How do you leave the place that made you? You figure out what it made you for. TechCrunch made me a part of the startup ecosystem I love. Now it\u2019s time to put that love into action to help a new generation of entrepreneurs build their dreams and tell their stories.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s \u201cTC to VC\u201d for me. After 8.5 years at TechCrunch and 10 in tech journalism, I\u2019m leaving today to join the venture team at VC fund SignalFire<\/a>. I\u2019m going to be a principal investor and their head of content.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll be seeking out inspiring new companies, doing deals (when I\u2019m eventually up to speed) and providing pitch workshops based on countless interviews for TechCrunch. Thankfully, I\u2019ll also still get to write. We\u2019re going to find out what founders really want to learn and produce that content to help them form, evolve and grow their companies. I\u2019m doing my signature bounce smile with excitement.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll still be able to follow my writing as well as my journey into VC on my newsletter Moving Product at constine.substack.com <\/a>as well as on Twitter: @JoshConstine<\/a>.<\/strong> No way I could just suddenly shut up about startups! If you\u2019re building something, you can always reach me at joshsc [at] gmail.com On the newsletter you can read a deeper explanation for why I picked SignalFire <\/a>. I also just published the first real issue of Moving Product on how quarantine is \u201cloaning\u201d concurrent users to startups that will help the new wave of synchronous apps snowball to sustainability, plus commentary from top product thinkers on Facebook\u2019s new Rooms.<\/p>\n I was drawn to SignalFire because it\u2019s built like the startups I love writing about: to solve a need. Entrepreneurs need tactical advantages in areas like recruiting, where they spend most of their time, and expert advice on specific problems they\u2019re facing.<\/p>\n SignalFire CEO and founder Chris Farmer<\/p>\n That\u2019s why SignalFire spent six years in stealth building its recruitment prediction and market data analysis engine called Beacon. It can spot deal opportunities for SignalFire\u2019s new $200 million seed and $300 million breakout funds<\/a> while helping the portfolio hire smarter. Then SignalFire assembled more than 80 top experts, like Instagram\u2019s founders, for its invested advisor network. Traditional funds need partners to exhaust their social capital asking for favors from friends to help their portfolio. SignalFire\u2019s model sees its advisors share in the returns of the fund, so they\u2019re sustainably motivated to assist.<\/p>\n SignalFire\u2019s founder and CEO Chris Farmer was also willing to invest in me, figuratively. I\u2019ve written about thousands of startups but I\u2019ve never funded one. He and his team have offered to mentor me as I learn the art and science of investing. They also accept me for my opinionated, outspoken self. Instead of constricting my voice, the plan is to harness it to highlight new ideas and proven methods for building companies. I wrote this post on my newsletter with a deeper look at why I picked SignalFire and how its modernized approach to venture works.<\/p>\n Of the 3,600 articles I\u2019ve written for TechCrunch, this was the hardest.<\/p>\n TechCrunch gave me the platform to make an impact and the freedom to say what I believe. That\u2019s a rare opportunity in journalism, but especially important for covering startups. TechCrunch writes about things that haven\u2019t happened yet. There are often no objective facts by which to judge an early-stage company. Whether you decide to cover them or not, and the tone of your analysis, depends on having conviction about whether the world needs something or not, if the product is built right and if the team has what it takes.<\/span><\/p>\n If you rely on others\u2019 signals about what matters, whether in the form of traction or investment, you\u2019ll be late to the story. That means editors have to trust their writers\u2019 intuition. At TechCrunch, that trust never wavered.<\/span><\/p>\n\n SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA \u2013 OCTOBER 04: (L-R) Snap Inc. Co-founder CEO Evan Spiegel and TechCrunch editor-at-large Josh Constine speak onstage during TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2019. (Photo by Steve Jennings\/Getty Images for TechCrunch)<\/p>\n Eric Eldon, Alexia Tsotsis and Matthew Panzarino put their absolute faith in our team. That gave me a chance to write the first-ever coverage of startups like Robinhood<\/a> before its seed round, and SnappyCam<\/a> before it was acquired by Apple and turned into iPhone burst fire. My editors also never shied away from confrontations with the tech giants<\/a>, like my investigation into Facebook paying teens for their data<\/a> that caused it to shut down its Onavo tool, or my expos\u00e9 on Bing suggesting child abuse imagery<\/a> in search results that led it to overhaul its systems.<\/span><\/p>\n\n I met my wife Andee at a TechCrunch event. [Image Credit: Max Morse<\/a>]<\/p>\n I\u2019ll always be indebted to Eric Eldon, who gave a freshly graduated cybersociologist with no experience his first shot at blogging back at Inside Facebook. Editors like Alexia Tsotsis and Matthew Panzarino helped me develop a more critical voice without sterilizing my personality. And all my fellow writers over the years, including Zack Whittaker<\/a> and Sarah Perez<\/a>, pushed me to hustle, whether that meant pontificating on new product launches or exposing industry abuse. If my departure from journalism elicits a sigh of relief from the companies in my cross-hairs, I know I did my job. The TechCrunch business and events team have turned Disrupt into the tech industry\u2019s reunion. I appreciate them giving me the chance to learn public speaking, from the most heartfelt moments<\/a> to the cringiest<\/a>. And really, I owe them the rest of my life, too, since I met my wife Andee at a Disrupt after-party.<\/span><\/p>\n Treating writing like a sport<\/a> to be won kept me cranking all these years, and I\u2019m grateful for Techmeme<\/a> offering<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>a scoreboard for extra motivation. I\u2019ll unhumbly admit it\u2019s nice to hang up my jersey while ranked No. 1<\/a>. My gratitude to Jane Manchun Wong<\/a> for furnishing so many scoops over the years, and to all my other sources. It\u2019s been fun competing and collaborating with my favorite other reporters, and I know Taylor Lorenz<\/a>, Casey Newton<\/a> and Mike Isaac<\/a> will keep a close eye on tech\u2019s trends and travesties.<\/span><\/p>\n But most of all, I want to extend an enormous thank you to\u2026you. To everyone who has read or shared my articles over the years. I woke up each day with a sense of duty to you, and felt proud to say \u201cI fight for the user\u201d like Tron. What makes this industry special is how the community refuses to treat it as zero-sum. We grow the pie together, and everyone knows their competitor today could be their future co-founder. That makes us willing to share and learn together. I believe no recession, correction or bubble-burst will change that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n BERLIN, GERMANY \u2013 DECEMBER 12: Group Photo on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin 2019 at Arena Berlin on December 12, 2019 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Noam Galai\/Getty Images for TechCrunch)<\/p>\n So I\u2019ll leave you with a final thought that\u2019s made my life so fulfilling: If you have the privilege or create the opportunity, turn your passion into your profession.<\/p>\n Specialize. Learn. Then make what you want. If you can find some niche you\u2019re endlessly interested in, that\u2019s growing in importance, and at least someone somewhere earns money from, you\u2019ll become essential. Not necessarily today. But that\u2019s the beauty of writing \u2014 it teaches you while proving to others what you\u2019ve been taught. No matter what it is, blog about it once a week. In time you\u2019ll become an expert, and be recognized as one. Then you\u2019ll have the power to adapt to the future, however feels most graceful.<\/p>\n Personal news: It’s TC to VC for me! I’m leaving TechCrunch to join SignalFire as a principal investor head of content. I’m also launching my newsletter where I’m writing now: https:\/\/t.co\/F7gvssC4Ky<\/a> A “toast”, to the future! pic.twitter.com\/XRhDxdS5NF<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 joshconstine (@JoshConstine) April 27, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Keep up with my writing on my newsletter at constine.substack.com<\/a>, stay in touch on Twitter<\/a>, and reach out at joshsc [at] gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/feA1fVPL_R0\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How do you leave the place that made you? You figure out what it made you for. TechCrunch made me a part of the startup ecosystem I love. Now it\u2019s <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,7,14,15,6,12,11],"class_list":["post-18334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-update","tag-computer-news","tag-downloads","tag-microsoft-download-news","tag-networking-updates","tag-technology-update","tag-wordpress-plugin-download","tag-wordpress-theme-download"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tWhere to follow my writing<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nWhy I chose SignalFire?<\/h2>\n
What makes TechCrunch different<\/h2>\n
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