Startups

The 10 companies that just launched from Betaworks latest startup camp

Startups /

Early-stage venture fund Betaworks announced the latest 10 companies launching from its prestigious Camp program, the 13-week biannual residence program launched in 2016 that has given way to names like Hugging Face and Graze Social.   The theme for this year’s Camp is Interfaces, as in companies that are designing products that impact how users experience AI. (Previous Camp themes focused on application layers and agents). Applications opened in June, and the camp began in August, with DemoDay being November […]

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How founders can prepare for their late-stage fundraises from the start

Startups /

Raising a $250 million Series D round may seem like a distant and unnecessary distraction to startup founders pitching investors for that first $1 million in seed money. But it shouldn’t be, according to several founders and venture capitalists. In their view, founders should be charting out a strategy for those later stage fundraises from

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VC Jennifer Neundorfer explains how founders can stand out in a crowded AI market

Venture /

January Ventures co-founder Jennifer Neundorfer stopped by the Equity podcast during TechCrunch Disrupt to chat about fundraising in this very AI-driven market.   Founders and investors alike are obsessed with AI, and even Neundorfer said her firm is looking at ways to use AI to make their work more efficient, such as helping to do due diligence on the market and competition.

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How startups can lure good talent fairly without big tech bank accounts 

Venture /

Startups have never been able to offer the same sizable salaries as big tech companies. Now with companies like Meta and OpenAI willing to pay million-dollar salaries amid the AI race — the compensation divide has grown even larger. Early-stage startups are not doomed though. If they develop a compensation strategy that is generous, fair,

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Tattd gave four TechCrunch writers tattoos at Startup Battlefield

Startups /

On Tuesday morning at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, our Senior Producer Maggie Nye rolled up her jacket sleeve to show me her new tattoo: a classic, pixelated cursor arrow. TechCrunch’s Becca Szkutak got a matching cursor, while Theresa Loconsolo got a smiling moon. I guessed that at some point during all the Disrupt hoopla, Maggie and

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David Sacks’ Craft leads $42 million Series A in govtech startup Starbridge

Startups /

Justin Wenig remembers his days at Y Combinator in 2019. Back then, he was working with his first startup, Coursedog, which looked to provide more modern tools to higher educational facilities, including those that work with state departments. He learned quickly that his peers didn’t like working with the public sector — too much bureaucracy.

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Sesame, the conversational AI startup from Oculus founders, raises $250M and launches beta

AI /

Sesame, a conversational AI startup and smart glasses maker, has raised a $250 million Series B round and is opening up its beta to a select group of testers, the company announced Tuesday. The startup, headed by former Oculus co-founder and CEO Brendan Iribe and Ankit Kumar, former CTO of AR startup Ubiquity6, is working

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A16z-backed Codi launches AI agent office manager

Startups /

Codi, an Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup founded by Christelle Rohaut and Dave Schuman, is launching what it hails as the first AI-powered platform to fully automate office management.   Codi was founded in 2018, in a pre-pandemic world, with a mission to help companies find flexible office spaces. It was more of a marketplace, as TechCrunch previously reported, that matched companies

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