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Benefits and payroll management company Sequoia says hackers accessed sensitive customer information, including their Social Security numbers and COVID-19 test results.

According to Wired, which first broke the news of Sequoia’s breach last week, the incident impacted customers of Sequoia One, a professional employer organization (or PEO) that provides outsourced human resources and payroll services. The service is popular with U.S.-based startups, and says it works with more than 500 venture-backed companies.

Now, in a data breach notice filed with the California attorney general’s office, Sequoia said it became aware that an “unauthorized party may have accessed a cloud storage system that contained personal information” over a two-week period between September 22 and October 6. This breached cloud system stored an array of sensitive personal data, including names, home addresses, dates of birth, gender, marital status, and employment status. It also included Social Security numbers, their salary wage related to benefits, government identity cards, and COVID-19 test results and vaccine cards.

Sequoia added that the review also found no evidence of malware, a data extortion attempt, or any evidence of ongoing unauthorized access to company systems. Because the hacker’s access was “read-only,” the company said no client data had been changed.

Sequoia said it hired Dell Secureworks to conduct a forensic investigation, which found “no evidence that the unauthorized party misused or distributed data.” It’s not clear if Sequoia has the technical means, such as logs, to determine what information was accessed or what data was siphoned, if any.

When asked by TechCrunch, Sequoia declined to say how the customer data became exposed and would not say how many individuals had their personal data compromised.

Read more on security:

Xnspy stalkerware spied on thousands of iPhones and Android devices
CommonSpirit Health says patient data was stolen during ransomware attack
Apple launches end-to-end encryption for iCloud data
Rackspace blames ransomware attack for ongoing Exchange outage

HR platform Sequoia says hackers accessed customer SSNs and COVID-19 data by Carly Page originally published on TechCrunch

Lensa’s AI popularity has had a notable impact on the App Store’s Top Charts. The popular photo and video editing app recently went viral over its new “magic avatars” feature, powered by the open source Stable Diffusion model, allowing users to turn their selfies into styled portraits of themselves as sci-fi, anime, or fantasy characters, among other artistic renderings. Consumer demand for the app, and for AI edits more broadly, has now pushed numerous other “AI” apps into the U.S. App Store’s Top Charts. As of Monday, the top three spots on the U.S. App Store are now all held by AI photo editors, and even more AI art apps are newly ranking in the Top 100.

The No. 1 spot on the U.S. App Store, however, continues to be held by Lensa AI, which has seen 12.6 million global installs in the first 11 days of December, up 600% from the 1.8 million installs it saw during a similar time frame in November (Nov. 20 through Nov. 30), according to new data from app store intelligence firm Sensor Tower. The U.S. accounted for 3.6 million of those new December installs, estimates indicate.

In fact, 8 out of the top 100 apps by downloads on the U.S. App Store were AI art apps during the time Dec. 1 through Dec. 11 time frame, the firm’s analysis found.

Following Lensa AI, the generic-sounding app AI Art: AI Image Generator had keyword-stuffed its app’s name to rank in second place, promising AI avatars and AI art from text. Dawn – AI Avatars is in the No. 3 position, offering AI avatars that can be changed with a text prompt. (As of the time of writing on Dec. 12, the two apps appear to now have swapped places.)

AI Art has seen around 1.7 million global installs during Dec. 1-11, up 229% from the 71,000 it saw during Nov. 20-30. Meanwhile, Dawn also saw around 1.7 million installs, Sensor Tower said, up from the 28,000 it saw in the late November time frame.

These are shortly followed by Wonder – AI Art Generator at No. 10, which also offers AI avatars and AI art from text prompts.

Although Wonder ranks lower in the U.S., it has seen around 4 million global installs so far in December, up from the prior period of Nov. 20-30, when it saw 469,000 installs.

Not too much farther down the Top Charts, you’ll also find Prequel: Aesthetic AI Editor at slot No. 14. The app has seen 907,000 global installs this month so far, up from the 319,000 seen November 20 through 30.

The Top 50 also includes the newer app Voi – AI Avatar App by Wonder at No. 39. This happens to be from the same developer behind the No. 10 app Wonder but has an awful 1.6-star rating over its price subscription model and broken features, according to angry customer reviews. Launched only on Dec. 7, Voi has already gained 785,000 installs, of which 241,000 were U.S.-based. Clearly benefitting from the trend, the app’s developer actually now has three apps that reference “AI” in their titles, including the lesser-ranked Pixelup – AI Photo Enhancer.

Another AI app, Meitu – Photo Editor & AI Art has moved into No. 47 on the U.S. App Store after gaining 6.4 million installs in December so far, up from the 1.1 million seen during Nov. 20-30.

In addition to highly ranking overall among iPhone apps, the U.S. App Store’s Graphics & Design category is also now filled with AI art apps within its own Top Charts.

Here, Dawn is the No. 1 Top Free app, followed by AI Art and Wonder to round out the top 3. Profile AI: AI Avatar Creator, Inspire – AI Art Generator, and Dream by Wombo – AI Art Tool are ranked 8, 9, and 10, respectively. Lesser known apps pop up as you scroll down the category’s Top 50 as well, filing slots No. 14, 19, 21, 25, 27, 31, 36, 44, and 47 — too many to list. All use the keyword “AI” in their app’s name along and reference activities like “AI art” or “AI avatars.”

And of course, the U.S. Photo & Video category’s Top Charts have several AI apps as well, including No. 1 Lensa, No. 5 Prequel, No. 7 Voi, No. 8 Meitu, and No. 26 FacePlay.

AI app demand is not limited to the App Store, however. Many of the same apps are trending on Google Play, too. When both app stores’ rankings are combined, Lensa AI remains No. 1, AI Art is No. 2, Wonder is No. 8, Meitu is No. 10, Prequel is No. 68, Dawn is No. 72, Dream is No. 77 and FacePlay is No. 90.

Dream gained 782,000 new global installs in December so far, while FacePlay gained 2.8 million, Sensor Tower found.

While it’s common for app makers to congregate around a trend by updating their app’s name and description, or by bidding on keywords in Apple’s App Store Search ads, it’s remarkable just how many “AI” apps have now made it to the Top Charts in the wake of Lensa’s success. This signals something more than a flash-in-the-pan trend, as the general conversation these days is around how much AI has been improving — in other areas, people are marveling at the leap of the AI tech ChatGPT.

That said, we should note that just because an app is marketing itself as AI-powered, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s using the same Stable Diffusion model Lensa is. Not that consumers seem to care– they seem happy to try almost any app labeling itself AI for the time being, as long as it delivers interesting and creative results.

Of course, there are concerns over this specific AI use case. Already, Stable Diffusion has become controversial for the way its model was trained by using images from artists without their consent. Lensa was also able to be tricked into making NSFW images, TechCrunch found. And today, MIT Technology Review reported that Lensa created topless images and skimpy and sexualized avatars when tried by one female reporter, who happened to be of Asian heritage — suggesting the AI had been influenced by an overabundance of anime and video characters.

It’s clear the tech has a long way to go to be ethical and responsible. But those concerns, for the time being, aren’t dampening consumer interest in this growing category.

AI art apps are cluttering the App Store’s Top Charts following Lensa AI’s success by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

Financial institutions are waiting for the SEC and other regulators to pass rules about how to disclose emissions from their portfolio companies. Until then, many are following the standard set by the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF). Pathzero helps them with a platform to exchange carbon information securely and analyze it. The Sydney, Australia-based startup announced today it has raised $8.6 million AUD (about $5.3 million USD) for its Series A+ round, which brings its total Series A funding to $15.6 million AUD.

The funding was led by Carthona Capital (which is also a customer of Pathzero), with participation from Clyde Bank Holdings, Antler, individual investors and Pathzero employees.

Pathzero currently has 142 million tons of emissions under management through its reporting platform, with the target of increasing that amount to 1 billion tons. Its users include companies like private markets firm StepStone, superannuation fund HESTA and Carthona Capital.

Pathzero founder and CEO Carl Prins told TechCrunch that climate action started out as an interest, before growing into a passion. “When I initially started looking deeper into the climate change issue at hand, I came to the realization that just working out what the size of the issue is and accounting for it is the first step in order to make progress,” he said. “When it came to helping financial institutions track emissions, there was already a global protocol on how to do this. From here, this presented us with the opportunity to launch a business internationally.”

Financed emissions are total greenhouse gas emissions from an investor’s portfolio or a bank’s lending book, based on what proportion of each portfolio company’s activity is financed by the institution. More regulators around the world are beginning to hold financial institutions responsible for their indirect impact on the climate, making it important for them to start reporting their financed emissions based on standards like PCAF.

“Such issues were once considered non-financial issues, offering the flexibility to ignore them or gloss over them,” Prins said. “Yet, in the past decade, there has been a considerable shift in the legal recognition of investors’ fiduciary duty to consider climate risk in their decision making.”

Financed emissions tracking is traditionally done on spreadsheets, with the help of consultants. But this approach doesn’t scale, which is where Pathzero comes in. The platform tracks all three carbon emissions scopes based on global standards like the GHG Protocol and PCAF. It allows financial institutions to exchange carbon information with their portfolio companies and limited partners securely, and collaborate to identify carbon hotspots. Then they can use Pathzero to set carbon emissions targets and perform scenario analysis to make sure their activities and goals are in accordance with the Paris Agreement.

Pathzero’s clients include one of the largest superannuation funds in Australia, which used Pathzero to share PCAF-compliant financed emissions calculations with its private equity managers. This enabled them to meet reporting requirements, and it also helped identify emissions hotspots so they could talk to their investment managers about decarbonization.

Another of Pathzero’s clients is ROC Partners. The private equity manager uses Pathzero to manage and measure the emissions in their investment portfolios, and share that information with stakeholders. This allows ROC Partners to use a risk-based approach to ask questions of their portfolio companies. Then their answers are fed back into Pathzero’s platform to create more detailed measurements.

Prins said that in financed emissions, Pathzero competes with ratings agencies like S&P and MSCI, but differentiates by focusing on private markets, where emissions data is usually harder to obtain. For corporate emissions, it’s up against boutique consultants, but Pathzero’s advantage is that it lets clients do more work on their own, using auditable methodology.

In a statement about the investment, Carthona Capital partner Dean Dorrell said, “After first investing in Pathzero over a year ago, we’ve seen the company go from strength to strength. We have every confidence in what their tech offering brings to the wider financial industry and are proud to be early adopters of their services ourselves. As regulation intensifies across sectors, we are looking forward to the years ahead as monitoring and reducing financed emissions becomes second nature to financial institutions.”

Sydney-based Pathzero helps investors track their portfolios’ carbon emissions by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Nominations for the 2023 Golden Globe Awards were announced this morning, with HBO, HBO Max and Netflix tied for the lead in the TV category, getting 14 noms each. Major contenders include HBO’s “The White Lotus,” “House of the Dragon” and “Hacks” as well as Netflix’s “Wednesday,” “Ozark” and “The Crown.”

While the two streaming giants are neck and neck overall, HBO Max had one more TV show on the list. Seven HBO series had a total of 14 nominations, whereas just six Netflix shows made the cut.

HBO/HBO Max shows include “The White Lotus” with four noms, “Hacks” with three, “House of the Dragon” with two, as well as “Euphoria,” “The Staircase” and “The Flight Attendant” with one nomination each. “Barry” also made the nominee list with two.

Netflix, on the other hand, received four Golden Globe nominations each for “The Crown” and “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” three for “Ozark,” two for its latest hit “Wednesday” as well as “Better Call Saul.” Plus, “Inventing Anna” actress Julia Garner was nominated for best performance by an actress in a limited series.

On the film side, Netflix had nine nominations, including movies “Blonde,” “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio,” “Where the Crawdads Sing,” “The Good Nurse,” “White Noise” and German film “All Quiet on the Western Front.” HBO Max’s parent-company Warner Bros. nabbed three Golden Globe noms for its biographical film “Elvis.”

Last year, Netflix had the most Golden Globes nominations out of any streamer, with 17 total. The company received its first-ever Best Motion Picture (Drama) Golden Globe for “The Power of the Dog.”

HBO and HBO Max earned 10 nominations in the TV category of the 2022 Golden Globes. Earlier this year, the company earned the most Emmy wins overall for shows like “Succession,” “Euphoria,” and “Hacks.”

Hulu’s TV shows performed well this year with 10 Golden Globe nominations. Hulu series that were nominated include “Pam & Tommy,” “The Bear,” “The Dropout,” “The Patient” and “Only Murders in the Building.”

Selena Gomez, who stars in the hit Hulu series “Only Murders in the Building,” picked up her first-ever Golden Globe nomination for acting. Her co-stars, Steve Martin and Martin Short, are also nominated for best performance. In total, “Only Murders in the Building” has four noms.

Earlier this year, Hulu broke its own record by getting 58 Emmy nominations, which was mainly thanks to its series “Only Murder in the Building” and “Dopesick.

The FX series “Abbott Elementary” was by far the most nominated TV show with five noms in total. The workplace comedy has its streaming rights shared between HBO Max and Hulu.

Apple TV+ pulled six TV noms, including Best Drama Series for “Severance” and Best Limited Series for “Black Bird.” The two shows got three nominations respectively.

Disney had 3 films nominated, including “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” and “Turning Red.” Disney+ show “Andor” was nominated for Best TV Actor with Diego Luna, who plays the lead role as Cassian Andor. The company had six total nominations across four titles.

Both Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures pulled seven films on the Golden Globes nominees list, which will all likely premiere on their respective streaming services, Paramount+ and Peacock. Paramount’s “Top Gun: Maverick” was nominated for Best Picture (Drama) and Best Song and is set to make its streaming debut on Paramount+ on December 22.

“Yellowstone,” a Paramount Network series that streams on Peacock, was nominated for Best TV Actor (Kevin Costner, who plays John Dutton).

Dark comedy “The Banshees of Inisherin” was the most nominated film for this year’s Golden Globes, with eight nominations. It will stream on HBO Max starting tomorrow, December 13. Other major films in contention for awards are “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Fabelmans,” “Tár,” “Babylon” and “Triangle of Sadness.”

NBC and Peacock will stream the 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards on January 10, 2023. This year marks the ceremony’s return to television after it was criticized for lacking diversity. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) noted in today’s announcement that this year is the first time there were 103 international voters, making the total Golden Globe Awards voting body “51.8% racially and ethnically diverse,” HFPA wrote.

HBO/HBO Max and Netflix are top streamers among Golden Globe nominees by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch

The world’s most popular YouTuber is taking over a corner of Fortnite and somebody will walk away with $1 million.

Jimmy Donaldson, better known by the handle MrBeast, is partnering with Epic Games on something we haven’t seen the Fortnite-maker do before. The battle royale game will host something it’s calling “MrBeast’s Extreme Survival Challenge,” a virtual gauntlet of timed challenges with a big prize for one winner.

The Fortnite player who racks up the best score in the MrBeast challenge mode will earn $1 million — inspired the massive cash giveaways that propelled Donaldson to fame. The challenge kicks off on December 17 and can be found in the “Fortnite competitive” section of the game.

Apparently you can replay the survival challenge as many times as you want between 12PM ET and 3PM ET on that day to push for a high score. The challenge island will actually go live on Tuesday, December 13 to give players plenty of practice time prior to the contest. To be eligible, players must have enabled two-factor authentication on their accounts and reached level 15.

There are a few consolation prizes for the masses who will not in fact win a million bucks, including a MrBeast-themed umbrella (remember when umbrellas were a status symbol?), a skin, emote and some custom in-game items.

Is it gimmicky? Absolutely. But it’s also interesting. Through Fortnite, Epic Games regularly highlights famous creators and streamers with custom in-game skins, but the big cash giveaway shows that Epic is willing to get creative with its influencer partnerships.

The special contest will also draw attention to Fortnite’s game modes beyond battle royale. Fortnite maker Epic Games is betting big on user-generated content. The game, which is really more of a gaming platform, actually hosts an endless portal of special modes, challenges and virtual hang out spaces, most of them made by individual amateur game designers.

Though we certainly won’t be walking away with the bag, the MrBeast event promises to be a big one. It’s also well-timed with the start of Fortnite’s latest chapter, which introduced major visual improvements and a total map overhaul.

Fortnite and MrBeast will give away $1 million in a pop-up game challenge by Taylor Hatmaker originally published on TechCrunch

Alongside of the relaunch of Twitter Blue, Twitter’s controversial subscription service, Twitter has begun rolling out a new offering called Blue for Business that adds a gold checkmark to company accounts. On a support page, Twitter says Blue for Business, which is currently in testing, is intended to designate that a given Twitter account is a “corporate entity.”

Blue for Business doesn’t come as a complete surprise. In November, reporter Casey Newton obtained internal Twitter documents showing that the social network planned to introduce a business tier of its subscription plan that’d let companies buy verification badges for their workers and put new badges on their profiles. In mockups, tweets from workers included additional badges next to their names so that their status was immediately noticeable in the timeline.

Shortly afterward, app engineer Jane Manchun Wong found evidence that Twitter profiles subscribed to Blue for Business might get square profile photos.

There’s no sign of any worker-badge-buying feature or uniquely-shaped profile photos, but TechCrunch spotted several corporate and media publisher accounts with gold-colored checkmarks this afternoon — not to be confused with the forthcoming gray marks for government and “multilateral accounts.” Esther Crawford, director of product management at Twitter, said over the weekend to expect it; businesses “who previously had relationships with Twitter” would receive gold checkmarks before Blue for Business opens up to more companies “via a new process,” she explained.

The pricing structure for Blue for Business — assuming there is one — isn’t yet clear, as it’s not detailed on the support page. We’ll update this post once we learn more.

With the various flavors of Blue, Musk seeks to bring Twitter to profitability as the company faces an estimated $1 billion a year in interest payments on $13 billion in debt. It’s likely to be an uphill battle. Data from analytics firm Sensor Tower suggests that Twitter’s app has generated only$6.4 million in in-app purchases to date, with Blue being the top purchase.

Blue has evolved chaotically since Musk’s takeover this fall, rolling out this week with a new review step aimed at combating the sorts of account impersonations that have plagued Twitter over the past few months. Available in five countries as of this week, including the U.S., Blue now costs $8 per month or $11 per month for iOS sign-ups. (The higher cost for iOS sign-ups is likely a move by Twitter to offset the cost of Apple’s 30% commission for in-app purchased subscriptions).

Twitter Blue subscribers gain the ability to edit their tweets, upload 1080p videos and access to a “reader mode,” plus see reduced ads and have their tweets “rocketed” to the top of replies, mentions and search.

Twitter launches Blue for Business, grants gold checkmarks to ‘corporate entities’ by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

Overnight, news broke that the National Ignition Facility, a U.S. government research lab, was the first to achieve net-positive nuclear fusion. When lasers hit the tiny fuel pellet, it created an explosion that released more energy than the lasers delivered.

For decades, fusion power has been just around the corner. Is this the moment we’ve all been waiting for?

Maybe.

First, the details: The Financial Times reported yesterday that the NIF had sparked a fusion reaction that generated 2.5 megajoules of energy, about 20% more than the 2.1 megajoules of laser energy that zapped the fuel pellet. If that holds up under scrutiny, it represents the first time that a controlled nuclear fusion experiment of any kind produced more power than it consumed.

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which houses the facility, has so far refused to confirm the report. But three outlets — the Financial Times, The Washington Postand Bloomberg — all cited sources familiar with the experiments. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Jill Hruby, the undersecretary for nuclear security, are expected to make an official announcement tomorrow.

“If this report is true, then this is just a huge scientific achievement in the pursuit of fusion,” said Carolyn Kuranz, an associate professor at the University of Michigan who has performed experiments at the NIF.

Investors have grown bullish on fusion in recent years, plowing $2.7 billion into startups in the last year alone. Advances in high-temperature superconductors, computing power and artificial intelligence have coincided to propel the field forward at a remarkably fast pace.

High-profile names like Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital have made some significant investments in fusion power startups in recent years.

“There couldn’t be a more significant step toward fusion than what NIF has accomplished,” Sacca told TechCrunch. “So today we offer the naysayers our thoughts and prayers.”

Breakthrough fusion power announcement expected tomorrow. Here’s what it means by Tim De Chant originally published on TechCrunch

FTX’s fallen CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, is scheduled to testify tomorrow as a witness before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services.

The committee is investigating the events that led up to FTX’s implosion, which resulted in the crypto exchange filing for bankruptcy last month. Prior to Bankman-Fried testifying, John J. Ray III, the new CEO of FTX, will speak to the House during its first panel.

The hearing, “Investigating the Collapse of FTX, Part I,” sounds like a movie title — and some parts of it probably feel like one, given how crazy this whole situation has become. But questions surrounding what really happened at FTX may remain unanswered; even though Bankman-Fried is scheduled to testify, there are still concerns he may get cold feet.

Last week, in a back-and-forth tweet exchange, California Representative Maxine Waters, the chairwoman of the House of Committee on Financial Services, invited Bankman-Fried to join the hearing on December 13. Bankman-Fried effectively declined.

That didn’t sit well with Waters, who noted that Bankman-Fried has been on a personal media tour, talking publicly to groups ranging from “Good Morning America” to the BBC.

Amid the possibility of a congressional subpoena to compel his attendance, Bankman-Fried tweeted back to Waters on December 9 that he is “willing to testify,” adding, “[T]here is a limit to what I will be able to say, and I won’t be as helpful as I’d like.” He claimed he does not have access to “much” of his data.

Although he skirted many questions from reporters, Bankman-Fried has still been rather chatty in recent weeks. Perhaps when he’s under oath before the U.S. government, it’ll be a different story.

Regardless, Bankman-Fried said in a tweet he will “try to be helpful” (after saying he won’t be as helpful as he’d like) and will talk about FTX US’ alleged solvency, resolutions to return value to users internationally, what he thinks led to the crash, and his “own failings.”

Last month, FTX bankruptcy hearings began in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

James Bromley, a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell and co-head of the firm’s global restructuring practice, said during the hearing FTX “laundered the world” in locations including Berkeley, California; Hong Kong; Miami; Chicago; and the Bahamas.

A few days before the initial bankruptcy hearing, in a November 17 filing with the same court, Ray, who was brought in to clean up the Enron scandal, said there was a “complete absence of trustworthy financial information.”

“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here,” Ray said at the time.

Tomorrow’s hearing is the first of many with the House that aim to uncover what happened internally that caused one of the largest centralized crypto exchanges in the world to fall so hard and so fast.

SBF scheduled to testify tomorrow at US House hearing on FTX collapse by Jacquelyn Melinek originally published on TechCrunch

After announcing the relaunch of Twitter Blue over the weekend, Twitter updated its terms to require phone number verification for users who want to purchase the subscription. The company said that if you haven’t verified your phone number, you will be prompted to do so while buying the subscription plan.

What’s more, the company may also prevent users who have changed their handle (username), display name, or profile picture within the last seven days from purchasing the Twitter Blue subscription.

“Twitter accounts that haven’t been active within the last 30 days or that have changed their profile photo, display name, or username (aka @handle) within the previous seven days may also be unable to sign up. Subscribers will also need a verified phone number,” the company’s updated terms stated.

This is in addition to the previous requirement that newly created accounts can’t sign up for Twitter Blue for 90 days. Twitter said that folks who subscribe to the Twitter Blue plan may not see the checkmark immediately as it plans to check if the account doesn’t violate its requirements for verification. Apart from the above-mentioned conditions, these requirements say that the account shouldn’t show “signs of being misleading or deceptive” and shouldn’t engage in “platform manipulation and spam”.

“All Twitter Blue features will be available immediately except the blue checkmark, which may take time to appear to ensure review of subscribed accounts meets all requirements,” Twitter said on the FAQ page for Twitter Blue.

Last month, Musk mentioned that all accounts undergoing verification will be manually verified — which was exactly the process Twitter followed with legacy verification.

All these steps are aimed at preventing impersonation and spam. When Elon Musk’s version of Twitter Blue with a verification mark first launched in November, a ton of accounts began to ape brands, celebrities, and athletes. The mayhem caused by that forced Musk to pause the program until there were steps in place to prevent that from happening again.

Twitter will require phone number verification to purchase a Twitter Blue subscription by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

The correct amount of money to raise for your startup is “as much as you need to hit the milestones to raise your next round of funding.” It isn’t rocket science, and yet, the vast majority of founders I talk to are very fuzzy about exactly how much money that is, and there are a lot of misconceptions about how you figure out how much you need to raise.

To be a startup on the VC treadmill is a staged de-risking of a business proposition. In other words: Right now, your company is very risky indeed because certain parts of your business are unknown. This is why you need to put together a minimum viable product (which is neither minimum, nor viable, or a product) to test out part of your business model. Once those things are tested and proven, the risk of the business goes down, and you can raise your next round of funding to take on the next part of the journey.

The first mistake a lot of founders make is to try to raise enough money for a certain amount of runway, measured in months or years. That makes some sense, but investors are not interested in keeping your startup afloat for the next 18 or 24 months. They’re interested in keeping you alive for long enough to deliver certain milestones, which in turn are a proxy of risk reduction.

Let’s take a deep dive into how you can best design your startup’s journey through the various stages of funding — and detail just how much you need to raise at each stage.

Milestone-driven fundraising

The best way to think about how much you need to raise for this round is to consider what you need to accomplish to raise your next round. That means considering the specific milestones that you must hit to prove that your company is moving in the right direction. These milestones might include:

How much money should you raise for your startup? by Haje Jan Kamps originally published on TechCrunch