Techcrunch blog!: The road to decacorn is paved in to-do lists

Friday, February 16, 2024

Good afternoon, and welcome to TechCrunch PM. In today's newsletter, meet Superlist, the to-do app that comes just in time for you to re-energize those New Year's resolutions. Also, there's trouble at Faraday Future's headquarters, Fortnite is coming back to iOS in Europe, hard tech startups at Y Combinator and more on Google's Gemini.

We will be off Monday for the federal holiday, so see you on Tuesday!

— Christine

Image Credits: Christian Reber / Pitch

TechCrunch PM Top 3

Superlist founder forecasts a decacorn: Wunderlist founder Christian Reber hopes his second to-do list app will be the charm. After selling Wunderlist to Microsoft, he is back with a similar app called Superlist that came out of stealth today. This one he doesn't want to sell because he believes Superlist can be a decacorn, he tells Mike Butcher.

Faraday Future may lose its headquarters: The electric vehicle maker may be kicked out of its Los Angeles headquarters for failure to pay rent.

A second chance for Epic Games: While some other Big Tech players are pushing against the European Union's Digital Markets Act, Epic Games is preparing to return to iOS in Europe as a result. The company's developer account was previously banned from both the App Store and Google Play.

Speaking of the Digital Markets Act, Epic Games' CEO Tim Sweeney thinks he knows why Apple broke web apps for customers in the EU due to its compliance with the EU regulation the Digital Markets Act.

Image Credits: Faraday Future

More top reads

Hard tech at Y Combinator: Aria ponders how the emergence of more hard tech startups will transform the popular accelerator program.

Inside Google's Gemini: We know you have some questions: What is Gemini? How can you use it? And how does it stack up to the competition? Lucky for you this is TechCrunch, and we have all those answers and more.

All around the world, same song: A trio of women started Atlas to help companies with a global workforce, especially contractors, provide better benefits.

Fisker is under the microscope again: The new probe comes one month after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation began looking into complaints of sudden loss of braking performance on the electric vehicle's Ocean SUV.

Pitch Deck Teardown: Haje breaks down Equal's $16 million Series A pitch deck.

Hold, please: Google is testing a new feature that will place a call to a business on your behalf, wait on hold and then give you a call once a live representative is available. If you can't have your own assistant, this is the next best thing.

Digital Services Act takes effect: We've been talking a lot about the European Union's Digital Services Act, and now that it will apply tomorrow, we have everything you need to know about the rebooted e-commerce rules.

Bye, bye, Cruise: The San Francisco Giants replaced the Cruise patch on their uniforms with one from Chevrolet. Kirsten described it as "the latest fallout for the GM self-driving subsidiary and its controversial presence in the city."

Image Credits: TechCrunch/Bryce Durbin

On the pods

On today's Equity, Mary Ann, Karyne and Alex get into the deals of the week. They also discuss venture capital's year of transition, including some new funds and one that is winding down, as well as Y Combinator's new request for startups and why now. Listen here.

Over on Found, Becca and Dom speak with Tigran Sloyan, co-founder and CEO of CodeSignal, about how traditional résumé-based hiring perpetuates biases and limits opportunities for individuals without extensive networks or prestigious credentials and how skills assessment lead to more equitable hiring. They also get into the CodeSignal team's plans to go beyond assessment to skills development, how AI will play a role in building out these courses, and the way Tigran thinks about equitable hiring on his own team. Listen here.

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Join Waymo, Signal, and more at StrictlyVC Los Angeles

Join StrictlyVC’s cocktail party in Los Angeles on February 29 to hear from leaders like Meredith Whittaker (president, Signal) and Tekedra Mawakana (co-CEO, Waymo), and connect with top VCs and entrepreneurs. Tickets are $150 — register today.