Blog Posts
Adidas backpedals on robotic shoe production with Speedfactory closures
An expensive experiment in global distribution has been abandoned by Adidas, which has announced that will close its robotic “Speedfactories” in Atlanta and Ansbach, Germany, within 6 months. The company sugar-coated the news with a promise to repurpose...
China Roundup: facial recognition lawsuit and cashless payments for foreigners
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch’s China Roundup, a digest of recent events shaping the Chinese tech landscape and what they mean to people in the rest of the world. This week, a lawsuit sparked a debate over the deployment of China’s pervasive facial...
Can America ever rebuild its neighborhoods and communities?
We talk a lot about startup ecosystems around these parts, and for good reason. Strong ecosystems have great reservoirs of talent congregated close together, a culture built around helping one another on ambitious projects, and sufficient risk capital to ensure that...
Ex-Facebook CPO Chris Cox now advises on climate & campaign tech
Chris Cox’s motivational speeches were at the heart of Facebook’s new employee orientation. But after 14 years at the social network, the Chief Product Officer left in March amidst an executive shake-up and Facebook’s new plan to prioritize privacy...
Corporate, public investments spur interest in Pacific Northwest startups
Dan Burgar Contributor Share on Twitter Dan Burgar is President of the Vancouver VR/AR Association, where he has helped develop the city's ecosystem into the second largest VR/AR hub globally. He's also a partner at Shape Immersive, which creates innovative solutions...
There’s no ‘perfect time’ for giving employees feedback
Mayke Nagtegaal Contributor Share on Twitter Mayke Nagtegaal is the COO of MessageBird, an Amsterdam-based cloud communications platform which, in 2017, raised the largest-ever investment — $60 million — by a European software company. As COO of a company...
Scanwell Health launches smartphone tests for UTIs in partnership with Lemonaid Health
Companies continue to refine digital diagnostic tools for in-home healthcare at a rapid clip. The latest to launch is an at-home test for urinary tract infections from the Los Angeles-based startup Scanwell Health. The company was founded by Stephen Chen, who...
The 7 most important announcements from Microsoft Ignite
It’s Microsoft Ignite this week, the company’s premier event for IT professionals and decision-makers. But it’s not just about new tools for role-based access. Ignite is also very much a forward-looking conference that keeps the changing role of IT...
Max Q: SpaceX and Boeing gear up for commercial crew mission tests
Welcome back to Max Q, our weekly look at what’s happening in space and space startup news. This week was a bit more quiet than usual coming off of the amazingly over-packed International Astronautical Congress, but there were still some big moves that promise a...
Airbnb to ban ‘party houses’ in wake of Halloween shooting that left 5 dead
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said Saturday the company will ban “party houses” and take other steps to safeguard hosts and guests after five people died at a Halloween party hosted at California home that was rented on the service. Chesky made the announcement...