To keep content creators from jumping ship, YouTube makes it easier to monetize

It’s choppy waters in the world of social startups today. Manish reports that Jack Dorsey says that India threatened to shut down Twitter and raid employees’ homes. Natasha reports that Spotify was fined in Sweden over a GDPR data access complaint. And over on the Reddit side of things, thousands of subreddits went dark to protest Reddit’s API pricing. 

Also noteworthy – it’s been a while since we heard from Timehop, the “what happened a year ago today” type service that was essentially made irrelevant by Facebook launching its own version of the feature. But it appears that party-planning platform Punchbowl is acquiring it.

Also, we have a Security stage at Disrupt – and here is the Security Stage agenda. Worth attending, especially after Zack’s report today that U.S. intelligence confirms it buys Americans’ personal data. Yikes.

Other top stories across TechCrunch today

Easier money: Ivan reports that YouTube is lowering the barrier to be eligible for its monetization program; users who have 500 subscribers, 3 uploads in the past three months, and either 3,000 watch hours or 3 million YouTube Shorts views in the past three months are now eligible. 

Well we can all agree on one thing: It should be a historic win for gig workers, but both delivery workers and companies are unhappy with NYC’s $18 delivery worker minimum wage, Rebecca reports. 

Who wants to rent my lance: Pollen is a new professional membership for those who have, or want, independent careers. Members get exclusive access to business advice and a network of peers and mentors to help grow their business in the hope of setting freelancers up for success, Christine reports

Intelligence Artificielle: Ingrid reports that France’s Mistral AI blows in with a $113 million seed round at a $260 million valuation to take on OpenAI.

Charge your batteries, we’re going to Indiana: Kirsten reports that GM and partner Samsung SDI pick Indiana for $3 billion battery factory.

Maybe Tesla was right after all: Kirsten also reports that EV charger networks are turning to Tesla standard as support accelerates.

Braaaaaaaains: Brian reports on a little wearable designed to detect blood flow to the brain.

How to pitch me: 10 investors discuss what they’re looking for in June 2023

This month, 10 early-stage investors shared their theses, contact details, tactical advice for nontechnical founders, and some sample questions they expect entrepreneurs to ask them during pitch meetings.

Our respondents also ball-parked salaries for pre-revenue startups, discussed the pros and cons of using pitch memos vs. full decks, and each shared what they’re reading, watching and listening to. (This group loves “Succession” so much, they would probably take a pitch meeting with Kendall Roy.)

Here’s who participated:

• Vivek Ramaswami, partner, Madrona
• Monique Woodard, founding partner and managing director, Cake Ventures
• Adam Struck, founder and managing partner, Struck Capital
• Jenny Lefcourt, general partner, Freestyle Capital
• Champ Suthipongchai, general partner, Creative Ventures
• Latif Peracha, general partner, M13
• Rich Maloy, managing partner, SpringTime Ventures
• Harley Miller, co-founder and managing partner, Left Lane Capital
• Blair Garrou, co-founder and managing director, Mercury Fund
• Kristin Wilson, venture partner, Oui Capital

A few more more for Tuesday:

• Leadership matters, but other things matter, too: Dominic-Madori reports that the ‘AI arms race’ is about more than who will lead the industry.
• Moar productive greenery: Tim reports that to boost greenhouse productivity, Skytree is using space station CO2 scrubbers.
• This is where the crypto is flowing: Jacquelyn looks at where six crypto whales’ wallets are putting their assets.

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