Hey everyone. Welcome back to Week in Review, the newsletter where we recap some of the top stories that graced the front page of TC over the last 7 days. The most read story on our site this week was about Flowcarbon, a new company and “blockchain-based redemption story” (as Anita put it) launched by WeWork founder Adam Neumann. The goal, writes Anita, is to “sell tokenized carbon credits to companies looking to reduce their carbon footprint,” to which the only answer I can think of is Jennifer Lawrence’s “okay” gif. Why is it on the blockchain? What is a “goddess nature token”? Find out in Anita’s post here, then listen to Lucas and Anita dig deeper on this week’s Chain Reaction podcast.
other things
Here are some of this week’s other most read TC stories:Jack Dorsey leaves the Twitter board: For the first time since its founding in 2006, co-founder Jack Dorsey is no longer officially involved in the running of Twitter. At the end of last year, he stepped down as CEO but remained on the company’s board of directors. As of May 25, he also left the board.Broadcom will buy VMware for $61 billion: After a few days of rumors, Broadcom announced its plans to acquire VMware for $61 billion. Ron has all the details of the deal, and why would the chipmaker leave so much money with the virtualization company? Ron and Alex have you covered there as well.Take-Two buys Zynga: The parent company behind games like Grand Theft Auto and BioShock now owns the company behind games like FarmVille and Words With Friends. We’ve known for a while that this was in the works, but the $12.7 billion deal was finalized this week.More tech layoffs: Another week of companies announcing or confirming layoffs, including cuts at Klarna, PayPal, and grocery delivery companies Getir and Gorillas.Google’s response to DALL-E: Last month, OpenAI showed off “DALL-E 2,” its AI model capable of taking a text message like “Shiba Inu wearing a beret” and generating an entirely new image from it. Now Google says it has its own algorithm that’s even better, but outside of the comparison images Google provides (which, naturally, include more Shiba Inu in hats), we’ll have to take the company’s word for it. Citing “potential risks of misuse,” Google is not currently releasing any code or public demos.Image credits: google research
things added
We have a paid section on our site called TechCrunch+. It’s only a few bucks a month and it’s packed with great stuff! As of this week, for example:Know the thesis of your potential investor: Do you have a solid business and a polished pitching platform, but investors still turn you down? “Most of the time, it doesn’t matter how good your company is,” writes Haje. “What matters is whether it matches your investor’s investment thesis.”US cannabis investors explain why they are planting seeds now: Recreational cannabis use is slowly becoming legal in more and more states, but it remains illegal at the federal level, which makes things very complicated when it is the core of your business. Anna Heim reached out to four US cannabis investors to get their thoughts on the state of the industry and what’s stopping it from really going up in flames.It’s not business as usual (and investors admit it): Following Y Combinator’s memo suggesting founders “plan for the worst” in the coming months, investors are echoing that sentiment in their own memos. Natasha Mascarenhas takes a look at memos from Reach Capital, Lightspeed Ventures, and more.
