Author: admin

During an interview at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 on Monday, Sequoia Capital managing partner Roelof Botha answered questions about his colleague, Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire, and controversial comments Maguire made earlier this year, calling Sequoia a believer in its partners’ right to “free speech.” In a July 4 post on X, Maguire attacked New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, calling the politician an “Islamist” who “comes from a culture that lies about everything.” His remarks led to a sizable online backlash and debate about the reputational risk to the VC firm that has backed companies like Airbnb, Google, Nvidia, and…

Star Explorer, Windstar Cruises’ second yacht offering immersive, small-ship adventures to hard-to-reach ports is set to debut in December 2026.The 224-guest all-suite yacht with 112 spacious suites is scheduled for christening on May 31, 2027 on London’s River Thames, and will sail Europe year-round with a mix of classic and new itineraries. “Windstar has a long history of exploring in the Mediterranean and Europe, and the small size of this ship opens even more interesting places– including rivers,” says Christopher Prelog, president of Windstar Cruises. “We specialize in creating itineraries that meld the bucket list with the unknown and unexpected…

Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan believes that AI assistants will finally allow us to shorten our workweek. Speaking on stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 conference on Monday, Yuan discussed his videoconferencing product’s embrace of AI, which includes a “digital twin” feature where an AI avatar can speak for you. Yuan began using his AI avatar in an earnings call with investors this year, demonstrating the technology’s potential and ability to push the “boundaries of communication,” he said. At Disrupt, the exec emphasized spending a lot of time talking about AI and the right products to bring to market.…

Astro Teller, CEO of X, Alphabet’s “moonshot factory,” where the company incubates the nearly impossible, shared a look into what makes a moonshot and detailed the company’s “fail fast” mantra at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 conference on Monday. Notable companies that started out as moonshots from X’s moonshot factory include Waymo and Wing. Teller noted that X has a “2% hit rate,” which means that most of the things the company tries don’t work out, and that’s okay. He said X defines a moonshot as having three specific components. The first is that it needs to attempt to solve a…

by Sarah Kuta Last updated: 9:30 AM ET, Mon October 27, 2025 American Cruise Lines will launch 10 new ships between now and 2028.Up first is American Pioneer, slated to debut in Florida on October 31. After that, the company plans to debut five new riverboats and four new Patriot Class ships, which are part of the line’s Project Blue series. All of the line’s new ships will sail in the United States, including the Mississippi River, Alaska and the East Coast. “American’s order book reflects our confidence in the domestic cruise market and the product we have pioneered in the…

At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, Sequoia managing partner Roelof Botha argued that the venture industry isn’t an asset class, and that throwing more money into Silicon Valley doesn’t lead to better companies. “Investing in venture is a return-free risk,” Botha said during an interview on TechCrunch’s Disrupt’s main stage on Monday. “Anybody who’s studied the capital asset pricing model understands the joke of that. The reason I came up with this is, if you look at the history of venture capital, it’s an asset that’s uncorrelated with other asset classes.” “And so the thinking for many allocators was you should allocate…

by Sarah Kuta Last updated: 10:15 AM ET, Mon October 27, 2025 No time machine? No problem. You can travel back to the year 1896 with HX Expeditions.The company is celebrating its 130th anniversary with a new “1896 Cabin,” a meticulously recreated late 19th-century expedition cabin featuring handcrafted period furnishings, authentic scents and curated touches. Created by AROS Marine, the cabin will debut aboard MS Fridtjof Nansen on January 29, 2026, and will be available throughout the year. It will be available as an exclusive add-on to any voyage for €450 per night (single or double occupancy). The cabin will…

by Sarah Kuta Last updated: 10:25 AM ET, Mon October 27, 2025 The 2025-2026 ski season is officially underway in North America.Two ski areas in Colorado opened over the weekend: Keystone Resort was first on October 25, followed by Arapahoe Basin on October 26. Colorado’s Arapahoe Basin opened for the 2025-26 season (Photo Credit: Lucas Herbert/Arapahoe Basin)On opening day, Keystone offered more than two miles of freshly groomed terrain on the Schoolmarm and Silver Spoon trails, as well as a hike-to terrain park, a live DJ and $5.50 beers and hot dogs in honor of the resort’s 55th season.  “We’re…

The Startup Battlefield is the stage where legends are made, and the next 20 contenders have arrived. These are the breakout companies that rose to the top of a fiercely competitive, global applicant pool, and they’re headed to the main stage at TechCrunch Disrupt to compete for the $100,000 prize and the coveted Disrupt Cup.  This year’s Top 20 finalists are building across the full spectrum of frontier innovation, from life sciences and climate tech preserving human health and planetary survival; to defense, robotics, and mobility powering the next industrial revolution and strengthening our national and global resilience; to compliance,…

The Trump administration must release millions of dollars in grants meant to address the shortage of mental health workers in schools, a federal judge ruled Monday.Congress funded the mental health program after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The grants were intended to help schools hire more counselors, psychologists and social workers, with a focus on rural and underserved areas of the country. But President Donald Trump’s administration opposed diversity considerations used to award the grants and told recipients they wouldn’t receive funding past December 2025.The preliminary ruling by Kymberly K. Evanson, a U.S. District Court judge in Seattle,…