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Cat-focused startup Meowtel has climbed to profitability despite struggling to raise capital from dog-focused VCs

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Cat-sitting startup Meowtel clawed its way to profitability despite trouble raising from dog-focused VCs

According to data, “Dogs” are the most well-liked pet within the US: 65.1 million households have them American Pet Products Association. But while cats aren’t far off, with 46.5 million of them in households, much of the innovation within the pet category has focused solely on dogs. And despite the fact that the service serves each species, it’s more focused on dogs.

Sonya Petcavich, founding father of the cat care app Meowtel, believes cats and kittens deserve more.

When Petcavich’s cat, Lily, died in 2015, she realized she won’t have been the most effective cat mom. Petcavich traveled extensively for her job in sales for Philip Morris and was not home as much as she thought her older cat might need. She knew pet sitting services existed, but didn’t think they provided enough for her feline friends.

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“There is a need for a service specifically for people caring for cats; they have very different needs,” Petcavich told TechCrunch. “Rover had been around for just a few years and Wag was gaining momentum, but they were too dog-focused. I said, “Fuck it, I’ll be a crazy cat to do it.”

She took $100,000 of her own money, began a development team, and launched Meowtel in 2015. The startup is a marketplace where cat owners can find cat sitters and only employs individuals who have direct experience in things like giving cats medications (cats are particularly prone to chronic diseases as we age) and take care of cats with special needs. Potential caregivers undergo a rigorous six-step process before they’re approved to join the applying. This features a 30-minute chat with the Meowtel team to confirm that it’s an actual person, which other sit-down sites don’t do. Petcavich joked that it was easier to get into Harvard than to change into a Meowtel keeper.

Since its founding, the corporate has operated mainly in secret. Petcavich said the corporate has only come out of hiding now since the team has put in a whole lot of work during the last nine years, built its brand and got users’ experience where they wanted it to be.

Meowtel is profitable, with gross booking revenue growing 50% year-on-year. The company employs greater than 2,200 caregivers on the platform, a few of whom have been with Meowtel for nine years. The company has processed greater than 95,000 seat applications and has largely focused on larger cities, including New York and Los Angeles. He wants to expand his activities to smaller cities as well.

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Meowtel has gotten to this point by raising almost $1 million in enterprise capital. Of that total, $500,000 got here from angels including Jason Calacanis’ Launch and Elizabeth Yin, general partner at Hustle Fund. Additional capital got here from accelerator programs including Tech Wildcatters and Sputnik ATX. The company’s last financing took place in 2020.

Petcavich said raising money from enterprise capitalists was difficult since the enterprise capital community is more focused on dogs and lots of people didn’t understand why cats needed their very own caregiver. Petcavich stated that she nonetheless wanted to raise enterprise funding for Meowtel due to its market-based business model, which she felt was an excellent fit for VC investors. Additionally, due to the capital-intensive nature of market-based businesses, she felt that VC funds would make essentially the most sense.

He’s right that there seem to be many more venture-backed firms specializing in dogs than cats. There are several startups focused on areas akin to higher pet food, accessories, and even those specializing in health. Butternut Box, a British pet food company, has raised over $466 million in VC funding. ImpriMed, a canine oncology startup, raised $23 million in November, and Fi, a wise dog collar, raised greater than $40 million in enterprise capital.

When it comes to cats, there are noticeably fewer of them. Smalls, a fresh pet food company, is considered one of the few venture-funded firms on this category. This raised $19 million last 12 months, and its founder Matthew Michaelson told TechCrunch’s Christine Hall that he believed innovation within the pet category had largely focused on dogs.

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But does the market really want or have the capability to provide a cat-only sitting service? Petcavich says yes, and her company’s track record and growth trajectory seem to back it up.

“In the 2020 era, there is a brand that caters to every specific type of audience,” Petcavich said. “These species are different, but no one makes this distinction. I think it was the psyche of the cat owner and the medical needs of the cat itself that really opened up this blue ocean.”

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Why the new Porn Law Anti-Revenge disturbs experts on freedom

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Proponents of privacy and digital rights increase the alarms over the law, which many would expect to support: federal repression of pornography of revenge and deep cabinets generated by AI.

The newly signed Act on Take IT Down implies that the publishing of unjustified clear photos-vigorous or generated AI-I gives platforms only 48 hours to follow the request to remove the victim or face responsibility. Although widely praised as an extended win for victims, experts also warned their unclear language, loose standards for verification of claims, and a decent compatibility window can pave the way for excessive implementation, censorship of justified content and even supervision.

“Large -scale model moderation is very problematic and always ends with an important and necessary assessment speech,” said India McKinney, Federal Director at Electronic Frontier Foundation, a corporation of digital rights.

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Internet platforms have one 12 months to determine a means of removing senseless intimate images (NCII). Although the law requires that the request to be removed comes from victims or their representatives, he only asks for a physical or electronic signature – no photo identifier or other type of verification is required. This might be geared toward reducing barriers for victims, but it could possibly create the possibility of abuse.

“I really want to be wrong in this, but I think there will be more requests to take photos of Queer and trance people in relationships, and even more, I think it will be consensual porn,” said McKinney.

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), a co-person of the Take IT Down Act, also sponsored the Safety Act for youngsters, which puts a burden on platforms to guard children from harmful online content. Blackburn said he believed Content related to transgender individuals It is harmful to children. Similarly, the Heritage Foundation – conservative Think Tank behind the 2025 project – also has he said that “keeping the content away from children protects children.”

Due to the responsibility with which they encounter platforms, in the event that they don’t take off the image inside 48 hours of receiving the request: “By default it will be that they simply take it off without conducting an investigation to see if it is NCII or whether it is another type of protected speech, or whether it is even important for the person who submits the application,” said McKinney.

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Snapchat and Meta said that they support the law, but none of them answered TechCrunch’s request for more information on how they’d check if the person asking for removal is a victim.

Mastodon, a decentralized platform, which hosts his own flagship server, to which others can join, told Techcrunch that he could be inclined to remove if he was too difficult to confirm the victim.

Mastodon and other decentralized platforms, comparable to blues or pixfed, could be particularly exposed to the cold of the 48-hour removal rule. These networks are based on independently supported servers, often run by non -profit organizations or natural individuals. Under the law, FTC may treat any platform that is just not “reasonably consistent” with demands of removal as “unfair or deceptive action or practice” – even when the host is just not a business subject.

“It’s disturbing on his face, but especially when he took the FTC chair unprecedented Steps to politicize The agency and clearly promised to make use of the agency’s power to punish platforms and services on ideologicalIn contrast to the rules, the basics, “cyberspace initiative, a non -profit organization dedicated to the end of pornography of revenge, she said in statement.

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Proactive monitoring

McKinney predicts that the platforms will start moderating content before distribution, so in the future they’ve fewer problematic posts.

Platforms already use artificial intelligence to observe harmful content.

Kevin Guo, general director and co -founder of the content detection startup, said that his company cooperates with web platforms to detect deep materials and sexual materials of kids (CSAM). Some of the Hive clients are Reddit, Giphy, Vevo, BlueSky and Bereal.

“In fact, we were one of the technology companies that supported this bill,” said Guo Techcrunch. “This will help solve some quite important problems and force these platforms to take more proactive solutions.”

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The HIVE model is software as a service, so starting doesn’t control how the platforms use their product to flag or delete content. But Guo said that many shoppers insert the API Hive interface when sent to monitoring before anything is distributed to the community.

Reddit spokesman told Techcrunch that the platform uses “sophisticated internal tools, processes and teams for solving and removal”. Reddit also cooperates with the NON -SWGFL organization in an effort to implement the Stopncia tool, which scans live traffic seeking matches with a database of known NCII and removes accurate fittings. The company didn’t share how it is going to be sure that the person asking for removal is a victim.

McKinney warns that this kind of monitoring can expand to encrypted messages in the future. Although the law focuses on public or semi -public dissemination, it also requires the platforms “removing and making reasonable efforts to prevent” senseless intimate images from re -translating. He claims that this will likely encourage proactive scanning of all content, even in encrypted spaces. The law doesn’t contain any sculptors for encrypted services of encrypted messages, comparable to WhatsApp, Signal or IMessage.

Meta, Signal and Apple didn’t answer TechCrunch for more details about their plans for encrypted messages.

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Wider implications of freedom of speech

On March 4, Trump provided a joint address to the congress, wherein he praised the Take It Down act and said he couldn’t wait to sign it.

“And I also intend to use this bill for myself if you don’t mind,” he added. “There is nobody who is treated worse than I do online.”

While the audience laughed at the comment, not everyone considered it a joke. Trump was not ashamed of suppressing or retarding against unfavorable speech, no matter whether it’s the mainstream marking “enemies of individualsExcept for Associated Press from the oval office despite the court order or Financing from NPR and PBS.

Trump administration on Thursday Barred Harvard University From the reception of foreign students, the escalation of the conflict, which began after Harvard refused to follow Trump’s demands to make changes to his curriculum and eliminate, amongst others, content related to Dei. In retaliation, Trump froze federal funds at Harvard and threatened to repeal the status of the tax exemption from the university.

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“At a time when we see that school councils are trying to prohibit books and see that some politicians very clearly deal with the types of content that people do not want to ever see, regardless of whether it is a critical theory of breed, or information about abortion or information about climate change …” McKinney said.

(Tagstotransate) Censorship

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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PO clarous Director General Zoom also uses AI avatar during a quarterly connection

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Zoom CEO Eric Yuan

General directors at the moment are so immersed in artificial intelligence that they send their avatars to cope with quarterly connections from earnings as a substitute, a minimum of partly.

After AI Avatar CEO CEO appeared on the investor’s conversation firstly of this week, the final director of Zoom Eric Yuan also followed them, also Using his avatar for preliminary comments. Yuan implemented his non -standard avatar via Zoom Clips, an asynchronous company video tool.

“I am proud that I am one of the first general directors who used the avatar in a call for earnings,” he said – or fairly his avatar. “This is just one example of how Zoom shifts the limits of communication and cooperation. At the same time, we know that trust and security are necessary. We take seriously the content generated AI and build strong security to prevent improper use, protect the user’s identity and ensure that avatars are used responsibly.”

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Yuan has long been in favor of using avatars at meetings and previously said that the corporate goals to create Digital user twins. He just isn’t alone on this vision; The CEO of transcript -powered AI, apparently, trains its own avatar Share the load.

Meanwhile, Zoom said he was doing it Avatar non -standard function available To all users this week.

(Tagstranslat) meetings AI

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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The next large Openai plant will not be worn: Report

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Sam Altman speaks onstage during The New York Times Dealbook Summit 2024.

Opeli pushed generative artificial intelligence into public consciousness. Now it might probably develop a very different variety of AI device.

According to WSJ reportThe general director of Opeli, Altman himself, told employees on Wednesday that one other large product of the corporate would not be worn. Instead, it will be compact, without the screen of the device, fully aware of the user’s environment. Small enough to sit down on the desk or slot in your pocket, Altman described it each as a “third device” next to MacBook Pro and iPhone, in addition to “Comrade AI” integrated with on a regular basis life.

The preview took place after the OpenAI announced that he was purchased by IO, a startup founded last 12 months by the previous Apple Joni Ive designer, in a capital agreement value $ 6.5 billion. I will take a key creative and design role at Openai.

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Altman reportedly told employees that the acquisition can ultimately add 1 trillion USD to the corporate conveyorsWearing devices or glasses that got other outfits.

Altman reportedly also emphasized to the staff that the key would be crucial to stop the copying of competitors before starting. As it seems, the recording of his comments leaked to the journal, asking questions on how much he can trust his team and the way rather more he will be able to reveal.

(Tagstotransate) devices

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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