Hello friends! It is that time again. Another week has gone by, which means another issue of Week in Review – the newsletter where we summarize the top stories from the past seven days on the front page of TechCrunch. Register here!
The main story this week revolved around a new batch of documents detailing how (and how often) the Department of Homeland Security uses third-party data brokers to obtain potentially sensitive location information, while “evading the legal process that government officials normally have to go through.” .” A privacy law aptly named “Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale” is underway and will require agencies to get a warrant for this data, but it’s still in its infancy.
other stuff
What else did people read on TechCrunch? Here’s a handful of this week’s most-read posts: This may interest you : Digital lottery is similar to the next major sports sponsorship category.
Solar energy for your balcony: Do you have a balcony that is bathed in sunlight and do you want to switch to sustainable energy? That’s the idea behind these vertical solar panels designed to be attached directly to the balustrade. Mike Butcher spoke to WeDoSolar, a team created by a Ukrainian entrepreneur to “seal Europe from Russian gas,” to hear their story.
Google pauses hiring: Last week, Google announced it would slow its hiring pace for the second half of 2022; now the company says it will outright freeze hiring for the coming weeks “to allow teams to prioritize their roles and hiring plans for the rest of the year.”
Netflix is losing customers: the good news? Netflix lost fewer customers than forecast this quarter. The bad news? It still lost nearly a million customers, representing “the largest quarterly loss in the company’s history.”
OpenAI extends access to DALL-E 2: DALL-E 2, OpenAI’s tool for generating brand new (and often impossibly good or even surreal) images from a text prompt, will be available to a million new users in the coming weeks . The company also announced pricing for the (until now free) tool, and it basically boils down to “free if you want to mess with it once in a while, but expect to pay if you use it a lot.”
Tesla is dumping most of its Bitcoin: Last year, Tesla announced that it had acquired $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. Bitcoin’s price has been up and down (mostly down) since then, and it looks like the company wants to get off this rollercoaster at least partially; in its most recent earnings report, Tesla announced that it has sold 75% of its Bitcoin holdings.
Slack price hike: inflation comes before everything! Milk! Meat! and now… Weak? This week, the company announced its first-ever price increase since its launch in 2014, increasing the price per user by about 60 to 75 cents per month (depending on whether you pay monthly/annually). They also change the way free plans work a bit; if you’re part of smaller/less active Slack communities that use the free plan, know that posts won’t stick around as long.
audio stuff
Want a recap of everything that’s been happening in the world of TC podcasts lately? Check out Matt’s weekly podcast overview. On the same subject : Royal Mail changes name, may spin off UK’s underperforming business. Here’s some of what happened:
Oh! And if you’re free on Tuesday, July 26 at noon Pacific and interested in the core of startup economics, tune in to our “WTF is a 409A?” Twitter space and find out why lowering your company’s valuation can actually be a good thing.
additional stuff
TechCrunch+. Are you already a member? No? I know, I know – paywalls are a bummer. Read also : Incorporating Business or Holidays. But this paywall section of our site helps us get the words flowing and, crucially, lets us dig deep into the things our loudest readers tell us they want to see more. Things like:
Stripe’s New Valuation Explained: Speaking of 409A’s and downgrades, Alex Wilhelm dives into why Stripe lowered its internal valuation from about $95 billion to $74 billion.
Fundraising Tips for 2022: With dozens and dozens of investor meetings behind him, Yamin Durrani, CEO of Kami Vision, has insights to stage a round in the current climate.
A Look at Arkive’s $9.7 Million Seed Deck: Working on your startup’s slide deck and need some inspiration? In the latest installment of his popular Pitch Deck Teardown series, Haje takes a look at the card game that helped Arkive — described as the “world’s first decentralized physical museum” — close a $9.7 million seed round. .
