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Hello! You have one more day just from me before I take a well deserved Friday off and Kyle fills in, so I decided to make an extra-large version of Daily Crunch. We hope many of you hang out with the cryptocurrency gang in Miami for TC Sessions: Crypto. As you can see, a few stories have already emerged from it and I’m sure more will come.
Oh, and if you have 30 minutes of downtime, I think you’ll like it Alex‘s interview with some corporate communication experts about the ins and outs of working with startups and listed companies. Also watch out Hey‘s Pitch Deck Teardown of Sateliot, which has a lot to offer but needs surnames for its team members.
Let’s take a look at today’s news! — Christine
The ukbusinessupdates.com Top 3
- Function Dump: For those of you who love using Google Maps, Google Search and Google Shopping, boy does the company have some new features for you. Aisha she breaks off.
- Put money where your mouth is: Index Ventures bets the economic downturn will inspire the creation of more startups and puts $300 million on that horse to win, Mike writes.
- “A goal without a plan is just a wish”: Mozilla today released its “State of Mozilla” report, and Frederick takes a look at how the creator of Firefox envisions its next chapter.
Startups and VC
More cybersecurity mergers and acquisitions are happening here Ingrid reports that Palo Alto Networks is buying Cider Security in a deal reportedly worth up to $300 million. This is a move she writes has been rumored for a while, but now some pieces have fallen into place, including telling investors, making it more likely to happen.
Mary Ann spoke to some crypto-focused venture capitalists who told her they were already taking a cautious approach to putting their money into cryptocurrency, but are now concerned that the fallout from FTX’s collapse could make it harder to get limited partners on board for future funds.
And we have six more for you:
SaaS startups that ignored VC advice to cut sales and marketing were better off this year
Image Credits: Andriy Onufriyenko (Opens in a new window) /Getty Images
Many VCs advised founders to scale back their sales and marketing spend to keep the runway this year. And it turns out that many VCs have given the wrong advice.
According to data from Capchase, a fintech that provides non-dilutive capital to startups, “companies that didn’t cut back on sales and marketing were now in a better financial and growth position than companies that did when the market started to decline in 2022,” reports Rebecca Szkutak.
Of the 500 companies surveyed, bootstrapped companies showed the strongest growth, said Miguel Fernandez, co-founder and CEO of Capchase:
“What we’ve seen in this case, and what’s most interesting, is that the best companies have actually reduced all other costs except sales and marketing.”
Three more from the TC+ team:
ukbusinessupdates.com+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams lead the way. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!
Big Tech Inc.
Enjoy it BrianActuator’s oversized newsletter today, in which he breaks down Boston’s tech scene, criss-crosses the city, chats with Tye Brady, gets to work with robotics, and “takes a field trip to some of Boston’s top startups.”
For those of you who like to tweet in threads, Twitter is working on a feature for you that automatically divides long text into a thread, Ivan reports. This move cuts down on the need to break up all your carefully crafted word puke into 280-character segments.
Meanwhile, in Binance land, co-founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, spoke to Anita this morning at TC Sessions: Crypto, en Roman grabbed some highlights, including CZ’s thoughts on FTX: “We were the last straw that broke the camel’s back.” Then Manic pulled out some comments from CZ pertaining to Binance’s viability in India. Because there isn’t.
Today, there are six more we thought you should read:
- In the seventh heaven: Apple’s iCloud website is a bit different now with apps that look like widget-style tiles instead of icons, Ivan writes.
- More layoffs: Roku says it is also cutting jobs, citing economic conditions as to why 200 US workers will be laid off, Lauren writes.
- Managing disinformation: PR software giant Cision has acquired Factmata, which, if you don’t know, fights fake news, Ingrid reports.
- Car porn: Toyota’s new all-electric SUV concept features sleek looks and plant-based seats, Jaclyn reports.
- Surprise, surprise, surprise: Blizzard Activision shocked us all by suspending most of its games in China, citing the expiration of licensing deals with NetEase. Rita has more.
- Hello my Name Is…: We’ve been following the departure of Meta India, but now have news that Meta has appointed a new India head, Manic reports.
