Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Tod Francis was recorded in September 2014. Tod...

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For entrepreneurs interested to meet and chat with Sramana Mitra in person, please join us for our weekly informal group meetups. If you are living in the San Francisco Bay Area or are just in town...

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 Yesterday Alchemist Accelerator, best known for working with enterprise startups, held its 17th demo day at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park, California. Twenty-four startups pitched ideas ranging from personalized genomics to hard tech spinouts from Stanford’s Linear Accelerator.  Rather than expound upon all twenty-four I worked with Alchemist to bring you a top… Read More

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 383rd FREE online 1Mby1M mentoring roundtable on Thursday, January 25, 2018, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/9:30 p.m. India IST. If you are a serious entrepreneur,...

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Cryptomania!This week was rough for HODLers. We took to the halls of CES and then spoke to some folks in the know about the future of crypto, the ever-changing price, and where crypto is headed in 2018. Join me,Jameson Lopp, and Michelle Tsng as we dig into cryptomania.CreditsWritten by: John BiggsHosted by: John BiggsFilmed by: Chris GatesEdited by: Chris Gates Read More

 More than 270 French startups flew all the way to Las Vegas for CES 2018. And France’s Secretary of State for Digital Affairs Mounir Mahjoubi came there to support them. I had the opportunity to sit down and interview him about the current state of the tech ecosystem in France and how it can compete at a global level. Mahjoubi joined Emmanuel Macron’s team as the person in charge… Read More

 In 2009, Facebook was just getting popular with moms and grandmas. People were playing Farmville. Twitter was just becoming mainstream. And Foursquare launched on to the scene. Back then, Foursquare was just another social network, letting users check in to locations they visit and potentially receive badges for those check-ins. A lot has changed since 2009, but Foursquare still remains,… Read More

 The classic problem of how teachers should devote resources to their students, such as helping students that are struggling in specific areas, is one that’s still ever-present — but it needs a deceptively-simple approach to making that more manageable, even if it’s just a colored progress bar if Clever CEO Tyler Bosmeny gets his way.That’s why Clever, a portal for… Read More

 Meet Ring Capital, a brand new VC firm based in Paris. The firm just raised a new $170 million fund (€140 million) and might still be raising another $10 million or so for this fund. Many new VC firms tend to focus on seed rounds at first. Ring Capital thinks there’s a Series A and Series B gap in France. That’s why Ring Capital plans to invest around €5 to €10 million ($6 to… Read More

 Tile, one of the best known item-tracking gadgets out there, has laid off some 30 people and reportedly froze the potential hires of another 10, TechCrunch has learned. This comes less than a year after the company raised a $25 million B round last May. The layoffs are reportedly due to disappointing sales over the holidays. Read More

 Rokid, a Chinese startup that makes an AI voice assistant and smart devices, just raised a Series B extension round led by Temasek Holdings, with participation from Credit Suisse, IDG Capital and CDIB Capital. The size of the round was not released, but a source familiar with the deal told TechCrunch that it is $100 million. Read More

 Snap Inc. has laid off at least two dozen people across several divisions within the company, according to The Information, which first reported the news. Snap has since confirmed these layoffs, which largely affect those on the content teams in the New York and London offices. Read More

 The FDA approval process can be like navigating a minefield for health startups hoping to get through regulations and begin selling to the American public. YC company Enzyme.io hopes to help these small businesses by automating the process for them. Biomedical engineer Jared Seehafer came up with the idea through his own experience consulting with health companies. Read More

 Fortnite, which has topped 50 million players, has released an update to the game in the form of version V.2.2.0. The patch is significant in that it brings a long-awaited update to the Battle Royale map. Fortnite Battle Royale quite literally takes a page out of the PUBG playbook. In it, 100 players are dropped into a map, where they loot for gear and try to take down the competition. But… Read More

 Group Nine Media has hired Stacy Green to lead its human resources team. The company was created at the end of 2016 by the merger of Thrillist, The Dodo, NowThis and Seeker. CEO Ben Lerer said that at the time, he assumed there would be a “Lego-like” process of combining the best teams from each organization — and since Thrillist had the largest HR staff, it seemed natural… Read More

 Birch Finance, a TechCrunch Disrupt 2016 Battlefield alum, has raised a $1 million seed round from AGP Miami, Kevin Johnson, the former CEO of Ebates and Frank Azor, founder of Alienware. The plan is to grow Birch Finance’s user base and increase its opportunities for monetization. Birch Finance aims to help people make the most of the credit cards in their wallets by telling them… Read More

 Eyeota is looking to sell audience data to advertisers around the world, and it’s announcing that it’s raised $12.5 million in Series B funding for further growth.The company was actually founded back in 2010, but it didn’t raise its Series A until two years ago. CEO Kevin Tan admitted that the company had been “difficult for early-stage investors to wrap their head… Read More

 Ledger just raised an impressive Series B round of $75 million (€61 million), led by Draper Esprit. The startup already raised a $7 million round last year. But the cryptocurrency mania probably made it easy to raise more money. If you have more than a bit of money in cryptocurrencies, chances are you’ve heard about Ledger wallets. The French startup has been designing some of the… Read More

 Entrepreneur First (EF), the London-headquartered company builder that invests in individuals “pre-team, pre-idea” to help create new technology startups, is continuing to expand internationally. Following adding an outpost and program in Singapore, in addition to London, the so-called talent-first investor is setting up shop in Berlin, kicking off its first German program this April. Read More

 Who needs Amazon when you can make your own online distribution channel? At least, that’s the idea behind Grove Collaborative, a natural home care products company that ships natural cleaning brands like Method and Mrs. Meyer’s. Co-founder Stuart Landesberg started the company in 2014 after working with retail brands during his time as an investor at TPG. He noticed how limited… Read More