Finnish Technology Conference Snatches $1 Million Pitch Contest Prize From Russian Co-Founders • businessroundups.org

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How are you, Crunchers! Haje is back from his absence, and we can’t wait to bring you a wall of amazing stories from our dastardly team of TC wordsmiths. Let’s go! — Christine and Hey

The businessroundups.org Top 3

• Here yesterday, gone today: “We should have taken a closer look at the activities of all participants before we started the competition.” That’s what Slush organizers said after they and VC pitch judges decided to withdraw a $1 million award to Immigram after discovering the company had ties to Russia. Mike has more.
• Dark times at Tesla: Tesla has recalled about 350,000, or 1% of the electric vehicles it has sold in the last two years, for some pretty big problems, including taillights going out and passenger airbags not working properly, Jaclyn writes.
• Cloudy with a chance of doom and gloom: There are no rosy prospects for startups here. Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy doesn’t mince words when he warns startups that there is “a lot of turmoil and volatility” in the funding forecast for the next 12 to 18 months, Manic reports.

Startups and VC

Actor Noah Schnapp, who plays Will on Netflix’s hit original series “Stranger Things,” is passionate about tbh, a company he co-founded that aims to reinvent the hazelnut-cocoa spread Nutella, reports Mary Ann. The company is turning to crowdfunding to raise money for the vegan alternative.

During our TC Sessions: Crypto event last week in Miami, Darrell sat down with a real who’s who in crypto to talk about the crypto regulatory landscape. The main points that all three panelists essentially agreed on is that the upside of the FTX situation is that now more than ever there is an impetus to get to some kind of regulatory framework specific to crypto in the US. You can view the segment on the site.

Here’s a collection of stories to get you through the rest of your Monday. May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.

Bring your product and customer success teams on the same page to improve net retention

You don’t have to move the needle far to maximize customer success. SaaS startups that improve incrementally will stack small wins that have the potential to change the company’s trajectory.

Instead of a traditional silo approach, merging product and CX teams into one unit helps align incentives, writes Bryan House, SVP of product and customer success at Elastic Path.

“Regardless of what you call the role, product management, UX, and customer success should be reported to the same person,” he advises. “This leader needs to create a structure that shares incentives and common goals aligned with your customers’ level of success.”

Three more from the TC+ team:

businessroundups.org+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams lead the way. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

It’s a bit of déjà vu for Broadcom, which is again under the scrutiny of competition regulators. This time around, Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority is examining the chip giant’s proposed $61 billion deal to buy virtualization software giant VMware. If you don’t remember the last time, it was when Broadcom tried to take over rival Qualcomm in 2018. The deal was scrapped after former President Donald Trump cited national security concerns. Paul writes that “both the political and competitive optics are different this time around, so it’s hard to predict how this will all unfold,” but he did receive comment from Broadcom on what the company thinks.

Oh, and FIFA is back. Lauren has your guide to stream it.

Five more for your Monday:

UPDATE: The first version of the Daily Crunch incorrectly stated that the Slush Conference was in Sweden. To avoid incurring the wrath of both sets of Vikings, we’ve corrected the headline. Slush is an annual technical conference that naturally takes place in Helsinki, Finland. As an honorary Scandinavian, Haje is rightly ashamed of the mistake. It’s not hard, folks!