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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.

“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.

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.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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US medical device giant Artivion says hackers stole files during a cybersecurity incident

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Artivion, a medical device company that produces implantable tissue for heart and vascular transplants, says its services have been “disrupted” resulting from a cybersecurity incident.

In 8-K filing In an interview with the SEC on Monday, Georgia-based Artivion, formerly CryoLife, said it became aware of a “cybersecurity incident” that involved the “compromise and encryption” of information on November 21. This suggests that the corporate was attacked by ransomware, but Artivion has not yet confirmed the character of the incident and didn’t immediately reply to TechCrunch’s questions. No major ransomware group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Artivion said it took some systems offline in response to the cyberattack, which the corporate said caused “disruptions to certain ordering and shipping processes.”

Artivion, which reported third-quarter revenue of $95.8 million, said it didn’t expect the incident to have a material impact on the corporate’s funds.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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It’s a Raspberry Pi 5 in a keyboard and it’s called Raspberry Pi 500

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Manufacturer of single-board computers Raspberry Pi is updating its cute little computer keyboard device with higher specs. Named Raspberry Pi500This successor to the Raspberry Pi 400 is just as powerful as the present Raspberry Pi flagship, the Raspberry Pi 5. It is on the market for purchase now from Raspberry Pi resellers.

The Raspberry Pi 500 is the simplest method to start with the Raspberry Pi because it’s not as intimidating because the Raspberry Pi 5. When you take a look at the Raspberry Pi 500, you do not see any chipsets or PCBs (printed circuit boards). The Raspberry Pi is totally hidden in the familiar housing, the keyboard.

The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is you could connect a mouse and a display and you are able to go. If, for instance, you’ve got a relative who uses a very outdated computer with an outdated version of Windows, the Raspberry Pi 500 can easily replace the old PC tower for many computing tasks.

More importantly, this device brings us back to the roots of the Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi computers were originally intended for educational applications. Over time, technology enthusiasts and industrial customers began using single-board computers all over the place. (For example, when you’ve ever been to London Heathrow Airport, all of the departures and arrivals boards are there powered by Raspberry Pi.)

Raspberry Pi 500 draws inspiration from the roots of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a non-profit organization. It’s the right first computer for college. In some ways, it’s a lot better than a Chromebook or iPad because it’s low cost and highly customizable, which inspires creative pondering.

The Raspberry Pi 500 comes with a 32GB SD card that comes pre-installed with Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution. It costs $90, which is a slight ($20) price increase over the Raspberry Pi 400.

Only UK and US keyboard variants will probably be available at launch. But versions with French, German, Italian, Japanese, Nordic and Spanish keyboard layouts will probably be available soon. And when you’re in search of a bundle that features all the things you would like, Raspberry Pi also offers a $120 desktop kit that features the Raspberry Pi 500, a mouse, a 27W USB-C power adapter, and a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable.

In other news, Raspberry Pi has announced one other recent thing: the Raspberry Pi monitor. It is a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor that’s priced at $100. Since there are quite a few 1080p portable monitors available on the market, this launch is not as noteworthy because the Pi 500. However, for die-hard Pi fans, there’s now also a Raspberry Pi-branded monitor option available.

Image credits:Raspberry Pi

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Apple Vision Pro may add support for PlayStation VR controllers

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Vision Pro headset

According to Apple, Apple desires to make its Vision Pro mixed reality device more attractive for gamers and game developers latest report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

The Vision Pro was presented more as a productivity and media consumption device than a tool geared toward gamers, due partly to its reliance on visual and hand controls moderately than a separate controller.

However, Apple may need gamers if it desires to expand the Vision Pro’s audience, especially since Gurman reports that lower than half one million units have been sold to this point. As such, the corporate has reportedly been in talks with Sony about adding support for PlayStation VR2 handheld controllers, and has also talked to developers about whether they may support the controllers of their games.

Offering more precise control, Apple may also make other forms of software available in Vision Pro, reminiscent of Final Cut Pro or Adobe Photoshop.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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