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Today is Friday the 13th, and I hope nothing nefarious has happened to you today. At least the weekend is here! At the very least, you can stay up to date with the latest Terraform Labs news – Binance Pauses Luna and UST . Trading – and some Great podcasts from your favorite TechCrunchers. And make sure to secure your seat for our June 1st TechCrunch Live Events in Columbus. See you on monday! – Christine
TechCrunch’s Top 3
- If Elon doesn’t buy Twitter, at least Snoop Dogg is ready to pounce: Early this morning, Elon Musk tweeted that his offer to buy Twitter is on hold while he calculates the percentage of fake accounts using the social media channel. Even though he also tweeted he is still “committed to buyback”, I would love to see Snoop Dogg tweets his wish is to be able to do it if Musk doesn’t. Actually his plan is not bad.
- Dinner on Dineout: In some online food ordering M&A news, Swiggy said it is acquiring Dineout, the Indian equivalent of OpenTable. This put Swiggy immediately into the dining space, long dominated by Zomato, whose market capitalization down to about 5 billion dollars. It also represents additional consolidation in a huge market trying to make sense of its pandemic surge.
- More layoffs: Natasha and Amanda were was busy last week catching up on countless tech layoffs and unfortunately today another list includes Section4, Carvana, and Latch. Not even Meta is immune.
Start-ups and VC
- On the cape: That’s what Better.com CEO Vishal Garg is talking about SoftBank’s $750 million loan. Since Garg is personally responsible for the loan, he is liable for any losses. However, the company could also be affected as any loss could cause him to sell more of his Better.com shares, which could negatively impact the stock. Still a mess no matter how you look at it.
- Dress you up in indie style brands: Headquarters in China Body404 is betting that the West will embrace the next generation of clothing designers who want to give them something more than just a cheaper runway knockoff. It pays off in that the company is now valued at $50 million after raising $50 million in March. One interesting thing to note is that customers don’t return clothes – the return rate of Body404 is around 2%, well below the fashion industry average of 10%.
- Have fun with a cause: Frank Reig, who runs Revel, a The company builds a fast charging center for electric vehiclescatch up with Rebecca to discuss the company’s shift from motorcycle sharing and the distance Revel has traveled to drive electric vehicle adoption.
- Watch and get paid: Our attention is valuable and often pulled in different directions. WeAre8 wants to reward you to do what DVRs have allowed us to ignore for years now – watch the commercials. The company is led by advertising expert Sue Fennessy, who aims to direct ad funding away from social media giants like Facebook and channel it into a legitimate cause.
Pitch Deck Teardown: Dutch’s $20 Million Series A Deck
Image credits: Dutch
As CEO and founder of Dutch virtual vet care platform, Joe Spector originally planned to raise $15 million in Series A funding, but his pitch put it together cleverly pictures of adorable pets with market research indicators and traction, he ended up closing in on $20 million.
With flair, Dutch’s deck tells a compelling story of how the company used its seed funding to launch a service within three months, establish a brand identity, build a team. and expanded from 12 to 32 states, writes Haje Jan Kamps in the weekly Pitch deck Deck Teardown.
If you’re working on a presentation and need to get inspired, start here: All 17 slides are available to CTV+ members.
(TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams rise to the top. You can register here.)
Big Tech Inc.
Your goods, your goods, your Peloton goods: That’s right guys, Peloton is trying to end a tough week on a positive note by adding another paddle to the competitive rowing machine market. After selling my Peloton bike in 2019, this caught my attention when I discovered a love for the sport of rowing. Here’s hoping my price tag is a bit more budget-friendly than the bike.
Zoom gets customer service day: The video media giant is acquiring conversational AI company Solvvy in an effort to deliver a customer service experience within Zoom’s toolset. The company’s stock is surging on the news, so it looks like Zoom has chosen wisely.
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