Why this Californian founder moved to Minneapolis to build a B2B fintech

Minneapolis-based fintech was founded in 2015 and it’s now one of the fastest growing companies in the Midwest. Its founder, Atif Siddiqi, is a Southern California transplant who first relocated to the Twin Cities to participate in the Target Techstars accelerator program. He hasn’t looked back since. Siddiqi has spent the past seven years building…

Published

4 years ago

September 8, 2022

CYBER TECH TV

Siddiqi has spent the past seven years building up Branch from its roots as a Midwestern upstart focused on earned wage access into a formidable Series C-stage business with $75 million in funding from investors such as Addition and General Atlantic and clients including Uber and Walmart.

Branch, which has seen over 2,000% revenue growth in the last three years, helps contractors get paid faster through a wide range of product offerings today. Siddiqi and early Branch investor Ryan Broshar of Minneapolis-based Matchstick ventures explain how the city’s venture ecosystem has evolved over the years and share their tips for founders outside coastal tech hubs looking to raise capital, bring in customers and make an impact on their industries far beyond their immediate locales.

People & Blogs

Here’s why letting people know they matter is vital #TEDTalks

Published

1 day ago

May 27, 2026

CYBER TECH TV

Bloomberg Technology

How NASA Plans to Build a Base on the Moon

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is laying out the ground work for building a new base on the moon. He says it will be done in phases, and infrastructure will be waiting for the astronauts who land there in 2028. He speaks on “Bloomberg Tech.” ——– Like this video? Subscribe to Bloomberg Technology on YouTube: …

Published

1 day ago

May 27, 2026

CYBER TECH TV

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is laying out the ground work for building a new base on the moon. He says it will be done in phases, and infrastructure will be waiting for the astronauts who land there in 2028. He speaks on “Bloomberg Tech.”
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Science & Technology

Google just broke SEO. Here’s what replaces it. | Equity Podcast

Google I/O made it official: AI-generated answers are now front and center in search, and most brands have almost no visibility into how AI is describing them to their customers. For anyone who has spent years building a strategy around 10 blue links, the rules just changed in a pretty significant way. On this episode…

Published

1 day ago

May 27, 2026

CYBER TECH TV

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan caught up with Matt Thompson, VP of partnerships at Scrunch, a startup positioning itself at the center of the AI search shift, to talk about what Google’s changes mean and marketers and founders should actually do about it.

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:15 Why Google is going all-in on AI search

03:25 Meet Scrunch

09:00 Personalized agents, shopping, and Google’s advantage

12:13 What advertisers need to track now

13:48 How websites become “agent ready”

15:34 AI search vs. traditional SEO

22:33 “Scrunching” webpages down for AI agents

23:47 Google’s SEO guidance vs. Scrunch’s approach

27:17 Why unique human content still matters