Wall Street wasn't happy with Facebook's latest earnings report. TechCrunch thinks it's because Facebook "refused to break out any data about usage levels of teens, which are widely thought to be abandoning Facebook for apps like Snapchat." C'mon, TechCrunch, where's that fist-pumping Facebook apologia when you need… » 10/28/14 8:03pm Today 8:03pm

Benchmark confirmed that it has invested in Tinder, a rumor we reported in August. No details were given about the deal, except that IAC continues to own "a controlling stake," deterring other venture capitalists buzzing around the popular hookup app. » 10/28/14 5:35pm Today 5:35pm

Google Employee Thinks Paying Women to Date Him is Philanthropy

The Bay Area's tech boom might be benefitting the scores of white men that mainly make up the industry, leaving women and minorities behind. But techies have found a new way to redistribute their fortunes: paying women to service them. » 10/28/14 4:41pm Today 4:41pm

Tech Firms Employ Thousands of Immigrants as "Indentured Servants"

Tech's biggest players have been clamoring for the federal government to reform their immigration policies, demanding the expansion of the H-1B visa program. But tech's current crop of immigrant workers often find themselves "trapped" by "labor trafficking" rings that are rarely held responsible for abuses. » 10/28/14 2:15pm Today 2:15pm

I'm So Happy Kim Kardashian Just Gave a Talk at a Tech Conference

Kim Kardashian Illuminati West was on stage with Recode founder Kara Swisher this afternoon at the tech blog's Code/Mobile conference. I have no idea whether she arrived from Calabasas with a list of questions Swisher couldn't ask, but regardless this is one stiletto-heeled step for Kardashian and one giant kick in… » 10/27/14 8:40pm Yesterday 8:40pm

PSA: On today's earnings call Twitter CEO Dick Costolo was saying "eccentric circles" of users, not "concentric circles." Either way, Twitter's stock is down despite meeting expectations. If only Wall Street cared as much about circles as it does about MAUs. » 10/27/14 6:15pm Yesterday 6:15pm

Soylent CEO Is Lifehacking Water By Pissing In the Sink

Rob Rhinehart thinks he's hacked food. As the inventor of Soylent, he's managed to replace the inefficient process of chewing food. But his lifestyle is still full of luxuries like water. Now the monkish nu-food mogul is torturing his body to save some H2O. » 10/27/14 5:26pm Yesterday 5:26pm

Tech Corporations Don't Even Know What Their D.C. Lobbyists Are Up To

In recent months, companies like Facebook, Google, and Yahoo have dialed back their most egregious political donations, pulling support from climate change-denying groups like ALEC and the Chamber of Commerce. But tech firms continue funneling money into right-wing campaigns, and the Silicon Valley liberals who… » 10/27/14 2:30pm Yesterday 2:30pm

Startup Founder Hacks Investor’s Voicemail In Attempt to Get Funding

It's hard to cast a better clusterfuck—or a worse caricature of Silicon Valley hustle—than what happened to tech investor Jason Calacanis. "Someone hacked my voicemail and changed my outgoing message to get me to invest," he wrote on Instagram yesterday, along with a recording of the new message. » 10/27/14 1:20pm Yesterday 1:20pm

Tech Founder Sends Female Reporter Gift Basket Loaded With Sexism

Tech's armada of PR professionals can be their own worst enemy. But their protective shield occasionally hides the chauvinism of tech founders. Otherwise you get dudes like Blake Francis, founder of the question and answer app Need, who tried to buy favorable press from a female reporter with a wildly inappropriate… » 10/24/14 7:00pm Friday 7:00pm

Hewlett-Packard Imitated HBO's Silicon Valley By Hiring Flo Rida to Rap

Last night, Hewlett-Packard hosted a launch event for its new Helion Development platform at Temple, a nightclub in San Francisco's Financial District. To celebrate cloud computing, the company offered guests a giant fake pink cloud, "loads of light up glow sticks," and a performance by Flo Rida. » 10/24/14 1:30pm Friday 1:30pm

Twitter Teaching the Homeless to Code In Exchange for Tax Break

The last time a startup programmer taught a homeless man to code, the naive vanity project failed. A few engineering lessons failed to solve socioeconomic realities and the man was still sleeping in the streets eight months later. But Twitter has higher hopes for its new "learning center" where employees can "teach… » 10/24/14 1:10pm Friday 1:10pm

FBI: Google Employee Scammed Undergrad Into Sending Him Nude Pics

Silicon Valley mega-corps like Google often target promising young men like Nicholas Rotundo, fresh from college. And sometimes those young men are terrorizing their classmates with a nude Gmail extortion scheme. » 10/24/14 10:59am Friday 10:59am

Study Says Venture Capitalists Are Nervous For the First Time in Years

There's a cool new trend sweeping Sand Hill Road and it's called self-doubt. Just look at your Tweetdeck. Everybody who's anybody is suddenly spazzing out. According to the Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index, confidence levels have chilled for the first time since early 2012. » 10/23/14 6:00pm Thursday 6:00pm

Ello Raises $5.5 Million to Stay Anti-Corporate

When a small group of disgruntled Facebook users decamped to Ello four weeks ago, a million more people followed looking for The Next Big Thing in Social Networking. But Ello's newcomers didn't find much reason to stick around, and the anti-advertising "Facebook killer" is already fading away into the internet's… » 10/23/14 4:06pm Thursday 4:06pm