Extra Crunch Friday: Will ride-hailing profits ever come?

Welcome to Extra Crunch Friday

Before the pandemic began, I took about seven or eight hailed rides each month.

Since I began physically distancing from others to stem the spread of the coronavirus in March 2020, I’ve taken exactly 10 hailed rides.

Last year, Uber and Lyft both reported steep revenue losses as travelers hunkered down at home, but today, Alex Wilhelm says both transportation platforms plan to reach adjusted profitability by Q4 2021.

He unpacked the numbers “to see if what the two companies are dangling in front of investors is worth desiring.”

Since he usually doesn’t focus on publicly-traded stocks, I asked Alex why he focused on Uber and Lyft today.

“Utter confusion,” he replied.

“Investors have bid up their stocks like the two companies are crushing the game, instead of playing a game with their numbers to reach some sort of profit in the future,” Alex explained.

“The stock market makes no sense, but this is one of the weirder things.”

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

A quick note: today is Extra Crunch’s second anniversary!

I wanted to take a moment to thank you for reading and express my deep appreciation to everyone at TechCrunch for their contributions over the last two years.

Have a fantastic weekend,

Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch
@yourprotagonist

Read more

TechCrunch’s favorites from Techstars’ Boston, Chicago, and workforce accelerators

In the theater, a “four-hander” is a play that was written for four actors.

Today, I’m appropriating the term to describe this roundup by Greg Kumparak, Natasha Mascarenhas, Alex Wilhelm and Jonathan Shieber that recaps their favorite startups from Techstars accelerators.

The quartet selected four startups each from Chicago, Boston and Techstars Workplace Development.

“As always, these are just our favorites, but don’t just take our word for it. Dig into the pitches yourself, as there’s never a bad time to check out some super-early-stage startups.”

Read more

As more insurtech offerings loom, CEO Dan Preston discusses MetroMile's SPAC-led debut

Neoinsurance company Metromile began trading publicly this week after it combined with a special purpose acquisition company.

Metromile will likely be one of 2021’s many SPAC-led debuts, so Alex interviewed CEO Dan Preston to learn more about the process and what he learned along the way.

A notable takeaway: “Preston said SPACs are designed for a specific class of company; namely those that want or need to share a bit more story when they go public.”

Read more

Adtech and martech VCs see big opportunities in privacy and compliance

Senior Writer Anthony Ha and Extra Crunch Managing Editor Eric Eldon surveyed three investors who back adtech and martech startups to learn more about what they’re looking for and whether deal flow has recovered at this point in the pandemic:

• Eric Franchi, partner, MathCapital
• Scott Friend, partner, Bain Capital Ventues
• Christine Tsai, CEO and founding partner, 500 Startups

Read more

Commercializing deep tech startups: a practical guide for founders and investors

I have a hard time envisioning all of the hurdles a deep tech entrepreneur must overcome before they can land their first paying customer.

How do you sustainably scale a company that probably doesn’t have revenue and isn’t likely to for the foreseeable future? How big is the TAM for an unproven product in a marketplace that’s still taking shape?

Vin Lingathoti, a partner at Cambridge Innovation Capital, says entrepreneurs operating in this space face a unique set of challenges when it comes to managing growth and risk.

“Often these founders with Ph.D.s and postdocs find it hard to accept their weaknesses, especially in nontechnical areas such as marketing, sales, HR, etc.,” says Lingathoti.

Read more

How will investors value MetroMile and Oscar Health?

This week, auto insurance startup Metromile completed its combination with SPAC INSU Acquisition Corp. II.

Last Friday, health insurance company Oscar Health announced its plans to launch an initial public offering.

As the saying goes: past performance is no guarantee of future results, but using 2020 debuts by neoinsurance firms Lemonade and Root as a reference point, Alex says the IPO window is wide open for other players in the space.

“All the companies in our group are pretty good at adding customers to their businesses,” he found.

Read more

Dear Sophie: How can I improve our startup's international recruiting?

Dear Sophie:

We’ve been having a tough time filling vacant engineering and other positions at our company and are planning to make a more concerted effort to recruit internationally.

Do you have suggestions for attracting workers from abroad?

— Proactive in Pacifica

Read more