Everyone writes their memorandum about Black Swan startup

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“You can often gain significant market share during an economic downturn just by staying alive,” Y Combinator, a leading startup accelerator. wrote in an internal email to his founders this week. This advice was one of ten points in a memo designed to help companies navigate the economic landscape. crushing recession technology. Other prominent quotes include “plan for the worst” and “no one can predict how bad the economy will be, but things aren’t going well.”

Email is a shift in vibration from just a few weeks agowhen hundreds of Y Combinator startups, many of which have already raised venture capital funding, presented themselves to the public at Demo Day. Startups were the first to receive the new standard $500,000 Y Combinator check and were actively targeting international opportunities. Now YC says “this slowdown will have a disproportionate impact on international companies,” among others.

While the Y Combinator memo was not meant to be made public, it is not the only one to release the Black Swan memo in preparation for things to come. TechCrunch received a series of memos sent out by VCs to portfolio companies about the market downturn. Some were reassuring, some were simple, and others were as simple a vibration check as “Can you tell us your ARR and money spent in writing?” Pretty please?

I explored this topic in my latest TechCrunch+ column. “It’s not business as usual (and investors recognize that).” Subscribe Capital for a podcast version of this conversation next week! In the rest of this newsletter, we’ll take a look at new layoffs at tech companies, dating ghosts worth up to $44 billion, and Swyft startups. As always, you can support me by forwarding this newsletter to a friend or follow me on twitter or My blog.

So. Many. Layoffs.

The crazy month of layoffs in May continues. Amanda and I wrote third batch of technical layoffs which covered all sectors and stages. The layoffs affected Section4, Carvana, DataRobot, Mural, Robinhood, On Deck, Thrasio, MainStreet and Netflix. Some large companies are imposing a moratorium on hiring, such as Twitter and Meta, or announcing a change in strategy, such as Uber.

Here’s why it’s important: As of press time, staff at Picsart, Netflix, Cars24 and Skillz have all been hit by a wave of layoffs this week. It tells us who’s vulnerable in terms of the business model – subscription-based businesses and marketplaces, for example – and that companies can start doing more than one round of layoffs in the same month (cough, cough, Netflix).

• How fast are layoffs accelerating at startups?
• Tech workers face another tough week of layoffs at various stages
• Coinbase abandons its hiring plans, citing cryptocurrency market turmoil

Image credits: wild pixel (Opens in a new window) / Getty Images

This was posted by a bot on twitter.

On stock this week, your favorite trio of podcasts covered unicorn vibes, real estate tech games and, as you can tell from the title, Elon Musk’s latest Twitter story. At this point, we’re deciding if it’s worth trying to keep track of the timeline at all.

Here’s why it’s important: Our weekly tech news digest is a good way to keep track of the big news that is shaping this shaky landscape and stay on top of deals that may have gone unnoticed. In this case, we spent most of the time solving why Elon Musk is taking revenge on the $44 billion date what he did with Twitter. The answer, not so complicated, seems to be because he’s more interested in the chase than the handcuffs.

After we recorded our episode, more news about Elon Musk emerged during the course of the investigation. from Business Insider. Allegedly, Elon Musk exposed himself to a SpaceX flight attendant and proposed to her for sex. The company paid $250,000 for her silence, Business Insider reports. Musk ever since rejected harassment claims. Read the whole story here.

Image credits: Westend61/Getty Images

Deal of the week

Fast cities! The Mountain View company, founded by Google alumni, wants to improve transportation and offer a vehicle with a lower cost per mile and less carbon emissions. The solution looks like an autonomous, lightweight vehicle with a fixed cable. The startup became the winner of the TechCrunch Sessions: Mobility 2022 competition, with Beyond Aero taking second place.

Here’s why it’s important: Swyft ticked a lot of “we don’t wave” checkboxes. Along with the MVP and the first client agreement, the company established an R&D center in Christchurch, New Zealand. He is also working with Queenstown’s Remarkables Park, a large office, retail and residential space, to create a network of autonomous gondolas, It is reported by TechCrunch. It is scheduled to be launched by August 2024.

• Belong receives $80 million to help manage rental properties
• Predecessor, Bezos returns to Arrived, a startup that lets you buy a single-family home for as little as $100
• Kolkata Chai’s Next Cup Includes A Taste Of Venture Funding
• Round, Acquisition and Revenue Later, Bravado Sales Network Wants You to Know It’s #Growing

In a week

• Thanks to everyone who joined us at TechCrunch Mobility this year. It was an explosion and I’m inspired by the energy that came out both on and off the stage.
• Obviously the show must go on. I’m actively helping plan the TechCrunch+ event at Disrupt this year – apply here to consider — and TechCrunch Climate next month just announced a speaker you might recognize.
• If you missed last week’s newsletter, check it out: “When Your Startup’s Core Mission Must Be Canceled.” To top it all off, we had Hey Jane co-founder and CEO Kiki Friedman of Equity to continue the conversation about who should speak the loudest in the digital health world.
• A low bow to these wonderful colleagues with whom I have the honor to work. Subscribe to all of them and then create another account and follow them again.

Seen on TechCrunch

• We are (browsing) reading the Metaverse manifesto so you don’t have to…
• Joby Aviation Acquires Avionyx to Accelerate Aerospace Software Certification
• Youngest Blockchain Billionaire Roasts the World’s Largest Cryptocurrency

Seen on TechCrunch+

• Pitch Deck Teardown: $2.3M BoxedUp Launch Presentation
• 3 Things to Remember When Diversifying Your Startup Cap Table

See you later,

H