TC+ Roundup: Amazon is not the AI leader

Amazon has been No. 1 successful nan unreality for years, ever since it invented nan conception successful 2006. But now nan institution finds itself successful a spot it mightiness not beryllium utilized to: playing catch-up to Microsoft erstwhile it comes to AI.

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Microsoft has hitched its wagon to OpenAI, and Amazon is betting connected Bedrock. Not to mention what Microsoft has done pinch Copilot versus Amazon’s Q debut. AI is still a nascent technology, and endeavor buyers are going to shop around, avoiding vendor lock-in, conscionable arsenic they person successful nan cloud. But for now, it seems, “Microsoft seems to person won nan cognition battle,” writes TechCrunch’s Ron Miller.

Thanks for reading,

Karyne

VC Office Hours: Unlocking nan Farmers’ Market pinch Black Farmer Fund

Investors emotion agtech and person been pumping money into nan assemblage for years. But according to Crunchbase, $98.6 cardinal retired of $39.4 cardinal has gone to conscionable 5 Black-owned agtech companies since 2018. To thief combat these inequalities, Black Farmer Fund is raising its 2nd information targeting $20 cardinal to connection economical and societal opportunity to Black farmers and cultivation and nutrient businesses successful nan Northeast, reports Dominic-Madori Davis.

Betting connected beauty fads is large business

Medical spas are projected to beryllium a $30 cardinal business by nan extremity of this decade, and investors and backstage equity firms are starting to return note. But TechCrunch+ elder newsman Rebecca Szkutak wonders: How are investors reasoning astir nan risks?

“The occurrence of these businesses is wholly based connected nan spot of underlying beauty fads and mostly immoderate unrealistic beauty standards consumers are presently trying to achieve,” she writes.

Pitch Deck Teardown: Scalestack’s $1M AI income tech seed deck

Scalestack closed its $1 cardinal information utilizing 18 slides. And that shouldn’t travel arsenic a surprise, arsenic it has 3 things going for it, writes Haje Jan Kamps: a slayer team, awesome traction, and a customer testimonial to dice for.

But moreover still, it’s missing immoderate beautiful important information.

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The astir important metrics for SaaS backing successful 2024

TAM (total addressable market) and gross maturation conscionable don’t trim it anymore erstwhile it comes to predicting nan viability of a startup, says Capchase CEO and co-founder Miguel Fernandez. Companies are focusing connected sustainable growth, and for SaaS companies, that intends 1 thing: merchandise scalability. And that’s not measured by conscionable 1 metric.

Negotiating cross-border investments: Insights from a seasoned investor

It’s easy to springiness distant 30% aliases 40% of equity successful early stages of fundraising, particularly erstwhile hopeless for funding. H2O Capital Innovation co-founder and wide partner Daniel Lloreda writes that it’s often moreover much difficult to find reasonable position erstwhile doing cross-border investing.