Swedish tech convention yanks $1M pitch contest prize from Russian co-founders • TechCrunch

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What’s up, Crunchers! Haje is again from his away-ness, and we’re chomping on the bit to carry you a wall of fantastic tales from our dastardly staff of TC wordcraftspeople. Let’s goooooo! — Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Prime 3

• Right here yesterday, gone immediately: “We should always have reviewed all individuals’ operations extra carefully earlier than coming into into the competitors.” That’s what Slush organizers mentioned after they and VC pitch judges determined to revoke a $1 million award to Immigram after discovering the corporate had ties to Russia. Mike has extra.
• Darkish instances at Tesla: Tesla recalled about 350,000, or 1% of electrical automobiles it offered over the previous two years or so for some fairly main points, together with taillights that exit and entrance passenger airbags that malfunction, Jaclyn writes.
• Cloudy with an opportunity of doom and gloom: There is no such thing as a rosy outlook for startups right here. Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy doesn’t mince phrases when he warns startups that “numerous turmoil and volatility” is within the funding forecast over the subsequent 12 to 18 months, Manish stories.

Startups and VC

Actor Noah Schnapp, who performs Will on Netflix’s hit authentic sequence “Stranger Issues,” is captivated with tbh, an organization he co-founded that goals to “reinvent” hazelnut cocoa unfold Nutella, stories Mary Ann. The corporate is popping to crowdfunding to boost cash for the vegan various.

At our TC Periods: Crypto occasion final week in Miami, Darrell sat down a veritable who-is-who in crypto to speak in regards to the crypto regulation panorama. The important thing takeaways that every one three panelists primarily agreed upon is that the good thing about the FTX state of affairs is that there’s now extra impetus than ever to reach at some sort of regulatory framework particular to crypto within the U.S. You may watch the phase on the positioning.

Right here’s a fellowship of tales to see you thru the remainder of your Monday. Might or not it’s a light-weight to you in darkish locations, when all different lights exit.

Get your product and buyer success groups on the identical web page to enhance web retention

You don’t want to maneuver the needle far to optimize buyer success. SaaS startups that incrementally enhance will stack small wins which have the potential to change the corporate’s trajectory.

As a substitute of a standard siloed method, rolling product and CX groups right into a single unit helps align incentives, writes Bryan Home, SVP of product and buyer success at Elastic Path.

“No matter what you name the function, product administration, UX and buyer success ought to report back to the identical particular person,” he advises. “This chief ought to create a construction that shares incentives and customary objectives aligned to your clients’ measures of success.”

Three extra from the TC+ staff:

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Huge Tech Inc.

It’s a little bit of déjà vu for Broadcom, which is again beneath the watchful eye of competitors regulators. This time, the U.Okay.’s Competitors and Markets Authority is trying into the chip large’s proposed $61 billion deal to purchase virtualization software program large VMware. In the event you don’t recall the final time, it was when Broadcom tried to accumulate rival Qualcomm in 2018. The deal was scrapped after former president Donald Trump cited nationwide safety issues. Paul writes that “each the political and aggressive optics are totally different this time round, so it’s troublesome to foretell how this can all unfold,” however he did get a remark from Broadcom on what the corporate thinks.

Oh, and FIFA is again. Lauren has your information to streaming it.

5 extra in your Monday: