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Thanks for subscribing to Startups Weekly. This week, I’m taking my mother and father to Yosemite to discover the snowy peaks and to see if my automobile can deal with snow. In lieu of a daily Startups Weekly, I figured I’d dive in and provide you with a reminder of among the largest startup tales from 2024 — each on TechCrunch and our subscription sibling TechCrunch+.

Listed below are among the largest themes which have echoed all through the startup ecosystem in 2023.

Crime and punishment

Picture Credit: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

A few of the largest startup tales on TechCrunch in 2023 had been associated to the deeds and misdeeds of these within the ecosystem.

By far considered one of our most-read tales this 12 months was the homicide of Bob Lee, finest generally known as the creator of Money App and former CTO of Sq.. He was tragically killed in a stabbing incident in San Francisco, within the in any other case often quiet Monetary District. Rolling Stone picked up the story from there, digging into who Bob Lee and his alleged assassin had been.

The different large story was the trial of Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes. She is now serving a jail sentence of 11 years and three months after being indicted for wire fraud in a scheme to defraud buyers. Theranos, as soon as valued at $10 billion, promised revolutionary blood testing expertise however was uncovered in 2015 for its nonfunctional expertise, which posed well being dangers to sufferers. The next unraveling of Theranos led to quite a few lawsuits and authorities investigations. The case serves as a stark reminder of the implications of fraudulent practices and that the “faux it until you make it” strategy that may be prevalent amongst startups doesn’t all the time work out.

The different large “hmm, perhaps you shouldn’t have accomplished that” serial story of the 12 months was the Sam Bankman-Fried trial, which prolonged over 5 weeks. It turned out to be a spectacle of evasion and reminiscence lapses. The previous CEO of FTX confronted the jury for a number of days, delivering a sworn statement that was exceptional largely for its lack of substance. When cross-examined by prosecutors about his previous choices and actions, Bankman-Fried’s responses had been predominantly “Yup” (372 instances), “Unsure” (117 instances), and “I don’t keep in mind” (73 instances). He was discovered responsible on all seven fees of fraud and cash laundering, and will probably be sentenced in March 2024. Across the identical time, there’ll probably be a second trial, with a bunch of extra fees.

Extra from the courts and authorized programs:

It’s not simply the startups . . . :  Former VC Mike Rothenberg, recognized for internet hosting extravagant events, was convicted on 21 counts final month, together with for financial institution fraud, false statements, cash laundering, and wire fraud. The conviction brings his journey from a promising entrepreneur, launching a VC agency in 2013, to being a convicted fraudster to an in depth. He was initially charged with fraud by the SEC in 2018, which resulted him having to pay $31 million. Sentencing within the fraud case is scheduled for March.

I’m making an attempt to succeed in you about your prolonged guarantee: The FCC imposed a file $300 million superb on a robocaller operation for scamming folks with faux auto guarantee gross sales. This operation made a minimum of 5 billion calls.

The Swiss military knife for hackers: Flipper Zero, a multi-tool hacking machine, is on monitor to realize $80 million in gross sales this 12 months, a big enhance from its $25 million gross sales final 12 months. Began in 2020, the machine can manipulate varied programs like storage openers and RFID card programs.

The enjoyable and quirky

Picture Credit: Brian Heater

The world of startups wasn’t simply murders, fraud and shenanigans — a few of our most-read tales this 12 months had been much more lighthearted, thank goodness.

One of many highlights was Apple’s 31 new emojis — together with a shaking face for whenever you’re “shook” and a pink coronary heart as a result of, clearly, we’d like extra coronary heart colours. There are even two pushing arms that might imply “cease” or “excessive 5” — as a result of deciphering obscure hand gestures is what all of us wanted extra of. Wish to spam your pals with a moose or a jellyfish? Apple had your again this 12 months.

My different favorites within the more-or-less-quirky-news class:

[very recognizable drum riff]: MindGeek, the proprietor of grownup leisure websites reminiscent of Pornhub, Brazzers, and RedTube, was acquired by Canadian non-public fairness agency Moral Capital Companions. The phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Strap this laptop to your face: Apple’s new mixed-reality (XR) machine made a big influence with its high-quality {hardware} and options. It boasts 24 million pixels throughout two panels and superior optics. It has brand-new chips to make sure easy efficiency with out judder or body drops, with correct eye monitoring and gesture management. Panzer tried it out, and I argued that the machine could be a game-changer for startups working within the area.

We’re getting just a little bored of Elon’s antics: Sooner or later, TechCrunch editor Darrell determined he had sufficient, and penned this piece — concluding that sufficient is sufficient.

The 12 months of AI

Picture Credit: Darrell Etherington with recordsdata from Getty underneath license

There might be little doubt that, above all, for higher and for worse, 2023 was the 12 months of AI.

OpenAI was on everyone’s lips. The corporate made GPT-4 universally out there, which acquired everybody hella excited. It additionally gave ChatGPT the power to browse the broader web, which unlocked a world of performance and pleasure.

The darker aspect of AI acquired its time within the limelight as nicely. The development of AI porn turbines, reminiscent of Unstable Diffusion, has raised vital moral and societal considerations. These turbines, which have improved in creating extra practical and numerous photographs, are posing some new dangers — and continues to make the web extra poisonous, particularly for ladies (the vast majority of deepfake pornography targets girls and is commonly used as a device for harassment). We had been additionally profitable in tricking Lensa into producing NSFW content material by placing crudely photoshopped photographs into its supply materials. Briefly: perhaps deepfakes-for-all is worse than we thought.

One other large AI drama story of the 12 months was Sam Altman getting fired as OpenAI’s CEO. We put collectively a complete timeline, as a result of, goodness, that was fairly the saga.

From the desk of “didn’t see that coming”

Picture Credit: Nikolas Liepins/Anadolu Company / Getty Pictures

If there’s one factor startups love doing, it’s throwing curveballs. This 12 months was no exception, and listed here are a handful of probably the most shocking ones:

A banking collapse: Every little thing was superb one second, then abruptly one of many largest startup banks — Silicon Valley Financial institution, or SVB amongst mates — took a nosedive. We put collectively a timeline of what occurred, together with a wall of protection and evaluation. Enterprise debt was one of many large query marks post-collapse.

The DPReview saga: DPReview, a famend digital digital camera evaluate website, was shut down by Amazon after 25 years of operation, earlier than Gear Patrol purchased the property and revived it.

That submarine story: OceanGate making an attempt to dip all the way down to the Titanic and imploding within the course of was in every single place for a sizzling second. A whistleblower was fired in January 2018 after presenting a scathing quality-control report on the vessel to OceanGate’s senior administration, together with founder and CEO Stockton Rush — who later died onboard the submarine. We initially coated the corporate again in 2017 when it first revealed the plans to go 3D-scan the Titanic.

Is it a hen? Is it a balloon?: Pathfinder 1 is an electrical airship that’s giving the Goodyear blimp a run for its cash. At 124.5 meters lengthy, it’s like the Hindenburg had a tech-savvy child with a drone. With 12 electrical motors and a penchant for helium (considerably safer than its high-explosive, Hindenburg-exploding hydrogen counterpart), it’s set to beat the skies at a whopping 75 mph . . . finally.

Spherical after spherical after spherical of layoffs: Woof.

The most important hits from TC+

TechCrunch+ is TechCrunch’s subscription service, providing in-depth evaluation, unique articles, and complete stories on the expertise business, startups, and enterprise capital. When you’re not a subscriber — nicely, you must completely subscribe.

My fashionable Pitch Deck Teardown sequence is as much as greater than 75 pattern pitch decks, full with evaluation for what’s working and what ain’t. And, in fact, there’s oodles of extra superb content material too. Right here’s a handful of tales you will have missed:

From cloud to on-premise: After a decade of cloud transformations, subtle enterprises at the moment are growing hybrid methods to assist crucial information science initiatives, shifting away from unique reliance on cloud computing and bringing workloads again to on-premises programs.

The evolution of layoffs: Again in July, we checked out how the period of tech layoffs was evolving, noting that whereas it was not over, it was dropping a few of its depth and was growing into its personal distinctive pattern.

Stage acceptable over perfection: Startups ought to focus on creating minimal viable merchandise which might be laser-focused on answering particular questions, relatively than making an attempt to scale too shortly, losing assets within the course of.

Hey, OpenAI, generate a advertising and marketing technique: On this case research, we confirmed how utilizing OpenAI for producing advertising and marketing methods led to vital enhancements in search engine optimization rating on Google, leading to a considerable enhance in website site visitors, area ranking, and backlinks in lower than a 12 months.

Construct on another person’s tech and get burned: An replace on OpenAI’s ChatGPT allowed for PDF uploads. That was a spanner within the work for startups, particularly these constructed round a characteristic hole in ChatGPT. It underscored the vulnerability of such companies to modifications in underlying applied sciences.

Development is tough: The previous CEO of PlanGrid mirrored on key errors they made whereas main the corporate to $100 million in annual recurring income, providing insights to assist different founders keep away from comparable pitfalls.

Setting the stage for a battery gold rush: Volkswagen’s breakthrough in lithium-ion battery expertise may considerably influence the automotive business, particularly because it grapples with elevated prices because of inflation and provide chain points.

F you, pay me: If an investor tells you to not take a wage after you’ve raised VC funding, inform them to go do one thing anatomically strenuous.

The perfect laid plans of mice and males: We study the evolution of fintech over the previous decade, trying on a number of hyped fintech concepts that finally failed to rework the monetary companies business as meant.

To distant or to not distant: We seemed on the shift in distant work startups, the place preliminary enthusiasm for devoted distant work instruments has waned, as firms have tailored to a hybrid work mannequin relatively than a purely distant one, resulting in challenges for startups centered solely on distant work options.

Right here’s why your pitch deck sucks: Within the 12 months of AI, I constructed a device that analyzes startup pitch decks (due to course I did — why wouldn’t I construct a device that places me out of enterprise) and located a ton of fascinating information about what startup founders get improper once they create pitch decks.

Oh, and since I simply know you might be loopy curious: The featured picture of this submit was taken with an iPhone 14 Professional Max. I created the bauble utilizing the Round Title Decoration creator from Cuttle Labs, together with a Glowforge Aura. After I reviewed the entry-level laser cutter from Glowforge in July, I made a decision that I simply needed to have one. As a result of, nicely, what sort of nerd would I be if I didn’t set shit on fireplace on a semi-regular foundation.

Glad New Yr — see y’all in 2024!