HQ’s expansion beyond trivia emerges from beta tonight, but the question is whether it’s different and accessible enough to revive the startup’s growth. HQ Words opens to everyone with today’s 6:30pm pacific broadcast within the HQ Trivia app after several weeks of closed beta testing of the Wheel Of Fortune-style game. The launch will be […]
View More HQ Trivia launches HQ Words tonight under reinstalled CEOCategory: talent
Ex-Googlers meld humans & machines at new cobotics startup Formant
Our distinct skill sets and shortcomings mean people and robots will join forces for the next few decades. Robots are tireless, efficient and reliable, but in a millisecond through intuition and situational awareness, humans can make decisions machine can’t. Until workplace robots are truly autonomous and don’t require any human thinking, we’ll need software to supervise […]
View More Ex-Googlers meld humans & machines at new cobotics startup FormantThe Mom Project, a job site for moms returning to work, nabs $8M from Initialized and more
If you are a mother who has taken a break from full-time employment to raise kids, you may have also experienced the challenge that is jumping back into the working world after your break. You may find you need more time flexibility; you have been out of the job market for years and so your […]
View More The Mom Project, a job site for moms returning to work, nabs $8M from Initialized and moreJina Choi, the head of the SEC’s San Francisco office, is leaving the agency
Silicon Valley companies know to operate in the gray might be heaving a small sigh of relief this morning. Yesterday, afternoon, the Securities & Exchange Commission announced that Jina Choi, the head of its San Francisco office, is retiring after 16 years with the agency. The release about Choi’s move is glowing, though it doesn’t […]
View More Jina Choi, the head of the SEC’s San Francisco office, is leaving the agencyHow a startup mindset can help the refugee crisis
Startup entrepreneurs have a crucial role to play in building a more agile response to the global refugee crisis and also helping to change the narrative around displaced people, TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin has heard. Speaking during a panel discussing how technology can support refugees to integrate and rebuild their lives, Aline Sara, CEO of NaTakallam […]
View More How a startup mindset can help the refugee crisisTech giants offer empty apologies because users can’t quit
A true apology consists of a sincere acknowledgement of wrong-doing, a show of empathic remorse for why you wronged and the harm it caused, and a promise of restitution by improving ones actions to make things right. Without the follow-through, saying sorry isn’t an apology, it’s a hollow ploy for forgiveness. That’s the kind of […]
View More Tech giants offer empty apologies because users can’t quitOur 3 favorite startups from Morgan Stanley’s 2nd Multicultural Innovation Lab Demo Day
The Morgan Stanley Multicultural Innovation Lab, Morgan Stanley’s in-house accelerator focused on companies founded by multicultural and female entrepreneurs, hosted its second Annual Showcase and Demo Day. The event also featured companies from accelerators HearstLab, Newark Venture Partner Labs and PS27 Ventures. (Note: I was formerly employed by Morgan Stanley and have no financial ties.) The showcase represented […]
View More Our 3 favorite startups from Morgan Stanley’s 2nd Multicultural Innovation Lab Demo DayLinkedIn launches its own Snapchat Stories: ‘Student Voices’
The social media singularity continues with the arrival of Snapchat Stories-style slideshows on LinkedIn as the app grasps for relevance with a younger audience. LinkedIn confirms to TechCrunch that it plans to build Stories for more sets of users, but first it’s launching “Student Voices” just for university students in the U.S. The feature appears […]
View More LinkedIn launches its own Snapchat Stories: ‘Student Voices’Meet Uber’s newly promoted Chief Product Officer, Manik Gupta
Manik Gupta got his first taste of solving logistics nightmares when fresh out of college, he was delivering Palm Pilots around Singapore. He’d started a precursor to Groupon called BuyItTogether. “We were a full stack marketplace where we were also delivering the goods. That’s what caused us to not have good profit margins. Actually, zero […]
View More Meet Uber’s newly promoted Chief Product Officer, Manik GuptaFacebook Lasso app lead Brady Voss leaves for Netflix right after launch
Facebook Lasso has a steep uphill climb ahead as it hopes to chase the musical video app it cloned, China’s TikTok (which merged with Musically). Lasso lets you overlay popular songs on 15-second clips of you lip syncing, dancing, or just being silly — kind of like Vine with a soundtrack. It’s off to a […]
View More Facebook Lasso app lead Brady Voss leaves for Netflix right after launchBurgerbot startup Creator hires inventor of Boston Dynamics’ Big Dog
Disney Imagineering animatronics wizard Dr. Martin Buehler is a legend in the robotics world. His work leading development of the galloping Big Dog quadruped at Boston Dynamics both inspired and terrified a new generation of makers. But after playing in the worlds of fantasy and science fiction that consumers can’t buy, Buehler has been poached […]
View More Burgerbot startup Creator hires inventor of Boston Dynamics’ Big DogFacebook reorganizes Oculus for AR/VR’s long-haul
Facebook is again looking to whip Oculus into shape for its 10-year journey towards making virtual reality mainstream. According to two sources, Facebook reorganized its AR and VR team this week from a divisional structure focused around products to a functional structure focused around technology areas of expertise. While no one was laid off, the […]
View More Facebook reorganizes Oculus for AR/VR’s long-haul