Startups

TechCrunch+ Roundup: SAFE founder survey, replacing a CEO, how cyber insurance works

Comment

A worker standing on a suspension cable of the Golden Gate Bridge applies a new coat of paint
Image Credits: Galen Rowell (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

A friend recently spent months getting into shape for a physical so he could obtain a lower insurance rate. He got the policy and plans to continue working out because he feels so much healthier.

Tech companies that plan to buy cyber insurance are in a similar boat: IT managers must conduct risk assessments and usually add new security measures to qualify, but doing the work can be its own reward.


Full TechCrunch+ articles are only available to members.
Use discount code TCPLUSROUNDUP to save 20% off a one- or two-year subscription.


“In the end, the benefits from working through the process of achieving eligibility for cyber insurance can go far beyond the issuance of a policy,” says security strategist Ilia Sotnikov.

In this article, he explains “what cyber insurance actually covers,” identifies the critical measures most insurers require and explains why implementing multifactor authentication may not cure every problem.

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend.

Walter Thompson
Editorial Manager, TechCrunch+
@yourprotagonist

Cyber insurance audit: Painful necessity, or a valuable opportunity?

Pitch Deck Teardown: Unito’s $20M Series B deck

Pitch Deck Teardown Image Credits: Unito

Unito, a platform that lets customers manage multiple SaaS apps in one place, announced a $20 million Series B round in October 2022.

“Strategically, the path Unito built makes a lot of sense, and I’m not surprised that this narrative resonated with investors,” writes Haje Jan Kamps, who unpacked the lightly-redacted deck:

  1. Cover slide
  2. Highlights/summary slide
  3. Market context slide
  4. Problem slide
  5. Solution slide
  6. Product slide
  7. How it works slide
  8. Product evolution slide
  9. Growth/traction slide
  10. Competition/positioning slide
  11. Team slide
  12. Summary slide

5 founders discuss why SAFEs are better for early-stage and bridge rounds

SAFE round, founders, startups
While SAFE rounds are considered founder friendly, most founders only think they are a good idea for certain rounds. Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Rebecca Szkutak interviewed five founders who raised money via simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) rounds, instead of going the traditional seed/Series A route.

“By the time a startup reaches the Series A stage, this mechanism is less attractive for a variety of reasons,” she writes.

Here’s who she surveyed:

  • Zach Blank, founder, Hurry
  • Amy Divaraniya, founder and CEO, Oova
  • Tory Reiss, CEO and co-founder, Equi
  • Arman Hezarkhani, founder and CEO, Parthean
  • Vishwas Prabhakara, founder and CEO, Honey Homes

5 founders discuss why SAFEs are better for early-stage and bridge rounds

Get the TechCrunch+ Roundup newsletter in your inbox!

sign up for the TechCrunch+ roundup newsletter

To receive the TechCrunch+ Roundup as an email each Tuesday and Friday, scroll down to find the “sign up for newsletters” section on this page, select “TechCrunch+ Roundup,” enter your email, and click “subscribe.”

Click here to subscribe

Ask Sophie: Which US visas are best for international founders?

lone figure at entrance to maze hedge that has an American flag at the center
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

Dear Sophie,

I am from Georgia but I live in Poland. I created my startup in Delaware a few years ago. To realize it and grow it, I need to move to the U.S.

I have a business plan and a market plan, but no immigration plan. What’s your advice? Which visa should I apply for?

— Global Georgian

Ask Sophie: Which US visas are best for international founders?

Finding CEO: It’s the new ‘Finding Nemo’

Image Credits: Getty Images / Sakchai Vongsasiripat

It’s rare for a founding CEO to take their company public: As of 2015, “only one-third of startups that reached IPO had their founders as CEOs,” writes Haje Jan Kamps.

Replacing a CEO is a complicated process — senior executives and board members should be aligned, founders must be ready to let go, and the winning candidate needs to get started as quickly as possible.

“In the majority of cases, there comes a time that you need to have a professionally credentialed CEO to take the company to the next level,” said DeeDee DeMan, founder and CEO of executive search firm Bench International.

“And that’s completely dependent upon the acceptance and the mentality of the founding CEO.”

Finding CEO: It’s the new ‘Finding Nemo’

How to prevent an ‘operational catastrophe’

Paper Cut Craft Battery Only Has One Red Cell Left on Beige Background Directly Above View.
Image Credits: MirageC(opens in a new window) /Getty Images

Julia Ivzhenko, head of operations at Futurra, launched a new edtech app with a 20-person team that answered students’ questions in real time.

Network effects drew in a growing stream of new users, but “we concentrated on scaling and didn’t have time to think if the resources of our team were enough to keep going with such speed,” she writes in TC+.

“To prevent the approaching catastrophe,” she developed a five-step plan that analyzed key processes and highlighted bottlenecks that ultimately generated “a timeline for optimization.”

How to prevent an ‘operational catastrophe’

More TechCrunch

Critics have long argued that device searches at the U.S. border are unconstitutional and violate the Fourth Amendment.

US border agents must get warrant before cell phone searches, federal court rules

Featured Article

UK’s Zapp EV plans to expand globally with an early start in India

Zapp is launching its urban electric two-wheeler in India in 2025 as it plans to expand globally.

UK’s Zapp EV plans to expand globally with an early start in India

The first time I saw Google’s latest commercial, I wondered, “Is it just me, or is this kind of bad?” By the fourth or fifth time I saw it, I’d…

Dear Google, who wants an AI-written fan letter?

Featured Article

MatPat, the first big YouTuber to successfully exit his company, is lobbying for creators on Capitol Hill

Though MatPat retired from YouTube, he’s still pretty busy. In fact, he’s been spending a lot of time on Capitol Hill.

MatPat, the first big YouTuber to successfully exit his company, is lobbying for creators on Capitol Hill

Featured Article

A tale of two foldables

Samsung is still foldables’ 500-pound gorilla, but the company successes have made the category significantly less lonely in recent years.

A tale of two foldables

The California Department of Motor Vehicles this week granted Nuro approval to test its third-generation R3 autonomous delivery vehicle in four Bay Area cities, giving the AV startup a positive…

Autonomous delivery startup Nuro is gearing up for a comeback

With Ghostery turning 15 years old this month, TechCrunch caught up with CEO Jean-Paul Schmetz to discuss the company’s strategy and the state of ad tracking.

Ghostery’s CEO says regulation won’t save us from ad trackers

Two years ago, workers at an Apple Store in Towson, Maryland were the first to establish a formally recognized union at an Apple retail store in the United States. Now…

Apple reaches its first contract agreement with a US retail union

OpenAI is testing SearchGPT, a new AI search experience to compete directly with Google. The feature aims to elevate search queries with “timely answers” from across the internet and allows…

OpenAI comes for Google with SearchGPT

Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX announced on Saturday a controversial plan to “socialize” the $230 million loss from its recent security breach among all its customers, a move that has sent…

WazirX to ‘socialize’ $230 million security breach loss among customers

Featured Article

Stay up-to-date on the amount of venture dollars going to underrepresented founders

Stay up-to-date on the latest funding news for Black and women founders.

Stay up-to-date on the amount of venture dollars going to underrepresented founders

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the U.S. Commerce Department agency that develops and tests tech for the U.S. government, companies and the broader public, has re-released a…

NIST releases a tool for testing AI model risk

Featured Article

Max Space reinvents expandable habitats with a 17th-century twist, launching in 2026

Max Space’s expandable habitats promise to be larger, stronger, and more versatile than anything like them ever launched, not to mention cheaper and lighter by far than a solid, machined structure.

Max Space reinvents expandable habitats with a 17th-century twist, launching in 2026

Payments giant Stripe has acquired a four-year-old competitor, Lemon Squeezy, the latter company announced Friday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. As a merchant of record, Lemon Squeezy calculates…

Stripe acquires payment processing startup Lemon Squeezy

iCloud Private Relay has not been working for some Apple users across major markets, including the U.S., Europe, India and Japan.

Apple reports iCloud Private Relay global outages for some users

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. To get Startups Weekly in your inbox every Friday, sign up here. This…

Legal tech, VC brawls and saying no to big offers

Apple joins 15 other tech companies — including Google, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI — that committed to the White House’s rules for developing generative AI.

Apple signs the White House’s commitment to AI safety

The language is ambiguous, so it’s not clear whether X is helping itself to all user data for training Grok or whether this processing refers only to user interactions with…

Privacy watchdog says it’s ‘surprised’ by Elon Musk opting user data into Grok AI training

Sound Search on TikTok is somewhat similar to YouTube Music’s song detection tool that lets you find the name of a song by singing, humming or playing it. 

TikTok rolls out a new feature that lets you find songs by singing or humming them

Skip, a wearable tech startup that began as a secretive project inside Alphabet, exited stealth this week to announce a partnership with outdoor clothing specialist Arc’teryx. The deal is the…

Alphabet X spinoff partners with Arc’teryx to bring ‘everyday’ exoskeleton to market

Ledger, a French startup mostly known for its secure crypto hardware wallets, has launched a new mid-range device, the Ledger Flex. Available now, priced at $249, the dinky hardware wallet…

Ledger launches Ledger Flex, a mid-range hardware crypto wallet

The good news is that you can switch off the new data-sharing setting and also delete your conversation history with the AI. 

Here’s how to disable X (Twitter) from using your data to train its Grok AI

Regulators gave SpaceX the all-clear to return to launch two weeks after the Falcon 9 rocket experienced an anomaly on orbit.

SpaceX cleared to resume Falcon 9 launches while FAA investigation remains open

Madison Long and Simone May founded Clutch in 2020 to help connect people to businesses looking for marketing and content creation.

Digital marketing startup Plaiced has acquired Precursor Ventures-backed Clutch

With the CrowdStrike update continuing to cause havoc across the planet, a startup has raised $13.5 million to at least improve some level of security for the kinds of devices…

ZeroTier raises $13.5M to help avert CrowdStrike-like network problems

Apple has reduced prices of its iPhone models in India by 3-4% following a cut in import duties in the South Asian market.

Apple cuts iPhone price in India amid China slowdown

MNT-Halan, a fintech unicorn out of Egypt, is on a consolidation march. The microfinance and payments startup has raised $157.5 million in funding and is using the money in part…

Egypt’s MNT-Halan banks $157.5M, gobbles up a fintech in Turkey to expand

The energy transition is a marathon, not a sprint. But opportunities for acceleration are growing. Swedish startup Greenely* has just spotted one. It’s closing an €8 million Series A funding…

Energy tech startup Greenely grabs €8M to reach more households and support Europe’s energy transition

The Floorr offers tools for conducting sales, hosting tailored styling sessions, creating mood boards, and engaging in text or voice chats with clients, all in one place. 

Luxury fashion startup The Floorr empowers personal stylists with tools to grow their businesses

A decade-old drama involving VC David Sacks and Rippling founder Parker Conrad has blown up on X with many among the Silicon Valley elite taking sides.

Here’s why David Sacks, Paul Graham and other big Silicon Valley names had a brawl on X over VC behavior