It’s not even Halloween yet, and Google is making a killing . . . of some of its features in the next year. In today’s top stories, the search engine giant is taking the knife to Google Podcasts and will migrate everyone to YouTube Music. It is also reading the last rites to Gmail’s basic HTML view.

Meanwhile, the tech layoff ghosts aren’t spooking as many companies as they were last year and earlier this year. We might see some growth now. (TC+)

And for a hauntingly good time, Spotify launches Jam, where up to 32 people can monster mash songs into a real-time collaborative playlist. Here’s how it works.

Okay, I’ll stop scaring you now, but expect my witchy cackles and wit to return on October 31.

More top reads

If it’s not challenging, can you call it work?: Enterprise resource planning systems are a must for many companies, but aren’t easy to deploy or manage. Clearly investors agree because they just sunk $25 million into Series, a startup that aims to replace ERP systems. See how it plans to do that.

Now it’s a party: Sequoia backs PartyKit to power real-time multiplayer collaboration for any app. That’s good news for developers.

Grocery game: Uber Eats and Getir partner in Europe to make speedy grocery deliveries. Time to stock up.

All eyes on Quest 3: The annual Meta Connect conference kicks off tomorrow, and the TechCrunch team will be there. How to watch the Quest 3 reveal.

Hard to imagine OpenAI having flaws: OpenAI published a technical paper detailing its work to mitigate the more problematic aspects of GPT-4’s image-analyzing tools. GPT-4 with vision still has flaws.

Seeding African startups: Pan-African contrarian investor P1 Ventures reaches $25 million in the first close for its second fund. How it got there.

There’s money in fruit: GIC is said to be in talks to lead a $40 million funding into India’s Vegrow, a business-to-business marketplace for fruit. Check out the valuation on that proposed investment.

You’re being surveilled: Erudit raises $10 million to monitor workplaces for “misalignment”; however, it begs the question: Should you have some privacy in the office?

Getting rid of the competition: The Federal Trade Commission just hit Amazon with a major antitrust lawsuit. Get the scoop.

More for your Tuesday:

FCC announces plans to reinstate net neutrality

Hollywood strikes could soon extend to the video game industry

Bootstrapping is cool once again (TC+)

Byju’s to cut as many as 5,000 more jobs amid business restructuring

Uber is getting tighter with taxi companies

Kiss bugs goodbye

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What's the best way to run a startup in a world full of advice?

Last week at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, Dominic-Madori Davis interviewed three founders to get their insights on fundraising, hiring, and other challenges facing early-stage tech entrepreneurs:

• Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, co-founder and CEO, Promise
• Ruben Harris, CEO, Career Karma
• Ritu Narayan, founder and CEO, ZÅ«m

“You don’t want to hire someone who asks you who’s going to build their desk,” said Ellis-Lamkins.

“All of the things that imply you’re used to some infrastructure; people who ask for a clear job description, I always feel like they shouldn’t come work with us.”

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription.

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On the pods

The Found team recorded this episode live from TechCrunch Disrupt. Dom and Becca sat down with Window Snyder, a trailblazer in the cybersecurity industry who has dedicated her decades-long career to ensuring the internet and our devices are secure.

Snyder talked about why after years of working at companies like Apple, Microsoft, Fastly, and Square now was the right time to launch her startup, Thistle, which looks to build the security infrastructure needed to keep internet-connected smart devices safe. Listen here.

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• Network Administrator – Senior/Specialist at Washington State Department of Natural Resources (Olympia, WA, USA)
• Chief Technology Officer at The Chronicle of Philanthropy (Anywhere)
• Senior Developer - Netherlands at Gomocha USA LLC (Utrecht, Netherlands)
• Entry Level Software Developer at Sagerion LLC (Anywhere)
• IT Technology Analyst I at Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (Middletown, PA, United States)

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