Flying taxi startup, Joby Aviation, raises $100m
They’re building an electric, 5-seat air taxi, capable of flying 150 mi on a single charge and traveling at 2x the speed of a helicopter (sans the noise).
A San Francisco tech company allegedly fired engineers trying to unionize on slack
The firing of 15 engineers for reportedly discussing unions raises some questions about how the tech industry might handle future efforts.
Strava’s heat map is a huge security screw-up
Back in November, fitness tracking app Strava published the Global Heatmap — a seemingly cool interactive that used 13 trillion GPS points to show where people were the most active between 2015 and 2017. But the feature came with a “major security oversight:” turns out, soldiers use fitness trackers too — and their movements, which […]
BuzzFeed is breaking into the Chinese market
A recent partnership between BuzzFeed and Chinese giant ByteDance shows that clickbait continues to reel in some big financial fish.
Tales from the crypto… part II
The biggest ICO in history is going down, there’s a new player in the exchange ring, and 50 Cent is rich again.
Are robots the answer to the agricultural job shortage?
Agriculture is embracing new algorithm-driven harvesting technologies with robotic arms.
Elon Musk: I’m not going to pay myself until Tesla hits absolutely insane benchmarks
It’s a “100% at-risk performance award” -- and if Elon manages to hit his goals, he could add as much as $55B to his net worth.
Chinese imports are flooding South Korea’s kimchi market
South Korean kimchi producers are having trouble competing with China’s rock-bottom prices.
A new San Francisco law just forced Airbnb to remove nearly 50% of its listings in the city
Airbnb removed nearly 5k listings of short-term hosts who failed to pay a $250 fee to register with the city -- 2k of them overnight.
PR firms are paying tech journalists at prominent publications for links
For as long as journalism’s existed, businesses have offered cash payments, gifts, and services in exchange for favorable coverage. (It’s one of the reasons we’ve been working on an ethics guide at The Hustle.) Now, a recent exposé by our friends over at The Outline argues that this trend has turned into a lucrative, bustling […]
Apple plans to add $350B to the US economy — but that may not be as heroic as it sounds
Yesterday, Apple put out a self-congratulatory press release titled “Apple accelerates US investment and job creation.” And it’s true: The company says it will not only pay $38B in taxes to move its entire foreign trove of money back to the US, but also add $350B to the US economy and create 20k new jobs […]
The rebranding of the trailer park
In America, trailer parks have long been stigmatized as economically undesirable — last-resort stops for poverty-line families and the elderly, where crime is rampant and living conditions are squalid. But as the middle class continues to shrink and the housing affordability gap continues to widen, Americans are increasingly turning to mobile homes — and […]
10% of Amazon employees in Ohio are on food stamps
A new report from nonprofit group Policy Matters Ohio has found that some 700 Amazon employees in Ohio (about 10% of the company’s entire workforce in the state) receive assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Why are employees at one of the most powerful companies of the century still struggling to get by? At […]
Ridiculous job titles (ie.“Growth Ninja’) are not an effective way to recruit talent
Using “Wizard” in your job ad is probably not going to land you a “Rockstar” employee.
The legacy of the rotisserie chicken: grocery stores’ golden goose
Rotisserie chickens are cheap, ubiquitous, and extremely profitable for brick-and-mortar grocery chains in a time of uncertainty.
Why does this video of white noise on YouTube have 5 copyright claims against it?
A story of the absurd legality of infringement claims, and YouTube’s flawed process for policing potential copyright issues on its platform.
GoPro’s uh-oh: $100m+ short on revenue, out of the drone biz, and potentially up for sale
After missing its earnings big and failing to pull off a push into the drone market, the camera maker is flailing.
One of the biggest tobacco companies in the world wants people to “quit smoking” cigarettes. It’s a PR ploy.
Philip Morris International doesn’t actually care about a “smoke-free future.” They just want you to buy their new products.
“Major security flaws” were just discovered in the world’s computer chips. What does that mean for you?
The Meltdown and Spectre flaws affect every computer processor made in the past 20 years (AKA, you're affected). Luckily, you have a few options...
2017 was the biggest year in history for mergers and acquisitions
Worldwide, more than 50k deals went down in 2017, worth in excess of $3.5T.
Recreational weed is now legal in California. What exactly does that change?
Spoiler: your life probably won’t change much. At least not yet...
Cryptocurrency had a wild ride this week
Used to be, coins were for parking meters and gumballs. Now, they’re minting millionaires: according to Live Coin Watch, as of 6pm PST last night, the digital coin market currently had a total market cap of around $653B. And this past week has been particularly exciting. Here are a few of our favorite “tales from […]
Is the Midwest the next Silicon Valley?
We’ve all heard the trope: Silicon Valley is the only place to be if you want to launch a tech startup — the only place where you can secure funding. Well, the Midwest has something to say about that. There’s a huge tech boom underway in middle America… So big, that some predict the region […]
Chuck E. Cheese has a very odd way of protecting its intellectual property
After a Chuck E. Cheese location closed in a small Illinois town a few weeks back, a strange video made the rounds on the internet. In the foreground, all appears normal, as employees wheel old machines and decorations out to a moving truck. But in the background, a horror story unfolds: 2 women hover over […]
VC money funding hits an all-time high, but fewer companies are getting a piece of the pie
Market research firm Pitchbook recently found that global venture capital investment is at an all-time high of $142B. But there’s a catch: fewer and fewer startups are getting funded — and the successful ones are raking in way more early-stage $$$ than they used to. Since 2012, the median seed round deal has doubled from […]
Should meat get a sin tax like tobacco?
Last week, the ag firm Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return (FAIRR) put out a report suggesting states institute a “sin tax” on meat to combat the worsening environmental impact of livestock. What’s a sin tax, again? In short, they’re state-sponsored taxes that are levied on goods or services that are deemed to be “sinful” […]
The FCC repealed net neutrality yesterday — but the fight’s not over yet
Yesterday, the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to undo the net neutrality regulations put in place by the Obama Administration in 2015. The regulations defined the internet as a public utility and prevented internet service providers from charging more money, blocking access to sites at their discretion, and picking and choosing the content people can […]
India has a condom problem
In India, social stigma is getting in the way of effective condom marketing -- and it’s hitting the industry hard.
Old coal mines are being turned into solar farms around the world
In a classic changing of the energy guard, engineers around the world are building solar plants on top of non-active coal mines.
One of tech’s biggest seed investors is a Chinese billionaire you’ve never heard of
In 3 years, a little-known Chinese billionaire named Shan Xiangshuang has stealthily built the largest seed fund in tech.
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