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When Jamie Gull graduated from Stanford University in 2007 with a master’s degree in aeronautics, there was one place he wanted to go next: the desert. The Mojave Desert, to be specific. A company called Scaled Composites had spent years developing experimental aircraft out on that arid land, and Gull wanted in. He could have tried to get a more traditional aerospace job, but Gull was worried he’d “work five years on a latch” — a common joke about those bigger, slow-moving companies. But at Scaled Composites? “I knew I would build something, and I would do it quickly, and…

A notorious predominantly English-speaking hacking group has launched a website to extort its victims, threatening to release about a billion records stolen from companies who store their customers’ data in cloud databases hosted by Salesforce. The loosely organized group, which has been known as Lapsus$, Scattered Spider, and ShinyHunters, has published a dedicated data leak site on the dark web, called Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters.  The website, first spotted by threat intelligence researchers on Friday and seen by TechCrunch, aims to pressure victims into paying the hackers to avoid having their stolen data published online.  “Contact us to regain control on…

WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. (AP) — The pumpkin in Tony Scott’s backyard weighs almost as much as a small car.He’s been tending to it for months, feeding it fertilizer and covering it with a blanket at night to keep it at a stable temperature. A roll of measuring tape wrapped around the pumpkin gives him a rough estimate of its size.“I’ve never seen anything grow this fast,” said Scott, a semiconductor engineer from upstate New York.Every year, growers like Scott push their pumpkins to the limit. They compete in annual weigh-offs with colossal fruits that are well over 2,000 pounds (900…

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — As a Greek immigrant who came to the United States in 1956, Nectar Rorris never imagined the Vermont restaurant and music club he opened 50 years ago would become synonymous with Phish, but he credits the jam band with giving Nectar’s a national spotlight and making it a place sought out by local and traveling musicians alike. “Phish made Nectar’s,” the 86-year-old Rorris said recently. Phish meanwhile credits Rorris with their early success, giving them a stage to experiment on when they were starting out in the early ‘80s. But now, the iconic Burlington venue that…

by Shane Nelson Last updated: 10:40 AM ET, Fri October 3, 2025 The final speaker at this year’s two-day Hawaii Tourism Conference had a sobering message for a room filled with the state’s visitor industry stakeholders. “I know a lot of you have already done your forecasting for 2026, and what I’m hearing in the marketplace is at best you’re looking at a 1.5, maybe a 2% increase,” said David Uchiyama, the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s (HTA) chief administrative officer. “And that’s for the hotels that are on the ocean. Neighbor islands, off the shoreline, are running a lower occupancy. And what…

Silicon Valley is full of comfortable offices with gleaming meeting rooms and on-site baristas. So when early HappyRobot engineer Ari Polakof decided to strike out and start his own company, he didn’t exactly expect to wind up tapping on his laptop in a service bay alongside mechanics. “Very noisy, impossible to concentrate,” he laughed. But that’s part of the story of how Polakof’s new AI-for-car-dealerships startup Flai got off the ground last year. Founded by Polakof and his brother Alen (also from HappyRobot) at Y Combinator, along with former Netflix data scientist Juan Alzugaray, Flai is one of a number…

The Founder and Investor bundle sale for TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 is live — but only until tonight at 11:59 p.m. PT. This is your only chance this year to lock in group bundle savings on Founder Passes and an even bigger discount on group Investor Passes. After today, these deals are gone. Disrupt 2025 brings together over 10,000 founders, investors, and operators from around the world to tackle the toughest challenges and uncover the biggest opportunities in tech. Image Credits:Noam Galai Why this matters for founders TechCrunch Disrupt isn’t just a conference — it’s a launchpad for your startup. With…

The space economy isn’t just about rockets and satellites anymore — it’s about building resilient infrastructure, deploying autonomous systems, and creating entirely new models for how we operate and defend assets off-Earth. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, taking place October 27–29 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, the Space Stage is where these seismic shifts in space innovation come to life. Save big this week by registering as a group. Save up to 20% on your ticket if you register with a group of 4-9 before today at 11:59 p.m. PT. Or, if you’re going solo, secure your pass to save up…

This week, the Department of Energy canceled nearly $8 billion worth of awards — a move touted by the Trump administration as an effort to protect fossil fuels at the expense of renewables. But documents obtained by TechCrunch show that the reality is more complex than that simple message. The agency has not released a list of the canceled awards, but TechCrunch has obtained a copy and has analyzed the 321 contracts that the DOE is seeking to undo. Not all projects focused on renewable energy, though.  Two listed in the document, one for $300 million to Colorado State University…

PRAGUE (AP) — Ivan Klíma, a Czech author and anti-communist dissident whose work and life were shaped by Europe’s 20th-century totalitarian regimes, has died. His son Michal told the Czech ČTK news agency that Klíma died on Saturday morning at home after battling a long illness. He was 94. A prolific author, Klima published novels, plays, short story collections and essays as well as children’s books, becoming an internationally known writer whose works were translated into more than 30 languages.Born Ivan Kauders on Sept 14, 1931, in Prague, Klima faced his first repressive regime during World War II when his…