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Why can being the last company to start in a given category pay off?

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Caraway, dtc, startups, venture capital

When Jordan Nathan launched his DTC non-toxic cookware company Caraway in 2019, he knew he wasn’t the only founder trying to sell a recent brand of pots and pans to millennials scrolling through Instagram. However, he found that running after his peers turned out to be a blessing in disguise in all but one area.

Once launched, Caraway joined firms like Our Place, Great Jones and Made In Cookware in an increasingly crowded category of online cookware startups. However, being barely late to the party allowed Caraway to see what other brands and goal audiences were like, Nathan said on a recent episode of TechCrunch’s Found podcast. This allowed Caraway to change its approach and check out to fill the gaps that these brands left open.

Nathan said Caraway initially planned to top off on factory-made pans and goal millennials who were searching for something nicer than what may very well be found at IKEA but weren’t yet at the wedding registry stage. Every other DTC cookware brand seemed to have the same idea, so Caraway switched gears and as an alternative focused on wedding registries and beyond, putting a little more effort and time into designing their products.

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“It helped us change our color palette, it helped us change the price point and what items we put in the set,” Nathan said. “And while many other brands have done many things right, we have managed to carve out our space in the DTC kitchen world where others have not dabbled.”

Seeing other brand launches also modified the way the company sold its first set of products. Nathan said Caraway initially intended to sell its cookware in each sets and individual pieces, but when it realized that no competitors were selling sets, the company went all out and launched sets – without the option to purchase one piece at a time. the price of time.

Caraway’s competitors also helped Caraway resolve to start talking to retailers early in the process. Nathan said they at all times planned to bring the product to stores, but seeing that no other DTC brands wanted to enter the retail market, Caraway began talking to retailers before launching the product online. Caraway sets can now be found, amongst others: at Target and Costco.

Early entry into retail stores helped Caraway solidify its share of wedding registries as Caraway began operating at retailers that had existing registry businesses, equivalent to Target and Bed Bath & Beyond, before it went bankrupt. This made Caraway a more natural alternative for couples constructing their registry than competition from cookware startups.

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While being a later participant helped Caraway in some ways, it actually hurt in one area, Nathan said. “We were actually both the last ones to come to market, but we were also the last ones to raise funds,” Nathan said. “So when we went to raise funds, every investor we talked to had already chosen a kitchen brand they wanted to take on and invest in.”

Because of this, the first round of fundraising was arduous, and Nathan said that after 10 months of talking to five to eight investors a day, they were able to close a seed round with over 100 investors and no big checks from VCs.

But now, five years later, plainly being late to the game can have paid off. The company has raised greater than $40 million in enterprise capital and has expanded its product lines to include baking and food storage tools, with more in the pipeline.

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This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com

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Palantir Exec defends work in the company’s immigration supervision

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One of the founders of the Y startup accelerator Y Combinator offered this weekend the Palantir Data Analytical Company that doesn’t describe the controversial analytical company, running the company’s director to supply a broad defense of Palantir’s work.

Then it appeared forward federal applications He showed that American immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) – the task of conducting the aggressive strategy of the deportation of the Trump administration – pays Palantir $ 30 million for creating What does this call the immigration system operating systemSo immigration to assist ICE resolve who to direct to the deportation, and likewise offer “real -time visibility” in self -complacency.

Y founding father of Combinator Paul Graham divided the headlines about the Palantir contract on the subject of XWriting: “It is now a very exciting time in technology. If you are a first -rate programmer, there is a huge number of other places where you can work, and not in a company building infrastructure of a police state.”

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In response, the global business head of Palantir Ted Mabrey wrote that “he is looking forward to the next set of employees who decided to submit a request to Palantir after reading your post.”

Mabrey didn’t discuss the details of the current work of Palantir with ice, but said that the company began cooperation with the Internal Security Department (in accordance with which ICE works) “in an immediate response to the assassination of agent Jaime Zapata by Zetas in an effort called Fallen Hero surgery. “

“When people live because of what you built and others were not alive, because what you built was not good enough yet, you develop a completely different view on the meaning of your work,” said Mabrey.

He also compared Graham’s criticism with protests on the Google Maven project in 2018, which ultimately prompted the company to stop the work of drone photos for the army. (Google then signaled that he again became more open to defense works.)

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Mabrey called everyone interested in working for Palantir to read the latest book CEO Alexander Karp “The Technological Republic”, which claims that the software industry must rebuild its relationship with the government. (The company was Recruitment at university campus With signs declaring that “the moment of counting arrived west”)

“We employ believers,” Mabrey continued. “Not in the sense of the homogeneity of religion, but in the internal ability to imagine in something greater than you

Graham then Pressed Mabrey “To publicly commit himself on behalf of Palantir, so as not to build things that help the government violate the US constitution,” although he confirmed in one other post that such a commitment “would not have legal force.”

“However, I hope that if (they make a commitment) and a Palantir’s employee is one day asked to do something illegal, he will say” I didn’t join for it “and refused,” wrote Graham.

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Mabrey in turn compared Graham’s query In order for “or” you promise to stop beating a trick in court, but he added that the company “has made so many ways from Sunday”, ranging from the commitment to “3,500 thoughtful people who polish only because they believe that they make the world a better place every day because they see their first hand.”

(Tagstotransate) palantir

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Congress has questions about 23andme bankruptcy

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Low-angle view of logo on facade of personal genomics company 23AndMe in the Silicon Valley town of Mountain View, California, October 28, 2018. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

3 The leaders of the Energy and Trade Committee said that they’re investigating how 23ndme’s bankruptcy can affect customer data.

Representatives of Brett Guthrie, Gus Biliakis and Gary Palmer (all Republicans) He sent a letter On Thursday, Joe Selsavage, Joe Selsavage, ask a variety of questions about how 23andme will serve customer data if the corporate is sold.

The letter also says that some customers have reported problems with deleting their data from the 23ndme website, and notes that corporations directly for consumption, reminiscent of 23andme, are generally not protected by the Act on the portability and accountability of medical insurance (Hipaa).

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“Considering the lack of HIPAA protection, a patchwork of state regulations covering genetic privacy and uncertainty related to customer information in the case of transmitting the sale of company or clients data, we are afraid that this best -confidential information is threatened with a player,” representatives write.

23andme, which has decided to violate data For $ 30 million last 12 months, he applied for bankruptcy in Chapter 11 in March, and the co -founder and general director Anne Wojciki said he was resigning from the corporate’s private bidder.

(Tagstotransate) 23andme

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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The White House replaces the Covid.gov page with the theory “Lab Leak”

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The Covid.gov government website has used Covid-19, tests and treatment to store information. Now, under the sight of President Trump, page redirects to the side of the White House Talking to the unverified theory that Covid-19 comes from the Chinese laboratory.

A theory during which many virologists have objected to in the report Through House Republicans last yr, which found that Pandemia began with a laboratory leak in China. House democrats He spent the overthrow At that point, the statement that the probe didn’t define Cavid’s real origin.

Covidtes.Gov website, during which people could order free coronavirus tests before, can be redirected to this New page.

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The latest website of the White House also includes medical disinformation on the treatment of the virus, falsely claiming that social distance, mask and lock fines should not effective in alleviating the spread of Covid-19. However, Hundreds of research They showed that these preventive measures In fact, reduce respiratory infections equivalent to Covid-19.

In the months, since Trump again confirmed his role of the US president, many web sites have been edited to reflect the program of his administration. With the help of Doge Elona Musk, the government tried to remove tons of of words related to diversity from government documents. This Include Words equivalent to “black”, “disability”, “diversity”, “sex”, “racism”, “women” and lots of more. The government also removed the mention of scientifically proven climate change from environmental sites.

(Tagstotranslate) covid

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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