Startups

A world without Caesars: How the atproto community is rebuilding the web to return power to the people

Don’t call it a Bluesky conference.  Over the weekend, the first in-person gathering devoted to those building with the AT Protocol, or atproto — the technology that powers Bluesky’s growing social network of 33 million-plus users — was held in Seattle. At the event, developers, engineers, founders, and even members of the Bluesky team, including […]

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Exist is a new social wellness app that wants to help middle-age users find community

A new iOS social wellness app called Exist wants to help middle-aged consumers connect and build meaningful communities with one another as they navigate their lives and the stresses that come with it. The app describes itself as the edgier cousin of Calm or Headspace, and its main feature is social journaling. The idea behind

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Kerry Washington invests in wedding marketplace Cheersy

Kerry Washington is expanding her angel investment portfolio, serving as lead investor in the pre-seed round of the wedding marketplace Cheersy.  Cheersy, which was founded in 2024 by Amy Shack Egan, helps couples find day-of service wedding coordinators and has raised a total of $550,000, from other investors including Elizabeth Cutler, co-founder of Soul Cycle

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Wolf Games, backed by ‘Law & Order’ creator, uses AI to create murder mystery games

Elliot Wolf, the executive producer and son of “Law & Order” creator Dick Wolf, is entering a new venture aimed at engaging true crime fans.  He, along with co-founders Andrew Adashek (CEO) and Noah Rosenberg (CTO), are developing Wolf Games, a new startup that leverages AI to generate daily murder mystery games. The company also

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Accounting hasn’t fully embraced AI yet. Quanta just raised $4.7M to change that

AI has brought attention to all kinds of futuristic technologies, from humanoid robots to autonomous warships. But there’s a quieter boom happening in a highly traditional industry: accounting. VCs are excited by the prospect of automating costly human labor with AI, funding companies like Numeric and Kick last year, to name a few.  The latest

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Anagram takes a gamified approach to employee cybersecurity training

Despite employers requiring their employees to complete yearly cybersecurity training courses, human-driven cybersecurity breaches still happen. The problem could even get substantially worse as generative AI increases the scale and personalization of social engineering campaigns. Anagram, formerly known as Cipher, is taking a new approach to employee cybersecurity training that the company hopes can keep

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Y Combinator deletes posts after a startup’s demo goes viral

A demo from Optifye.ai, a member of Y Combinator’s current cohort, sparked a social media backlash that ended up with YC deleting it off its socials. Optifye says it’s building software to help factory owners know who’s working — and who isn’t — in “real-time” thanks to AI-powered security cameras it places on assembly lines,

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CEO of Clearview AI, a controversial facial recognition startup, has resigned

The CEO of Clearview AI, the controversial facial recognition startup that created a searchable database of 30 billion photos by scraping the internet, has resigned, according to a statement he supplied to TechCrunch. The CEO, Hoan Ton-That, said “it is time for the next chapter in my life” and that he would remain on as

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