Amazon says it’s ‘disappointed’ after Staten Island fulfillment center workers unionize – TechCrunch

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Good day to you and welcome to Daily Crunch for Friday, April 1, 2022! It’s been a slow news day at TC Towers as we’ve double-checked every PR ploy for April Fools’ privacy and every PR agency in the world advises their clients to place an embargo. on any other day of the year.

Alex and Mary Ann Hold on to the Fort of Equity this week in a particularly interesting episode that includes – among other things – Instacart lowers its value. Now if you forgive us, we’ll listen to Rick Astley again. Trick you, 900 people are trying to trick us into clicking those links. – Christine and Haje

PS Before we forget – TechCrunch Disrupt is back with a live event in October. Join us! We even have a two-person promo codeso you can bring a friend!

TechCrunch’s Top 3

• Another Amazon hub votes to unify: The big news today isn’t a laughing matter for Amazon, but employees at the Staten Island e-commerce giant’s JFK8 fulfillment center happily going into the weekend. They voted to unify. Brian used to keep a close eye on this to TechCrunch and he reports that Amazon is likely to challenge the voting results and has seven days from today to do so.
• This is not a rehearsal: In case you missed this from last night, President Joe Biden plans to enact the Defense Production Act so the US can prevent shortages of minerals and materials needed for batteries to use. for electric vehicles and energy storage.
• SaaS sad?: Speaking of valuations, it’s not just Instacart that can see lower valuations. Alex Wilhelm gives a Silicon Valley Bank report that shows that late-stage software-as-a-service companies can also be undervalued and startups trying to raise some capital At a later stage there may not be an attractive price.

Start-ups and VC

Today has been a quiet news day, but a few hilarious gems surfaced:

• British fashion rental company By Rotation is expanding rental platform from its community in the US
• Gotta loves how pizza has become one of the measures of robot agilityand I was, first of all, pleased to see MIT switch to the phrase “complex kneading”.
• These robots are so gentle: A proposed robot, a team of researchers has found a way for the robot to pick very fragile fruit, such as raspberries.
• The game ends:E3, one of the biggest game trade shows in the world, announced that they would be canceling E3 for another year and promised that they would try to continue next year.
• Loyal Wordle players received a lollipop ending this week when the answer word doesn’t match the word their friend came up with. I really wish this was the biggest problem the world is facing right now, but as someone who uses puns as part of my mental health regimen… thanks Friend, Sarahto get to the bottom of this mystery!

As a newbie with a particular penchant for the art of VC pitching, I’m so excited to be participating in Lotti Siniscalco’s Pitch Competition in the Early TC Stage in a few weeks.

How and why to raise capital from OT . securities

Image credits: SOPA images (Opens in a new window) / Beautiful pictures

Operational technology, which enables critical infrastructure to operate 24/7, is an area that faces significant cybersecurity risks and with the US government taking steps to mitigate the threat. , security firms that tackle this sector will benefit the most, said Matt Gatto, a managing director at Insight Partners.

In a guest post for TC+, he explains how recent attacks on critical infrastructure, pending regulation, and growing concern about cyberattacks Russia is creating new opportunities in OT.

“This is a good time for OT security providers to seek funding,” says Gatto. “The combination of increasing OT cyberattacks and the emergence of government regulations is fueling a funding crisis.”

(TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams rise to the top. You can register here.)

Big Tech Inc.

• It is electricity!: The US Department of Transportation announced some new domestic fuel economy standards for 2024 that will move the country closer to President Joe Biden’s goal that half of all cars sold in the US are powered by diesel. batteries by 2030. This means automakers will have to calculate how to go from the industry standard of 37 miles per gallon to 49 mpg.
• GoPro’s new battery has three times the power: Just when you thought it was safe to go back to your camera bag for a new battery, GoPro has unveiled a new Volta battery grip that gives you three times the shooting life. It’s great for perfecting your next Michael Bay role.

April Fool!

Image credits: Formlabs

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m under a lot of stress and in the midst of elections, pandemics, invasions, and the recent death of my favorite band’s drummer, I’ve lost at least 95% of my sense of humor. humor in the past few years. However, tech startups try to prank the people who love us every year. Here are 5 of the funniest April Fools’ Day jokes this year.

• 3D printing darlings Formlabs announces the launch of a 2D printer. Given my extremely mixed results with the first printers I got from Formlabs, I’d be hesitant to order one, but let’s face it; if they roll out a 2D printer, it’ll probably be better than a lot of the other crap I’ve had on my desk for years, so who knows. I am 99% sure that this is a joke, not comfortable.
• Twitter trolls its user base, saying they are working on an edit button. It’s been the most requested feature of the platform since we all started tweeting for the first time in our minds and everyone knows at this point that it probably won’t happen. (Besides that, that’s a terrible idea.) But yes. Ways to make waves!
• The Heardle Producers Had an Exquisite April Fool’s Joke that 100% helped me this morning. Wordle parody for music fans is super fun; The resentment that I have that there is no field to play today really frustrates me, makes me cry, and hurts me.
• tvTV launches TV exclusively for Apple TV. I especially appreciate the amount of time the company has taken to render a product that doesn’t make sense in so many dimensions that I worry it could create a wormhole and suck us all into one. the alternate universe, where 2D printers exist, has a Twitter edit button and an Apple TV that becomes a toner cartridge for a toaster.
• And finally, a stupid beer subscription site pulled a stupid stunt to sell its stupid products through what can only be described as bait-and-switch stupidity. I hope their stupid marketing team and stupid executives that divulged that stupid idea will make them think you can’t fool people and ignore it. They say all the attention is good attention, but take this as my stupid temper tantrum: That’s stupid. Don’t do that stupid thing again, and don’t give your money to stupid companies.