Finnish tech conference yanks $1M pitch contest prize from Russian co-founders • TechCrunch

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Hey Crunchers! Haje is back from his absence and we can’t wait to bring you a wall of awesome stories from our dastardly team of TC wordsmiths. come on! — christina Y Haha

TechCrunch Top 3

• Here yesterday, today gone: “We should have more closely reviewed the operations of all participants before entering the competition.” That’s what Slush organizers said after they and VC’s submitting judges decided to revoke a $1 million award to Immigram after discovering the company had ties to Russia. Miguel has more.
• Dark times at Tesla: Tesla recalled about 350,000, or 1% of the EVs it sold in the past two years for some pretty major issues, including taillights going off and front passenger airbags malfunctioning. jaclyn write
• Cloudy with a possibility of pessimism: Here there are no rosy prospects for startups. Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy doesn’t mince words when he warns startups that “a lot of turmoil and volatility” is in the funding forecast for the next 12 to 18 months. manish reports.

Startups and VCs

Actor Noah Schnapp, who plays Will on the hit Netflix original series “Stranger Things,” is passionate about tbh, a company he co-founded that aims to “reinvent” Nutella cocoa and hazelnut spreadreports maria anna. The company is turning to crowdfunding to raise money for the vegan alternative.

At our TC Sessions: Crypto event last week in Miami, darrell A veritable who’s who in crypto sat down to talk about the crypto regulation landscape. the key takeaways What all three panelists essentially agreed on is that the benefit of the FTX situation is that there is now more momentum than ever to come up with some kind of specific regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies in the US. You can watch the segment at the place.

Here’s a community of stories to see you through the rest of your Monday. May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.

Get your product and customer success teams on the same page to improve net retention

Image Credits: Richard Drury (Opens in a new window) / Fake Images

You don’t need to move the needle very far to optimize customer success. SaaS startups that gradually improve will accumulate small gains that have the potential to alter the trajectory of the company.

Instead of a traditional siled approach, integrated product and CX teams in a single unit help align incentives, writes Bryan House, senior vice president of product and customer success at Elastic Path.

“Regardless of what you call the role, product management, UX, and customer success should all report to the same person,” he advises. “This leader must create a structure that shares incentives and common objectives aligned with the measures of success of their clients.”

Three more from the TC+ team:

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps start-up founders and teams get ahead of the rest. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” to get 15% off an annual subscription!

big tech inc

It’s a bit of déjà vu for Broadcom, which is under the watchful eye of competition regulators. This time, the UK Competition and Markets Authority is investigating the chip giant’s proposal. $61 billion deal to buy virtualization software giant VMware. If you can’t remember the last time, it was when Broadcom tried acquires rival Qualcomm in 2018. The deal was canceled after former President Donald Trump cited national security concerns. Pablo He writes that “both the political and competitive optics are different this time around, so it’s hard to predict how this will all play out,” but received a comment from Broadcom on what the company thinks.

oh and fifa is back. lauren You have your guide to pass it on.

Five more for your Monday:

TO UPDATE: The first version of the Daily Crunch incorrectly stated that the Slush conference was in Sweden. In order not to incur the wrath of both groups of Vikings, we have corrected the headline. Mud is an annual technology conference that takes place, of course, in Helsinki, Finland. As an honorary Scandinavian, Haje is suitably ashamed of the mistake. Det skal ikke skje igjen, folkens!