Hustle Fund, a pre-seed firm, closes $30M for a new fund

Hustle Fund, a pre-seed fund built by former operators and founders, has raised $30 million for a new fund, per SEC filings. Hustle Fund first filed paperwork for this fund, its second to date, in May 2019 with intention to raise $50 million. Its inaugural investment vehicle closed at $11.5 million

After getting the date wrong earlier, Siri now knows today is Election Day

Listen chief, it's Election Day in the United States. You know that, I know that. Everyone knows that — and in the off-chance anyone wasn't clued in to the fact, the last few weeks have offered a non-stop barrage of reminders to vote. Today. Tuesday. November 3. 2020. It seems the last on

Spotify adds standalone streaming support to its Apple Watch app

Spotify confirmed today it has begun to roll out support for standalone streaming on its Apple Watch app. The feature had been spotted in testing back in September, and arrives roughly two years after Spotify debuted its dedicated Apple Watch app. With support for standalone streaming, users can li

Gaming rules the entertainment industry, so why aren’t investors showing up?

As gaming’s popularity reaches epic heights, venture investors’ activity in the industry doesn’t seem to equate with the overall size of the games market. Spurred by an unreal year where traditional entertainment has been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic and consumers find unity i

iRobot issues warning for select Roomba i7+ docking stations over potential short circuiting

Robotic vacuum giant iRobot this week sent warnings to select owners of the Roomba i7+, noting that the Clean Base docking station has the potential to malfunction and short circuit. According to iRobot, concern stems from “very rare cases,” wherein liquids are deposited into the Clean Base Aut

Pulled Ant Group IPO costs Alibaba nearly $60B in market cap

News today that Ant Group’s IPO is suddenly on hold in both Shanghai and Hong Kong caused a sell-off of Alibaba shares. This afternoon, equity in sister-company Alibaba is off around 8% in the wake of the delayed offering and news that Ant had run into regulatory issues with the Chinese gover

Hulu tests its social viewing feature, Watch Party, with election news live streams

Hulu is bringing its Watch Party social viewing feature to its livestreamed election news coverage, provided via its existing partnership with ABC News Live. The company announced today it will allow its on-demand customers to test Watch Party while watching ABC’s “Election 2020”

How startups can shake up their first idea and still crush the market

When Quibi announced it was shutting its doors recently after raising $1.75 billion, it begged an obvious question: If the original idea didn’t work, why not adjust its model or do something completely different while it still had capital? It wouldn’t have been the first company to deci

NBC News launches an iOS 14 widget that puts election results on your home screen

NBC News has updated its iOS app with a new feature that brings election news, data and results directly to your iPhone or iPad home screen. With the app’s new “Decision 2020” iOS 14 widget, you can customize a series of widgets with information related to early voting stats, poll

Tech stocks rip higher on Election Day

Tech stocks shot higher as American voters went to the polls, the gains coming far ahead of results that could indicate who will win the presidency. American stocks broadly rose, with the S&P 500 index closing up 1.78% to 3,369.11 — one of the best Election Day closes for the S&P — whil

Mov gives you a chance to win your favorite athlete’s game day attire — sweat, tears and all

“If it smells, that's how they're going to receive it.” While that claim would likely make most D2C founders cringe, for founder Chris Alston, it's part of the magic of his company, Mov. The upstart, based in Los Angeles, connects fans to the game-worn apparel of their favorite athl

PayPal details its digital wallet plans for 2021, including crypto, Honey integration and more

PayPal this week laid out its vision for the future of its digital wallet platform and its PayPal and Venmo apps. During its third-quarter earnings call on Monday, the company said it plans to roll out substantial changes to its mobile apps over the next year to integrate a range of new features, i

Got the right stuff? Exhibit and pitch at TC Sessions: Space 2020

Do you find the expression “the sky's the limit” well, limiting? Join a global community of brilliant visionaries, makers and investors on December 16-17 for TC Sessions: Space 2020, an online conference dedicated to moving beyond the confines of this world through innovative tech and to cr

Udacity raises $75M in debt, says its tech education business is profitable after enterprise pivot

Online education tools continue to see a surge of interest boosted by major changes in work and learning practices in the midst of a global health pandemic. And today, one of the early pioneers of the medium is announcing some funding as it tips into profitability on the back of a pivot to enterpri