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Pitch us, Pittsburgh
We’re getting closer to putting our spotlight on Pittsburgh, and there’s quite a bit going on behind the scenes. We’ve been spending a ton of time chatting with folks who are on the ground in the city, and we’ve had a great time learning and listening, which we think will make this installment of our Spotlight series the most dynamic yet.
As we share more details on who will be participating, such as CMU’s President Farnam Jahanian, we still want to hear from those of you building companies in the ‘Burgh.
We’ve heard from nearly 50 companies focusing on things like digital health, small business loans, patent development, robotics and clean tech, and we’ll be picking three companies to pitch live during the event on June 29th.
Because we expect all types of attendees, including investors, this could be an opportunity to take things to the next level, be it through recruiting new employees or finding a new advisor. After all, anything can happen at a TechCrunch event.
Simply fill out this form and your company could be chosen to pitch during the event.
Additionally, and to learn more about who’s who and what’s what in Pittsburgh, we’re going to be hosting a conversation on Twitter Spaces tomorrow (Friday) at 4 p.m. ET. Co-hosting will be one of our favorite Yinzers, Kit Mueller. Expect a bit of trivia, updates on news and happenings in the city and more.
Register for the event today, come chat with us tomorrow and submit your company or pass the word along to someone who should!
Agenda
June 29, 2021
2:00 p.m. EDT
Building Pittsburgh. Speaker to be announced!
2:20 p.m. EDT
Developing Duolingo. Karin Tsai, head of engineering, is set to speak on the trade-offs between engagement and edtech, scale and satisfaction, and how a simple A/B test can help.
2:40 p.m. EDT
From Student to Startup. CMU President Farnam Jahanian will speak on the school’s cutting-edge robotics and automation research and how it’s keeping innovative startups in Pittsburgh.
3:10 p.m. EDT
Pittsburgh Pitch-off. Startups will have two minutes to deliver their pitch, and our speakers will have four minutes to give their feedback. Pittsburgh startups should apply here
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Join Accel’s Arun Mathew at TechCrunch Disrupt in our debate around alt-financing
TechCrunch Disrupt has a long history of bringing leading venture capitalists to the stage to yammer about their industry. Our impending TC Disrupt conference happening on September 21-23 is no different. This time around one of our investor guests is Arun Mathew of Accel, a venture capitalist that you might recall from his recent participation in Webflow’s huge $140 million Series B.
But we aren’t merely asking Mathew out to the event to chat low-code, or SaaS, or simply current intra-venture capital investing dynamics. Instead, he’ll be taking part in our panel on alternative financing (alt-finance) with a few folks that aren’t venture capitalists, but still deploy capital into startups.
Having an Accel partner take part in the panel makes good sense, as the venture firm has an interesting way of approaching bootstrapped companies. Namely that it is willing to show up to pretty large companies and write huge checks. That’s how Accel got into Qualtrics, for example, a deal that worked out pretty well.
But Accel invests from seed through super-late stage, making Mathew the perfect person to bring the venture perspective to the conversation.
The chat should hit on revenue-based financing, other more exotic forms of alt-finance and where the venture world may see capital partnerships, and funding rivalries. Our goal won’t be to incite an argument, but instead to unfold the private capital markets in a manner that helps fans of traditional VC — if there is still such a thing in today’s Tiger Global-led world — and believers in newer methods of capital deployment learn from each other. And so that founders can carve the most reasonable path for themselves as they seek to grow their businesses.
All told it should be a bop and I will see you there!
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Apple unveils iOS 15 with new features for FaceTime and better notifications
During the virtual keynote of WWDC, Apple shared the first details about iOS 15, the next major version of iOS that is going to be released later this year. There are four pillars with this year’s release: staying connected, focusing without distraction, using intelligence and exploring the world.
“For many of us, our iPhones have become indispensable,” SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi said. “Our new release is iOS 15. It’s packed with features that make the iOS experience adapt to and complement the way you use iPhone, whether it’s staying connected with those who matter to you most, finding the space to focus without distraction, using intelligence to discover the information you need or exploring the world around you.”
FaceTime gets a bunch of new features
Apple is adding spatial audio to FaceTime. Now the voices are spread out depending on the position of your friends on the screen. For instance, if someone appears on the left, it’ll sound like they’re on the left in your ears. In other FaceTime news, iOS now detects background noise and tries to suppress it so that you can hear your friends and family members more easily. That’s an optional feature, which means that you can disable it in case you’re showing a concert during a FaceTime call for instance.
Another FaceTime feature is “Portrait mode”. Behind this term, Apple means that it can automatically blur the background, like in “Portrait mode” photos. In case you want to use FaceTime for work conferences, you can now generate a FaceTime link and add it to a calendar invite. FaceTime will also work in a web browser, which means that people without an Apple device can join a FaceTime call. All of these features make FaceTime more competitive with other video call services, such as Zoom and Google Meet.
FaceTime is a big focus as Apple is also introducing SharePlay. With this feature, you can listen together to a music album. Press play in Apple Music and the music will start for everyone on the call. The queue is shared with everyone else, which means anyone can add songs, skip to the next track, etc.
SharePlay also lets you watch movies and TV shows together. Someone on the call starts a video and it starts on your friend’s phone or tablet. It is also compatible with AirPlay, picture-in-picture and everything you’d expect from videos on iOS.
This isn’t just compatible with videos in the Apple TV app. Apple said there will be an API to make videos compatible with SharePlay. Partners include Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, Twitch, TikTok and more. Here’s a screenshot of the initial partners:
Now let’s switch to Messages. The app is getting better integration with other Apple apps like News, Photos and Music. Items shared via Messages show up in those apps. In other words, Messages (and iMessage) is acting as the social layer on top of Apple’s apps.
A new notification summary
Apple is going to use on-device intelligence to create summaries of your notifications. Instead of being sorted by apps and by date, it is sorted by priority. For instance, notifications from friends will be closer to the top.
When you silence notifications, your iMessage contacts will see that you have activated “Do not disturb”. It works a bit like “Do not disturb” in Slack. But there are new settings. Apple calls this Focus mode. You can choose apps and people you want notifications from and change your focus depending on what you’re doing.
For instance, if you’re at work, you can silence personal apps and personal calls and messages. If it’s the weekend, you can silence your work emails. Your settings sync across your iCloud account if you have multiple Apple devices. And it’ll even affect your home screen by showing and hiding apps and widgets.
New smart features
Apple is going to scan your photos for text. Called Live Text, this feature lets you highlight, copy and paste text in photos. It could be a nice accessibility feature as well. And, iOS is going to leverage that info for Spotlight. You can search from text in your photos directly in Spotlight. These features are handled on-device directly.
With iOS 15, memories are getting an upgrade. “These new memories are built on the fly. They are interactive and alive,” said Chelsea Burnette, senior manager, Photos Engineering. Memories are those interactive movies that you can watch in the Photos app. Now, you can tap with your finger to pause the movie. While music still plays in the background, your photo montage resumes when you lift your finger.
You can now search for a specific song to pair with a memory. It’s going to be interesting to see in detail what’s new for the Photos app.
Wallet, Weather and Maps
After a recap of all the features of Apple Wallet, the company announced that you’ll be able to scan your ID and store it in Wallet. It’ll be available in participating states so it’s going to be a slow rollout. When a government service wants some info from your ID, you can choose to share some data with this service directly on your iPhone.
When it comes to the Weather app, it has been updated to include many of the features that were available in Dark Sky, a popular weather app that has been acquired by Apple. Expect a new design and more data.
As for Apple Maps, the new mapping data has been rolled out in several countries and Apple is still rolling it out in Europe. Apple has added a ton of new details to some areas, such as San Francisco. You can see bus and taxi lanes, crosswalks, bike lanes, etc. On highways, you see complex interchanges in 3D. All of this is also coming to Car Play later this year.
With transit, users can pin their favorite lines and view info on their Apple Watch. When you’re in a subway or bus, you can see your location in real time. It sounds a bit like Citymapper’s itinerary feature. You can also get directions in augmented reality by holding your phone in front of you.
AirPods software update
Apple is also announcing a bunch of new features for users who have AirPods. There’s a new conversation mode that makes it a smart hearing aid to boost conversation volume. You’ll also get more notifications if you’ve activated the “Announce notifications” setting. You can tweak that setting to limit it to certain apps and change depending on your focus mode.
You can also find your AirPods with the Find My app with audio notifications even when they’re in the case. Spatial audio is coming to the Apple TV and Macs with an M1 chip. As announced a few weeks ago, spatial audio for Apple Music is launching right now.
As you can see, iOS 15 is packed with new features. Apple is releasing a developer beta with an initial release today. The public beta phase will start in July. You can expect beta updates throughout the summer and a final release this fall.
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Register for Product Hunt’s Makers Festival for a chance to launch at Disrupt for free
Builders, creators and developers, this one’s for you! TechCrunch has always been about discovering fresh solutions and shining the light on exciting, new products that have the potential to make a difference. Our past hackathons have been the breeding ground for products like Alexa Shop Assist, Quick Insurance, reVIVE and GroupMe, which went on to be acquired by Skype.
This year, we’ve partnered with Product Hunt’s Makers Festival to give builders a platform to unleash their creativity and bring their ideas to reality — and even have a chance to get some exposure at Disrupt 2021. This Makers Festival is centered all around green tech and environmental ingenuity. As humans, our daily connections to the environment are all-encompassing, including how we eat, pay, invest, shop, advocate and travel. That means there are better solutions everywhere, too. Get inspired and ask yourself “what haven’t we tried yet?”
The grand prize winner will get a free spot to launch their product to the TechCrunch community at Disrupt 2021 in Startup Alley along with a bunch of other prizes and tools to help you kickstart your product.
So how do you participate?
Register here for free and get your creative juices flowing. Make sure you sign up asap as registration closes tomorrow, June 4.
And who knows — maybe your product will be the next one snapped up at Disrupt!
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ChargerHelp co-founder, CEO Kameale C. Terry is heading to TC Sessions: Mobility 2021
Thousands of electric vehicle charging stations will be built around the country over the next decade. ChargerHelp!, founded in January 2020 by Kameale C. Terry and Evette Ellis, wants to make sure they stay up and running.
The idea for the on-demand repair app for EV charging stations came to Terry when she was working at EV Connect, where she held a number of roles including director of programs and head of customer experience. She noticed long wait times to fix non-electrical issues at charging stations due to the industry practice to use electrical contractors.
“When the stations went down we really couldn’t get anyone on site because most of the issues were communication issues, vandalism, firmware updates or swapping out a part — all things that were not electrical,” Terry said in an interview with TechCrunch earlier this year.
After Terry quit her job to start ChargerHelp!, she joined the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, where she developed a first-of-its-kind EV Network Technician Training Curriculum. Shortly after, Terry and Ellis were accepted into Elemental Excelerator’s startup incubator and have landed contracts with major EV charging network providers like EV Connect and SparkCharge.
The company uses a workforce-development approach to hiring, meaning that they only hire in cohorts. Workers receive full training, earn two safety licenses, are guaranteed a wage of $30 an hour and receive shares in the startup, Terry said.
We’re excited to announce that Kameale Terry will be joining us at TC Sessions: Mobility 2021, a one-day virtual event that is scheduled June 9. We’ll be covering a lot of ground with Terry, from how she developed her EV repair curriculum to what she sees in the company’s future.
Each year TechCrunch brings together founders, investors, CEOs and engineers who are working on all things transportation and mobility. If it moves people and packages from Point A to Point B, we cover it. This year’s agenda is filled with leaders in the mobility space who are shaping the future of transportation, from EV charging to autonomous vehicles to urban air taxis.
Among the growing list of speakers are Rimac Automobili founder Mate Rimac, Revel Transit CEO Frank Reig, community organizer, transportation consultant and lawyer Tamika L. Butler and Remix/Via co-founder and CEO Tiffany Chu, who will come together to discuss how (and if) urban mobility can increase equity while still remaining a viable business.
Other guests include Motional’s President and CEO Karl Iagnemma, Aurora co-founder and CEO Chris Urmson, GM‘s VP of Global Innovation Pam Fletcher, Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, Joby Aviation founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt, investor and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman (whose special purpose acquisition company just merged with Joby), investors Clara Brenner of Urban Innovation Fund, Quin Garcia of Autotech Ventures and Rachel Holt of Construct Capital, Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson.
We also recently announced a panel dedicated to China’s robotaxi industry, featuring three female leaders from Chinese AV startups: AutoX’s COO Jewel Li, Huan Sun, general manager of Momenta Europe with Momenta, and WeRide’s VP of Finance Jennifer Li.
Don’t wait to book your tickets to TC Sessions: Mobility as prices go up at the door. Grab your passes right now and hear from today’s biggest mobility leaders.
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Just 12 hours left to apply to Startup Battlefield at TC Disrupt 2021
We’ve been urging you to apply to Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 for weeks now, and you have just over 12 hours left before the application window slams shut on May 27 at 11:59 p.m. (PT). Don’t procrastinate — the experience alone, whether you win the $100,000 prize or not, can improve the trajectory of your business.
Case in point: Mollie Breen started out as a mathematician at the National Security Agency before co-founding an IoT/OT security startup called Perygee. She and her team competed in Startup Battlefield last year at Disrupt 2020. Although they didn’t reach the finals, Breen has plenty to say about the experience. Here’s what she shared with us in a quick Q&A.
TC: Why did you apply to Startup Battlefield?
Breen: I admired the leadership and growth of other companies that, at one point, were Startup Battlefield contestants. I noticed they had similar traction to us when they applied, and their products resembled ours in their ability to disrupt the respective industry.
TC: What was the training process like?
Breen: It was incredibly valuable both in the short term and long term. Every team gets a weekly session with the Battlefield editor. Together you rehearse and go over every iteration of the pitch line-by-line and slide-by-slide. After each session, I walked away with constructive feedback on everything — the content, the speaking style and even the font color on a particular slide.
This was a unique opportunity, and we put in extra hours to be ahead of schedule, sent drafts for review in the off hours and even doubled down on additional practice with Q&As. As a result, we couldn’t have been more prepared for pitch day. And the training has stayed with Perygee well past the sessions and the competition.
TC: What did it feel like to pitch at Disrupt?
Breen: Pitching at Disrupt was, in some ways, like other pitches except that you have an international audience. Since, at that point, we had practiced our pitch dozens of times, the real unknown during the competition was the Q&A with the VC judges.
There was additional pressure to answer succinctly and convincingly within a time constraint that you wouldn’t have during a normal one-on-one pitch. But with the prep help from the TechCrunch team, I felt ready to speak in front of such a large audience. I encourage anyone who might be nervous about the big stage to go for it and trust you’ll have more than enough preparation when you get there.
TC: What was the post-pitch impact? Did you meet investors, press or other key partners?
Breen: It helped accelerate our progress. Following Battlefield, we closed an oversubscribed fundraising round. We acquired additional beta users, including our first beta user who messaged us after reading about Perygee on TechCrunch. We also gained numerous press opportunities to share our story.
It’s almost a year since Startup Battlefield, and I’m still impressed by how many people start the conversation saying they watched the pitch while reading our company’s background. It’s a reminder that the opportunities created by being a TechCrunch Battlefield company continue.
TC: Do you have any great news to share since your pitch?
Breen: At TechCrunch Battlefield we were a small team doing MVP testing and just about to start raising. Since the pitch, we have scaled on all fronts. We grew the founding team and the engineering team, and we deployed the product to enterprise networks. Some of those deployments include contacts who reached out because of TechCrunch — and we raised our seed round!
TC: Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Breen: I’m grateful for the camaraderie and relationships we developed with the other teams. What you didn’t see on stage during the pitches was all of us cheering one another on from the group chat or social media feed. Even now, we continue to support one another through navigating business questions or promoting product launches. If it weren’t for Startup Battlefield, I would never have met this awesome group of startups.
You have just 24 hours left to channel your inner Mollie Breen. Apply to Startup Battlefield before the deadline expires on May 27 at 11:59 p.m. (PT). Get moving!
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Raising a round? AngelList Venture CEO Avlok Kohli will share insights at TC Early Stage
What’s it like raising a round in 2021? How has it changed over the last few months, as some glimmer of normalcy seems, at least, within reach? What do early-stage founders (and investors!) need to know about the current state of the industry?
Few are in a better place to outline this than Avlok Kohli, the CEO of AngelList Venture who will let you know at TC Early Stage on July 8-9. With more than $2.2 billion in assets under management and over 5,000 startups funded on the platform, AngelList has data-driven insights that just about no one else could offer. Kohli joined AngelList Venture as CEO in mid-2019, giving him a remarkably unique view of the industry through a particularly wild time.
Kohli also knows what it’s like to be a founder, having been in that seat multiple times. In 2014 he founded Fastbite, a low-cost meal delivery service; in 2015, he sold it to Square. He dove back in with a daily house cleaning service called Fairy in 2017, and sold it to Postmates at the beginning of 2019.
We’re super excited to announce that Avlok Kohli will join us at TC Early Stage on July 8-9 to get us all up to speed on the state of play in early-stage investing.
TC Early Stage is our event series all about startups that are… well, early stage. From raising money to marketing the right way to just getting people to care, we go deep on the topics that matter most to founders.
We’ll kick this session off with a presentation from Kohli on the state of early-stage investing, then we’ll get right into audience Q&A and try to get your most burning questions answered live.
TC Early Stage: Marketing & Fundraising goes down on July 8th and 9th — and because it’s virtual, you can attend right from the comfort of your couch. Or office chair. Or a hammock. We don’t care, just come watch. Get your tickets here!
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Exhibit at TC Disrupt 2021: Snag a Startup Alley Pass before prices go up
The TC Disrupt 2021 super early-bird deal took our best deal in its beak and flew the coop. But you can still buy a Startup Alley Pass and exhibit in our virtual expo area at a great price. Take advantage of our early-bird deal, cross an item off your to-do list and keep $50 in your wallet.
Pro Tip: The early-bird deadline is August 6 at 11:59 p.m. (PT), and if that feels like a long way off, don’t be fooled. It’ll be here before you know it, and Startup Alley Passes are selling faster than ever. Get yours for just $249 while you can.
In addition to your virtual exhibit space and the abundance of networking that goes on in the Alley, we have additional opportunities for exhibitors. For starters, each exhibiting startup gets to participate in a breakout pitch-feedback session.
You’ll have two minutes to pitch live to TechCrunch staff and thousands of Disrupt attendees around the world. And you’ll receive plenty of great feedback to improve your pitch deck.
“I walked away with a bunch of notes to reorganize my pitch deck. It’s a lot of work, but it’s very rewarding because now I have a clear path. Disrupt was like an authoritative instruction manual for how to finish my pitch deck.” — Michael McCarthy, CEO, Repositax.
Note: The TechCrunch Editorial team will choose two outstanding exhibiting startups to be Startup Battlefield Wild Cards. Those founders will get to compete for the $100,000 (equity-free) cash and massive exposure in the Startup Battlefield. It. Could. Be. You.
Team TechCrunch will also host a series of Startup Alley Crawls — one hour for each business category. Editors will go live on the Disrupt stage and interview various founders exhibiting in Startup Alley. It’s great global exposure.
Here’s another big reason to get your exhibitor pass sooner rather than later. It’s a new opportunity called Startup Alley+ and you must purchase a Startup Alley Pass before Friday, June 4 at 11:59 p.m. (PT) to be eligible for this VIP Disrupt experience. TechCrunch will choose up to 50 startups to participate. Read about all the perks and benefits here. Get your pass before the deadline, because the Startup Alley+ experience kicks off in July at Early Stage 2021 — Marketing and Fundraising.
So many great reasons to exhibit in Startup Alley at TC Disrupt 2021, but the clock is ticking on early-bird savings. Take one simple task off your overloaded to-do list, buy your Startup Alley Pass now — while it’s on your mind — and save yourself $50 bucks.
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt 2021? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.
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Bessemer’s Tess Hatch will join us as a judge at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021
Tess Hatch, vice president and partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, will join us at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 as a judge for our Startup Battlefield competition. By the way startups, you can still apply now until May 27 to take part in the competition here!
At Bessemer, Tess spearheads frontier tech investments, including the scaling and commercialization of revolutionary technologies, including drones, space-based observation and launch, agritech and much more. She’s focused on sourcing and reproducing tech bets that have the potential to significantly improve society in fundamental ways.
Some of Tess’s investments and board positions include Rocket Lab, Spire, DroneDeploy, Iris and more. Before her time at Bessemer and work as an investor, she worked for both Boeing and SpaceX as a payload integrator and aerospace engineer, building on her aeronautics and astronautics education from the University of Michigan and Stanford. Tess was also recently named one of Forbes’ 30 under 30 in VC.
We’ve been lucky enough to have Tess onstage at prior Disrupt events, and our TC Sessions: Space event as well. She’s definitely one of the best people in the world to talk to about cutting-edge technologies, and companies looking to solve even the most ambitious technical challenges, so she’s sure to bring great perspective to the Startup Battlefield judging panel this year.
Make sure to book your pass to TC Disrupt on September 21-23 to watch 20+ startups compete for $100,000 in Startup Battlefield and enjoy over 100 hours of content and thousands of enthusiastic startup fans — all for under $99! Secure your seat today!
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Win $100,000: Apply to Startup Battlefield at TC Disrupt 2021
You’ve been hard at work building your game-changing startup. Diligent in its care and feeding so that, one day soon, it will grow into the mighty unicorn you envision. If you fit that description, we want you to apply to compete in the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 on September 21-23.
Any early-stage startup founder with an MVP — regardless of your category or geographic location — is eligible to apply. But here’s the thing. The window for tossing your hat into the ring is shrinking rapidly. Don’t wait — apply to compete in Startup Battlefield before the window slams shut on May 27 at 11:59 p.m. (PT).
Let’s run down the list of many benefits that come from competing in the world’s most famous startup launching pad.
Perfect pitch: All competing startups get weeks of free training with the TC Startup Battlefield training squad. You’ll hone your presentations skills, polish your business model and pitch with cool, calm confidence come game day.
Global exposure: An all-virtual Startup Battlefield means that thousands upon thousands of startup influencers, icons, tech media, potential investors, customers, collaborators and developers around the world will tune in to watch this always-epic event. All competitors — win or lose — bask in, and benefit from, this global, equal-opportunity spotlight.
Plenty of perks: Battlefield gladiators are TC Disrupt VIPs. You’ll enjoy lots of complimentary bennies, including exhibition space in virtual Startup Alley, event passes, tickets to future TC events, a private reception with members of the Startup Battlefield alumni community, access to the CrunchMatch networking platform and a free subscription to Extra Crunch.
Mucho moola: One startup will rise above the rest to claim the Disrupt Cup, the title of Startup Battlefield Champion and the $100,000 of equity-free prize money. Ka-ching.
Of course, you’ll make your pitch to, and then answer questions from, panels of expert judges. Who are these mystical beings you need to impress? So far, we’ve announced two, with plenty more to come. We’re thrilled to have both Alexa von Tobel, co-founder and managing partner of Inspired Capital, and Terri Burns, a partner at GV (formerly known as Google Ventures) on board.
Remember those influencers and potential investors we mentioned earlier? We’re talking about folks like Rachael Wilcox, a creative producer at Volvo Cars. Rachel told us that she goes to TechCrunch events to “find new and interesting companies, make new business connections and look for startups with investment potential.” She also shared her thoughts about Startup Battlefield.
“The Startup Battlefield translated easily to the virtual format. You could see the excitement, enthusiasm and possibility of the young founders, and I loved that. You could also ask questions through the chat feature, and you don’t always have time for questions at a live event.”
Your unicorn dreams might be on an early-stage startup budget, but this is a huge opportunity for you to gain global exposure and have a good shot at winning $100,000. Apply to compete in Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 on September 21-23. Don’t wait — we stop accepting applications on May 27 at 11:59 p.m. (PT).
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt 2021? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.
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