From TechCrunch
By Amanda Silberling
November 16, 2023
The founders of IRL, Abraham Shafi and Genrikh Khachatryan, are suing their investors, claiming that they intentionally sabotaged the company. At its peak, IRL was poised to become an event organizing alternative for Gen Z, who are using Facebook less and less. Shafi, the CEO, was suspended from IRL in April to investigate claims of […]
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OpenAI investor Josh Kushner praises Musk, despite Musk’s OpenAI lawsuit
Elon Musk may be suing OpenAI, accusing the ChatGPT maker of abandoning the company’s original mission as a nonprofit organization, but Josh Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital and one of the company’s key investors, has nothing but good things to say about the world’s richest man. “I have deep admiration and respect for Elon,” Kushner said last week at Fortune Global Forum. His position may not be a surprise. Thrive is an investor in SpaceX, and Kushner has family ties to Donald Trump, whom Mus
Nov 18, 2024
Rork’s founders were almost broke when a viral tweet led to $2.8M and a16z
Rork founders Levan Kvirkvelia and Daniel Dhawan are living a life that sounds like a movie plot -- but it actually happened. They went from broke,
May 5, 2025
Early Stage 2023: IRL is B-A-C-K
Hello, and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This week we recorded at Early Stage, TechCrunch’s event for founders who are building startups from the ground up. Sadly, our dear friend Natasha Mascarenhas took ill, and we had to lean on […]
Apr 21, 2023
ZestMoney founders resign as Goldman Sachs-backed fintech struggles to raise funds
Founders of ZestMoney have resigned from the startup, the latest twist in the fate of the Indian fintech whose ability to underwrite small ticket loans to first-time internet customers once drew the backing of many high-profile investors including Goldman Sachs. Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma and Ashish Anantharaman, the founders of ZestMoney, informed employees about their […]
May 15, 2023