Every day at 3 p.m., you'll get a rundown of the biggest and most important stories from TechCrunch. You can subscribe here.
On Tuesday, March 29, 2022, you will be able to see Daily Crunch. We are flying solo with the newsletter. There will be a lot of stories over the next two days as we listen to startups pitch at the YC demo day. Don't forget to join us at the Defi and The Future of Programmable Money online events on Wednesday and April 14.
A very warm welcome to Jacquelyn, who is joining our desk and comes careening out of the starting blocks with her coverage of the largest Defi hack we have seen so far. Christine, a great story and welcome aboard!
The TechCrunch Top 3
- HackerRank will test your coding skills: The competition for talent is fierce out there, so how do you know that your potential new hire has what it takes? HackerRank raised $60 million to continue developing its recruiting tools to not only answer that question, but also enable developers to practice their coding and interview skills.
- Electric buzzing after reaching unicorn status: If you are like most of us working from home, accessing the tools and equipment that would normally be waiting for us in the office — with an IT person at your beck and call — now involves a little more logistical effort. Electric secured $20 million to put it over the $1 billion valuation mark to manage much of that work for IT.
- DAO for human behavior?: Jacquelyn was also busy writing about decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs, thankfully describing what they are and where enthusiasts see them being used in the future — think pooling funds or decision-making.
Startups and VC
The most wonderful thing about Y Combinator is that it hasn't gotten to 1,000 companies per batches yet. The YC has funded almost 200 Indian startups to date, and at the demo day they showed off 32 from India. There were more than 18 Nigerian startup and six from the rest of Africa.
If you're a millionaire, Equi is willing to let you into the back door of your own family office.
There are other goings-on in the startup world.
2 reasons why demo days are dead
Does the Silicon Valley tradition of demo days still benefit founders and investors?
Michael Redd, co-founder and chair of 22 Ventures, wrote a guest post about two factors that make demo days less relevant: Many startups sign funding deals before the big show, and founders are more interested in working with value-add investors.
Eliminating demo day won't help founders find or let investors offer that value.
Techcrunch+ helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.
2 reasons why demo days are dead
Big Tech Inc.
- Sony unveils revamped PlayStation Plus: To keep up with competitors, Sony combined its PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now services into one subscription gaming product. The newest part of this is the addition of two more expensive tiers to join the lowest tier, and the three are priced in monthly, quarterly and yearly increments. Users in Asia will get first access before it is rolled out through the rest of the world.
- Amazon Glow connects family members one story at a time: After six months of invite-only, Amazon is now opening up the purchase of its Amazon Glow remote calling/projector device to anyone. The company created the device as a way for children to connect with distant family members. Want to know what it’s like to use it? Check out what Greg Kumparak had to say when he tested out the device back in December.
- TikTok, GIPHY partner on video creation tool: TikTok has a new in-app creation tool called TikTok Library that will initially be populated by GIPHY content. As TechCrunch reports, there’s a bit of irony here, with TikTok “leveraging the content from a company Facebook had once acquired for $400 million (and is now being asked to divest) to better the short-form video app that’s since become one of the social giant’s biggest threats.” In addition, we point out that TikTok not going into much detail about possible future partners for the library suggests all of this is still pretty early.
