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Oh heeeeey! How are you today? We’ve had a pretty busy day on the site today, with a veritable plethora of news spreading all over the internet. We’ve selected some of the most interesting slices for you below. Enjoy (as far as you can enjoy another day of austerity news and whisper advice to panic as little as possible). — Christine and hi
Contents
The businesskinda.com Top 3
- WhatsUp on WhatsApp: The messaging giant has been preparing us for this moment since August, and it’s finally here: Communities! The new discussion group allows more people to engage and offers voice and video calls for up to 32 people, as well as emojis galore, polls and large file sharing, Sarah reports.
- You may want to switch to dots: Stripe cuts 14% of its workforce, and Paul writes that the CEO points out that “overlease for the world we find ourselves in” caused the reduction. Unfortunately, it’s kind of a layoff day, so go to Big Tech Inc. if you want to read more.
- Where in the world is Ajit Mohan?Well, the former head of Meta India is now there at Snap and will serve as the president of the company’s APAC operations, manish and Jagmeet to write.
Startups and VC
“Most designers have no real manufacturing experience and they draw things that cannot be used by the factory,” Xianfeng Wang, founder and CEO of Pacdora, told businesskinda.com. To bridge the gap between designers and manufacturers. Wang’s team developed Pacdora, which is similar to Canva plus Figma for packaging, Rita reports. The platform offers thousands of packaging templates for all kinds of products, from shipping boxes and coffee bags to lotion bottles and yogurt bags.
“I was always looking for that piece of software that could help us do this internally,” Juan Meisel . told me Christine. With his new startup Grip, he is building a logistics solution. “I started advising a number of companies on the side. They received their ButcherBox in the mail and tried to send everything from frozen milk to chocolate, flowers and medicines.”
Okay, fine, another handful of startup news stories:
Proptech in Review: 3 Investors Explain How Finance-Focused Proptech Startups Can Survive the Recession
Image Credits: Kuzma (Opens in a new window) / Getty Images
How are financially oriented real estate tech investors responding to the ongoing downturn in public markets?
Senior reporter Mary Ann Azevedo interviewed three VCs to learn more about how they advise the companies in their portfolios, what types of startups are best positioned to weather the recession, and how they manage risk:
- Pete Flint, General Partner, NFX
- Zach Aarons, Co-Founder and General Partner, MetaProp
- Nima Wedlake, Director, Thomvest Ventures
Three more from the TC+ team:
businesskinda.com+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams stay ahead of the curve. You can register here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!
Big Tech Inc.
Get up, people! We know you don’t like walking around with a paper shopping list – hey, we know scrolling on that tiny phone screen is annoying too. Well, Amazon and Mojo Vision have a treat for you, or rather, your eyeballs. Today they introduced a proof of concept feature that: Brian says is “the first major third-party consumer application on a smart contact lens.” That’s right, an Alexa Shopping List integration for a contact lens with a computer interface.
Fired, laid off as far as the eye can see today. While we’ve already shared the Stripe news with you, and as you’ve probably heard in the past week, Elon Musk is also working on some staff cuts at Twitter. Natasha L reports that he now plans to halve Twitter’s workforce. In the meantime, Kirsten writes that Lyft is laying off 13% of its staff in an effort to reduce operating costs.
And we have five more for you:
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.