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Introducing the Next Wave of Startup Battlefield Judges at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

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Announcing our next wave of Startup Battlefield judges at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

Startup Battlefield 200 is the highlight of every Disrupt, and we will’t wait to search out out which of the 1000’s of startups which have invited us to collaborate can have the probability to pitch to top enterprise capitalists at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Join us at Moscone West in San Francisco October 28–30 for an epic showdown where everyone can have the probability to make a major impact.

Get insight into what the judges are in search of in a profitable company as they supply detailed feedback on the evaluation criteria. Don’t miss the opportunity to learn from their expert insights and discover the key characteristics that result in startup success, only at Disrupt 2024.

We’re excited to introduce our next group of investors who will evaluate startups and dive into each pitch in an in-depth and insightful Q&A session. Stay tuned for more big names coming soon!

Alice Brooks, Partner, Khosla Ventures

Alicja is a partner in Khosla’s ventures interests in sustainability, food, agriculture, and manufacturing/supply chain. She has worked with multiple startups in robotics, IoT, retail, consumer goods, and STEM education, and led mechanical, electrical, and application development teams in the US and Asia. She also founded and managed manufacturing operations in factories in China and Taiwan. Prior to KV, Alice was the founder and CEO of Roominate, a STEM education company that helps girls learn engineering concepts through play.

Mark Crane, Partner, General Catalyst

Mark Crane is a partner at General Catalysta enterprise capital firm that works with founders from seed to endurance to assist them construct corporations that may stand the test of time. Focused on acquiring and investing in later-stage investment opportunities equivalent to AuthZed, Bugcrowd, Resilience, and TravelPerk. Prior to joining General Catalyst, Mark was a vice chairman at Cove Hill Partners in Massachusetts. Prior to that, he was a senior associate at JMI Equity and an associate at North Bridge Growth Equity.

Sofia Dolfe, Partner, Index Ventures

Sofia partners with founders who use their unique perspective and private understanding of the problem to construct corporations that drive behavioral change, powerful network effects, and transform entire industries, from grocery and e-commerce to financial services and healthcare. Sofia can also be one of Index projects‘ gaming leads, working with some of the best gaming corporations in Europe, making a recent generation of iconic gaming titles. He spends most of his time in the Nordics, but works with entrepreneurs across the continent.

Christine Esserman, Partner, Accel

Christine Esserman joined Acceleration in 2017 and focuses on software, web, and mobile technology corporations. Since joining Accel, Christine has helped lead Accel’s investments in Blackpoint Cyber, Linear, Merge, ThreeFlow, Bumble, Remote, Dovetail, Ethos, Guru, and Headway. Prior to joining Accel, Christine worked in product and operations roles at multiple startups. A native of the Bay Area, Christine graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a level in Finance and Operations.

Haomiao Huang, Founding Partner, Matter Venture Partners

Haomiao from Venture Matter Partners is a robotics researcher turned founder turned investor. He is especially obsessed with corporations that bring digital innovation to physical economy enterprises, with a give attention to sectors equivalent to logistics, manufacturing and transportation, and advanced technologies equivalent to robotics and AI. Haomiao spent 4 years investing in hard tech with Wen Hsieh at Kleiner Perkins. He previously founded smart home security startup Kuna, built autonomous cars at Caltech and, as part of his PhD research at Stanford, pioneered the aerodynamics and control of multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles. Kuna was part of the Y Combinator Winter 14 cohort.

Don’t miss it!

The Startup Battlefield winner, who will walk away with a $100,000 money prize, can be announced at Disrupt 2024—the epicenter of startups. Join 10,000 attendees to witness this breakthrough moment and see the next wave of tech innovation.

Register here and secure your spot to witness this epic battle of startups.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Musk’s amended lawsuit against OpenAI names Microsoft as a defendant

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Elon Musk’s lawsuit was filed against OpenAI, accusing the corporate of abandoning its non-profit mission withdrawn in July, simply to be there reborn in August. Now in corrected criticismthe lawsuit names recent defendants, including Microsoft, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and former OpenAI board member and Microsoft vice chairman Dee Templeton.

The amended filing also adds recent plaintiffs: Neuralink executive and former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis and Musk’s AI company, xAI.

Musk was considered one of the unique founders of OpenAI, which was tasked with researching and developing artificial intelligence for the advantage of humanity, and was originally founded as a nonprofit organization. He left the corporate in 2018 after disagreements over its direction.

In the criticism, Musk’s lawyers argue that OpenAI is “actively trying to eliminate competitors” like xAI by “extracting guarantees from investors to not finance them” He also allegedly unfairly advantages from Microsoft’s infrastructure and expertise in what Musk’s lawyer describes within the lawsuit as a “de facto merger.”

“xAI was harmed by, among other things, … the inability to obtain computing power from Microsoft on terms nearly as favorable as OpenAI … and the exclusive exchange between OpenAI and Microsoft of confidential competitive information,” reads the criticism filed late Thursday in a federal court in Oakland, California .

Hoffman’s position on the boards of Microsoft and OpenAI, as well as a partner on the investment firm Greylock, gave Hoffman a privileged – and illegal – view of the businesses’ activities, the criticism alleges. (Hoffman stepped down from OpenAI’s board in 2023.) Greylock invested in Inflection, notes Musk’s general counsel, a man-made intelligence startup that Microsoft acquired earlier this 12 months — and which, in response to the criticism, could reasonably be considered an OpenAI competitor .

As for Templeton, whom Microsoft briefly named a non-voting board observer for OpenAI, the amended filing alleges that she can have facilitated agreements between Microsoft and OpenAI that violated antitrust rules.

“The purpose of the directorate merger prohibition is to prevent the sharing of sensitive competitive information in violation of antitrust laws and/or to provide a forum for coordinating other anticompetitive activities,” the criticism says. “Allowing Templeton and Hoffman to serve as members of OpenAI…. management undermined this goal. “

In addition to Microsoft, Hoffman and Templeton, California Attorney General Rob Bonta was named as a defendant in Musk’s criticism. Bloomberg reported this month, OpenAI is in talks with Bonta’s office in regards to the technique of changing the company structure.

According to the amended criticism, Zilis, who stepped down from OpenAI’s board in 2023 after roughly 4 years as a member, is taken into account an “injured employee” under the California Corporations Code. Zilis has repeatedly raised concerns about OpenAI’s internal dealings which have gone unheeded – which the criticism says are broadly much like Musk’s concerns.

Zilis has close ties to Musk, having worked as a project director at Tesla from 2017 to 2019 and likewise led research on Neuralink. (Neuralink is Musk’s brain-computer interface enterprise.) She can also be the mother of Musk’s three children, Techno Mechanicus, and twins Strider and Azure.

The 107-page amended criticism includes the bizarre detail that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman proposed that OpenAI sell its own cryptocurrency in January 2018 before it ultimately decided to change to a capped-profit structure.

“Please note, I have spoken with part of the security team and there have been many concerns regarding the ICO and possible unintended consequences in the future,” Altman wrote in an email to Musk dated January 21, 2018, in an attachment filed with the amended criticism. could be seen. ICO, or initial coin offering, is an unregulated way of raising funds for cryptocurrency corporations. “I want to emphasize the need for confidentiality, but I think it’s really important that we get buy-in and give people a chance for early assessment.”

Musk email against OpenAI ICO Altman cryptocurrencies
Image credits:Toberoff and Partners

Musk allegedly rejected the thought of ​​selling cryptocurrencies. “I have considered an ICO approach and will not support it,” he wrote in an email response to Altman and OpenAI founders Greg Brockman (now OpenAI CEO) and Ilya Sutskever (OpenAI’s former chief scientist), the exhibit shows. “In my opinion, it would just cause a huge loss of credibility for OpenAI and everyone associated with the ICO.”

The essence of the lawsuit stays unchanged on the plaintiffs’ side: OpenAI benefited from Musk’s early involvement in the corporate, and yet it abandoned its nonprofit commitment to make the outcomes of its artificial intelligence research available to all. “No amount of clever design or excess of creative deal-making can overshadow what is happening here,” the criticism reads. “OpenAI, Inc., co-founded by Musk as an independent charity committed to security and transparency… is (rapidly) becoming a wholly-for-profit subsidiary of Microsoft.”

OpenAI sought to dismiss Musk’s lawsuit, calling it “noisy” and baseless.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Hit-Boy and D’USSÉ partners in a limited AR edition

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Hit Boy, D’Usse

D’USSÉ’s limited edition makes Grammy Award-winning producer Hit-Boy a presence at your holiday parties.


D’USSÉ Cognac has partnered with Grammy Award-winning producer Hit-Boy to create a special AR experience that can bring the “SICKO MODE” hitmaker to your front room this holiday season.

This augmented reality (AR) experience, called “The Set”, allows anyone who purchases a D’USSÉ VSOP holiday gift box access an exclusive AR DJ performance by Hit-Boy so as to add splendor to the vacation celebrations. This marks D’USSÉ’s first step into technology and its largest investment thus far in technology-enabled experiences.

The D’USSÉ VSOP Holiday Gift Box includes a 750 ml bottle of D’USSÉ VSOP and a QR code that unlocks access to “The Set” AR experience. After scanning the code with a smartphone, recipients can activate Hit-Boy’s realistic AR filter behind the DJ booth, directly in the event space.

From there, users can select a cocktail to match the mood of the party – whether it’s a D’USSÉspresso Martini or a Spicy Sidecar – and Hit-Boy will respond with custom playlists it’s curated for every drink. With a new-age digital experience, “The Set” brings Hit-Boy to the center of this 12 months’s holiday celebrations.

“Music is the universal spirit of the holidays,” Hit-Boy he said in a statement. “You can’t celebrate without it. But just like collaborating with artists, it’s about finding the right energy.”

“D’USSÉ and I wanted to spread the right atmosphere and had a lot of fun playing with AR technology to provide fans with a unique experience,” he added. “After scanning the QR code, the AR filter will allow me to go to your holiday pendants and separate my favorite songs for the celebration. We hope you enjoy “The Set” wherever you and your family members are this holiday season.”

Partygoers can interact with “The Set” by positioning themselves “beside” or “behind” the DJ booth in AR mode. The filter also lets you take photos, so you’ll be able to quickly share the fun together with your family members or on social media. With the added option of connecting speakers, this immersive visual and audio experience makes Hit-Boy the last word headliner for any holiday party this season.

The D’USSÉ VSOP Holiday Gift Box is offered now in stores nationwide and at dusse.com (MSRP $50).


This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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Bluesky claims that 1 million people have registered on the platform in the last 24 hours

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Bluesky’s UK surge has had little impact on X

Bluesky said this on Thursday night Over 1 million people have registered on the platform over the last 24 hours, making this one among the busiest days for the company. This also meant that the social network crossed the overall mark of 16 million users.

The platform’s announcement comes hours after Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said Threads had seen greater than 15 million registrations in November. He added that over the last three months, the Meta-owned platform has recorded 1 million registrations per day.

Bluesky also had teething problems Thursday as some users were unable to make use of services because one among the company’s ISPs had a cable issue that combined with other network problems, in accordance with Bluesky developer.

Over the past few months, the decentralized social network has seen a gradual influx of users amid various events reminiscent of the X ban in Brazil, moderation issues at Threads, and the recent US election results. After the announcement of the results of the US presidential election, over a million recent people registered on the platform inside per week, the company said on Tuesday.

At the time of writing, a surge in Bluesky sign-ups over the past 24 hours has put the app at the top of the list of free apps in the US App Store, followed by ChatGPT and Threads.

Bluesky might be smaller than Threads, which has over 275 million energetic users, and Elon Musk’s X. However, the platform’s CEO Jay Graber published earlier this week that Bluesky has more involvement than X.

(*1*) she said separate post.

Last month, Bluesky said it had raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Blockchain Capital with participation from Alumni Ventures, True Ventures, SevenX, Darkmode’s Amir Shevat and Kubernetes co-founder Joe Beda. On the product front, the company said it plans to launch subscriptions.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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