Build Mode is back with a holiday bonus episode. This week, Startup Battlefield editor Isabelle Johannessen is joined by the winner of this year’s competition, Kevin Damoa, the CEO and founder of Glīd, a logistics infrastructure company that aims to streamline the complex container shipment process. Damoa first discovered the challenges of shipping larger cargo […]
Glīd CEO and founder Kevin Damoa shares what it takes to win Startup Battlefield 2025 and build a company solving real infrastructure problems. Fresh off his victory, De reveals how a veteran’s perspective on logistics led to an autonomous solution bridging congested roads and underutilized rail. Plus, he shares how mindfulness, mission-driven culture, and $70M in early customer commitments positioned Glīd for success. New episodes of Build
The U.S. immigration system is complex, hard to navigate, and expensive for immigrants. The startup JustiGuide claims it can help with that thanks to an AI-powered portal. The idea is to help immigrants in the U.S. — and eventually in other countries — understand the law and what visas they may be eligible for, and
JustiGuide wants to use AI to help people navigate the US immigration system Read More »
If you’re a fan of the punk scene from the early 2000s, you may recognize Nick Gross, the drummer for the band Goldfinger. Now, he’s empowering young people to pursue their passions through his career exploration platform, Find Your Grind. The platform highlights alternative professions not usually emphasized in schools, including being a pop-punk band
Isabelle leads Startup Battlefield, TechCrunch’s iconic launchpad and competition for the world’s most promising early-stage startups. You can contact or verify outreach from Isabelle by emailing [email protected]. She scouts top founders across 99+ countries and prepares them to pitch on the Disrupt stage in front of tier-one investors and global media. Before TechCrunch, she designed
How Glīd won Startup Battlefield 2025: Mentorship, mission-focus, and meditation Read More »
There’s a new AI-powered toy for kids called Stickerbox, and, before you groan, I’m here to report that it’s surprisingly fun. Stickerbox, a product born out of Brooklyn-based startup Hapiko, is a voice-activated sticker printer. The device takes whatever creative idea you have in your head and transforms it into a printed sticker that you
Hands on with Stickerbox, the AI-powered sticker maker for kids Read More »
Short videos are in high demand. Across large platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok, users are watching billions of videos every day, with companies benefitting massively from this content explosion. For creators, this often means there is pressure to create more content than ever before to be relevant and make a living out of
Newsletter platform beehiiv recently celebrated its four-year anniversary by launching a suite of new features, including an AI website builder, as well as support for podcasts and selling digital products. In other words, beehiiv is about more than newsletters now. Co-founder and CEO Tyler Denk (who writes a popular startup newsletter of his own) spoke
Beehiiv’s CEO isn’t worried about newsletter saturation Read More »
Byju Raveendran, the embattled founder of Indian ed-tech giant Byju’s, has blasted a U.S. bankruptcy court’s order directing him to pay more than $1.07 billion. He is denying wrongdoing, accusing lenders of misleading the court, and vowing to appeal a ruling that marks a dramatic fall for a onetime poster boy of India’s startup boom.
Byju’s founder to appeal U.S. court order to pay over $1B in bankruptcy case Read More »
Build Mode is back with another episode! This season is highlighting lessons learned from the world of go-to-market strategies. Startup Battlefield editor Isabelle Johannessen sat down with Luna co-founder Jas Schembri-Stothart and Untapped Solutions founder Andre Peart for their unique perspectives on reaching niche customer segments following their own candidacy during the 2024 Startup Battlefield competition. If our first episode, with Deon Nicholas, co-founder of Forethought AI, we
Why these founders ditched social ads for Taylor Swift concerts and prison tablets Read More »
