INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
[Editor note: Want to get this weekly review of news that startups can use by email? Justsubscribe here.]
How well do Robinhood financials
stack up against incumbent online brokerages? While we wait for the seven-year-old company long-planned IPO, Alex Wilhelm examined Morgan
Stanley big $13 billion purchase of E-Trade for fresh data comparison points
Robinhood has 10 million accounts — twice what E-Trade has — but it also appears to make much less money per user and has far fewer
assets under management, as he covered for Extra Crunch
So while its fee-free approach has destroyed a key revenue stream for competitors, it still has to grow its own &order-flow& business into
its private-market valuation.
One solution is to make the platform stickier via social features
On the same day as the E-Trade deal announcement, Robinhood launched a new Profiles feature to encourage users to share stock tips
Josh Constine explored the offering and where it is headed on TechCrunch, concluding that &Profiles and lists, and then eventually more
social features, could get Robinhood users trading more so there more order flow to sell and more reason for them to buy subscriptions.
Alex
also took a look at a new report on fintech funding, which found last year was a peak overall — but skewed towards later-stage companies
Certainly, the wealth management segment is looking mature.
But the category is massive, with many more incumbents left to disrupt
What are fintech investors looking for? Check out our popular investor survey on this topic from November.
How your startup can use TikTok
for growth
You know that TikTok is where the cool kids are these days, but maybe… how do I say… it is not the social media platform you
know best when it comes to growth
So Geneviève Patterson and Hannah Donovan, founders of TikTok-oriented video editing app TRASH, have published a two-part guide to help you
figure it out.
The first part, freely available on TechCrunch, walks you through how to increase your authority ranking in the TikTok
algorithm, its review process, and pointers for making your own content
The second part, for Extra Crunch subscribers, goes deep on how TikTok decides whose content gets featured more (and less).
Fifth Wall
Brendan Wallace: the proptech sector is hot despite WeWork
Our mandate is any technology that can be strategic to the real estate industry,&
the prolific investor told Connie Loizos in an extended interview for Extra Crunch this week
While WeWork may have depressed some investor interest, plenty of models are working great across various segments — so he and his
partners are raising more funds
One of the hottest sectors, perhaps surprisingly, is in sustainable buildings
As Wallace details, public pressure, large-tenant pressure, large-investor pressure and new metro requirements have removed any choice that
the industry has in the matter:
Make no mistake; we are front-and-center to what is happening in the real estate industry and the collision
with technology, and this is the single-most-important thing that has happened to the real estate industry in the last five decades
The real estate industry is going to have to go carbon-neutral and that is brand-new.
Is this sector also your focus? Be sure to check out
our survey of investors in construction robotics from last week to find out some of the latest opportunities, plus our overview survey of
real estate and prop tech investors from November.
The future of manufacturing and warehouse robotics
Ahead of our big robotics conference
at UC Berkeley in early March, we have been producing a whole series of surveys on robotics verticals
This week, our resident financial analyst Arman Tabatabai teamed up with our hardware editor turned conference organizer, Brian Heater, to
do a series of interviews with VCs who are focused on warehouse and manufacturing robotics
Investors include:
Rohit Sharma, True Ventures
Ajay Agarwal, Bain Capital Ventures
Rick Prostko, Comcast Ventures
Fatima Husain, Comcast
Ventures
Shahin Farshchi, Lux Capital
Cyril Ebersweiler, SOSV - HAX
Kelly Coyne, Grit Ventures
Read more here.
Tell TechCrunch about gaming
startups and remote work
Our media columnist Eric Peckham wants to feature your advice in two upcoming articles
If you have relevant expertise, click the links below and share your opinions.
What are the best cities for gaming startups and how should
gaming entrepreneurs compare which city is right for them?
Have you helped lead a startup whose team is split 8-10 time zones apart between
offices in Europe/Israel and the West Coast of the US? What tips do you have for others navigating this challenge?
Across the week
Do AI
startups have worse economics than SaaS shops? (EC)
Elon Musk says all advanced AI development should be regulated, including at Tesla
(TC)
SpaceX alumni are helping build LA startup ecosystem (EC)
Dear Sophie: I need the latest details on the new H-1B registration process
(TC)
Tracking China astounding venture capital slowdown (EC)
The rise of the winged pink unicorn (TC)
Voodoo Games thrives by upending
conventional product design (EC)
Ex-YC partner Daniel Gross rethinks the accelerator (TC)
How companies are working around Apple ban on
vaping apps (EC)
Rippling starts billboard battle with Gusto (TC)
#Equitypod
This week was a fun combination of early-stage and late-stage
news, with companies as young as seed stage and as old as PE-worthy joining our list of topics.
DannyandAlexwere back on hand to chat once
Just in case you missed it, theyhad some fun talking Tesla yesterday, and there arenew Equity videos on YouTube
Enjoy!
This week the team argued about org-chart companies, debt raises, some of the items mentioned above, and much more
