Josh Constine

Partner, SignalFire

Josh Constine is a venture partner at $2.1 billion early-stage VC fund SignalFire that builds AI to help its portfolio companies with recruiting and sales. He focuses on consumer, including social, marketplaces, and AI-enabled services. He also leads SignalFire’s PR and fundraising advisory program for its portfolio. Previously, Constine was Editor-At-Large for TechCrunch and was ranked the #1 most cited tech journalist 2016-2020 by Techmeme. Constine has moderated 200+ on-stage interviews and keynotes in 18 countries with leaders including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Senator Cory Booker, and whistleblower Edward Snowden. Constine graduated from Stanford University with a Master’s degree he designed in Cybersociology, has been quoted in the NYT and WSJ, and is regularly featured on CNN.

Constine currently writes a weekly newsletter called Moving Product at https://constine.substack.com/ where he discusses big ideas facing the startup industry, the most exciting new tech products, and interviews top industry talent about the most important recent launches.

Previously, Constine was the Editor-At-Large for TechCrunch where he wrote over 3500 blog posts about social tech giants like Facebook and Snapchat as well as early stage startups across verticals. His work was cited on the floors of the Senate and House Of Representatives, and led to the shut down of Facebook’s Onavo market surveillance app.

Constine was formerly the Lead Writer of Inside Facebook through its acquisition by WebMediaBrands, covering everything about the social network.

Constine graduated from Stanford University in 2009 with a Master’s degree in Cybersociology, examining the influence of technology on social interaction. He researched the impact of privacy controls on the socialization of children, meme popularity cycles, and what influences the click through rate of links posted to Twitter. Constine also received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Stanford University in 2007, with a concentration in Social Psychology & Interpersonal Processes.

Josh Constine is an experienced public speaker, and has moderated over 190 on-stage interviews in 18 countries with leaders including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram’s founders, whistleblower Edward Snowden (via on-stage video conference), and U.S. Senator Cory Booker. He also delivers keynotes on how to pitch startups, press strategy for tech companies, and how to turn your passion into your profession. He is available to moderate panels and fireside chats, provide keynotes, and judge hackathon and pitch competitions. You can contact him at Joshsc [at] gmail .com

Constine has been quoted by The Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, The Atlantic, BBC World Magazine, Slate, and more, plus has been featured on television on Good Morning, America, The Today Show, China Central Television, and Fox News. Constine was ranked as the #1 most cited tech journalist on prestigious news aggregator Techmeme from 2016 to 2020.

Josh Constine

Latest from Josh Constine

How do you leave the place that made you? You figure out what it made you for. TechCrunch made me a part of the startup ecosystem I love. Now it’s…

Josh Constine leaves TechCrunch for VC fund SignalFire

Featured Article

How freight master Flexport’s Ryan Petersen learned to CEO

“I didn’t know what the term ‘freight forwarder’ meant until a year into starting the business.” Considering his shipping logistics startup Flexport was last valued at $3.2 billion, that quote from my first interview with CEO and founder Ryan Petersen back in 2016 seems even more surprising now. But it…

8:54 am PDT • April 26, 2020
How freight master Flexport’s Ryan Petersen learned to CEO

Facebook is co-opting some of the top video chat innovations like Zoom’s gallery view for large groups and Houseparty’s spontaneous hangouts for a new feature called Rooms. It could usher…

Facebook launches drop-in video chat Rooms to rival Houseparty

Leaked images obtained by TechCrunch reveal that Google considered and designed a feature that would let people donate money to websites to help support news publishers, bloggers and musicians. But…

Google ditched tipping feature for donating money to sites

Forget the calendar invite. Just jump into a conversation. That’s the idea powering a fresh batch of social startups poised to take advantage of our cleared schedules amidst quarantine. But…

Clubhouse voice chat leads a wave of spontaneous social apps

Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have teamed up to launch their first product together since leaving the Facebook mothership. Rt.live is an up-to-date tracker of how fast COVID-19…

Instagram founders launch COVID-19 spread tracker Rt.live

Would you pay with a “Google Card?” TechCrunch has obtained imagery that shows Google is developing its own physical and virtual debit cards. The Google card and associated checking account…

Leaked pics reveal Google smart debit card to rival Apple’s

Home fitness and games as gathering places are a few of the startup verticals propelled by unprecedented shifts in behavior due to shelter-in-place orders. We surveyed the top investors in…

Investors explain COVID-19’s impact on consumer startups

Could avatars that show what co-workers are up to save work-from-home teams from constant distraction and loneliness? That’s the idea behind Pragli, the Bitmoji for the enterprise. It’s a virtual…

Replace non-stop Zoom with remote office avatars app Pragli

It’s a brutal time for marijuana startups. I’m hearing some are raising at 1/5th of their 2019 valuation amidst rampant competition, tall taxes, and slow legalization. The struggles for marijuana’s…

$75M weed giant Caliva ditches Eaze, launches delivery

Featured Article

Quibi is the anti-TikTok (that’s a bad thing)

It takes either audacious self-confidence or reckless hubris to build a completely asocial video app in 2020. You can decide which best describes Quibi, Hollywood’s $1.75 billion-funded attempt at a mobile-only Netflix of six to 10-minute micro-TV show episodes. Quibi manages to miss every trend and tactic that could help…

11:06 am PDT • April 9, 2020
Quibi is the anti-TikTok (that’s a bad thing)

Voice-based social networks and gaming as a new form of identity were among the top emerging trends in consumer social startups, according to an Extra Crunch survey of top social…

Investor survey results: Upcoming trends in social startups

Sick of sharing those generic Zoom video call invites that all look the same? Wish your Zoom link preview’s headline and image actually described your meeting? Want to protect your…

ZmURL customizes Zoom link previews with images & event sites

Zoom is making some drastic changes to prevent rampant abuse as trolls attack publicly shared video calls. Starting April 5th, it will require passwords to enter calls via Meeting ID,…

Zoom will enable waiting rooms by default to stop Zoombombing

What do you do if you’re an event discovery startup and suddenly it’s illegal to attend events? You lean into the cultural shift and pivot. Today, $11 million-funded calendar app…

IRL pivots into virtual event calendar In Remote Life

Facebook Messenger is finally getting desktop apps almost 9 years after its debut. After seeing over a 100% increase in desktop browser audio and video calling, Messenger today releases its…

Facebook Messenger launches Mac & Windows apps

Featured Article

‘Content network effect’ makes TikTok tough to copy

Many TikTok videos don’t start from scratch, so neither can its competitors. TikTok is all about remixes where users shoot a new video to recontextualize audio pulled from someone else’s clip, or riff on an existing meme or concept. That only works because TikTok’s had time to build up an…

2:48 pm PDT • April 1, 2020
‘Content network effect’ makes TikTok tough to copy

If you can’t stop them, power them. That’s the strategy behind Snapchat App Stories, which launches today to let users show off their ephemeral content in other apps too. The…

Snapchat preempts clones, syndicates Stories to other apps

Facebook has diverted from its policy of not fact-checking politicians in order to prevent the spread of potentially harmful coronavirus misinformation from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Facebook made the decisive…

Facebook deletes Brazil president’s coronavirus misinfo post

Facebook Messenger could soon automatically tell your closest friends you’re at the gym, driving or in Tokyo. Messenger has been spotted prototyping a ported version of the Instagram close friends-only…

Facebook Messenger preps Auto Status location type sharing

Facebook has filled the lead independent board director role with former Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and U.S. Ambassador to Germany Robert M. Kimmitt. His job will be to serve…

Facebook appoints Treasury’s Kimmitt as lead independent board director

Google, Amazon and Microsoft are the landlords. Amidst the coronavirus economic crisis, startups need a break from paying rent. They’re in a cash crunch. Revenue has stopped flowing in, capital…

Tech giants should let startups defer cloud payments

It’s like Google Docs for everything. Screen is a free interactive multiplayer screensharing app that gives everyone a cursor so they can navigate, draw on and even code within the…

Control each other’s apps with new screensharing tool Screen

Snapchat’s location-sharing app acquisition Zenly has gamified shelter-in-place during the COVID-19 outbreak. Today the app launched its Stay At Home challenge that shows a leaderboard of which friends have spent…

Snapchat’s Zenly launches shelter-in-place leaderboard

Now you can scroll Instagram together with friends, turning a typically isolating, passive experience into something more social and active. Today Instagram launched Co-Watching, which lets friends on a video…

Instagram launches Co-Watching of posts during video chat

Featured Article

Under quarantine, media is actually social

The flood of status symbol content into Instagram Stories has run dry. No one is going out and doing anything cool right now, and if they are, they should be shamed for it. Beyond sharing video chat happy hour screenshots and quarantine dinner concoctions, our piece-by-piece biographies have ground to…

12:23 pm PDT • March 21, 2020
Under quarantine, media is actually social

Twenty-eight percent of a nurse’s time is wasted on low-skilled tasks like fetching medical tools. We need them focused on the complex and compassionate work of treating patients, especially amid…

Hospital droid Diligent Robotics raises $10M to assist nurses

Coronavirus quarantines are hurting local businesses, but Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger wants to help them keep revenue rolling in. Krieger and his wife Kaitlyn this week launched SaveOurFaves, a directory…

Instagram founder launches gift card site for quarantined restaurants

Instagram is finally preparing to copy Snapchat’s most popular feature, and one of the few it hasn’t already cloned. Instagram has prototyped an unreleased ephemeral text messaging feature that clears…

Instagram prototypes Snapchat-style disappearing text messages

Facebook today officially rolled out its sweeping desktop redesign that offers dark mode, tabbed home screen and a cleaner profile. Facebook tells TechCrunch that “starting today, the majority of people…

Facebook now lets most users opt-in to dark mode & desktop redesign