Fundraise or find profits with Benchmark and Cambly

This week’s TechCrunch Live features Sameer Shariff, CEO, and co-founder of Cambly, and Sarah Tavel, a long-time investor at Benchmark and previously Graylock. They’re the perfect guests to kick off the third season of TCL! Cambly looks like a sure bet right now, but as you’ll hear from Sameer, it was a struggle to get…

Published

4 years ago

February 1, 2023

CYBER TECH TV

Cambly looks like a sure bet right now, but as you’ll hear from Sameer, it was a struggle to get to this point. After failing to raise a Series A, the company had to change its model overnight. When VC after VC said no, Cambly had to find a way to make a profit to keep the doors open. Since then, the company went on to raise a $20m Series A and $60m Series B, but only because the company took the hard steps to seek profitability earlier than expected.

Cambly’s Series B fundraise went wildly different from its Series A, and I hope you can join the live event to hear the lessons Sameer learned from both rounds. Sarah Tavel led Benchmark’s investment and can speak to what made Cambly a perfect fit for the firm – and you’ll hear from Sameer on why Benchmark was an ideal fit for Cambly too.

Questions I want to ask:

How did the company mindset change following the failure to raise a Series A, and how did the founders keep the team focused and on target?

What steps should founders take when seeking profitable growth before raising venture capital?

Cambly is a unique marketplace, and how did the company initially acquire customers, and when did the company outgrow and replace the strategy for scale?

There are countless language learning marketplaces and services, so what Cambly metrics lead Benchmark to lead Series B?

People & Blogs

Would you try this reading challenge? #TEDTalks

Published

16 hours ago

September 29, 2026

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Ann Morgan considered herself well read — until she discovered the “massive blindspot” on her bookshelf. Amid a multitude of English and American authors, there were very few books from beyond the English-speaking world. So she set an ambitious goal: to read one book from every country in the world over the course of a year. Now she’s urging other Anglophiles to read translated works so that publishers will work harder to bring foreign literary gems back to their shores.

CNET

OpenAI Dev Day 2026: Everything Announced in 15 Minutes

OpenAI’s annual Dev Day 2026 introduced dots, which are AI agents within ChatGPT that can execute tasks on your behalf and even answer phone calls and text messages. CEO Sam Altman also introduced a faster and more powerful model called GPT-6.1 Sol for professional coding and work applications. Read more about OpenAI on CNET.com: OpenAI’s…

Published

16 hours ago

September 29, 2026

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Read more about OpenAI on CNET.com:
OpenAI’s Latest Personal AI Agents Have a Cute Name and Never Stop Working

Timecode Chapters:
0:00 Introduction & Codex Updates
0:22 Introducing AI Agents: Dots
1:18 How Dots Delegate & Automate Work
1:37 ChatGPT Space: Team & Agent Collaboration
3:06 Live Demo: Dots in Action
4:15 Hands-Free Catchup & Voice Features
4:53 Live Demo: Working inside ChatGPT Space
6:04 Integrating Dots into Slack & Workflows
7:56 Specialist Dots & Enterprise Availability
8:52 Launching GPT 6.1 Soul & UltraFast Speed
10:14 Decisions API & Luna Model
10:55 Codex in the Cloud & 3D Interactive World Demo
12:23 Refreshed Codex CLI & Real-time App Building
13:38 Autonomous Browser Control & Robotics Demo
13:51 OpenAI Marketplace Launch & Wrap-up

Video Credits:
Host: OpenAI
Scripted by: OpenAI
Producer: OpenAI & Jonathan Gomez
Camera: OpenAI
Video Editor: Jonathan Gomez
Thumbnail Designer: Tharon Green

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#openai #samaltman #ai #artificialintelligence #superintelligence #chatgpt #aiagents #aiagent #dots

Entertainment

Biomedical Scientist Schools AI On Probiotics

AI slop is littering your feed and spreading misinformation, so WIRED’s here to set the record straight. Join Biomedical Scientist Andrea Love as we fact check the internet, pseudoscience edition. #Pseudoscience #Science #AI Still haven’t subscribed to WIRED on YouTube? ►► Download the WIRED app: Listen to the Uncanny Valley podcast ►► Want more WIRED?…

Published

17 hours ago

September 29, 2026

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AI slop is littering your feed and spreading misinformation, so WIRED’s here to set the record straight. Join Biomedical Scientist Andrea Love as we fact check the internet, pseudoscience edition.

#Pseudoscience #Science #AI

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