SpaceX employees blast Musks’ tweets as distraction and embarrassment

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It’s Fridaa wait, Thursday? Come on, will this week ever end? Don’t worry, we’re fine, we’re looking forward to our impending vacation mode. Go on and Christina

TechCrunch’s top 3

• SpaceX employees see stars, and not in a good way: Thanks to a group of SpaceX employees, we now know that the company has a so-called no-asshole policy for employee behavior. This group, via an open letter, expressed concern that the leaders, in this case their fearless leader Elon Musk, were being held accountable for his behavior on Twitter, Darrell reports.

• Everyone loves a good card: I don’t know if you have understood yet, but we like to report on cartographic technology. Ivan reports that Google Maps will now show you live traffic around you in a new Android widget. I’ll have to try this weekend.

• The goat world tour begins: Goat Brand Labs has raised $50 million in new funding as India’s direct-to-consumer brand aggregator seeks to acquire more premium brands and help it expand globally, pot holder reports.

Startups and VCs

Were quite excited by the news that Google for Startups is rolling out $4 million in grants to a set of 40 black-led startups across Europe, like Mike reported today. More of that stuff, please.

On TechCrunch+, our subscription product, Dominique-Madori write a fantastic play on why a slowdown is business as usual for minority founders. Well worth a read.

On the subject of depression, Connie wrote an excellent article which includes an interview with Brad Feld and serves as field guide for startup board members in a rising and falling market. It’s a must-read for startup founders and board members who’ve never seen the inside of a market falter before.

More, always more:

The story continues

3 climate tech VCs share how they find, review and support startups that reduce carbon emissions

Tim De Chant interviews Christian Garcia, Kiersten Stead and Pae Wu during the TC Sessions: Climate 2022 Picture credits: Tech Crunch

This week at TC Sessions: Climate 2022, Tim De Chant spoke with three active climate tech investors to learn more about how they identify new opportunities and what they are looking for right now.

• Kiersten Stead, Managing Partner, DCVC Bio

• Christian Garcia, Partner, Breakthrough Energy Ventures

• Pae Wu, General Partner of SOSV, CTO of IndieBio

Our job is to take risks, to some degree, and risk them on teams that we think are really talented, Stead said.

So that’s part of the equation, she added. But the other side of the equation is that the world doesn’t benefit from anything unless it can scale, unless it’s fundable, unless there’s a big market with it, and that it is profitable.

(TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams grow. You can register here.)

Big Tech inc.

Normally we walk into Big Tech news and find that it usually fits in a handful of buckets, but to our delight there were plenty of great stories today that unfolded in a number of industries. Lets dig in some, shall we?

Start over in TechCrunch+, alexander has been closely monitoring the deplorable climate in the public markets for some time now and waiting, perhaps impatiently, for it to improve and for a long list of IPO-ready companies to pull the trigger. We are happy to report that this has happened, and the company that opened the IPO window was not what he expected.

Mastercard is now in the clear in India, pot holder reported. The country lifted the ban on the credit card giant after determining that the company had sufficiently complied with its data storage requirements.

Meanwhile:

• Navigating in an application is so yesterday: Sarah writes that the home screen of our smartphones will be the next big social platform thanks to widgets and push notifications.

• Tesla plays The Price Is Right: Aren’t electric vehicles supposed to be cheaper so everyone has an incentive to buy them? Tesla didn’t seem to get this message and is instead raising prices for its lineup, Rebecca reported. I guess if you’re already spending $99,990 on a Model S, spending $104,990 isn’t too much, but okay.

• Samsung is getting on the mobile wallet bandwagon: Aisha reported that the technology combines Samsung Pay and Samsung Pass under the Samsung Wallet umbrella so you can find your cards and some car maker keys in one place.

• Go once, go twice: You enjoyed the boost of energy you get when you’re the last bidder on eBay, and now you can do it live, Aisha also writes. The e-commerce marketplace is launching an interactive live shopping platform and will start with rare trading cards. Speaking of live shopping, Amazon is also doing it from June 21, Ivan reported. Don’t forget to set a calendar reminder for Amazon Prime Day July 12 and 13.

• Towards jobs to infinity and beyond: Microsoft has a new mission for its employee portal, Viva. The company is adding job support, starting with sales, so users can find all of their tools in one centralized location, Ron writing.