All the reasons why you should launch a credit or debit card

Welcome to Extra Crunch Friday

The ongoing fintech revolution continues to level the playing field where legacy companies have historically dominated startups.

To compete with retail banks, many newcomers are offering customers credit and debit cards; developer-friendly APIs make issuance relatively easy, and tools for managing processes like KYC are available off the shelf.

To learn more about the low barriers to entry — and the inherent challenges of creating a unique card offering — reporter Ryan Lawler interviewed:

• Michael Spelfogel, founder, Cardless
• Anu Muralidharan, COO, Expensify
• Peter Hazlehurst, founder and CEO, Synctera
• Salman Syed, SVP and GM of North America, Marqeta

We’re off on Monday, September 6 to celebrate America’s Labor Day holiday, but we’ll be back with new stories (and a very brief newsletter) on Tuesday morning.

Thanks very much for reading,

Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch
@yourprotagonist

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Our favorite startups from YC’s Summer 21 Demo Day

Twice each year, we turn our attention to Y Combinator’s latest class of aspiring startups as they hold their public debuts.

For YC Summer 2021 Demo Day, the accelerator’s fourth virtual gathering, Natasha Mascarenhas, Alex Wilhelm, Devin Coldewey, Lucas Matney and Greg Kumparak selected 14 favorites from the first day of one of the world’s top pitch competitions.

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TechCrunch Disrupt 2021

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Where hundreds of startups tell their stories to 10,000+ influencers from all around the world.

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Use cohort analysis to drive smarter startup growth

Cohort analysis is a basic tool for startups that need to better understand customer behavior, but many early-stage companies let it slide.

Grouping users into “buckets” is a widespread practice, but robust cohort analysis uncovers trends and missed opportunities that young companies can pounce on.

Don’t wait to hire a senior marketing person or a sales consultant to start this critical work: In a guest column, Jonathan Metrick, chief growth officer at Sagard & Portage Ventures, shared a hypothetical case study that illustrates the value of using behavioral analysis.

If you have questions after reading this comprehensive step-by-step, please join us for a Twitter Spaces chat with Metrick on Tuesday, September 7, at 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET.

For details and a reminder, follow @TechCrunch on Twitter.

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6 tips for establishing your startup’s global supply chain

The barrier to entry for launching hardware startups has fallen; if you can pull off a successful crowdfunding campaign, you’re likely savvy enough to find a factory overseas that can build your widgets to spec.

But global supply chains are fragile: No one expected an off-course container ship to block the Suez Canal for six days. Due to the pandemic, importers are paying almost $18,000 for shipping containers from China today that cost $3,300 a year ago.

After spending a career spinning up supply chains on three continents, Liteboxer CEO Jeff Morin authored a guide for Extra Crunch for hardware founders.

“If you’re clear-eyed about the challenges and apply some rigor and forethought to the process, the end result can be hard to match,” Morin says.

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What Amplitude’s choice to direct list says about its products, growth and value

Amplitude, which sells “digital optimization” software, recently eschewed the IPO route in favor of a direct listing.

For The Exchange, Alex Wilhelm explored the company’s product niche, financial results and valuation to paint a picture of what things could look like when it floats.

Virtual events startups have high hopes for after the pandemic

Virtual events were a vaguely futuristic notion before the pandemic struck, but this format has fulfilled a unique and important need for organizations large and small since early 2020.

But what’s in store for the nascent industry as the world struggles to return to “normal?”

In an update to a story we first ran in March 2020, we spoke to top executives and investors in the sector to learn about the trends they’re watching:

• Xiaoyin Qu, founder and CEO, Run The World
• Rosie Roca, chief customer officer, Hopin
• Hemant Mohapatra, partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners India
• Paul Murphy, former investor in Hopin with Northzone (currently co-founder of Katch)

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Tracking startup focus in the latest Y Combinator cohort

Alex Wilhelm and Anna Heim wrapped up TechCrunch’s coverage of the summer cohort from Y Combinator’s Demo Day with an evaluation of how the group fared in comparison to their expectations.

They were surprised by the number of startups focusing on no-and low-code software, and pleased by the unanticipated quantity of new companies focusing on space.

“It seems only fair to note that some categories of startup activity simply met our expectations in terms of popularity,” noting delivery-focused startups including dark stores and kitchens.

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Our favorite startups from YC’s Summer 21 Demo Day, Part 2

For the second day of coverage, the TC team recapped their favorite pitches — “the ones that, as people who sift through a few hundred pitches a day, made us go, ‘oh wait, what’s this?'”

• Spark Studio
• Litnerd
• Therify
• Catena Biosciences
• Parallel Bio
• Mindstate Design Labs
• Dots
• The Breakaway
• HEO Robotics
• TransAstra Corporation
• Inversion Space

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