Don't miss these How to survive a DTC boom and bust: Home goods DTC company Parachute made it through the direct-to-consumer boom and bust, when many companies of its ilk expanded quickly only to later deflate. Parachute is now moving into the brick-and-mortar world, so we had founder Ariel Kaye on Found to talk about how the company sourced materials, learned logistics and more. Google removes some Indian apps over fee dispute: If you want to run a business via Android, Google wants you to hand over a chunk of your revenue. There are nuances to that point, but Googleâs recent move to yank some apps from the Play Store in India for not complying with its billing policies is an indication of what major mobile OS companies think of third-party developers. In feudal terms, Google thinks that it is a lord, and developers are pesky peasants who arenât turning over enough of their grain. Indian developers are incensed, as you can imagine. Metaâs news retreat continues: Social giant Meta intends to remove the News tab from Facebook in the United States and Australia this year. The company had deprecated the feature in several European countries last year. News has been a fading priority for Meta for some time ââ the move will likely reduce traffic to news publishers, but may also limit Facebookâs conflicts with countries and publishers alike. Donât leak 2FA codes: The internet is not a series of tubes; itâs a series of leaky tubes taped together with the hopes that the duct tape will prevent leaks. Itâs no surprise then that the system often fails. One good, recent example of that fact is YX International, which provides SMS routing services. The company left a database of two-factor authentication codes exposed to the internet without a password that would have allowed âanyone to access the sensitive data inside using only a web browser, just with knowledge of the databaseâs public IP address,â TechCrunchâs Zack Whittaker reports. Not good! The troubles of Electric Car Land: EV company Fisker is cutting staff to preserve cash. The company intends to lay off about 15% of its staff, and says that it doesnât have the funds it needs to make it for the next 12 months. Still, things could be worse: Lordstown Motors has been charged by the SEC for âmisleading investors about the sales prospects of its Endurance electric pickup truck.â Also, NFXâs James Currier will break down MVPs at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024! | 
