Startups Weekly: Drama at Techstars. Drama in AI. Drama in every single place.

Welcome to Startups Weekly — Haje‘s weekly recap of every thing you possibly can’t miss from the world of startups. Join here to get it in your inbox each Friday.

Effectively, of us, it seems like Techstars’ drama simply obtained a brand new plot twist. CEO Maëlle Gavet is making her exit, leaving co-founder David Cohen to swoop again in and save the day — or a minimum of attempt to. Gavet’s three-and-a-half-year tenure was a curler coaster of controversy, from worker exodus to shutting down accelerator programs faster than you can say “pivot.” Regardless of an $80 million deal with JPMorgan turning right into a Titanic-level catastrophe and shedding $7 million in 2023, she insists she wouldn’t commerce the expertise for something. As for Cohen? He’s enthusiastic about his return as CEO.

Most fascinating startup tales from the week

Linktree just hit 50 million users, proving that everybody and their grandma now has a link-in-bio. From a humble 2.7 million in 2019 to this astronomical quantity, they’re principally the favored child at college that everybody desires to take a seat with. Linktree is rolling out social commerce options so creators can slap storefronts on their pages and earn commissions from huge manufacturers like Adidas and Sephora. With over $300 million in month-to-month gross sales already flowing via these hyperlinks, it’s clear they’re not messing round.

• Humane in search of a house: Humane, the brainchild of ex-Apple execs and creator of the $700 Ai Pin that nobody requested for, is now reportedly in search of a purchaser. Apparently, it’s hoping to fetch between $750 million and $1 billion, simply in case somebody desires so as to add a wearable gadget that’s principally a smartphone with dedication points to its product portfolio.
• Sonos hugs your head: Sonos has lastly answered your prayers and dropped their “most requested product ever.” No, it’s not a speaker that does your taxes — it’s the Ace headphones. For a cool $449, you possibly can quickly flaunt these over-ear beauties.
• Coming quickly to a roundabout close to you: The U.Okay. has formally waved the checkered flag for “driverless automobiles” — that’s what they name self-driving over there. How quaint! By way of the Automated Automobiles Act, you would possibly end up sharing the road with robot cars by 2026.

Pattern of the week: AI Drama

Appears like OpenAI’s newest chatbot, Sky, did its greatest Scarlett Johansson impression and got hella busted! The AI voice was flirting too carefully with ScarJo’s iconic voice. OpenAI swears it wasn’t attempting to re-create her sultry tones from “Her,” however the web couldn’t assist however discover the uncanny resemblance. CEO Sam Altman even tweeted “her” as a result of, effectively, why wouldn’t you, actually? Now that Johansson has lawyered up sooner than you possibly can say “deepfake,” OpenAI yanked Sky’s voice from its product, whereas the authorized machinations are rumbling round to discover a resolution to this mess.

OpenAI, in the meantime, doesn’t appear to be hurting all that a lot. ChatGPT’s cellular app simply hit a income jackpot with the launch of GPT-4o. Regardless of promising free entry on the net, OpenAI determined to nudge cellular customers towards a $19.99 month-to-month subscription in the event that they wished in on the motion. Plot twist: People are shelling out more than their Netflix subscriptions for it. In its first week alone, web income spiked by 22%, raking in as much as $900,000 each day and totaling a whopping $4.2 million from Could 13 to 17.

• Don’t ScarJo, me, bro: Hollywood’s elite can now stash their digital doppelgängers in CAA’s high-tech “theCAAvault” prefer it’s a Fort Knox for AI clones.
• The whitest sausage-fest on the town: Regardless of years of complaints from ladies and other people of coloration about being sidelined within the realm of AI, Meta apparently determined variety is overrated. So, it assembled a team of business bros to information its AI technique. Cool, cool, cool.
• Hit the highway, jack: Expedia’s newest information reads like a cleaning soap opera script: CTO Rathi Murthy and SVP Sreenivas Rachamadugu have been unceremoniously kicked to the curb for breaking some mysterious firm coverage. The journey reserving big is preserving mum on the juicy particulars, citing confidentiality. Murthy was just touting new AI features days earlier than her sudden exit — discuss dangerous timing!

Most fascinating fundraises this week

Bonjour! Within the newest episode of “How A lot Cash Can We Throw at AI,” French startup H simply snagged a cool $220 million in seed funding. Sure, you learn that proper — seed funding. With a founding group that boasts extra ex-Google DeepMind workers than a Silicon Valley reunion, H is aiming to revolutionize productiveness with their “frontier motion fashions.” Translation: They’re constructing robots to do our jobs higher than we will. Remind me why I’m sitting right here typing this text with my precise literal fingers? What is that this, the Nineteen Twenties?

• {Hardware} is much less arduous: Neglect what you realize about {hardware} engineering as a result of Rollup is right here. The startup has been lurking within the shadows for 3 years, quietly raising $5.6 million from huge names like Andreessen Horowitz and Thiel Capital.
• Many Layers: QuickBooks is perhaps the daddy of accounting software program, however it seems like there’s a brand new child on the block: Layer. Contemporary off a $2.3 million elevate, this startup is promising to make accounting less painful for small and medium-sized companies with its oh-so-fancy embedded options.
• We don’t want no steeenking roads: Neglect robotaxis caught in metropolis site visitors — the most recent craze is self-driving vehicles that snigger within the face of highway maps. Overland AI and Potential are main this off-road autonomy revolution, backed by VCs and Uncle Sam’s Protection Division.

Different unmissable TechCrunch tales …

Welcome to the job market in 2023, the place as a substitute of flipping burgers, you may be programming a robotic to do it for you. Brian compiled an inventory of 81 robotics companies that are hiring sooner than you possibly can say “synthetic intelligence.” From humanoids that may steal your job (or make your espresso) to drones guaranteeing your Amazon packages arrive earlier than you’ve even clicked “order,” there’s by no means been a extra thrilling — or terrifying — time to dive into robotics. So go on, apply now and safe your house within the courageous new world of mechanical overlords 🤖.

• Mo cash, mo passengers?: Buckle up, Minnesota! Uber and Lyft drivers are getting a raise due to a brand new state deal, however don’t get too snug in that backseat. Beginning in 2025, drivers will make more cash — charges that left Uber grumbling about greater prices.
• Soz, kiddo, no financial institution for you: Teen fintech startup Copper Banking is having a tough week. Its banking and debit merchandise are donezo due to Synapse’s epic implosion. The middleware supplier crashed and burned into Chapter 11, then face-planted straight into Chapter 7 liquidation.
• Received’t you be my good friend: Bumble, the relationship app that’s now feeling friend-zoned by the broader decline in its core market, has determined to swipe proper on Geneva — a community-building platform. Apparently realizing that “Netflix and chill” doesn’t all the time translate to lifelong partnerships, Bumble goals to develop its focus from one-on-one connections to group hugs and friendship bracelets.
• VinFast horror: In a tragic twist that sounds prefer it was ripped from the script of an automotive horror film, the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration is investigating an April crash the place a VinFast VF 8 SUV determined to play “hug the oak tree” in California — ensuing within the fiery loss of life of a household of 4.
• Don’t fear, we’ve got all of your particulars already: Welcome to the digital age, the place even your resort check-in would possibly star in a spyware and adware drama! At the least three Wyndham accommodations within the U.S. have been caught red-handed with pcTattletale, a consumer-grade spyware and adware app that’s been sneakily taking screenshots of visitor particulars and buyer data.