This week in tech acronyms: FRB and GPT

Image Credits: Tahreer Photography / Getty Images

Welcome to Startups Weekly, this week’s spotlight on startup news and trends by Senior Reporter and co-host of Equity Natasha Maskerenhas To receive this in your inbox, subscribe over here.

It’s been a big week for tech acronyms. I woke up on Monday to find that First Republic Bank had been closed by administrators – and that JP Morgan would buy $330 billion worth of assets. The news raises another question for startups: How does it feel in this environment to lose another banking partner in a matter of weeks?

As I learned, along with my colleagues Mary Ann Azevedo and Christine Hall, entrepreneurs feel exhausted. It’s true: When First Republic Bank was in its final moments, Silicon Valley didn’t panic or throw itself into the social media spotlight. Instead, it was a general malaise – and an awareness of the gap ahead.

Read the rest of our piece on TC+: “Tech Feels the Gap as Another Startup Bank Partner Fails

As for the other acronym, you don’t have to look far to find a GPT angle these days. Inspired by Alex Wilhelm and I’s check-in on ChatGPT’s impact on edtech, generative AI has indeed impacted new user growth. As our interviews tell us, OpenAI is clearly changing things for edtech entrepreneurs, and generally asking them to ask really tough questions, surprisingly.

Read our piece on TC+: “OpenAI’s ChatGPT is shaking up the edtech markets.

With that, let’s get into the perfect pitch surface and its benefits. follow back Twitter, Bluesky or Instagram to continue the conversation. If you want to support me further, subscribe to my free Substack.

Perfect deck

The indefatigable HJ Jan Kamps made 47 pitch decks in his Pitch Deck Teardown series. Now he is asking: How can we do better? With the help of Trulytell (with help from their designer, Jake Mueller), Camps wanted to upgrade the starter deck to the perfect pitch deck. The results are certainly interesting.

Here’s what you need to know: It’s hard. Copy this if it helps:

Sorry, but you need to check your numbers. There is no way that Supliful’s total reachable market is within 10% of the entire planet’s healthcare spending. This slide feels so crazy, so incredibly wrong, it makes me wonder where this calculation came from.

Bring the window to perfection, stay for the correct inspections.

Image Credits: Suppliful/TechCrunch/Trulytell

The external benefit that your investor wants

At this week’s Fair, I spoke with Sam Chaudhary, CEO and co-founder of ClassDojo, and Chris Farmer, CEO of SignalFire, who recently announced a $900 million fund to support tech startups. This interview is structured a little differently because it was recorded as a TechCrunch Live session, our weekly show that focuses on helping people start better venture-backed businesses.

Here’s what you need to know: The best part of the interview revolved around how to balance external leverage with insider insight into areas like edtech and the complexities of space. If you want a snapshot of the thinking behind a company that’s been slow to generate revenue, listen to how it lost the investor’s patience, vision and early mapping.

Image Credits: PM images (Opens in a new window) / Getty Images

etc. etc.

• Programming Notes: If you’re reading this in a browser, get it in your inbox too! Subscribe here and share with your friends.
• of course: It is a time of turmoil. Remember there is a ticket for every budget and role.
• And finally, I have a shameless plug: They make me scap! Tell me if you’ve ever heard of a venture firm or startup winning, scaling, crowding out, or, oh I don’t know, firing an executive due to internal events. I like to see. Early stages of pitch And timetables too. Happy Speaking of anonymity And further explain my process and what I am looking for. You can tell me things on signal at +1 925 271 0912. No tones, please.

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take care of yourself,

N

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