by tyler | Apr 11, 2024 | Tech
Humane today announced the availability of its first product, the Ai Pin. The Bay Area-based hardware startup has been kicking around since 2017, a year after co-founders Bethany Bongiorno and Imran Chaudhri left Apple. Since then, the company has been well-funded, to the tune of $230 million, and focused on building stand-alone AI devices.
Ai Pin is the first of what Humane hopes will be a long line of devices aimed at harnessing the power and popularity of generative AI platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. The system relies on a number of different LLM-based systems, harnessing what it believes to be the best platform for each individual job.
TechCrunch spoke with Bongiorno and Chaudhri about the company’s history and plans for the future. We also picked up one of the devices for some hands-on testing. The Humane Ai Pin is still very much a first-generation product in a number of ways, including reliability and functionality, but the hardware represents a keen attention to detail that betrays its founders origins.
Humane’s vision for the $699 device is one in which a new technology can free itself of its predecessors’ limitations. Specifically this means a voice-based, always-connected device that can help users look up from their phone screens from time to time.
In our recent conversation, Bongiorno described an experience that set the co-founders on the path that would ultimately lead to the pin. “We had gone to this dinner, and there was a family sitting next to us,” she noted “There were three kids and a mom and dad, and they were on their phones the entire time. It really started a conversation about the incredible tool we built, but also some of the side effects.”
The Ai Pin is the first of what will almost certainly be a long line of products riding the generative AI boon. Back at CES in January, Rabbit turned heads with its R1 handheld . The following month at MWC, Brain.AI showed off its vision of a handset that uses generative AI as the core of its novel operating system. The field is already proving to be a diverse one, amid broader smartphone sales struggles.
Humane’s $699 entry point gets you the Ai Pin, an extra battery and an AI charging case. Different color options start at $799. Various accessories are available, ranging from $29 to $49, while the obligatory subscription service will run $24/month. As a sign of good faith, Humane is tossing in three free months with the purchase of a pin.
by tyler | Apr 11, 2024 | Tech
Substack announced on Thursday it’s introducing a few new features for podcasters on its platform. Most notably, the company is rolling out a Spotify integration that will allow podcasters on Substack to sync and distribute all of their free and paid episodes to Spotify’s streaming service. In addition, Substack is introducing new custom audio transcripts and captions, along with improvements to clip sharing and mobile video.
The launch of the new features comes as Substack has announced that podcasters on Substack are collectively earning more than $100 million in annual revenue and that this number has more than doubled in the past year. The number of active podcasters on the platform has also more than doubled in the same period.
The new integration with Spotify will make Substack podcasts discoverable via the streaming service, making it easier for podcasters to reach more listeners. Plus, the integration will allow Substack podcasters’ existing subscribers to listen to paid episodes on Spotify. Substack says the integration with Spotify has the potential to help podcasters earn more, as free listeners will be nudged to upgrade to a subscription.
Podcasters on Substack can set up a Spotify integration by going into their podcast settings, opening the Spotify dropdown and clicking the “Sync to Spotify” option to create a new feed with all current and future episodes. Paid episodes are labeled with a padlock, and listeners need to link their Substack account to Spotify to listen to paid episodes directly on the streaming service.
Image Credits: Substack
Image Credits: Substack
Creators can go to their Spotify for Podcasters account to see data about streams, unique listeners, playtime, demographics and more. Substack plans to make this data accessible via a creator’s Substack podcast stats page in the future.
As for the new custom audio transcripts and captions, podcasters can now upload their own transcript instead of using Substack’s automatically generated one, if they choose. Video podcasters can also opt to upload a separate audio track and free preview to distribute to podcast RSS feeds instead of using the default one extracted from the uploaded video.
Plus, podcasters and their listeners can now share a link to a podcast video at a specific timestamp or download a clip to post on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and X.
Substack says it’s making it easier to watch video podcasts on mobile, as video posts on iOS and Android now feature an inline player. This new capability lets users read and watch at the same time, while also keeping their place in a video they watched partway to revisit it at a later time.
The new features are available to all users starting today.
Substack now lets writers curate a ‘network’ of recommended publications for their subscribers
by tyler | Apr 11, 2024 | Tech
Flipboard, a Web 2.0-era social magazine app that is reinventing itself to capitalize on the renewed push toward an open social web , is deepening its ties to the fediverse, the social network of interconnected servers that includes apps like Mastodon , Pixelfed , PeerTube and, in time, Instagram Threads , among others. On Thursday, the company announced it’s expanding its fediverse integrations to 400 more Flipboard creators and introducing fediverse notifications in the Flipboard app itself.
The latter will allow Flipboard users to see their new followers and other activity around the content they share in the fediverse directly in the Flipboard app. This follows last year’s introduction of a Mastodon integration in the app , replacing Twitter, and the introduction of support for ActivityPub , the social networking protocol that powers the open source, decentralized social networks that include Mastodon and others.
In February, Flipboard announced it would begin to add its creators and their social magazines to the fediverse as well, meaning that the curated magazines of links and other social posts that its creators typically share within the Flipboard app could now find a broader audience. By sharing creators’ posts and links with the wider fediverse, Flipboard’s publishing partners gained their own native ActivityPub feeds so they could be discovered by Mastodon users and those on other federated social apps. That initial push toward federation was started with 1,000 Flipboard magazines and today adds 400 more. In total, Flipboard says there are now over 11,000 curated Flipboard magazines available to federated social networking users.
“This is a major step toward fully federating our platform,” noted Flipboard CEO Mike McCue in an announcement. “We’re not just making curated content on Flipboard viewable, but enabling two-way communication so users can see activity and engage with fediverse communities. Personally, it has made my curation even more exciting as I know it’s reaching new people who may share my interests.”
The expanded set of accounts includes public accounts with one or two public magazines that have activity curated in the past 30 days and don’t have any trust and safety violations. They’ve also participated in Flipboard community programs. Accounts will be alerted to their federated status via email.
While Flipboard is working toward federating its users’ accounts by default, people will be able to “unfederate” by toggling off the “Federate” button in their Flipboard settings.
In addition to the newly federated magazines, Flipboard is also bringing a more integrated fediverse experience to its own app. With the version arriving Thursday (ver. 4.3.25), Flipboard users will be able to see their new followers from the fediverse in their Flipboard profile, while their Flipboard notifications will now include fediverse reactions and conversations.
This notification window will now contain three sections: Replies, Activity and News. In Replies, users will be able to see and reply to posts from people both on Flipboard and in the fediverse, as well as any other fediverse @mentions. When they respond, their reply is also sent back to the fediverse, making Flipboard more of a fediverse client app than before. The Activity tab, meanwhile, will show users the likes, follows and boosts (the fediverse’s take on the retweet), along with other Flipboard activity. The News section (previously called Content) will now showcase breaking news and other stories recommended by Flipboard’s editorial team.
The company had already begun curating content for fediverse users across a handful of “news desks” (dedicated fediverse accounts) that directed users to interesting articles and links across topics. There is a broader news desk, plus those dedicated to Tech , Culture and Science . This existing curation can help fuel the newly rebranded News section in the Flipboard app.
by tyler | Apr 11, 2024 | Tech
Threads . Mastodon . Bluesky . Substack Notes . Post . Nostr . Spoutible . There’s no shortage of X competitors in the months following the acquisition of the text-based social network formerly known as Twitter by Elon Musk. Now you can add one more startup to that lineup: Lyrak , a new X rival that aims to differentiate itself by focusing on real-time news and monetization options for creators, as on X, but with fediverse integrations, similar to Instagram’s Threads.
The fediverse refers to the open source social network of interconnected servers powered by the social networking protocol ActivityPub. Mastodon is the most well-known among the federated social apps, but even Meta has sensed a shift in the direction of the web and built its latest social network, Threads, with an eye toward ActivityPub integrations.
With Lyrak , the plan is to take the best of what Twitter has to offer and combine it with ActiviyPub integration, allowing users to interact with a wider audience on other federated social networks, like Mastodon and others.
That integration isn’t yet live, but the team says it’ll begin the work in a few months. Once live, Lyrak users will be able to see posts from Mastodon users and vice versa.
Image Credits: Lyrak
Image Credits: Lyrak
Founded by London-based web designer and marketer Rishi Siva, Lyrak is named for a lead character in the TV show “His Dark Materials,” Lyra. Siva says Lyra discovers new worlds, and because Lyrak is also striving to build something better, it seemed like a good source of inspiration.
The founder came up with the idea after spending time helping small businesses set up websites so they could make money on the web and attract customers. At one point, Siva also created a Thumbtack-like app, but the COVID-19 pandemic impacted its ability to grow as many local tradespeople were unable to work at the time.
Still, he expresses a desire to help users to better monetize their content and skills online.
“Our lower fees and sharing 50% ad revenue with creators further support this goal,” Siva notes.
By comparison, X doesn’t publicly share its percentage, which can vary based on the type of post, demographics, geography and other factors. Plus, revenue is only earned for ads shown to Verified users (paid subscribers).
Siva is also unhappy with the direction X is going and how it affects creators.
“After Musk took over Twitter, I saw a significant change in the way the platform behaved and the types of accounts it promoted. It’s disappointing to see that all the tech leaders I admire ignored this and still use Twitter [X],” he noted, pointing to the issues around far-right groups and antisemitic content on X’s platform.
However, he admits that Twitter/X still remains the best place for real-time news, which is why it remains sticky with users, despite the changes. Threads, meanwhile, isn’t prioritizing real-time news outside of sports; Siva dubs it “basically a text version of Instagram.”
He thinks Mastodon and Bluesky will ultimately be too complicated for regular users, but Lyrak could benefit from their networks through fediverse integrations. (Technically, Bluesky is not federated with Mastodon because it uses a different protocol, but work is being done to build bridges between the two.)
Image Credits: Lyrak
Image Credits: Lyrak
Lyrak says it will focus initially on getting journalists to join the network, to help it with becoming a real-time social app. To attract them, Lyrak will allow Verified journalists to share content to users’ home feeds based on their interests and offer tools to send them notifications to people who regularly click their links. (The latter is similar to Artifact — RIP — which would alert users to new articles from reporters and writers they followed .)
The startup will also try to attract people who sell digital products, with specific tools launching for this crowd later in May. Creators will be able to offer subscriptions to their followers as well as collect tips.
Another coming feature will involve AI tools, like an answer engine and user-generated AI characters, also planned for May.
The company plans to generate revenue through ads, like X, but also by taking a 10% cut from paid posts, subscriptions, tips, digital products and other AI features, in time.
To route around app store fees, Lyrak’s website will allow users to deposit funds to the app, which they can use to pay creators. (Funds added through in-app purchases will require paying Apple its 30% fee, however.)
Another idea, borrowed from sites like Reddit, is a reputation score that will reflect the value a user brings to the community through their comments, reposts, likes and inviting others to the platform. This will be combined with AI moderation efforts and human moderators to keep the app safe, the team promises.
Image Credits: Lyrak
Image Credits: Lyrak
“After our initial launch and a couple of weeks of bug fixes, we plan to regularly release new features,” Siva said. “The advantage of being a startup building a social app is that we have a fresh perspective on things. We’re not stuck in the old ways of thinking, which allows us to innovate and create features that truly benefit our users.”
Lyrak is being built by a team of five, most of whom are based in London. (The fifth person is soon moving to London, too.) The startup is currently bootstrapped and available for download on iOS.
by tyler | Apr 11, 2024 | Tech
If you ask investors to name the biggest challenge for venture capital today, you’ll likely get a near-unanimous answer: lack of liquidity.
Despite investing in startups or VC funds that increased in value, due to the dearth of IPOs, those bets are not generating much, if any, cash for their backers. That’s the drawback of private investment versus the public market. Shares of companies in private companies like startups cannot be sold at will. The companies must authorize their existing investors to sell their shares to approved others, known as secondary sales.
Cash-hungry venture investors, whether VCs themselves or their limited partners, are increasingly looking to sell their illiquid positions to secondary buyers.
Now, add in that many early-stage startups were overvalued during the fundraising frenzy that peaked in 2021 and that those shares may now be worth less. That presents a new and unique opportunity to buy stakes in seed-stage VC funds, as well as shares in startups, at relative bargains.
Today, Cendana Capital , a fund of funds that invests in dozens of seed-stage venture firms , and partner Kline Hill Partners, a firm focused on buying small previously owned private assets, are announcing a new $105 million Kline Hill Cendana Partners fund, which is well above the $75 million target they initially hoped to raise.
“Over the past two years, we’ve been hearing from our portfolio funds, ‘We have a family office that wants to sell their $2 million commitment. Would you be interested in buying it?’” said Michael Kim, founder and managing director of Cendana Capital.
Kim felt the opportunity to increase his firm’s ownership in venture funds and promising startups at a substantial discount was too good to pass up. But, since investing in secondary assets requires expertise that none of Cendana’s investors had, he decided to join forces with Kline Hill.
Raising money for this fund was easy, Kim said. Cendana’s limited partners were asking Kim to take advantage of this buyer’s market.
“We simply passed the hat around to our existing LPs at Kline Hill and Cendana,” said Kim.
What sets Kline Hill/Cendana’s investing vehicle apart is that it’s buying secondary interest in seed-stage firms and individual companies from seed funds. Most existing secondary players are too large to go after this opportunity, according to Kim.
Michael Kim, founder and managing director of Cendana Capital. Image Credits: Michael Kim
Michael Kim, founder and managing director of Cendana Capital. Image Credits: Michael Kim
It’s hard not to see the symbiosis between the two firms. Cendana’s relationships with its portfolio funds, including Lerer Hippeau, Forerunner Ventures and Bowery Capital, are helping it take the lead on sourcing secondary deals. It then passes these opportunities to Kline Hill, which values, underwrites and negotiates the transaction price.
While Kline Hill has been investing in secondary VC since the firm’s founding in 2015, Chris Bull, a managing director at the firm, said that partnering with Cendana brings the type of information that’s extremely valuable to the investment process.
“What’s most exciting for us is we’re able to get transactions done where I think either of us individually would have had difficulty getting across the line,” Bull said.
The current plan is to invest the whole $105 million fund through the end of 2024. The two firms are giving this joint venture a try, and if it goes well, they’ll raise a successor fund next year.
The two firms are not alone in noticing a large opportunity in scooping up previously owned venture stakes. Traditional secondary investors, such as Lexington Partners and Blackstone , recently raised their largest secondary funds ever. While these vehicles target all types of private assets, investors say a portion of that capital is bound to go to venture. In addition, Industry Ventures has picked up a nearly $1.5 billion fund dedicated to secondhand VC.
But billion-dollar funds like these “typically focus on much, much larger, more multistage firms,” Kim said. Applying such big finance tactics to the seed stage is far less prevalent.
Kline Hill/Cendana is on to something. With VC-backed companies tending to stay private longer than their investors’ 10-year fund cycles, the need for liquidity will likely only continue to grow.
by tyler | Apr 11, 2024 | Tech
The internet’s mega-platforms are slowly merging into a great blob of sameness, and even the hottest companies in the world are not immune from the trend. TikTok’s winning strategy to focus on short-form, vertical video has found fans amongst other internet platforms, and now TikTok is taking a page from its rival, books, reportedly borrowing from what made them popular.
TikTok is working toward launching a new app called TikTok Notes that will allow users to post images in an apparent bid to rival Instagram, a service best known for its static-photo-sharing feature. Instagram, of course, has expanded into video and stories itself, taking pieces of other services and incorporating them into its own product.
Instagram’s parent company Meta’s other services are frequent borrowers as well. As is nearly every social service you can imagine. Recall that great Stories Boom that led to everyone from Line to Spotify to Instagram to LinkedIn trying out the popular sharing format. If it works for one social media service, expect the rest to follow in some manner at some point — probably sooner rather than later.
There’s good logic behind the effort. The answer is why X wants to become a super app; the more a service can offer its userbase to do, the more time they may spend inside the app’s walls. Expanding a feature set can bolster engaged time, and therefore how much revenue a social media service can earn. At the same time, bloat is a real issue that can dilute a user experience and render an app, well, Facebook in time.
This theme — the slow commodification of digital services via same ification — is similar to why we’re seeing LinkedIn try to ape The New York Times’ gaming might , and to some degree why major platform companies in tech wind up trying to be good at everything : the never-ending need to grow revenue. Perhaps this is why your favorite app always feels more and more like an alien world as time passes. It will evolve away from what made it special, and unique, because sticking to those guns is not the way to create a service that the maximum number of people will use. For that, you need to become Facebook.
