techcrunch News of 01/16/21

Tracy Chou Launches Block Party To Combat Online Harassment And Abuse

Block Party , an anti-harassment startup that aims to help folks feel safer on social media founded by Tracy Chou, launched today. Currently only available for Twitter, Block Party helps people filter out the content they don’t want to see and ...

Fired GitHub Employee Who Warned Co-Workers About Nazis Is Seeking Legal Counsel

On the day a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, a worried GitHub employee warned his co-workers in the D.C. area to be safe. After making a comment in Slack saying, “stay safe homies, Nazis are about,” a fellow employee took ...

How One Company Reached Revenues Of $200m Without VC Money

Welcome back to The TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s broadly based on the daily column that appears on Extra Crunch , but free, and made for your weekend reading. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Subscribe ...

Novakid’S ESL App For Children Raises $4.25m Series A Led By PortfoLio And LearnStart Investors

With the pandemic playing havoc with children’s education EdTech startups have been on a roll. A new fundraising seems to come almost every week at this point. Today it’s Novakid’s turn. This EdTech startup is yet another ‘learning English ...

Curio Wellness Launches $30m Fund To Help Women And Minorities Own A Cannabis Dispensary

“We think of diversity as a keystone issue for the cannabis industry,” said Curio WMBE Fund managing director Jerel Registre in a conversation with TechCrunch. Registre’s conviction around this program is obvious as he explains the ...

What To Make Of Stripe’S Possible $100b Valuation

This is The TechCrunch Exchange, a newsletter that goes out on Saturdays,  based on the column of the same name . You can sign up for the email  here . Welcome to a special Thanksgiving edition of The Exchange. Today we will be brief. But not ...

There’S No ‘Hacker House’ Geared Toward Undergraduate Women, So They Created One Of Their Own

Hacker houses are making a comeback for entrepreneurs as remote work drags on. While founders are adapting to quarantine in style, a group of college women in their 20s aren’t waiting until they are done with undergraduate to plunge into the ...

Despite Commitment To Anti-Racism, Uber’S Black Employee Base Has Decreased

Uber today released its latest diversity report, showing a decline in the overall representation of Black employees in the U.S. despite an increased focus on racial justice this year in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. In 2019, ...

How The Pandemic Drove The IPO Wave We See Today

This is The TechCrunch Exchange, a newsletter that goes out on Saturdays,  based on the column of the same name . You can sign up for the email  here . I had a neat look into the world of mental health startup fundraising planned for this week, ...

Mixtape Podcast: Building A Structural DEI Response To A Systemic Issue With Y-Vonne Hutchinson

It’s time for another episode of Mixtape , where we take a look at diversity, inclusion, equity and the human labor that powers tech. This week we spoke to Y-Vonne Hutchinson, the CEO of ReadySet , a consulting firm that works with companies to ...

Here Comes The Next IPO Wave

This is The TechCrunch Exchange, a newsletter that goes out on Saturdays,  based on the column of the same name . You can sign up for the email  here . Are you tired? I am. What a week. But, if you kept your eyes off American politics and instead ...

Mixtape Podcast: Wellness In The Time Of The Struggle 

We’re back with another episode of Mixtape. This week Marah Lidey, co-founder and co-CEO of Shine , joins us to discuss mental health, venture capital, portfolio diversity and connecting with other founders trying to make it all work. It’s easy ...

Dear Sophie: How Will This Election Nail-Biter Affect Immigration?

Sophie Alcorn Contributor Share on Twitter Sophie Alcorn is the founder of Alcorn Immigration Law in Silicon Valley and 2019 Global Law Experts Awards’ “Law Firm of the Year in California for ...

Impact America Fund Closes $55m To Invest In Startups Targeting The World’S Overlooked

The entire asset class of venture capital is built atop systemic racism. The numbers don’t lie : only 2% of partner-level VCs are Black, and 81% of venture capital firms don’t have a Black partner on board. The lack of diversity in check-writers ...

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit Gets Unofficial Remote Play On Surrogate.Tv

Readers of a certain age will no doubt remember some region variation of TV Powww. The syndicated program, which found viewers at home giving directions over the phone to an in-studio operating playing an Intellivision game. Mario Kart Live: Home ...

Why You Have To Pay Attention To The Indian Startup Scene

This is The TechCrunch Exchange, a newsletter that goes out on Saturdays,  based on the column of the same name . You can sign up for the email  here . Back in August during Y Combinator’s two-day demo extravaganza , TechCrunch noted a number of ...

Gowalla Is Being Resurrected As An Augmented Reality Social App

Gowalla is coming back. The startup, which longtime TechCrunch readers will likely recall , was an ambitious consumer social app that excited Silicon Valley investors but ultimately floundered in its quest to take on Foursquare before an eventual ...

Human Capital: Prop 22 Puts The ‘Future Of Labor’ At Stake

Welcome back to Human Capital, where we look at the latest in tech labor and diversity and inclusion. Because election day is quickly approaching and given that California’s Prop 22 puts the “future of labor” at stake, as Instacart ...

Venture Capital Gets Less Diverse In 2020

Welcome back to The TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s broadly based on the daily column that appears on Extra Crunch , but free, and made for your weekend reading. You can subscribe here . First, a big congrats ...

4 Sustainable Industries Where Founders And VCs Can See Green By Going Green

Now’s the time for sustainable investments to shine. There are billions of dollars in funding in both public and private markets dedicated to new sustainable investing and demand for consumers for a more conscious capitalism has never been ...