Medal gets spendy, acquires Donate Bot to enable on-site donations
As part of a handful of updates and new features, Medal will now be enabling on-site donations after acquiring the technology to do so in the form of Donate Bot. The bot, which runs on a discord server, allows any Medal user with more than 100 followers to receive monetary donations, subscriptions and payments through clips on the site and embedded elsewhere, according to a blog post from Medal’s founder. The service is free for Medal users, and will remain so for at least a year. Sites like Twitch also allow viewers to subscribe and pay their favorite streamers, and like Twitch, Medal’s donation links can also connect to users’ merch pages or general channels. [TechCrunch]
Tesla’s got a little something up its sleeve — and so does Amazon
Both Amazon and Tesla are rumored to be staging big LA premiers this year. Because what else do you do in LA if not throw and attend big, glitzy premiers? Tesla confirmed whispers about its latest product, the Model 3, an SUV on the base of the Model Y. The car will be unveiled at the Tesla design studio in LA, according to the company. Amazon’s news has yet to be confirmed by the company, but is widely considered fact. According to sources, the company will be launching an affordable grocery store of its own — unlike Whole Foods, which targets higher-price point shoppers — pedaling its own food brands and, if all goes well, buying out other local grocers. [Built In LA]
Forge joins the hordes of tech companies moving south from San Francisco
Forge Technologies, a software company that helps businesses hire part-time labor, announced two big pieces of news last week. The first was the company’s acquisition of ShiftMe, an app that helps employees swap shifts. Details of the deal are still forthcoming. The second piece of news was geographic in nature. Forge will join ShiftMe employees in sunny Los Angeles, where the company will be headquartered from here on. Welcome, Forge. May your time here be as warm and sunny as the many new partnerships you….well, you know. [Press release]
After LA snub, Musk’s Boring Co is making deals in a very not-boring place: Las Vegas
After being dealt something of a blow in its native Los Angeles, Elon Musk’s Boring Company has its sights set on underground real estate in Las Vegas. The company, which was shut out of a proposed plan that would have burrowed into the ground beneath the 405 freeway in West LA, has all but secured a deal to construct and operate a tram system in the Las Vegas Convention Center. The building is undergoing expansion plans and could be as wide as two miles across by the time it’s finished in 2021 — thus, the people mover. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has already recommended the company be selected. The convention center’s board will vote to approve or reject that recommendation March 12. [TechCrunch]
A brief glimpse of e-sports fandom in the form of celebrity gamer SonicFox
The phenomenon that is e-sports is becoming more and more difficult to shrug off as fringe. Mashable ran one of the most interesting interviews of the week with this year’s e-sports player of the year, a person named SonicFox. Since winning the award, SonicFox (a.k.a Dominique McLean) has been featured in The Washington Post and Out Magazine, while also nabbing ESPN’s player of the year title. Of the player, the article’s author wrote: “SonicFox is the living, breathing, gay, black, furry proof that e-sports can matter to everyone, regardless of whether or not you watch them. All we need is a champion we can see ourselves in, and aspire towards.” Amen to that. [Mashable]
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