Category: StartUps

Colorcon, a 58-year-old company that develops, supplies, and supports specialty products for the pharmaceutical industry — think food colorants, nutritional coatings, the film on time-release medications — is getting into the business of funding startups.

It isn’t bringing aboard any traditional venture investors or taping off a corner of its Harleysville, Pa., offices so a team of staffers can meet with startups. Colorcon knows what it doesn’t know, suggests its CEO, Martti Hedman. “We’re a team of 750 people, so we didn’t want to invest in our own VC team. We’re sort of too small for that, too inexperienced.”

Instead, Colorcon, which wants to plug $50 million into startups, has elected to outsource its venture operations to a low-flying but growing outfit in San Francisco called Touchdown Ventures that helps manage the corporate venture activities of a dozen companies already, including the multinational food company Kellogg’s, the media giant 21st Century Fox, and the adhesive manufacturing company Avery Dennison.

The idea is for Touchdown, which has 30 employees, to use its relationships with these other companies and with VCs — along with its own outbound efforts and sector analyses — to  bring to Colorcon deals it might want to fund. After that, Hedman, Colorcon CFO Dave Graeber, and Colorcon’s head of corporate development, Pankaj Rege, will decide which startups merit checks.

The initial amount it intends to commit: between $1.5 million and $3 million per startup, says Touchdown Ventures CEO David Horowitz, who will be heading up the effort for Colorcon.

It’s worth noting that unlike many companies that work with pharmaceutical giants, Colorcon isn’t looking to fund startups that are developing active ingredients or molecules. Instead, the fund will target investments across the manufacturing, supply chain, and delivery of pharmaceutical products and services.

As you might imagine, it’s also looking to invest in startups where it can add value, be it subject matter expertise or introductions to the many companies and labs with which it works around the world. Indeed, more than 70 percent of Colorcon’s sales comes outside of North America, including in China, India, South America, and, to a small but growing extent, Europe.

Is it a match made in heaven? We’ll see. But it’s certainly interesting to see companies like Colorcon with their industry expertise hitching their wagons to platforms like Touchdown, which has institutional know-how about VC.

Says Horowitz, “We have other heath care relationships. We know how to drum up deal flow. We have relationships with thousands of VCs and we speak at conferences and we do things that are specific to this industry.” That work now produces 5,000 “opportunities” per year, in terms of startup pitches, Horowitz adds.

If Colorcon is lucky, some of those startups — whether Colorcon acquires them or adopts their technology or merely learns from them —  will help keep the company in business for another 50 years.

Source: Tech Crunch

How do you keep your startup secure?

That’s the big question we explored at TC Sessions: Enterprise earlier this month. No matter the size, every startup is an enterprise. Every startup will grow in size as it builds out. But as a company expands, that rapid growth can lead to a distraction from the foundational principle of any modern company — keeping it secure.

Security isn’t just a buzzword. As some of the largest companies in Silicon Valley have shown, security can be difficult. From storing passwords in plaintext to data breaches galore, how can startups learn from some of the biggest security lapses in the tech industry’s history?

Our panel consisted of three of the brightest minds in enterprise security: Wendy Nather, head of advisory CISOs at Duo Security, is an enterprise security expert; Martin Casado, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, is a security and enterprise startup investor; and Emily Heath, United’s chief information security officer, oversees the security operations of the largest U.S. airlines.

This is what advice they had.

Security from the very start

Source: Tech Crunch

Apple Arcade seems purpose built to make room in the market for beautiful, sad, weird, moving, slow, clever and heartfelt. All things that the action, shooter and MOBA driven major market of games has done nothing to foster over the last decade.

I had a chance to play a bunch of the titles coming to Apple Arcade, which launched today in a surprise move for some early testers of iOS 13. Nearly every game I played was fun, all were gorgeous and some were really really great.

A few I really enjoyed, in no particular order:

Where Cards Fall — A Snowman game from Sam Rosenthal. A beautiful game with a clever card-based mechanic that allows room for story moments and a ramping difficulty level that should be fantastic for short play sessions. Shades of Monument Valley, of course, in its puzzle + story interleave and it its willingness to get super emotional about things right away. More of this in gaming! Super satisfying gameplay and crisp animations abound.

Overland — Finji — Overland is one of my most anticipated games from the bunch, I’ve been following the development of this game from the Night in the Woods and Canabalt creators for a long time. It does not disappoint, with a stylized but somehow hyper-realized post apocalyptic turn-based system that transmits urgency through economy of movement. Every act you take counts. Given that it’s a rogue like, the story is told through the world rather than through an individual character’s narrative and the world does a great job of it.

Oceanhorn 2 — Cornfox & Brothers — The closest to a native Zelda you’ll get on iOS — this plays great on a controller. Do yourself a favor and try it that way.

Spek — RAC7 — One of those puzzle games people will plow through, it makes the mechanics simple to understand then begins to really push and prod at your mastery of them over time. The AR component of the app seems like it will be a better party game than solo experience, but the effects used here are great and it really plays with distance and perspective in a way that an AR game should. A good totem for the genre going forward.

I was able to play several of the games across all three platforms including Apple TV with an Xbox controller, iPhone and iPad. While some favored controller (Skate City) and others touch controls (Super Impossible Road), all felt like I could play them either way without much difficulty.

There are also some surprises in the initial batch of games like Lego Brawls — a Smash Brothers clone that will be a big hit for car rides and get togethers I think.

My hope is that the Apple Arcade advantage, an agressive $4.99 price and prime placement in the App Store, may help to create an umbrella of sorts for games that don’t fit the ‘big opening weekend’ revenue mold and I hope Apple leans into that. I know that there may be action-oriented and big name titles in the package now and in the future, and that’s fine. But there are many kinds of games out there that are fantastic but “minor” in the grand scheme of things and having a place that could create sustainability in the market for these gems is a great thing.

The financial terms were not disclosed by Apple but many of the developers appear to have gotten up front money to make games for the platform and, doubtless, there is a rev share on some sort of basis, probably usage or installs. Whatever it is, I hope the focus is on sustainability, but the people responsible for Arcade inside Apple are making all the right noises about that so I have hopes.

I am especially glad that Apple is being aggressive with the pricing and with the restrictions it has set for the store, including no in-app purchases or ads. This creates an environment where a parent (ratings permitting) can be confident that a kid playing games from the Arcade tab will not be besieged with casino ads in the middle of their puzzle game.

There is, however, a general irony in the fact that Apple had to create Apple Arcade because of the proliferation of loot box/currency/in-app purchase revenue models. An economy driven by the App Store’s overall depressive effect on the price of games and the decade long acclimation people have had to spending less and less, down to free, for games and apps on the store.

By bundling them into a subscription, Apple sidesteps the individual purchase barrier that it has had a big hand in creating in the first place. While I don’t think it is fully to blame — plenty of other platforms aggressively promote loot box mechanics — a big chunk of the responsibility to fix this distortion does rest on Apple. Apple Arcade is a great stab at that and I hope that the early titles are an indicator of the overall variety and quality that we can expect.

Source: Tech Crunch

The California state legislature has passed AB 1331, a criminal justice data bill that aims to improve the quality of criminal justice records and creates a pathway for courts to share data with researchers. The bill is awaiting a signature of approval by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Authored by Assemblyperson Robert Bonta, the bill seeks to address the data gaps in criminal history records that “undermine their accuracy and reliability,” according to an AB 1331 fact sheet.

For example, the Department of Justice estimates that 60% of arrest records are missing disposition information, such as the judge’s ruling or sentencing. This can lead to criminalizing people who may be innocent. In addition, because pretrial risk assessment tools require timely and accurate information, any missing data could result in low-risk people being detained or high-risk individuals being released.

There are very few data collection standards In California, a state in which the criminal justice landscape is “highly decentralized” and each entity is responsible for its own data collection, Mikaela Rabinowitz, director of national engagement and field operations at non-partisan criminal justice data analysis organization Measures for Justice told TechCrunch. This makes it hard for the California Department of Justice to accurately track people across those systems, she said.

To address this, AB 1331 aims to establish clear collecting and reporting requirements for law enforcement agencies and courts. The legislation is designed to help law enforcement agencies make better decisions about defendants and enable courts to share data with organizations like Measures for Justice, which aims to change the way we measure and understand criminal justice data.

In 2016, California passed the OpenJustice Data Act, which led to the creation of a criminal justice data platform available to the public. The interactive platform, spearheaded by the California Department of Justice, features data from California’s 1,000-plus law enforcement agencies to allow for side-by-side comparison of agencies, like the San Francisco Police Department versus the Los Angeles Police Department.

While the OpenJustice platform represented a major step in the right direction, it wasn’t enough. AB 1331 now seeks to address the gaps that still exist within the data on both people and processes.

“You can’t change what you can’t see, and good decision-making really starts with the data and facts,” Measures for Justice Executive Director and President Amy Bach told TechCrunch. “If you want good decision-making, you need to have better data processes at the local and state level, and you have to increase data for outside researchers. This is a really exciting step forward. Basically, California is being welcomed into a prestigious group of pioneering states like Florida and Connecticut that have recently passed bills to address the criminal justice system.”

Nationwide, criminal justice reform has been having a moment lately. Last March, Florida signed into law a comprehensive and standardized data collection and public reporting process. Connecticut, meanwhile, has repealed the death penalty, decriminalized small amounts of cannabis and reformed its pardon and parole processes over the last several years. And Colorado passed a bill to make jail capacity data available to the public. California is now the latest state to make headway in closing the data gaps in the criminal justice system.

“I think this is a huge frontier,” Rabinowitz said. “I think criminal justice has been really far behind other public systems in making use of data, both in terms of investing in the tech necessary for high-quality data but also in terms of using research to drive decision-making. It’s certainly far behind where education or public health are. As we see criminal justice becoming more and more of a critical policy issue and political issue, there is more interest in having the data necessary to make informed criminal justice decisions.”

Source: Tech Crunch

Netflix has just scored a major content deal that could help it stem the loss of subscribers as competition among streamers heats up. The company announced it has acquired the global streaming rights to the popular sitcom “Seinfeld,” which will bring all 180 episodes of the Emmy winner to Netflix subscribers starting in 2021.

The timing of this addition is critical for Netflix, as “Seinfeld” will go to air the same year that the streamer loses one of its most-watched pieces of content: re-runs of “The Office.” It also will follow Netflix’s loss of another iconic sitcom — “Friends” exits the service in 2020.

Despite the age of the content in question, these are still highly expensive deals because of the evergreen nature of the shows and their ability to reach new fans who weren’t old enough to have watched the shows when they originally aired.

Beyond that, these re-runs have massive audiences. For example, Nielsen found that “The Office” is the most-watched show on Netflix, despite the streamer’s multi-billion-dollar investments in its own original content, which is far more heavily promoted across its platform.

And that original content isn’t performing well, as of late, making it even more critical for Netflix to hold on to at least some of its classic library content. Last quarter, the company lost U.S. subscribers for the first time since 2011. The company didn’t cite increased competition as a factor, as many of its challengers — like Disney+, Apple TV+ and HBO Max — have yet to launch. Instead, it pointed to price hikes and a programming slate that failed to attract subscribers.

Meanwhile, Netflix was recently outbid for rights to “The Office,” as NBCU paid $500 million to pull the hit from Netflix when its deal ends in 2021. Netflix also lost “Friends” to WarnerMedia, which paid $425 million to bring the classic show to its new service HBO Max for five years, starting in 2020.

Given the “Seinfeld” deal with Sony Pictures Television is for worldwide distribution to Netflix’s roughly 150 million subscribers, its price should be in that same ballpark, if not quite a bit higher (Netflix isn’t discussing deal terms).

“Seinfeld is the television comedy that all television comedy is measured against. It is as fresh and funny as ever and will be available to the world in 4K for the first time,” said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix, in a statement. “We can’t wait to welcome Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer to their new global home on Netflix.”

Classic sitcoms aren’t the only things Netflix has been dropping, as of late.

It also this year exited the Marvel superhero business with the cancellations of “Jessica Jones” and “The Punisher,” after having already axed “Iron Fist,” “Luke Cage” and “Daredevil,” ahead of the launch of Disney+. And it has canceled a number of other under-performing series, including “The OA,” “Tuca & Bertie,” “Designated Survivor,” “She’s Gotta Have It” and its remake of “One Day at a Time.”

The new deal with Sony Pictures Television will bring “Seinfeld” to Netflix for the first time, and follows other efforts between the streamer and comedian, including “Comedians in Cars” and “Jerry Before Seinfeld.”

“Seinfeld is a one-of-a-kind, iconic, culture-defining show. Now, 30 years after its premiere, Seinfeld remains center stage,” said Mike Hopkins, Chairman Sony Pictures Television, in a statement. “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Netflix to bring this beloved series to current fans and new audiences around the globe.”

Source: Tech Crunch

“The Family” is a new documentary series on Netflix, based on the work of journalist Jeff Sharlet — whose books promise to expose “the secret fundamentalism at the heart of American power” and “the fundamentalist threat to American democracy.”

Sarah Perez joins us on the latest episode of the Original Content podcast to discuss the series series, which offer a fascinating glimpse at a secretive group of evangelical Christians known only as The Family. Their most high-profile activity involves organizing The National Prayer Breakfast, an even that attracts major political figures, including every U.S. president since Eisenhower.

While the series opens with extensive, sinister and often cheesy reenactments showing Sharlet’s introduction to The Family, later episodes offer a broader perspective, interviewing figures who are part of or remain sympathetic to the organization, and pressing Sharlet on whether his view on The Family is correct.

Ultimately, “The Family” seems more interested in raising questions — about a specific organization and about the broader role of Christianity in American politics — than it is in answering them. It’s an admirable stance, but one might leave viewers a bit unsatisfied when they reach the end of the five-episode series.

In addition to our review, we also discuss Apple’s announcement of pricing and a November 1 launch date for its TV+ streaming service.

You can listen in the player below, subscribe using Apple Podcasts or find us in your podcast player of choice. If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review on Apple. You can also send us feedback directly. (Or suggest shows and movies for us to review!)

And if you want to skip ahead, here’s how the episode breaks down:
0:00 Intro
0:53 Reader feedback
3:30 Apple TV+ pricing and launch date
16:59 “The Family” review

Source: Tech Crunch

Hey all. This is Week-in-Review, where I give a heavy amount of analysis and/or rambling thoughts on one story while scouring the rest of the hundreds of stories that emerged on TechCrunch this week to surface my favorites for your reading pleasure.

Last week, I talked about shifting Facebook user habits and their play to take down Tinder.

The big story

This week, Apple launched some new products, but really the only big surprises were how aggressively the company is moving with pricing their subscription products. The Apple TV+ product and Apple Arcade gaming subscriptions will both be launching this fall for $4.99.

The prices were aggressive. Given the costs of Apple News+ and Apple Music, most people might have expected the services to strike $9.99. While TV+ is striking a low price to take on entrenched streaming competitors, the pricing of Apple Arcade is particularly interesting because Apple is trying to boldly shift how games are priced.

Subscribers get access to 100+ games on Arcade, with new games added monthly. The games are exclusives and they are ad-free and micro-transaction free. In a lot of ways, this subscription is seeking to undo many of the mobile gaming monetization trends it helped create, but it seems unlikely they can put Pandora back in the box.

Getting gamers on a discovery platform like this could be great for indie devs looking for eyeballs, but that’s only if the economics work out, something that depends on Apple throwing an awful lot of money at the problem.

While Apple News+ divvied up $9.99 among Apple and hundreds of publishers, it was an easier sell because publishers saw it as an entirely new class of customers for digital products that they were already creating and monetizing elsewhere. For developers bringing their titles to Arcade exclusively, that $4.99 is the whole pie for all parties involved, and even if Apple is fully or partially funding the titles, the whole model seems predicated on Apple spending through the process of acquiring customers.

While original content TV-streaming and music-streaming are avenues that Apple has had to ride up against a clear competitor, there isn’t a particularly successful mobile gaming subscription product out there. Apple has always claimed to skate to where the puck is going with its hardware products, but they have been late on services for the most part, with Apple Arcade it could be different, but turning back the clock won’t be easy.

Send me feedback
on Twitter @lucasmtny or email
lucas@techcrunch.com

On to the rest of the week’s news.

(Photo by Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Trends of the week

Here are a few big news items from big companies, with green links to all the sweet, sweet added context:

• Alibaba’s Jack Ma officially retires
  To Americans, Jack Ma may just be another Chinese tech billionaire, but the Alibaba founder is a larger-than-life entrepreneur, which makes his retirement a huge development. The retirement is no shock, as Ma had long teased his departure from the Chinese online retail giant. Read more here.
• Uber lays off hundreds
  Uber is having an interesting public debut, but the ridesharing giant is opting to consolidate a bit as it aims to shrink its losses. The company announced this week it is laying off 435 employees. Read more here.
• New Apple hardware
  Apple made some services announcements this week, but they also dropped some hardware updates. What we saw were probably the most iterative iPhone and Watch updates that we’ve ever seen. The always-on display of the Apple Watch will keep you tilting your wrist left often to see the time and the crazy triple-camera module on the iPhone 11 Pro will bring some new functionality to the camera. Read more here.

(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

GAFA Gaffes

How did the top tech companies screw up this week? This clearly needs its own section, in order of badness:

1. America takes aim at Google:
   [49 states and the District of Columbia are pushing an antitrust investigation against Google]
2. Apple makes “improvements” to anti-competitive App Store algorithms:
   [Apple tweaks its App Store algorithm as antitrust investigations loom]

Our biggest event of the year is right around the corner and we’re bringing in some of the most important figures in the tech industry. Here’s who’s coming to Disrupt SF 2019.

• Theresia Gouw and Ann Miura-Ko are coming to Disrupt
• Chris Dixon is coming to talk crypto and much more at Disrupt SF

In addition to taking in the great line-up of speakers, you can roam around Startup Alley to catch the more than 1,000 companies showcasing their products and technologies. And of course the Startup Battlefield competition that launched the likes of Dropbox, Cloudflare and Mint will once again be one of the biggest highlights of Disrupt SF.

Sign up for more newsletters in your inbox (including this one) here.

Source: Tech Crunch

In its first half-decade of existence, PopSocket has grown into one of the most popular — and imitated — smartphone accessories on the market. In 2018 alone, the company generated $90 million in profit. Not to bad for a little Colorado-based upstart.

So, where does an utterly dominated accessory maker go from here? Beverages, naturally. Delish was the first to report the existence of the PopThirst line. You may well have missed it in the wake of this week’s iPhone news. I was on a plane with limited WiFi access, I swear. Whatever the case, the weird little retractable phone holder that has captured the world’s imagination $15 at a time is now headed for the lucrative field of refreshments. 

It’s an odd evolution of the brand, to be sure. But why not strike while the iron (and coffee) is hot? I know plenty of people who swear by the phone accessory, and the pop-out gripper looks to fit pretty well on a matching koozie for hot and cold beverages, alike. Pop it on a can of LaCroix to find yourself on the cutting edge of the 2016 zeitgeist.

The cupholders feature a wide range of styles, from leopard print to camo. They’re up for pre-order on Popsocket’s page for $15 a pop. They’ll go on sale Sept 15.

Source: Tech Crunch