Plus: A McHack

View this email online in your browser

By Rebecca Szkutak

Friday, July 11, 2025

 

Welcome to TC PM! Today we look at a YC-backed space startup that is seeing strong investor interest; we dive into a new solo GP fund; and we learn about not one, but two conspiracies. 

 

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Apolink

🚀 Blast off: Apolink is a Y Combinator-backed startup looking to build a real-time connectivity network for satellites in low Earth orbit. It just raised an "oversubscribed" seed round that resulted in $4.3 million in fresh funds and a $45 million valuation. Not bad for a 19-year-old founder. 

🍔 McWhoops! Security researchers discovered that they could hack into McDonald's AI hiring chatbot, McHire (genius). How? By simply entering "123456" as both the username and password. In doing so, the researchers found they could access personal info on 64 million people. Yikes!

🔓 Security flaw: Speaking of security bugs, U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA said hackers are actively exploiting a security flaw in a widely used Citrix NetScaler. CISA has given federal government departments just one day to patch their systems. 

 
 

A Message from Persona

Verify more users without sacrificing security

Verify users during onboarding to fight fraud, meet compliance requirements, build trust, and protect your business and customers. Persona's low-code identity verification platform adapts to risk signals in real time — increasing friction for potential fraudsters while fast-tracking good users so you can maximize conversion and minimize risk.

Learn More
 
 

Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Matt Cardy / Getty Images

🌝 To the moon: Bitcoin has been on a bit of a tear this week, hitting a new all-time high today at $118,900. Some industry analysts think that if it reaches $150,000, it could set off a buying frenzy. 

💰 AI mania: Startup Cognition just landed a notable customer for its AI coding agent Devin — Goldman Sachs. The financial giant is looking to use Devin to augment its workforce of more than 12,000 human developers and plans to roll out "hundreds of instances of Devin." 

💵 New fund just dropped: Sarah Smith Fund, a new VC firm by, yes, Sarah Smith, just raised $16 million for its first fund. The solo GP said that while she thinks company building requires a team effort, she believes early-stage investing is best done by a solo investor.

🤗 Talking bots: On today's episode of Equity, the hosts dig into Hugging Face's release of its Reachy Mini open source desktop robots. The hosts also dug into Linda Yaccarino's exit from X, how Rivian's micromobility spinoff raised $200 million, and more. 

 
 

A Message from Head

Head AI replaces your entire marketing team

The arrival of Head, the world's first true AI marketer, isn't just sparking debate — it's signaling a reckoning. As AI like Head takes over your influencer, affiliate marketing, and more, it is rapidly outpacing human capabilities. Is this the end of marketing careers as we know them? The FOMO is real, the urgency undeniable.

Face the AI Future
 
 

Around the web

🔎 Speaking of conspiracies: The Department of Justice released 11 hours of "raw" footage of Jeffrey Epstein's prison cell the night before he was found dead. While this was to dispel claims that Epstein was murdered, the video's metadata shows that it was modified. Interesting!

🙄 Loser behavior: It's not new that snark subreddits can be brutal when creators post or say something the trolls don't like. But a new trend in these subreddits is that people are falsely reporting creators to government agencies like ICE and CPS. Who has the time? 

 

Featured jobs from CrunchBoard

Software Engineer, Revive Health (Boston, MA)

IT Finance Assistant, Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (Middletown, PA)

Technical Business Systems Analyst, Air Line Pilots Association (Tysons, VA)

Partnerships Manager, Clearscope (Remote)

Sr. IT Security Engineer - Computing Services, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA)

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.

 
TechCrunch Logo

Check out some of our other newsletters:
Startups Weekly
TechCrunch Events
TechCrunch Mobility

Got a tip?
Get in touch securely.

Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com

Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter.

 

Update your preferences here at any time

Copyright © 2025 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. TechCrunch Media LLC. 9720 Wilshire Boulevard, 6th floor, Beverly Hills, CA

Privacy Policy