Zac Schulwolf (L) and Lucious McDaniel IV (R)

How a Y Combinator food-delivery app used TikTok to soar in the App Store

The internet trend is simple: A friend or family member looks into the camera and tells viewers, in a slightly aggressive tone, that they are about to witness a presentation and that they better be nice.  That’s what Kendall, the sister of Lucious McDaniel IV, did, and after she stepped aside, her brother pitched his…

VC Victor Lazarte is leaving Benchmark to launch his own firm

VC Victor Lazarte is leaving Benchmark to launch his own firm

After two years as a venture capitalist for top shelf firm Benchmark, Victor Lazarte is leaving that company to start his own investing gig, he announced on X on Thursday. Lazarte became known in tech for co-founding mobile gaming company Wildlife Studios, which was last valued at an estimated $3 billion in 2020. Wildlife raised…

X to test using Community Notes to find the posts everyone likes

X to test using Community Notes to find the posts everyone likes

Elon Musk’s X will begin experimenting with a new way to use Community Notes, its crowdsourcing fact-checking system, to highlight well-liked posts from users with different perspectives. On Thursday, the Community Notes X account announced the launch of a pilot test where select contributors would be able to rate posts by answering questions about why…

cvector industrial ai startup

This industrial AI startup is winning over customers by saying it won’t get acquired

When industrial AI startup CVector meets with manufacturers, utility providers, and other prospective customers, the founders are often asked the same question: Will you still be here in six months? A year?  It’s a valid concern in an environment where the biggest, richest tech companies are luring top talent with eye-watering salaries and increasingly targeting…

Chime backer Lauren Kolodny bets on AI to revolutionize estate processing

Chime backer Lauren Kolodny bets on AI to revolutionize estate processing

Lauren Kolodny, a partner at Acrew Capital, has always championed technology’s power to democratize access to financial services for everyday people. When the fledgling neobank Chime struggled to convince investors in 2016 that it could build a large business serving the working class, Kolodny was the only VC out of a 100 Chime pitched who…

AI companions: A threat to love, or an evolution of it?

AI companions: A threat to love, or an evolution of it?

As our lives grow increasingly digital and we spend more time interacting with eerily humanlike chatbots, the line between human connection and machine simulation is starting to blur.  Today, more than 20% of daters report using AI for things like crafting dating profiles or sparking conversations, per a recent Match.com study. Some are taking it…

Google’s new Web View search experiment organizes results with AI

Google’s new Web View search experiment organizes results with AI

Google on Thursday is launching a new AI-powered feature called Web Guide for organizing Google Search results. Web Guide is a Search Labs experiment that leverages AI technology to organize the search results page by grouping pages related to specific aspects of the search query. Search Labs experiments are a way for Google to test…

SoftBank-backed LegalOn lands $50M to streamline legal workflows with AI

SoftBank-backed LegalOn lands $50M to streamline legal workflows with AI

Contract review remains a slow, manual process that strains legal teams, forcing lawyers to sift through dense language, flag risks, and translate legal terms. In fact, the problem is so prevalent that for the past several years, Tokyo-based LegalOn Technologies has had an open door to that market: its AI contract review software for legal…