrepresents the total amount of spam and non-human accounts on the platform to portray itself in a more flattering light.

Musk is clearly scrambling for a reason out of the deal at this point — after all, he vowed to “defeat the spam bots or die trying” back in April — so the whistleblower complaint provides some fresh fodder that his legal team can try to leverage as it makes the case he should be able to walk away. But just because Musk wants to enlist Zatko to back up his claim that Twitter somehow misled him doesn’t mean the bot bits in the whistleblower complaint will actually have any bearing on the situation.

If our twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 21, 2022

Part of the confusion is that Musk is accusing Twitter of misleading the public about how its total percentage of bots on the platform could be higher than 5%. In reality, Twitter is talking about the percentage of bots within a different chunk of users altogether: something called mDAU, which stands for “monetizable daily active users.” The company says less than 5% of the mDAU is made up of bots; Musk says Twitter says that less than 5% of total users are made up of bots.

Twitter claims that it actively filters bots and spam accounts out of its mDAU metric, which it created to give advertisers a sense of how many human beings could be reached with ads. It’s all pretty confusing, mostly because the mDAU metric is something weird and non-standard that Twitter came up with, and it’s made more confusing by Musk’s claim that Twitter is claiming something that it isn’t. To make matters even more confusing, Twitter has previously admitted to miscalculating mDAU.

Twitter says it overcounted its users over the past 3 years

Relying on mDAU is weird and might be sort of questionable to begin with, but that isn’t really what’s at issue here. Arguably, none of this bot stuff is at issue at all — it really depends on what a judge decides should fly in Musk’s quest to shirk his binding commitment to buy Twitter. And while Zatko’s report casts doubt on the use of mDAU as a metric and a bunch of other stuff within the security side of the company, it also backs up Twitter’s claim that it keeps spam out of the mDAU because the whole point of the mDAU is to give advertisers an idea of how many humans might interact with ads. Twitter arguably doesn’t really have any reason to inflate this number by juicing it with bots because that would make it look like ads perform worse on the platform (because bots aren’t interacting with ads).

The Twitter whistleblower isn’t a bot expert and again, the bot stuff is a hail mary from the Musk camp, but Zatko’s involvement could support Musk in other ways. There’s a world in which Musk’s legal team could leverage Zatko’s more serious concerns — like that foreign governments were easily able to infiltrate the company or that Twitter misled regulators about its security practices — to argue that Musk should be allowed out of the deal. Based on the wide ranging requests that Musk’s legal team is making, they seem to be quickly pressing forward with a see-what-sticks approach.

Ex-security chief accuses Twitter of cybersecurity mismanagement in an explosive whistleblower complaint

A hacker used Twitter’s own ‘admin’ tool to spread cryptocurrency scam

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Axios' Josh Kraushaar Intimates Only Republicans Allowed To Criticize Opposing Party

Axios Senior Political Correspondent Josh Kraushaar blasted the Biden administration on Fox News for calling out the semi-fascists populating the GOP.

If a political party says, acts and does fascist things then they are in fact at least, semi-fascist. A spade is a spade. That's a poker term, but you get the meaning. What's that other saying? 'If the shoe fits.'

"This is not good for their politics -- calling the whole opposition party semi- fascists," Kraushaar said to America's Newsroom.

Republicans continually describe the Democratic Party and their supporters as groomers, baby killers, anti-American, Marxist, socialist, freedom hating, flag burning traitors trying to destroy America. But whatevs.

Kraushaar claimed that as the midterm election is coming, both parties are playing to their bases when there's still, "a whole lot of persuadable swing voters waiting to be wooed in the middle."

"Ad this is the kind of comments from the President himself that is only going to alienate some of those persuadable voters," Kraushaar said.

Ah yes. The golden goose of politics. The independent voter. The messiah of the middle.

What country is he talking about?

Any persuadable type voter is not a Trump sycophant or a MAGA cultist therefore Biden's words will have no impact on how they vote. Actually, they may see that as a strength and not weakness.

Passing meaningful legislation that helps the vast majority of the country is a great accomplishment.

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Garry Tan’s return is a full circle moment for Y Combinator

Initialized Capital was venture capitalist Garry Tan’s answer to a need first highlighted by Y Combinator. As a partner at the accelerator from 2010 to 2015, Tan spent time working with companies to better understand what they needed from investors after they graduated.

“I literally built the seed fund that I wanted to exist for those companies,” he said in an interview over Zoom with TechCrunch. Today, Initialized Capital manages over $3.2 billion in assets under management and Tan is stepping back to return to the accelerator that was his muse — this time as the new chief executive and president of the entire institution. While Tan’s new gig is set to begin in January 2023, he sat down with TechCrunch to talk about his vision for the accelerator, its batches and his goals going forward.

The investor is going to have a bigger scope. Initialized Capital just raised its largest fund to date last year and now works with over 200 active portfolio companies. YC, however, is operating at an entirely different scale: The accelerator has funded over 3,000 companies and worked with over 6,000 founders. YC declined to share AUM but did confirm that portfolio companies have a combined valuation nearing $1 trillion.

“The world has just become so much bigger and there’s so many problems to solve — the chance to help make more prosperity in the world, that’s a super big draw,” Tan said.

Tan’s announcement comes at an active time for the accelerator. Next week is Y Combinator’s biannual Demo Day, in which startups present to the public for the first time after spending three months going through the accelerator. It’s different than demo days prior because it’s smaller. YC recently said that this summer’s batch is 40% smaller than the last batch in response to the funding environment and the economy.

Demo days definitely amplify a brand, but not the one you’d think

While YC’s narrowing of focus addressed one of the most frequent critiques of the accelerator — that its batches have gotten too big and the network has diluted as a result — Tan didn’t offer any details or sentiment that would support a similar approach going forward. He’s a former YC founder himself and instead defended the accelerator’s approach to growing the batches year over year — something that his soon-to-be predecessor Geoff Ralston saw known for pushing forward.

“A lot of people talk about the batch size as being too big, but I think it’s like, dude, Metcalfe’s law is one of the most fundamental laws,” Tan said, eliciting the argument that the more number of nodes there are, the more interconnected and valuable a network is. “There are a lot more people who want to maybe escape the rat race, like me … and build their own.”

He views the network and community as YC’s biggest strength, instead of its biggest challenge (the latter of which he said it’s too early for him to say).

Tan hopes to engage YC’s alumni community more in the future of the institution although it’s unclear how that may materialize, whether through more events or if there’s a microcommunity play to be seen. There are already some external efforts of this happening that loosely tie back to the accelerator. OrangeDAO, for example, is bringing together over 1,000 YC alumni who are interested in backing crypto companies together — and just last week raised $80 million for its debut fund.

While the number of YC alumni is undoubtedly vast, powerful and present in various sectors through some of the most richly valued companies, it also has historically struggled with diversity within its batches. Last batch, YC’s cohort featured 90% male founders, up from 88% in the prior batch. It also had 12% Latinx founders, down 15% from the previous batch. It made incremental progress when it came to Black founders, with Winter 2022 having 6% Black founders up from 4% the batch prior.

When asked if diversity will be a focus for him going into YC, Tan noted that Initialized was named one of the most diverse firms in a research project conducted by tech outlet The Information. “I want to continue that because [YC] is the most growth mindset thing in the world, right? So you know that these are all things in the past that we want to carry forth.”

Tan’s love for the Bay Area could play a role in attracting founders. While it looks like YC will remain remote in some capacity going forward — especially considering its international focus — the entrepreneur talked about his personal story growing up in the Bay Area and said that YC is already moving in a great direction toward becoming refocused on the region — including a Sonoma retreat this batch. “Let’s just keep that prosperity happening because, you know, something is magic in the San Francisco Bay Area,” he said. “As YC is a magnet, as the San Francisco Bay Area is … it has a big role to play in the future of technology.”

Tan’s exit is shaking up the firm he helped found. He held down the fort after the firm’s other co-founder, Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian stepped away in 2020. Now, with the impending change, the firm has appointed Jen Wolf and Brett Gibson as managing partners. Wolf, who was previously president and partner, will continue to invest and lead all of Initialized’s operations. Gibson, who previously served as general partner (focused on crypto, Web 2.0, SaaS and DevOps), will lead the firm’s early-stage investment strategy.

Sources noted to TechCrunch that Tan’s appointment and the ensuing leadership handoff was not abrupt, some saying it has been a work in progress for more than a few quarters. Tan maintains that he heard about the opportunity somewhat recently.

The two worlds of Initialized and YC are similar beyond ethos and origin. For example, Tan hired YC alumni Scott Moss to be a principal over at Initialized. One of Tan’s most successful investments to date is cryptocurrency platform Coinbase. Through investments with Y Combinator and then Initialized, Tan’s investment was once estimated, using private secondary valuation, to bring a 6000x return. Initialized routinely invests in startups coming out of Demo Day.

Tan didn’t say how his new role at YC and his future role at Initialized, which is venture advisor, will overlap when asked about competitive or complementary dynamics. “You need a seed investor who’s going to be there for over the course of years and Initialized remains that,” he said. “The high level here is like I’m here to make the YC companies [and] the founders successful.”

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New rules for digital lenders in Kenya aim to weed out bad actors while bolstering sector growth

Fresh regulations are often met with skepticism from startup founders, but digital lenders in Kenya largely seem to be upbeat about the new Digital Credit Providers law, saying it will bring order to the sector.

The chairman of the Digital Lenders Association of Kenya, Kevin Mutiso, sounded optimistic about the impending new regulatory environment, saying that it had already fostered investor confidence and will bolster growth in the sector.

“The regulations have encouraged investors to come into our market, and I’m already aware of five new big players that have come in because of the new regulatory field. We are looking forward to being regulated and having a fair playing field,” Mutiso told TechCrunch.

Mutiso added that the association’s 16 members — including the market-dominant Tala and Zenka — are awaiting the required licenses to be fully compliant.

The regulations, set to come into effect on September 18, give Kenya’s apex bank, the Central Bank of Kenya, the requisite authority to police digital mobile lenders that have flooded the local market in the last few years.

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Herschel Walker, Incomprehensible As Always

Speaking at the "Truth and Courage" conference (yeah), Georgia Republican Senate nominee and Trump sycophant Herschel Walker spoke in gobbledygook sentences and right-wing talking points that made no sense.

Something about "slaves and woke-ness."

Via a short video from Twitter, I believe I was able to at least come close to transcribing his meaningless words.

"We have to depend on our military. They brought wokeness to our military," Walker said.

Huh?

"Wokeness going to get people killed," he said.

In what way, Herschel?

Obviously, the military hasn't become "woke." Are our troops inferior, Mr. Walker? Is that what you mean?

"I can promise you this, China, Iran, and Russia not talking about how you identify."

What does that have to do with military strategy and the insane amount of weaponry the US houses?

And who are we going into battle with?

And then he went there. Slaves.

Pharaoh kept his slaves in order. I get them fighting among each other, but when they came together, something moved these people.

Walker said the only way America can become ours again is to come together again.

Walker doesn't believe in American exceptionalism, I guess.

How does he propose America come together? By listening to Pharaoh?

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Trump Has An Idea: Let's 'Have A New Election Immediately!'

According to the New York Post, Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook restricted a story about Joe Biden's son during the 2020 election based on FBI misinformation warnings.

Admittedly, I didn't watch the interview. If Hunter Biden broke any laws, he should face justice. But we didn't elect Hunter Biden, so I really don't care about the guy. Also, it sounds as if (maybe) the agency didn't want to pull another Comey right before an election. And the right-leaning newspaper's article doesn't seem to mean what former President CrazyPants thinks it means.

Via the NY Post:

"Basically, the background here is the FBI basically came to us, some folks on our team, and was like, 'Hey, just so you know you should be on high alert,'" said Zuckerberg. "'We thought there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election, we have it on notice that basically there's about to be some kind of dump that's similar to that so just be vigilant.'"

When Rogan asked if the FBI had told Facebook to be on guard specifically for our story about Hunter Biden's laptop, Zuckerberg claimed, rather unconvincingly that he did "not remember . . . specifically" but "it basically fit the pattern."

Based on that story, Trump wants a new election immediately or "declare the rightful winner."

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Angry Miao’s Cyberblade gaming earbuds are the pinnacle of overengineering

We review a lot of headphones and earbuds here at TechCrunch, and most of them compete for the low- or mid-range of the earbud market. With price points ranging from $75 through $300 or so, they’re often awfully same-ish. The feature set is not dissimilar. They sound different, yes, but not by so much that you’d feel like your life would be ruined if you’d picked one set over the other. It’s a rare moment, then, that I get a piece of equipment shipped to me that breaks the mold. That’s precisely what happened with Angry Miao‘s Cyberblade headphones. The base station (yes, there’s a base station) feels like it was carved out of steel and glass. The whole setup weighs in at a whopping 370 grams — that’s 13 ounces. It’s also rare that a company refuses to tell me what their price point is.

Like much of Angry Miao’s line, this is a product that appears to be aimed at gamers — from the multicolor LED feast for your eyes, to the ludicrously fancy base station, to the carrying case for the device, which includes a rotating volume knob that controls the volume on your computer or phone. There was a whole lot of “What the ever-loving heavens is going on here?” in the unboxing and setup process of these earbuds. They cram a stupid amount of tech into it all, as well — and it’s a refreshing take on the “What if we didn’t have to make earphones that are as small and light as possible?” paradigm.

[gallery ids="2364010,2364011,2364012"]

The company shared with me why it is making earbuds at all. They point out that wireless earbuds have been around for a hot minute but that they are plagued with lag. As such, they’re not great for gaming, and the company claims you can do a lot with the audio-processing chips that already exist in earbuds.

Angry Miao decided to flip things on its head. It created a base station that includes an audio processing chip. Because it’s designed to be plugged into the computer, it matters a lot less how power-hungry the chip is, which in turn unlocks a lot of additional computing power in the charging base. In fact, when you pair the earbuds to your phone, you don’t actually pair the earbuds themselves; you pair the charger case. That means that the earbuds can be controlled from the case using a private audio stream protocol. It also unlocks a bunch of additional audio processing possibilities. The company maintains that this unlocks the next generation of high-definition audio with all the bells and whistles without sacrificing battery life on the earbuds.

When the earbuds are plugged into a computer, and with its Active Sound Enhancement (ASE) enabled, the company claims it gives users superfast ultra-low latency audio at approximately 40 ms delay (compared to AirPods Pro’s supposed 200 ms delay, according to Angry Miao). The company claims that this means it can deliver high-quality audio with low latency, as opposed to other low-latency products that sacrifice audio quality for speed. In addition, the company offers the usual battery of active noise cancellation and audio-source-dependent sound optimizations — for Zoom meetings, for gaming, for music, for movies, you name it.

[gallery ids="2364014,2364013,2364015,2364016,2364017,2364018"]

Is it fantastically cool? Absolutely. Do the earbuds have notably better audio quality than my Sony LinkBuds S earphones? Not really. Was I able to notice the difference in latency of the sound when I was playing games? Not really, but then, I’m not exactly a pro gamer.

I spoke to the company’s CEO, Li Nan, in a pretty chaotic interview, but he assures me that lag is a terrible problem for everyone, including people who are not gamers, without really being able to explain why.

“Old apps like a movie player, have higher latency and use a software trick to fix the latency problem. But in the future, the hardware must step forward,” says Nan. “Our product is fast enough that we do not need any additional work at software level. We all have very good latency. That will make it much harder for other brands.”

I challenge Nan on why 200 milliseconds — a fifth of a second — was a big deal when I’m watching Netflix. Yes, there’s a software adjustment, potentially, to make the audio sync up with the video, but…so what?

No clear answer was forthcoming, and it still isn’t entirely clear to me why these earphones need to exist, nor what their price is — the company resolutely refused to tell me, other than that “they are slightly more expensive than Apple AirPods Pro,” before Nan asked me if I would buy them at that price. I told him I didn’t know what the price was, and he reconfirmed that they were a little bit more expensive than the AirPods Pro.

Chaos aside — and honestly, the only reason I’m even writing this article — these are some of the best-manufactured in-ear headphones I’ve ever seen. I don’t give two craps about the weight, and I don’t need RGB LEDs in my headphones, the base station, or the carrying pouch, but I’ll be damned if these aren’t some of the most overengineered earphones I’ve ever seen. And, in a world where everyone is optimizing for price, they stood out for that reason.

The company is supposedly doing a round of preorders on Kickstarter starting today, and will then offer the product for sale from its website. Presumably, the price is listed on the Kickstarter page, but if I’m being honest, given the level of secrecy the company has had so far, I wouldn’t bet on it.

Angry Miao Cyberblade earbuds — I’m definitely not cool enough for these things. Image Credit; TechCrunch / Haje Kamps

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Netflix’s ad-supported plan could cost as low as $7

Netflix’s upcoming ad-supported plan could cost anywhere from $7 to $9 per month according to a Bloomberg report published over the weekend. For comparison, the streaming service offers a basic single-screen plan in the U.S. for $9.99 per month, while its most popular plan, which offers full HD streaming on two screens, costs $15.99 per month.

The Bloomberg report noted that Netflix plans to show roughly four minutes of commercials for an hour of programming, which is on par or less than its competitors. It also said that the company might show ads before and during a show, but won’t show anything after an episode ends.

In April, the streaming giant said it plans to offer its ad-supported plan next year. But since then multiple reports have remarked that the firm might launch this plan by the end of the year. The new report says Netflix might launch its ad-fueled tier in at least half a dozen markets in the last quarter of the calendar year.

During its recent earnings call, Netflix confirmed that users subscribing to the ad-supported plan wouldn’t have access to its whole catalog initially — that could be due to its licensing deal with different studios. Recent reports have also revealed that Netflix might now allow offline viewing in its upcoming plan.

What’s more, a report from Bloomberg last week suggested Netflix might not run ads on kids’ content — even on the ad-supported plan. The report noted the company might initially refrain from showing ads on its original movie programming.

The streaming giant has tried to garner more users by experimenting with cheaper plans like mobile-only plans available in India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa. However, the ad-supported plan could become available globally after launch. Estimates suggest that ads on Netflix will generate $8.5 billion in revenue by 2027. A study published by Digital TV Research in May suggests that the global ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) market will grow to $70 billion by 2027 — with the U.S. generating $31 billion.

Netflix is not the only streaming service looking to rely on an ad-supported plan to expand its user base. In March, Disney+ confirmed that it is planning to introduce a similar tier by the end of the year. Earlier this month, the company confirmed the launch for December with $7.99 per month pricing. During its earnings call for Q2 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery also said it’s exploring an ad-fueled plan for the new service — slotted to launch in 2023 — created by the merger of HBO Max and Discovery+.

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There's A First Time For Everything

Politics Girl makes a very good point that , in life, there is a first time for everything. And sometimes, those things can be very stupid, which can lead to another first time for other things. Someone had to, for the first time, put a warning on a cup of coffee that it might be hot, because some numbskull didn't know that. Same for most of the other warning labels that can be found everywhere.

Likewise, we've never had a former president enough to try to slip out boxes and boxes of classified documents that he shouldn't have had, so we had to have search warrants for presidential property that had never had to be issued before.

The other key point that she came close to saying was that if Republicans feel that it's just fine and dandy for TFG to have pulled all this corrupt shit, they can just sit down and shut up about Presidents Obama and Biden, because if anything goes, that means anything goes for anyone.

Open thread below...

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Shamelessness -- It's Every Republican's Superpower

I'm sure you know about this:

Federal prosecutors presented new evidence on Thursday implicating the conservative group Project Veritas in the theft of a diary and items belonging to Ashley Biden, President Biden’s daughter, laying out in court papers their fullest account yet of how allies of President Donald J. Trump tried to use the diary to undercut Mr. Biden in the final days of the 2020 campaign.

The court papers were filed in connection with the guilty pleas on Thursday of two Florida residents who admitted in federal court in Manhattan that they had stolen the diary and sold it to Project Veritas....

In their pleas, [Aimee] Harris, 40, and [Robert] Kurlander, 58, admitted they took part in a conspiracy to transport stolen materials....

Ms. Biden had left the diary at a friend’s home where she had been staying in Delray Beach, Fla., in 2020 and planned to return to retrieve it that year....

After Ms. Biden left, her friend allowed Ms. Harris, who was in a bitter custody dispute and struggling financially, to stay at the home. Ms. Harris learned that Ms. Biden had been living there and found her belongings, including the diary, in August.

She told Mr. Kurlander, who texted her that they could make a lot of money from the diary and family photos she had also found among Ms. Biden’s belongings. Mr. Kurlander ... then informed a Trump supporter and fund-raiser, Elizabeth Fago.

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Scott Jennings: Forgiving Student Debt Is 'The Joker Phase' Of Biden's Presidency

President Biden's announcement to forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients was met with enthusiasm from Democrats. Republicans, though, have come up with similar reasons to blast the move that will particularly help Black borrowers.

People like CNN's Scott Jennings blasted Biden for his move to help Americans suffering from a lifetime back-breaking debt. Jennings received $269,000 in forgiven PPP loans for his PR firm, RunSwitch.

Still, Jennings described student debt forgiveness as "the Joker phase" of Biden's Presidency.

"I feel like we've reached the Joker phase of the Biden presidency," the CNN contributor and recipient of a forgiven PPP loan (yes, I'm going to keep rubbing that in) said. "All we're lacking now is the face paint and the purple suit. He's riding a parade float down Pennsylvania Avenue just tossing money."

Well, jinkies, Scott, I'm sorry to hear that you were in a coma during former President Donald Trump's time in office. The previous four years were a tremendous gift for the rich while regular Americans were out of work, and food lines went on for miles in some states. Meanwhile, Trump could be found dancing to YMCA at one of his ego- rallies.

I'm embarrassed for Scott because he's too much of an idiot to be embarrassed for himself. Conservatives are the least self-aware people on earth. This is the point where I should bring up his forgiven PPP loan again. Well, I just did, I guess.

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The majority of early-stage VC deals fall apart in due diligence

Covering Five Flute’s fundraising and tearing down the deck the company used to raise its $1.2 million seed round had me wondering: How the hell do investors decide whether to invest in a company at the earliest stages?

VC firm Baukunst led the Five Flute investment, and I sat down with Axel Bichara and Tyler Mincey to learn how they evaluate a potential early-stage deal. They told me that the vast majority of the deals they look at fall apart at the due diligence stage and helped me get a deeper understanding of what that process looks like from the inside.

“Common wisdom tends to generate mediocrity. That’s not helpful. In VC, we are looking for the outliers.” Axel Bichara, co-founder and general partner, Baukunst

“The decision to take a second meeting is one of the biggest decisions in venture capital because, from that [moment] onward, you are committing significant time,” Bichara said, explaining that, in his experience, they only invest in one out of every 250 deals or so that they see. Only about 1 in 40 first meetings result in a second meeting. “Everything you do after the first meeting, I consider due diligence. You’re evaluating the founders. At the stage we invest, most of our due diligence focuses on two things: The quality of the founding time and the size/attractiveness of the market opportunity. If you get those two right, everything else will fall into place, almost by definition.”

With the right team and a huge market, everything else can be figured out later, Bichara argued, saying that if you have a great “founder-market fit,” you’re off to the races.

“The right founding team will do the right thing [in that case]. They will execute well, and there will be capital-efficient market opportunities. You enter with a competitive advantage, find a niche and scale from there. If you don’t get a resounding ‘yes’ from those two, you shouldn’t invest,” Bichara explained. “All the due diligence you do is geared toward answering those two questions.”

In the case of Baukunst, the firm’s investment thesis means that for an investment to make sense, the startup needs to at least have the possibility of a $1 billion outcome or more — which means that the market opportunity needs to be big enough to enable that if the founding team executes well.

“You just work backward from there,” Bichara said, “and all the due diligence we do will be in support of that.”

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