Daily Crunch: Twitter stock price soars after Elon Musk acquires 9.2% stake

We didn't see you there. There will be an artisan, small-batch, limited-edition, locally crafted, handmade Daily Crunch for Monday, April 4, 2022.

We are pretty excited about the transportation newsletter where she covers a lot of things. On Wednesday, we will be in Austin, Texas for our City Spotlight: Austin. It's not too late to register.

Let's meet this week with kindness because everyone has their own things going on.

The TechCrunch Top 3

• Elon Musk is reportedly Twitter’s largest shareholder: When the Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur said he planned to build a social platform of his own, we’re not sure we were thinking this: Twitter today confirmed that Musk indeed bought a 9.2% stake in the company. Rumors sent Twitter share prices soaring last Friday. It’s not yet known what this all means, but we’re enjoying the Twitter memes for now.
• Mailchimp confirms data breach: No matter how you like to pronounce the company’s name (“mail-keemp?”), the email marketing giant says hackers got in and viewed approximately 300 customer accounts, apparently looking for cryptocurrency and finance targets. A spokesperson declined to say what Mailchimp’s plans were for making it harder for hackers to repeat this, so here’s another story where we’ll have to wait and see.
• Becoming the next Brex: The recent YC Demo Day might be over, but some companies are just getting started, and they have corporate spend company Brex in their sights. At least four startups identified themselves as a “Brex,” but for their particular region. Why home in on this company? Who wouldn’t want to be like this company: It became a decacorn earlier this year, proved it can succeed in a hot and crowded space and it seems like the market can sustain the competition. Looks like a winner to us!

Startups and VC

Susan, stir me a poke-bowl and call me, it's all happening in the land of food delivery. In India, we are seeing the beginnings of an antitrust investigation into Zomato, and over on Equity, Alex and Mary Ann are digging into how Instacart is starting to deliver market trends. It is making it easier for people to sell their wares online, if you are interested in rethinking how you eat.

The Y-Combinator companies are trying to make alternative meat easier to swallow once and for all, as they look back at last week's demo day. In the Startups Weekly newsletter,Natasha talks about what the YC graduates teach us about startup.

Take your eyes with you with our omnibus of orations.

Raising the right amount of capital after a correction

Don't be afraid if you want to launch in the middle of a downturn.

It is easier to hire during a market correction because there is less pressure to deploy tactics that can mask underlying problems with product and marketing.

According to Andy Stines, general partner at Cloud Apps Capital Partners, the current valuation reset isn't a crisis.

For companies in the $4 million-$5 million ARR range, a Series A might still make sense, he writes.

If you raise a $4 million-$6 million Series A at a more modest valuation, it will be easier to reach the goal for a 2x- 2.5x valuation step up to the Series B.

Raising the right amount of capital after a correction

Techcrunch+ helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.

Big Tech Inc.