Hey, businessroundups.org folks. If you’re looking for a roundup of the week’s news in technology, you’ve come to the right place. It’s Week in Review (WiR), businessroundups.org’s regular summary column. Glad to have you.
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Now, without further ado!
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Elon exposed: Elon Musk tweeted a photo Monday night showing him logged into his Twitter account, advertising to content creators how to activate monetization features on Twitter. Unfortunately for Musk, people didn’t pay much attention to the fact that he has 24.7K paid subscribers – instead some users realized he seemed to be logged into a different account, Amanda writes – possibly its burner. oops.
SpaceX finds success in failure: SpaceX launched a fully integrated Starship launch vehicle for the first time last Thursday, a highly anticipated and highly anticipated milestone in its vehicle development program. Despite his fiery fate, the test was a success, Aria Reports: SpaceX has tons of valuable data that will inform future Starship and Super Heavy prototypes.
Tile, but for cats: Tile, the AirTag rival now owned by Life360, launched a new cat tracking tag this week to help pet owners find their furry friends. The new device, “Tile for cats”, is essentially a modified version of the Tile Sticker with a silicone collar attachment that costs $39.99. Ivan has more.
Epic Loss: Apple has won its antitrust-focused appeal case with Fortnite maker Epic Games over its App Store policies, Sara reports. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals largely affirmed the district court’s previous ruling regarding Epic Games’ antitrust claims in favor of Apple, but it also affirmed the lower court’s ruling in favor of Epic under the unfair competition law in California.
Holmes avoids prison: Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is not going to jail this week to serve an 11-year sentence reported first by the WSJ. Although U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila denied her request to remain free while she appeals her conviction earlier this month, this week she directly asked the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals if she could stay out of prison while her case is going through the appeals process; the request automatically puts her reporting date on hold while the court considers her request, writes Connie.
Protesters stab back: A Missouri government tip site for filing complaints and concerns about gender-affirming care is down after people flooded it with fanfiction, incoherent anecdotes, and the “Bee Movie” script. The Missouri Attorney General’s Office launched the online form for “Transgender Center Concerns” in late March, inviting those who have witnessed “disturbing practices” at clinics that provide gender-affirming care to submit tips, Morgan reports.
Twitter forces advertisers to pay: With Twitter’s old blue check system finally coming to an end, the social network’s new paid verification system is causing more than a little chaos, with CEO Elon Musk himself stepping in to pay for some celebrities’ verification when they refuse to do so. Another little nugget that has emerged from the carnage this week is that anyone wanting to advertise on Twitter is now seemingly required to have a verified account, Paul reports.
WhatsApp on different devices: WhatsApp is finally rolling out multi-device login support for more than one phone. Mark Zuckerberg announced the rollout of the feature on Facebook and Instagram, clarifying that users can log into the same WhatsApp account on up to four phones. Until now, you could only use one WhatsApp account one phone and multiple companion desktop devices.
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businessroundups.org is cross-medium, in case you didn’t know. The crew maintains a fantastic (in this writer’s humble opinion) series of podcasts for your edification and enjoyment – so consider checking them out if you haven’t already. Continue this week Equity, Ankur Nagpal, the entrepreneur behind Teachable, Ocho and Vibe Capital, spoke about the future of solo GPs; how Ankur publicly built, sold, ran and launched; and the importance of brand and succession. And Found it — live from businessroundups.org’s Early Stage event in Boston — was joined by Russ Wilcox, founder of E Ink and currently a partner at Pillar VC.
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TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys – which you’ll know if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, consider signing up. Here are a few highlights from this week:
Slow revenue growth: Public technology companies have been at a moderate growth rate for the most part in the most recent fiscal quarter. Alex explains what that means – as well as the broader implications.
Founders change their pitch: More and more founders are adapting their pitches and business strategies to be more downturn-friendly, Natasha M writes. Now that it’s been over a year since technology’s current period correction first started, founders are becoming increasingly innovative in the way they break their pitch.
Capital efficiency is the new VC filter for startups: Igor Shaversky, a partner at Waveup, writes about what metrics startups should track to understand where they stand on the capital efficiency scale.
