The article also discusses the performance of global payments companies dLocal and Adyen, with the former seeing its stock surge by over 30% while the latter's shares sank to their lowest level in more than three years. The piece also mentions the acquisition of AI design studio Global Illumination by OpenAI, and the release of the biggest open dataset yet for training language models by the Allen Institute for AI. Lastly, it highlights the most-read startup stories on TechCrunch, including Elon Musk's announcement about Twitter's potential removal of the block feature and the resurrection of Sleepbuds by former Bose employees.
Key takeaways:
- Investors are focusing more on the "why now" aspect of startups, questioning why they should invest at the current moment. They are also spending 60% more time on the financials section of a pitch deck compared to a year ago.
- Decks are getting shorter with the average successful deck now having 16 slides, down from 19 last year.
- Investors are becoming weary about AI, expecting startups to have a real, measurable advantage for using new technologies, not just because it's the latest trend.
- Startups in the waste recycling and poop and urine sectors are becoming more prevalent, with a significant number of such companies appearing in the TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield 200 companies.