Nuro founders admit aggressive hiring 'was a mistake' in email to laid-off workers

Hey, folks. It’s Kyle, filling in for the Daily Crunch stalwarts Haje and Christine. I can’t match my esteemed colleagues’ pith and wit, but — unlike a certain megalomaniac billionaire who shan’t be named — I’ve promised to avoid any passive-aggressive language about committing to “hardcore” work culture. You won’t have to press a button to pledge your loyalty here, not to worry.

While Twitter under Elon Musk remains the talk of the town (for all the wrong reasons), I’d like to draw attention for a moment to TechCrunch Sessions: Crypto, our event that took place in Miami this week — coincidentally as crypto exchange FTX and its tangled web of investments imploded. (We swear we didn’t plan that, honest.) Happened to be in attendance? Great! If not, we’ve got you covered with in-depth reviews of all the major sessions. Check them out here.

If you’d much prefer a break from the current news cycle — and I can’t blame you, really — please considering giving this feature from Ron Miller and Anita Ramaswamy a read. (You’ll need a TC+ subscription.) While touching on the FTX debacle, it takes a higher-level, detailed look at web3 and tries once and for all to answer the question: “Is web3 truly innovative or a simple repackaging of existing tech?” The answer might surprise you.

Now, without further ado, here’s a roundup of this week’s happenings. — Kyle

The TechCrunch Top 3

No Blue for you: For the masochists out there who signed up for Twitter within the past few weeks, you’ll have to wait before you can buy a subscription to Twitter Blue, Twitter’s premium plan that adds — among other benefits — a blue “verified” checkmark. In a policy change this week reported by Ivan, Twitter said that new Twitter accounts will have to wait 90 days before they can buy Blue. It’s likely aimed at stemming the torrent of impersonations that have been increasingly pervading the platform in recent weeks.

Swifties revolt: Taylor Swift fans are none too pleased with Tickemaster’s handling of presales to the megastar’s upcoming Eras tour. Neither are regulators. Tennessee attorney general Jonathan Skrmetti is among those looking into whether Ticketmaster violated consumers’ rights and antitrust regulations by subjecting customers to technical glitches and hours-long wait times, with many ultimately unable to buy a ticket, Catherine reports.

Shop while you…you know: Merch is coming to OnlyFans. Amanda writes about the platform’s new partnership with Spring, the e-commerce company formerly known as Teespring, which will allow OnlyFans creators to list physical products directly on their profile pages. OnlyFans isn’t taking a cut of the transactions, but, as Amanda notes, the feature incentivizes creators to integrate their businesses more deeply within the platform.

The power of prediction

Sponsored by Amazon Web Services

Predictive modeling is being used for forecasting that can save lives and livelihoods. Organizations are preventing environmental damage as well as economic and human loss by using advanced AWS models and free data from the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative. Learn how modeling the future can help increase sustainability.

Learn More

Startups and VC

Is Patreon still the hip place to be for content creators? Fanfix argues that it isn’t. A Gen Z–focused rival, Fanfix today launched SuperLink, a stand-alone “link-in-bio” tool for existing apps like Instagram and Snapchat that displays a creator’s Fanfix page. It might not be novel — Linktree has long dominated the link-in-bio space — but, as Lauren writes, one-year-old Fanfix sees SuperLink as a path to grow its base of more than 9.6 million users, which are reportedly earning millions of dollars on the platform. Certainly there’s ample opportunity for expansion. A recent Adobe survey found that the creator economy — that is, adults who participate in “creative activities” and post and promote their work online — has grown by over 165 million globally in the last two years.

Turing our gazes skyward, India’s first private rocket, built by startup Skyroot Aerospace, made a successful liftoff this week. Jagmeet reports that the launch of the rocket — called Vikram-S — came after much anticipation and years-long work by Skyroot, which was founded by former Indian Space Research Organization scientists Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka.

In other news of note:

How much tax will you owe when you sell your company?

Getting a startup off the ground is hard work, so asking founders to prepare for an acquisition may sound just as silly as telling them to practice their Academy Award speech in the bathroom mirror.

Still . . . if you’re ready to launch a startup, you must also be prepared to sell one.

In an explainer for TC+, Peyton Carr, managing director of Keystone Global Partners, offers a framework for calculating taxation upon an exit and lays out the differences between short-term capital gains and long-term capital gains rates.

“As a founder, you’ll need to plan for your personal tax situation to optimize the opportunity set that is presented to you.”

Here’s a few more from the TC+ team:

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Read More

Big Tech Inc.

Kenya and Nigeria have both witnessed a proliferation of loan apps in recent years, many of which offer quick unsecured personal credit lines up to $500. The lack of regulations has attracted rogue operators, unfortunately — roughly 40 loan apps in Kenya are under investigation by the office of the data protection commissioner over data breach complaints from users. Following the passage of new laws in the countries to clamp down on the industry, Google has begun booting nefarious loan apps available on Android from the Google Play Store, reports Annie. That’s welcome news, I’d say.

On the subject of regulation, the FCC this week announced that it’ll require broadband providers to display a “nutrition label” with all fees, catches and caps clearly stated for any plan they offer. As Devin explains, the labels will show things like price and contract length, whether the price will change after a certain period and “typical” download and upload speeds as well as latency. Don’t expect labels to show up right away — the FCC’s rules must first be reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget and published in the federal register, at which point broadband providers will have six months to a full year to comply — but greater transparency in internet plans can only be a good thing, I’d argue — even if it comes slowly.

Here’s the rest of this week’s happenings:

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month.