Kkshingh

Nearly half of Uber and Lyft drivers in the U.S. have quit or are driving less due to high gas prices caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine, despite temporary fuel surcharges added to fares by those ride-hailing companies, according to a survey shared with TechCrunch. “Forty-three percent of Uber and Lyft drivers still say they’re driving less or have quit completely despite the new fuel surcharges,” Harry Campbell, founder and CEO of The Rideshare Guy (RSG), a blog and podcast dedicated to helping rideshare drivers earn more money and stay on top of industry news, told TechCrunch. “This compares to 53% of drivers who said the same before the fuel surcharges were announced.” The Rideshare Guy originally polled drivers on how they felt about the rising gas prices, collecting 325 responses from Uber and Lyft drivers between March 7 and March 11 via email and social media. When the surcharges were announced in mid-March — a fee of $0.45 to $0.55 per ride for Uber customers, and $0.55 for ...

Yet again , India is the most represented country, outside of the United States, within the latest Y Combinator accelerator batch: the Winter 2022 cohort sports 32 startups hailing from Gurugram, Bengaluru, Delhi, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai. For what it’s worth, more than 191 companies in India have been funded through the Y Combinator accelerator, with nearly half — half! —  of those companies accepted in the last 12 months. This batch’s companies, as we’ll discuss below, plan to tackle a diverse range of challenges within tech, but appear concentrated mostly within the financial services sector. Think ‘buy now, pay later’ pitches, savings-focused neobanks and, of course, bitcoin bets. It’s a contrast from prior showings, in which most of India’s YC startups fell into the B2B services category, but as we’ve seen, fintech is on fire in terms of valuations and investor appetite – even despite a broader market correction. Other trends of note include a smattering of ...

Michael Redd Contributor Share on Twitter Michael Redd spent 12 seasons playing in the NBA and on the U.S. Olympic team. He is now co-founder and chairman of 22 Ventures . More posts by this contributor 3 warning signs that your investor will leave you on the sidelines Startup accelerators are increasingly putting the brakes on demo days. The often flashy events reserved for founders to connect with investors have long been part of the likes of Y Combinator’s program, seen as the “graduation” of startups’ journey. But demo day isn’t a good use of founders’ or investors’ time. Many VCs who sign deals with the top startups from YC actually do so before demo day. The commotion around the event means that investors are so eager to seal an early-bird deal, they jump ahead of the queue and undermine the need for the event in the first place. In an investment landscape that has changed drastically over recent years, the demo day is an outdated tradition. With capital f...

Instagram is testing a new feature that will make it easier for users to discover and support social causes directly through hashtags, the company announced on Monday. Now, when you search for specific hashtags associated with certain social movements, you’ll have the option to support them through new options. Once you get get to a hashtag page, you can select “Support” to learn more about the movement. There’s also a “Spread the Word” button that lets you share the hashtag page with your friends via a DM. The company says the new feature will also make it easier to raise awareness for these causes through a “Create a Fundraiser” button that can used to start raising money on behalf of a cause. Starting today we’re testing out a new way for people to learn more about social movements and to get the word out. https://t.co/c3jIeIg8u8 pic.twitter.com/42g1vVOQ2u — Instagram Comms (@InstagramComms) March 28, 2022 “Today, we’re beginning to test a new feature that helps people ...

The Lapsus$ hackers used compromised credentials to break into the network of customer service giant Sitel in January, days before subsequently accessing the internal systems of authentication giant Okta, according to documents seen by TechCrunch that provide new details of the cyber intrusion that have not yet been reported. Customers only learned of Okta’s January security breach on March 22 after the Lapsus$ hacking group published screenshots revealing it had accessed Okta’s internal apps and systems some two months earlier. Okta admitted the compromise in a blog post , and later confirmed 366 of its corporate customers are affected by the breach, or about 2.5% of its customer base. The documents provide the most detailed account to date of the Sitel compromise, which allowed the hackers to later gain access to Okta’s network. Okta is used by thousands of organizations and governments worldwide as a single sign-on provider, allowing employees to securely access a company’s int...

Evaluating and keeping an eye on the suppliers to your business is crucial, and fantastically complicated. Contingent leaps to the rescue, armed with a freshly printed $8.2 million check from investors. The SaaS platform helps companies procure more strategically and better manage supply chain risk and compliance. “The typical questionnaire process to onboard suppliers is widely accepted to be fundamentally broken. A huge amount of buyer and seller time and resources are wasted in collecting information from suppliers, most of which is rarely read,” Tai Alegbe, co-founder and CEO of Contingent, says. “It’s hard to spot risks, with companies reliant on supplier self-certification, and with no time or information to verify claims.” The company is wrapping up a lot of compliance, supply-chain and supplier challenges and surfaces potential risks. “The company was conceived quite some time ago. It built on insights I had gathered from previous experience, in and around third-party risk...

Elon Musk tweeted this weekend that he is “ giving serious thought ” to building his own social media platform. “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy,” the billionaire serial entrepreneur who is CEO of Tesla and Space X tweeted . “What should be done?” If your blood pressure spiked reading these tweets, you’re not alone. But let’s take a deep breath. We probably won’t see an app called DogeSociælX any time soon. Musk has a history of tweeting absurd memes, thoughts and even material information about Tesla, then feigning shock when U.S. regulators react with more than a raised eyebrow. However, when it comes to Musk actually following through on his wacky Twitter ideas, his track record isn’t great. This isn’t the first time that Musk has fantasized publicly about his dreams of being the next Jack Dorsey (though maybe he’s closer to a Zuck?). After journalists criticized Musk...