Only Products and Other Stuff

It’s me! Hi! (I’m not the problem, just the podcast’s host, here to bring you the latest greatest in startup and tech news this fine Monday morning). Welcome back to Equity , the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. And for those of you who hummed the first sentence of this post, extra points to you. I’m starting things off this week as a test run before Alex heads on paternity leave. We have lots to get to, so shake off the holiday feels and let’s remember how this ecosystem works? Here’s what we got to:  The markets are broadly down, due to COVID-19 protests breaking out in China.  Blockfi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Our crypto reporter Jacquelyn Melinek has more on what happened – and she explains just how intertwined this universe is. I’ll also get to notes I took from our recent crypto conference and how the reality may be looking like Web 2.5 before it looks like Web 3.0. We also talk about ...

Legal trouble may be brewing for Microsoft in the European Union where an assessment by a working group of German data protection regulators that’s spent around two years looking into a swathe of privacy concerns attached to its cloud-based 365 productivity products — including by engaging directly with the tech giant to try to get it to fix compliance issues — has found Microsoft has still not been able to resolve any of the compliance problems they’ve raised with it. The working group’s update could crank up pressure on Microsoft 365 customers in Germany — and elsewhere in the European Union where the same data protection framework applies and other regulators are also investigating cloud services’ GDPR compliance — to reassess usage of its software and/or seek out less compliance-challenged alternatives. The EU’s data protection supervisor (EDPS), which oversees the bloc’s own institutions’ GDPR compliance, has been looking into the European Commission’s use of Microsoft Office 3...

Cyber Monday savings are here — for today only book a pass to TC Sessions: Space 2022 and save 50% on all available passes. This one-day exploration event is focused on early-stage space startups, trends, science and technology across the private, public and defense universe takes place on December 6 in Los Angeles. Don’t miss out: Book your 50%-off pass now before the savings expire on tonight  at 11:59 p.m. PST . Join some of the space industry’s leading voices to learn about the latest advances, goals and challenges — both technical and financial — from the people in the trenches building and funding the future of space. Consider this, too. We expect more than 1,000 attendees at this event; top founders, investors, engineers, executives, military and government officials — an unsurpassed celestial body for networking. Here’s a small sampling of the day’s expert speakers and topics. Don’t forget to set your coordinates to “ agenda ” and explore all the interviews, panel di...

The UK government has said it will further expand the scope of online safety legislation by criminalizing the encouragement of self-harm — in a bid to tackle what it describes as “tragic and avoidable deaths caused by people seeing self-harm content online”. The latest amendment to the controversial but populist Online Safety Bill will mean in-scope platforms will be required to remove content that deliberately encourages somebody to physically injure themselves — or else risk penalties under the legislation. Individuals posting such content online could also face prosecution under the new offence of encouraging self harm and the secretary of state for digital said the government wants to target “abhorrent trolls encouraging the young and vulnerable to self-harm”. The government said the maximum penalties will be set out in due course. It is already illegal to encourage or assist suicide, online or offline, in the UK so the creation of the new offence is intended to bring self harm...

Search any major Chinese city on Twitter, and you will see a cascade of spam tweets showing porn, escort services, and gambling content that are published every few seconds, making it impossible to get any legitimate results. There has been a “significant uptick” in these tweets over the last three days, according to a China-focused data analyst . The surge in such bot content coincides with an unprecedented wave of protests that have swept across major Chinese cities and universities over the weekend. The demonstrations are largely a result of China’s zero-tolerance approach toward COVID-19, a rare show of defiance amongst the people. The country’s stringent COVID restrictions have led to prolonged lockdowns across the country, obstructing life, business, and manufacturing activities. Protests erupted last week at Apple’s biggest iPhone factory in China as workers were roiled by delayed bonuses and concerns over COVID spread. Discussion of the new nationwide protests is strictly ...

Amie raised a $7 million seed round led by Spark Capital . The round closed in June 2022 and the startup is disclosing it today. The company is building a productivity app anchored around your calendar. It helps you stay on top of your schedule, connect with your team and manage your upcoming tasks. Other investors in the round include Creandum , Guillermo Rauch, Hanno Renner and Quick Coffee Ventures. Amie competes with a new wave of calendar startups, including Vimcal , Magical , Fantastical , Cron and Rise . It’s a crowded space but Amie thinks it can provide a better user experience. As I wrote in my first article on Amie , the app combines your calendar with your todos. By default, your unscheduled todos appear in the left-side column next to your calendar. You can drag tasks from the sidebar and drop them in your calendar at a certain date and time. This way, you can see both your events and tasks in a week view. Many people already use their calendar as a sort of todo app ...

Amazon is shutting down its wholesale distribution business in India, the latest in a series of retreats for the retailer in the key overseas market where it has deployed over $7 billion in the past decade. The American e-commerce giant said Monday that it is discontinuing Amazon Distribution, its wholesale e-commerce website available in small neighborhood stores in Bengaluru, Mysore and Hubli. “We don’t take these decisions lightly. We are discontinuing this programme in a phased manner to take care of current customers and partners,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. Amazon Distribution was designed to help kiranas, the neighborhood stores in India, pharmacies and department stores secure inventory from the e-commerce giant. “We offer a wide range of products at competitive prices and the convenience of next day delivery at your door-step. As a member, you can purchase thousands of items for resale at any time of the day at competitive prices and in bulk quantities, pa...