Every day at 3 p.m., you'll get a rundown of the biggest and most important stories from TechCrunch. You can subscribe here.
Friday the 13th is Friday the 13th and I hope nothing bad happens to you today. The weekend is here. You can catch up on the latest Terraform Labs news, as well as some great podcasts from your favorite TechCrunchers. Make sure to get your seat for the June 1 event in Columbus. See you Monday!
The TechCrunch Top 3
- If Elon doesn’t buy Twitter, at least Snoop Dogg is ready to pounce: Early this morning, Elon Musk tweeted that his proposed purchase of Twitter was on hold while he figures out the percentage of fake accounts using the social media channel. Though he also tweeted he remains “committed to the acquisition,” I enjoyed seeing Snoop Dogg tweet his desire to maybe take a run at it if Musk does not. His plan for it is not bad, actually.
- Dining out on Dineout: In some online food ordering M&A news, Swiggy said it was acquiring Dineout, the Indian equivalent of OpenTable. This puts Swiggy squarely into the dining-out sector, dominated for quite some time in the country by Zomato, whose market cap has dropped to about $5 billion. It also represents additional consolidation within a giant market trying to make sense of its pandemic boost.
- More layoffs: Natasha and Amanda were already busy last week catching up on the myriad tech layoffs, and unfortunately have another list today that includes Section4, Carvana and Latch. Even Meta is not immune.
Startups and VC
- On the hook: That’s what Better.com CEO Vishal Garg is saying about a $750 million SoftBank loan. By Garg assuming personal responsibility for the loan, he is liable for any losses. However, the company may also be affected because any losses could require him to sell a lot of his Better.com holdings, which could negatively impact shares. Still a mess no matter how you look at it.
- Dress you up in indie brands: China-based Body404 is betting that the West will embrace the next generation of clothing designers who want to give them something that isn’t just a cheaper runway knockoff. It’s paid off in that the company is now valued at $50 million after raising $50 million in March. Also interesting to note is that customers are not returning the clothes — Body404’s return rate is around 2%, much less than the 10% fashion industry average.
- Revel with a cause: Frank Reig, who sits at the helm of Revel, a company building fast-charging hubs for electric vehicles, caught up with Rebecca to discuss the company’s shift from moped sharing and the distance Revel has traveled to drive electric vehicle adoption.
- Watch and get paid: Our attention is valuable and often being pulled in different directions. WeAre8 wants to reward you for doing what DVR has enabled us to skip for many years now — watch ads. The company is led by advertising guru Sue Fennessy, who aims to steer ad funding away from social media giants like Facebook and channel it into a good cause.
Pitch Deck Teardown: Dutch’s $20M Series A deck
The image is from the Dutch.
The founder and CEO of Dutch initially intended to raise a 15 million Series A, but he ended up closing a 20 million round because of his pitch deck, which was skillfully blended with market research and traction metrics.
Dutch's deck tells a convincing story of how the company used its seed funding to launch a service within three months, establish a brand identity, build a team, and expand from 12 to 32 states.
If you want to get inspiration for your pitch deck, start here: All 17 slides are available to members.
Techcrunch+ helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.
Pitch Deck Teardown: Dutch’s $20M Series A deck
Big Tech Inc.
Peloton is trying to end a rough week on a positive note by adding another oar into the competitive rowing machine market. I discovered a love for rowing after selling my bike. I hope the price tag is more friendly to my budget than the bike was.
The video communication giant is acquiring Solvvy in an effort to offer customer service experiences within its toolset. The company's shares are up on the news.
Don't miss out on these stories.
