TechCrunch Disrupt 2022

Katakem’s ‘robot chef’ speeds up drug development with reliable chemistry • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 20, 2022Posted in Battlefield 200, Biotech & Health, Disrupt, Katakem, Robotics & AI, Startups, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022No Comments

Organic chemist Manuela Oliverio was working on a new drug when he noticed that test results on mice weren’t consistent, because the molecule being administered was always different depending on the chemist who produced it. It occurred to him that automation and robotics could make the drug development process more predictable, and so he founded Katakem, one of the startups in the ZebethMedia Disrupt Battlefield 200. With Katakem, Oliverio aims to develop what he calls a “robot chef” for chemists — a device that makes chemical reactions more consistently reproducible while accelerating the experimental process. He claims that the current prototype, dubbed OnePot, can collect data about chemical processes 150 times every second and automate repetitive, mundane tasks like heating, cooling and mixing different molecules. “The production of a chemical product is strictly regulated and standardized. [But] the development phase between discovery and production is still carried out manually and no significant data is extracted,” Oliverio told ZebethMedia in an interview. “Through data, we can help companies develop new life-saving drugs faster and, of course, this means higher revenues and better margins for them … Data [from OnePot] is reliable, clean and immediately usable.” To Oliverio’s point, drug development today is a lengthy and expensive endeavor. Only about 12% of drugs entering clinical trials are ultimately approved for introduction by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. And estimates of the average R&D cost per drug range from less than $1 billion to over $2 billion, with errors and mistakes adding to the price tag. Katakem developed OnePot over the course of three years, designing both the mechanical and electrical components in-house. The company is seeking chemists to beta test the device, particularly those in corporate and academic settings, to collect data that it plans to use to train an algorithm that can recommend “faster and more sustainable” ways to develop molecules. Image Credits: Katakem Image Credits: Katakem Given the size of the problem — and addressable market — it’s not surprising that Katakem has competition. Automata is also creating a robot to handle basic lab tasks, and it recently raised $50 million to do so. There’s Kebotix, a startup developing AI and robotics tools to expedite the discovery of chemicals, and Artificial, which sells a lab automation platform aimed at life sciences R&D. But while Katakem has the dual challenges of proving its technology works and overcoming rivals, Oliverio isn’t concerned. Based on existing commitments, he expects Katakem’s annual recurring revenue to hit $350,000 by the end of the year and $3 million by the end of 2023. Presumably, those projections assume Katakem finds success with its early customers and demonstrates that OnePot does all the company says it can do. “As our clients — chemical companies — are key to economies, we are not subject to high variability in demand,” Oliverio said. “The robot is ready to be commercialized.” To date, Calabria, Italy-based Katakem has raised €1.3 million ($1.27 million) in capital from undisclosed seed investors, according to Crunchbase data.

Ambr wants to solve the billion-dollar burnout problem by tracking employees’ working habits • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 20, 2022Posted in Ambr, Battlefield 200, Biotech & Health, burnout, Disrupt, Enterprise, Startups, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022No Comments

Worker burnout is real. Reports suggest that work-related chronic stress could be costing businesses up to $190 billion annually in reduced output and sick days, not to mention the much-discussed “Great Resignation” where workers are jumping ship in search of a greater work-life balance. In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared burnout an “occupational phenomenon,” adding it to its International Classification of Diseases. This is a problem that Ambr is setting out solve, with a platform that promises to address worker burnout preventatively. The company is demoing its wares at TC Disrupt this week as part of the Battlefield 200, and we caught up with the founders before and during the event to take a closer look at an early iteration of its product. Ambr was founded in February this year by Zoe Stones, Steph Newton and Jamie Wood, a trio of former Uber managers who witnessed the impact of worker burnout firsthand. “Burnout was a problem across our teams, and as managers and individuals, we didn’t know what to do to prevent it,” Chief Product Officer Wood explained. “We researched the causes of burnout and learnt that burnout is primarily the result of workplace factors like poor relationships, unmanageable workloads, poor time boundaries and a lack of control.” The founders, who are all based in London, are in the process of making their first hires and raising a pre-seed round of funding, which it said it expects to close “in the coming weeks.” Burnout data Ambr’s technology currently relies on self-reported check-in data from Slack, with a configurable survey-like system for gathering feedback from workers. Worker feedback. Image Credits: Ambr But while this kind of in-app survey functionality isn’t exactly unique, the company is in the process of developing additional tools to proactively figure out whether a workforce is at a higher risk of hitting burnout. This includes using natural language processing (NLP) to identify whether workers are happy to talk about what they’re doing outside of work or whether they always talk shop. This will mean using data from an open-ended question in the daily Slack check-in survey, which asks “What’s on your mind today? Share any work or non-work topics.” The idea here is that if a worker only ever mentions work stuff, then they may be at risk of burnout, though in reality it’s probably an imperfect indication given that people are less inclined to talk about personal things with an automated survey than they would be with a human work colleague. Worker feedback. Image Credits: Ambr While all NLP analysis is apparently anonymized, with the resulting aggregated data only accessible to management, it would be better applied to more organic conversations within public Slack channels or Zoom calls, though this would obviously raise greater privacy concerns even if the data is anonymized. At any rate, this gives some indication as to the types of things that Ambr are working on as it looks to automate the process of assessing burnout risk. “We’re investigating other features and integrations in the future that may leverage NLP but nothing yet on our product roadmap,” CEO Zoe Stones said. Elsewhere, the company is exploring using anonymized data from other workplace tools such as email and calendar software. This could work in a number of ways. For example, it could detect whether someone is emailing excessively in the evening or on weekends, or perhaps they have wall-to-wall meetings for 90% of the week — a scenario that could force someone to work far more than their allotted hours to keep their head above water. Wood also said that there’s potential farther down the road to integrate with human resource information systems (HRIS) to identify workers not taking their full vacation allowance. Ultimately, this gives companies valuable data on work culture, helping them address smaller issues before they escalate into full-blown problems. Ambr analytics. Image Credits: Ambr “Nudges, not nags” But spotting risk factors is just one element of this. Ambr is also working on “nudges” that serve workers gentle reminders inside their core workplace tools, perhaps suggesting ways they could cut down on out-of-hours work. “Initially, we’re delivering nudges through Slack, but we plan to rapidly expand into using Microsoft Teams and also a Google Workspace add-on,” Wood explained. “It is important to highlight that nudges are used sparingly — only when we think they can have a meaningful positive impact on behavior. Our principle is nudges, not nags.” Ambr’s ethos can perhaps be juxtaposed against the myriad meditative, mental health and well-being apps that have raised bucketloads of cash in recent years. Indeed, Ambr’s approach is more along the lines of, “why fix something when you can stop it from happening in the first place?” “We are beginning to transition to a world of work where employees are demanding more from their employers — Ambr will enable companies to adapt to this new reality, particularly as hybrid and remote working becomes the norm and as more Gen Zers enter the workforce in the coming years,” Wood said. Beyond the usual health and well-being players which, according to Wood, typically have lower adoption rates given that they’re not integrated into workers’ day-to-day tools, there are a number of startups with a similar approach to Ambr. These include Humu, which uses nudges to encourage behavioral changes, though it’s not specifically focused on countering burnout. And then there is Quan, which issues well-being recommendations to users based on self-reported assessments. Ambr’s closed beta went live in June this year, and it said that it has been gradually onboarding new customers from its waitlist, including startups and “later-stage growth companies” globally. It expects to launch publicly in early 2023. In terms of pricing, Ambr is pursuing a standard SaaS model with customers paying a monthly per-employee fee.

Handoff is creating a more equitable workforce through job sharing • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 20, 2022Posted in Battlefield 200, caregiving, DEI, employment, Handoff, job sharing, jobs, management, Startups, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022No Comments

Storyblocks is Handoff’s first pilot partner. (Left to right) job-share partner Jodie Reyes, Handoff founder LaToria Pierce, Storyblocks CEO TJ Leonard and job-share partner Redeit Admassie. Image Credits: Handoff Many qualified workers are failed by the current model of work in the United States, where jobs are either part time or full time. Working 40 set hours a week is difficult for people like caregivers, but part-time jobs don’t have the same benefits or career-advancing potential. Handoff, one of the startups in ZebethMedia Disrupt Battlefield 200, wants to make a concept called job sharing, in which two people split the responsibilities and pay of a full-time position but get the same benefits, more widespread. Founder and CEO LaToria Pierce started working on Handoff while she was taking part in Ideas42 Venture Studio. Pierce was asked to build from lived experience and challenges. She took inspiration from her mother, who was a single parent, and set out to make a solution that was inclusive of single moms. She spent a year talking to mothers in the workforce and employers. “What I discovered is that there was this mismatch and the ‘why’ hit me — how come we aren’t seeing working mothers at certain organizations in certain roles? The 40 hour a week experience is a barrier for many parents and caregivers,” said Pierce. “They’ve got the skills, they’ve got the tenure and they’ve got the tenacity, but time can be an issue.” Part of Handoff’s software for facilitating job shares. Image Credits: Handoff Job sharing is already commonly used in many European countries, and Handoff’s mission is to scale it in the United States, too, by helping employers create a foundation to start offering job-sharing roles. Its minimum viable product is a job-sharing enablement tool that makes sure a job-sharing relationship is manageable and that work is split equally between the two people in it. When Handoff launched its first pilot program, “talent started showing up in droves,” said Pierce. So the startup set up a talent connection portal for them that fast-tracks employers to qualified, pre-vetted talent. Job sharing can help diversity, equity and inclusion by getting more women, women of color and caregivers into the workforce, said Pierce. Handoff’s talent pool has a wide range of professional and educational backgrounds, including people with a high school degree and 10-plus years of experience, people who have MBAs, and people who have worked in the public or public sectors. 98% of the people who come through Handoff’s portal are caregivers and 75% are people of color. Organizations are looking for people to fill business administration, executive and admin assistants, human resources and marketing roles. Pierce says those spaces are Handoff’s sweet spots because employers see high turnover and need to fill multiple positions but are struggling to hire qualified employees. It also recently kicked off a pilot program with group care homes, many of which already use a job-sharing system, to test Handoff’s software for employee coordination. Handoff’s go-to-market plan includes working with employer partners (it is currently used by organizations like stock media service Storyblocks). It is now raising its pre-seed fund and targeting $500,000 to $1 million. The higher amount would give Handoff an extended runway of 18 months.

As healthcare goes remote, Equipt Health brings medical hardware to the home • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 20, 2022Posted in Battlefield 200, Biotech & Health, Disrupt, Equipt Health, Hardware, medical equipment, Startups, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022No Comments

It’s no secret the pandemic has pushed healthcare to become virtual, in theory making it easier for patients to attend appointments and access the care they need. But Rebecca Weisinger, CEO and co-founder of Equipt Health, has seen plenty of patients falter in the long process of qualifying for devices they need. Equipt is a home medical equipment company; it aims to streamline the process for providers and patients to access medical equipment needed for care. Weisinger told ZebethMedia because of patients’ physical limits and lack of resources to make the process easier it has to be “connective, informative, transparent.” Though Weisinger has seen access issues professionally, personally she has also seen her friends and family experience hardships in accessing medical equipment due to the various layers of complications. Equipt aims to make the process easier by being the packager, the logistics, the clinician (via its provider network), providing technical support, and the return of data from connected devices. Although the company launched earlier this year as part of Y Combinator’s Winter cohort, it is certified to deliver DME (durable medical equipment) and HME (home medical equipment) devices across 24 states. The company is looking at expanding its reach in the near future, according to Weisinger. Currently, the company has been able to focus its efforts on sleep apnea products through the creation of Helio Sleep, a sub-brand of Equipt. The at-home sleep test offered by Equipt through Helio Sleep. Image Credits: Equipt Health Equipt provides patients a home sleep test that is later interpreted by a sleep physician, and if they qualify, the company will guide the patient on the next steps of getting medical equipment, ranging from CPAPs to alternative devices through Helio Sleep. “We created Helio Sleep to give users a better way to understand and improve their health through sleep tests, best-in-class treatment devices and access to board-certified physicians,” read the Helio Sleep launch announcement. “24M Americans are currently undiagnosed for sleep apnea, leaving them not only tired but also at risk for serious health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure.” In addition to proving a more integrated path for patients, Equipt partners with medical device companies looking to go to market. Once a company is ready to launch medically cleared equipment, the company can market the product on its site to help fulfill demand. This feeds into its financial model where the company charges for DME and HME consultations. At the moment Equipt is not accepting insurance payments for care but is transitioning to “providing insurance reimbursement or insurance payments.” Although the company’s first focus is the sleep apnea market, Weisinger explained she hopes to expand services to cater to individuals with more chronic conditions. “We want to help a lot of the new medical device companies and support them as they go to market,” Weisinger said. “But at the same time, we think there’s great opportunities in the infusion pumps based around treating diabetic patients, home dialysis equipment, and other home medical devices that would include breast pumps and other like mobilization devices or hospital home.”

Lyft co-founder says autonomous vehicles won’t replace drivers for at least a decade • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 20, 2022Posted in autonomous vehicles, Disrupt 2022, John Zimmer, Lyft, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, TransportationNo Comments

Human drivers on the Lyft platform aren’t going to be replaced by autonomous vehicles anytime soon, company co-founder and president John Zimmer told the audience today at ZebethMedia Disrupt. “I can’t imagine anytime in the next decade-plus where we would need any less drivers,” he said. While Zimmer envisions autonomous vehicles handling some percentage of rides — anywhere from 1% to 10%, he said — the reality is that trips taken using Lyft represent a tiny fraction of all miles traveled. “What we do in our industry represents maybe 1% of vehicle miles traveled,” he said. “There’s much more room for growth of our overall business.” Over the past decade, more than 112 million Lyft riders have taken over 3 billion rides, and 5 million drivers — “3% of the U.S. workforce,” Zimmer said — had earned tens of billions of dollars. In his talk with transportation editor Kirsten Korosec, Zimmer was hesitant to commit to a timeline on which he thinks autonomous vehicles will enter into broader commercial service. “I always think it’s just a couple years away,” he said, “but it’s super hard to predict. It’s this last percent of a technical problem, and then you have to get the cost down for autonomous vehicles. So it will happen. I strongly believe it’s not a matter of if, but obviously when.” Should it happen, Zimmer thinks that the initial rollout is likely to occur on platforms like Lyft. The best way to commercialize autonomous vehicles, he said, is on a “hybrid network.” Though autonomous vehicles have progressed in their capabilities, they’re still unable to handle every condition they’ll encounter on the roads. Even if they are able to safely navigate 10% of trips, that’s not a sufficient number to bring riders on board en masse. “Imagine being on AT&T or Verizon and making one out of 10 calls. That would not be a good network to be on. Being on the Lyft network, you’ll be able to get ten out of 10 rides. One might be an autonomous vehicle with one of our partners, nine are going to be from our driver community. And so I think what we do is super important and can flex as that technology is ready.” Lyft’s autonomous vehicle strategy has changed significantly in the last year or so. In April 2021, the company sold its self-driving unit to Toyota’s Woven Planet subsidiary for $550 million, saving the company $100 million annually in operating expenses. In place of that, Zimmer said the company has been prioritizing partnerships over internal development. “I think it’s too early to pick one winner,” he said. “Today, it’s about having multiple partners. Ten years from now? Too hard to predict.” While the Lyft network may not have fully autonomous vehicles anytime soon, many of its drivers today are potentially augmented by Level 2 advanced driver assistance systems, known as ADAS, including Tesla’s Autopilot and possibly its Full Self Driving software. While these systems can help drivers in some ways, in some cases, over reliance on them has created perilous, even deadly, situations. When Korosec asked him asked whether Lyft had considered prohibiting the use of Level 2 ADAS like Autopilot or FSD, Zimmer said that Lyft “think[s] that the regulatory bodies are our best regulators when it comes to that level of safety.” Of course, in its terms of service, Lyft already regulates its drivers in some respects, including saying that drivers cannot “engage in reckless behavior while driving” or “operate a vehicle that is unsafe to drive.” When pressed, Zimmer said that Lyft would “continue to assess” its policy regarding driver use of Level 2 autonomous assistants. “Obviously, driver and rider safety is our top priority. And so to your point, it’s something that will continue to be looked at.”

The Warriors’ Draymond Green talks podcasts, social media and the elephant in the room • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 20, 2022Posted in Disrupt, Draymond Green, Media & Entertainment, NBA, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022No Comments

The Warriors’ Draymond Green took the stage at ZebethMedia Disrupt today where he discussed his podcast, social media… and yes, the Jordan Poole punch. Green has spent the last several years building up his resume off the court, most notably through his popular podcast, “The Draymond Green Show.” Green touched on how his podcast has disrupted the media industry and how he continuously receives a lot of pushback on it. Like Green himself, the podcast has courted some controversy, but it also gives listeners a rare look into an active NBA player and the various athletes he invites on. “Me doing a podcast is very disruptive to the sports media industry,” Green said. “You’re listening to me speak about this game in a totally different context than you will hear anyone in the media speak about. Why? Because I actually just played that game. So my perspective is totally different. And in doing a podcast, the media is not able to create the narrative that they want to create. There was a lot of pushback. For those pundits that had a problem with me doing the podcast, I wonder what they’ll say this year because I actually won an NBA final doing it, so it couldn’t have been much of a distraction.” Green said he’s currently working toward building something incredible in the media space outside of basketball. He noted that although numerous notable individuals have founded and worked on several projects at once, such as Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey, people still questioned his ability to record a podcast after a game. Green, of course, also had to address the punching video that took the internet by storm earlier this month. The video depicts Green punching teammate Jordan Poole during practice. He revealed that he rewatched the video numerous times throughout the day when it was leaked. Draymond Green onstage at ZebethMedia Disrupt in San Francisco on October 20, 2022. Image Credits: Haje Kamps / ZebethMedia “I watched that video 15 or 16 times throughout the day,” Green said. “I kept putting myself through it because when I watched it, I couldn’t quite understand it. The video is six seconds. Just me walking up. No sound or anything, nothing leading up to it or anything. And so I’m watching the video, and I’m like: ‘man, this is bad.’” Green said he recognizes that he has to address the elephant in the room and own up to his mistake. He revealed that he had recorded a podcast episode regarding the punch, but didn’t release it because he was still reeling from the situation and didn’t want it to seem like he was only addressing the situation for personal gain. Green has since addressed the situation during his self-produced documentary called “The Countdown.” In the opening of part one, Green said: “I don’t think I cared about anything anyone said until the video was leaked.” When asked about this opening, Green said “narratives run the world” and that when you take a private situation public, it changes everything. In addition, Green touched on his struggles with social media and how he feels about constantly being subjected to everyone’s opinions online. “We live in a day and age of social media and it’s great,” Green said. “But it’s not always censored. So you’re subjected to everyone’s opinion, and I don’t know if that’s always the best thing. You’re kind of in a position on Twitter or Instagram where everyone feels like they can say whatever it is that they want to say.”

One month after entering the spend management space, Rippling goes after global payroll • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 20, 2022Posted in Disrupt, Fintech, human resources, parker conrad, Rippling, Startups, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022No Comments

When Parker Conrad founded Rippling in 2016, the HR company initially focused on the process of onboarding employees. It has since evolved to manage all aspects of employee data, from payroll and benefits, to the apps employees use, to a device management platform that enables Rippling’s customers to retrieve, wipe clean and store employee computers when staffers part ways with a company, as ZebethMedia’s Connie Loizos reported last year. Today, at ZebethMedia Disrupt, Rippling unveiled what Conrad describes as the “biggest launch” of his career — its new global payroll product. As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in remote work with companies who had previously resisted hiring employees globally suddenly being forced to embrace the concept. One of the reasons companies resisted the move for so long is the myriad compliance and administrative headaches that come with paying people in other countries. In the past couple of years, a number of startups have emerged to tackle the problem — including Deel, Remote and Remofirst. And now, Rippling is out to take on all those startups — including Deel, which is actually a client of Rippling’s — with its new global offering. He says it will give U.S.-based companies a way to pay workers all over the world — whether they be full-time or contract — more “seamlessly.” Conrad claims his startup has an edge on its competition because its payroll product is integrated with its existing workforce platform — making it easier for companies to integrate it with all of their existing data. This full-stack approach is intentional, the executive says. An employee graph, which houses all employee data, sits at the bottom of Rippling’s tech stack. Then on top of that, the company has what it calls middleware components, such as reports and analytics, custom policies and permissions such as role-based permissions workflow automation. “Companies can now hire, pay and manage a workforce across the world in one unified system, with the same powerful automation, policies and analytics no matter where employees are based,” he said. Conrad also touts the speed at which businesses can move — saying that companies can onboard employees and contractors in 90 seconds, run payroll “in minutes” in everyone’s local currency and automate global compliance. The executive also makes a lofty charge — that other players in the space are “actually payroll aggregators.” “They’re companies that are sitting on top of a series of other local partners in terms of the actual payroll systems that they’re using. And so they’ve got these different systems in different countries, and that creates this sort of like shitty experience for clients,” Conrad charges. “Rippling is the first one that’s actually built a single payroll system that can pay people around the globe. I swear this is the world’s first global payroll system.” Conrad is no stranger to the HR tech game. He previously founded Zenefits, which actually launched on the Disrupt stage at Battlefield in 2013. The entrepreneur resigned after that company faced compliance issues, and just months later, he founded Rippling. His return to the space has thus far proven to be more successful than his first venture. Exactly one year ago today, Rippling raised $250 million in a round that valued the company at $6.5 billion. As TC’s Loizos pointed out, that deal made Rippling more valuable than Zenefits ever was before it sold a controlling interest earlier this year to a private equity firm. Then in May of this year, the startup raised an additional $250 million at a staggering $11.25 billion valuation, officially propelling it to decacorn status. And now, with Rippling’s expansion into new verticals, the startup is branching out its offerings — and revenue streams. Just last month, Rippling unveiled its new spend management offering, putting it in direct competition with the likes of Brex, Ramp, TripActions and Airbase, among many other players in the space. By adding global payroll, Conrad believes Rippling’s product suite is stronger than ever. “I think that a lot of the advice around how to build technology companies is wrong. I think that people have for 20 years told startup founders that what you want to do is to build something extremely narrow. And so people have been building hundreds of these little, extremely narrow, like point solution SasS businesses,” Conrad told ZebethMedia. “We’ve sort of forgotten about the benefits of deep systems integration and bundled contracting and pricing because 20 years ago, you could count the number of business software vendors on one hand.” In his view, the shift to the cloud changed that and created an opportunity for entrepreneurs to turn individual features from companies such as SAP and Microsoft and rebuild them into standalone SaaS services. The founder is confident about Rippling’s multi-pronged approach of building multiple products in parallel. “The shift to the cloud is largely complete and now we’re seeing a shift back to all-in-one, cloud native systems, where I think, Rippling is going to dominate,” Conrad said.

Figma CEO Dylan Field on why he sold to Adobe • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 20, 2022Posted in Adobe, Disrupt, Dylan Field, Enterprise, Figma, Startups, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022No Comments

A month after Adobe announced its plans for acquiring Figma, the popular digital design startup, Figma CEO and co-founder Dylan Field sat down with our own enterprise reporter Ron Miller at Disrupt 2022 to discuss the deal and his motivations for selling to Adobe, a company that Figma’s own marketing materials have not always described in the most glowing of terms. “We were having a blast — we are having a blast — but then we start talking with Adobe and Adobe is a foundational, really impressive company and the more I’d spend time with the people there, the more trust we built, the more that I could see: ‘Okay, wow. We’re in this like product development box right now,’” Dylan said, surely making his media trainers happy with his non-answer. He noted that Figma today offers tools for ideation and designing mockups, with plans for launching additional tools for more easily taking those mockups and turning them into code. “I started to form a thesis of ‘creativity is the new productivity’ and we don’t have the resources to just go do that right now at Figma,” Dylan noted, giving the standard answer that 99% of founders tend to give when they sell to a bigger rival. “If we want to go and make it so that we’re able to go into all these more productivity areas, that’s gonna take a lot of time. “To be able to go and do that in the context of Adobe, I think gives us a huge leg up and I’m really excited about that.” Surely, the fact that this deal — assuming it closes — will also create generational wealth for Field was a bit of a motivator, but for some reason, founders always deny this. Asked about any potential pressure from investors, Field denied that this played any role in the sale — especially because Figma continues to double its revenue year over year. “That was never the consideration here,” Field said “It said it was: what’s the best opportunity to achieve our vision? The vision for the company is make design accessible to everyone. So design — is not just interface design. It’s creativity. It’s productivity. It’s you know making it so that we can all be part of the digital revolution that’s happening. The entire world’s economy is going from physical to digital right now. Are we going to leave a bunch of people behind or going to give everyone the tools. I feel a lot of pressure and I think it’s really important that we give all of these people these tools really fast.” The Figma PR team surely had a smile on its face after this answer. I don’t think that’s necessarily how Adobe feels about its $82.49/month Creative Cloud subscription package that surely not everybody can afford, but Field stressed multiple times that Figma will remain an independent company and that there are no plans for changing the company’s pricing plan. Adobe is paying $20 billion for Figma, though, so let’s see if that changes over time. “What Adobe’s told us is that they want to learn from Figma,” he said. “And I think in general, they’re going ‘okay how do you go to more of a freemium model? How do you make it so that you’re able to really be bottoms up?” Adobe isn’t paying all of that money for education, though. A Coursera marketing course is a lot cheaper than $20 billion, after all. Over time, the company has a responsibility to its shareholders to increase its revenue, so we’ll see how that plays out — always assuming the deal closes. That’s not a given in this current regulatory environment. Field, for what it’s worth, thinks this is a very offensive move by Adobe, whose XD Figam rival never quite caught with designers. “They’re trying to figure out: how do you make it so that you’re able to adapt the products they already have, but also to sort of bolster this new platform. And yeah, I don’t think that’s risk-averse in any way, ”

Battlefield bots • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 20, 2022Posted in Actuator, Hardware, MIT, Robotics & AI, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022No Comments

Greetings from the bowels of Moscone Center West. As I type this, Kevin Hart just exited the stage and Serena Williams is presiding over a packed house. No exaggeration: I attempted to make my way to grab a seat in the few rows up front allotted to the ZebethMedia staff, but I physically couldn’t get through the crowd. A solid one-two punch to kick off this Wednesday morning. I’ve had a little time to walk the halls here, mostly scouring for hardware and robotics firms, as is my wont. It’s always fun to see the sorts of microcosms that develop at events like this, identifying groupings that are indicative of broader current and future trends in the startup world. I’m happy to say for my own edification that robotics firms, in particular, were well represented. Not sure that’s something I would have felt comfortable asserting five or so years back. Coupled with all of the various ongoing market indicators, it truly feels like we’ve comfortably entered a new era for robotics and robotic investing. Yesterday I hosted what amounted to a two-hour marathon pitch-off, which involved 30 startups offering two-minute pitches. It was a bit exhausting, frankly, but I’m looking forward to unpacking some of those offerings in the coming weeks. One definitely warrants mention in this week’s Actuator, because I ended up speaking with the CEO and profiling the firm late last week—Touchlab. Image Credits: Touchlab Touchlab was the winner of our TC Sessions: Robotics event back in July, so this thing is long overdue. One bit that’s especially interesting to me is how the company’s outward focus has shifted in that short time. The Edinburg-based firm originally pitched us on its robotic skin. The applications are pretty clear there — effectively adding another layer of sensing to supplement existing vision systems and the like. That’s still the core of the startup’s play, but Touchlab has also begun to implement its own technology into a robotic system. It showcased an eldercare robot that is essentially an off-the-shelf TIAGo++ robot, outfitted with its sensor technology. Eldercare makes sense, as a highly pressure-sensitive sensor is required to interact with human patients — the elderly in particular. “We have a layer of software that translates the pressure of the skin to the suit. We’re also using haptic gloves,” co-founder and CEO Zaki Hussein told me. “Currently, our skin gathers a lot more data than we can currently transmit to the user over haptic interfaces. So there’s a little bit of a bottleneck. We can use the full potential of the best haptic interface of the day, but there is a point where the robot is feeling more than the user is able to.” The haptic sensations are translated into a wearable suit donned by a VR-wearing operator. I’m interested in exploring the state of teleoperation a bit more. There’s a weird sort of stigma around this technology in a category where everyone seems to be constantly chasing full autonomy. Image Credits: RIF Robotics RIF Robotics (pronounced “riff”), another one of the entries in the Battlefield 200, operates in a similar space. Specifically, it’s building systems designed to streamline the disinfecting of medical equipment in-hospital. Co-founder Kevin DeMarco tells ZebethMedia: The major challenges that the sterile processing industry is facing are a lack of experienced surgical technicians, instrument-level tracking, infection traceability and cost traceability. Medical device manufacturers are interested in knowing how their equipment is used and degrades in the field. Instrument-level data will also help them to decide where to send sales reps. Hospitals are interested in instrument-level data because it will help them operate more efficiently by improving instrument-level tracking and instrument inspection. Currently, most hospitals only track at the tray-level, but the industry wants to be able to track at the instrument level. Image Credits: Katakem I’m starting to sense a theme emerging here — one more healthcare robotics firm from my time at the Showcase stage. Kyle’s headline really says it all here: “Katakem is developing a robot to automate drug development.” The firm has developed what it deems a “robot chef,” designed to create chemical reactions. It tells ZebethMedia: The production of a chemical product is strictly regulated and standardized. [But] the development phase between discovery and production is still carried out manually and no significant data is extracted. Through data, we can help companies develop new life-saving drugs faster and, of course, this means higher revenues and better margins for them … Data [from OnePot] is reliable, clean and immediately usable. Image Credits: Jasper Montreal-based Jasper is taking a unique approach toward a market controlled by the likes of Seamless, DoorDash and Uber Eats. The firm’s play revolves around the deployment of a proprietary chain of automated ghost kitchens designed to dramatically speed up food delivery. The robotics aspect comes in through the kitchen, allowing for minimal or no staff for the food preparation process. “Having good meals at home is expensive or time consuming … Food delivery is highly inefficient — restaurants or ghost kitchens prepare meals worth a few dollars and then pay someone to ship them across town,” CEO Gunnar Froh told ZebethMedia. “While most customers aren’t aware of this, about half of their dollars are spent on platform fees and delivery costs. By running robotic kitchens in or next to residential high-rises, Jasper eliminates labor and delivery inefficiencies to offer residents freshly prepared gourmet meals at the cost of home cooking. Jasper meals are plated on porcelain, which allows its clients to cut up to a third of their household waste.” Swap Robotics at ZebethMedia Startup Battlefield at ZebethMedia Disrupt in San Francisco on October 18, 2022. Image Credits: Haje Kamps / ZebethMedia A couple of robotics-focused firms made it onstage for the Battlefield pitch-offs as well. Swap has developed an electric mower specifically designed to cut vegetation around solar farms. “Right now, there are a couple of main challenges when cutting all of the vegetation in solar fields,” the company tells

Draymond Green isn’t starting a fund, but is working with top VCs • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 20, 2022Posted in Draymond Green, investments, Startups, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, VCs, VentureNo Comments

Draymond Green, the two-time Olympic gold medalist and professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors, says he’s working with well-known investors involved in the tech space. That wasn’t a massive secret — Green has historically been quite public about his portfolio companies, like SmileDirectClub — but until this morning at ZebethMedia Disrupt, he hadn’t previously named his go-to investing partners. When asked by ZebethMedia’s Brian Heater on stage whether he was looking to start an investment fund, Green replied that he wasn’t because he’s already involved with a group of prominent VCs, including Chamath Palihapitiya, Bill Gurley, Jason Calacanis and Bill Lee. Palihapitiya was an early investor at Facebook and backed Yammer and Slack through this fund, Social+Capital Partnership. Gurley, currently at Benchmark, has led investments in a number of high-profile companies including Nextdoor and OpenTable. Calacanis is an angel investor in various tech startups including mindfulness app Calm. And Bill Lee is one of the co-founders of Craft Ventures, alongside which Green has invested in the past. “I have some of the best friends in the world, especially when you’re speaking of funds, and so I don’t personally feel the need to go create my own when I have experts like that in my life that can help guide me,” Green said. “I take pride in learning and I never want it to come off as if I know more than them … It’s not something that I see for me, trying to start my own firm, but I do enjoy and appreciate being an LP in their funds.” Green — who once told CNBC that he wanted to become a billionaire by age 40 — has been an active investor in startups for several years, beginning in 2015 with the aforementioned SmileDirectClub. He’s poured money into Blink Fitness, which aims to bring affordable options for fitness to underserved communities; the tequila brand Lobos 1707; and Snackpass, a social food ordering platform. Green’s more recent investments span self-filtering water bottle brand LARQ and LeBron James’ company, Uninterrupted, a multimedia platform for athletes and general sports content. Not all of those investments have turned out to be strong long-term performers. For example, while SmileDirectClub raised over $400 million while private, the company ended up giving back most of its IPO-driven valuation gain after going public. Others appear to be going strong, however, like Snackpass, which last year raised around $70 million at an over-$400 million valuation as the platform crossed 500,000 users. As of June, Green had a reported net worth of $50 million.