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As I write this Elon Musk has joined Clubhouse for his first-ever in-person session and the boundaries of the app have already been tested. Only 5,000 people are in the room, BUT… the session is being live-streamed from here or here.

I am dusting off my creaky live-blogging skillz to cover the session… and will update this post as we go (apologies for appalling typos in the interim).

Musk initially talked about going gong to Mars and said it was likely to be a “hard” for the early pioneers, but that it would be a matter of keeping the “candle of civilization alive in the dark”.

Asked if he believed in aliens, he said there wasn’t a single piece of conclusive evidence for the existence of aliens, although it’s “quite possible” there is such a thing as Alien tech, at least at a “7/11” level, and a joked that they evidence so far suggests they might be at the “500 Megapixel camera” or “at least iPhone 6 level”.

He said his kids were not quite into the idea of going to Mars.

Asked about memes online he quipped: “He who controls the memes controls the universe” and it’s about what influences the zeitgeist. Memes are a complex form of communication – unlike pictures, memes are “10,000 words not 1,000 words”. They are aspirationally funny. “I love memes, they can be very insightful”

Does he try to sound crazy on Twitter? “I started crazy on Twitter,” he joked.

I don’t follow them, but some “are sent by “meme dealers” who are friends.

He posted about Neurolink but said Tesla had one of the strongest AI teams in the world.

With AI, it’s about “how to we stay relevant” and at least “stay along for the ride” in the good scenario” and couple to AI.

“People are already a cyborg.” We already have a tertiary layer in the form of smartphones. The bit-rate of us typing into a phone is 100 bits. So it’s like trying to talk to a tree, for our smartphones. So with a direct neural interface, we increase it with a huge magnitude. And also spend longer with a higher magnitude.

You can decide if you want to be a robot of a person. But when you wake in the morning you wouldn’t have to be the same as you were yesterday. It’s analogous to a video game, not unlike the “Altered Carbon” Netflix series.

There are primitive versions s the Neurolink idea, with tiny wires into your brain.

He said they will be releasing new videos in a month or so, such as of a monkey playing videos with their mind.

The value of the early implant will be enormous and outright the risks.

Question: What should we educate a 5-year-old about in this world?

Musk talked about how video games engage children, but explaining “the why” was important. “We are programmed to forget the low “probability of things” if they aren’t relevant.

Such as, taking apart an engine and putting them together. We will need tools, so we understand the relevance. It’s better than having a “course of wrenches”

He was asked “why are there not more Elon Musks”? “If you need encouraging words, don’t do a startup”.

A friend sent him a slice of cake in 2013. So “I should have bought it 8 years ago” “At this point Bitcoin is a good thing. I am a supporter. I am late to the party, but I am a supporter.”

He said it was clear Bitcoin was getting broader acceptance by the finance world. “I don’t have a strong opinion on other currencies.”

Dogecoin is a made aa joke to make fun of cryptocurrencies, but “fate lives irony”.

“The most entertaining outcome is the most likely.” The most ironic outcome would be dogecoin becoming the currency of the future.

He made a joke about bitcoin and his account got locked.

TESLA: They want to make 20 million cars and trucks per year as a target.

Autonomous driving could reach a significant amount of time you would rely on it in a week, so autonomous cars would do a third of the hours in a weeks, so 60 hours instead of 12.

Making sense of objects with technologies like Lidar would effectively make cars “superhuman”.

Working remotely on zoom has been tricky for him, but remote working has not been perfect. “Fear is not the mind-killer, context switching the mind-killer” he said.

Would he start another company? It joked that he pretty much has his hands with Tesla, Space X, The Boring Company and others to date.

He talked about the huge advances in vaccine technology, such as the MRNA tech which made the Covid-19 vaccine possible. He seems very bullish about the vaccine.

“There is going to be an avalanche of vaccine” coming, “I guarantee you ‘it’ will be thrown away this year.” He said ‘CureVac’ vaccine will be approved soon.

He mentioned, “The Tesla machine can make a bazillion doses super fast.”

He made his poison clear on vaccines: “I am not an anti-vaxxer I am a pro-vaxxer.”

Joining Silicon Valley in the early days he had to ask himself ‘I watch the internet being built in front of me or do I get involved.’

Too shy to speak to anyone in the lobby of Netscape.

Then he tried to code. He wrote the first maps and directions on the internet. The Web site only worked during the night as he was using the server during the day.

Marc Andressen quipped that we would get a job the next time he hangs out in the lobby.

He’s been watching The Last King for is historical accuracy and Cobra Kai. The Expanse’s plot lines sometimes seem too fantastical to him.

He was recommended Devs and Mythic Quest and Ravens Baquet.

Tenet was “pretty good”. Did he understand it “If you think too hard about it, it’s not going to make complete sense, but it’s a good movie”

His knowledge of the Hitch Hikers guide to the Galaxy, remains intact

“Vlad The Stock Impaler” was brought into the Clubhouse room to talk about the Game Stop phenomenon. It turned out this was the actual CEO fo CEO of Robinhood.

“Vlad” (or rather Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood) made a rambling attempt to explain what happened last week but was interrogated by Musk (things getting slightly surreal at this point).

via Tingle Tech

Speaking is one of the hardest parts of learning a new language, especially if you don’t have someone to practice with regularly. ELSA is an app that helps by using speech recognition technology to correct pronunciation. Based in San Francisco and Ho Chi Minh City, ELSA announced today it has raised a $15 million Series B, led by VI (Vietnam Investments) Group and SIG. Other participants included returning investors Google’s AI-focused fund Gradient Ventures, SOSV and Monk’s Hill Ventures, along with Endeavor Catalyst and Globant Ventures.

The capital will be used to expand ELSA’s operations in Latin America and build a scalable B2B platform, allowing companies and educational organizations to offers the app’s coaching services to employees or students. Founded in 2015, ELSA, which stands for English Language Speech Assistant, now claims more than 13 million users. Its last round of funding was a $7 million Series A announced in 2019.

In addition to Latin America, ELSA will also focus on expanding in Vietnam, India and Japan, where it saw high demand last year. The company recently formed a partnership with IDP and British Council, which owns the widely-used IELTS English language test and now recommends ELSA to for test preparation. ELSA is also working with language schools in Vietnam like IMAP and Speak Up, online learning platform YOLA and corporate clients including Kimberly Clark, Intel and ATAD.

ELSA co-founder and chief executive officer Vu Van told TechCrunch that many users want to improve their English speaking proficiency for job opportunities and to increase their earning potential. In Vietnam, India and Brazil, people with higher English speaking proficiency can earn about two to three times more than their colleagues, she said.

“This motivation drives a lot of demand for our English learner community in Vietnam, India and Brazil, especially during COVID-19 when we’ve seen enormous interest from the LatAm region as well,” Van added.

In Vietnam, where Van is from, English learners spend a lot of their disposable income on online or offline English training. “However, the majority of English learners still struggle to improve their speaking skill because other people don’t understand them or they’re afraid to speak it,” she said. ELSA was designed to give them an accessible resource to help improve their pronunciation and confidence when speaking English.

Other apps focused on English pronunciation include FluentU and Say It. Van said one of ELSA’s main advantages is its proprietary voice recognition AI tech.

“What’s unique about our AI is that we’ve collected the largest amount of accented English voice data from millions of users that we have used to train our AI model over the last few years, which gives us a higher accuracy in recognizing and understanding non-native English speakers around the world,” she said. “The other existing voice recognition technologies available, by comparison, might understand native speakers well but have a hard time understanding non-native accented English learner communities.”

Instead of providing feedback about individual words, ELSA’s app also corrects individual sounds and gives users detailed information on how to improve their pronunciation, including “very advanced prosodic speaking features like intonation, rhythm and fluency to help them speak English more naturally, something that our competitors don’t offer,” Van added.

via Tingle Tech

Ben, a London-based employee benefits and rewards platform, has raised $2.5 million in funding. The seed round is led by Cherry Ventures, and Seedcamp.

A number of angel investors with backgrounds in fintech and HR tech also participated. They include Paul Forster (founder of Indeed), Taavet Hinrikus (founder of TransferWise), Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas (previously an exec at GoCardless but now a partner at Index Ventures), Philip Reynolds (VP of Engineering at Workday), and Matt Robinson (founder of Nested).

Part fintech, part HR play, Ben has built an employee benefits platform to enable SMEs to offer much more personalised and flexible benefits to employees. The U.K. startup does this via a SaaS for managing benefits, including a benefits marketplace, combined with per-employee debit cards powered by Mastercard.

The idea is to give employees more individual choice around which benefits they choose, while making it easy to on-board additional providers. This can be via the marketplace or through whitelisting merchant or merchant categories via the employer issued Mastercards, such as food and drink or travel and mobility, or a specific co-working space etc.

“While most companies offer benefits in order to attract and engage team members, and ultimately drive productivity, most solutions don’t deliver the desired outcomes,” Ben co-founder and CEO Sebastian Fallert tells me. “To have impact, offerings need to work for the individual employees; after all, a ‘benefit’ that’s relevant for somebody working from home in their mid-40s could be next to useless for a new starter in their 20s”.

Fallert says that providing the required level of personalised benefits has been impossible for most small to medium-sized companies due to the “high cost and complexity” of creating and administering personalised programmes. This has seen only large enterprises able to offer flexible benefit programmes where employees get to pick from a range of options. Ben aims to remedy this.

“The Ben software platform allows companies to load funds and set individual spend rules on how these can be used,” explains Fallert. “Employees are then able to choose from group benefits, such as private medical insurance, mental wellbeing services, or dental plans, while a real per-employee Mastercard opens the door to pretty much any product or service in a tax-efficient and compliant way”.

The result is a “win-win,” says the Ben CEO. “Employees get tailored benefits, and companies only pay for what’s used, take advantage of tax exemptions and preferred pricing, while streamlining the administration”.

The Ben platform is currently used by smaller and mid-market companies, especially those with a distributed team. “It’s these firms in particular that have to deal with the growing complexity of their programmes to keep up with a more diverse and increasingly remote/distributed workforce,” says Fallert.

Meanwhile, Ben has three revenue streams: a SaaS fee; interchange revenue every time its cards get used; and, of course, affiliate revenue from its marketplace.

Adds the Ben CEO: “One of our core hypotheses is that there are so many amazing services out there that simply can’t get through to companies as they’re often not relevant for all employees, such as debt consolidation or fertility treatment. With Ben, they get easy distribution on standard commercial terms while companies get to offer an additional benefit without any additional overhead”.

via Tingle Tech

Despite China’s history of stringent media control, an industry of uninstitutionalized, individual publishers has managed to flourish on social media platforms like Tencent’s WeChat and ByteDance’s Toutiao. These self-publishers are called “We Media” in the Chinese internet lexicon, denoting the independent power of citizen journalists and content creators.

Meanwhile, self-publishers have always had to tread carefully on what they post or risk being targeted by censors who deem them illegal or inappropriate.

The topics they cover are myriad, ranging from fashion and food to politics and current affairs. WeChat, a major destination for self-publishers, hinted last July it had 20 million “public accounts”, platforms for individuals to broadcast content and in businesses’ case, reach customers. In 2020, 360 million users read articles published on WeChat public accounts, WeChat founder Allen Zhang disclosed recently.

Sina Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, has long attracted citizen journalists. In the early days of COVID-19, millions of Chinese users rushed to Weibo seeking facts from accounts like that of Fang Fang, an author who chronicled what she had witnessed in Wuhan.

Now, a new development in China’s internet regulation is about to further restrict China’s tens of millions of self-publishers.

Public accounts that “provide online news service to the public shall obtain the Internet News Information Permit and other relevant media accreditation,” according to a new regulation (translation here) published January 22 by the Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s internet watchdog.

In the following days, WeChat, Baidu, Sohu and other online information services began notifying publishers of the new rule. “If your account lacks relevant accreditation, you are advised not to edit, report, publish or comment on news about politics, the economy, military, foreign affairs or other major current events,” according to the notice sent by WeChat.

“The WeChat Public Account Platform always commits to providing a green, healthy online environment to users,” the message adds.

The requirement of news accreditation will likely be a death knell for independent social media publishers that have taken on journalistic roles, particularly those covering politics. “It’s not something you can obtain easily unless you’re an official news outlet or an organization with unmatched resources and background,” a WeChat account publisher told TechCrunch.

China’s control on news reaches into every corner of the internet, and regulations are always playing catchup with the pace at which new media, such as microblogs and live streaming, flourishes.

From 2017 to 2018, the cyberspace authority granted news permits to a total of 761 “internet news services,” which together operated 743 websites, 563 apps, 119 forums, 23 blogs, 3 microblogs, 2285 public accounts, one instant messenger, and 13 live streaming services. In other words, hard news is off limits for internet services of these categories that operate without a news license. It remains to see how platform operators like WeChat and Sina Weibo work to enforce the rules.

Heightening oversight on online information could have merit when it comes to battling misinformation. The new regulation also calls on operators to set up mechanisms like a creator blacklist to root out fake news. But the regulation overall could have an adverse impact on freedom of expression in China, the International Federation of Journalists warned.

“The vaguely defined new rule comes at a time when ‘self-media’ has gained huge popularity in China and journalists have begun using such platforms to publish work which was axed by their organisations,” the IFJ said in a statement published on January 28.

via Tingle Tech

Access to the internet in Myanmar dropped sharply after the military detained leaders of ruling party National League for Democracy, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and declared a state of emergency. The NLD won a wide majority of parliamentary seats in November’s general election, which the military alleges was the result of election fraud. In a statement on military-owned television, the army said a year-long state of emergency would be declared in Myanmar and power handed to military chief Min Aung Hlaing.

According to NetBlocks, a non-governmental organization that monitors digital rights, cybersecurity and internet governance around the world, internet disruptions began around 3AM Monday morning local time, with national connectivity falling to 75% of ordinary levels, and then reaching about 50% around 8AM. Data shows that the cuts affected several network operators, including the state-owned Myanma Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) and Telenor. NetBlocks said “preliminary findings [indicate] a centrally ordered mechanism of disruption targeting cellular and some fixed-line services, progressing over time as operators comply.”

Update: Internet connectivity in #Myanmar has fallen to 50% of ordinary levels as of 8:00 a.m. local time amid an apparent military coup and the detention of civilian leaders; pattern of disruption indicates centrally issued telecoms blackout order

https://t.co/Jgc20OBk27 pic.twitter.com/71fHI3sRv3

— NetBlocks (@netblocks) February 1, 2021

The United States Embassy’s American Citizen Services said on Twitter that internet and phone connectivity are both limited throughout Yangon and Nay Pyi Taw.

Update: We are aware that internet and phone connectivity is limited throughout Yangon and Nay Pyi Taw.

— American Citizen Services – Burma (Myanmar) (@ACSRangoon) February 1, 2021

Aye Min Thant, a former correspondent for Reuters who is now the Tech for Peace program manager at Phandeeyar, a tech accelerator in Yangon, tweeted that she had been logged out of Signal and Telegram overnight, and can’t log in again because cell service is shut down, preventing her from getting verification codes.

The detainment of Suu Kyi and other National League for Democracy leaders comes days after Myanmar’s military attempted to downplay concerns about a coup by stating it would protect the country’s constitution, despite its allegations of vote fraud in November’s election.

Myanmar came under direct military rule after a 1962 coup replaced the civilian government. In 1990, free elections were held and the NLD won, but the military refused to give up power, placing Suu Kyi under house arrest. After 2011, a transition to democratic rule gradually began, but the military still controlled much of the government.

The NLD has also been accused of being complicit in the military’s ethnic cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims and disenfranchising opponents.

While Myanmar’s government does not practice direct censorship of internet content, Freedom House gave the country a score of only 36 out of 100 in 2019, citing manipulation of online content by both the military and NLD, and prosecution that forces individuals to self-censor. In June 2019, the government banned the internet in parts of Rakhine and Chin State, the sites of ongoing fighting between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army. Human rights observers including the Human Rights Watch have said that the internet ban prevents people in those areas from communicating with their families, getting information about COVID-19 or accessing aid.

via Tingle Tech

Hello friends, this is Week in Review.

Last week, I dove into the AR maneuverings of Apple and Facebook and what that means for the future of the web. This week, I’m aiming to touch the meme stock phenomenon that dominated American news cycles this week and see if there’s anything worth learning from it, with an eye towards the future web.

If you’re reading this on the TechCrunch site, you can get this in your inbox every Saturday morning from the newsletter page, and follow my tweets @lucasmtny.

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The big thing

This week was whatever you wanted it to be. A rising up of the proletariat. A case of weaponized disinformation. A rally for regulation… or perhaps deregulation of financial markets. Choose your own adventure with the starting point being one flavor of chaos leading into a slightly more populist blend of chaos.

At the end of it, a lot of long-time financiers are confused, a lot of internet users are using rent money to buy stock in Tootsie Roll, a lot of billionaires are finding how intoxicating adopting a “for-the-little-guy!” persona on Twitter can be, and here I am staring at the ceiling wondering if there’s any institution in the world trustworthy enough that the internet can’t turn it into a lie.

This week, my little diddy is about meme stocks, but more about the idea that once you peel away the need to question why you actually trust something, it can become easier to just blindly place that faith in more untrustworthy places. All the better if those places are adjacent to areas where others place trust.

The Dow Jones had its worst week since October because retail investors, organized in part on Reddit, turned America’s financial markets into the real front page of the internet. Boring, serious stocks like Facebook and Apple reported their earnings and the markets adjusted accordingly, but in addition to the serious bits of news, the Wall Street page was splashed with break neck gains from “meme stocks.” While junk stocks surging is nothing new, the idea that a stock can make outrageous gains based on nothing and then possibly hold that value based on a newly formed shared trust is newer and much more alarming.

The most infamous of these stocks was GameStop. (If you’re curious about GameStop’s week, there are at least 5 million stories across the web to grab your attention, here’s one. Side note: collectively we seem to have longer attention spans post-Trump.)

So, Americans already don’t have too much institutional faith. Looking through some long-standing Gallup research, compared to the turn of the century, faith in organized religion, the media, most wings of government, big business and banks has decreased quite a bit. The outliers in what Americans do seem to trust more than they did 20 or so years ago are small businesses and the military.

This is all to say that it’s probably not stellar that people don’t trust anything, and me thinking that the internet could probably disrupt every trusted institution except the military probably only shows my lack of creative thinking when it comes to how the web could democratize the Defense Department. As you might guess from that statement, I think democratizing access to certain institutions can be bad. I say that with about a thousand asterisks leading to footnotes that you’ll never find. I also don’t think the web is done disrupting institutional trust by a long shot, for better or worse.

Democratizing financial systems sounds a lot better from a populist lift, until you realize that the guys users are competing against are playing a different game with other people’s money. This saga will change plenty of lives but it won’t end particularly well for a most people exposed to “infinite upside” day trading.

Until this week, in my mind Robinhood was only reckless because it was exposing (or “democratizing access to” — their words) consumers to risk in a way that most of them probably weren’t equipped to handle. Now, I think that they’re reckless because they didn’t anticipate that OR how democratized access could lead to so many potential doomsday scenarios and bankrupt Robinhood. They quietly raised a $1 billion liquidity lifeline this week after they had to temporarily shut down meme stock trading, a move that essentially torched their brand and left them the web’s most hated institution. (Facebook had a quiet week)

This kind of all feeds back into this idea I’ve been feeding that scale can be very dangerous. Platforms seem to need a certain amount of head count to handle global audiences, and almost all of them are insufficiently staffed. Facebook announced this week in its earnings call that it has nearly 60,000 employees. This is a company that now has its own Supreme Court; that’s too big. If your institution is going to be massive and centralized, chances are you need a ton of people to moderate it. That’s something at odds with most existing internet platforms. Realistically, the internet would probably be happier with fewer of these sweeping institutions and more intimate bubbles that are loosely connected. That’s something that the network effects of the past couple decades have made harder but regulation around data portability could assist with.

Writing this newsletter, something I’m often reminded is that while it feels like everything is always changing, few things are wholly new. This great NYT profile from 2001 written by Michael Lewis is a great reminder of that, chronicling a 15-year-old who scammed the markets by using a web of dummy accounts and got hounded by the SEC but still walked away with $500k. Great read.

In the end, things will likely quiet down at Robinhood. There’s also the distinct chance that they don’t and that those meme traders just ignited a revolution that’s going to bankrupt the company and torch the globals markets, but you know things will probably go back to normal.

 

Until next week,
Lucas Matney

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Other things

SEC is pissed
I’ll try to keep these updates GameStop free, but one quick note from the peanut gallery. The SEC isn’t all that happy about the goings ons in the market this week and they’re mad, probably mostly at Robinhood. They got pretty terse with their statement. More

Facebook Oversight Board wants YOU
Zuckerberg’s Supreme Court wants public comment as it decides whether Facebook should give Trump his Instagram and Facebook accounts back. I’m sure any of Facebook’s executives would’ve stopped building the platform dead in its tracks in the years after its founding if they knew just how freaking complicated moderation was going to end up being for them, but you could probably have changed their mind back by showing them the market cap. More

Apple adtech-killing update drops in spring
After delaying its launch, Apple committed this week to the spring rollout of its “App Tracking Transparency” feature that has so much of the adtech world pissed. The update will force apps to essentially ask users whether they’d like to be tracked across apps. More

Robert Downey Jr. bets on startups
Celebrity investing has been popular forever, but it’s gotten way more common in the venture world in recent years. Reputation transfer teamed with the fact that money is so easy to come by for top founders, means that if you are choosing from some second-tier fund or The Chainsmokers, you might pick The Chainsmokers. On that note, actor Robert Downey Jr. raised a rolling fund to back climate tech startups, we’ve got all the deets. More

WeWork SPAC
Ah poor Adam Neumann, poor SoftBank. If only they’d kept their little “tech company” under wraps for another couple years and left that S-1 for a kinder market with less distaste for creative framing. It seems that WeWork is the next target to get SPAC’d and be brought onto public markets via acquisition. I’m sure everything will go fine. More

Tim Cook and Zuckerberg spar
Big tech is a gentlemen’s game, generally big tech CEOs play nice with each other in public and save their insults for the political party that just fell out of power. This week, Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg were a little less friendly. Zuckerberg called out Apple by name in their earnings investor call and floated some potential unfair advantages that Apple might have. Them’s fighting words. Cook was more circumspect as usual and delivered a speech that was at times hilariously direct in the most indirect way possible about how much he hates Facebook. More

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Extra things

Tidbits from our paywalled Extra Crunch content:
The 5 biggest mistakes I made as a first-time startup founder
“I and the rest of the leadership team would work 12-hour days, seven days a week. And that trickled down into many other employees doing the same. I didn’t think twice about sending emails, texts or slacks at night and on weekends. As with many startups, monster hours were simply part of the deal.”

Fintechs could see $100 billion of liquidity in 2021
“For the fourth straight year, the publicly traded fintechs massively outperformed the incumbent financial services providers as well as every mainstream stock index. While the underlying performance of these companies was strong, the pandemic further bolstered results as consumers avoided appearing in-person for both shopping and banking. Instead, they sought — and found — digital alternatives.”

Rising African venture investment powers fintech, clean tech bets in 2020
“What is driving generally positive venture capital results for Africa in recent quarters? Giuliani told TechCrunch in a follow-up email that ‘investment in Africa is being driven on the one hand by a broadening base for early-stage ecosystem support organizations, including accelerators, seed funds, syndicates and angel investing,” and “consolidation,” which is aiding both “growth-stage deals and a burgeoning M&A market.'”

 

via Tingle Tech

On Jan. 31, 1971, NASA  sent the Apollo 14 mission skyward.

The eighth crewed mission in the Apollo program (and third one to reach the surface of the Moon) lifted off on a Sunday afternoon with NASA astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell on board. They reached the surface of Earth's only natural satellite five days later.

Image: STF / Staff via getty images

The mission led by Commander Shepard and his crew was something of a second take. One year earlier, the infamous Apollo 13 mission came to a premature end due to equipment failures. The astronauts on board made it back home, but they weren't able to stage a lunar landing as intended. Read more...

More about Apollo, Moon, Science, and Space


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Zoom interviews can be full of awkwardness — and that's when your interrupting kids aren't the antichristSaturday Night Live cast host John Krasinski as a stock market expert and father of two in a Jan. 30 sketch, with Kate McKinnon and Mikey Day as his terrifying twins.

At first, the sketch seems to be about how Redditors shook the stock market with GameStop earlier in the week, but then Krasinski moves his chair to reveal a disturbing piece of wall art. He declares proudly that the piece ("Restless Sinner") was made by his daughter. Moments later, McKinnon and Day show up with matching blonde wigs and deadly stares. They keep popping up in Father's interview until they develop certain enmity with his fellow panelist Dale (Beck Bennett), and even their favorite snack won't distract them. Read more...

More about Saturday Night Live, Kate Mckinnon, John Krasinski, Entertainment, and Movies Tv Shows


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Saturday Night Live tried not go overboard with The Office sketches for host John Krasinski, but the few references that did drop were extremely satisfying.

In one sketch, Krasinski joined SNL cast members in singing invented lyrics to TV theme songs, including The Queen's Gambit, Bridgerton, and The Mandalorian. (Dear SNL: Please stop trying to make Baby Yoda a thing.) 

Just when it seemed like the sketch would end without doing the obvious, Krasinski takes the mic, singing along to the entire Office theme song. He starts off simple ("Scranton, Scranton, Scranton, Scranton, Scranton, Scranton) and goes on to narrate actions in the split screen ("Tie flip!"). At least one audience member yells "Yeah!" at the end, and we feel it in our souls. Read more...

More about Saturday Night Live, The Office, John Krasinski, Entertainment, and Celebrities


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An internet-connected plug can give any basic appliance a brain. Here are our favorites (and a few we don't like).


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Claiming that deplatforming racists violates First Amendment rights shows a distorted understanding of how speech, race, and power work online.


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The new Netflix film “The White Tiger” tells the story of Balram, who is born to a poor family in the Indian village of Laxmangarh and escapes by using his intelligence and determination, ultimately becoming a successful entrepreneur in Bangalore.

The viewers knows this from the start, as Balram (played by Adarsh Gourav) narrates his life story in an email, apparently written to explain his success to China’s visiting head of state. That narration is one of the best things about the movie, providing plenty of black comedy while also allowing Balram to justify his choices in what — by his own admission — is an increasingly disturbing story.

As we explain in the latest episode of the Original Content podcast, “The White Tiger” makes a convincing case for the ruthlessness needed to escape from poverty, while also painting a damning portrait of Balram’s employers, the American-educated Ashok (Rajkummar Rao) and Pinky (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), whose ostensible warmth and compassion only go so far.

If “The White Tiger” falls short at all, it’s in comparison to “Parasite,” a film that deals with similar themes in even more ambitious and virtuosic ways. But a movie can fail to reach the heights of “Parasite” while still being quite good.

In addition to our review, we also discuss The Mother Box, a $130 meal kit tied to the March release of Zack Snyder’s cut of “Justice League” on HBO Max.

You can listen to our review in the player below, subscribe using Apple Podcasts or find us in your podcast player of choice. If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review on Apple. You can also follow us on Twitter or send us feedback directly. (Or suggest shows and movies for us to review!)

If you’d like to skip ahead, here’s how the episode breaks down:
0:00 Intro
0:27 Snyder Cut discussion
9:16 “The White Tiger” review
29:20 “The White Tiger” spoiler discussion

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John Krasinski's first-ever opening monologue on Saturday Night Live was haunted by the ghost of The Office.

As Krasinski set out to do his whole opening bit, a meta-bit took shape as SNL cast members stationed in the audience peppered him with questions (really, most of them are statements) about his time on the hit NBC series. And that, of course, led to an insistent demand for a Jim... er, that is John and Pam kiss. Even though Jenna Fischer, the actor who played Pam, was nowhere near the SNL set.

Enter Pete Davidson. When the young SNL player took to the stage to explain why people are still so obsessed with a show that ended eight years ago — "Everyone's been stuck inside for a year watching The Office non-stop," he explained — he immediately became the ideal choice to fill the role of Pam. And so he did. The rest is TV history. Read more...

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Of the many Donald Trump adherents who debased themselves on the national stage, few did it with as much aplomb and enthusiasm than the martial law-espousing MyPillow CEO, Mike Lindell.

No one does Lindell's special breed of absurdity better than Saturday Night Live's Beck Bennett. In this appears on Weekend Update, Bennett-as-Lindell professes his undying love for pillows as he leans in on the same toxic 2020 election rhetoric and lies that turned the real-life MyPillow guy's business into a commercial pariah. Read more...

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What still works in these United States of America? Not a whole lot, according to Saturday Night Live.

The latest SNL cold open, also the first of 2021, starts things off with a step away from the direct political parody that became a (debatable) gold mine for the show during the Donald Trump era. Instead, the eight-minute sketch delivers a Kate McKinnon-hosted talk show called "What Still Works?"

As each brief segment cycles through some of the most pressing topics on Americans' minds in January 2021 — including the detestable words and views of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, the "GameStonk" blitz, and the almost-too-late maneuvers by Big Tech to de-fang Trump — to remind us all that actually no, the USA isn't in such great shape at the moment. Read more...

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Keep your phone, tablet, laptop, or device running with these handheld power banks.


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To understand how universes might inflate and bump into each other in the hypothetical multiverse, physicists are studying digital and physical analogs of the process.


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Don't let your resolutions flame out. These tech tools help keep you on track.


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Fed up with pandemic-fueled meal-prep anxiety, I asked the Gray Lady to send me a weekly email telling me precisely what to buy and cook. It was the right move.


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When we spend so much of our time online, we’re bound to learn something while clicking and scrolling. Discover something new with Mashable’s series I learned it on the internet.

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I've never felt more like a hungry squirrel than when I spoke to a neuroscientist who's spent decades studying, and trying to expand, human attention spans.

Just like a squirrel forages for nuts, he explained, humans forage for information. As a squirrel hops from tree to tree to gather food — even if the tree it's hanging out in has plenty to offer — humans hop from information source to information source. We get bored of our metaphorical nuts, or we get anxious that the other tree's nuts are better, and bouncing over there is a breeze.  Read more...

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TL;DR: Keep transcripts of your video calls with a subscription to CaptionSaver Pro. As of Jan. 31 get a lifetime subscription for $24.99, a 49% savings. 

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After spending almost an entire year working from home, we’re all starting to get a little burnt out. It was once enjoyable to dress up only the top halves of our bodies and pretend to wear real pants as we chatted eagerly with our coworkers over Zoom. Now it’s tough to even focus on what each meeting is about — especially if you're trying to take notes at the same time.

Unprecedented times call for new apps and inventions, though, and CaptionSaver Pro is one of our favorites. A Chrome extension for all the remote workers out there, CaptionSaver creates live caption transcripts from Google Meet video calls and presentations and automatically saves them to your Drive. So, not only can you follow along easier during your live meetings, but you’ll also be able to go back and reread the transcripts later on for a refresher. Read more...

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TL;DR: The Complete 2021 Self-Publish Your Book Bundle will teach you everything you need to get a book into the world. As of Jan. 31, get the bundle 98% off at just $39.99.

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Self-publishing a book is totally possible. Here's a way to get some helpful pointers.

This online training includes 28 hours of content and over 300 lessons designed to take your writing career to the next level. The classes are all part of Skill Success, a platform where over 500,000 students have worked to develop new career skills.

In this course bundle, you'll learn a variety of different ways to get your words on the page, tackle writer's block, and unlock your creativity and imagination. You'll also cover more technical aspects of the publishing process, like designing an ebook cover, formatting for Kindle, creating income streams, promoting, outsourcing, and so much more. Read more...

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TL;DR: Make your fitness goals a reality with the Fitbit Ionic GPS Fitness Smartwatch. As of Jan. 31 get it for $179.99, a 28% discount. 

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Already struggling to keep up with your New Year's fitness goals? The Fitbit Ionic GPS Fitness Smartwatch can deliver the proper insight and encouragement you've been missing on your journey to better health, and it's on sale for less than $200. 

More than just a fitness tracker, this sleek smartwatch offers fitness guidance, music storage, and so much more. It can track steps, heart rate, distance walked, calories burned, floors climbed, active minutes, hourly activity, and stationary time. Read more...

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TL;DR: Charge your iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods at once with the OMNIA Q3 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station. As of Jan. 31, you can save 20% and get it for just $109.95. 

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It’s hard to believe after all this time, Apple still hasn’t released their own wireless charging station. There was the infamous AirPower — the Apple-designed charging mat designed to juice up Qi-based iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods — but ultimately, it missed its debut and was never really heard of again until it was canceled altogether.

Fortunately, other brands worked their own magic to create similar tools — like the OMNIA Q3 from Adam Elements. This MFi-certified charging station is a single place to power up an iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch all at once. Read more...

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TL;DR: Seamlessly connect your Airpods to your Mac with the AirBuddy app, on sale for $8.99 — a 10% savings — as of Jan. 31. 

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Linking a pair of AirPods to a Mac requires a few more steps than linking them to an iPhone or iPad. While clicking a few more times is not necessarily a pressing issue, if it really bothers you, the AirBuddy app can make things easier.

On the app, you'll be able to see the current status and battery life of your Apple AirPods via your Mac, the same way you can on an iPhone or iPad. You'll also have the option to quickly change listening modes, microphone input, and output volume with a simple keyboard shortcut — you won't have to open System Preferences or the Bluetooth menu. Read more...

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SAVE 49%: A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for £5.02 per month as of Jan. 31, and includes an extra three months for free.

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Are you short on content options at the moment? Join the club. If it feels like you've exhausted every show and film that the likes of Netflix and Prime Video has to offer, we recommend considering a VPN.

These security services can be used to bypass geo-restrictions to unblock streaming services from other locations. By hiding your real IP address, you can trick these services into thinking you are based in another country, meaning you can access the library of content that is normally locked to that location. Read more...

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TL;DR: A lifetime subscription to Starchive 1TB Cloud Storage is on sale for £70.94 as of Jan. 31, saving you 93% on list price.

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If you're a creative professional in just about any field, you know how important it is to back up your work and keep it safe. Nothing stings worse than finally completing a project, only to have it completely wiped from your computer's hard drive just moments later.

Sometimes you need more storage than a standard operating system can provide — and bonus points if it can help you stay organised in the process. That's where Starchive comes in.

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TL;DR: The Ultimate Music Production Bundle is on sale for £18.31 as of Jan. 31, saving you 97% on list price.

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For anyone who's ever dreamt of being a rock star, it's not too late.

With the Ultimate Music Production Bundle, a collection of seven courses that's available now at a 96% discount, you can get a crash course in the professional tools needed to produce your own music in your spare time. You might not become the next Bach or Beethoven, to be sure, but Dr. Dre and Mike Will Made It had better watch their backs.

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Archaeologists found the entrance to the unexplored burial shaft earlier this week.


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Steamed hams from The Simpsons. Imaginary pies from Hook. Meat tornadoes straight outta Pawnee, Indiana. What's actually in these fictional onscreen wonders and can we have them in our real lives?

Yes we can. Brooklyn-based chef, cookbook author, and longtime YouTuber Andrew Rea has spent years finding ways to recreate iconic dishes from pop culture on Binging with Babish, one of the best online spots for you TV and movie fans to see your favourite fabricated foods come to life (and learn how to make them yourself). 

While there's more than pop culture recipes on the channel (check out the basics videos for handy, straightforward cooking tips), the very best BWB recipes are those that have been born or popularised in a particular TV show or movie. He usually makes a faithful version of that dish before offering his own interpretation. Read more...

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A global study finds that species numbers reported in the wild fell sharply between 1990 and 2015.


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When we spend so much of our time online, we’re bound to learn something while clicking and scrolling. Discover something new with Mashable’s series I learned it on the internet.

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Filed away in my vast catalogue of Deep Dark Fears, subfolder Internet-Related, is the dread of discovering myself as the antagonist in an advice column letter. 

During one especially rough period in a years-ago job, I had to stop reading Alison Green’s excellent work advice column Ask A Manager. I was irrationally anxious that I’d come across the untenable situation I was in, neatly recounted so that Green could rule against me. The mere sight of a “34F” (my current age and gender, not my bra size) in a Reddit advice post often gives me a momentary flash of alarm before I read on and confirm that no, I am probably not the writer’s soon-to-be sister-in-law who’s demanding that her pet ferrets replace the groom’s nephew as ring-bearer. Read more...

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Sometimes, as a reporter covering digital culture, I feel like I live in a world disparate from my friends and family. How do you, for instance, explain the vagaries and subsets of alt-TikTok to people who, at most, know TikTok as the app where the kids dance? 

Culture at large — things like music, film, news — reckoned with a digital invasion long ago. The Trump regime hastened that process for the staid world of politics. Was there ever — will there ever be — a more Online president than Donald Trump, who spent his days in office live-tweeting his every whim? 

It's obvious now: There is no distinction, not really, between the world online and the world offline. They bleed into and feed one another, now explicitly so when it comes to extremist political movements. You can't understand one without the other. Read more...

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You want to reward good behaviors, not use tools to punish negative ones.


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By hardening iMessage in iOS 14, the company has effectively cut off what had been an increasingly popular line of attack.


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You'll find discounts this week on audio equipment, our favorite video calling device, TVs, and movies.


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If you've found yourself spending the pandemic filling up online shopping cart after online shopping cart, you're not alone.

People have increasingly turned to online shopping during the coronavirus crisis. While Americans spent less online during the first three months of 2020 compared with the final three months of 2019, this shot up by 37 percent in April, May, and June, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. While online sales decreased slightly during July, August, and September, they were still 37 percent higher than the same period in 2019. And online sales are only expected to increase across the industry, according to the Associated Press. Read more...

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India plans to introduce a law to ban private cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin in the country and provide a framework for the creation of an official digital currency during the current budget session of parliament.

In the agenda (PDF) published on the lower house website, the legislation seeks to “prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India,” but allow “for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology [blockchain] of cryptocurrency and its uses.”

The law also seeks to “create a facilitative framework for creation of the official digital currency” that will be issued by the nation’s central bank, Reserve Bank of India, the agenda said.

In 2018, an Indian government panel recommended banning all private cryptocurrencies and proposed up to 10 years of jail time for offenders. The panel also suggested the government to explore a digital version of the fiat currency and ways to implement it.

At the time, RBI said the move was necessary to curb “ring-fencing” of the country’s financial system. It had also argued that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies cannot be treated as currencies as they are not made of metal or exist in physical form, nor were they stamped by the government. The 2018 notice from the central bank sent a panic to several local startups and companies offering services to trade in cryptocurrency. Nearly all of them have either since closed shop, or pivoted to serve other markets.

This proposal was challenged by several exchanges and traders, who filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court. The nation’s apex court ruled in their favor last year.

“Since the government is considering introducing the bill during this session of Parliament, we are sure the government will definitely listen to all the stakeholders before taking any decision,” said Sumit Gupta, co-founder and chief executive of CoinDCX,a cryptocurrency exchange in India.

“We are talking to other stakeholders and will definitely initiate deeper dialogue with the government and showcase how we can actually create a healthy ecosystem in unison,” he said.

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When we spend so much of our time online, we’re bound to learn something while clicking and scrolling. Discover something new with Mashable’s series I learned it on the internet.

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Alleged "hacks" for "life" born on the web have been known to — at best — be simply useless. At worst, they risk getting the "life hacker" killed or injured. Yet the old gal (by which we mean the entirety of the online human population) still has some new tricks to teach us. 

Inevitably, when you gather all of modern human knowledge onto several communication platforms like social media, you're bound to discover some mind-blowing revelations. With TikTok in particular, folks are having the humbling experience of learning they've been doing even the most mundane everyday things completely wrong. Read more...

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TL;DR: Make digital drawing, photo editing, and more a little easier with the TourBox Neo controller. It's on sale for 21% off as of Jan. 30 with code CREATE10, bringing the price down to $139.99.

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If you’ve ever clumsily attempted to inch a mouse just the right amount while editing a photo or video, then you know how valuable tactile precision can be. The TourBox Neo is an innovative controller designed by digital creators, for digital creators to make photo editing, drawing, and more a little easier.

This new and improved edition is more comfortable and intuitive than ever. It features precisely-calibrated controls and buttons for ideal speed, accuracy, and acceleration, as well as a versatile knob that enables you to control the size, flow, transparency, and hardness of the brush.  Read more...

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TL;DR: Get the long-lasting Bang & Olufsen Beoplay earbuds for $289.99 — a 17% discount — as of Jan. 30.

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In 35 hours, you can watch 70 episodes of Sex and the City, do 46 loads of laundry, listen to Kacey Musgraves' Golden Hour about 45 times, and never need to charge your Bang & Olufsen Beoplay earbuds once.

Wireless headphones aren't super great if you have to charge them every four or so hours. The Beoplay E8 3.0 in-ear headphones not only stay charged for longer than a day when they're set in the charging case, but also easily connect to your devices via Bluetooth.

When these buds finally do run out of power, all you have to do is put them in the leather charging case and set them down on any Qi charging pad (or plug them in via USB). Since they charge at a 5W rate or a "fast mode" option that charges at up to 10W, you'll be able to use them again in a flash.  Read more...

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If you need to make some updates to your work from home setup as we enter our second year of remote work, these refurbished Acer Chromebooks are all on sale at some steep discounts.

Check out the options below, which are all on sale as of Jan. 30, and stop crying over deleted work.

Refurbished Acer C720-2848 Chromebook

This Chromebook is stacked with 2GB of RAM and 16GB SSD, and lasts 8.5 hours on a single charge. It's normally $199, but you can take it home for just $149.99.

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TL;DR: Become a real content creator with this Aduro U-Stream Executive Home Streaming Studio. Grab the ring light and tripod kit for $119.99 as of Jan. 30, a savings of 60%.

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If you regularly film YouTube videos, go live on Instagram, or create TikToks in your spare time, you could benefit from a high-tech filming setup. It’s not out of the question to set up your own studio; in fact, this home streaming kit from Aduro has what you need to take your videos to the next level — and it’s on sale for 60% off. 

With high ratings across the board on Amazon, Aduro's gear is top of the line and recommended especially for online influencers. Complete with an 18-inch ring light, an adjustable tripod, three smartphone holders with 360-degree rotation, and a remote control, this streaming kit can ensure you always put your best face forward.  Read more...

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With a global pandemic to worry about, there's a good chance you've neglected your oral hygiene. But there are steps you can take to make things a little better — including using an electric toothbrush. (Of course, this is not a substitute for actually going to the dentist.)

If you've been seriously slacking in the dental hygiene department, you're in luck: These electric toothbrushes are all on sale as of Jan. 30.

TAO Clean Sonic Toothbrush and Docking Station

Available in five fun colors to suit your style, the TAO Toothbrush boats 40,000 tiny brush strokes per minute and even comes with a UV-C charging station. Get it on sale for just $69.99 (normally $129) for a limited time. Read more...

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Ireland’s technology scene has come in leaps and bounds in the last decade, with a growing VC scene, plenty of startups and tech giants attracted by the nation’s favorable tax incentives and talent pool.

Google, Facebook, Slack, Microsoft and Dropbox each have a European headquarters sited in Dublin. As the EU’s only remaining English-language speaking hub, Ireland is attracting more diversity in its founders than ever before, plus the tech diaspora is returning to its roots as the ecosystem matures.

We surveyed five local VCs to find out if they had any wisdom to share with TechCrunch readers who are considering hiring, investing or founding a company in Ireland this year.

VCs in Ireland don’t stray far from home, but there are plenty of great deals to be had there anyway. A small domestic market means Irish startups think internationally from launch, and there are high-quality seed opportunities. Top-tier American VCs like Sequoia are placing bets on Irish companies, sometimes even at a pre-seed stage.

The coronavirus pandemic has not really impacted many investment strategies — aside from the switch to Zoom calls instead of meet-and-greets — but it has made hiring more challenging, given the competitiveness of the local labor market. Still, top engineering talent is cheaper there than in the U.S., which means entrepreneurs can create great companies with less overhead.

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We just launched Extra Crunch in Ireland. Subscribe for access to all of our investor surveys, company profiles and other insider coverage for startups everywhere. Save 25% off the cost of a one-year Extra Crunch membership by entering discount code IRISHCRUNCH.

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We spoke with the following investors:

• Andrew O’Neill, principal, Act Venture Capital
• Isabelle O’Keeffe, principal, Sure Valley Ventures
• Nicola McClafferty, partner, Draper Esprit
• Michelle Dervan, partner, Rethink Education Management, LLC
• Will Prendergast, partner, Frontline Ventures

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Andrew O’Neill, principal, Act Venture Capital

What trends are you most excited about investing in, generally?
We are seeing high-quality seed opportunities that are leading with exciting developer-first/bottoms-up go-to-market strategies in both security and enterprise software. The shift left in security is very well-publicized, but we feel the cultural element of developers truly caring about security and implementing it at design phase is still only beginning … and it’s hugely exciting.

What’s your latest, most exciting investment?
It’s a B2B SaaS design tool, in the world of Figma, Sketch and Invision App … and has some very interesting angels. It is only just complete and not announced yet … and we have not talked to any PR agencies yet, but would be happy to pitch an exclusive to you ;)

Are there startups that you wish you would see in the industry but don’t? What are some overlooked opportunities right now?
As a domestic market, Ireland is very small … so by its very nature, we do not see the same level of great B2C as the U.K. The expertise … and second, third-time consumer-tech founders are not as common, but there are still of course huge opportunities in the consumer space and companies like Buymie are proving it can be done in Ireland.

What are you looking for in your next investment, in general?
Like every investment: The people that truly understand the pain point, have passion around the product, have the patience and grit to keep going, and finally the potential for this company to become a category creator.

Which areas are either oversaturated or would be too hard to compete in at this point for a new startup? What other types of products/services are you wary or concerned about?
No competition means no market … however there are high volumes of startups empowering remote working, productivity tools and HR tech focused around company culture metrics etc. … but that said, there is a wave of change happening around the future of work that no one has a crystal ball on, and new category winners will still emerge.

How much are you focused on investing in your local ecosystem versus other startup hubs (or everywhere) in general? More than 50%? Less?
Very focused on Ireland and more than 50% … we can invest in Series A and B across Europe, but we invest at seed exclusively in Ireland.

Which industries in your city and region seem well-positioned to thrive, or not, long term? What are companies you are excited about (your portfolio or not), which founders?
Enterprise software startups have always been well-positioned for success within Ireland, and that has only increased with the secondary effects now appearing from the result of great talent coming out of large MNCs driven by 20+ years of FDI. Act has invested in over 120 companies and over half is in enterprise software. We are excited about seeing a new emerging amount of repeat founders in our portfolio (and Ireland) like Barry Lunn in Provizio, and Cathal McGloin in ServisBOT.

How should investors in other cities think about the overall investment climate and opportunities in your city?
When we looked at all the data in Ireland recently, there has been a 115% increase from €401 million to €860 million invested per annum over the last four years. So the market size has doubled and we are seeing some very exciting seed companies, which bides very well for the future.

Do you expect to see a surge in more founders coming from geographies outside major cities in the years to come, with startup hubs losing people due to the pandemic and lingering concerns, plus the attraction of remote work?
Personally, I do expect to see even more great startups coming out of the south like Cork and Limerick and the west in Galway, but I don’t foresee startup hubs significantly losing people due to the pandemic and remote work.

Which industry segments that you invest in look weaker or more exposed to potential shifts in consumer and business behavior because of COVID-19? 
It’s obvious that there are now serious questions around the level of future of business travel, given how people have been forced to rethink and adapt how they do business. This industry shift alone will create both big winners and losers long term.

How has COVID-19 impacted your investment strategy? What are the biggest worries of the founders in your portfolio? What is your advice to startups in your portfolio right now?
Not hugely, given the long-term timeframe we consider when investing. The bigger question around changing consumer behaviors, the acceleration of e-commerce adoption and digital transformation is something we are of course taking into account. Our advice is always bespoke and contextual to the individual startup, and only given when asked.

Are you seeing “green shoots” regarding revenue growth, retention or other momentum in your portfolio as they adapt to the pandemic?
Yes, our portfolio has proven itself to be quite robust through COVID and companies like SilverCloud Health, Toothpic and Buymie are experiencing great tailwinds due to the current pandemic environment.

What is a moment that has given you hope in the last month or so? This can be professional, personal or a mix of the two.
Personally, seeing some incredibly talented founders with deep expertise at seed stage that are repeat founders. They know exactly what they want and need to do to go bigger this time around, and we believe they can get there much quicker than before.

 

Isabelle O’Keeffe, principal, Sure Valley Ventures

What trends are you most excited about investing in, generally?
AI/ML, cybersecurity, immersive technologies and gaming infrastructure.

What’s your latest, most exciting investment?
Getvisbility and Volograms.

Are there startups that you wish you would see in the industry but don’t? What are some overlooked opportunities right now? What are you looking for in your next investment, in general?
Companies that are really creating defensibility using the technology. Companies creating new markets.

Which areas are either oversaturated or would be too hard to compete in at this point for a new startup? What other types of products/services are you wary or concerned about?
Ride-sharing, on-demand delivery, payments and challenger banks.

How much are you focused on investing in your local ecosystem versus other startup hubs (or everywhere) in general? More than 50%? Less?
We invest more than 50% in our local ecosystem versus other startup hubs.

Which industries in your city and region seem well-positioned to thrive, or not, long term? What are companies you are excited about (your portfolio or not), which founders?
The industries that will continue to thrive include: financial services, property and construction, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and Big Tech. We’re very excited about some of our portfolio companies including VividQ, Admix, Buymie, Nova Leah and WarDucks.

How should investors in other cities think about the overall investment climate and opportunities in your city?
Dublin and Ireland have a growing and prosperous tech ecosystem and there are plenty of great investment opportunities there.

Do you expect to see a surge in more founders coming from geographies outside major cities in the years to come, with startup hubs losing people due to the pandemic and lingering concerns, plus the attraction of remote work?
Yes I would agree that we will see some of this happening. However, I do think that once there is a vaccine that we will see the return of cities and people will naturally be attracted back there.

Which industry segments that you invest in look weaker or more exposed to potential shifts in consumer and business behavior because of COVID-19? What are the opportunities startups may be able to tap into during these unprecedented times?
We have seen limited impact of COVID on some of segments that we invest into. The opportunities exist for companies operating in the future or work including remote working, e-commerce, on-demand grocery delivery, cybersecurity, gaming and immersive technologies.

How has COVID-19 impacted your investment strategy? What are the biggest worries of the founders in your portfolio? What is your advice to startups in your portfolio right now?
COVID has not really impacted our investment strategy bar the fact that we have had to get comfortable with a lot of the process being conducted via Zoom. We have not shifted away from certain sectors or industries as we have tended to invest into areas that are relatively unaffected. The biggest worries for founders in our portfolio are around raising their next round of funding, hitting key milestones, achieving a repeatable go-to-market strategy and hiring great talent.

My advice to startups in my portfolio now is to keep a very close eye on burn, ensure that if they are going out to fundraise that they realize it can take at least two months longer than they originally anticipated and to continue to be working on the product and technology at times when sales have slowed down as when they emerge from this period they will be in a much stronger position with their products and technology and the sales will follow.

Are you seeing “green shoots” regarding revenue growth, retention or other momentum in your portfolio as they adapt to the pandemic?
Yes we have “green shoots’ regarding momentum in Buymie, which is an “on-demand grocery delivery” company who have seen a surge in demand for the service due to the pandemic. Getvisibility, which is a cybersecurity company, has also seen a surge in interest from companies in the financial services, and pharmaceutical and defense industries as they adapt to their employees working from home and where there are greater risks of cyberattacks.

What is a moment that has given you hope in the last month or so? This can be professional, personal or a mix of the two.
I think the moment for everyone recently has been the announcement that we could be closer to a vaccine than we originally thought and that we may be able to resume normal life next year.

 

Nicola McClafferty, partner, Draper Esprit

What trends are you most excited about investing in, generally?
Future of work/consumerization of enterprise, machine-learning applications.

What’s your latest, most exciting investment?
Sweepr — automation of customer care for connected homes.

Are there startups that you wish you would see in the industry but don’t? What are some overlooked opportunities right now?
True AI, digital health.

What are you looking for in your next investment, in general?
Global ambition.

Which areas are either oversaturated or would be too hard to compete in at this point for a new startup? What other types of products/services are you wary or concerned about?
E-scooters.

How much are you focused on investing in your local ecosystem versus other startup hubs (or everywhere) in general? More than 50%? Less?
~20%.

Which industries in your city and region seem well-positioned to thrive, or not, long term? What are companies you are excited about (your portfolio or not), which founders?
Software application, AI, machine learning, life sciences. key companies, WorkVivo, Manna Aero, Open, Sweepr, Roomex and Evervault.

How should investors in other cities think about the overall investment climate and opportunities in your city?
Unfortunately seed stage is dramatically underserved by local players. Hiring can be challenging given competitiveness of labor market with large tech MNCs. However deep entrepreneurship culture, global thinking from day one, incredibly strong pool of technical talent from Irish universities. It’s also a key destination of other European founders. Brexit opens even more opportunity for this.

Do you expect to see a surge in more founders coming from geographies outside major cities in the years to come, with startup hubs losing people due to the pandemic and lingering concerns, plus the attraction of remote work?
Startup economy will likely become a bit more distributed around the country but this will be a positive. Cities like Dublin, Cork and Galway will however remain strong hubs.

Which industry segments that you invest in look weaker or more exposed to potential shifts in consumer and business behavior because of COVID-19? What are the opportunities startups may be able to tap into during these unprecedented times?
Travel tech extremely challenged but the best companies will survive and huge winners will emerge in the COVID recovery when travel returns. Big opportunity to accelerate enterprise SaaS adoption and automation as budgets have shifted dramatically to digital infrastructure and cost-cutting and productivity becomes key focus.

How has COVID-19 impacted your investment strategy? What are the biggest worries of the founders in your portfolio? What is your advice to startups in your portfolio right now?
Strategy remains largely intact with some further reserves used to support companies. For those businesses very directly impacted (e.g., travel) — concern is visibility and timing of recovery that is largely out of founder control. Other concerns include cash runway in times of uncertainty — how will the market view performance for future fundraise; in big enterprise how to adapt your sales model for a remote world.

Are you seeing “green shoots” regarding revenue growth, retention or other momentum in your portfolio as they adapt to the pandemic?
Most definitely. As tech businesses most have been very adaptable and are responding to customer needs as they change. After a slow Q2 many businesses rebounded very well in Q3 and have returned to strong growth. Early churn has been flushed out already.

What is a moment that has given you hope in the last month or so? This can be professional, personal or a mix of the two.
Announcement of the vaccine! Path to recovery is nearing.

 

Michelle Dervan, partner, Rethink Education Management, LLC

What trends are you most excited about investing in, generally?
I am deeply specialized in education technology investing. Interested in seeing tailored Zoom alternatives for the classroom, tech-enabled vocational training programs, corporate learning solutions for the distributed workforce.

What’s your latest, most exciting investment?
Crehana, an online skills training platform serving Latin America.

Are there startups that you wish you would see in the industry but don’t? What are some overlooked opportunities right now?
Upskilling and reskilling programs for displaced workers.
Shorter, cheaper training programs and credentialing for middle-skills jobs.
Software to help high school students prep for college and career.
Effective remediation programs that can help students catch up on lost learning during COVID.

What are you looking for in your next investment, in general?
Outliers in terms of evidence of product market fit, proof of efficacy, impact baked into the business model, team with unique understanding of the problem and ability to execute against it.

Which areas are either oversaturated or would be too hard to compete in at this point for a new startup? What other types of products/services are you wary or concerned about?
K-12 supplemental apps, games, content.
Tech bootcamps.
Corporate LMS.

How much are you focused on investing in your local ecosystem versus other startup hubs (or everywhere) in general? More than 50%? Less?
80% U.S.-focused, 20% outside of the U.S.

Which industries in your city and region seem well-positioned to thrive, or not, long term? What are companies you are excited about (your portfolio or not), which founders?
Ireland has traditionally had a very strong e-learning/edtech startup sector. Exciting growth companies include LearnIpon, Learnosity, Alison, Touch Press. Early-stage companies include Avail Support, Zhrum, Robotify.

How should investors in other cities think about the overall investment climate and opportunities in your city?
Dublin is a really vibrant startup ecosystem. Young population. Lots of government supports to encourage entrepreneurship. Excellent experienced talent pool coming out of multinationals and existing startups. English speaking. Great connectivity to rest of Europe/U.S.

Do you expect to see a surge in more founders coming from geographies outside major cities in the years to come, with startup hubs losing people due to the pandemic and lingering concerns, plus the attraction of remote work?
I recently relocated to Dublin after 10 years in NYC. There has been a mass exodus from cities like NYC and SF during the pandemic as the economics of living there plus the space constraints, etc. no longer make sense in a prolonged period of WFH and while most amenities are closed. Dublin is also a high-cost location so will likely also see some exodus although I think to a lesser extent.

Which industry segments that you invest in look weaker or more exposed to potential shifts in consumer and business behavior because of COVID-19? What are the opportunities startups may be able to tap into during these unprecedented times?
The COVID environment has caused a mass acceleration in the adoption of education technology across all age groups from K-12, higher education to corporate and workforce learning. This was already a secular trend albeit at a much slower pace of adoption. I believe that the prolonged period of reliance on a tech-enabled learning experience and the potential need to revert to this in the future will have a lasting effect on how we teach and learn.

How has COVID-19 impacted your investment strategy? What are the biggest worries of the founders in your portfolio? What is your advice to startups in your portfolio right now?
Our investment strategy has not been impacted by COVID. We are seeing a greater degree of opportunity and interest in our sector. The biggest concerns for founders are unpredictability in the sales funnel, potential delays to purchasing decisions and resultant cashflow implications. Even for companies that have been net beneficiaries of the COVID environment, it has injected a very high degree of unpredictability and that is very stressful for founders.

Are you seeing “green shoots” regarding revenue growth, retention or other momentum in your portfolio as they adapt to the pandemic?
Yes, as mentioned above.

What is a moment that has given you hope in the last month or so? This can be professional, personal or a mix of the two.
Biden’s election and the list of people that he is evaluating for Education Secretary and for his cabinet.

 

Will Prendergast, partner, Frontline Ventures

What trends are you most excited about investing in, generally?
We take an opportunistic approach to investing at Frontline and are open to any number of different trends within the B2B space. Generally, we are excited to back founders working on:

• Complexity in the software/product development stack: As more and more businesses become software businesses and software products become more complex there will be a layer of tools that abstract away that complexity and provide connections between them. Software using other software will be an exciting space in the decade to come, facilitated by many API-first companies.
• Embedded finance: We are excited by fintechs that are helping non-financial institutions leverage their customer base to provide financial products. Open banking is an enormous enabler of embedded finance.
• Process augmentation rather than process automation: There are a number of key skill gaps emerging in many different sectors right now and software is emerging as the bridge for companies to handle the shortfall. These are products that help highly skilled workers maximize their productivity.

In the current environment, we are also highly interested in startups that are broadly targeting the key trends below brought on by COVID-19:

• Hospitals and clinics seek to increase efficiency and reach patients remotely.
• Banks cautious as financial crime grows.
• Remote employee management tools for HR and finance teams.
• Debt collection automation due to SME liquidations.

What’s your latest, most exciting investment?
We recently invested in a German business that aims to become the Moody’s of financial crime.
Since 2008, large banks have become less willing to transact with regional retail banks. They were unfairly deemed “too risky” in their portfolio. This company aims to create a fundamental shift in the industry — from old school box ticking compliance to data-driven ways of determining the risk. We are very excited to increase fairness and transparency between banks, which will inevitably create more value to the end consumer.

Are there startups that you wish you would see in the industry but don’t? What are some overlooked opportunities right now?
B2B payments are undergoing a renaissance at the moment with companies like Bill.com dominating in the public markets. As fintech creeps into more aspects of the product stack, payments is just the first part to produce huge winners. Solving the nuts and bolts of business finance is still a hugely overlooked opportunity for both large and small companies.
We’d also love to see more companies dedicated to reducing the CFO burden at SME and enterprise level. From real-time payroll to treasury and employee pension management, so much of a CFO’s work is manual and time consuming.
We have supported companies that make a significant dent in the specific parts of the funnel (for example, Payslip — a global payroll automation platform), but we feel like there is more room for end-to-end automation in this realm.

What are you looking for in your next investment, in general?
We’re looking for challengers who seek out other strong minds; whether you’re a first-time founder building something that matters, or a seasoned entrepreneur that knows how hard it is to “make it.” In all of our investments, we prize self-awareness above all else in our founders; key to building great teams and scaling a global business. Ambition does not require experience. We’re looking to invest in pioneers across Europe from the world of tech, computer science and engineering, due to our own deep knowledge of technology. In return, we use our personal experience in building and scaling business across both sides of the Atlantic to help founders get off the ground — and go global.

Which areas are either oversaturated or would be too hard to compete in at this point for a new startup? What other types of products/services are you wary or concerned about?
Products that are being built specifically with the conditions created by COVID-19 today may find themselves in a wildly different environment in 18 months. We’re looking to speak to founders who see how things are now and have a strong opinion on how they’re going to affect things in the years to come.

How much are you focused on investing in your local ecosystem versus other startup hubs (or everywhere) in general? More than 50%? Less?
We support founders with global ambition across both sides of the Atlantic. Frontline Seed is a pan-European early-stage fund investing all across Europe. Frontline X is a growth-stage fund, for fast and frictionless U.S.-Europe expansion.
When we first started Frontline, the vast majority of our investments came out of Ireland. Since 2012 we have expanded our scope, and for the last few years have been very much pan-European and now invest across Ireland, the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands and Southern Europe.

Which industries in your city and region seem well-positioned to thrive, or not, long term? What are companies you are excited about (your portfolio or not), which founders?
U.S. tech companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google, Zendesk Hubspot (among many others) have a “pied-à-terre” in Ireland.
In most cases, top-class engineering talent is sourced more cheaply there than in the U.S., creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. They upskill great engineers, who then go on to create great companies.
We’ve seen startup developer tools thrive in Ireland as a result; an example of which is Tines.io. This Accel-and-Index-backed company was built by the world-renowned security team in Dublin.

How should investors in other cities think about the overall investment climate and opportunities in your city?
Ireland is a hidden gem — we’ve had the privilege of reaping the rewards. However, I suspect that the likes of Tines.io, Intercom and Stripe are stirring investor curiosity.
We’re already seeing top-tier U.S. VCs like Sequoia placing bets in Irish companies at a pre-seed stage, for example Evervault, one of our portfolio companies.

Do you expect to see a surge in more founders coming from geographies outside major cities in the years to come, with startup hubs losing people due to the pandemic and lingering concerns, plus the attraction of remote work?
As a global fund, part of our core belief is that great companies and exceptional founders can come from anywhere in the world. COVID-19 has had a significant and eroding effect on traditional “tech hub” models and we have seen founders of all walks of life realize that companies can not only run, but thrive in a remote world.
That said, we also believe that geography will continue to matter. Where you set up your HQ in Europe as a growth-stage B2B SaaS business expanding from the U.S. (for example) will continue to matter in a post-COVID world — because legal entities will continue to matter.

Which industry segments that you invest in look weaker or more exposed to potential shifts in consumer and business behavior because of COVID-19? What are the opportunities startups may be able to tap into during these unprecedented times?

1. The closure of retail stores = tremendous growth in e-commerce. Companies big and small are vamping up their back and front ends, and attempting to get more visibility on their supply chain for better customer service.
2. Payments transition online = more financial crime. Banks need tools that help them detect fraud.
3. Consumers are tight on cash = HR departments want to provide more salary liquidity and help employees save for their pensions to create better financial wellness.

These are just to name a few.

How has COVID-19 impacted your investment strategy? What are the biggest worries of the founders in your portfolio? What is your advice to startups in your portfolio right now?
COVID-19 has not changed our investment strategy but it will have lasting impact on the way businesses are run and built. That said, the pandemic has given us a new filter: “How successful can this product/business model be in a post-COVID world?”
At the moment, our founders are most worried by engagement (maintaining company culture) and talent (team expansion, senior leadership recruitment).
Every company is different and we shy away from blanket statements, but what we do advise is that founders spend time to identify what working format works best for their company and that they listen carefully to their employees. How can you continue to grow your business, whilst maintaining and nurturing an inclusive and engaged company culture?
Also — while you can, shore up your balance sheet. Believe it or not, VC funding was at an all-time high in Europe last quarter. Go fundraise to extend your runway as much as possible. No one really knows what the next 12 months is really going to hold.

Are you seeing “green shoots” regarding revenue growth, retention or other momentum in your portfolio as they adapt to the pandemic?
Three companies in our portfolio stand out as pandemic green shoots:

• Workvivo is designed to promote team culture and communication digitally. They have successfully raised a Series A midpandemic with U.S. investor Tiger Global to cope with demand from large customers.
• Qualio is another portfolio company selling quality management software into life sciences and pharmaceutical companies. They blew out their Q2 targets and raised an $11 million Series A.
• Signal AI: Media monitoring is an attractive proposition to PR and comms teams in turbulent times. Signal AI has recently partnered with Deloitte to produce COVID-19 curated reports on how the pandemic has and is continuing to affect supply chains, business, society and travel.

What is a moment that has given you hope in the last month or so? This can be professional, personal or a mix of the two.
Seeing how well the many teams in our portfolio focused on employee health, well-being and safety and how hard they have all worked to keep their companies going strong.

via Tingle Tech