Choose which sources you wish to remain and you're all set. Use the buttons to turn sources on and off.
What do the different colours mean?
Depending on if any articles/links are visible on the page there are 4 modes to show the state of your chosen sources.
on / visible on page
off / visible on page
on / not visible on page
off / not visible on page
What went wrong with ‘the Metaverse’? An insider’s postmortem
GUEST: It’s now two years since Facebook changed its name to Meta, ushering in a brief but blazing enthusiasm over “the Metaverse”, a concept from science fiction that suddenly seemed to be the next inevitable leap in technology. For most people in tech, however, the term has since lost its luster, seemingly supplanted by any product with […]
venture beat - 3 days ago
Dragon’s Dogma 2 launches on March 22
Capcom confirmed that upcoming action-RPG Dragon’s Dogma 2 launches on March 22, 2024 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. In a 15-minute dedicated showcase, Capcom revealed new details about the title’s story and gameplay in addition to the release date. Capcom has revealed bits and pieces about Dragon’s Dogma 2 in various previous […]
venture beat - 6 days ago
Breaking report: 505 of 700 employees at OpenAI, including co-founder Illya Sutskever, tell the remaining board to resign
In a shocking twister to the saga unfolding at OpenAI, news broke Monday morning before 6am that 500 of 700 employees at OpenAI have asked the remaining board at OpenAI to resign. In a letter signed by twelve high-ranking employees, including, surprisingly co-founder Ilya Sutskever, the group said they may quit if the board members […]
venture beat - 2 weeks ago
Apple reveals the finalists for the 2023 App Store Awards
Shortly on the heels of The Game Awards revealing the finalists for its 2023 ceremony, Apple has revealed the nominees for its own 2023 App Store Awards. Apple honors both apps and games with these awards, including games across the company’s various platforms. Even for those who don’t play mobile games, some nominees might be […]
venture beat - 3 weeks ago
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora hands-on — Far Cry but better
I don’t know if you noticed, but the Avatar franchise is great. Last year’s The Way of Water was a gorgeous, moving film, and you’re missing out if you haven’t visited Pandora: World of Avatar over in Walt Disney World. So, yeah, I’m a fan. That’s why I was happy to get a chance to […]
venture beat - 1 month ago
Uber Eats is reportedly developing an AI chatbot that will offer recommendations, speed up ordering
Uber Eats is developing an AI-powered chatbot that will offer recommendations to users and offer them a quicker way to place orders, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The report says developer Steve Moser discovered details about the chatbot inside of code hidden within the Uber Eats app. The chatbot will ask users about […]
techcrunch - 3 months ago
Survey finds relatively few Americans actually use (or fear) ChatGPT
From its prominence in the tech world, you might think that everyone on the planet is using ChatGPT or some other AI tool for everything from automating their job to planning their garden. But recent Pew polling suggests the language model isn’t quite as popular or threatening as some would have you think. Ongoing polling […]
techcrunch - 3 months ago
Connections is the New York Times’ most played game after Wordle
The gamers behind the Gray Lady have a new game to add into our morning rotations: Connections, which invites the player to categorize 16 words or phrases into four distinct groups of four. The daily puzzle game debuted in beta on June 12, and according to the New York Times, it’s now the paper’s second […]
techcrunch - 3 months ago
Amazon increases its free shipping minimum to $35 for non-Prime members in some regions
Amazon is increasing its free shipping minimum to $35 for customers who don’t have a Prime membership in some regions, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Monday. Up until now, the free shipping minimum was $25. Amazon says it’s testing the new free shipping threshold randomly by zip code-grouped regions and that everyone in the […]
techcrunch - 3 months ago
Friend.tech gets unfriended: Daily transactions drop 95% as hyped decentralized social app loses steam
It may be time to put to rest yet another effort to build a social network on a blockchain: The number of transactions on decentralized social network friend.tech has cratered after less than 20 days since its launch.
techcrunch - 3 months ago
Klaviyo could break the unicorn IPO logjam
Klaviyo could be the torch bearer tech startups have been waiting for. Let's dig into its IPO filing this morning to figure out how it's grown.
techcrunch - 3 months ago
OpenAI launches a ChatGPT plan for enterprise customers
Seeking to capitalize on ChatGPT’s viral success, OpenAI today announced the launch of ChatGPT Enterprise, a business-focused edition of the company’s AI-powered chatbot app. ChatGPT Enterprise, which OpenAI first teased in a blog post earlier this year, can perform the same tasks as ChatGPT, such as writing emails, drafting essays and debugging computer code. But […]
techcrunch - 3 months ago
Yahoo Mail introduces new AI-powered capabilities, including a ‘Shopping Saver’ tool
Yahoo is introducing new AI tools for Yahoo Mail that are aimed at helping users save time and money, the company announced on Monday. The rollout includes upgrades to several of Yahoo Mail’s existing AI features, and introduces a new Shopping Saver tool. Yahoo is TechCrunch’s parent company. The new Shopping Saver tool surfaces gift […]
techcrunch - 3 months ago
Google Flights will now tell you when it’s the cheapest time to book
Google Flights today is releasing a new feature that will help travelers better determine the right time to book. Rolling out this week, the company is debuting new insights that will leverage historical trend data that lets consumers see when prices have typically been lowest to their chosen destination on their selected dates. The addition […]
techcrunch - 3 months ago
IPOs are back and the Equity crew is feasting
Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Our Monday show covers the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. As a small heads up, we […]
techcrunch - 3 months ago
DoorDash launches AI-powered voice ordering technology for restaurants
DoorDash is launching AI-powered voice ordering technology that will allow restaurants to increase their sales by answering all of the calls they receive, the company announced on Monday. The system will also provide customers with curated recommendations to complement their meal. The company’s 2023 Restaurant Online Ordering Trends Report reveals that one in five customers […]
techcrunch - 3 months ago
X saw weekly active users and rankings drop post rebrand, but Twitter Lite installs grew
Reports that X (formerly Twitter)’s downloads decreased after Elon Musk’s rebranding of the microblogging social network only tell part of the story. Twitter’s renaming also saw its weekly active users drop 4% over the following weeks after the rebrand (Aug.6-20), while the X app fell four spots in the Overall category rankings to No. 36, […]
techcrunch - 3 months ago
Splinter group officially launches OpenTF fork of HashiCorp Terraform
Earlier this month HashiCorp announced that it was changing the open source license it uses for Terraform and its other developer tools. The change triggered an uproar in the open source community. On Friday, a splinter group announced it was developing an open source fork of Terraform, and officially launched the OpenTF project. “We completed […]
techcrunch - 3 months ago
India to launch solar observatory mission Aditya-L1 this week
India is launching its first space-based solar observatory mission called Aditya-L1 to study the sun — just days after the successful landing of the country’s moon rover mission Chandrayaan-3. The launch of Aditya-L1 will take place at 11:20pm PT on September 1 (11:50am IST on September 2) from Satish Dhawan Space Center in South India’s […]
techcrunch - 3 months ago
Leadsales targets LatAm businesses with conversational commerce tool for WhatsApp
The conversational commerce company developed a customer relationship management tool that provides customizable columns and sales funnel automation for sales made via WhatsApp and other social media.
Choose which sources you wish to remain and you're all set. Use the buttons to turn sources on and off.
What do the different colours mean?
Depending on if any articles/links are visible on the page there are 4 modes to show the state of your chosen sources.
on / visible on page
off / visible on page
on / not visible on page
off / not visible on page
techcrunch
Moxie raises $15.7M to make opening medspas easier
techcrunch - 3 months ago
Treatments like botox are becoming more ubiquitous, spurring growth in the number of medspas, or centers that offer botox, IV hydration and laser treatments from certified providers like registered nurses. Opening a medspa, however, can be a lengthy and expensive process. Moxie wants to make it easier with its business-in-a-box model, offering providers coaching, access to discounted supplies and a EHR/POS software suite. So far, Moxie has helped launch more than 100 medspa locations.
The startup announced today it has raised $15.7 million led by SignalFire and Boulton & Watt. It currently operates in seven states and part of the funding will be used to expand across the United States.
Before launching Moxie last year, co-founder Dan Friedman started an online education business called Thinkful that helped adults learn new tech skills and change their careers for ones in software engineering, data analytics and marketing. It was acquired by Chegg in 2019.
Many of Moxies clients are registered nurses who felt burned out by their careers in hospital systems. The majority of them are women, and half are women of color. Friedman told TechCrunch he sees Moxie as a continuation of Thinkfuls goal to help people achieve the American dream when working with lower middle and middle income Americans and helping them find upwardly mobile trajectories. Medspas cost an average of $163,000 to open, according to trade association AmSpa. Locations that open with Moxie typically spend under $30,000 in startup costs, Friedman says.
Friedman became interested in the medspa space because he had a friend who was working as an injector at a medspa and wanted to start his own. But the process took months and was extremely costly, even though he already had loyal patients who were willing to follow him to a new place. Moxies team started talking to medspa owners to find out what kinds of problems they ran into and saw pain points they could solve.
The traditional way of starting a medspa is to talk to lawyers and spending about $10,000 to $25,000 just to structure the business, says Friedman. Medspa owners, who can include registered nurses, nurse practitioners, physician associates and doctors depending on what state they operate in, need to find a medical director and put into place legal paperwork, policies and procedures. This is on top of finding a physical location, setting up tech systems and a website, sourcing supplies and developing their brand. Medspa owners interviewed by Moxie said the process typically took them about six months.
Friedman says that Moxie can cut the process down to 30 to 60 days. Each person who opens a medspa through Moxie is connected to an onboarding manager that they meet with once or twice a week. After their location is opened, they are matched with a success manager, who typically has a background serving as a regional manager of medspas. The kind of advice medspas owner get include deciding when the right time to expand by adding new services and equipment is, since devices like lasers can cost $150,000 to $200,000. They also receive guidance on patient acquisition through channels like paid digital marketing. Friedman says new medspa owners typically spend the first month finding patients through online ads, but by the second or third month, they usually start getting return clients and word-of-mouth referrals.
In addition to coaching, Moxie also gives medspa owners software called Moxie Suite, which includes EMR features to help them manage patient records, checkout, payments and embedded banking through a feature called Moxie Balance. The EMR part is customized for medspas, since many use software designed for plastic surgeons that include features they dont need and are unnecessarily complex, says Friedman.
One of the biggest expenses for medspa owners is supplies, and Moxie helps by partnering with some of the largest medspa suppliers in the U.S. to build national accounts. Because it purchases at scale, Moxies clients can get preferred pricing, which helps them compete more effectively against major chains.
The majority of the medspa owners Moxie has worked with are registered nurses, but they also include nurse practitioners, physician associates and doctors, depending on who is allowed to offer medspa services in each state.
Friedman says Moxies top performers bring in over a million a year in topline, with profit margins higher than 40%. People who make that much are usually operating their medspas full time, but Moxie also works with owners who work less hours, with about half of its locations operating part time.
Moxie monetizes through a launch fee and makes most of its money through percentage of sales. Our model ensures our alignment with our partners, says Friedman. We succeeded when they succeed.
In a statement about the investment, SignalFire partner and new Moxie board member Chris Scoggins said, We invested because of the size of the opportunity, the quality of the team and its execution, and the comprehensiveness of the solution. In just one year, Moxie became the leader in its category. Were excited to support Moxie with SignalFires Beacon AI data platform for recruiting, talent team, in-house experts and XIR program.
