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receive to Startups Weekly . Sign uphereto get it in your inbox every Friday .
give thanks you for subscribing to Startups Weekly . This week , I ’m taking my parent to Yosemite to research the snowy peaks and to see if my car can wield snow . In lieu of a regular Startups Weekly , I figured I ’d dive in and give you a reminder of some of the biggest startup account from 2024 — both on TechCrunch and our subscription sibling TechCrunch+ .
Here are some of the biggest themes that have echoed throughout the startup ecosystem in 2023 .
Crime and punishment
Some of the biggest startup stories on TechCrunch in 2023 were relate to the title and misdeed of those in the ecosystem .
By far one of our most - study news report this year wasthe murder of Bob Lee , best eff as the Divine of Cash App and formerCTO of Square . He wastragically killed in a knifelike incident in San Francisco , in the otherwise usually unruffled Financial District . Rolling Stone pick up the history from there , digging into who Bob Lee and his say murderer were .
Theotherbig storey was the trial ofTheranos father and CEO Elizabeth Holmes . She is now process a prison sentence of 11 eld and 3 month after being indict for conducting wire pseud in a strategy to bunco investor . Theranos , once valued at $ 10 billion , promise revolutionary blood testing applied science but was expose in 2015 for its malfunctioning engineering science , which get health risks to patients . The subsequent unraveling of Theranos led to numerous case and regime investigation . The case serves as a consummate reminder of the consequences of fraudulent practices and that the “ bogus it till you make it ” approach that can be predominant among startups does n’t always mould out .
Theotherbig “ hmm , possibly you should n’t have done that ” sequent fib of the year was theSam Bankman - Fried trial , which extended over five weeks . It turned out to be a spectacle of evasion and remembering lapse . The former CEO of FTXfaced the jury for several daytime , deport a testimonial that was singular mostly for its lack of substance . When grumpy - see by prosecutors about his past conclusion and activeness , Bankman - Fried ’s responses were predominantly “ Yup ” ( 372 time ) , “ Not certain ” ( 117 sentence ) , and “ I do n’t retrieve ” ( 73 time ) . He wasfound guilty on all seven charges of fraud and money laundering , and will be sentence in March 2024 . Around the same clip , there will likely bea second trial , with a bunch of additional charges .
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More from the courts and effectual systems :
It ’s not just the inauguration . . . : Former VC Mike Rothenberg , known for hosting extravagant political party , wasconvicted on 21 count last calendar month , including for bank building fraud , imitation statements , money laundering , and wire pretender . The article of faith brings his journeying from a promising entrepreneur , launch a VC business firm in 2013 , to being a convict fraudster to a close . He was originallycharged with fraudby the SEC in 2018 , which result himhaving to bear $ 31 million . Sentencing in the impostor case is schedule for March .
I ’m trying to strive you about your extended warranty : The FCC impose a record $ 300 million fine on a robocaller military operation forscamming people with fake auto warranty sales . This operation made at least 5 billion calls .
The Swiss U. S. Army tongue for hackers : Flipper Zero , a multi - tool hacking equipment , is on track to achieve $ 80 million in sale this year , a significant increase from its $ 25 million sale last twelvemonth . start in 2020 , the twist can manipulate various systems like garage undoer and RFID card systems .
The fun and quirky
The globe of startups was n’t just murders , fraud and guile — some of our most - read stories this year were a lot more blithesome , thank good .
One of the highlights was Apple ’s 31 new emojis — including a shaking font for when you ’re “ shook ” and a pink spunk because , obviously , we require more marrow colors . There are even two pushing hands that could mean “ cease ” or “ high five ” — because interpreting vague hand gestures is what we all needed more of . desire to spam your Quaker with a elk or a jellyfish?Apple had your back this year .
My other favorites in the more - or - less - quirky - news category :
[ very recognizable drum riff]:MindGeek , the owner of grownup entertainment website such as Pornhub , Brazzers , and RedTube , was win by Canadian individual equity house Ethical Capital Partners . The term of the wad were not disclose .
Strap this calculator to your expression : Apple ’s newfangled interracial - reality ( XR ) equipment made a important impact with its high-pitched - quality hardware and feature . It boasts 24 million pixels across two dialog box and advanced optics . It has make - new chips to ensure unruffled performance without judder or skeleton drop , with accurate oculus tracking and motion ascendence . Panzer tried it out , and I argued that thedevice would be a plot - changer for startup operating in the space .
We ’re getting a little world-weary of Elon ’s antics : At some distributor point , TechCrunch editor Darrell decide he had enough , andpenned this slice — conclude that enough is enough .
The year of AI
There can be lilliputian doubt that , above all , for betterandfor worse , 2023 was the year of AI .
OpenAI was on everybody ’s lip . The company made GPT-4 universally available , which drive everyone hella excited . It also gaveChatGPT the ability to graze the broad cyberspace , which unlocked a world of functionality and excitement .
The saturnine side of AI catch its meter in the glare as well . The advancement of AI pornography generators , such as Unstable Diffusion , hasraised significant ethical and social concerns . These generator , which have better in create more realistic and diverse images , are posing some new risk — and remain to make the cyberspace more toxic , particularly for cleaning woman ( the absolute majority of deepfake pornography targets women and is often used as a tool for harassment ) . We were also successful intricking Lensa into beget NSFW contentby assign crudely photoshopped photo into its germ fabric . In short : possibly deepfakes - for - all is worse than we think .
Another big AI drama level of the year wasSam Altman getting fired as OpenAI ’s chief executive officer . We put together a wholetimeline , because , goodness , that was quite the saga .
From the desk of “didn’t see that coming”
If there ’s one matter startups be intimate doing , it ’s throwing curveballs . This year was no exclusion , and here are a smattering of the most surprising ones :
A banking prostration : Everything was fine one moment , then on the spur of the moment one of the with child startup banking concern — Silicon Valley Bank , or SVB among ally — took a nosedive . We put togethera timeline of what take place , along witha wall of coverage and analysis . Venture debt wasone of the grownup interrogation markspost - flop .
The DPReview saga : DPReview , a renowned digital camera review site , wasshut down by Amazon after 25 years of cognitive process , before Gear Patrolbought the holding and repair it .
That submarine story : OceanGate trying to dip down to the Titanic and imploding in the cognitive process was everywhere for a live moment . Awhistleblower was fired in January 2018after portray a vituperative quality - control report card on the watercraft to OceanGate ’s older management , including father and CEO Stockton Rush — who later died onboard the wedge . We to begin with covered the troupe back in 2017when it first expose the plans to go three-D - scan the Titanic .
Is it a bird ? Is it a balloon?:Pathfinder 1 is an electric airship that ’s giving the Goodyear blimp a rivulet for its money . At 124.5 meter long , it ’s likethe Hindenburg had a tech - savvy baby with a drone . With 12 electric motors and a penchant for helium ( importantly safer than its high - explosive , Hindenburg - exploding hydrogen counterpart ) , it ’s rig to conquer the sky at a banging 75 mph . . . eventually .
circular after beat after round of layoffs : Woof .
The biggest hits from TC+
My popularPitch Deck Teardown seriesis up to more than 75 sample pitch decks , complete with analytic thinking for what ’s working and what ai n’t . And , of course of action , there ’s oodles of additional amazing subject too . Here ’s a fistful of stories you may have missed :
From cloud to on - premise : After a decade of cloud transformations , sophisticated enterprises are now developinghybrid strategies to support critical data skill initiative , moving away from exclusive reliance on cloud computing and bringing workloads back to on - assumption systems .
The evolution of layoff : Back in July , we await athow the era of technical school layoff was evolving , noting that while it was not over , it was lose some of its intensity and was developing into its own unique course .
microscope stage appropriate over perfection : Startups should focuson create minimum viable products that are optical maser - pore on answering specific questions , rather than trying to scale too promptly , wasting resources in the process .
Hey , OpenAI , generate a marketing strategy : In this case study , we showedhow using OpenAI for get marketing strategiesled to pregnant improvements in SEO ranking on Google , resulting in a substantial increase in site dealings , domain rating , and backlinks in less than a class .
Build on someone else ’s tech and get burn off : An update on OpenAI ’s ChatGPT allowed for PDF uploads . That was a spanner in the work for inauguration , especially those built around a lineament spread in ChatGPT . It emphasise the exposure of such business to change in underlying technology .
outgrowth is hard : The former CEO of PlanGridreflected on fundamental mistakesthey made while lead the company to $ 100 million in annual recur revenue , offer penetration to serve other founder nullify exchangeable booby trap .
Setting the degree for a bombardment Au hurry : Volkswagen’sbreakthrough in lithium - ion barrage technologycould importantly impact the self-propelled industry , especially as it get by with increased costs due to inflation and supply chain issues .
F you , pay me : If an investor tells you not to take a salary after you ’ve evoke VC funding , tell them to go do something anatomically strenuous .
The easily laid plans of mice and humankind : We examine the evolution of fintech over the preceding decade , looking onseveral hyped fintech ideas that ultimately give out to transformthe financial services diligence as intended .
To remote or not to remote : We look at the teddy in remote piece of work startups , where initialenthusiasm for dedicated outback work tools has wane , as companies have accommodate to a hybrid work model rather than a purely remote one , leading to challenges for startups pore solely on distant employment solutions .
Here ’s why your pitch deck take in : In the year of AI , I progress a shaft that break down startup tar deck ( because of class I did — whywouldn’tI work up a puppet that put me out of business ) and founda ton of interesting information about what startup founders get wrongwhen they create pitch decks .
Oh , and because I justknowyou are crazy peculiar : The featured image of this post was taken with an iPhone 14 Pro Max . I created the bauble using theCircular Name Ornament creatorfrom Cuttle Labs , along with a Glowforge Aura . AfterI critique the entranceway - level laser cutter from Glowforge in July , I determine that I just had to have one . Because , well , what form of nerd would I be if I did n’t set doodly-squat on fire on a semi - regular basis .
Happy New Year — see y’ all in 2024 !
