IBM's Project CodeNet is an effort to spur the development of AI systems that can tackle programming challenges.Read More

A new IBM survey finds that one-third of organizations have adopted AI, and that 43% accelerated the rollout because of the pandemic.Read More

The DarkSide ransomware gang said they were after money and did not mean to create chaos with the cyberattack against Colonial Pipeline.Read More

In a new Dimensional Research report, 92% of companies said sales of on-premises software is growing, and equal to that of public cloud.Read More

Did you miss GamesBeat Summit 2021? Watch on-demand here!  Roblox, the platform for Lego-like user-generated games, reported its earnings for the first time as a publicly traded company. This met analysts’ expectations. Bookings for the first quarter ended March 31 were $652.3 million, up 161% from the same quarter a year ago. Roblox has done…Read More

Mobile monetization firm IronSource said its Supersonic division has launched LiveGames, a self-service way to manage mobile games.Read More

Join Transform 2021 this July 12-16. Register for the AI event of the year. Wilder World has raised $3 million to create a “metaverse” around art that is monetized by nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. Wilder World is working with Zero.Space on the tech side, and it was started by 3D artist Frank Wilder. Rather than start one more site to sel…Read More

Ubisoft launched the sixth season for its Entrepreneurs Lab, with 11 startups taking part in the program for innovation in games and tech.Read More

Expert.ai added new tools to its natural language API to help AI developers detect emotions, behaviors, and styles in large-scale texts.Read More

Boulder has been our home for 25 years and we love it. Amy and I support numerous local non-profit initiatives through our Anchor Point Foundation. The following video captured my attention this morning and resulted in a bathroom-sized donation to Growing Up Boulder.

Bella and Mads – well done! You can call us Brad and Amy (not Mr. and Mrs.). This is a gift is in y’alls name. Vanessa Schatz – brilliant!

Happy Monday morning. Do something nice for your local community today. And, if you are a Boulder local, consider donating to Growing Up Boulder.

The post Growing Up Boulder appeared first on Feld Thoughts.

The U.S. Senate will consider a revised technology research bill to invest $95 billion in AI, semiconductors, quantum computing, and biotech.Read More

Chief data officers are heavily involved in digital transformation, and successful CDOs link business goals with analytics, Gartner said.Read More

At the heart of Duolingo is its mission: to scale free education and increase income potential through language learning. However, the same mission that has helped it grow to a business valued at $2.4 billion with over 500 million registered learners, has led to tensions that continue to define the business.

How do you survive as a startup if you don’t want to charge users? How do you design a startup that isn’t too hard to lose people, but isn’t too easy to compromise education? How do you balance monetization goals while also keeping education as a product free?

For my first EC-1, I spent months with Duolingo executives, investors, and of course, competitors, to answer some of these questions.

How a bot-fighting test turned into edtech’s most iconic brand, Duolingo (3,300 words/13 minutes)The product-led growth behind edtech’s most downloaded app (3,000 words/12 minutes)How Duolingo became fluent in monetization (2,800 words/11 minutes)Duolingo can’t teach you how to speak a language, but now it wants to try (3,100 words/12 minutes)

One of my favorite details in the story that got left on the cutting room floor was Duolingo co-founder and CEO Luis von Ahn comparing his company to the elliptical. I was pressing him on the efficacy of Duolingo, and the long-standing critique that it still can’t teach a user how to speak a language fluently.

“Now, there’s a difference between whether you know you’re doing the elliptical or yoga or running, but by far, the most important thing is that you’re doing something [other than] just walking around,” he said.

What von Ahn is getting at is that Duolingo’s biggest value proposition is that it helps people get motivated to learn a language, even if it’s just five minutes — or an elliptical workout — a day. He thinks motivation is harder than the learning itself. Do you agree?

If you enjoyed my series, make sure to check out other EC-1s and subscribe to ExtraCrunch to support me, this newsletter and the rest of the team. I’d also love it if you followed me on Twitter @nmasc_.

In the rest of this newsletter, we’ll talk about Tesla, the morality of going public and verticalized telehealth.

There’s always a Tesla angle

When I was working in Boston, the newsroom saying was “there’s always a Boston Angle.” In a remote, tech-dominated world, I’ll tweak it: There’s always a Tesla angle. While we all prepare for Elon Musk to grace the SNL stage, there’s a story you might want to check out.

Here’s what to know: Tesla tapped a small Canadian startup to build cleaner and cheaper batteries. The price tag will shock you, but the story tells a bigger narrative about patented technology, and the outsized impact that a tiny startup has on Tesla’s route to batteries.

Literally moving us along:

Can solid state batteries power up for the next generation of EVs?GM CEO Mary Barra wants to sell personal autonomous vehicles using Cruise’s self-driving tech by 2030Lucid Motors taps Waymo, Intel veterans ahead of public listingArgo’s new lidar sensor could help Ford, VW deploy self-driving vehicles at scaleAnd if you enjoy mobility news, definitely subscribe to The Station, a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation.

The clash of the CFOs

While Equity usually keeps it light and punny, we chewed into a deeper topic this week: the morality of going public. Startups are staying private longer than ever before, but one CFO argues that it’s a moral obligation to leave the nest and provide returns to the general public. We had that CFO on the show, along with another CFO at a company pursuing a SPAC. It ended up being the most interesting clash of the CFOs I’ve been a part of.

Here’s what to know: The growth of venture capital as an asset class has a role to play in this whole mess and has kept the nest warm for many startups. We talk about if the tides are turning, or we’re saying goodbye to a world in which a company like Salesforce would debut price for $11 per share.

While you’re focused on Twitter’s tip jar, here’s other money news you may have missed in the meantime: 

Beyond the fanfare and SEC warnings, SPACs are here to stayUber’s mixed Q1 earnings portray an evolving businessWhy did Bill.com pay $2.5B for Divvy?

Where telehealth goes from here

As I start to cover digital health, one of the biggest questions I ask and get asked is where telehealth goes from here. Virtual caretaking had an uptick in usage because of the pandemic but is now starting to slow as the world reopens and vaccinations are on the rise. For telehealth startups, it means crafting a pitch that explains why virtual care makes sense for the conditions you serve.

Here’s what to know: I talked about how to become pandemic-proof in healthcare with Expressable, a virtual speech therapy startup that just raised millions in venture capital money. Part of the startups’ product differentiation is an edtech platform that motivates consumers to asynchronous practice speech exercises with the help of parents and friends.

And down the rabbit hole we go: 

Kry closes $312M Series D after use of its telehealth tools grows 100% yoyAI is ready to take on a massive healthcare challenge 4 strategies for building a digital health unicornWhy are telehealth companies treating healthcare like the gig economy?

Around TechCrunch

Announcing the TechCrunch Early Stage Marketing & Fundraising agendaApplications for the TC Early Stage Pitch-Off in July are openPitch your startup to seasoned tech leaders, and a live audience, on Extra Crunch LiveShauntel Garvey of Reach Capital will join us to judge this year’s Startup Battlefield

Seen on TechCrunch

Yale’s longtime — and legendary — endowment chief, David Swensen, has passed away at age 67How Robert Reffkin went from being a C-average student to the founder of CompassA conversation with Bison Trails: the AWS-like service inside of CoinbaseThe Shopify for NFTsThis startup just raised millions to help employees better understand compensation

Seen on Extra Crunch

Freemium isn’t a trend — it’s the future of SaaSHow much product room with fintech giants leave for startups?One CMO’s honest take on the modern chief marketing roleDespite gains, gender diversity in VC funding struggled in 2020

And that’s that. Thank you for reading along and supporting me. I’ll never get over it.

N

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Naraka is a new sword-based battle royale game that feels fresh and different thanks to its combat and empahsis on tactics over aiming.Read More

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Nintendo earnings set a new record for the company, and it even has a new IP that it announced out of nowhere.Read More

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