X Gon' Take It From Ya: Company formerly known as Twitter commandeers @x username

Today’s top story answered our question from yesterday about the fate of the person who was using the Twitter @x handle. I’m not going to ruin the surprise, but if you’ve been following our Twitter coverage this year, chances are you won’t be shocked about what actually happened. Read all about it.

Next, look who’s launching credit cards. Swiggy, India’s food delivery giant, now has one, as does Shopify, which is expanding farther into fintech.

Over at Stability AI, the company continues to refine its generative AI models in the face of increasing competition — and ethical challenges. Learn about its latest image-generating model.

Meanwhile, it looks like another cybersecurity company is poised to be acquired. Find out who.

And put your game face on because Mirrorscape’s new AR tabletop platform could enhance your D&D campaign. Read more.

More top reads

Today’s top TechCrunch+ story, Don’t fall into the toxic workplace trap, looks into some causes for how and why this type of workplace can happen.

What’s a “novel cobot”?: Investors want to know and are infusing $30 million into Collaborative Robotics to find out.

Find your new BFF: Bumble launches a separate BFF app for friend, uh, friending.

Harvesting carbon dioxide: Dioxycle raises $17 million for its electrolyzer that turns CO2 into ethylene.

Writing your own rules: OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic form a body to oversee safe “frontier AI” development.

Do you believe in Magic?: Shopify Sidekick is like ChatGPT, but for e-commerce merchants.

Investing in India: BlackRock and Reliance’s finance unit form a joint venture to tap India’s asset management industry.

Clearing your head: Dial up a therapist like an Uber? Wangie aims at Gen Zers and the time-poor.

All about Samsung: Brian Heater followed the Unpacked in Seoul event to give us the latest on Samsung’s new gadgets. First up is Galaxy Z Fold 5, which got an upgraded chip, thinner body and an $1,800 price tag. Next is Galaxy Z Flip 5, which Brian writes finally fixes the foldable’s biggest problem. Then read all about the Galaxy Watch. Finally, the Galaxy Tab S9 arrives with a new chip and water resistance.

In the fight against climate change: Materials Nexus raises £2 million seed to discover clean climate material.

Gather ’round: Graft is building an AI development platform for the masses.

Plugged in: Leading automakers partner to create a massive EV charging network.

Finding fraud: Two companies with solutions for detecting payment fraud announced funding today, including from Trustmi and Effectiv.

From the “pod” files

In today’s Equity podcast, Alex sat down with Washington Post columnist Taylor Lorenz to chat about her upcoming book, “Extremely Online,” on the history of online platforms and the rise of creators. They got into why online work has long been considered “a sideshow,” the rise and fall of Vine, and the progression of new formats and platforms. Listen here.

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How to prevent an ‘operational catastrophe’

Julia Ivzhenko, head of operations at Futurra, launched a new edtech app with a 20-person team that answered students’ questions in real time.

Network effects drew in a growing stream of new users, but “we concentrated on scaling and didn’t have time to think if the resources of our team were enough to keep going with such speed,” she writes in TC+.

“To prevent the approaching catastrophe,” she developed a five-step plan (shared in the article) that analyzed key processes and highlighted bottlenecks that ultimately generated “a timeline for optimization.”

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription.

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