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Hello! If you had President’s Day off, we hope it was a peaceful transition to work today. Please send good vibes to today while he figures out what to do with his damaged car (it’s a long story). Meanwhile, today’s Black History Month recommendation comes from Henrique about “Blues Legacies and Black Feminism” by Angela Davis. Let’s dig. – Christina
TechCrunch’s Top 3
- What happens when something is not secure?: Well, unfortunately for the US Department of Defense, this meant that confidential military emails were leaked, zack reports.
- “That’s not the moon – it’s a space station”: Vast makes its first launcher acquisition in a move that brings it closer to building artificial gravity space stations in low Earth orbit. Aria have more.
- Success generates IPO: Ride-sharing company Lime reported its first profitable year, with Rebeca writing that “Lime has figured out how to make shared micromobility a sustainable business.” So what happens when you’re good at what you do? The company is now eyeing an initial public offering.
Startups and VC
FreshToHome, an Indian meat startup seeking a slice of the country’s food delivery market, has a new backer in Amazon, which has led a $104 million funding round. manish writes that this investment marks the largest check that Amazon’s Smbhav Venture Fund has written to date. Meanwhile, FreshToHome rose to fame, expanding its presence by 100% in the last year.
Now, here are five more:
5 Tactics to Manage Paid Customer Acquisition During a Recession
Image credits: akinbostanci (opens in new window) / Getty Images
When economic conditions change, companies adjust their marketing tactics: When the pandemic started, the volume of junk email dropped dramatically. After vaccines were released, mailboxes were once again full of irrelevant offers.
Paid marketing is a key tactic for early-stage startups, but this downturn is a good time for founders to reexamine customer acquisition strategies, says Brian Rothenberg, investment partner at early-stage VC fund Defy.
“Capital is more expensive now than it has been for years,” he writes in TC+. “Where else can you invest to generate higher returns and build a more durable competitive advantage?”
Two more from the TC+ team:
TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps startup founders and teams stand out. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!
Big Tech Inc.
It was the “game started” for hackers today. First, some hackers allegedly stole Activision games and employee data, Lorenzo reports. The company said the breach happened in December and was confirmed by a gaming blog. Stay tuned for more of that. Furthermore, Coinbase is claiming that the same hackers who attacked hundreds of other companies, the so-called 0ktapus hackers, stole some of their employees’ information, carly he writes.
In the ongoing conversation about how ChatGPT is taking over the world, Mark Harris weaves for us the web of nonprofits accelerating Sam Altman’s AI vision.
And we have five more for you:
