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TechCrunch’s Top 3
- Double ring ceremony: Amazon and iRobot’s relationship went to the next level today when the two announced that they will be linking up, Brian reports. The robot vacuum that lines your home now takes on a whole new meaning.
- Double the cuts: Natasha M noticed a trend among startup layoffs—that some companies were making multiple announcements in quick succession—and got to work. She outlines what this means and why it’s troubling.
- Double the fun: Pairing is also happening in the streaming world. Fans of HBO Max and Discovery+ can look forward to the merging of these services into one sometime next year. Ivan write.
Startups and VCs
- Sparking interest in electricity: Beacon Power received a sharp influx of new capital to improve access to electricity for cities in sub-Saharan Africa, Tage write.
- Make-up: Internet privacy company DuckDuckGo and Microsoft are now on friendlier terms after a policy change that now includes Microsoft’s third-party tracking scripts, Natasha L reports.
- Billion dollar milestone: Go to TechCrunch+, Alex examines Databricks’ news that it hit $1 billion annualized rate and what that means for its valuation.
- Magnetic attraction: New round of capital Zenno Astronautics launches with its technology aimed at moving spacecraft using electromagnets, Aria write.
- It gets personal: Kenya’s move to protect personal data will have some implications for startups. Annie outlines what they might be.
- More out of this world action: LiveEO received some new funding to further develop its big data approach to make raw geospatial data captured by satellites more usable, Ingrid reports.
How to Manage Growth Marketing During a Recession
Last month, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the economy was “in a period of transition”, on the grounds that “we have a very strong labor market”. When you’re creating almost 400,000 jobs a month, it’s not a recession.
Today we learned that the US added 528,000 new jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, but for many people in tech that’s a difference without a difference: according to layoffs.fyi 467 startups laid off 64,518 employees so far in 2022
Marketing can’t cure everything that ails a company, but it’s the easiest channel to make repeatable changes that produce immediate results.
In his latest TechCrunch+ column, Jonathan Martinez says it’s time to “re-forecast, refocus and refine” strategies to move key growth metrics like ARPU and LTV.
Using multiple examples, he shares several ways companies can plan for revenue using shorter time frames, along with exercises to help fine-tune their marketing package.
“If there were new channels and big experiments in the picture, it’s probably best to postpone them until the markets recover,” he advises.
(TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can register here.)
Big Tech Inc.
- Elon Musk vs. Twitter, part 1254: Twitter has gotten a little creepy, so it says Ivan, in response to Elon Musk’s counterclaim. It’s not fair to lay it all out – it’s better to take it all in. Speaking of Twitter, Zak the social media giant reports An annoying little security bug has been fixed.
- A seat at the table: India doesn’t want to be left out of M&A deals, so it has crafted some antitrust proposals aimed at bringing the country in line with other regions, Manish write.
- We are all “Super”: Well, under a hundred of us anyway. Here’s How Influencers Take a Sneak Peek at Meta’s New Live Streaming Platform, Super Aisha reports.
- Dizzy: Rebecca discusses five takeaways from Tesla’s Cyber Roundup, also known as its annual shareholder meeting. Unfortunately, some of the attendees got blisters from their boots.