Dan Laufer vowed to ever start a startup again after selling apartment rental platform RentLingo in 2021, but Laufer also couldn't ignore the potential to solve a problem he saw emerging as head of growth and product marketing at Nextdoor.

“Nextdoor is most commonly used by people searching for providers, particularly HVAC,” Laufer told TechCrunch. “There were these gaps on the consumer side, satisfaction with the experience, it didn’t feel modern. The other big trend I saw was the silver tsunami. All these baby boomers who own these and don’t necessarily have an exit plan.”

The result was PipeDreams, a startup that acquires small and large HVAC and plumbing companies and scales them using its software that helps with planning and marketing. PipeDreams allows business owners to retire when necessary without losing their employees, name or brand, or simply become part of a larger company with more resources, Laufer told TechCrunch.

PipeDreams just raised a $25.5 million Series A led by Canvas Ventures and Plural with additional funding from DoorDash founder Tony Xu and former OpenTable CEO Thomas Layton. PipeDreams has acquired nine companies to date and currently operates in the San Francisco Bay Area, Tucson and Denver with plans to expand.

“The beauty of this industry is that it’s huge. There are over 100,000 plumbing and heating, ventilation and air conditioning companies,” Laufer said of the U.S. market. “We intend to keep their brand. A lot of these people have their name on the truck, it’s very personal.”

PipeDreams' strategy is a variation on the private equity roll-up model, in which PE firms buy smaller companies in a niche (private schools, dentistry, healthcare) and combine them into a larger company with the intent of becoming the larger Selling companies to make profits for investors.

PipeDreams also uses debt to fully acquire the companies, but is not tied to a tight lifecycle timetable to generate returns or exit, such as the four to six years expected with PE. The company has a $15 million credit facility that will be used to purchase businesses and will use the equity raised to improve its software. Laufer said he expects future rounds will need to raise more debt than equity.

Roll-up strategies are not common for venture capital-backed startups. The best comparison for this is Amazon aggregator startups like Perch and Thrasio, which have had financial problems recently. But unlike those aggregators, the underlying companies that PipeDreams buys are not at the mercy of a company like Amazon, which can change the rules at will, and the companies that PipeDreams buys have stronger relationships with its customers than Amazon brands.

However, PipeDreams could face the same growth hurdles that Amazon aggregators face, such as if a new entrant wins more business or if a local plumber improves its SEO or digital marketing strategy.

Laufer said taking over the HVAC companies completely sets PipeDreams apart from other competitors that only want to connect consumers with professionals like Angie and Thumbtack. He said that, like many of its competitors, the marketplace model is not rigid because consumers can search for professionals directly after finding them through a marketplace. Because PipeDreams integrates its technology into each provider's website, it is part of the process every time someone books with that professional.

PipeDreams also addresses the skills shortage in the HVAC and plumbing industries, as Generation Z is less interested in learning trades than the generations before them. The company launched an apprenticeship program in the fourth quarter to provide employees with on-the-job training. So far there have been five students with plans to expand.

While the company still has a long way to go to flesh out its HVAC-focused business, Laufer expects to expand into other categories in the future, including electricians.

“We bought [a company] When the owner had a celebratory dinner a few weeks ago, he described it as: “My company is going to college,” Laufer said. “'I grew it up and it's on its way to the next chapter.' I love this description. We do it like this.”

The post Former Nextdoor exec raises $25 million for PipeDreams, a startup rolling up HVAC corporations appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

In his first major public interview since the DMV cut their San Francisco fleet in half, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said “we cannot expect perfection” from the self-driving cars, and vaguely threatened to leave town if regulators curtail them any further. From a report: The self-driving robotaxis of GM subsidiary Cruise and Google-owned Waymo seemed like they were heading in a successful direction when they won approval from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last month to run their self-driving robotaxis at all hours in SF without restrictions. But barely a week later, the California DMV demanded Cruise cut it SF fleet in half, following post-Outside Lands stalling incidents, a night of multiple accidents, and SF City Attorney David Chiu filing a motion to get the CPUC to reverse their decision.

Cruse CEO Kyle Vogt sat down for a (very friendly) 40-minute interview Wednesday at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, which can be seen in its entirety above. And he seems to be going on offense against the regulatory pushback his company is getting from SF and California lawmakers. “It’s kind of fun as a society to poke at the differences between AVs (autonomous vehicles) and humans, but if we’re serious about safety in our cities, we should be rolling out the red carpet for AVs,” Vogt said, according to the SF Standard.

The post Cruise CEO Says SF ‘Ought to Be Rolling Out the Pink Carpet’ for Robotaxis, Threatens To Possibly Go away City appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO — Two people were in custody Monday after a gun battle erupted along the San Francisco Embarcadero waterfront early Sunday night that shot two people near Pier 39 and wounded four others.

Aaron Peskin, head of San Francisco’s District 3, which represents the Waterfront, North Beach and Chinatown areas, told KPIX that police told him that after the incident, which involved gunfire between moving cars, one person arrested and a second person arrested.

The first shooting was reported at around 6:48 p.m. on Beach and Stockton streets across from Pier 39. The second shooting occurred moments later on Embarcadero and Howard streets.

Officers found two people with apparent gunshot wounds who were taken to the hospital. Her current condition is currently unknown, SFPD said.

Raw video: Police are investigating related shootings on the San Francisco waterfront

Officials believe two vehicles may have been involved in the shooting.

A bullet-riddled black SUV with Nevada plates that crashed further south on the Embarcadero at Howard St. was the focus of the police investigation.

Investigating the SF Embarcadero shooting

KPIX

A witness shared a video with KPIX showing a young girl on the ground and officers at the scene tending to her. She said she saw a fierce firefight between two cars and erratic driving before the SUV collided. A video of the scene showed how airbags were deployed in the crashed vehicle.

The police initially did not say how many people were injured in the second shooting. At least one person was injured by broken glass in the arm.

During a late night news briefing, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott gave the update, saying three people were injured by “mistaken shots” from broken glass at the second crime scene in Embarcadero and Howard. These injuries were not life-threatening.

Also, two young girls were hit by one of the cars during the chase and firefight. One of them, a 10-year-old, was taken to hospital but her injuries were not life-threatening. The second, a 16-year-old girl, was unharmed.

Scott also confirmed that one of the two shooting victims who were injured in the first exchange of fire suffered non-life-threatening injuries and the second was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police reached the first scene within four minutes of receiving reports of gunfire. Scott said the shooting was a deliberate incident and not an accident.

Authorities are asking anyone with information or cellphone video of the shooting to contact police while the investigation continues.

Continue reading

The post Replace: 1 arrested, 1 detained following rolling gun battle alongside San Francisco waterfront appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The world of fine dining is an enticing place, typically employing intricate cooking techniques and luxurious ingredients as chefs create beautifully presented dishes worth savoring. The Bay Area is fortunate to be home to a number of Michelin-starred and James Beard Award-winning restaurants and chefs, but dining at one of these acclaimed restaurants usually comes with a hefty entrance fee that sends diners around $200 or more each Person can cost person – a price that the average, price-conscious guest regularly cannot afford. Plus, these luxury experiences typically last for hours, stretching a meal into a full-length, multi-course marathon event in even the busiest restaurants.

But a sea change seems to be underway in the Bay Area: A number of upscale restaurants are offering shorter, more affordable tasting menus that could open the door to the world of fine dining for new customers. Restaurants including two Michelin-starred Commis, two Michelin-starred Birdsong, one Michelin-starred Bar Crenn, one Michelin-starred Sorrel and one Michelin-starred Mister Jius all recently released tasting menus at lower prices moving towards more affordable territory and cutting those long meals down to more manageable lengths. At Bar Crenn, for example, the Le Comptoir experience includes a six-course selection of “impromptu dishes” that cost $300 per person. Bar Crenn’s newly added snack menu, meanwhile, offers “five luxurious and playful little bites, both savory and sweet” at a much lower price of $125 — perhaps perfect for someone who’s tiptoeing into sampling celebrity chef Dominique’s dishes Crenn wants to hatch.

“This is an access point for those nights when you might want to spend some cash and be confident.”

At Sorrel in San Francisco, in addition to a two-and-a-half hour eight-course experience priced at $185 per person, the team recently added a four-course tasting menu at $98 per person for a 90-minute meal. The trigger for creating the shorter tasting menu, according to operations manager Joel Wilkerson, was the debut of Sorrel’s bar program last fall. Unlike the restaurant, the eight-seat bar requires no reservations and prides itself on first-come, first-served service with an a la carte menu and low-alcohol cocktails. Response to the bar program has been overwhelmingly positive, and Wilkerson says the team has been looking for more ways to “make people happy.” “The whole point was just creating accessibility to experience what we’re doing here,” says Wilkerson, “without the commitment of having to be here for three or more hours on a Wednesday night.”

Discussing the new four-course meal, Wilkerson pointed to the pandemic as a learning opportunity for the sorrel group; Having been through a lot with COVID, the team needed to take a closer look at their product and their customer. “I think restaurants are fundamentally evolving and changing things,” says Wilkerson. “And to run a restaurant, you have to be agile and be able to pivot and change.” Part of that is recognizing that the restaurant scene can be restrictive. Another reason for the new menu, he says, is to get the city moving again and get residents active — including by giving them reasons to get out and maybe try a new restaurant. “It’s really about getting people out on the sidewalks,” he says, “out in the restaurants and making San Francisco feel alive again.”

Patricia Chang

Mister Jiu’s in Chinatown offered an a la carte menu when it debuted seven years ago, but the restaurant has recently switched to a five-course tasting menu that costs $115 per person (with the option of larger and pricier dishes like Liberty Farms’ popular whole roast duck). For Executive Chef Brandon Jew, the new tasting menu presented a new opportunity. In practice, it offered his team the ability to prepare and execute more detailed dishes, such as B. a finely folded giant dumpling that has been added to the new seasonal menu. The change also yielded more practical results: less food waste, for example, because guests pre-select all dishes when making reservations. To Jew, the updates just make sense. “I feel like this is a way for me to potentially make this restaurant last longer,” he says. “For me that was more important.”

Whatever the reasons for these new, more affordable, and typically short menus, it seems Bay Area diners are responding positively to the changes. According to Wilkerson, regular customers have contacted Sorrel to express their excitement for a shorter, less expensive tasting menu with the high quality they have come to expect from the restaurant. “It’s a stepping stone, right? It’s there for people to get their feet wet,” says Wilkerson. “Sometimes it’s your anniversary, do you want to spend all the money you have in your savings account to go out to dinner? Sometimes you want to experience something different or something new and maybe you’ve never been to a Michelin star restaurant – this is an access point for those nights when you might want to indulge and rely on it.”

Sign up for the newsletter

Eater SF

Sign up for our newsletter.

The post Right here’s Why A few of San Francisco’s Michelin-Starred Eating places Are Rolling Out Cheaper, Shorter Tasting Menus appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/AP) — An underwater volcano spectacularly erupted near the Pacific nation of Tonga on Saturday, sending large tsunami waves across the coast and triggering a rare tsunami alert for the northern California coast.

The National Weather Service issued the alert tweet – “A tsunami advisory has been issued for the US West Coast, including our area. Wave arrival time: around 7:35 this morning. A tsunami is expected that can create strong currents that endanger swimmers, boats and coastal structures.”

CONTINUE READING: San Francisco home invasion involving Gray Infiniti stuns residents

Waves of 1-3 feet are possible.

The Weather Service issued the following estimated arrival times for the tsunami wave:

• Fort Bragg – 7:35 am
• Monterey – 7:35 a.m
• Crescent City – 8:00 a.m
• San Francisco – 8:10 am

#Tsunami is expected to reach #SanFrancisco around 8:10 am this morning, which corresponds to #HighTide for #SanFrancisco at 9:09 am. Expect low lying flooding and minor flooding, particularly in areas like #MarinHeadlands. #Cawx pic.twitter.com/PoR3WYZ13D

— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) January 15, 2022

The weather service tweeted: “This is especially important for people who are just waking up and may not be checking the news or social media before heading out for their morning walk on the beach. Please consider phoning loved ones if you know they are currently on shore to let them know of the danger.”

Stay on higher ground. This is an actual view of Miramar Beach in Half Moon Bay. @SMHarbor #CaWx #California @sanmateoco @sccounty pic.twitter.com/irnxkofMGi

— CAL FIRE CZU (@CALFIRECZU) January 15, 2022

Tide gauges at Point Reyes and Monterey are now experiencing initial water disturbances from the incoming tsunami. (see diagrams)

The tsunami will hit our shores and bays over the course of several hours, and peak water levels may not arrive for hours after onset. pic.twitter.com/AkbVSvqKfp

— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) January 15, 2022

The San Leandro police also issued a warning.

“Extensive flooding is not expected at this time, but damaging wave activity could occur in ports and marinas,” the alert said. “While no large waves or extensive flooding are expected in the area, we are advising residents to avoid waterways until the warning is canceled as the waves could still pose a hazard to boats and swimmers.”

Watch Live: Santa Cruz Harbor Webcam

San Francisco Emergency Medical Services officials also issued a warning.

“A tsunami advisory means strong, dangerous currents are expected to affect San Francisco’s beaches, ports and marinas, and finger piers in coastal areas,” the alert said. “Dangerous currents are expected to begin at 8:10 a.m. and continue for many hours.”

The wave hit the Hawaiian Islands around 6 a.m

“A tsunami is currently being observed by the emergency management of all islands,” the weather service tweeted. “We are relieved that there is no reported damage and only minor flooding on the islands.”

There were no immediate reports of injuries in Tonga or the extent of the damage as communications with the small nation remained problematic. Videos posted on social media showed large waves washing ashore in coastal areas and swirling around houses and buildings.

2022-01-14: (Correction on date) Large volcanic eruption near Tonga (Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano) seen from space today. Shown on visible images by Himawari satellite. #hiwx #tsunami #earthquake pic.twitter.com/Y18W7wvXl9

— NWSHonolulu (@NWSHonolulu) January 15, 2022

The New Zealand military said it was monitoring the situation and remained on standby to assist if asked.

CONTINUE READING: Federal agencies begin distributing free at-home COVID testing kits; How to get your free trials

Satellite imagery showed a massive eruption, a cloud of ash, steam and gas, mushrooming over blue Pacific waters.

A tsunami warning was in effect for the entire archipelago, according to Tonga Meteorological Services, and data from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center showed waves of 80 centimeters (2.6 feet) were measured.

Residents of American Samoa were alerted to the tsunami warning by local broadcasters and church bells ringing nationwide. An external siren warning system was out of order. Those living along the coast quickly moved to higher ground.

As night fell, there were no reports of damage and the Hawaii-based tsunami center canceled the warning.

Authorities in the nearby island nations of Fiji and Samoa also issued warnings, urging people to avoid the coast because of strong currents and dangerous waves. The Japan Meteorological Agency said there may be a slight swell in the water along Japan’s coasts, but no damage is expected.

News site Islands Business reported that a convoy of Tonga’s police and military troops escorted King Tupou VI. evacuated from his palace near the coast. He was among the many residents who moved to a higher level.

The explosion of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano was the latest in a series of spectacular eruptions.

A Twitter user identified as Dr. Faka’iloatonga Taumoefolau released video showing waves crashing ashore.

“Can literally hear the volcano erupting, sounds pretty intense,” he wrote, adding in a later post, “It’s raining ash and tiny pebbles, darkness covers the sky.”

Earlier, the Matangi Tonga news site reported that scientists observed massive explosions, thunder and lightning near the volcano after it erupted early Friday. Satellite imagery showed a cloud 5 kilometers (3 miles) across that rose about 20 kilometers (12 miles) into the air.

More than 2,300 kilometers away in New Zealand, officials warned of storm surges from the outbreak.

The National Emergency Management Agency said some parts of New Zealand could expect “strong and unusual currents and unpredictable coastal waves” after a major volcanic eruption.

The volcano is about 64 kilometers (40 miles) north of the capital, Nuku’alofa. Already in late 2014 and early 2015, a series of eruptions in the region created a small new island and disrupted international air traffic to the Pacific archipelago for several days.

MORE NEWS: Struggling Napa businesses fall victim to ‘COVID burnout’

About 105,000 people live in Tonga.

The post Waves Rolling Into Santa Cruz Harbor; Stay Aboard Residents Evacuated At Berkeley Marina – CBS San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

LOS ALTOS HILLS (CBS SF) — A Bay Area city is pushing the installation of automatic license plate readers (ALPR) in hopes of fighting and deterring crime.

According to a city government analyst, 10 ALPRs are currently operational in Los Altos Hills, and 30 more should be operational by sometime in February.

CONTINUE READING: UPDATE: Attorney for RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan is seeking a judicial review after Gov. Newsom denied parole

They will be placed at every street entrance in Los Altos Hills, as well as numerous other streets throughout the city, says the management analyst. They run 24 hours a day, and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office can use the ALPRs as a crime investigation tool.

“We hope it will make people safer, we hope it will stop people from committing crimes in our city,” said resident Rajiv Bhateja. “We have very few burglaries a year, but we have very few apartments.”

Bhateja has been a big supporter of the idea for several years and helped introduce it to the city leadership.

“Our community tends to be what we call a goal-rich environment,” he said. “I think if we can make our city and the world a little bit safer, that’s a good thing for everyone.”

Los Altos Hills partnered with Flock Safety to implement the cameras.

“Our technology is designed to capture objective evidence. We take photos of the back of a car as it drives by and use machine learning from that to identify what kind of car it is – make, model, color – unique features like bumper stickers, roof racks, aftermarket wheels and too The important thing is to identify the license plate yourself,” said Josh Thomas of Flock Safety. “They indiscriminately collect objective data from vehicles.”

Some local residents have expressed concerns about privacy.

“I’m not convinced that we really have a problem. I feel it is an invasion of my privacy,” said a Los Altos Hills resident, who asked not to be named. “I’m just really concerned about privacy issues and I’m also concerned about racial profiling.”

Thomas explained that their technology only captures still images of the vehicles’ rear license plates and features.

CONTINUE READING: Oakland police shut down an illegal gambling den, guns and drugs confiscated

“We collect vehicle information. Not people. There is no face recognition. We don’t collect anything about people. It’s just the back of a car – and in fact we don’t even know who’s driving the car.”

However, residents of Los Altos Hills have the option to opt out. They can submit a form online to prove their vehicles are registered to a Los Altos Hills address and then the system will not record any data on those vehicles.

Bhateja believes in the ALPRs.

“It’s only supposed to take pictures of rear license plates and only still pictures. So it can’t be used for traffic violations, speeding, stop signs and all that,” he said. “The sheriff needs to have a case number when accessing the information. They must have an investigative reason for looking at this data.”

According to the city, the ALPR cameras have three major benefits:
• The physical presence of a camera and accompanying street signs indicating that a recording is in progress can limit crime in the first place.
• After a crime, the data collected can give the law enforcement authorities clues for investigations.
• Cameras can send instant alerts to law enforcement agencies when a vehicle of interest is identified.

A spokesman for the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office provided KPIX 5 with the following statement:
“The Sheriff’s Office is pleased to assist the City of Los Altos Hills with the introduction of License Plate Readers (LPRs). LPRs will help the Sheriff’s Office use technology to improve prevention and solve crimes. We are committed to using all available resources to improve the safety of residents of the City of Los Altos Hills.”

Los Altos Hills isn’t the first Bay Area community to use Flock’s technology.

“All over the Bay Area,” Thomas said. “Morgan Hill, Benicia, Vallejo, Colma – all up and down the Peninsula, North Bay, East Bay.”

Los Altos Hills residents who wish to opt out can do so here.

MORE NEWS: Backlog in the Port of Oakland is expected to ease

The post Los Altos Hills Rolling Out Computerized License Plate Readers; Residents Can Choose-Out – CBS San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Nkarta Therapeutics is not slowing down. The biotech made an impressive IPO debut last July and administered its leading commercial cancer immunotherapy to the first patient a few months later.

Now, the South San Francisco-based biotech company is moving into an 88,000 square foot facility that will not only serve as its newest headquarters, but also support the research, development and future commercial manufacture of its cell therapy pipeline.

Nkarta plans to redesign the center to optimize the mix of its off-the-shelf cancer therapies with natural killers (NK), the company said on Wednesday. The biotech did not disclose the cost of the project.

The facility will be a “multi-product” manufacturing facility and is slated to go online by the end of 2023, Nkarta said. At full capacity, the facility should be able to produce “commercial shipments of multiple cell therapy products”.

RELATED: The Top 10 Biotech IPOs of 2020 – Nkarta

The biotech is currently in Phase 1 testing of its lead drug NKX101, which uses NK cells from healthy donors engineered to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) that targets the NKG2D ligand in certain blood cancers aims.

Nkarta says its manufacturing process is capable of producing “an abundant amount of NK cells,” which are more cost effective than current allogeneic and autologous cell therapies when made on a large scale. To get there, Nkarta uses a proprietary NKSTIM cell line capable of producing hundreds of single doses from a single manufacturing run.

The cell line can freeze and store the CAR NK cells and is designed to “allow immediate, ready-to-use administration to patients at the point of care,” said Nkarta.

The new headquarters will be in addition to a smaller 2,700 square foot facility, also in the San Francisco area, which Nkarta has just completed. Nkarta designed this site to suit the needs of its research activities and early studies.

At its smaller facility, the company is currently producing supplies of another treatment called NKX019, an investigational NK cell therapy designed to fight tumors expressing CD19 antigen for the treatment of B-cell malignant diseases. The company expects to start phase 1 studies in the second half of the year.

RELATED: CRISPR Therapeutics, Nkarta Pen New Innovative Research Pact for Cancer Technology

In addition to its own assets, as part of its most recent alliance with gene editing specialist CRISPR Therapeutics, Nkarta is working hard to discover potential CRISPR / Cas9 gene-edited cell therapies for cancer.

Under the agreement, the companies will develop and sell two CAR-NK cell candidates, one targeting the CD70 tumor antigen and the “other target to be targeted,” according to a joint statement.

With the upcoming manufacturing facility, Nkarta CEO Paul Hastings is confident that the “expanded presence will drive operational excellence and accelerate the development of transformative NK cell therapies for a wide range of cancers”.

The post Nkarta retains pure killer remedy ball rolling with plans for brand new San Francisco headquarters, manufacturing web site appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.