Layoffs & Tech JobsSep 4, 2026·1 min read

Less than 24 hours to apply for your TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Side Event

TechCrunch – All

1h ago

Less than 24 hours to apply for your TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Side Event

Summary

The clock is almost out. You have less than 24 hours left to apply to host a Side Event during TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Applications close tonight at midnight PT. Connect with the entire Silicon Valley scene through October 10–16 by hosting your own Side Event. Bring your community, start an impactful conversation that’ll push the needle, and create an unforgettable experience. Disrupt brings thousands of founders, investors, partners, and tech leaders to San Francisco. Side Events give you another way to connect with that community — before, during, and after the conference. Host a meetup. Bring tech leaders together for a happy hour. The startup community will gather to answer a pivotal question: How do you build sustainably in the AI era?

From the source

Less than 24 hours left to apply to host a Side Event during TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 and make your mark in the Silicon Valley scene. Apply before the application closes tonight at midnight PT.

Read the full article

Published by TechCrunch – All on techcrunch.com

Open on techcrunch.com ↗

More in Layoffs & Tech Jobs

Layoffs & Tech Jobs23h ago

Circular unveils Ring 3 series with contactless payments and on-finger vibration alerts

Smart ring maker Circular on Thursday unveiled its upcoming Ring 3 series, which consists of a Pro model and a Slim option. Both of the smart rings will feature an integrated NFC chip for contactless payments, vibrating alerts for alarms and reminders, and more. The Ring 3 Pro features a slimmer design than its predecessor and comes with FDA-cleared ECG for Afib detection, blood pressure trend tracking, glucose tracking, advanced sleep analysis, and comprehensive biometric monitoring. The ring offers up to 12 days of battery life, up from seven days on its predecessor. The Slim option is thinner and lighter than the Pro model and features basic health and wellness tracking in a compact design, including sleep, heart rate, HRV, SpO₂, skin temperature, and daily activity. It features up to 10 days of battery life. The Circular Ring 3 series announcement comes amid a year of heightened competition in the smart ring market, following the launches of the Oura Ring 5 and RingConn Gen 3 . “We understand that not everyone wants every health feature,” Circular CEO Amaury Kosman said in a company announcement, shared with TechCrunch via email. “Many people simply want a beautifully designed, fashionable smart ring that delivers essential wellness insights and effortless contactless payments. That’s why we created Circular Ring 3 Slim—a lighter, more streamlined experience that retains the convenience of secure NFC payments while offering the core health tracking features many users want in an incredibly compact design.” The on-finger vibrations, which are available on both models, can be used for silent wake-up alarms, medication reminders, vital health alerts, and guided breathing exercises. Both of the Ring 3 models are made from titanium steel, feature 50-metre water resistance, and support wireless charging. The startup community will gather to answer a pivotal question: How do you build sustainably in the AI era?

techcrunch.com Read ↗

Layoffs & Tech Jobs23h ago

Ollie is betting its focus on privacy can help it win the AI assistant race

For an AI assistant to become truly useful, it first has to know a lot about you. Ollie , a personal assistant for everyday life, is betting that doesn’t mean you have to hand over all your data and sacrifice your privacy in the process. While some enterprise-focused AI assistants have data privacy protections in place, Ollie is among the first mainstream, family-focused AI to achieve SOC 2 compliance — a framework that allows a company to demonstrate, through an independent audit, that it has formal controls in place to protect customer data and operate its systems securely. Achieving this was an important milestone for Ollie’s team, as it signals to potential users that the assistant isn’t trying to scoop up your personal data for other purposes, like AI training. “We fundamentally think that trust and privacy are absolutely imperative, and that’s why our business model is a subscription, because we want our users to know that Ollie works for you,” explained Ollie co-founder and CEO Bill Lennon in an interview with TechCrunch. “We’re not sharing your data with anyone,” he stressed. There are many personal AI assistants positioning themselves as consumer-friendly solutions focused on integrating with users’ daily lives via text messages, which is why Ollie’s privacy angle could prove a significant differentiator. Today, Ollie competes with other existing text-based assistants like Poke (acquired by Cognition), Fambot , Ohai , Folk , Saner.ai , and Tomo . There are also a number of assistants focused more on work, calendar management, and email, like Town , Lindy , and Reclaim.ai . Instinct, for example, came under fire for its overly broad Terms of Service and privacy policy that granted it a “perpetual and irrevocable” license to “access, use, host, cache, store, reproduce, transmit, display, publish, distribute, and modify” any of the user’s materials, including for training its AI models. Lennon, who has a PhD in AI, also has a background in fintech, having previously sold his startup Groundwork , a neobank for nonprofits, in 2021. The startup community will gather to answer a pivotal question: How do you build sustainably in the AI era?

techcrunch.com Read ↗

Layoffs & Tech Jobs1d ago

One of the fastest-growing jobs in Silicon Valley sends engineers straight to customers’ offices to get AI up and running—and pays more than $188,000

Forget building AI from a Silicon Valley office . One of tech’s fastest growing jobs is sending workers directly to customers to configure AI tools, integrate software, and solve complex business problems. Job postings for “forward-deployed” engineers rose more than 1000% between January and August 2026, compared to the same period last year—and more than 4,600% compared to 2023, according to Lightcast data. That far outpaces the broader tech job market, where postings grew 13% year over year. Similar growth has been reported on LinkedIn and Indeed, according to The New York Times . The concept isn’t entirely new. Palantir has long been known for its forward-deployed model, in which technical employees work closely with customers to build and implement software in the field. Candidates have the opportunity to apply for client-specific opportunities, including major corporations like Intel , defense organizations like NATO , and governments like Norway. “As an FDSE, your responsibilities look similar to those of a startup CTO: you’ll work in small teams with minimal supervision and own end-to-end execution of high stakes projects,” a Palantir job listing said . “Your day might span discussing architecture with fellow engineers, wrangling massive-scale data, coding a custom web app, speaking with customer executives, or establishing strategy for your team.” That hands-on approach has become a defining part of Palantir’s business model—and one the company credits with helping it compete against much larger technology companies. “We hired the best software engineers in the world, ejected them from the comfort of a Palo Alto office, and dropped them in remote locations to spend their days in the service of incredibly skilled but non-technical operators,” Meline von Brentano, Palantir’s head of digital transformation strategy, wrote in a blog post last month. “In the process, we beat out much better resourced companies in the race for the best talent.” And by many metrics, it’s been successful. Others, ranging from established giants like Nvidia to startup unicorns like Scale AI , have also adopted the “forward-deployed” model for other job categories, too, including in product management and tech architecture. The bigger differentiator is being able to connect that technical knowledge to a business problem,” Farnsworth said. “Can you walk into an ambiguous situation, understand how a workflow actually operates, communicate with technical and nontechnical stakeholders and build something that creates a measurable result?” Workers already in tech can build that expertise in their current roles by finding opportunities to put AI into real business processes. “I’d also encourage tech professionals to look for opportunities in their current roles to deploy AI into real workflows and document the impact—whether that’s revenue generated, time saved, errors reduced or a process improved,” Farnsworth added. “Focusing there will help those looking for forward-deployed roles be competitive and land the job.”

fortune.com Read ↗