Technology
From golf to hunting, a new group of startups wants to make the experience even better

From golf to fishing to pickleball, outdoor sports and recreation have boomed during the pandemic. But unlike some pandemic-induced trends (virtual conferences, Zoom pleased hours), interest in outdoor activities has remained.
Until the end of 2023, participation in outdoor activities rose to a record 175.8 million peopleor 57% of all Americans ages 6 and older, according to the Outdoor Industry Association.
But the influx of interest exposed a lack of innovation in lots of parts of the industry. From phone bookings to money payments to a hardware market dominated by traditional brands, the outdoor recreation category was rife with opportunities for entrepreneurs.
In the past few years, entrepreneurs have created SaaS software for hunting and fishing guides. Founders have built AI-powered firms that find and book golf tee times. Kevin Durant has invested in a startup that helps people find pickleball courts. And the list goes on.
Meanwhile, VCs have also taken an interest. In 2019, VCs invested $48.60 million in 25 sports technology firms, according to PitchBook. In 2021, that figure rose to $949.26 million and 53 firms; in 2023, during VC winter, investments totaled $189.71 million and 43 firms. While that’s a major crash compared to 2021 (when VC investment was at a record high across all industries), dollars invested last yr still represent a 290% increase from pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
Online acceleration
Benjamin Lazarov, co-founder and CEO of AnyCreek, a startup that creates booking and business software for fishing and hunting guides, told TechCrunch that he would never have considered starting his company before the pandemic. But then Lazarov tried to book a hunting guide in Vermont in 2022.
He asked a cashier at nearby Orvis for local guide recommendations, and he or she gave him a paper list of seven names to call. As he called and left voicemails, it occurred to him that with every thing else moving online during COVID-19, why was he still trying to book guided hunts over the phone? After that, he resigned as regional development director at Compass and launched AnyCreek.
“I think if I had tried to start this business five years before COVID-19, there’s no way,” Lazarov said. “COVID-19 has definitely accelerated the adoption of more technology. There’s a new generation of guides who are leaning into technology, leaning into mobile devices, running every other part of their lives online.”
Mallard Bay is one other startup that’s bringing online hunting and fishing guides. The Houston, Texas-based company launched in 2019 and its site boomed after lockdowns eased in 2021, growing from 19 guides on its platform to greater than 100, co-founder and CEO Logan Meaux told TechCrunch.
Loop Golf, a startup that automates finding and booking tee times at a public golf course, was founded in response to the surge in new golfers that made it harder for existing players to play. Matthew Holden, co-founder and CEO of Loop Golf, told TechCrunch in June that he got here up with the idea when he realized the surge in golf interest that got here after the pandemic wasn’t going away.
“It was getting harder and harder to find time to play,” Holden said. “I spent hours looking at different options. I was sick of it, and my wife was definitely sick of it.”
Changes in behavior
As the world has been forced online, consumers have come to expect to interact with all businesses that way, Lazarov said. People simply don’t want to return to booking by phone, and so they want technology to do more for his or her leisure lives, just because it does for his or her work and private lives in other areas.
It’s like a New York restaurant that updated its point-of-sale system to support cashless transactions. “They’ll never go back,” Lazarov said, because the new POS system “helps them run their business better. Think about how much more money they can make.”
Scott Holloway, managing partner at Starting Line and investor in AnyCreek, said people, especially younger generations, increasingly want to spend extra money on experiences than on physical things. This trend has been well-documented in quite a few studies dating back a decade agoHe added that firms creating technology to support experience-based transactions are in a good position.
Additionally, people often need to purchase new equipment and supplies to perform new activities.
Many start-up firms have also emerged to provide equipment, clothes and niknaks for these new hobbyists. Eastside Golf Course AND Malbon Golf Course Both firms are venture-backed startups that aim to equip and equip new golf fans who may not want to appear to be Arnold Palmer from the Sixties. Nettie AND Recess are startups designing pickleball paddles that do not appear to be they got here from a Florida retirement home.
Early investors entering this category akin to Hip-campbooking platform for campsites and AutoCampglamping company, showed that customers were fascinated about innovation in the category years ago. Now, greater than 10 years later, Holloway believes there’s still a lot that entrepreneurs can do.
There’s reason to think he’s right. Services that rent out things like kayaks, canoes and stand-up paddleboards still have web sites that appear to be they were in-built 2002. The same goes for those that supply every thing from archery to ziplining. Many outdoor-recreation businesses could still use some help.
“The market is huge,” Holloway said. “As Marc Andreessen famously said, ‘software is eating the world,’ but this is one of the last consumer spends that software hasn’t eaten. Consumers are demanding it. It’s a huge market opportunity to ride that wave.”
Technology
This is the shipping of products from China to the USA

The Chinese retailer has modified the strategy in the face of American tariffs.
Thanks to the executive ordinance, President Donald Trump ended the so -called de minimis principle, which allowed goods value 800 USD or less entering the country without tariffs. It also increases tariffs to Chinese goods by over 100%, forcing each Chinese firms and Shein, in addition to American giants, similar to Amazon to adapt plans and price increases.
CNBC reports that this was also affected, and American buyers see “import fees” from 130% to 150% added to their accounts. Now, nevertheless, the company is not sending the goods directly from China to the United States. Instead, it only displays the offers of products available in American warehouses, while goods sent from China are listed as outside the warehouse.
“He actively recruits American sellers to join the platform,” said the spokesman ago. “The transfer is to help local sellers reach more customers and develop their companies.”
(tagstotransate) tariffs
Technology
One of the last AI Google models is worse in terms of safety

The recently released Google AI model is worse in some security tests than its predecessor, in line with the company’s internal comparative test.
IN Technical report Google, published this week, reveals that his Flash Gemini 2.5 model is more likely that he generates a text that violates its security guidelines than Gemini 2.0 Flash. In two indicators “text security for text” and “image security to the text”, Flash Gemini 2.5 will withdraw 4.1% and 9.6% respectively.
Text safety for the text measures how often the model violates Google guidelines, making an allowance for the prompt, while image security to the text assesses how close the model adheres to those boundaries after displaying the monitors using the image. Both tests are automated, not supervised by man.
In an e-mail, Google spokesman confirmed that Gemini 2.5 Flash “performs worse in terms of text safety for text and image.”
These surprising comparative results appear when AI is passing in order that their models are more acceptable – in other words, less often refuse to answer controversial or sensitive. In the case of the latest Llam Meta models, he said that he fought models in order to not support “some views on others” and answers to more “debated” political hints. Opeli said at the starting of this yr that he would improve future models, in order to not adopt an editorial attitude and offers many prospects on controversial topics.
Sometimes these efforts were refundable. TechCrunch announced on Monday that the default CHATGPT OPENAI power supply model allowed juvenile to generate erotic conversations. Opeli blamed his behavior for a “mistake”.
According to Google Technical Report, Gemini 2.5 Flash, which is still in view, follows instructions more faithfully than Gemini 2.0 Flash, including instructions exceeding problematic lines. The company claims that regression might be partially attributed to false positives, but in addition admits that Gemini 2.5 Flash sometimes generates “content of violation” when it is clearly asked.
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“Of course, there is a tension between (after instructions) on sensitive topics and violations of security policy, which is reflected in our assessment,” we read in the report.
The results from Meepmap, reference, which can examine how models react to sensitive and controversial hints, also suggest that Flash Gemini 2.5 is much less willing to refuse to reply controversial questions than Flash Gemini 2.0. Testing the TechCrunch model through the AI OpenRoutter platform has shown that he unsuccessfully writes essays to support human artificial intelligence judges, weakening the protection of due protection in the US and the implementation of universal government supervisory programs.
Thomas Woodside, co -founder of the Secure AI Project, said that the limited details given by Google in their technical report show the need for greater transparency in testing models.
“There is a compromise between the instruction support and the observation of politics, because some users may ask for content that would violate the rules,” said Woodside Techcrunch. “In this case, the latest Flash model Google warns the instructions more, while breaking more. Google does not present many details about specific cases in which the rules have been violated, although they claim that they are not serious. Not knowing more, independent analysts are difficult to know if there is a problem.”
Google was already under fire for his models of security reporting practices.
The company took weeks to publish a technical report for the most talented model, Gemini 2.5 Pro. When the report was finally published, it initially omitted the key details of the security tests.
On Monday, Google published a more detailed report with additional security information.
(Tagstotransate) Gemini
Technology
Aurora launches a commercial self -propelled truck service in Texas

The autonomous startup of the Aurora Innovation vehicle technology claims that it has successfully launched a self -propelled truck service in Texas, which makes it the primary company that she implemented without drivers, heavy trucks for commercial use on public roads in the USA
The premiere appears when Aurora gets the term: In October, the corporate delayed the planned debut 2024 to April 2025. The debut also appears five months after the rival Kodiak Robotics provided its first autonomous trucks to clients commercial for operations without a driver in field environments.
Aurora claims that this week she began to freight between Dallas and Houston with Hirschbach Motor Lines and Uber Freight starters, and that she has finished 1200 miles without a driver to this point. The company plans to expand to El Paso and Phoenix until the top of 2025.
TechCrunch contacted for more detailed information concerning the premiere, for instance, the variety of vehicles implemented Aurora and whether the system needed to implement the Pullover maneuver or the required distant human assistance.
The commercial premiere of Aurora takes place in a difficult time. Self -propelled trucks have long been related to the necessity for his or her technology attributable to labor deficiencies in the chairman’s transport and the expected increase in freigh shipping. Trump’s tariffs modified this attitude, not less than in a short period. According to the April analytical company report from the commercial vehicle industry ACT researchThe freight is predicted to fall this yr in the USA with a decrease in volume and consumer expenditure.
Aurora will report its results in the primary quarter next week, i.e. when he shares how he expects the present trade war will affect his future activity. TechCrunch contacted to learn more about how tariffs affect Auror’s activities.
For now, Aurora will probably concentrate on further proving his safety case without a driver and cooperation with state and federal legislators to just accept favorable politicians to assist her develop.
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At the start of 2025, Aurora filed a lawsuit against federal regulatory bodies after the court refused to release the appliance for release from the protection requirement, which consists in placing warning triangles on the road, when the truck must stop on the highway – something that’s difficult to do when there isn’t a driver in the vehicle. To maintain compliance with this principle and proceed to totally implement without service drivers, Aurora probably has a man -driven automotive trail after they are working.
(Tagstranslate) Aurora Innovation
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