Equity
TechCrunch, Alex Wilhelm, Natasha Mascarenhas, Mary Ann Azevedo, Kell, Theresa Loconsolo
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The intersection of technology, startups, and venture capital touches everything now. That’s why Equity unpacks the numbers and nuance behind the headlines for entrepreneurs and enthusiasts alike. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, TechCrunch reporters Alex Wilhelm, Natasha Mascarenhas, and Mary Ann Azevedo keep you up-to-date on the world of business, technology, and venture capital.
Available episodes
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11 hours ago
Equity Monday: Everyone loves Anthropic
Equity is back from Disrupt and fired up for the rest of the year. Here’s what Alex got into today:
* Stocks are not peppy to start the week, while crypto prices have also moderated in recent days.
* Alex could not _not_ talk about the Cisco-Splunk deal, mostly to promise that he’ll finish that post today come hell or high water.
* The Amazon + Anthropic news is the biggest item of the day. A $1.25 billion deal that could stretch to $4 billion is no small fee. And with Google and Amazon and Anthropic tied up and Microsoft buddied to OpenAI we could be seeing big tech choosing sides in the LLM model war.
* Meta is building AI chatbots, while Apple is working to build more stuff in India.
* To close out, Correcto’s neat round, and the finalists from Startup Battlefield 2023 — more on the winner of Battlefield here.
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__ and more!_
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3 days ago
Are you feeling Disrupted?
The Equity crew is back with another live recording from the Moscone Center in San Francisco for TechCrunch Disrupt 2023. Alex, Kirsten and Becca sat down to recap a very busy (and dare we say successful) event, and walk through our favorite moments for the listeners who couldn't make it out this year.
Here's what we got into:
* Providing early liquidity to founders and employees
* What advice VCs are giving their early stage founders
* Why Cruise might join the call to ban human drivers in city centers
* And why Shaq can do whatever he wants.
We recorded shortly before the winner of Startup Battlefield was announced, but you can get caught up on that here.
Now, it's time to fly back home. Equity will be back to our regularly scheduled programing bright and early Monday morning! Talk then.
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders __and more!_
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5 days ago
Equity Live: Self-flying helicopters, AI and the battle of the features
We were live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023! Yes, even though our dear friend and colleague Mary Ann had to handle a family emergency, the larger Equity family rallied to put on a rollicking early-morning show at the venue. From the Builders' stage where Alex had to introduce himself, Kirsten Korosec and Becca Szkutak rounded out our hosting crew and we had a blast.
Here's the rundown:
* Instacart went public! Finally, at last, at long last, Instacart is a public company. It priced at $30, the top-end of its raised range, and then went on to trade higher. More here, but a solid result.
* Joby is all-in on the Buckeye state: What has batteries and goes straight up? EVTOLs, apparently, even if that acronym is a big of a mouthful. Kirsten reports that a TechCrunch scoop was born out when Joby picked Ohio for its manufacturing hub. A lot of state-derived help did not hurt, either.
* Eldertech is a growth market: Becca wanted to talk about her latest Deal Dive, which was all about getting senior citizens to move for. Exercise is a pretty massive hack for a healthy body and life. We also had to point out that a graying world means that elder tech is only seeing expanding TAM.
* Writer brings back nine-figure joy! And to close out, Alex wanted to riff on the latest Writer round, which is building a generative AI service for other companies. With some demonstrated traction, and a model that we think seems well rounded, Writer is one to watch.
Whew! The Equity crew is all over Disrupt for the next few days so make sure to say hello!
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__and more!_
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Sep 15, 2023
We'll probably retire before Databricks IPOs
Here's what Mary Ann, Alex and Kirsten got into:
* More layoffs at Divvy Homes: More cuts at a company that was once richly valued and heavily venture-backed. Rising interest rates are having a ripple effect across startup-land.
* Databricks is big, and now richer: With $500 million in a new Series I, Databricks is now worth more money and has fresh capital to continue working on AI.
* Lime, just go public already: What is profitable and private and a tease? Lime. Well, that last bit is a stretch, but really you can only ring us up and tout profits and growth so many times before we expect an S-1.
* More data is good: Venture capital firms, however, seem to disagree.
* If you want groceries in 15 minutes, here's where to live: Brazil, for one. Or India. Differing labor costs around the world appear to be the axis around which quick deliveries are feasible, or a financial mess.
We are back next week for a busy run at Disrupt! We'll see you there!
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__ and more!_
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Sep 13, 2023
What’s more venture capital than space lasers?
This week, we brought TechCrunch+ senior climate reporter Tim De Chant on to talk climate tech, hardware breakthroughs, and why we have a whole stage this year at Disrupt focused on sustainability.
On that last point, perhaps you have gone outside recently. Extreme weather around the world, warming oceans, fires — it's a mess out there. That's the bad news. The good news is that a number of startups are working hard to build new technologies that could shoothe our struggling planet. And perhaps make a lot of money in the process.
Here's what we got into on the show:
* Climate tech venture capital activity. Why aren't we seeing more capital despite some interesting activity.
* The question of fusion. Is it really around the corner (this time)?
* Why we're both excited about potential hardware breakthroughs, even if LK-99 was not the real deal.
* Dread about our changing world.
Tim is not only a great journalist, he's also very good at the whole science thing, so he was a treat to talk to!
We're back on Friday for our last recording before we're on stage at Disrupt! Talk soon.
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__ and more!_
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Sep 11, 2023
Equity Monday: Instacart, Klaviyo and the art of the unicorn haircut
Here's what we got into on the show today:
* Instacart IPO: We have a first price range for Instacart! And the company is going to take a roughly $30 billion haircut on the valuation it raised at back in 2021. Still worth north of $7 billion by our math , Instacart is set to raise a lot of money at a multi-billion price. Hard to get too worried about that. (Even more, the company's fully-diluted valuation range is, if we are doing our sums correctly, $8.6 billion to $9.3 billion.)
* Klaviyo IPO: Also taking a price cut is Klaviyo, which also dropped its first IPO price range this morning. It is taking a smaller cut in both absolute and percentage terms, but in aggregate the two companies show just how much room there is for 2021 prices to come down. What we worry about is what less-strong startups will have to endure, as Instacart and Klaviyo are both very healthy.
* Coinbase and India: Coinbase is not leaving India, contrary to reports. What it is doing is shuttering some accounts in the country. Crypto and regulation continue their long, and twisty path.
* Cheap, shared satellites: What raised $50 million and wants you to share a LEO satellite? This startup!
Disrupt is literally around the corner and by that we mean _next week__! We'll see you there._
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__ and more!_
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Sep 8, 2023
Who shuts down the shut down-ers?
Here's what Mary Ann, Alex and Kirsten got into:
* Mentra wants to help neurodivergent jobseekers find ideal jobs: We love a startup that is doing good for itself and doing good for others. This deal that Mary Ann wanted to chat through seems to check both boxes.
* SimpleClosure raises $1.5 million: What happens if your startup dies, and you need to wind down? You might need a simple way to close things up, right? Enter SimpleClosure.
* Argo AI founders are building something new: What just raised more than $1 billion to take another crack at self-driving trucks? This company.
* All Things YC: You can find demo day favorites from day one here, and day two here. And, for an overview of sectors, here you go.
* EU x Regulation: We wrapped with a quick look at regulation from the EU that will impact a bunch of major tech companies. It led to a conversation of what sort of market regulatory structure is most conducive for startup growth.
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders __and more!_
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Sep 6, 2023
Y Combinator is still paranoid (re-run)
While the Equity crew prepares for another Y Combinator Demo Day, we're throwing it back to when Natasha and Alex caught up with current YC Partner and Managing Director of YC Early Stage, Michael Seibel. The main question on the pair's mind was how is YC evolving to meet a changed market?
Seibel doesn't often do press -- and neither does YC -- so the interview was used to connect the dots on news from the accelerator, cross check top trends from the 2022 summer batch and ask about some of the biggest critiques people have about the institution.
We went a bit long, but figured it was worth it given the way the conversation was going.
As always, we'll be back with our weekly roundup on Friday, and don’t forget that Equity is opening this year’s Disrupt. We’ll see you there!
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__ and more!_
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Sep 5, 2023
Equity Tuesday: Arm's IPO won't resurrect private-market liquidity
Here's what Alex got into this morning:
* Earnings Season Never Ends: Gitlab, Asana, UiPath, Docusign, Rent the Runway and others will report this week.
* Crypto Down Bad: Prices for major cryptoassets are flat this morning, while the crypto venture picture is looking up to some degree.
* Arm Sets IPO Range: Shares of Arm are expected to sell for $47 to $51 per share, according to the company. The question for investors is whether to value the company on its trailing results, or future profits.
* More on the impact (or lack thereof) of Arm's upcoming debut can be found here.
* The Catalyst Fund: The Africa-focused venture fund has reached a first close, and intends to invest in climate-focused startups on the continent.
* Elon Musk Is Mad
* And to close out, a new Chinese semiconductor fund is potentially coming, while India wrestles with net neutrality.
Don’t forget that Equity is opening this year’s Disrupt. We’ll see you there!
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__ and more!_
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Sep 1, 2023
What’s the opposite of a lean startup?
Here’s the show rundown:
* Teamshares: Here’s an interesting one. Teamshares has raised a lot of money and is buying a lot of SMBs. But that’s just the start. It also plans to allow employees of those companies to buy most of their stock over time, while serving up centralized fintech services to all its sub-companies. Who doesn’t love to chat about a new model?
* MoonPay’s new venture arm: Crypto payment infra company MoonPay is getting into the venture game, with a focus on crypto, gaming, and fintech. The union of those three is crypto games, of course, but we have two eyes fixed on what MoonPay decides to invest in. New crypto-thematic, or crypto-adjacent funds are rarer these days, making the MoonPay news exciting.
* Rent Butter and Kiki: Now that the zero interest rate period is over, and the experiment in building new iBuying and mortgage service startups has partially concluded, renting is hot again. And thus, so too are rental-focused startups.
* The IPO drought has lasted longer than you anticipated: Working off a Crunchbase dataset, Alex has notes on just how long we have been waiting for real tech IPOs. The good news? They are (partially) back!
* What happens when you bring lean startup ideology into the AI world? A lot of experiments, it turns out.
And that is us until next week. Due to an American holiday, Equity will kick off on Tuesday next week instead of Monday!
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__and more!_
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Aug 30, 2023
What founders can escape venture's no-man's land?
This week, Alex spoke to Anu Hariharan, who’s previously worked with a16z, sits on Brex’s board, and more recently has been investing in later-stage companies at Y Combinator. She's also working on something new.
Hariharan recently tweeted about how "great" founders were successfully guiding their companies towards cash flow positivity. Since that very interesting post, both Instacart (a former Y Combinator company) and Klaviyo have filed to go public. And both have super strong cash flows.
Our chat could not have come at a better time. We dug into how early- and late-stage startups should approach growth and cash conservation (in her view), the future of venture as an asset class, and how healthy the unicorn herd really is. We had a blast recording this one! Enjoy!
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__ and more!_
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Aug 28, 2023
Equity Monday: IPOs are back and the Equity crew is feasting
As a small heads up, we had a _bonus show_ over the weekend that is well worth your time! Alright, here’s what’s on the show this morning:
* Stocks are up around the world: A good note to start the week on, of course. In the meantime, the crypto market is still dragging. We’re back to minimal week-over-week price movements.
* Tech IPOs are back: After a drought that will be talked about for years, it’s raining tech IPOs again! Instacart and Klaviyo have filed their Form S-1s to go public, and we are busy digesting the numbers.
* On the Instacart front, read our first impressions here. In short, the company’s trailing performance is super solid, but the question is, how much it can scale total transaction volume in the future.
* We are still getting our boots on when it comes to Klaviyo, but the business seems strong. Is it the champion that software companies have waited for? We’ll have to see. More to come on the site later today.
* And Didi is selling part of i…
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Aug 26, 2023
Gen-Z is rewriting the rules of the Internet, and here's how startups should respond
Why the extra edition? Because Battery Ventures dropped an interesting report on Gen-Z and we wanted to talk about it.
Alex got Courtney Chow, a vice president at Battery and one of the report's authors to chat about it. You can read the report itself here.
This is what we got into:
* The fracturing of culture: Gen-Z is large, and very diverse. The trend away from monolithic cultural primacy that began years ago has accelerated with the generation, making culture itself more personal, and more distinct. For startups, this means branding will become a different challenge if they want to reach this demographic slice.
* Everything is short-form video: Given massive usage of TikTok by Gen-Z and the popularity of other platforms that feature short-form video, we were curious how smaller companies can compete with incumbents that already have a Reels strategy, if you will.
* Ethical capitalism: One of the most interesting areas of the Battery report was its notes on how entrepreneur…
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Aug 25, 2023
Startups that are Ramp-ing up, and startups that are full of sh**
This is our Friday show, and we’re talking about the week’s biggest startup and tech news. Here's what Mary Ann, Alex and Kirsten Korosec got into:
* Nvidia blew the doors off with its earnings report. We talked through some of the high-level numbers and marveled at the company's growth. TechCrunch has more on the matter here.
* Ramp raises $300M: In this market, a multi-billion-dollar valuation is a win for a fintech, even if Ramp's new price tag is a bit lower than it was previously. So, while Ramp likely doesn't love that it raised a down-round, it does have fresh capital and is worth $5.8 billion. That's simply not that bad.
* Lex raised $2.75M: Alex covered AI-powered writing tool's Lex seed round. Kirsten got to give the app a try, and we all had nice things to say about the nascent startup.
* Northvolt is bringing its volts to North America: The global battery-building boom includes Swedish company Northvolt building a new facility in the United States. The company…
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Aug 23, 2023
LatAm 'plays on hard mode' according to VC Mercedes Bent
This week, Mary Ann spoke with Mercedes Bent, Partner on the early stage team at Lightspeed Ventures and co-lead of Lightspeed’s LatAm region and angel fund. The pair chewed through a number of topics, including:
* How and why Mercedes started investing in Latin America, and why she thinks the region is more resilient than others
* Why we're early in the hype cycle when it comes to the intersection of AI and fintech
* Why generative AI and fintech aren't always the best combination and much more.
Equity is back on Friday with our weekly news roundup! Talk to you then!
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__ and more!_
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Aug 21, 2023
Equity Monday: Robotaxis hit a speed bump and IPOs are back on the menu
Our Monday show covers the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. Here’s the rundown from this morning, with real news from the crypto-front, and even a neat startup round to round it out!
* Stocks are up in most of the world, China apart. The Chinese economy is a real topic of conversation lately, mostly centered around concerns regarding credit appetite, debt levels, housing costs, and government activity.
* In the crypto-world, prices are sharply lower compared to a week ago, and Recur is no more.
* The partial retrenchment of Cruise in San Francisco is a bummer, but given how poor human drivers are here's hoping that progress doesn't slow on the self-driving front.
* IPOs are back? Kinda, maybe, and perhaps. The good news is that recent data from Instacart and Databricks indicate that we could see some filings soon.
* And to close out, Threads is coming to the desktop web while Enough put together a big round for mushroom-…
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Aug 18, 2023
Some good news, some Better.com news
This week Mary Ann and Alex were joined by our regular guest host Kirsten Korosec.
Here's what the gang got into:
* FTX's former CEO SBF is heading to jail: We struggled to find much pity for the former celebrity executive.
* Better.com is going public: After much controversy Better.com's SPAC merger is a go. The deal is a fundraising mechanism by our understanding, though we had a bit of a tough time coming up with a bull case for the company in the present moment.
* Monday.com's growth: Alex has kept tabs on the earnings cycle as always, which led him to write rather kind things about Monday.com's most recent quarterly results. In short, the former startup is posting quick _and_ cutting its losses _and_ generating lots of cash. What's not to like?
* Vinfast went public, and investors are stoked: Another SPAC deal for the list today is the Vinfast debut. Vietnamese EV company Vinfast is now worth more than many major auto companies, despite falling revenues and massive unpro…
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Aug 16, 2023
The software market, AI moats, and when to go public with Amplitude CEO Spenser Skates
This week, Alex had Amplitude CEO Spenser Skates on the show to talk about the SaaS market journey since his company went public in late 2021, which happened to be right before investor sentiment changed.
After a successful IPO, Amplitude warned analysts and investors alike in early 2022 that it was seeing some macroeconomic pressure, which led to its stock being sharply repriced. (That happened to most companies eventually, to be fair.)
Since then, the digital analytics company has shaken up its organizational structure, launched new AI products, and has continued to grow while becoming cash flow positive. All that made Skates the perfect person to talk about:
* The current state of the business software buyer, and when Skates expects demand for digital goods and services to improve.
* When to charge for AI products, and when not to; also, the power of data moats in AI, and how they may be more durable than they are in other areas of SaaS.
* How to know when you have to cut…
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Aug 14, 2023
Equity Monday: Another $100M for AI, why not
Here’s the rundown from this morning:
* Worries about the Chinese economy dragged down Asian shares this morning; the equity picture was more mixed in Europe and the United States. Meanwhile, why is crypto so slow lately? What happened to price volatility?
* On the earnings front, we're looking ahead to Monday.com, Getty, Cisco, Bill.com and Palo Alto Networks this week.
* News that Anthropic is raising another $100 million got us talking about a few other AI rounds that are in the pipeline; the gist is that there is a _lot_ of money flowing around AI startup-land these days.
* Indian electronics manufacturing is making real strides, Mastercard is buying some African fintech, and the better.com SPAC is a go.
It's going to be yet another busy week, so strap in and let's go!
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Sp…
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Aug 11, 2023
Ladies and gentlemen: the dregs of the SPAC boom
This week Mary Ann and Alex got into a mix of growth stories, and some less-than-winsome on the startups that are not having the best 2023:
* How Lula went frugal and set itself up for a massive up-round in 2023: Mary Ann's recent reporting on Lula was perfect Equity material as it dealt with capital in motion, and a quickly-growing startup. Even more notably, Lula is in the insurtech space, part of the fintech world that has had an up-and-down few years.
* Weights & Biases raises $50M: Back in the day if a startup raised a big round, and then a smaller round afterwards, we would have worried a little. Today's venture market feels a little bit different. So, MLOps startup Weights & Biases has added $50 million more to its coffers, and we didn't fret too much on the round coming in light compared to its previous tranche. Summing our views, anything ML and AI is hot today, and Weights & Biases is well known. This round was not a shocker.
* BlueJeans folds: Remember when Verizon bo…
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Aug 9, 2023
Maybe we shouldn't sue away DEI in venture
This week, Dominic-Madori Davis came back on the show to chat with Mary Ann and Alex about two of her latest pieces:
* A lawsuit targeting a grant program that provided small checks to Black women small-business owners. The context here is that there's a movement in the United States to curtail programs that seek to provide access, or opportunity to underrepresented peoples in business and education. Given venture's somewhat embarrassing investment demographics, we struggled to understand the seeming animus behind the suit.
* Some countries are taking a different track, including the United Kingdom. Dom has more on that topic here.
Equity is back on Friday with our weekly news roundup! Talk to you then!
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a…
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Aug 7, 2023
Equity Monday: Have we reached peak smartphone?
Here’s the rundown from this morning, which saw Alex catching up from a few days off last week:
* Earnings season is slowing down, while global stocks slip to start the week. Crypto is not doing _too _much to start the week, but do recall that Coinbase earnings came last week.
* Peak smartphone? In the wake of Apple earnings, questions linger regarding just what is ahead for smartphones and what could get that market moving again. Thankfully for Apple shareholders, the company has done yeoman’s work to build out a services and subscription business. Enough to compensate? Perhaps.
* A controversial privacy-Internet law in India passed.
* Triller’s IPO is going to be fun, though your humble podcast team have yet to fully dive into it.
* And, finally, how do you get a shareholder off your cap table while respecting their upside? Like this!
We may be deep in Disrupt prep, but the show continues! We’ll see you Wednesday (and on day one, when Equity will kick off our majo…
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Aug 4, 2023
Chain Reaction: Ripple’s chief legal officer talks SEC lawsuit, XRP ‘win’ and future regulation (w/ Stu Alderoty)
Today, we're bringing you an episode of our sister podcast, Chain Reaction.
Chain Reaction unpacks and dives deep into the latest trends, drama and news in crypto with some of the biggest names in the industry to break things down block by block for the crypto curious.
Jacquelyn interviewed Stu Alderoty, chief legal officer of Ripple Labs.
Stu spent most of his career working for traditional financial institutions in legal roles at firms like CIT Group, American Express and HSBC and left that world in 2019 to join Ripple.
Ripple has been around since 2012, but has been making headlines lately for the recent federal court ruling that stated the XRP token, which is linked to Ripple, is not a security when sold to the general public but can be treated as a security for past XRP sales to institutional clients.
We broke down the nitty gritty details of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York federal court ruling for Ripple and what it means for the company, XRP to…
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Aug 2, 2023
Yeah, but is that venture backable?
This week, Alex and Mary Ann had Sara Mauskopf on the show, the CEO and co-founder of the childcare marketplace, Winnie, and a former Postmates and Twitter denizen. Here’s what we got into:
* The progress of Winnie over time, and how it found its niche in the childcare market
* The state of care as a venture-backable category, and where startups can find the most impact and business results
* The reported issues at Papa and the pressures of fundraising-driven growth in care-oriented markets
* And, of course, why care work is not given its full due and value in our society.
We had a blast with this one. Thank _you_ for sticking with Equity for all these years. We’ll see you live at Disrupt!
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show…
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Jul 31, 2023
Equity Monday: Twitter's rebrand is a go, and we're Blazing Our Collective Glory
Our Monday show covers the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. Here’s the rundown from this morning!
* Stocks are higher around the world today, but the real story in equities is earnings. This week we are going to hear from AMD, Uber, Pinterest, Shopify, PayPal and Block, Apple and Amazon, Alibaba and Airbnb, Coinbase and Cloudflare. It’s a lot.
* In crypto-land, things are muted, but it appears that the Coinbase-SEC lawsuit had a bit more behind it than we first realized.
* Tiger is out of Flipkart, selling its remaining stake to Walmart for $1.4 billion. The American investor did well on its Flipkart investment.
* Fidelity has cut the value of its investment in Gupshup, but remarked its Reddit, Discord and X investments up some. So, the news is not all bad.
* Twitter’s rebrand is a go on the App Store and the social app has a new tagline that we alluded to in today’s episode title, while Shein and Temu fight it out…
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Jul 28, 2023
It's always earnings season if you look hard enough
We had our friend and colleague Kirsten Korosec on the podcast this week, meaning that Mary Ann and Alex got to stretch their legs a bit and talk things that move _and_ beep and boop. Here's what we got into:
* Deals of the Week: AngelList bought Nova, taking the well-known venture service into the more traditional private equity realm; Waymo is focusing on self-driving cars instead of trucks, which has Mary Ann worried; and Alex wanted to talk about interest rates.
* On the subject of Earnings: Guess what? AI costs are here, AI revenues are coming as the ad market recovers. For big tech earnings thus far have generally gone well, though not perfectly.
* Do not miss GM news from the transit desk, of course!
* And we wrapped with some interesting analysis from the TechCrunch+ team on how funds of funds might be one way to get more LP capital into diverse venture funds.
Whew, what a week y'all. It's hot and we are tired, but we had a blast recording this for you. Talk more Mond…
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Jul 26, 2023
What’s next for social media from someone who’s Extremely Online
This week, Alex had Washington Post columnist Taylor Lorenz on to chat about her upcoming book, _Extremely Online_, the history of online platforms, and the rise of creators.
We've covered the creator economy a few times on the podcast over the years, but this addition to our historical coverage is more than worth inclusion. Here's what we got into:
* All the cool kids are pre-ordering Lorenz's book, which you can find here.
* Why online work has always been treated like a sideshow: While culture is often created -- or born -- online, there's a disconnect between historical centers of authority and influence, and where it's bubbling up today.
* The rise and fall of Vine: Vine's massive rise and later implosion is a technology story, a startup story, and the saga of how a platform's userbase and its leadership can often be on different pages. In a sense Vine was a warning of what we'd see later on when it came to platforms winding up at odds with the very folks driving attention…
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Jul 24, 2023
Please re-xeet this podcast episode
Here’s the rundown from this morning:
* Stocks are mixed around the world: Chinese equities sold off while American shares were set to rise at the open. A massive run of earnings this week should shake up the stock market for tech companies and their traditional brethren alike.
* In crypto-land, prices are back to where they were pre-XRP decision. I don't know what to make of that, but do know that Worldcoin is still a thing and is now actually out.
* Twitter's new brand: All hail X, I suppose. Musk's work to defenstrate what we all knew about Twitter, the company is being rebranded to X, which the company intends to be a superapp of sorts. Cool if it works, embarrassing if not.
* Spotify is finally raising prices, and all I can say is thank god. It was getting weird to get all the world's music for what felt like a song. I want to pay more making the price hike welcome, if still far smaller than it should be.
* SF really is the new AI hub.
Ahead we have Disrupt, which is…
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Jul 21, 2023
That's capitalism, baby!
Here's what we got into today:
* Deals of the Week: Layoffs at Cameo, where fintech valuations are today and where they are going, and Egnyte's slow-burn path to an IPO.
* The end of VanMoof: Raising a lot of money doesn't necessitate a startup's success. Such is the case with VanMoof, which raised nine-figures and built and sold e-bikes. Now it is no more, and we have questions.
* CEO turnover: As the CEO of OnlyFans steps down, the gang dug into when a CEO can or should step down. Certainly some companies do best, for example, with long-term leadership by a founder. But not all.
* Generative AI and the writer's strike: It turns out that we're bigger South Park fans than we knew as a group, but that's not really the point. What matters is that a recently released 'AI-generated' episode of the show is driving a conversation today concerning how critical — or not — humans are to the creative process. Google is also busy here.
And that's the end of the week! Equity is back…
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Jul 19, 2023
Venture's Q2 was calm (and that's not good)
So, what happened in venture capital-land during Q2 2023? A lot, and not very much. We got PitchBook venture guru Kyle Stanford to come back on the podcast to riff with us on the good, the bad, and the late-stage.
Here's what we got into:
* How did American venture perform in Q2 2023? Welcome to the new normal, and why that's actually bad news.
* How are Seed deals faring, and what about later-stage transactions?
* How bad is the slow pace of exits today, and what impact will they have on venture capital fundraising itself? More on the topic here.
* And, any green shoots popping up? Here's a rundown of what could be considered good news.
You can read the underlying dataset we were riffing on here, and we are back on Friday with the news roundup! Chat soon!
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all th…
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Jul 17, 2023
Equity Monday: Intel backs robotics startup, Twitter loses money, and fintech shows signs of life
Hello, and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Our Monday show covers the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. Here’s the rundown from this morning!
* Stocks are largely down around the world following weak Chinese economic data for the second quarter. We’re also heading back into an earnings cycle, so get ready to hear from Tesla and Netflix this week, among other major names.
* In crypto-land, the XRP/Ripple partial victory drove a short-lived boomlet for many crypto tokens; XRP is the clear winner from last week.
* Twitter is cash-flow negative, per its CEO, but the company intends to double-down on paying individual tweeters for their high-view activities.
* While Twitter molts, Threads continues to grow like a weed. Speaking of Meta, the company is in trouble in Norway.
* On the startup front, Intel invested in Figure, which w…
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Jul 14, 2023
We're in the pruning phase of tech layoffs
Here's the rundown from Mary Ann and Alex:
* A new Chinese AI model had us wondering who is really going to win the AI war and whether governments will play a role — perhaps not the role that they are expecting.
* A founder that Founders Fund funded is now funding other founders at Founders Fund: Yep.
* Sticking to the venture theme, is it possible for AI models in venture to actually create a less biased landscape for entrepreneurs? Connetic Ventures thinks so!
* Two bits of good news: Tech layoffs have dramatically slowed, and slowing inflation could herald the end of interest rate hikes, which could bolster tech valuations. Or at least cut _some _of the pressure.
* Finally, as Twitter does what it usually does when a rival service takes off, we asked ourselves how other social media services are doing. We are more familiar with some than others.
As always, Equity will be back for you bright and early Monday morning. Talk soon!
_For episode transcripts and more, head t…
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Jul 12, 2023
Is ChatGPT the iBeer of LLMs?
This week we had a very special guest on the podcast: Matthew Lynley, one of the founding hosts of Equity and a former TechCruncher. Since his Equity days, Lynley went off and started his very own AI-focused publication called Supervised.
We brought him back on the show to ask him questions in a format where we can all learn together. Here’s what we got into:
* From Transformers to GPT4: How attention became so critical inside of neural networks, and how transformers set the path for modern AI services.
* Recent acquisitions in the AI space, and what it means for the “LLM stack:” With Databricks buying MosaicML and Snowflake already busy with its own checkbook, a lot of folks are working to build out a full-stack LLM data extravaganza. We talked about what that means.
* Where startups sit in the current AI race: While it’s great to think about the majors, we also need to know what the startup angle is. The answer? It’s a little early to say, but what is clear is that…
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Jul 10, 2023
Equity Monday: People like Threads
Here’s the rundown from this morning:
* The global stock market is looking mixed, with the leading piece of financial news dealing with inflation data in the Chinese market.
* On the crypto side of things, there are no massive price movements in key tokens to examine. That said, the NFT market has been turbulent in the last few days due to incentive changes as a key marketplace.
* An FYI: We are back in earnings season, but there’s little to report on the tech side of things this week. Expect the pace to pick up next week.
* Ant has a new valuation thanks to a choice to offer share buybacks to existing backers. It’s still worth nearly $80 billion, just a lot less than it might have been valued at back in its 2020 IPO that got scuttled.
* People like Threads: The new social service from Meta has reached the 100 million sign-up mark rapidly. More on threads here on the TC Podcast.
* In Startup-Land: FrontRow is shutting down in another blow to Indian edtech, while Prop…
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Jul 7, 2023
Hey, stuck startups, reducing growth could make you less fundable
We're switching things up and bringing you _two_ interviews this week, so let's niche down to a single person, think about their work and unpack the rest.
Mary Ann took the lead this time, and she sat down (virtually) with Immad Akhund, the CEO and co-founder of Mercury. For those who are unfamiliar, the fintech made headlines earlier this year for how it stepped in to help fill the business banking void left in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse.
Here's what the pair caught up on:
* Mercury's impressive growth in the months since SVB crashed
* Lessons learned from Immad's angel investing experience
* What Immad calls the "Startup Death Spiral" and how to escape it
As always, Equity will be back for you bright an early Monday morning. Talk soon!
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the ca…
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Jul 5, 2023
Steering through venture's global correction with the GPCA's CEO
Long-time Equity listeners and TechCrunch readers should be familiar with LAVCA, and association of capital managers in the Latin America region. We have reported on its data a number of times. Well, it turns out that LAVCA is part of the larger Global Private Capital Association, which keeps tabs on a host of markets that we're working to cover more carefully as startup activity becomes an increasingly global phenomenon.
So to cap off the second quarter, and to get our claws into what is going on around the world, we had Cate Ambrose, the CEO of the GPCA on the show to riff with us about Asia and Africa and Latin America and Central and Easter Europe. Here's what we wanted to find out:
* How wild was the 2021-era venture peak in less mature startup markets?
* How resilient are smaller startup ecosystems in a more conservative venture and macroeconomic environment?
* Are we seeing green shoots anywhere in the world? Or put another way, where is the rebound kicking off?
* We c…
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Jun 30, 2023
Well done, Pismo and Visa! You gave SoftBank a win
Mary Ann and Alex are back for another busy news week chock full of deals to chew through.
Here's the rundown:
* Deals of the Week: We think that the idea behind the recently-funded Honey Homes is excellent, but we're split about the cost. We also went over Gusto's latest financial achievements and its plans to team up with Remote.
* Fintech M&A: The biggest deal of the week in fintech was Visa's purchase of Pismo. We haven't had unicorn-level acquisitions lately, so this one was welcome. Elsewhere in the space, Brex has brought on board a former SVB and a16z denizen, and Ramp bought Cohere.io (not this Cohere, the other one).
* Other M&A: But those weren't the only deals. Databricks bought MosaicML, IBM bought Apptio, and ThoughtSpot has acquired Mode Analytics.
* Help, my unicorn is starving: We closed with Alex's look at the declining funding to unicorn and web3 startups, as well as Rebecca Szkutak's latest on the secondary market in the process.
Equity will be back on We…
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Jun 28, 2023
Nubank's CEO explains what the US could learn from LatAm fintech
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single person, think about their work and unpack the rest. Mary Ann is taking over today's interview with David Vélez, the co-founder and CEO of Nubank, the $35 billion Sao-Paulo, Brazil-based digital bank that offers credit cards, checking accounts and life insurance to consumers.
Equity listeners know that digital banking has been on our minds for some time now, so naturally we were excited to have David on the show. Here's what we got into:
* How Nubank has achieved -- and maintained profitability -- in this challenging macroeconomic environment
* How not only the LatAm fintech market differs from that of the U.S., but how founders in the region operate their businesses differently from their U.S. counterparts
* The state of digital banks in general and how David sees banking evolving in the next few years from the lens of both a founder and former investor (he once led Sequoia Capital's Latin American investments).
Mary…
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Jun 26, 2023
Equity Monday: Crypto ticks higher, fintech gets interesting again and fraud is still bad
Here's the rundown for the very last Equity Monday of Q2 2023:
* Crypto's mini-boom in the last week comes after a brutal few weeks of negative headlines; for the crypto-faithful, it must be a breath of fresh air.
* Startups: IRL was a digital fraud, Vanta is a unicorn to watch after quick ARR growth and a resulting valuation has grown into, and TreasurySpring is riding a changing macroeconomic climate to rapid fintech growth.
* As Amazon pledges more investment in India, we're seeing a lot of other big economic pieces move. Other American companies are pledging big dollars to the country as Japan looks to buy one of its domestic chip companies, and American investors are putting capital into their own domestic silicon players.
* Finally, Apptio is selling to IBM for $4.6 billion.
Whew! That's a lot, but we had a good time and will see you back here on Wednesday!
All the cool kids are filling out the Equity listener survey. We want to hear from you!
_For episode transcripts…
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Jun 23, 2023
Dropbox hearts AI, the creator-platform wars and why we’re bullish on fake booze
Mary Ann and Alex are back, and once again this week they tapped the TechCrunch roster for expert input. This week were lucky enough to have Kirsten Korosec back on the podcast. She's TechCrunch's mobility lead, hosts a podcast of her own, and is one of our favorite humans.
Here's the rundown:
* Deals of the Week: Mary Ann wanted to talk about Robinhood buying X1, a deal that seemed inexpensive but we lack enough numbers for full confidence; Alex wanted to riff on Dropbox's new AI fund, even if it does feel a little small; and Kirsten had notes for the team on Cruise's latest app rollout. Even if Mary Ann and Alex cannot find a way to agree on self-driving cars, we all thought that the Cruise bus is cute.
* Twitch and Reddit try to balance corporate requirements with community power: Building off our recent show digging into the creator economy, the crew tackled the latest from Twitch (a new creator-corporate revenue split of sorts) and Reddit (where the battle between the compan…
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Jun 21, 2023
The startup boom failed to build a creator utopia
Before we get started: all the cool kids are filling out the Equity listener survey. We want to hear from you!
On today's episode, Alex had Eric Silver, Head of Creative at the podcast collective Multitude on the show to help us sort through:
* What the hell happened with Spotify's big podcast push, and its resulting layoffs.
* Why tech platforms have not yet found a way to make creative work lucrative enough to engender a new 'creator middle class.'
* The state of the ad market, and its impacts on creative work more generally.
Towards the end we had a moment to comment on AI, but we kept that somewhat far from our central theme.
Long-time Equity listeners will recall that we've covered the creator economy a few times on the show and the blog, including:
* Yeah, funding for creator-focused startups is drying up [blog]
* F*ck creator funds, we need a creator index fund [Equity]
* Not every creator economy startup is built for creators [blog]
And if you need even more,…
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Jun 20, 2023
Alibaba shakes up its leadership, OpenAI lobbies EU regulators, and the late-stage market is a mess
This time 'round we are here on a Tuesday due to an American holiday! Here's the rundown from Alex:
* Stocks are mixed the world around as central banks tinker with interest rates to try and tune their domestic economies. The crypto world remains muted.
* Alibaba's shakeup: The CEO of the Chinese tech conglomerate is leaving that role to run its cloud business, which is one of the pieces of the company that will be spun out.
* Intel managed to extract a handsome package from Germany in exchange for building a plant in the country.
* OpenAI is working to limit the impact of EU AI regulation on its products and services.
* No one wants to buy Tiger's startup stakes en masse, so it is reduced to selling loosies to anyone who wants them.
* Go-Ventures is now Argor Capital, and it has a new $240 million fund.
* And funding rounds from Yellow and ElevenLabs as Byju's cuts more staff.
Don't forget, all the cool kids are taking our listener survey. Head here to make your voice…
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Jun 9, 2023
Sequoia does to itself what the Biden administration wants to do with Google
All the cool kids are filling out the Equity listener survey. We want to hear from you!
It was a hectic week, with little in the way of the traditional Summer Slowdown making itself known. So, here's what Alex and Mary Ann covered with some help from our dear friend Jacquie Melinek:
* WWDC in a nutshell: In case you missed it, Apple had a big event this week. On tap were the usual run of software updates, and improved computers in both laptop and desktop format. And, you know, that other thing.
* Affirm partners with Amazon (again): This is not Affirm's first tie-up with Amazon, but investors are pretty excited that the pair of companies are once again linking arms. As we continue to wait for mega-unicorn Klarna's IPO — more notes here — we are keeping our ears close the BNPL ground.
* Cava's IPO continues to delight Alex: What has an IPO coming up and has this little podcast in a tizzy? Yep, it's Cava, the fast-casual chain that, thanks to a dollop or two of venture capita…
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Jun 8, 2023
Charting the future of the early-stage venture market with Carta’s CEO
This week, we had Carta CEO Henry Ward on to chat through the early-stage market with us.
Alex had a grip of data and a sheaf of questions, so here's what we got into:
* The current state of the early-stage venture capital market: From Ward's perspective, the early-stage market is in better shape than many folks think. It's the later-stages of venture capital that are the most moribund. We also riffed on the quality of startups that are raising today, and how much pain is coming for young tech companies that can't quite attract more capital.
* Carta's new Seed and Series A product: Carta is offering a mostly-automated method of closing early-stage rounds; we wanted to better understand the economics of the effort, and what the unicorn hopes to achieve from the work.
* We closed with a look ahead, and a series of fun closing questions with Ward.
That's just the high-level summary. We also discussed entrepreneurship more broadly, the importance of LLCs, and even how to construct…
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Jun 5, 2023
Equity Monday: Revenge of the Mutual Funds
Here’s what Alex got into today:
* Stocks are mixed around the world this morning while crypto stays pretty flat. Earnings this week that we’re excited about include Gitlab, Couchbase, Yext, Smartsheet, and Hashicorp. (We’re also keeping an eye on the Atomic Wallet hack.)
* Reddit’s proposed API changes (charges, more like) are having a pretty big impact on the service’s userbase; there are calls for a blackout of certain forums in response to the proposed updates. Reddit, on the other hand, is a business and needs to make money.
* Sticking to social media, news broke this morning that Twitter’s revenues are down sharply compared to year-ago totals, at least when we consider its American advertising incomes. Twitter does more than just ads in North America, but given that it’s likely a pretty big chunk of its total top line, it’s not good news.
* Canva’s valuation was slashed by a mutual fund (something that we have seen a lot lately), the latest in a string…
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Jun 2, 2023
Okay startup names and why fintech is rebounding
Mary Ann and Alex were a busy pair this week, so much so that they tagged in Dominic-Madori Davis from the TechCrunch+ crew to help out.
Before we kick things off, our listener survey is back! If you can, please take a moment to let us know what you want more of, what you want less of, and how we can make this the kind of podcast you want to come back to every week.
Now, here's what we got into:
* Fraud is bad: Elizabeth Holmes is in jail, and the SEC wrapped insider trading charges against a former Coinbase staffer. Our take? Breaking business law is bad and perhaps people should not do it. Controversial, we know.
* Deals of the Week: Alex is enamored with Web Roulette, while Mary Ann wanted to talk about Stripe's deal to buy Okay.
* Klarna's Q1 2023 results led Alex to share some enthusiasm that the fintech market could be rebounding, a topic that he's been going on about for some time.
* QED's plans to invest its new funds carefully is a clear example of the new investing…
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May 31, 2023
SecureSave's secret weapon: Suze Orman
This week, Mary Ann hopped on the mic with number one New York Times best selling author, producer, personal finance thought leader, and host of the Women & Money podcast, Suze Orman. We’re following up on Suze’s not-so-surprising-startup debut with SecureSave, what the company’s been up to and how Suze is thinking about protecting employees in today’s economy.
Here’s what we got into:
* How little money many Americans have saved for emergencies and how SecureSave wants to change that
* How inflation may be making it harder for people to save when they have less money to do so
* We ended, as always, with a “lightning” round Q&A in which Suze revealed her secret weapon for success
For the startup founders listening, today is your last chance to apply to the Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023! Fill out those applications while you still can, and Mary Ann and Alex will be back Friday to close out your week with a special guest.
_For episode transcri…
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May 30, 2023
Equity Monday: AI can do everything, but can crypto do something?
This week, crypto prices are static, unlike a particular valuation and Alex is still mad about SPACs. Here's the rundown:
* Stocks around the world are happy that America is once again going to avoid a default; congrats, United States.
* At the same time, the crypto market is a bit boring right now, due in large part to muted trading volumes as the crypto winter tests new low temperatures.
* No one knows what Byju's is worth, but Blackrock is marking its price in one consistent direction.
* Serve Robotics is having a good run as a startup, partnering up with its prior parent company.
* The WSJ has some great data on SPACs that drove us nuts.
Whew. What a way to start the week! We are back tomorrow!
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a…
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May 26, 2023
Daylight's sunset and Meta's year of focus
Mary Ann and Alex were a dynamic duo this week, and here's what they got into:
* The fascinating backers of Checkmate, and the future of online shopping: Mary Ann covered a very interesting Series A for Checkmate, a startup that not only has shown real legs on the competitive App Store, but also on social media platforms far and wide.
* Cava's IPO won't save the IPO market, but it could help all the same: Alex is so IPO-deprived that he's drawing connections between anything that files and the startup market. This time it's not even that much of a stretch!
* Daylight calls it quits: From the 'not a huge surprise' category comes the end of Daylight, a neobank aimed at the LGBTQ+ market that has been struggling for a while yet. This begged the question _are themed neobanks going to make it_?
* Layoffs, Layoffs, Layoffs: Soundcloud is cutting staff to get to profitability, which we can understand. Meta is cutting staff because it, well, wants to conserve capital for more share bu…
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May 24, 2023
When will the paper unicorns fold?
This week, Alex sat down with GGV Capital's Jeff Richards, an investor who has perspective on the last venture boom and the resulting dénouement of that particular saga that we've been covering since the end of 2021. Richards has been an investor since 2008, so he's seen a business cycle or two, which convinced us that he'd be the perfect person to discuss the diverging fates of late-stage startups.
Here's what we got into:
* The idea that all unicorns are in trouble is wrong; some late-stage startups got it right.
* What this means for some eventual IPOs, and for those that didn't, likely some liquidations as well (some examples here, but the list is longer than that post outlines).
* We also talked about the existence of unifying characteristics at late-stage startups that are doing well, and how to note early signals that the venture climate is about to molt.
As always, Equity will be back on Friday with your weekly news round up, but until then, you can catch us on Twitte…
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May 22, 2023
Equity Monday: Meta and data, chips and dips, and crypto and meltdowns
Today, we are talking about Meta’s latest fines, what’s new in chips, and a few startup rounds that caught our eye!
* Stocks aren’t moving too much this morning, which could change if the American government voluntarily defaults over some bullshit. Crypto hasn’t moved too much lately, though we are keeping tabs on overall trading volume.
* Meta was hit with a record fine over how it handled EU user data. Data residency is a big deal and will likely crop up in future conversations concerning generative AI models and where they source their own data and from whom.
* China has banned some Micron products, irking the United States. The two economic powerhouses are working to distance themselves from one another in key technology areas. Elsewhere in chip-land, Applied Materials is investing in the United States and there are labor concerns regarding the sheer number of chips projects kicking off here at home.
* Patient21 raised a massive round for its software-and-services…
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May 19, 2023
The billionaires are trying to live longer… again
This week Mary Ann, Becca, and Alex gathered to chew through the biggest news of the week. Here’s what the gang got into today:
* Vice goes bankrupt: Now is not a great time for media companies. The advertising market is in the toilet, layoffs are rampant, and the end of Vice is like a cherry atop a trash sundae. Mary Ann points out during the show that some operational difficulties were at play at the company. Here’s a real unicorn death for us to stare at.
* Deal Dive: AI. AI coaching. AI human _relationship_ coaching? It’s a thing, and whether or not it is the future, we have questions.
* Freshly-Nestle: How often do you see a venture firm sue an acquirer? Not very often. We dig into the what and why of the Freshly suit.
* Why is Musk buying other companies? What do you do if you buy a company and fire most of its staff? You buy a tech jobs platform, it turns out.
* NewLimit and the limits of life: NewLimit is a company that Alex likes. Why? Because he doesn’t wan…
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May 17, 2023
In a more conservative venture capital market, will big tech step up?
This week, Alex spoke to two guests from the world of Microsoft for Startups - GM, Hans Yang, and Senior Director, Tom Davis. We're working to figure out how big tech corporations are playing in the startup sandbox, starting with the launch of Microsoft's Pegasus program.
Here's what we got into:
* Why programs like Pegasus are particularly helpful for startups in a conservative VC market
* The mutually beneficial relationship between the large tech players and startups
* The close relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI
As always, Equity will be back on Friday with your weekly news round up, but until then, you can catch us on Twitter @EquityPod
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__. _
_Equity drops at 7:00 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify __and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__, one that __det…
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May 15, 2023
Equity Monday: Vice files for bankruptcy, Foxconn's investment in India, and two fascinating startup rounds
This week we talked about media, startup rounds and some Big Money Moves:
* Stocks are mostly up to start the week while crypto remains within the bounds of its recent trading range. Again.
* Vice has filed for bankruptcy, again highlighting how hard the media game can be. The company's eventual selling price looks like it will be a fraction's fraction of its once great worth.
* Foxconn is investing more in India, underscoring how critical it is for major electronics supply chain companies to diversify out of China — and the immense costs involved.
* Brex took a shot at buying part of SVB's portfolio, TechCrunch reports.
* Startup rounds: Smart raised $95 million at a slight discount to its 2021-era valuation and M-KOPA secured a pile of equity and debt fundraising.
* And we closed with the interesting sale of Forbes.
Equity will be back on Wednesday and Friday! We'll see you then!
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity…
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May 12, 2023
Venture-backed everything for real world problems, please
This week Mary Ann, Natasha and Alex celebrated one final episode as a three, and here's what we got into:
* Deals of the Week: Alex wanted to talk about the slowing of growth amongst tech companies, Natasha had notes on a brace of new Mayfield funds, while Mary Ann brought Wellthy to the table.
* Next we discussed pessimism in fintech, if it is near its peak, and how companies like Petal are still forging ahead regardless of market chop.
* From there we dug into AI, how it will impact certain creative work, and what it could mean for tech workers who traditionally have not organized.
* And we closed with a very Natasha topic: Accelerators.
Natasha led us out of the show with a final Equity sign-off as she announced her time with the podcast, and TechCrunch, is coming to a close. We are going to miss her awfully, but are also her biggest fans and cheering her on!
Equity will be back before you know it, but in the meantime, you can catch us on Twitter @EquityPod. And for the…
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May 10, 2023
How do you know when it’s time to shut down?
This week, Natasha spoke to Kristen Anderson, the co-founder and CEO of Catch, an app to provide payroll benefits for people who are self employed, that recently announced it would be shutting down. We're talking about vulnerability, shut downs, building in public and on ramps and off ramps that come with the wild choice to be an entrepreneur.
Here's what we got into:
* Venture capital's role in how a founder builds
* Making the difficult decision to shut down, and why Catch chose to do so publicly
* We end with Anderson's return to building, in fintech, despite what her Twitter followers wish. Seems like being close to peak pessimism in fintech is a good thing for forever builders.
As always, Equity will be back on Friday with your weekly news round up - and a big announcement - so don't miss it! Until then, you can catch us on Twitter @EquityPod
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__. _
_Equity drops at 7:00 a.m. PT every Monday, Wedne…
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May 8, 2023
Equity Monday: Shrinking unicorns and the embarrassment of meme coins
Alex is back with the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. Today, we are talking about meme coins, unicorns and the latest from India!
* The global stock market started the week on pretty good footing. Also, the crypto world is suffering modest indigestion thanks to a new meme coin.
* On the regulatory front, it appears Coinbase is going to stick with the U.S. Elsewhere in Industry Land, Qualcomm is going shopping, Alibaba's logistics IPO is targeting the Hong Kong market, and the UK is digesting the fact that a local legend is going to list in the United States.
* From there, it was time to check in on some news, bad and good, from India.
We are going to see some interesting earnings results this week, so stay tuned! Equity will be back Wednesday morning!
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Po…
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May 5, 2023
Aaron Burr’s tech angle, blue skies, and no photos at this time
This week Mary Ann, Natasha and Alex got right into it with:
* An update on a startup banking partner collapse that wasn't the First, and probably won't be the Last
* A section dedicated to sunsetting Poparazzi and a Databricks acquisition (points to whoever can guess how we transitioned from one deal to the next)
* Next up, we spoke about Finix's latest announcement to go head to head with Stripe, before talking more about the rise of down rounds
* We ended with BlueSky. Although some of us feel grey about it. And regardless, this piece by Morgan Sung will have you thinking smartly about the new Twitter competitor started by the ol' Twitter boss.
We'll be back before you know it, but in the meantime, you can catch us on Twitter @EquityPod. And for the early stage founders out there, don't forget to apply for the Startup Battlefield 200 cohort at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023!
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__. _
_Equity drops at 7:00 a.…
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May 3, 2023
The outside advantage that your investor may be interested in
This week, Natasha Mascarenhas interviewed Sam Chaudhary, the founder of ClassDojo, and Chris Farmer, the founder and CEO of SignalFire, a venture firm that recently announced a $900 million fund to back tech startups. This interview is structured a bit differently as it was actually recorded as a TechCrunch Live session, our weekly show that focuses on helping people start better venture backed businesses.
We'll hear from the trio about:
* What an outsider advantage looks like in startups, per a top investor
* Why ClassDojo doesn’t see itself as an edtech company
* How Sam landed early traction with a difficult-to-capture consumer
* How both Sam and Chris are thinking through the AI question brewing in every office
If you want to check out the full video of today's conversation, including a round of Pitch Practice hosted by Matt Burns, head to our YouTube channel and stay tuned for more TechCrunch Live!
As always, the full Equity crew will be back on Friday, but you can…
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May 1, 2023
Equity Monday: Hey look, OpenAI is even richer now
Alex is back on the mic for your Monday rundown and digging into OpenAI, earnings, First Republic Bank, and ARM. Oh, and startups as well!
* It's another big earnings week, and we're excited to see how Uber, Coinbase, Apple and Hubspot have performed!
* First Republic Bank is no more. It wasn't shocking to see JPMorgan swooping it up, but we are once again seeing a small bank shutting shop and a big bank getting bigger. Not good!
* OpenAI is now even richer thanks to a $300 million investment from venture capitalists. It's amazing that the company sold just 1.1% of its equity for nine figures.
* And Alison raised capital just as AMD filed privately to go public. It's a busy start to the week!
Hugs, and we'll be back Wednesday and Friday.
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__._
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch…
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Apr 28, 2023
Is First Republic just a victim of SVB’s collapse?
This week Mary Ann, Natasha and Alex were especially chattery as they waded through a busy week in tech and startups. We're talking AI. We're talking layoffs. And we're talking coffee.
Here's what we got into:
* Three deals of the week from copyright requests around "-GPT" to Ansa, a wallet ready to make you even more loyal to your local cafes to First Republic Bank's tanking share price and all the thoughts that feel all too reminiscent of our reporting just six weeks ago.
* Fintech venture layoffs, and the state of startup hiring more generally. Based off of Mary Ann's scoop, we got into the nitty-gritty of just how much staff a venture firm needs, and why.
* Earnings! Alex has spent more time than is healthy reading through recent financial disclosures from tech companies big and small. The result? Decent news for startups.
* We end with notes on coffee. How does coffee fit into Equity? Well, when it's venture backed and growing, we don't care if it powered by beans or AI.…
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Apr 26, 2023
A modern take on what an entrepreneur can, and should, spend their time on
This week, Natasha interviewed Ankur Nagpal, the entrepreneur behind Teachable, Ocho, and Vibe Capital - Ankur's $70 million venture fund, raised last year from over 200 investors.
Today, we're talking about:
* The future of Solo GPs and Ankur's choice to shrink Vibe Capital's fund size
* How Ankur built, sold, pivoted and launched in public
* The upside of building in public vs building in private
* The importance of brand and succession
Of course, we ended with a lightning round of questions - including the meaning behind Ankur's tattoo.
As always, Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann will be back for our weekly news roundup on Friday, but you can follow us on Twitter @EquityPod for live updates and more.
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__. _
_Equity drops at 7:00 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__,…
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Apr 24, 2023
Equity Monday: Unpacking the Twitter blues
Today Alex Wilhelm is talking about Twitter Blue, Lyft, a few startup rounds, and what could kick off the next crypto supercycle.
* Several major tech companies are reporting earnings this week, strap in for some big news and perhaps even bigger share price movements.
* The Twitter Blue saga took new turns this weekend, with Musk's personal social network staying in the news once again. If the overall result of said news for the company is good or not remains to be seen.
* Alex had a few thoughts on what has happened to a number of tech-enabled companies that went public, and have since seen their value evaporate. More here.
* And then it was time to check in on Super.com's big new round, and the latest from Span!
Equity is back Wednesday and Friday! Chat soon!
For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast_,_ Spotify__and all the cas…
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Apr 21, 2023
Early Stage 2023: IRL is B-A-C-K
This week we recorded at Early Stage, TechCrunch's event for founders who are building startups from the ground up.
Sadly, our dear friend Natasha Mascarenhas took ill, and we had to lean on Alex for the episode. Happily, though, Darrell from the TechCrunch team was sitting next to us on the show floor so we tagged him in for some rocket knowledge.
Anyhoo, here's the run of show!
* All things Early Stage: Notes from the show floor, what we can infer about attendance and a vibe check.
* Elon's new, larger rocket went up (very good) and then went "boom" (not as good). Happily for the space race, the overall result of the launch was good. Rockets have a tendency to go boom when they are new, and it's a bit of the, well, testing process to have them do so. Sure, a _non-boom_ result would have been better, but SpaceX wasn't planning on trying to reuse the parts anyway.
* Tesla's earnings came out and investors are not that pleased. While there was some good stuff in the numerical s…
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Apr 19, 2023
Who captures the most value after the SaaS-acre? Enterprises or Startups?
Alex invited Janelle Teng from Bessemer Venture Partners on the program to riff with us on the state of the cloud.
That's also the title of Bessemer's latest data dump concerning cloud stocks, startups, AI, and more. Teng, a co-author on the report, walked through some of key bits with us to better explain her firm's perspective, and to answer our critical commentary regarding Figma and why startups should always kill Goliath, instead of joining him for a round of grapes and lounging.
You can find the report that we chatted about here, and our early notes thereof here. Finally, a rundown of topics:
* Is the valuation massacre that startups have survived since late 2021 finally over?
* Why is investor preference swinging back towards growth from profitability?
* What is the state of runway at late-stage startups?
* Is the M&A pause nearly over?
* And, naturally, AI and SaaS and where VCs see the pair heading!
See you at Early Stage tomorrow!
For episode transcripts and mo…
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Apr 17, 2023
Equity Monday: What's an Angry Bird worth?
Today we are talking about space, birds and startups! Here’s what Alex got into:
* Earnings season is coming back! That means Netflix and Tesla this week, and a huge number of big tech companies next week. Data cometh.
* We were very excited about the launch of SpaceX's massive rocket. It got scrubbed after we recorded, but you can still enjoy our hype about the potential event. We'll have more on the matter when the rocket actually does go up.
* Rovio is selling to Sega. Yeah, we had to digest that one as well. The sale price shows just how tough it is to be a games company.
* There's a lot of regulation going on out there in the world.
* And we wrapped with notes on Loopin and Fleet!
See you at Early Stage later this week!
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__. _
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast_,_ Spotify__and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a…
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Apr 14, 2023
Unicorns are rare, but what about real?
This week Mary Ann, Natasha and Alex enjoyed the warming climate and the fact that there are some positive vibes in the venture market as well. Hell, we even had a nine-figure round to chew on!
Here's the show rundown:
* Alex wanted to discuss the latest FTX docs and the recent X.com (formally known as Twitter) news.
* Natasha brought a new edtech venture fund to the table.
* Mary Ann wanted to talk about Clear Street's impressive fundraise.
* From there, we discussed that while the pace at which unicorns are being funded is in freefall, there are still some mega-IPOs coming from select late-stage startups. We will relish the return of S-1 season when it comes.
* From there it was time to chat AI. Natasha recently went to an AI event in San Francisco, helping us grok the on-the-ground dynamics at play. That, when crossed with different regulatory postures around the world made for a pretty darn interesting segment.
* And we closed with the opportunity that opportunity fun…
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Apr 12, 2023
Founders shouldn't have to choose between mental health and grit
This week, Natasha spoke with a founder, a psychiatrist and a venture capitalist about founder mental health, a topic that has been a conversation in Silicon Valley for as long as we can remember. The theme has gained renewed momentum due to the startup and venture downturn in general, and exacerbated by a bank failure that still has some folks reeling.
It's time for a check-in. Here's who we spoke with for today's show:
* Pioneer Mind's Naveed Lalani gave us the founder perspective on how to "hustle responsibly" with The Founder Mental Health Pledge, a call to action for investors to support founders in looking at their mental health as a business priority
* Psychiatrist Dr. Saumya Dave reminded us of the differences between - but also overlap of - therapy, executive coaching and group sessions
* Graham & Walker's Leslie Feinzaig helped us close out the show with the VC perspective and her own tools for wellness
This is, of course, a conversation we want to continue. If you h…
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Apr 10, 2023
The petty shall inherit the pennies
Today, we are talking about crypto, Uber, and how to be petty at scale. Here's what Alex got into:
* Around the world of capital, we're most confused at certain bits of price stability in the cryptocurrency markets. It feels a bit faux, if that makes sense.
* Where prices are less steady is the world of YC startups, where, once again, there's complaints amongst venture investors about the valuations that some of the earliest-stage tech companies out there are commanding. Perhaps a greater discount given the state of the world was anticipated.
* Uber is selling part of Careem in a deal worth $400 million. Uber wants to do things on wheels. A super app company, at least in the Middle East, it is not. But it is about to have a huge new bankroll.
* The Musk v. Substack battle took up much weekend oxygen, showing that it is often hard to retain one's free speech bonafides when you just don't want to anymore.
All that and there are new FTX docs! Huzzah! Let's have a good week, y'al…
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Apr 7, 2023
Don’t ever leak data, but especially if you’re building this type of startup
This was Y Combinator week in a sense, with the well-known accelerator showing off hundreds of startups over a two-day period. We had some thoughts about that. But! There was a lot more for Mary Ann, Natasha and Alex to dig into, so we have a little something for everyone today.
Here's the show notes, enjoy:
* First, support our sibling podcasts Found and Chain Reaction in the Webbys! They deserve it, and we're voting for them too.
* For our Deals of the Week, we had: Monument and Tempest shared patients’ private data with advertisers, Acorns buys GoHenry, and Alex has notes on how the Q1 venture capital market is shaping up.
* Looking for all the Y Combinator notes your heart could desire? You can find our favorites from days one and two at those links, and read this Natasha piece on why the Bay is Back.
* We also took the time to discuss the term 'demo day' for an event where there are no, you know, demos.
* Latin America was back on the show thanks to Mary Ann, giving…
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Apr 6, 2023
How hard was it to raise venture capital in Q1?
Alex filled in for Natasha as host this week, and to celebrate the end of Q1 2023 and the start of another earnings cycle, we invited PitchBook Senior Analyst Kyle Stanford onto the show. Stanford and his company are key providers of data concerning the domestic and global venture capital markets making him a perfect guest to help kickstart our look at recent venture results, and trends.
We had a lot to talk about:
* Where early-2023 venture aggregates are trending, including a chat about different stages of startup size and how investors are approaching those groups.
* Sectors that are hot and sectors that are, well, not.
* When we might get an exit market that actually exists, again. And why Stanford popped our fading optimism that we could get more IPOs later this year.
And we had a good time. We hope that this episode helps you form an informed posture towards fundraising for, and operating your company.
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast w…
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Apr 3, 2023
Welcome to Q2, Equity family
Alex is back with the first episode of our Q2 run. Welcome to the new tranch of 2023!
* On the show today we riffed through the stock market and crypto sector. The gist? Shares are mixed here in the United States while major crypto tokens are not doing too much.
* In startup news, Paris is cracking down on e-scooters after a vote, Zamp Finance raised nearly $22 million for a neat way to keep startup cash safe and yield-friendly, and Fourthline reminded us that applied AI is a sentence that we are going to say again and again this year.
* Tesla's Q1 delivery and production numbers are out, and while the beat certain expectations the results come after price cuts. It will be curious to see what the new figures translate to in financial terms when we get the company's financial results.
* And then this a16z-Saudi Arabia thing that was a bit weird to chat about, but we took a stab at regardless.
The show is back Wednesday and Friday, we'll see you then!
_For episode transcripts…
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Mar 31, 2023
Burn, community, burn
AI? Crypto? Equity crowdfunding and former startup founders trying to bribe China? We had it all this week, friends, so please strap in and get ready for another catchup with your besties Mary Ann, Natasha and Alex. Here's the show rundown in case you want to play along as you listen:
* Deals of the Week: How Seed Checks could disrupt early-stage fundraising, notes on StellarFi's latest capital raise, and the end of the Lyft founders' operational saga.
* All about Substack and its equity crowdfunding round, an event that we have lots of good things to say about, and one complaint.
* Then there was crypto. Let's see: We WTF'd about the latest from FTX's SBF, CZ is in trouble, and more.
* And we closed with notes on an open letter asking for AI development work to pause — ha -— and had some fun with ChatGPT!
It was a hell of a week. We do it again starting Monday!
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__. _
_Equity drops at 7:00 a.m. PT…
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Mar 29, 2023
AI's moral compass with the responsible AI expert behind CredoAI
This week, Natasha interviewed a Jack of all trades in the AI world with a focus on governance: Navrina Singh. Navrina is the founder and CEO of CredoAI, a governance platform helping organizations monitor, measure and manage AI-introduced risks.
We're talking about:
* Navrina's wedge into the world of AI, and when governance went from a lonely conversation to a global focus.
* Her experience with Microsoft, observing how the EU AI Act's legislation is coming together, and her work as a member of the U.S. Department of Commerce National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee (NAIAC) - which advises President Biden and the National AI Initiative Office
* Regulation, responsible AI and getting over "AI hypocrisy"
* Casting fear aside as a motivator for change
* Navrina's thoughts on recent news in AI, including GPT-4's launch and Microsoft's ethical AI team layoffs.
As always, Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann will be back for our weekly news roundup on Friday, but you can foll…
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Mar 27, 2023
Not all unicorns are in trouble, just a lot of them
Alex had a lot of ground to cover from the weekend, so let's get started. Here's the rundown:
* The global stock market is mixed today, if leaning positive. Some concerns about global banks appear to be settling. In contrast, things are quiet on the crypto front.
* Salesforce is getting a reprieve from certain activist pressure after it took a cleaver to its staffing.
* The Silicon Valley Bank crisis is slowly coming to a close. TechCrunch has the latest on the sale of the former startup-friendly bank's commercial banking operations.
* In other tech news: France is cracking down on TikTok and other social apps, and some of Twitter's source code made its way onto GitHub.
* Finally, Turo is doing fine and could, ahem, drive us toward a reopening of the IPO market. Maybe more unicorns than we thought are going to be ok?
How about we have a relaxed week? That would be nice. Something slow and calm to end the quarter? We deserve it, after all!
_For episode transcripts and more,…
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Mar 24, 2023
Not-so-fake dry powder, AI and the future of DAOs
What did Mary Ann and Natasha and Alex dive into? Here's the rundown:
* A quick update on TikTok: The CEO of the popular social media service went before Congress today. It was a pretty darn hostile meeting. Alex caught a chunk of it live, and also has a few thoughts on the matter.
* From there it was time for our 'deals of the week' section, which today included Duolingo's new music product, a new DAO fund, and the latest eToro investment.
* Then it was time to talk payroll. We started with the Rippling deal to raise $500 million during the SVB crisis, and then discussed the larger HR tech space, which is both bigger and valuable than we realized.
* We closed with AI. So, so much AI. Everyone and their least favored parental unit is building a large language model, and TechCrunch is busy covering in all their glory, or lack thereof.
Whew! What a week. The show is back Monday morning. We'll see you there.
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast web…
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Mar 22, 2023
One of venture’s most iconic duos wants to have a word with you
Natasha interviewed one of venture's most iconic duos: Mitch Kapor and Freada Kapor Klein of Kapor Capital. The investors recently published a book, "Closing the Equity Gap: Creating Wealth and Fostering Justice in Startup Investing," connecting scrappy stories of entrepreneurs to their investment thesis to the returns that other venture capitalists are clamoring to land.
In today's episode, we're talking about:
* Their book and why the pair chose to do it now
* Mitch and Freada's broader thoughts on impact investing
* criteria for success and investor due diligence.
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__. _
_Equity drops at 7:00 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__, one that __details how our stories come together__ and more!_
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Mar 20, 2023
As banks totter, crypto is busy racking up gains
Alex is here to do our Monday show, a kickoff for the week that covers startup news, tech news and a little bit of the money that powers both. After a hectic few weeks, are we done with banking news? No, but there's some good news in the offing, at least.
* Banking stocks are whipsawing this morning, in the wake of the UBS-Credit Suisse deal, and First Republic's continued woes.
* The crypto markets have had a good few weeks, leading to asset price appreciation that has reignited crypto-Twitter.
* News that TikTok is now more popular than ever is compounded by massive gains in the popularity of other Bytedance apps in the United States. The CEO of TikTok goes before Congress this week.
* Parker is taking on the corporate card market with a focus on ecommerce, and neat repayment periods, while PitchBook wants to predict which startups are going to exit.
* And, interest rate hikes could cool in the coming quarters, which could help tech companies recover some value.
We're off…
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Mar 17, 2023
Don’t use Sam Altman and AI hype in the same sentence
This week, Alex and Natasha took the mic to talk about the slowest news cycle we've had since the beginning of the grocery delivery wars and WeWork. Just kidding.
Here's what we got into:
* The M&A spree that includes updates from Qualtrics, Cvent, and Mint Mobile. We're happy to see some M&A, even if we'd rather see more startup deals and IPOs.
* GPT-4. GPT-4. GPT-4. What's in a name and more from the world of AI, including where we're seeing companies race to build the new tech into their products.
* SVB collapse update, including what we are looking for next.
* And what Y Combinator's round of layoffs tells us about the accelerator scaling back from late stage. (More on the trend here.)
Busy few weeks, yeah? Don't forget to follow us on Twitter @EquityPod for live updates, and Alex will be back bright and early Monday morning with the latest.
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__. _
_Equity drops at 7:00 a.m. PT every Monday, Wedne…
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Mar 15, 2023
One founder's account of what is left behind from SVB's crash
This week, Natasha interviewed Series CEO Brexton Pham, who has been building a full-stack enterprise platform for institutions and enterprises since March 2021. Brexton was pushed out of stealth this week in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank's crash, which of course was the main topic of our conversation. What else did you expect?
Here's what we got into:
* How much trust do our banks deserve today, and how much has reasonable trust fallen in recent weeks?
* How startups can (and should) start diversifying their banks
* What questions Series and its competitors are getting from investors today
* The long-term impacts beyond SVB
Brexton also did a fantastic job of helping us zoom out and take a look at the past week from a refreshingly non-tech angle.
Follow us on Twitter @EquityPod for live updates, and as always, the Equity crew will be back to unpack the week's headlines on Friday.
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__. _
_Equity dr…
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Mar 13, 2023
The one where Alex and Natasha catch the Equity audience up on SVB
This is Alex and we are here to do our Monday show, a kickoff for the week that covers startup news, tech news and a little bit of the money that powers both. Given how bonkers the last few days have been, this is not a normal show. Sure, we're talking money up top, but I also dragooned Natasha into running us through her amazing reporting from over the weekend on all things SVB. (Please excuse the Friends joke in the headline, we are very tired!)
Here's what we got into:
* The stock market is suffering around the world, kinda. In the United States things when we recorded were somewhat positive. Since, shares have sank some. Put simply, the equity markets don't know how to trade the news. And it shows.
* Cryptos, in contrast, have had a great last day.
* From the news docket, Qualtrics' deal to sell for $12.5 billion is a go, and Rivian might get a little bit of breathing room from Amazon.
* And then Natasha and I dug into SVB. The first warning signs, the fear, the takeover,…
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Mar 10, 2023
Flat is the new up, down is the new flat, dead is the new down
This week Mary Ann Azevedo, Natasha Mascarenhas and Alex Wilhelm gathered to riff through the week’s biggest startup and venture news:
At the top of the show, we riffed about the situation at Silicon Valley Bank - which, of course, kicked off a little more after we wrapped our recording. So, more to come there. But we had other stories to get into:
* Deals of the Week: Roami (taking on Airbnb), Qualtrics (will it finally find its forever home?), the latest on the VC-AI affair (Upfront Summit recap).
* ADHD startups are a big thing now: From a browser to gamified help with to-dos, there's a host of startups in the market today looking to help folks get their work done, and life organized. We're big accessibility tech fans here at Equity, so this was right up our alley.
* How fintech investors are coping in the new venture climate: Mary Ann spoke to seven different fintech investors about the coming year, and where they are putting capital to work. The answer from many of them?…
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Mar 8, 2023
Dear startups, your developers and engineers are on an island
This week, Natasha interviewed Lizzie Matusov, the co-founder and CEO of Quotient, which wants to fix the "leaky pipeline problem" in tech onboarding that doesn't set up engineers for success. Yes, that's right, this week we're talking about the work needs, habits and aspirations of developers.
Here's a few topics we get into:
* The stereotype of a coder, and where collectivism contrasts with those characteristics.
* How Quotient is using research, not just aspiration, to fuel its onboarding process
* The status quo of tech jobs and if we're seeing employers question some of their pre-conceived notions
* Developer resistance to change and if engineers really do want to work together more
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity’s Simplecast website__. _
As always, the full Equity crew will be back on Friday, but you can keep up with us in the meantime on Twitter @EquityPod.
_Equity drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7:00 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us on…
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Mar 6, 2023
Equity Monday: We'd give an arm and a leg for an ARM IPO filing
Alex is here to do our Monday show, a kickoff for the week that covers startup news, tech news, and a little bit of the money that powers both. Sound good? Here's what we have for you this morning:
* Money: Stocks are mixed around the world, and the crypto world is muted after some price swings last week.
* IPO news: ARM, the chip design concern, may go public in the United States this year, raising $8 billion in the process. Given the importance of chips these days -- you may have heard! -- the company's debut could be a very big deal indeed.
* Startup news: Abound raised a simply massive fintech round that had our head snapping around in surprise, Wunderkind put together a big Series C for its marketing tech, and several African fintech companies have had better weeks.
* Finally, Tesla: More price cuts. It will be fascinating to see what impact recent price reductions at Tesla have on the company's gross margins in the first quarter. More when we get those numbers.
And that…
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Mar 6, 2023
Bonus Episode: Say Hello to the Startup Battlefield Winner
It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for—the winner is announced! In this episode, we get to know the winner of the 2022 Startup Battlefield competition. We’ll hear what’s next for their company and get insight from TechCrunch staff, VCs, and audience members on why they were the right choice.
_Be sure to check out all of the other podcasts in the TechCrunch Podcast Network: __Found__,__ Equity__,__ The TechCrunch Podcast__,__ Chain Reaction __and__ The TechCrunch Live Podcast__._
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Mar 3, 2023
Why hasn’t generative AI come up with something easier to say than “generative AI”?
Mary Ann, Becca, and Alex gathered to riff through the week's biggest startup and venture news. A big thank you to Becca for stepping in while Alex was on leave, and a note before we dive into topics that Natasha Mascarenhas will be back on the podcast next week!
Now, here's what we got into:
* Deals of the Week: Divert's $100 million round to tackle food waste, Trust & Will's $15 million round, and what's happening in the land of NFT sales.
* Boston: TechCrunch held a Boston City Spotlight this week, so we took a look at a few pieces that we wrote about the lovely city to our North. Boston for example has a pretty good list of reasons why it's worth considering as a place to build a startup, and investors in the area are pretty hyped about its resilience.
* AI, crypto, and venture hype cycles: The crypto venture capital boom has collapsed; but is there a new AI bubble forming? Not in the way that we expected, it turns out.
* Amazon and Better.com: Of all the things that we d…
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Mar 1, 2023
This is fintech's 'Noah's Ark Year'
Mary Ann is taking over while Natasha attends a summit in LA, and this week, she interviewed Mark Goldberg, partner and fintech lead at Index Ventures. Since 2015, Mark has spent his time investing in - and sitting on the boards of - financial services companies including Plaid, Persona, Lithic, Cocoon, and Pilot.
The duo talked about:
* The party that was 2021 and the hangover that was 2022
* Mark's Twitter prediction that raised some eyebrows _on _Twitter
* Why 2023 will be a survival of the fittest
Alex, Mary Ann, and Becca are back Friday with more Equity, but as always, you can keep up with us in the meantime on Twitter @EquityPod.
_For episode transcripts and more, head to __Equity's Simplecast website__. _
_Equity drops at 7:00 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__, one that __details how our sto…
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Feb 27, 2023
Bonus Episode: Getting to know the Battlefield 200
Inside Startup Battlefield is back in our feed with episode three. There are 180 companies solving crucial problems that didn’t make it to the Disrupt stage, but that doesn’t mean they’re making any less of an impact. TechCrunch writers Devin Coldewey and Harri Weber take us on a walk through the Expo Hall and let us listen into their conversations with a handful of the most interesting companies in the Battlefield 200.
_New episodes of Inside Startup Battlefield drop every Monday. Be sure to check out all of the other podcasts in the TechCrunch Podcast Network: __Found__,__ Equity__,__ The TechCrunch Podcast__,__ Chain Reaction __and__ The TechCrunch Live Podcast__._
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Feb 27, 2023
Equity Monday: Who still loves fintech?
Alex is back! After taking some time to learn how to care for tiny humans, he's returned and is more than fired up to get back to podcasting. That means early mornings to get the Monday show off the page, and into your ears, made worth it thanks to the startup economy proving incredibly interesting thus far in 2023.
Now, what did we get into? The following:
* Stocks are largely up today, but only after a terrible week last week. So, a little plus/minus there. Cryptos are not too changed in the last day, but NFT trading results are rising again which is good news for folks into the tokens.
* News broke recently that the United States is also taking a hard look at the Adobe-Figma deal, more evidence that the mega-transaction could fail to consummate. This is notable as we have some historical notes regarding what happens when a huge deal falls apart before it can get done. Hello, Plaid.
* In more business-friendly news, the fintech market is not dead and two venture firms are tak…
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Feb 24, 2023
Scooters and social media companies are surprising IPO candidates
This week Natasha, Mary Ann, and Becca Szkutak were joined by the returning Alex Wilhelm, back from paternity leave. Yes, we had the whole gang back together today to dig through the week's pile of news -- and you can definitely tell how exciting it was by how fast we all talked through news (sorry to our dear producers!)
Now, the news. Here's what we got into:
* Amazon has invested heavily in an Indian meat delivery company. No, not lab grown meat or plant-based meat. Just meat, delivered. Also in our Deals of the Week category was news form a former WeWork denizen that wants to help you plan a tiny home, and notes on how Klarna has wound up finding a huge market in the United States.
* Then it was time to talk money. Reddit could go public later this year though we have heard that story before, Lime is apparently standing on its own two wheels and could pursue an IPO at some point, while Coinbase is at once doing poorly and better than expected.
* Then we chatted how layoffs…
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Feb 22, 2023
Female check-writers alone aren’t enough to close the female fundraising gap, data shows
Hello, and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single person, think about their work and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha interviewed Kaisa Snellman, an economic sociologist and an associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Academic Director of the INSEAD Gender Initiative. We know, we know, it's a flex.
We’re going to talk about: Kaisa’s recent Harvard Business Review piece with Isabelle Solal: For Female Founders, Fundraising Only from Female VCs Comes at a Cost. The duo's research asserts that women-led startups whose first round was raised exclusively from female VCs were 2x less likely to raise a second round regardless of initial funding round size, industry, geographic location, or prestige of the investor.
Listen to the whole conversation before you jump to conclusions, but let's just say that this conversation really…
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Feb 20, 2023
Bonus Episode: Making the Pitch Perfect
Inside Startup Battlefield is back in our feed with episode two. In the second episode of Inside Startup Battlefield, we take a trip to TechCrunch Disrupt 2022 to hear pitches from the top five companies: Aaron Hall from Intropic Materials, Elizabeth Lawler from App Map, Chad Mason from Advanced Ionics, Sheeba Dawood from Minerva Lithium, Tim Lichti from Swap Robotics. We get to know the companies and the unique problems they’re solving through their pitches and the judges’ follow-up questions. Plus we hear from our host and Battlefield Editor, Neesha Tambe, about what working with each company was like.
_New episodes of Inside Startup Battlefield drop every Monday. Be sure to check out all of the other podcasts in the TechCrunch Podcast Network: __Found__,__ Equity__,__ The TechCrunch Podcast__,__ Chain Reaction __and__ The TechCrunch Live Podcast__._
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Feb 17, 2023
Outsized seed rounds, neobanks and booming M&A? Well hello, 2023
Natasha, Mary Ann and Becca got on the mic to talk startups, pet peeves and focaccia. What else did you expect?
Here's what we got into:
* Descope landed a $53 million (!) seed round, a Phenomenal new venture fund and a neobank out to make credit more accessible to young people in Mexico.
* Then we pivoted to talk about buy now, pay later (BNPL), which included some chatter about Affirm's recent woes and which areas of BNPL that do seem to be growing despite questions around whether this is the end of the BNPL boom as we know it.
* Tech layoffs are as widespread as ever so we talked about what advice some VCs have for those laid off workers considering launching their own startups, and what we thought of that advice.
* Finally, we ended with a jump over the pond to talk about EU's tech scene. Mostly about the fact that it is far more put together than the U.S., and all that jazz.
With that, we'll be skipping the upcoming week's Equity Monday due to the holiday and back with…
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Feb 15, 2023
Caretakers, ageism and other topics venture needs to stop overlooking
This week, Natasha interviewed Elana Berkowitz, founding partner at Springbank Collective and an early-stage investor working to close the gender gap.
Following with our theme of covering the silent changemakers in tech, Berkowitz has done much more than invest: she’s an advisor at Eric Shmidt’s office, a social entrepreneur who was a former innovator in residence at CARE, former Obama Administration technology policy official across the Obama-Biden Transition Team.
We spoke about:
* Building a venture firm that wants to disrupt the way the world thinks about care
* What people are missing when they talk about women's health
* The big opportunities out there to keep women in the workforce (and the low hanging fruit that we should all be thinking about)
As always, the full Equity crew will be back on Friday, but you can keep up with us in the meantime on Twitter @EquityPod.
For more on Plume, check out Found's interview with the company's co-founders Jerrica Kirkley and M…
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Feb 13, 2023
Bonus Episode: The Startup Battlefield Basics
Check out the newest podcast from the TechCrunch Podcast Network: Inside Startup Battlefield, the four-part series that takes you behind TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield competition. In this episode, our host and Startup Battlefield Editor Neesha Tambe breaks down how the Battlefield companies are selected for the TechCrunch Disrupt stage. Then we take a deep dive into what makes a pitch perfect with pitch coach and TechCrunch writer Haje Jan Kamps and Startup Battlefield judge and VC Nisha Dua. You’ll also hear from: Julia Somerdin from Labby, Young-Jae Kim and Tara Peters from Anthill, Quddus Pativada from Digest AI, Blessing Adesiyan from Mother honestly, Hikari Senju from Omneky, Mitch Tolson from Ally robotics, Elizabeth Lawler from App map, Aaron Hall from Intropic materials. Sheeba Dawood from Minerva.
_New episodes of Inside Startup Battlefield drop every Monday. Be sure to check out all of the other podcasts in the TechCrunch Podcast Network:__ Found__,__ Equity__,__ The…
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Feb 10, 2023
Wait a secondary
This week, Natasha, Mary Ann, and Becca got on the mic about:
* Our deals of the week included a look at a large new fund focused on Africa, a startup raising big bucks to address the nursing shortage and Rebellyous raising in a crowded and struggling space toward its effort to 'rethink the nugget.'
* We took a few to chat through the latest around FTX, which is attempting to take back its political donations at the same time Robinhood is trying to buy back the 7.6% stake that an SBF entity acquired last year. We also marveled at how low Twitter Blue numbers really are.
* To throw it back for a second, Mary Ann walks us through the latest with Stripe AND all of our questions around its financial backing at the current moment. Becca reminds us that secondaries, dear friends, may be quiet but are livelier than ever.
* We end with notes on AI and inclusion, based on Dom's recent piece looking at the data behind the disparities. Reminder to use code EQUITY for 50% off annual TC+ m…
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Feb 8, 2023
The individual mistake that tech startups are collectively making
This week, Natasha interviewed Cleo’s former CEO and current chief business officer, SJ Sacchetti. We spoke about nearly every theme most founders and chief executives are too scared to talk about: ego, setting boundaries, stepping down and becoming a "statistic" and why a company needs to succeed without you.
We talk about failure - or the fear of it, at least - and really, where things go wrong when we talk about how success is celebrated in tech.
As always, the full Equity crew will be back on Friday, but you can keep up with us in the meantime on Twitter @EquityPod!
_Equity drops at 10:00 a.m. PT every Monday and at 7:00 a.m. PT on Wednesdays and Fridays, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__, one that __details how our stories come together__ and more!_
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Feb 6, 2023
Equity Monday: SoftBank's vibe shift is using silence loudly
Here's what Natasha got into:
* Big tech: SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son will be skipping the Japanese conglomerates' earnings call, reports the Economic Times. We knew the flashy presentations were going away, but the silence may signal just how seriously SoftBank wants to shift its external perception. Speaking of perception, there's nothing quite like a delisting warning to get people talking about you. I talk about Getaround's less than $1 trend, and why it may be off the public markets if it doesn't get its act together in the next six months.
* Big idea: It's time to gamify benefits, and then think about wellness in more than just silo'd ways. At least that's how I imagine Minu's founding story to have played out - the startup is an HR tech meets edtech meets fintech meets health tech tool. Interesting stuff.
* Big innovation: The serial entrepreneur spree, in which notorious founders return to the early stage stomping grounds with fresher ideas, is a tried and true part of th…
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Feb 3, 2023
The impact investor and climate correspondent walk into a bar
This week Natasha Mascarenhas and Becca Szkutak took to their mics to sing a duet about this week's startup news. Just kidding! But we _did_ highlight some fun companies raising capital and talked through some VC themes that look likely to be relevant throughout 2023.
Here's what we got into:
* For our deals of the week we talked about Artifact, the new startup from the previous co-founders of Instagram, Spill, a new Twitter alternative that raised pre-seed funding, and Disclo, a startup looking to make it easier for individuals to seek accommodations for their disabilities at work.
* Then we chatted about the recent flurry of new venture funds and what the timing of these announcements says about where the VC market is at right now.
* Last, we talked climate tech and how the recent wave of startups in the sector is a promising sign.
_Equity drops at 10:00 a.m. PT every Monday and at 7:00 a.m. PT on Wednesdays and Fridays, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__…
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Feb 1, 2023
Be relevant, or get downturned
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single person, think about their work and unpack the rest. This week, Mary Ann interviewed Hans Tung, prolific investor and managing partner of GGV, a venture firm with more than $9 billion in assets under management.
The pair had a great conversation on:
* How Hans is advising portfolio companies to weather this downturn
* What he’s looking for in new investments
* How startups can stay relevant no matter the economic environment
* What he’d be if he weren’t a VC (hint: Mark Cuban follows a similar playbook)
* His new initiative around embedded fintech
With two decades of experience in investing in companies such as Affirm and Airbnb, Hans has been through more than one cycle and his calm, steady approach to handling challenging macro environments comes through.
We're excited t…
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Jan 30, 2023
Equity Monday: If (and only if) McDonald's had an appetite for acquisitions
Here's what Natasha got into on today's Equity Monday:
* Big tech: Marqeta's nine-figure acquisition of a two-year-old fintech, and which bucket of deals I think it falls into. Plus, Stripe's whole 12-month timeline thing and my edit for your incoming thought pieces.
* Big idea: Natasha's latest Startups Weekly column is all about the latecomer advantage. She talks about the idea, and its nuance, in the context of building startup rivals.
* Big innovation: We end with a look at Atomos, which landed $16 million to tug vehicles through space, and a bright spot of an analysis, coming from the TC+ world, on Black Web3 founders.
As always, follow us on Twitter for more @equitypod!
_Equity drops at 10:00 a.m. PT every Monday and at 7:00 a.m. PT on Wednesdays and Fridays, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__, one that __details how our stories come toge…
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Jan 27, 2023
You could be Wasted and not even know it
This week, Natasha, Mary and Becca got into:
* For our deals of the week, we talked about why tracking app Strava's purchase of Fatmap, a high-resolution 3D global map platform for the great outdoors, seems like a smart move, how Wasted wants to make port-a-potties less gross and more useful and All Raise CEO's decision to step down after less than one year in the role.
* Then we got into how the feds are scrutinizing Google's alleged ad tech monopoly and the implications for startups, before moving into different ways the downturn is impacting the way companies are hiring.
* And lastly, we discussed femtech's very good 2022 (even though we all agreed we don't love the term 'femtech').
_Equity drops at 10:00 a.m. PT every Monday and at 7:00 a.m. PT on Wednesdays and Fridays, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__, __Spotify __and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__, one that __details how our stories…
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Jan 25, 2023
All is fair in love and moderation
This week, Natasha interviewed Sarah Oh, the co-founder of T2, a Twitter rival, and Twitter's former Human Rights advisor.
We get into a lot, not limited to but including:
* What her job title really encompasses
* The danger of going viral
* Re-building a clone
* Generative AI
* We also talk about what moderation 3.0 looks like and T2 daring to dream when building a Twitter-like company with safety at its core. Oh is clearly is a change maker, considering that the 30 minutes Natasha spent with her already expanded our understanding of how platforms think about - and invest in - trust at scale.
_Equity drops at 10:00 a.m. PT every Monday and at 7:00 a.m. PT on Wednesdays and Fridays, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__, one that __details how our stories come together__ and more!_
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Jan 23, 2023
Equity Monday: All that VC dry powder is damper than you think
Here's what Natasha got into now that she's back in The Bay:
* Big tech: Real quick, you should know that Elliott Management took a multi-billion stake in Salesforce, while Thoma Bravo scooped up a digital forensics company for $1.34 billion. Beyond that, the big tech news this week is Microsoft's multi-billion dollar, multi-year investment in Open AI. The extended partnership comes with lots of resources, quirks and legal headaches.
* Big idea: we're still thinking about this Anna Heim analysis, "The mirage of dry powder." Natasha talks about wet capital and failed capital calls, as to contextualize (not shut down!) some of the optimism in the market right now. (Use code "EQUITY" for 50% an annual TC+ membership).
* Big innovation (or in this case, reductions): Google's in-house incubator, Area 120, was severely impacted by Alphabet layoffs and Spotify cut 6% of staff, two layoff stories that had us thinking all about the fact that tech seems to have forgotten its umbrella. We…
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Jan 20, 2023
Gas, Slay, what’s next? Fire?
Natasha Mascarenhas, Mary Ann Azevedo and Rebecca Szkutak had fun on this week's recording:
* Deals of the week included a new Trust Fund, a $29M raise from a proptech started by the co-founders of cloud computing company DigitalOcean and a $27M bet by some U.S.-based VCs on an African gaming startup, Carry1st.
* Then we got into the state of fintech funding in 2022. Spoiler alert: It wasn't pretty. We compared fintech's year to that of global startups as a whole, and Becca gave us a lesson on the difference between structured rounds and down rounds.
* We had a blast discussing a new trend of compliment-based teen social media apps, including Gas, which recently got acquired by Discord, and Slay, a German startup that just raised $2.63 million.
* And finally, we discussed Microsoft's latest round of layoffs, which we found both unfortunate _and_ a bit perplexing.
On that note, we appreciate you all and thank you for the refreshing flood of feedback and compliments to start of…
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Jan 18, 2023
What's next for the entrepreneur behind Layoffs.FYI
This week, Natasha interviewed Roger Lee, an entrepreneur who's spent the better part of a decade building tools for employees and employers alike. Lee is the creator of Layoffs.FYI and co-founder of Comprehensive and Human Interest.
Here's what we got into:
* Roger's introduction to entrepreneurship during the dot-com bubble
* How the pandemic de-stigmatized layoffs
* How Comprehensive - described as the inverse of Layoffs.FYI - is helping employees level-up
* The importance of crowdsourcing and to monetize, or not to monetize...transparency
* We ended, as usual, with a lightning round and learned where Lee's career _could_ have gone if he didn't take the founder path (hint: it's not VC).
_Equity drops at 10:00 a.m. PT every Monday and at 7:00 a.m. PT on Wednesdays and Fridays, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify_ _and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__, one that __details how ou…
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Jan 17, 2023
Equity Monday: Twitter rivals, unicorn trivia and valuation homework
Here's what Natasha chatted about today:
* Big tech: Good news for Bitcoin and Ethereum, even as late-stage companies in the space cut to stay afloat.
* Big idea: I had two ones to get through. First, Africa had no new unicorns last year, despite record fundraising raising. What's that all about? Second, I want to talk about Stripe's internal valuation cut, yet again, and what that news means on the outside.
* Big innovation: I talk about yet another Clearco executive shake up and yet another Clearco round of layoffs, as well as the energy for the fintech moving forward. We end with a look at freshly-backed T2, which is opening up its game plan in a spreadsheet format. We love to see a Twitter rival, love even more to see one utilize the beauty of read-only spreadsheet features
As always, you can support me by following me on Twitter and Instagram. The show also tweets from @equitypod, so follow us there and turn on notifications to never miss a new update from your favorite po…
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Jan 13, 2023
Frank-ly, the Kardashian method won’t work for SBF
This week, Natasha was joined by Mary Ann Azevedo and Rebecca Szkutak to talk about the latest and greatest in tech:
* Deals of the week include Inflow, which has developed a self-help app designed to help people manage their ADHD, Cartograph Ventures, a new venture fund run by an ex-Juul operator, and the latest lawsuit and layoffs happening over at Carta
* The plethora of fintech M&A that took place this week, including Fidelity's acquisition of a startup called Shoobx (we couldn't pronounce its name either) and Deel's buyout of Capbase.
* Microsoft's deal with ChatGPT OpenAI which, we'll admit, has a structure that stumps even us. Plus, we talk about how Pittsburgh's expertise in AI may help give its startup scene a boost.
There's Sam Altman, and then there's Sam Bankman-Fried, which brings us to our last theme. We talk about SBF's new Substack, the Kardashian method of distraction and why the legal world isn't a fan of levity. As Becca said so aptly, maybe billionaires (or…
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Jan 11, 2023
Will what happened at CES stay at CES?
This week, Natasha chatted with Haje Kamps and Brian Heater about CES which took place last week over in the ever-exciting Las Vegas area. All of our fantastic CES coverage can be found on the site, but for the purposes of today's show, we tried to keep it analytical, chatty and, at times, even a bit robotic. (You'll see what we mean).
Here's what we got into:
* Post-CES feelings and why the show has stayed relevant after all these years
* How expectations of the show compared to the reality, robot pillows and all
* Who did and didn't show up
* Brian's new suggestion for what the conference should be called
* The energy of innovation on the showroom floor, from sustainability to big swings to over-engineered blenders
* Batteries!
* And finally, how the downturn and COVID-19 may have impacted the way startups are pitching themselves to the public. Selection bias, it's a thing!
You can follow Haje through his work on the Daily Crunch, Brian through his work on Actuator a…
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Jan 9, 2023
Equity Monday: Generative AI's Magic Leap
Here's what we got into for this week's Monday episode:
* Big Tech: Vista Equity Partners scooped up Duck Creek for $2.6 billion, and that's not the only billion-dollar figure we've seen from them over the past twelve months. Enterprise deals to start off the year? Take notes, startups.
* Big Idea: I'm thinking all about generative AI, especially thanks to Rebecca Szkutak's latest piece: "Whoops! Is generative AI already becoming a bubble?" I talk through the thesis of the piece, why venture always needs a buzzword, and why that's not necessarily a bad thing.
* And Big Innovation: We end with our roots in the world of startups. I'm talking Magic Leap's comeback story and a can't miss Dominic-Madori Davis piece tracking Black founder funding trends.
And with that, goodbye until Wednesday! You can follow me on Twitter @nmasc_ or on Instagram @natashathereporter. And, as always, follow Equity on Twitter @equitypod.
_Equity drops at 10:00 a.m. PT every Monday and at 7:00 a.m. PT o…
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Jan 6, 2023
CES, NYE, SBF and FTX. Lol.
To start off the year, we are welcoming Rebecca Szkutak as a returning host who will be joining us while Alex is out on paternity leave. We're lucky to have her for a few months, so give her a warm welcome!
With that, Natasha, Mary Ann and Becca returned to the mic to unpack the latest and greatest on this first week back. 2022 was a dreary, relentless storm at times, but it also surprised us with how much innovation continues to brighten up this downturn. The start of 2023 has been no different.
Here's what we got into:
* Some early standouts from CES, the annual consumer electronics show that is taking over Las Vegas right now. Yep, we're talking comfort pillows that are even more comfortable than you think, a smarter smart laundry machine and a security dash-cam for ride-sharing drivers.
* Then we jumped into deals of the week, which included Doorstead and USV's $200 million climate fund.
* Our first theme got into the latest development in the FTX and SBF saga. If you're l…
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Jan 3, 2023
Equity Monday: Remember how this whole working thing works?
Happy New Year and welcome to 2023! As promised, Natasha is taking over Equity Monday for the beginning of this year as Alex is out on paternity leave. Big hugs to his growing family!
We're starting the year with big post-PTO energy, because there's no other way we know how to do it. Here's what we chatted:
* Tesla missing expectations, Meta doing its let's-just-acquire-smart-talent thing, and a debut in the S&P 500 that caught our attention.
* A big idea that is running around over at Matrix. TC's Paul Sawers looks into how messaging apps may become more interoperable thanks to a fascinating new protocol. To us, this screams the ideas of decentralization from crypto last year, but with a more understandable pitch. Catch me Slacking you on WhatsApp!
* Finally, we end with a look ahead at CES this week. We have reporters on the ground catching the moonshots, and we'll have updates for you with the full crew on Friday!
As always, there's more to come, so follow us on Twitter @Eq…
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Dec 30, 2022
2022's best and worst dinner guest: Elon Musk
In honor of 2022 finally coming to a close, the Equity crew is getting reflective. We dug through the archives, and this week, we're listening back to Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann's coverage of the biggest stories of the year as they unfolded.
Here's what the trio got into with help from guest hosts, Becca Szkutak and Anita Ramaswamy:
* How Alex jinxed us from the start when he asked for more tech drama (TC+) back in January
* Early signs of the downturn to come with Better.com and the human cost of layoffs
* The will-they-won't-they courtship of Elon Musk and Twitter
* The downfall of FTX (TC+) and why you should never let FOMO guide your investments (TC+)
Some of these stories are still evolving as we type, but don't fret - we'll catch you up in the new year.
Of course, we can't sign off without saying thank you to all of you for sticking by us during this rollercoaster of a year, and we can't wait to see you in 2023!
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and…
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Dec 28, 2022
Failure is a choose-your-own adventure for startups (re-run)
Following a parade of headlines and news that Fast shut down back in April, Natasha and Alex asked: What are we missing when we talk about startup failure?
The question comes after one of Natasha’s Startups Weekly columns, where she looked into the complexity of startup failure, fallacy of takedown stories, and importance of diversity in newsrooms. Here's an excerpt:
"_There’s the argument that startup tensions are inevitable and common, so should we spotlight every time something bubbles to the surface, especially at the cost of an underrepresented founder who may just be doing their best? There’s also an argument that the business is messy, so we should report on the issues as we hear about them; and there’s the narrative of the female takedown story, in which people believe that women are targeted by the press more than men due to unreasonably high standards."_
We discussed our own definitions of failure past Theranos and WeWork, examples of rising tensions, and what this…
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Dec 27, 2022
Special episode: Augmenting creativity with Alice Albrecht from re:collect (Found)
The Equity crew is kicking off your week with a special episode from our sister podcast, Found, the stories behind the startups. Co-hosts Darrell Etherington and Becca Szkutak spoke with Alice Albrecht from Re:collect, a software tool that augments creativity by helping people focus, recall, and connect their ideas. The conversation covered a lot of ground from how to hone your pitch when your product is so cerebral, how technology can help creativity but Alice argues will never replace it, and how developing AI requires building safeguards from the jump.
If you want to hear more from Equity and Found, don't forget to take our listener survey and enter for a chance to win a free year of TC+!
For more from Found, connect with us:
* On Twitter
* On Instagram
* Via email: found@techcrunch.com
_Equity drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us on_ _Apple Podcasts__,_ _Overcast__,_ _Spotify_ _and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a_ _great show on c…
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Dec 23, 2022
Special episode: How to pitch a Series A (TechCrunch Live Podcast)
This week, the Equity team is spotlighting one of our sister podcasts: TechCrunch Live. Matt Burns hopped on the mic with Jenny Lefcourt from Freestyle Partners and Guillaume de Zwirek, CEO and co-founder of WELL Health, to talk all about raising a Series A and specific steps for founders to follow.
As you’ll hear from Lefourt and de Zwirek, there are notable differences between raising a seed round and a Series A round. Investors look at different aspects of the company, and the founder must prepare for the fundraising differently. Rather than selling a story, they’re selling a company. To help even more founders, Lefcourt prepared a blog post to go along with her TechCrunch Live appearance that goes even deeper into raising a Series A.
If you want to hear more shows like this, don't forget to take our listener survey and enter for a chance to win a free year of TC+!
_Equity drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us on_ _Apple Podcasts__,_ _Overc…
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Dec 21, 2022
Brex's 2022 reality
This week, Mary Ann is taking the reins with another favorite from the TechCrunch Disrupt stage. She sat down with Brex CEO and co-founder, Henrique Dubugras, and Anu Hariharan, YC’s managing director for continuity and an early Brex investor, to expose the context around this whirlwind of a year.
The conversation candidly uncovers details behind the fintech's pandemic pivot, layoffs, and going remote. If you love the conversation, share it with a friend. And if you want more on Brex, Mary Ann dove deeper into the conversation last month.
_Equity drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify_ _and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__, a __show that details how our stories come together__ and more!_
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Dec 19, 2022
Special episode: SBF doesn't need SPF where he's going and other TC news (The TechCrunch Podcast)
Darrell talked with Tim De Chant about his coverage of fusion energy and what feels like a rare hopeful story in renewable energy tech. And Jacquelyn Melinek walks us through Sam Bankman-Fried’s alleged crimes and confirmed arrest. Plus he goes over the top stories in tech from the week. And as always, Darrell breaks down the biggest stories in tech.
Articles from the episode:
* World-record fusion experiment produced even more energy than expected
* FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested in the Bahamas
* US attorney says ‘we are not done’ charging individuals for FTX collapse
Other news from the week:
* Instagram adds text updates with new Notes feature
* OpenAI’s attempts to watermark AI text hit limits
* Elon Jet, the Twitter account tracking Elon Musk’s flights, was permanently suspended
Don't forget to take our listener survey for a chance to win a free year of TC+ at bit.ly/tcpodsurvey.
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Dec 16, 2022
Equity's 2023 predictions on the future of building, crypto and AI
To end the year, we are bringing back our predictions episode with the entire Equity crew: Alex, Natasha, Mary Ann, Theresa, Maggie, and Becca. Grace couldn't make the mic but we have a feeling she'd agree with at least 2% of our predictions, anyways.
Let's not ruin the episode, but to give you a taste, here's what topics we based our predictions on:
* Startup building and culture trends
* M&A and the return of secondaries
* The future of media and how social will shift
* Deep tech and generative AI
* And, of course, crypto
We end on an earnest note. Good luck to Alex as he embarks on parenthood, welcome to Becca, who will be joining Equity in the new year, and, of course, thank you to all of you for sticking by us during this rollercoaster of a year.
And with that, chat in 2023!
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast_,_ Spotify__ and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__…
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Dec 14, 2022
The impact of hype with Clubhouse's Paul Davison
This week, Natasha is bringing one of her favorite panels from Disrupt to your ears. She sat down with Clubhouse co-founder and CEO, Paul Davison, to talk about the core of Clubhouse, competition, and the impact of hype.
The conversation touches on the company's hyper growth, celebrity power, and navigating social platforms and social patterns, with a round of questions from the audience at the end. If you love the conversation, share it with a friend. And if you want more on Clubhouse, Natasha dove deeper into the conversation here.
_Equity drops every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us on__Apple Podcasts__,_ _Overcast__,_ _Spotify_ _and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a__great show on crypto__, a__show that interviews founders__, a__show that details how our stories come together__and more!_
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Dec 12, 2022
Special episode: AI art? More like AI fart and other TC news (The TechCrunch Podcast)
Hey, Equity family! While we're off preparing more end-of-year special episodes for you, we wanted to share an episode from our sister pod: The TechCrunch Podcast.
This week Darrell Etherington talks with Taylor Hatmaker on to talk about Lensa AI and the possible ramifications for artists. Then we’ll hear from some attendees at the TC sessions: Space event And as always, Darrell breaks down the biggest stories in tech.
Articles from the episode:
* Lensa AI, the app making ‘magic avatars,’ raises red flags for artists
* UPDATED: It’s way too easy to trick Lensa AI into making NSFW images
* Read all of the stories from TC Sessions: Space
Other news from the week:
* Meta won’t let staff discuss topics like abortion, gun control and vaccines at work
* Amazon will give your overworked delivery driver $5 if you ask Alexa to say thank you
* Confirmed: Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield stepping down in January
* The FTC is suing to block Microsoft from buying Activisio…
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Dec 9, 2022
2022: The good, the bad, and the wake-up calls
We are nearly at the end of the year, so your friendly, local podcast crew is trying to make sense of just what happened in 2022.
We started the year on a venture capital high which quickly turned into a downturn. Startups kicked off the year hiring and wrapped the year shedding staff. The stock market kept going down. A crypto winter kicked off. We saw some PE deals but very few IPOs. And the world saw a bit more geopolitical upheaval than we might have anticipated.
There were elections and shutdowns and frauds and mistakes and big wins. It was, well, a lot.
Thankfully Mary Ann, Natasha, and Alex were able to collate the news into a few distinct categories, so that we can all look back at 2022 with a bit more clarity. And we even got to hear from a bunch of you, thanks to your dozens and dozens of great taglines you sent in concerning the year and how it felt from your chair.
We have even more good stuff coming, including our yearly predictions episode. Get hype, and we'll talk to…
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Dec 7, 2022
Ego-ish: how tech's main characters are all a bit different
This week, Natasha chatted with Alex about ego, how recent news from Sam Bankman-Fried and Elizabeth Holmes gives us a window into how it works, and impacts on the tech and venture landscape.
We talked about:
* What Holmes and Bankman-Fried have in common, from centralized ownership to a cult of personality
* The differences between the two entrepreneurs, and why their stories tend to blur together
* How Adam Neumann, Elon Musk and others fit into the conversation
* Learning lessons from startups from a chaotic, and main-character-driven year
We have a lot of really fun stuff coming up in the next week or two. Thanks for sticking with Equity in 2022, and we cannot wait for 2023.
_Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify __and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__, a __show that details how our stories come togeth…
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Dec 5, 2022
Is this what good news feels like?
* Stocks in China are ripping higher on news that its drastic COVID-related policies could be starting to ease. It's a long way from a reopening, but after years of hard-edged lockdowns, Chinese tech companies are breathing a sigh of relief — at least in valuation terms. Shares are down in Europe and the United States.
* How much are Chinese equities rallying? Bilibili is in the lead, up around 16% in pre-market trading. The day's gains won't cover all prior losses, but for the nation's beleaguered tech industry, the valuation gains are beyond welcome news.
* And sticking to the good news vibe, the fact that the U.S. central bank may slow the pace at which it raises interest rates could provide some useful tailwinds to tech companies.
* The Circle SPAC deal is off.
* Giraffe360 raised new capital, which surprised us, given our perspective on the housing market.
* And we closed with notes on ChatGPT, the thing that everyone on Twitter cannot stop playing with.
_Equity drops…
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Dec 2, 2022
Are we bullfighting in Spain? Because that's a red flag
For the last time in 2022, the whole Friday gang got together to chat through the latest and greatest in the world of technology and startup news:
* ResortPass raises money. Mary Ann explains the business model.
* Post.News raises money. Alex digs into what he likes and doesn't like about the new Twitter competitor.
* SBF wants you to know he had no idea what was going on. We are not so sure.
* Venture red flags are great in hindsight, but would have been more useful last year.
* Layoffs at DoorDash and Kraken are a reminder that we're still in a risk-off environment when it comes to tech spending today.
* Plus, the latest regarding Pipe, and Alex's notes on Series A and C rounds.
Equity is not done for the year, but we are settling into our final 2022 holiday groove. This is Alex writing this, and I wanted to take the moment to thank you for sticking around with us this year. Really. I think we broke a bunch of records in terms of downloads and the like. Wild that the sh…
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Nov 30, 2022
How tech PR's job changed in 2022
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single person, think about their work and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha interviewed Vijay Chattha, a startup comms leader who has spent over 20 years in the storytelling world. Chattha is the CEO and founder of VSC and founding partner of VSC Ventures, a $21 million investment vehicle to back startups.
Here's what we spoke about:
* How his clients are reacting to the downturn in terms of their openness, vulnerability, and general hunger to tell their story
* The difference between pitching a VC and pitching a journalist (lol)
* How startup's goal with media coverage can sometimes inherently clash with the media's goal to cover a startup (and why we disagree on the importance of disclosing valuations)
* The best framework for the different types of media form out there, from Twitter…
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Nov 28, 2022
What's next on crypto's chopping block?
It's me! Hi! (I'm not the problem, just the podcast's host, here to bring you the latest greatest in startup and tech news this fine Monday morning). Welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. And for those of you who hummed the first sentence of this post, extra points to you.
I'm starting things off this week as a test run before Alex heads on paternity leave. We have lots to get to, so shake off the holiday feels and let's remember how this ecosystem works?
Here's what we got to:
* The markets are broadly down, due to COVID-19 protests breaking out in China.
* Blockfi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Our crypto reporter Jacquelyn Melinek has more on what happened - and she explains just how intertwined this universe is. I'll also get to notes I took from our recent crypto conference and how the reality may be looking like Web 2.5 before it looks like Web 3.0.
* We also talk about Amazon's…
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Nov 25, 2022
Party rounds are either the dinner party of your dreams or the one where no one shows up (re-post)
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
While the Equity crew unwinds from Thanksgiving here in the U.S., we're bringing you one of our favorite conversations from this year:
Natasha, along with Alex's help, asked: Who should be raising Party Rounds?
The episode was inspired by Natasha’s recent Startups Weekly column, “When the party has confetti but no allergen-friendly appetizers" and the companion TechCrunch+ piece with Anita, “Investment clubs are cool again, and maybe community is, too.”
Here's what we got into:
* The definition of party rounds, boundaries and the fact that we don't entirely agree on if there needs to be a lead or nah
* How has party round funding changed? What place do they hold in the ecosystem?
* Is this vehicle better for experienced founders versus first-time founders?
* The pros and cons of each side
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday a…
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Nov 23, 2022
Tech’s homogeneity problem
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single person, think about their work and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha interviewed Karla Monterroso, a long time leadership coach, racial equity advocate and the founder of Brava Leaders. We talked about her route into the leadership coaching space, but mainly sought to answer questions about the challenges facing executives today. Here are some of the topics we touch on
* Diverse leadership and the unique semblance of power on a person of color
* How she's thinking through the second-order impacts of Elon Musk's Twitter takeover and what signal it sends to the industry.
* Tech's homogeneity problem and if it's getting better or worse
* How leaders can cultivate a workforce that leans into conflict
* And of course, we end with a lightning round - including but not limited to how M…
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Nov 21, 2022
Good morning, assets are selling off
Hello, and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Note: Equity will be back on Wednesday, and Friday in some capacity. But keep in mind that this is a holiday week in the United States, so things are going to be a little bit slower than usual.
Here’s what we got into on our Monday episode, a weekly kickstart to your week!
* Stocks are largely down around the world, and crypto prices continue to deflate. Watching both these asset classes lose value in tandem feels like the worst horse-race in history. No matter what you hold, it's a bad Monday.
* Twitter CEO Elon Musk decided to bring former American president Donald Trump back to Twitter. Ironically, the former president is so far declining the option and wants to stick to his own social network, Truth Social.
* FTX owes $3.1 billion to its 50 largest creditors.
* In more positive news, Wove just raised a nearly $3.85 million Seed rou…
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Nov 18, 2022
Pick your poison: recruitment or retention?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This week, Alex and Natasha discussed the latest and greatest of this consuming news cycle. Our goal with the episode, as always, is to go beyond what you may see in a 140 character-take on [insert big story here]. And in today's recording? That wasn't hard at all.
* We started with our good news segment: 1) Maven, now valued at $1.35 billion, is answering a countrywide demand: More fertility benefits and 2) Alibaba eyes logistics growth in LatAm as China commerce slows. We love a chance to talk about growth, despite all odds and even trends!
* Then, right off the heels of our amazing debut crypto conference, we take a minute to talk about the FTX Fall out. Yep, we're talking about how one African Web3 startup got screwed over and why SoftBank joined Sequoia in marking down its investment in the crypto exchange.
* We then turn to the latest in…
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Nov 17, 2022
Corporate comms for the startup soul
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's venture capital focused podcast where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Today we have something a bit different for you. In light of the never-ending Musk-Twitter saga, and news that the new social media CEO had cut its corporate communications staff to the bone -- and then some. So to get more perspective on the role that a corporate comms team plays in both startups and public companies alike, we wrangled two folks who have just that experience set:
* Kelly Boynton, senior director of communications at Gusto
* Keyana Corliss, until recently the head of global communications and PR at Databricks
The pair discussed the role that comms plays in companies both internally and externally, and why it deserves a seat at the decision-making table. Given the media furor surrounding Musk himself, you can imagine that we had a lot to talk about.
Oh, and Keyana has a podcast that Alex was a guest on, in case you want to h…
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Nov 14, 2022
Cleanup, aisle FTX
Hello, and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Here's what we got into on our Monday episode, a weekly kick-off of sorts:
* Stocks are mixed around the world, up in parts of Asia and Europe, but down sharply in the United States to start the week.
* Crypto prices have recovered modestly, but remain sharply depressed from the last week. The FTX damage continues to reverberate.
* Speaking of crypto, the FTX saga continues. The latest includes a hack on Friday, and a massive emission of new FTT tokens that was so poorly received that major exchanges pulled deposits of the now-radioactive security.
* All the exchange drama has led to other exchanges taking fire, and Coinbase looking great in contrast.
* Elsewhere in tech-land: Fake meat raises a bunch more money, Klarna is doing some neat product work, India has unbanned VLC, which was a head-scratcher to begin with, and e-commerce infr…
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Nov 11, 2022
It’s not a rug pull if it’s an accident
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
We thought that _last week_ was a lot. It was, but this week was somehow _more_. More chaotic, rapid-fire change at a number of massive tech companies kept us on our toes. So, while our beloved co-host Natasha was out, we couldn't do the recording down a set of hands, so we brought Becca aboard with Mary Ann and Alex.
The list of news was so long that we were cutting entire sections up until we hit record, and even _still_ we went over time. If you like longer episodes, this one is for you.
* Deals of the Week: What's going on with the former Peloton CEO's new rug startup? And how is Tellus going to offer much better consumer savings rates? And, finally, how wrong can Alex get the Harmonic business model until he figures it out live on the show?
* Mega-layoffs: From there, we had to sit down and discuss the massive Meta layoffs. Our read is tha…
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Nov 9, 2022
Tech layoffs may get worse before they get better
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single person, think about their work, and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha interviewed Nolan Church, the CEO and co-founder of Continuum, about his perspective on the tech layoff wave. While we do indeed get into how his vision of fractional work fits into this conversation, we start with the fact that Church helped conduct Carta's layoffs in 2020 (a low of his entire career, he says) and what that experience taught him about the importance of being direct.
Here are a few of the topics we get into:
* Twitter's recent layoffs, Jack's silence and who should take ownership for what
* The generic CEO statement on macroeconomic challenges
* Stripe's recent layoffs
* What is the best way to conduct a layoff, and how should you communicate with staff? How does that change based on stage?
*…
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Nov 7, 2022
One day all tech news will merely be updates to Twitter moderation policies
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
* Stocks are up around the world, which is a nice thing to wake up to. Crypto prices are down a smidgen, but nothing major
* There's FTX-Binance drama afoot, in case that's your jam.
* On the Twitter beat, in the wake of rehires Musk is tweaking his work on moderation policies regarding impersonation, verification appears to be on hold, and more.
* PhotoRoom raised $19 million, the Unity megadeal is complete, no matter what we thought about it, and Yassir just raised $150 million from Bond. Has Bond been quiet lately? Not sure but dang, this round was a big one.
* There's an election tomorrow in America.
And that’s our show! More Wednesday!
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday and Wednesday, and at 6 a.m. PT on Fridays, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify __and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __grea…
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Nov 4, 2022
Most of the unicorns aren’t
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Oh what a week. What a _week_. Things are busier than ever at TechCrunch, where we're coming out of our post-conference stupor and charing straight back into a packed news cycle. Sure, Musk is still making waves, but there are startup rounds to cover, layoffs to chew on, earnings coverage, unicorn reports, new data, and more.
After cutting back sharply on material and still going long, here's what Mary Ann, Natasha, and Alex got into this week:
* Rewind wants to help people with their memory. We talk about how the startup, which launched this week, uses recording technology to help you get what you see, hear and say at your finger tips.
* We talked about Onward, a startup that wants to help divorced or separated parents fight less about money and how it just raised nearly $10 million despite being pre-revenue.
* The somewhat odd, possible Byj…
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Nov 2, 2022
Investors are either ghosting, quiet quitting or rewriting their entire playbook
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex interviewed one of their favorite reporters, Business Insider's Melia Russell! The trio chatted through how the role of a venture capitalist is changing. That means we spoke about emerging fund managers, seasoned operators, and, of course, Russell's latest story about how some investors are re-writing the playbooks when it comes to maternity leave policies at their firms.
I don't want to tease out all the hot takes, but let's just say that this dispatch is a tad blunt. For one, apparently, no one thinks that venture firm M&A is a thing other than us. Anyways, we think you'll love the episode, learn something new about how venture is changing, and probably have a take on whether this is natural job cycle stuff or…
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Oct 31, 2022
Elon Musk and Twitter Close Deal: Hot Takes (Bonus Episode)
It's official - Elon Musk has sealed the deal on Twitter, and we're bringing you a bonus episode to talk through it all. In case you missed it, Alex took to Twitter Spaces on Friday with Darrell Etherington, Amanda Silberling, Anita Ramaswamy, and Taylor Hatmaker to process some of what’s gone down, and what comes next on a special joint Equity/TechCrunch Podcast episode, so have a listen and be sure to read all about the Elon era at Twitter on TechCrunch.
We'll talk to you again on Wednesday!
_Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday and Wednesday, and at 6 a.m. PT on Fridays, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify_ _and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a __great show on crypto__, a __show that interviews founders__, one that __details how our stories come together__, and more!_
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Oct 31, 2022
Twitter is a startup again, I guess
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
* Stocks are mixed around the world, notably lower in China on the back of some negative economic data, and down in the United States ahead of what is expected to be another rise in interest rates thanks to the Federal Reserve. Crypto prices have held onto recent gains.
* A busy weekend of Twitter leaks lead the news cycle. Precisely if, and if yes, how much, Twitter can charge for verified accounts to keep their badge is now a point of conversation. Other reports of development deadlines with termination held as a threat if they are not met are likely doing great things for staffer morale.
* It turns out that self-driving cars are still far away. I am crying.
* Startups Zebra Labs and Invygo raised money, showing that the global startup investment market has not frozen, and that there is still funding for more future-facing efforts like Zebr…
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Oct 28, 2022
I regret to inform you that Elon has something to do with this
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
We hope that you are in good form this Friday, alive, well and ready to rock. We certainly were. And in a change of pace, as our dear Mary Ann was off this week, the excellent Anita Ramaswamy joined Natasha Mascarenhas and Alex Wilhelm on the mics. (Theresa, as per usual, held down the production front!)
What did we merry three get into? The following:
* Quick Hits: Launch House is shaking up its legal team as it sifts through what is left of its reputation; Sequoia India is still making big edtech bets; and BeReal is wealthy and, in our view, pretty cool. But does it have the staying power it will need?
* Twitter layoffs: When we prepped for the show, it seemed that massive Twitter layoffs could impact up to 75% of the company's staff. Since then, the figure has come down some. How much? That's not clear, but what is is the fact that Twitter's…
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Oct 26, 2022
Yes, Chief
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha is bringing one of her favorite Disrupt panels to your ears. She sat down with Chief co-founders Lindsay Kaplan and Carolyn Childers to talk about the future of their private membership club for women in leadership positions. (Shout out Bryce for this amazing live illustration he did while we were all on stage!).
The conversation touches on outlasting competitors, pandemic-defined community, the duality unicorn valuations and the word girlboss. If you love the conversation, share it with a friend. And if you want more on Chief, read a recap post that my colleague Ron Miller wrote about all things membership community and waitlists.
_Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PT, so subscrib…
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Oct 24, 2022
Seeing startups tackle the health of our planet is giving me life
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
We are back from Disrupt, which means we're picking up the pieces of our work lives, getting back on track. Equity is now on its regular schedule, which is good. A big thanks to the entire podcast production crew for making last week happen.
Now! What did we get into this morning? The following:
* Stocks rallied around the world, but fell in China. Chinese equities suffered under investor pessimism at the cementing of Xi Jinping's authority over the country's economy. Elsewhere, hope that central bank policies would not carry as much teeth in the future as we have seen in recent months sent stocks higher.
* The finalists from the recent Startup Battlefield competition were all pretty freaking great, especially the focus that several had on making our home planet a bit cleaner, or better. Commercial solutions will be required for us to do any da…
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Oct 21, 2022
Will your company cut your benefits or your coworkers first? (re-post)
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
While the crew recovers from an incredible week in SF for TechCrunch Disrupt, we dug through the archives for a conversation you may have missed. Natasha was joined by TC+ reporter Rebecca Szkutak to wade through the news of the week. It was frantic, it was full, and forgettable it was not!
Here's what we got into:
* Quick note from Becca on Neumann's return and if follow-on funding will be a possibility for Flow -- given some investors reactions.
* Our two deals of the week include an innovative step for hearing aid startups and a new take on international money transfer.
* For hearing loss tech, a new FDA ruling allows hearing aids to be sold over the counter. We dove in to how this regulatory change helps open the door for startups to innovate in the category.
* Speaking of regulatory pains, we spoke about how employee-benefits startups…
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Oct 19, 2022
Well, that was Fast: Equity Live at TechCrunch Disrupt
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. And for the first time in the history of the show, the TechCrunch pod that opened up Disrupt on the big stage. Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann got to be together to record in person for the first-time ever, and it went exactly as wild as you thought it would (we forgot this is what make up feels like!).
We started with a deal of the week, which, in typical Equity style, had to be about a snarky comeback story and inequity. Then we spoke about our three themes of the year, ranging from reputation checks to scrappy requests to, of course, grace as a leadership style.
* Natasha wanted to talk about, in her own words, the nuance of reputation but more importantly when it matters versus when it’s ignored.
* Alex wanted to riff on starting being forced to learn how to be scrappy, after a long period of being perhaps over-stuffed.
* And, finally, Mary A…
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Oct 17, 2022
Good morning! We regret to inform you that the wealthy are at it again
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
_Don’t forget that the code “EQUITY” can save you money __on Disrupt tickets__ and __TechCrunch+ access__. And it makes us here on the show look good!_
Hell yeah, this is our Monday show. And heck yes, we are recording Equity live tomorrow morning at Disrupt. Get super stoked, because we are _hype_. That said, we did have a lot to get news done for you this morning. Here's what Theresa and Alex went through this morning:
* Stocks are up in many parts of the world, including the United States, where software shares are ripping north as the week begins. Very kind of the market to kick off Disrupt with some good news.
* Crypto is quieter, with prices not changing much and the general vibe of the market not evolving a whit.
* Kanye West, also known as Ye, is buying niche social network Parler in a deal that will see the musician, fashion mo…
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Oct 14, 2022
What’s the TAM of the 1%?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Before we get into this week’s show notes, some programming items:
* First up, use code “EQUITY” for a special listener discount for Disrupt tickets. We’re mere days away, and you should come hang out with us when we record on opening day!
* We also have a special for those impacted by layoffs. If you were laid off, go here to get a free ticket to TechCrunch Disrupt’s Expo!
That behind us, what did Mary Ann, Natasha and Alex get into today? A whole host of things. Here's the rundown:
* Getaway and Pacaso: What happens if you mix Airbnb, vacation homes, timeshares, and REITs? A very interesting startup cluster, it turns out. These two companies brought Mary Ann and Natasha into the same reporting space and gave us a good chance to discuss the luxury market.
* The Muse gets acquisitive: One of the most interesting deals we saw in th…
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Oct 12, 2022
Sarah Guo isn’t late to the AI party
Sarah Guo isn't late to the AI party, but she did just raise a $101 million fund to bet on the appetizers.
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single person, think about their work, and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex interviewed Guo, who worked at Greylock for nearly a decade, and her launch of Conviction.
We spoke about the self-correcting venture market, what made her leave Greylock, and even rewound to her last episode with us (recorded almost exactly three years ago).
There was also an especially fruitful conversation about the opportunity in artificial intelligence right now, and how she's defining Software 3.0. (Warning: We talk about SaaS!) We also dug into why she started a fund, the LP market, and more. The conversation ran a bit long, but it felt reasonable to keep going given the sheer breadth of stuff that…
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Oct 10, 2022
It would be nice to not talk about Elon Musk for a bit
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
_Don’t forget that the code “EQUITY” can save you money __on Disrupt tickets__ and __TechCrunch+ access__. And it makes us here on the show look good!_
We're gearing up to take the show on the road in short order, but don't worry about that this week. Service will continue as usual until we kick off Disrupt next Tuesday!
Today, we got into the weeds about:
* Markets: Stocks are down in most of the world, albeit somewhat mixed in Europe. Crypto is mostly flat, with the XRP breaking the trend by being interesting. The Block reports that crypto volumes ticked higher in September, which could bode well.
* Startups: Clerkenwell Health just raised a couple million pounds for testing alternative medications for mental health conditions. We're excited about that. And Trendsi raised a $25 million Series A, which is no small deal, as we had expect…
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Oct 7, 2022
Musk and Kardashian remind us to stop crying for the wealthy
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Before we get into this week’s show notes, some programming notes:
* First up, use code “EQUITY” for a special listener discount for Disrupt tickets. We’re mere weeks away, and you should come hang out with us when we record on opening day!
* We also have a special for those impacted by layoffs. If you were laid off, go here to get a free ticket to TechCrunch Disrupt’s Expo!
Alright, throat clearing aside, here's what we got into this week:
* $700M water? Yeah, the Liquid Death round was a big deal in the news this week because _everyone _had an opinion on the matter. Us included. While there's good reason to doubt the DTC model today -- cough cough, public markets -- Alex was on hand to stand up for the, er, near unicorn.
* How much should you pay your staff? From there it was time to chat about fair compensation, and how a start…
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Oct 5, 2022
What's next for creator-focused startups now that the venture boom is over?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Alex asked: How are platforms responding to the new creator landscape? (Don't worry, the Wednesday show is still Natasha's to lead, she was just a little under the weather this week!)
Happily, Alex was not running solo, as TechCrunch's own Amanda Silberling was with the show this week -- not for the first time! -- to chat through the key questions we wanted to parse our way through:
* What is the new creator landscape?
* How did we get to today from the go-go 2020/2021 period of creator-focused venture deals?
* What are creator-focused platforms focused on today?
* And, finally, what options do creators have today, based on our understanding of the market?
The idea for the episode stems in part from our reporting, inclu…
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Oct 3, 2022
Welcome to Q4, crypto fans and Tesla stans
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
_Don’t forget that the code “EQUITY” can save you money __on Disrupt tickets__ and __TechCrunch+ access__. And it makes us here on the show look good!_
* Markets: Stocks are largely down around the world, yet set to rise here on American exchanges. Perhaps the domestic selloff is pausing? Elsewhere in the world of money, cryptocurrencies are boring in the last week.
* Startups: Big news from TikTok, including notes on how quickly it has been adding revenue in Europe and the fact that the social network is forging ahead with a new social shopping effort in the United States. And, Talk360 added even more dosh to its recent funding round, which TechCrunch dug into here.
* Quick Hits: Kim Kardashian is in trouble for crypto promotions past, to the tune of a seven-figure settlement. That's a lot of capital, frankly, and we're curious who will…
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Sep 30, 2022
We’re all just a Hop, Skip and a Drive away from a better Hustle
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Before we get into this week's show notes, some programming notes:
* First up, use code “EQUITY” for a special listener discount for Disrupt tickets. We’re less than one month away!
* We also have a special for those impacted by layoffs. If you were laid off, go here to get a free ticket to TechCrunch Disrupt’s Expo.
Ok, now to the show. This week, Natasha, Mary Ann and Rebecca took the mic, with Theresa on production duty, to talk through quite a diverse news cycle.
* Our deals of the week were Scout, HopSkipDrive and Hustle Fund's new fund (so I think you finally get the headline of this show).
* Then we jumped into the human side of the layoff story, as Mary Ann and Christine dug into four stories of those impacted by the Better.com layoff spree.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/28/better-com-employees-detail-their-experiences/…
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Sep 28, 2022
Building startups in public has an end date
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha asked: How does the "build in public" mindset impact the way that startups are built? Alex and Natasha chatted through the difference between building in public, going direct, startup PR, and just straight-up hype.
We spoke about the challenges in community and recent examples that show the difficulty of building in public (and then clamming up).
The conversation included Launch House, Copy.ai, On Deck, Egnyte, and even Databricks. While we have very biased reasons for more companies to build in public -- we love to learn things! -- we tried to expand the conversation to include more perspectives.
We'll be back on Friday with our regular news roundup, an episode that may include a voice that you'll hear more frequently…
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Sep 26, 2022
Hey, look, some startups are still raising money
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
_Don’t forget that the code “EQUITY” can save you money __on Disrupt tickets__ and __TechCrunch+ access__. And it makes us here on the show look good!_
* Markets: Stocks are mostly down around the world today, taking especially large hits in Asia. U.S. shares are set to fall as well when they begin to trade. Major cryptos are also off in the last 24 hours, but not enough to make a fuss about.
* Startups: Today we took a look at new fundraises at Vendease, an African logistics company in the food space, and Disperse, a U.K-based construction tech company that wants to map building sites. That market, it turns out, is huge.
* Quick Hits: Do Kwon has been hit with a red notice, which means that he will likely soon be in custody. However, some are irked that he's in trouble for causing a financial meltdown and losing a lot of folks' money. W…
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Sep 23, 2022
When VCs fund the thing you didn't think they'd ever fund
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
_Coming to hang with us at Disrupt, where Equity is kicking off the entire event? Use __code 'EQUITY' to save 15% on your tickets__. Hell yeah, and see you there!_
Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann jumped on the mic, with Theresa running production, to talk through the biggest headlines from the week!
* Deals of the Week! This time 'round we had Polywork raising $28 million, Block Party raising $4.8 million, and Remofirst and its own recent fundraise. Naturally we had to leave 234 deals on the cutting room floor, but these were the ones we could not wait to chat more about. Also, don't Polywork, Block Party and Remofirst sound like fun people to get dinner with? Just us?
* Insurtech goes Niche: From there it was time to riff on a series of stories from Mary Ann, focused on specialized insurtech companies, and the fact that Pie just proved that it is s…
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Sep 21, 2022
Network isn't a dirty word
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha asked: What does breaking into venture capital look like today, and how is it changing? Alex and Becca jumped on the mic to discuss this and start with a refresh on our latest op-ed: "4 views on unpaid venture internships."
* We talked through three buckets of venture onramps: the traditional route, the new wave and the tourist strategy. Each has their own pros and cons, and includes everything from rolling funds to the real definition of partner.
* We also covered more on the value of certain on ramps, and if network is the right thing to disrupt (or if its more track record based)
* We tried not to gang up on Dorm Room Fund too much, but did chat about why their $12.5 million fund that's run by unpaid students irk…
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Sep 19, 2022
Line goes down
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
_Don’t forget that the code “EQUITY” can save you money __on Disrupt tickets__ and __TechCrunch+ access__. And it makes us here on the show look good!_
Here's what we got into this Fine Monday Morning:
* Stocks are down around the world, while crypto-assets are down even more; post-Merge you might have anticipated better performance from tokens, but it has not yet come to be.
* The WSJ has some juicy notes on the upcoming Instacart IPO, namely that it is not expecting to sell a lot of its own stock in the transaction. Why does that matter? It tells us that the company is not burning that much cash -- a useful thing to know ahead of an anticipated IPO filing coming this year.
* From startup-land: Ola is cutting jobs, two delivery logistics startups are merging in Sweden, and Byld Ventures is putting together a venture capital fund to wat…
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Sep 17, 2022
Chain Reaction x Equity talk the Ethereum Merge
If you are into web3, the biggest news of the week in tech was not the massive Figma-Adobe deal. No, the leading story of the last few days -- arguably even the last few weeks -- has been the Ethereum Merge.
The Merge, an upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain that moved it from a proof of work (PoW) to a proof of stake (PoS) system of consensus was a long-awaited shift that finally took place this week. And as the change in technology is expected to reduce the carbon footprint of the popular blockchain by ~99%, we had lots to get into.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/15/now-that-the-ethereum-merge-is-behind-us-whats-next/
But we didn't just want to riff on the startup angle, or the web3 perspective, because the Merge had huge implications for crypto as an industry and its place in the world of emerging tech. That's why we got together our startup and blockchain podcast teams for a collab episode to hit both angles: Anita and Jacquie from Chain Reaction, and Natasha and Alex from Equity.…
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Sep 16, 2022
Where's the center of the startup world? Depends on which VC you ask
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann jumped on the mic, with Theresa on backup, to talk through the biggest headlines.
* We started with a look at the Figma-Adobe deal, worth some $20 billion. TechCrunch's news coverage is here, and Alex has more notes here.
* Deals of the Week: Maven, Patreon, and Modulous.
* We also spoke about the Launch House issue, and what to make of the model, and management of the company. The conversation naturally landed us on just what community is.
* From there, Europe! Which is seeing a wave a new venture funds, leading to some notable intra-continent competition.
* And then we wrapped with a short note on the latest on the Twitter-Musk deal.
If you are coming to Disrupt, use the code “EQUITY” to save 15%. It makes us look good internally, and gets you a cheaper discount to our first Disrupt live show in the histor…
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Sep 14, 2022
Y Combinator is still paranoid
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: How is YC evolving to meet a changed market? The question is fresh off of Demo Day last week, where Team TC and TC+ banded forces to cover the twice-a-year event that sees hundreds of startups launch to the public.
These days, Seibel doesn't often do press -- and neither does YC -- so the interview was used to connect the dots on recent news from the accelerator, cross check top trends from this past batch and ask about some of the biggest critiques people have about the institution today.
We went a bit long, but figured it was worth it given the way the conversation was going. Equity has a live show on Thursday, and lots more to come. Chat soon!
_Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday and…
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Sep 12, 2022
The ETH merge cometh
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
_Don't forget that the code "EQUITY" can save you money_ _on Disrupt tickets__and_ _TechCrunch+ access__. And it makes us here on the show look good!_
Now, what did we get into today?
* Stocks are higher around the world, while major cryptos have risen sharply in the last week.
* The Ethereum update known as the 'Merge' is just around the corner. The change in consensus model at ETH is a big darn deal. How the tech change goes, and what the market reaction is to it, will be key events this week.
* And speaking of crypto, the SEC is getting even busier in its efforts to have more oversight of the space.
* From the startup front, Gotham Greens and Diveplane both raised money, $310 million and $25 million respectively. Each are a part of neat, growing sectors in startup-land, making their fundraising a bit more impactful than individual rounds…
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Sep 10, 2022
Stanford moonshot promises near-term profitability with no-code magical mushrooms, ft. Plaid of X
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. As you can tell by the headline of this episode, this is a bonus episode all about Y Combinator Demo Day (and the terms we heard most often during the two-day affair).
Natasha and Alex jumped on Twitter Spaces to talk through our favorites of the batch, geography changes, and diversity shake-up that included less women getting funded batch over batch. Below are some of the posts we pulled from:
* The biggest moonshots in YC’s S22 batch
* Our 11 favorite companies from YC’s S22 Demo Day: Part 1
* Our 10 favorite startups from YC’s S22 Demo Day: Part 2
* Delving into YC’s diversity data following a category shakeup
* Where is Y Combinator startup-hunting in 2022?
Y Combinator week is busy, but we made it through! Talk Monday!
_Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PDT, so subscribe to us on __Ap…
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Sep 9, 2022
Kim Kardashian and the financialization of trendsetters
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
What.
A.
_Week._
Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann jumped on the mic, with Theresa on backup, to talk through the biggest headlines. For our Apple coverage, click here. For our YC coverage, click here.
All that aside, here's what we got into on today's episode:
* Kim Kardashian surprised us all -- yet again -- with the news that she is co-founding a private equity firm. We also talked about how Userpilot raised $4.6 million to help SaaS companies offer a more personalized user experience and Varjo - an early mover in building XR headsets and software for enterprises - landing $40 million in new funding.
* We pivoted to riff on a couple of acquisitions in the grocery delivery space, both of which thought were pretty cool and made sense. Instacart acquired Rosie (gotta love the name) in an example of not putting all its eggs in one basket, and Misfit…
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Sep 7, 2022
As the economy falters, tracking the money behind the money
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic and unpack the rest. Today we asked: _How is the economic downturn and startup slowdown impacting VCs, and the folks who finance venture capital funds?_
Unlike our usual mid-week episodes, Natasha was not at the helm. Instead, Alex stood in for her and brought along TechCrunch+ venture capital reporter Rebecca Szkutak in the co-hosting slot. Rebecca is an ace when it comes to the mechanics of venture capital, making her the perfect voice for the day.
To start, Alex and Rebecca riffed on the state of startups in today's market -- and if things are as bad as some make them out to be. From there, the Equity crew talked through the venture capital response to changing market conditions. And the conversation wrapped with notes on what LPs are doing, whether they should be or not.
While w…
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Sep 6, 2022
Welcome to YC and Apple week
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
We are back on a Tuesday instead of a Monday thanks to an American holiday, which means we are looking at a compressed week. But don't let the shorter window for news fool you -- it's going to be busy.
* Stocks are largely higher today, but off the back of some rough trading weeks so don't read too much into the bounce. The world of crypto appears pretty quiet, as it has for some time now.
* Y Combinator Demo Day is this week, which means a flood of startups and other news is in the offing. TechCrunch will be all over the news, naturally. Strap in.
* And there's an Apple event this week as well, possibly bringing new iPhones and other related consumer gear. How excited you are about that will depend on how old your current phone is.
* From there, it was time for economic concerns and worries about how a worse, or lesser macroeconomic picture…
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Sep 2, 2022
We Reali don't know when real estate will get Better
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This was a Live Week, meaning that Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann recorded the show on Twitter Spaces, hanging out with a bunch of the Equity family. Good times were had! We also disclosed that we are recording live at Disrupt this year! Yes, so come hang out as we tape the show on opening day, full of coffee and enthusiasm.
Now, to the show notes. Here's what we have in store for you:
* Deals of the Week: Stacked, which is taking on Twitch with a web3 twist; Astro, which wants to help connect Latin American developers to American companies; Anchor, which is building a BaaS platform in Africa.
* From there we riffed on the big changes at Y Combinator, and what it means for an early-stage venture firm managing over $3.2 billion in assets. The executive shift touched down just in advance of next week's demo day. Next week is going to be _busy_.
* T…
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Aug 31, 2022
Party rounds are either the dinner party of your dreams or the one where no one shows up
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, along with Alex's help, Natasha asked: Who should be raising Party Rounds?
The episode was inspired by Natasha’s recent Startups Weekly column, “When the party has confetti but no allergen-friendly appetizers" and the companion TechCrunch+ piece with Anita, “Investment clubs are cool again, and maybe community is, too.”
Here's what we got into:
* The definition of party rounds, boundaries and the fact that we don't entirely agree on if there needs to be a lead or nah
* How has party round funding changed? What place do they hold in the ecosystem?
* Is this vehicle better for experienced founders versus first-time founders?
* The pros and cons of each side
_Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday a…
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Aug 29, 2022
Does venture capital need a shot in the arm?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This week Alex was back with Grace and our new producer Theresa Loconsolo to kick off the week. This Monday morning we recorded right before Garry Tan announced that he was heading back to Y Combinator as its President. Dang.
But we still had a good sheaf of things to talk about!
* Stocks are not having a good day around the world, after having a pretty tough last Friday. It's hardly bullish for the IPO market.
* Things weren't much better in crypto-land, where bitcoin and ether are off from their week-ago prices, and NFT volumes remain muted.
* And speaking of quiet, startup news -- Y Combinator apart! -- was modest over the weekend. It appears that the August slowdown is both real, and here. Frankly startups could use a shot in the arm to get venture back closer to 2021's level of insanity. Can the Instacart IPO that we expect be the needed…
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Aug 26, 2022
Press and Law v. Adam and Elon
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
_Want to save some dosh on TechCrunch+? Use the code 'EQUITY' __at checkout__ for a big discount on annual subscriptions!_
Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann are _back_ and as a three were in good spirits with more than a bit of news to parse. Grace, Theresa, and Kell made the magic happen, for which we're thankful. Here's what we got into:
* Just what OrangeDAO is, and why it matters. Our deals of the week this time 'round had a particular flavor. See if you can spot it!
* Next up was Spectral's $23 million raise (web3 credit scores), and Mural's latest, a $6.5 million round for DAO treasury management.
* Scooting along, we looked into Alex's reporting on shrinking late-stage rounds, a surprisingly strong seed market, and what's good with the unicorn crew.
* Then it was time to talk Stripe layoffs before pivoting over to the latest issues stemming…
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Aug 24, 2022
Black Girls Code's developing story offers a complicated look at lots of different things
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha asked: What happens when a Black founder was ousted? Alex was back on the mic after a week away, and we brought on Dominic-Madori Davis (follow her on Twitter and Instagram) to talk us through the topic. After all, the core question was inspired by her latest TC+ column.
Here's what we got into:
* The growing tensions at Black Girls Code, which began last December with Bryant's "indefinite suspension."
* Bryant's eventual ouster, which happened earlier this month, and the outpouring of public support for the leader. That conversation brought us into the reality of who gets to speak up publicly, and who can only do so off the record and without attribution.
* Davis piece about the symbolism of a Black founder being…
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Aug 22, 2022
What's a crypto exchange worth?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This week Alex was back with Grace and our new producer to kick off the week. Now that we are through earnings season, things are a little quieter on the forecast front, but that didn't mean that we were short on material:
* Stocks are down around the world, while crypto prices remain depressed in the last week; NFT volume continues its negative drift.
* CNBC got FTX revenue numbers! Only through the first quarter of 2022, sadly, meaning that we have a good idea of what the company did through March of this year. That is good, but not great. Why not? Q2 is really the turning point for crypto exchanges, Coinbase data indicates. So we got the stuff that makes FTX look good. We need more.
* The Socar IPO was kinda meh, in the end. While we welcome _any_ and _all_ IPOs at this point, hopes may have been for a stronger welcome on the South Korean s…
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Aug 19, 2022
Will your company cut your benefits or your coworkers first?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This week, Natasha was joined by TC+ reporter Rebecca Szkutak to wade through the news of the week. It was frantic, it was full, and forgettable it was not!
Here's what we got into:
* Quick note from Becca on Neumann's return and if follow-on funding will be a possibility for Flow -- given some investors reactions.
* Our two deals of the week include an innovative step for hearing aid startups and a new take on international money transfer.
* For hearing loss tech, a new FDA ruling allows hearing aids to be sold over the counter. We dove in to how this regulatory change helps open the door for startups to innovate in the category.
* Speaking of regulatory pains, we spoke about how employee-benefits startups might escape cost cuts as companies seek to retain talent. Don't know about you but I'd prefer to lose free food over mental health sup…
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Aug 17, 2022
Let's officially stop comparing Adam Neumann and Elizabeth Holmes
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. And, I mean, are you surprised what we're working with this week? Of course we're talking about Flow, Adam Neumann's a16z-fueled return to real estate that is already reportedly valued above $1 billion.
This week, Natasha asked: Is the return is a result of vision, track record, or Adam Neumann-privilege? She's joined by Anita Ramaswamy, the co-host of TechCrunch's crypto-focused podcast Chain Reaction. The duo wrote a piece about the tech community's reaction to Neumann's new startup, so consider this episode a mic'd up follow-up:
* The news, what we know, and what we still don't - including how much of that $350 million check is cash
* The reporter's notebook take on how to cover news that is sensationalist in nature. Do we give oxyg…
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Aug 15, 2022
Startup yachts, Adam Neumann and wait what year is it again?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Natasha took over Equity Monday this week alongside Grace, as Alex enjoys some always-deserved vacation. Thankfully, there was way too much to get into. So much so that I recommend you listening to this podcast immediately before a whole news cycle breaks.
Here's what we got into:
* Morning markets update, which is somewhat a story about reaction to China's slowing economy
* For our big tech news item to start the week, Amanda Silberling dropped in to talk to us about Unity saying 'thank you, next' to a $20B merger offer from Applovin. I'll add in that it's not the only billion-dollar+ merger that fell through recently. How's that for Unity?
* I talked about Adam Neumann's new startup, which just landed Andreessen Horowitz's largest check to date at a billion dollar valuation. Deep breaths, friends, the reaction is part of the point.
https:/…
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Aug 12, 2022
So, when is the SoftBank Execution Fund III dropping?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann worked with Grace to record yet another weekly round up on all the tech news that may have flown past your radar. Or bumped into it so hard that you're still dizzy and looking for more information. Regardless of where you're at, here's what we got into:
* For our deals of the week, we spoke about QED making its first African investment, backing Nigerian fintech TeamApt in $50M+ deal and why Muon Space's custom Earth observation satellites remind us of Build-a-Bear. Plus, Founderpath secured $145M in debt and equity to help B2B SaaS startup founders avoid dilution - a reminder that non-dilutive capital is always in vogue.
* Then we got to a big theme all about bets. Yep, we're talking Axios gets scooped, Haus gets put up for sale and ByteDance gets... hospitals?
* We end with chatter about SoftBank's losses and redemp…
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Aug 10, 2022
Founders, whales, and the sea change in the entrepreneurial energy
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: Despite all the dollars and deals out there, does a drop in activation energy change how many entrepreneurs we'll see in the early-stage market?
But, we're not alone! Found co-hosts Jordan Crook and Darrell Etherington hopped on the mics to do a rare cross-over episode with us. They spend every week on Found talking to early-stage founders about everything from origin stories, to pivots, to some of the hardest decisions that leaders need to make these days. Big thanks to the duo for joining us, and without further ado, here's what us four got to:
* Who is succeeding right now, and what are the types of founders that we're seeing more often?
* Is there anything that can be done differently when it come…
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Aug 8, 2022
How to lose money, SoftBank edition
Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest and most interesting technology, startup and markets news. This morning was a fun mix of stuff that we don't always get to, so strap in for the following:
* Stocks and cryptos are mostly higher today, meaning that most listeners of the show are now richer than they were Friday. Congratulations!
* Coinbase earnings on the horizon, but we got word today from Palantir and SoftBank. Palantir's stock is off due to a guidance miss, while SoftBank reported massive losses from its Vision Fund efforts.
* Also, it turns out that SoftBank is of the perspective that startup founders are not yet willing to accept valuation cuts to bring the value of their startups in line with market conditions. That's not good.
* And there was a huge PE deal today, Avalara being taken over by Vista Equity Partners in a $8.4 billion deal.
* What else? Self-driving cars from Baidu are now taking passengers in China, Lyft is building a media business, and India…
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Aug 5, 2022
Robinhood's hangover, YC's reduction and Uber's return to form
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann got together with Maggie and Grace this week for our weekly roundup show, and per usual, there was a lot to talk about, including the fact that there were even more topics than usual to pick from as the summer slowdown seems to be fading away.
What else did we get into? The following:
* To kick off our _Deals of the Week,_ we discussed the fact that a startup which focuses on depression, suicidality and related mental health conditions is buying a company called KetaMD in an effort to extend its telehealth prowess and, in particular, to expand its tech-facilitated ketamine-based treatments. Don’t know what ketamine is? You’re not alone.
* From there, it was time to talk about a new $100 million fund, which boasts some high-profile LPs and partners, that is out to invest exclusively in Latino(a) startup founders. W…
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Aug 3, 2022
Is it the bootstrapper’s time to jump on the venture treadmill?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: Is it the bootstrapper’s time to jump on the venture treadmill?
The episode was inspired by Natasha's recent Startups Weekly column, "The bootstrapped are coming, the bootstrapped are coming" and the companion TechCrunch+ piece, "Will once-bootstrapped startups turn to venture during a watershed moment?" But, of course in classic Equity style, we continued the conversation with nuance and numbers as a focus.
Here's what we got into:
* The definition of bootstrapping, and our own additions and subtractions
* The trend of more bootstrapped companies taking on venture, or at least more venture capitalists being interested in bootstrapped companies
* What the heck is a venture treadmill, and what to…
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Aug 1, 2022
Public tech's espresso shot is quite literally The Cloud
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Last week we said that you needed to pay attention to the public markets, and we weren't kidding. It was a huge week for earnings -- with notes from all over including the ad market and cloud spend. But this week's Monday show was more than just another entry in the series, it was an experimental live show! Natasha joined Alex for the fun, and this is what they got into:
* Stocks up, crypto mostly flat after a solid week of gains.
* Will Alibaba delist, or not? That question matters more than just what happens to the singular Chinese tech giant. The question really belies a larger query regarding the ability of Chinese tech companies to access foreign markets more generally, places where the capital can flow at a high clip. Given China's economic woes, cutting off that particular liquidity pipe might be risky.
* From there we went to Clearco l…
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Jul 29, 2022
Crypto and securities, back of the postcard version
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann got together with Grace once again this week for our weekly roundup show, and hot dang was there a lot to talk about. So much so that we actually had to cut one topic from our notes, any guesses what that may have been?
Regardless, here's the rundown:
* We had a big fintech theme this week, kicking off with the huge news that Jack Ma is giving up control of Ant Financial. Two specific tidbits stood out around Ant's origin story and Ma's flex of an ownership hold.
* From there, it was time to talk Guava, Pogo, and TomoCredit, our _Deals of the Week_. The focus here was around just how inclusive certain fintechs can be, so thank you to founders who remind us to raise the bar constantly.
* Next up? A new solo fund that broke out of a16z. Why leave to do a scary thing when risk is high? We talk about that, fintech innov…
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Jul 27, 2022
A niche facet of startup employee pay, explained
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Anita asked:
When is a company taking internal valuation cut a good thing?
Normally, when we hear about valuations going down, that's a red flag that things aren't going well at a given company or in the market at large. We wrote about Stripe's 28% internal valuation cut earlier this month and as we listened to different reactions to the news, we noticed some people had an unexpected take -- that this downward revision was actually a positive for the company's employees.
That's because the cut came from an internal 409A valuation appraisal, which is totally different from the investor-led valuations we normally hear reported on in the news. So we brought on two experts -- Phil Haslett of EquityZen and Sumukh Sridhar…
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Jul 25, 2022
Why you have to pay attention to the public markets this week
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest and most interesting technology, startup and markets news. Sitting as we are on the precipice of a huge data dump, we had lots to chat through!
* Stocks are mixed around the world, while crypto selloff modestly after some recovery gains. In general, the value of securities are down in recent weeks and months, and now, frankly, quarters.
* This is Earnings Week: Yes, friends, get ready to hear from Alphabet and Amazon and Meta and Microsoft and Apple. The Big Five are reporting this week, providing us a glimpse into the health of a host of businesses. Recall that we have seen the major slow hiring lately, perhaps a harbinger of the (meager) feast to come?
* Cartona is building something neat in Egypt, TechCrunch reports. And there is still venture capital money flowing in China, despite, you know, al…
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Jul 22, 2022
Thanks to Amazon, One Medical and Whole Foods are on the same dang shelf
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann got together with Grace once again this week for our weekly roundup show, and as often happens, news broke as we were gearing up to record. So we had to touch on the huge Amazon-One Medical deal to get started. Naturally we all had thoughts.
What else did we get into? The following:
* Crunchbase raised $50 million! Yes, our former employer has raised a new, large round that had us all thinking about its health, our history thereof, and our love for its news team and other parts of the company we remember fondly.
* Just what is Arkive building, and are we in favor of its work to build a sort of NFT-powered, decentralized IRL library. There is a DAO involved as well.
* ForSight is building eye-surgery robots, just raised a stack itself, and we are hype about it. It reinforces a key learning from Natasha's recent robot…
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Jul 20, 2022
OK, don't fear: the long shots are still getting venture funding
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: How do founders hold two ideas in their heads: both that there is an economic downturn, but also that things are looking up for many industries?
After a series of episodes about the tensions within the downturn, this is a "good news, despite" episode.
* We started with a vibe check based on recent interviews with recently venture-backed founders, before getting into the bright spots from Q2 2022 data.
* Then we spent some time talking about specific sectors enjoying fresh cash right now, including climate and European edtech.
* Geographically, Africa continues to be one to watch. The continent is set to have its best year yet.
* In the second half of the show, lean back and enjoy the riffing: we t…
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Jul 18, 2022
When will India make up its mind about crypto?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest, and most interesting technology, startup, and markets news. Today was a fun day in that we didn't start off with just bad news -- what a change!
* Stocks are up around the world, and cryptos have rallied in the last week. The positive price movement in crypto-land, however, doesn't appear to be lighting a fire underneath the NFT market, for example.
* Robots! Yes, our robotics-themed event -- Free! And online! -- is this week, which means that I have robots on the brain. That made the Syrius round all the more interesting. It appears that ecommerce will remain a key driver of robotic innovation for some time to come.
* Podcast deals are still happening, kinda. Acast is buying Podchaser, which may or may not mean a lot to you. What does matter in this deal is that Spotify wasn't involved. That's a c…
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Jul 16, 2022
Building the future of robotics
Hello and welcome to a special edition of Equity!
Today, Alex sat down Brian Heater, a long-tenured TechCrunch denizen, our hardware editor, podcast extraordinaire, and genial chap. He also put together a really neat robotics-focused event that we're hosting next week. The event is online, and free, which means that everyone can come and hang (that means you!)
The confab was also a good excuse to snag time with Heater, and have a bit of a natter about robotics, how the self-driving hardware stack has an impact on more than just automobiles, and why we are going to need AGI for robotics to, you know, become the thing we know from the Jetsons.
In short, robotics is improving rapidly, but we might continue to see more industrial applications than personal for some time. Still, there's still a lot of activity in the market, including labor policy, e-commerce applications, and a host of other topics.
Enjoy! Equity is back Monday morning, and if you want to come hang at the TC Sessions:…
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Jul 15, 2022
Wordle, hurdles and Sally’s early retirement
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann enjoyed yet another edition of Equity Live this week, hopping on Twitter Spaces to chat everything from Musk’s meme suit to a new take on Wordle that landed Spotify’s attention. When we stopped recording the episode, news broke that Stripe is cutting its internal valuation by 28%. Luckily, we do this three times a week to stay tuned for our take soon.
In the mean time, here’s what we got to in today’s episode:
* Spotify acquired Heardle, which felt like a throwback to trivia and of course a nod at its famous predecessor, NY Times-owned Wordle. Only one of us has played the music guessing game so far, so tweet @equitypod your thoughts on if it’s _actually_ fun.
* We also spoke about a startup that is trying to address male infertility in a personalized, engaging way. It caught investors attention, and ours to…
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Jul 13, 2022
Roe's reversal will shake up how startups are built
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha asked: How does Roe’s reversal impact the ways that companies are built?
The question was inspired by a recent TechCrunch+ column, "Roe reversal weighs heavily on emerging tech cities in red states." The reporters behind the piece, Dominic-Madori Davis and Becca Szkutak, joined Equity to talk about the story and help us get more of the nuance behind this huge setback.
We chatted about the reappearance of geographic boundaries, selective silence from the money behind the money, and how founders need to rethink their growth strategy if they're coming from red states. We also chatted about how some founders have already started to react to the overturn of Roe vs. Wade and their sentiments revolving the legality of what ha…
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Jul 11, 2022
Cost cutting, layoffs remain leading startup themes
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest, boldest and baddest technology news. After some holiday weeks, we are back on an actual Monday! What a treat. Here's what we got into:
* Stocks are off around the world, partially due to government action, partially due to the complex web of negative factors that we've discussed for months now.
* Cryptos are more staid; if you like bitcoin at $20,000 this is your moment.
* Tiger's slowdown is no mere blip, TechCrunch reports. The investing powerhouse is going to slow its roll for the rest of 2022, and is looking to raise a new fund.
* Unacademy is looking to cut costs, go public in two years per TechCrunch. And Kadamos raised more capital, marking a pretty quick reload after raising a few months ago.
* Quick Hits: The Uber Files are a mess, layoffs aren't solving a talent crunch in Southeast As…
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Jul 8, 2022
Cauldrons, Bolts and sour markets: Welcome to Halloween in July
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
It doesn't feel like a short week, does it? Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann got on the mic to bring an especially packed episode full of big news, fire transitions and even a pun or three.
* Deals of the week: Maolac raises $3.2 million to bring breast milk nutrition to adults, Peakflo raises a few million to scale its billpay tech in South East Asia, and Cauldron raises $6.6 million for its web3-themed gaming push.
* Declining drama at Bolt? A major lawsuit involving Bolt, the online checkout service, has been settled. We chatted through the company's numbers, and noted one more challenge ahead of the company.
* The unicorns aren't alright: Layoffs at Outschool and Loft are cutting staff, just as some venture capitalists reload. It's going to be a fascinating year.
* And we closed with some notes on the Q2 venture capital cycle!
_Equity drops e…
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Jul 6, 2022
Why build a tech mafia when you can just build each other?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: Why is tech full of copycats, and what’s the next full circle moment we can expect?
The question was inspired by Natasha's recent Startups Weekly column: "YC makes a Product Hunt, Product Hunt makes an a16z, a16z makes a YC." As you can tell by that headline and this week's episode title, we're talking about how tech is full of copycats and what that means for the bar of innovation.
Expect to learn about the overlap in mission between three of tech's most well-known institutions, what Prologue means for Future (literally and figuratively), and how a rising tide can both confuse and complement the founder fundraising journey.
Also it was a good excuse to chat through some of the competitive dynamics tha…
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Jul 5, 2022
Contrarian bets in a downturn
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest, boldest and baddest technology news. We are back on Tuesday, as the United States was off yesterday. So a day late, but hopefully not a dollar short, here's what we got into today:
* Stocks are mixed around the world, and set to fall in the United States at the open. At the same time, the crypto market has been somewhat relaxed in the last day.
* Sequoia Capital China is raising $9 billion, a huge amount of money at a time in which we have seen venture capital activity in China slow.
* Speaking of slowing venture capital, Indian activity is falling. That deceleration comes as the country's crypto market is under pressure.
* At the same time, Twitter is pushing back against the Indian government bullying, which is good. But maybe less good for Elon Musk, who is buying the social network, and wants…
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Jul 1, 2022
When do layoffs matter? Trick question - always
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This was a live week on the podcast, meaning that Mary Ann and Alex and Natasha and Grace teamed up with the fine audio and visual folks from our mothership Yahoo to not only record the show, but to do so in front of, well, all of you! It's fun to record live, and we'll do it again in two weeks!
What did we get into? The following:
* Deals of the Week: HomeLister wants to make selling your home more of a DIY affair, and cheaper; Degreed's co-founder is coming back to the company he helped found, via a different company that he helped found; and can chat bots not suck in the future?
* Coalition: What happens when you cross a small venture capital fund, a large operator network, and shared upside? Coalition wants to find out.
* Layoffs: Backstage has cut its staff to the quick, while we saw smaller cuts at Substack this week in percentage terms…
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Jun 29, 2022
Understanding the not-so-fine print of 2022 term sheets
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha asked: What’s in the fine print for term sheets these days, and what does that tell us about who is going to be in control during the downturn?
The question was inspired by a recent story by Becca Szkutak - one of TC's newest venture reporters - about how deal terms look different in a downturn. Of course that means we had to bring on Szkutak to talk about her story and dig into a further analysis of how founder friendliness is being challenged right now. Expect a tactical episode all about different terms that may start sneaking into term sheets, the cost benefit analysis of each, and why down rounds aren't the end of the world.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/21/deal-terms-look-different-in-a-downturn-heres-what-to-watch-out-for/
_Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PDT, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__…
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Jun 27, 2022
Leverage, red flags, and a changing venture landscape
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest, boldest and baddest technology news. This week we are not recording on a Tuesday as it's a regular week. Though we would add that Equity will be live on Thursday, when we record our Friday episode. So if you wanted to come hang, make sure that you are following the show on Twitter.
Right, so what did we get into this morning?
* Stocks are generally up, major cryptos are not doing too much this morning, and a Coinbase downgrade caught our eye.
* Backstage Capital is laying off staff as it focuses on only investing into existing portfolio companies. With less capital than before going to Black founders, seeing a fund that focused on investing into underrepresented founders struggle is a bummer.
* The Strapi startup round was a fun one to look at, fusing open-source tech and CMSs, a tool that we use…
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Jun 24, 2022
All this startup news, and we didn’t even talk about Juul
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.
Today Natasha and Alex were on the mics, kicking back and riffing through the biggest technology stories of the week. Our dear Mary Ann was off this week, but will be back in short order.
What did we get into? A bevy of blistering bromides, naturally:
* Accel has a new $4 billion fund, focused on the late-stage, which is at once a pile of duckets and a fascinating timing for such a large capital vehicle.
* FalconX doubled its valuation in a new round, which was _also _a huge pile of money at an odd moment in time.
* Oh, and Suze Orman was also on the show today, in spirit and story.
* From there we noodled on the big changes at Brex, the latest in executive turnover, and why the metaverse actually had some good news this week?
All in all it was a good time and we are back Monday!
_Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday and Frida…
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Jun 22, 2022
Fintech's fever can't make up its mind
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: After a multi-year fundraising boom, what is the current health of the fintech startup market?
The episode was inspired by a rigamarole of news, including but not limited to Klarna's potential valuation haircut, Apple's BNPL announcement, Brex's partial market retreat and Wealthsimple's staffing cuts.
The other reason that we're chatting fintech is that after attracting a simply huge chunk of venture capital in the last few years has gone into the sector. And that means that so very many startups are in play when we discuss the fintech niche. This is not just a few unicorns, and decacorns, but a flat-out fleet of companies that are now stuck waiting for the venture capital market to reignite.
With Affirm…
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Jun 21, 2022
The fintech funding market is not dead
Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest, boldest and baddest technology news. This is our Monday show, coming to you this week on a Tuesday as, hey, yesterday was a holiday for many American workers, in honor of Juneteenth. So, we're doing our weekly kickoff one day later than usual. Here's what we got into:
* Stocks are higher globally, while the crypto market is somewhat quiet after a tumultuous few weeks.
* We're coming up on the end of Q2 2022, which means that we're at once heading into earnings season (woo!) and another venture capital data set to parse. Get excited.
* Musk has been busy around the world, helping keep Ukraine online, seeing his cars come under some censure in China, and still talking his way through buying twitter.
* In startup-land: LeadSquared raised a huge round, and is now a unicorn. Platform.sh raised a huge round, but we aren't sure what it is worth. And Stashfin also put a huge amount of capital and debt onto its own books.
* The fintech VC…
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Jun 17, 2022
This feels like a SoftBank deal from 4 years ago
Equity is back in the saddle this week, with Mary Ann and Alex and Grace powering through a busy week's news. And while much of the news in startup-land is a bit lacking these days -- you may have noticed a sentiment shift on Twitter! -- we did find some good tidings as well.
Here's the rundown:
* Sesame, which operates an online medical care marketplace, raised $27 million to help people without insurance or those with high deductibles get affordable health care. Interestingly, its lead investor also previously put money in another startup in the space.
* Marc Lore's food creation, and delivery startup Wonder raised a huge stack of cash. We had mixed views on this particular deal. On one hand, we hate cooking. On the other, will the economics ever work? Investors really seem to think so. We're now waiting for the service to launch where we live so we can give it a try.
* Startups may be in better shape than you thought! That's the take that Index's Mike Volpi wrote in a letter…
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Jun 15, 2022
We're entering an era of, um, creative accounting in startups
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex brought on TechCrunch reporter Haje Jan Kamps, who, prior to and in between his journalism careers, spent years as a founder and a venture capitalist. Together, the trio asked: How might companies use math in the coming months to make our lives harder, and complicate their finances, aka the truth?
From the historical grievance folder, to more recent news from MainStreet, we had a lot of grist for the mill. But we had even bigger feelings about what's coming this year, and how important it will be to chase down the truth. And given our general view that numbers don't lie, we had strong opinions about how things should be counted, and disclosed.
A big thank to Haje for coming out and bringing his multi-viewpoint p…
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Jun 13, 2022
Crisis! On the blockchain
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest, best, and baddest technology news. We are back once again here with your weekly kickoff! Here’s what we got into:
* Stocks are down around the world, with nearly every major index that we checked falling 2% or more.
* Crypto prices are in the tank, with bitcoin and ether losing double-digit percentage points in the last day; the mess in crypto-land is deep this morning.
* Celcius network is falling apart, despite huge recent fundraises. Precisely what happens next is not clear, but it doesn't look good for the company, judging by its imploding token price.
* In better news, the Latin American startup scene re-upped its capital reserves right before the world went risk-off, implying that the region could be well capitalized heading into the rest of the year.
* The Coinbase CEO's Twitter rant a…
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Jun 10, 2022
Looking back at the venture market of one year ago
The show is largely off this week, which means that we don't have our usual deluge of new startup news covered for you. But, we didn't want to leave you with nothing at all on this lovely Friday, so we went to the time machine to see what we could find.
The episode in the feed today is the same episode we put out nearly exactly one year ago today (June 11, 2021) to give some flavor and context to what was going on a now a year past. The idea was that we've spent so much time talking about how 2022 is shaping up to be different than 2021, so why not go back and show the distinction?
https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/11/the-huge-tam-of-fake-breaded-chicken-bits/
We hope you like our fun little experiment. The show returns to regular form Monday.
_Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PDT, so subscribe to us on __Apple Podcasts__,__ Overcast__,__ Spotify __and all the casts_
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Jun 8, 2022
The early signs of startup layoffs to come
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. As the team takes a break this week, we decided to replay an old yet prescient episode from earlier this week. In February, Natasha and Alex asked: What can startups learn from the rise, and now struggles, of Hopin? For companies that grew like weeds, what’s next?
Hopin was one of the first tech companies to conduct layoffs in 2022; and as we said then, while it is is perhaps a very visible canary, it is hardly the only startup that rode COVID-19’s economic disruptions to new heights. Tell us how the episode aged, and if you're on team reckoning or team re-correction?
The market is changing. And while Hopin grew rapidly in 2021, a host of companies that thrived during COVID-19 are now resetting both internal, and external expectations. New year, new market.
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Jun 3, 2022
Sheryl Sandberg, Substack and the art of still raising money for groceries
This was another live week from the Equity crew, meaning that the towering Mary Ann, the inimitable Natasha, and the somewhat fungible Alex were all chatting in real time, thanks to Grace and Julio having the script and tech in place to allow for it. And as we were live, we also wound up taking a little bit more time per story than usual, which was good fun.
What did we get into? A _lot_:
* The end of an era: Sandberg steps down from Meta COO role.
* Deals of the Week: Affirm ties up with Stripe, Felt raises $15 million for maps, and Astro proves that quick grocery delivery is still a thing.
* A new fund is coming from an alum of Precursor Ventures, a firm that we have covered extensively on the podcast.
* The latest from Substack, a startup that we nearly all use, but wonder about from a valuations perspective.
* And we wrapped with notes from our recent spotlight on Columbus, Ohio!
Equity is mostly off next week, meaning no Monday show, and some pre-taped stuff the rest…
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Jun 1, 2022
How investors are playing offense right now (their words, our two cents)
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, we're trying something new. Natasha spent a good chunk of last week at the All Raise VC summit, an annual off-the-record event that brings together some of the best and brightest in the investment community. After the summit, she sat down with Mandela SH Dixon -- All Raise's new CEO -- to unpack what happened, and discuss how today's changing venture capital market will impact diverse founders.
The first half of this episode is a conversation between Natasha and Mandela, and then we'll bring on Alex and turn to some on-the-ground clips from the summit. Sound bytes from Freestyle's Jenny Lefcourt, January Ventures' Jennifer Neundorfer, Rethink Impact's Heidi Patel and Union Square Ventures' Rebecca Kaden will get the classic Equit…
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May 31, 2022
Faster ML models, crypto M&A, and what's ahead for on-demand pricing
It’s Monday, which means that Alex and Grace were back as a team to cover the biggest, boldest and baddest technology news. We are once again back with your weekly kickoff! Here’s what we got into:
* More on the potential M&A boom this week, in light of this recent CNBC piece that got my mind turning. Sure, this is kinda like the CVC story we've been tracking but a bit more focused.
* China's venture capital market is taking body-blows, albeit from recent highs. Still, it is more than easy to track the country's regulatory crackdown to falling venture capital activity.
* Strong Compute raised money, highlighting the fact that early-stage companies can still raise, and that there could be huge unlocks coming in ML model training. Which would be good for all of us.
* And is on-demand pricing on the way out? Things aren't looking good for the model that once challenged the incumbency of SaaS.
Woo! Equity is live this Thursday, so come hang with us on Twitter Spaces or Hopin,…
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May 27, 2022
A ping-pong match between bulls and bears
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Happily we were once again at full strength this week, with Alex Wilhelm, Natasha Mascarenhas and Mary Ann Azevedo chatting, and Grace handling production.
You can tell from the topic list today that we are in an odd time. There are myriad signals that the startup market is slowing down. And there are some counter-narrative data points that paint a more complex picture. Where do you stand in your own viewpoint? Well, read on for some data to consider:
* Natasha gave us a brief update on All Raise's annual VC summit, but she'll get into more on an upcoming Wednesday show (stay tuned!)
* Monte Carlo just raised a unicorn round, worth $135 million at a $1.6 billion valuation. On the other hand, Bolt is laying off staff amidst a correction in the larger startup market, and perhaps its own space.
* If startup news is pointing in two directions, so…
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May 25, 2022
We think founders need a quick Heart to Heart about the market
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha asked: How are early-stage founders thinking about this downturn? The inimitable Alex teamed up with her to interview Joshua Ogundu, the founder and CEO of Heart to Heart about this timely topic.
The question comes after Natasha’s recent Startups Weekly column, "Everyone is drafting their own startup Black Swan memo." The column looked at a series of memos that venture capitalist firms sent to portfolio companies about the market downturn. Some were hopeful, some were simple, and others were a vibe check as straightforward as, Can you tell us your ARR and cash-burn in writing? Pretty please?
To flip the script, as we do here on Equity, we're bringing in the founder perspective to fact check these memos and tell us what…
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May 23, 2022
Will falling tech valuations kick off a M&A boom?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
It's Monday, which means that Alex and Grace were back as a team to cover the biggest, boldest, and baddest technology news. We are once again back with your weekly kickoff! Here's what we got into:
* The stock market may not vomit all over itself today, which would be a nice break from recent weeks.
* Broadcom is working on buying VMware in what would prove to be a mega-deal. Shares of Broadcom are off on the news, while VMware stock is up sharply. The transaction would be worth tens and tens of billions of dollars, if consummated.
* Paytm earnings had lots to like, and some elements that were less salubrious. Shares of the Indian unicorn have recovered somewhat in recent days, but remains sharply depressed from its IPO price.
* In the startup world: BUD raised $36.8 million, SyIndr raised $12.6 million, and 1K Kirana put $25 million onto i…
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May 20, 2022
A Twitter Bot Wrote This
The whole team was back together this week, which was pretty darn good as there was a lot to get through. Alex Wilhelm, Natasha Mascarenhas and Mary Ann Azevedo were on the mic, with Grace handling production.
What did we get into? A better question might be what did we _not _get into:
* We started with an update from the TechCrunch Mobility event, thanks to Natasha who is on-site and up in the air.
* From there it was time to talk deals, with the crew parsing Arrived's latest round, and why Kolkata Chai took some external capital, but very much on its own terms.
* Then it was time to chat Zenly's new mapping news, and why startups are critical when it comes to taking on incumbents.
* From there we had to ask if Elon Musk really wants to buy Twitter (seemingly no?), and how tired we are about the topic itself.
* Then we chatted through the recent unicorn vibe check that the market got, and the fact that most unicorns are not true IPO candidates. (Along with news from SpotOn…
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May 18, 2022
Is there hope for digital health startups post-Roe?
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha asked: How do digital health startups build in a post-Roe world?
The question comes after Natasha’s recent Startups Weekly column, "When your startup’s core mission is set to be overturned." The piece explores the ripple effects of the looming Roe v. Wade overturn, specifically in how it impacts startups. But, let's not hypothesize. We brought on Kiki Freedman, the CEO and co-founder of Hey Jane, to answer our big questions about building, raising, and existing when so much regulatory scrutiny is weighing on your business. A direct-to-consumer health company that specializes in the delivery of abortion pills, Hey Jane about to kick off its fundraising process which makes for an interesting tension. The startup - especially today - really sits in the middle of two intense moments: an overturn to Roe v. Wade would threaten all of its work, and a tougheni…
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May 16, 2022
What's ahead for crypto startups?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Every Monday, Grace and Alex scour the news and record notes on what’s going on to kick off the week.
What was on our minds this morning? The following:
* Global markets are generally down, albeit nothing too terrifying. The American stock market is trying to regain its footing after weeks of selling.
* What's ahead for crypto startups in the wake of the Terra/Luna meltdown? Bloomberg wonders about a general slowdown, and we look at the Crunchbase data of who backed the ill-fated stablecoin.
* Startup layoffs are accelerating -- not as bad as before, but enough to warrant our attention. Layoffs.FYI is _back,_ y'all!
* The Topship round, invested in by Y Combinator and Flexport, has our recent look at CVC hitting just right.
It was an awful weekend in America, which leaked into the show somewhat. Take care of one another.
A few housekeepi…
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May 13, 2022
How close are we to understanding what's going on?
This week we recorded live, which is always good fun, meaning that we took some questions from the audience. If you want that version of the show, we have a YouTube archive of it here.
For those of you more into audio, we have you covered here. Natasha, Alex, and Grace teamed up with Julio and Yashad to host the shindig, allowing us to cover the following:
* The end of iPod, a time to reflect on technology trends.
* The exit of a Modern Fertility co-founder, and the MARA round bringing more money to Africa's fintech scene.
* From there it was onto the Terra crash, Coinbase's earnings, and the general sentiment shift in the crypto scene.
* Next up was Tiger and the downturn in startup valuations.
* And we closed on some personal notes.
All told we had a blast. Mary Ann is back with us next week! Chat soon!
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May 11, 2022
Tech layoffs don't happen to companies, they happen to people
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: What does the most recent wave of layoffs mean for tech workers?
The question comes after Natasha’s recent Startups Weekly column, "The Great Resignation, meet the Great Reset." In the piece, which included a round up of recent tech layoffs, she explored the idea of employee whiplash, and why this moment in pullback is different than what we saw in March 2020.
The goal of the episode was to humanize the tech layoffs we've seen ripple across the startup ecosystem, from buzzy, big names like Cameo, On Deck and Robinhood, to B2B platforms like Workrise and Thrasio. As our piece last week notes, the common thread between most of these layoffs, according to founders, is that there’s been a shift in the market and a serious pivot in business is required. A pivot, that is, that hurts the employees that built your product up after high demand.…
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May 9, 2022
The dominoes are falling
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Every Monday, Grace and Alex scour the news and record notes on what’s going on to kick off the week.
Happily once again we did not start the day by talking about Elon Musk and Twitter, though the news was not really very good:
* Stocks are down sharply around the world. And crypto prices, which track larger asset prices, are also sharply lower in the last day, and week.
* Uber's CEO told his company that things are changing. Adjusted EBITDA is out, FCF is in. Hiring? Going to slow. Capital expenses? Those will get harder looks, and so on. During the show, we asked about the slowdown, and how it may, or may not impact the bouyant crypto startup market.
* Neat funding rounds from Pyramid, which raised $120 million, and Paymob, which raised $50 million.
We are recording live this weekend, so catch the show on Thursday as we record our Friday…
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May 6, 2022
Stripe is playing checkers with Plaid
The crew was back at full-speed, and maybe even full excitement meets exhaustion, this week. Alex Wilhelm, Natasha Mascarenhas and Mary Ann Azevedo were on the mic with moral and edit support from the wonderful Grace. If we had to give this episode it's own autobiography we'd call it: "Drama, tech twitter and therapeutic moments in between."
We got into a whole ton of news including:
* Musk's new best friends back his $44 billion bid for Twitter - and why one of them are probably experiencing deja vu.
* For deals of the week, Natasha spoke about Line's play for more inclusive fintech, Mary Ann got into Truist paying attention (and money) to a fintech startup and Alex took us to the music world with the latest on SoundCloud's thought bubbles.
* Then we talked about how digital health startups are bracing for a Post-Roe world, and which companies to pay attention to. (Insider tip: We're taking about this topic in more depth on Equity Wednesday, coming up next week!)
* Next up,…
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May 4, 2022
Ok, this one is for the crypto-curious
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: What do the crypto-curious need to know to be more savvy about the space? Better than our question, though, was our company: we brought on Anita Ramaswamy and Lucas Matney, the minds behind TechCrunch's newest podcast Chain Reaction. The crypto-focused pod launched a few weeks ago and already has a lot of folks' attention. We highly recommend a listen, and maybe start with the one that will glow up your retirement savings strategy.
Back to today, though, us four chatted through some of the largest questions that entrants into crypto may be thinking about, including untangling web3's complex jargon around decentralization to examine whether it really is different from what other tech companies are already doing. We also took a reporter's notebook lens to crypto coverage, asking if journalists need to be investors in order to report and unders…
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May 2, 2022
How to failwhale the blockchain
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Every Monday, Grace and Alex scour the news and record notes on what’s going on to kick off the week.
* Thankfully we did not start this episode by talking about Elon Musk and Twitter! You are welcome!
* Instead we started with bleak Chinese economic news, that segued into falling venture capital totals for a key startup sector in that country. It turns out that a massive regulatory crackdown will have in-market impacts!
* From there it was time to chat Yuga Labs and its recent minting chaos. Bloomberg has more.
* Then it was time to chat neobanks, in particular the recent rounds from Open ($50 million) and Cogni ($23 million).
This is not a live show week, so Equity will simply come out on Friday as usual. That said, we do have a Twitter space scheduled for today with our own Kirsten Korosec, so follow us on Twitter and we will see you th…
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Apr 29, 2022
Does it smell like teen spirit, or teen bankruptcy?
This was a live week! Which meant that Mary Ann Azevedo was on the mic with Alex Wilhelm, and Grace Mendenhall, our ever-trusty producer, helped us power through. A big shoutout to Dennis, Julio, and Yashad for getting all the tech working well.
Right, what did we dive into during our live taping? A lot!
* The latest from the Elon Musk-Twitter saga, including the social media company's earnings and how it is somewhat sensitive to market sentiment; Musk won't have infinite room with which to maneuver once he owns Twitter.
* For rounds of the week, Mary Ann chatted through the recent Umaro raise -- who doesn't love talking about bacon? -- and Alex picked the latest from the self-driving front.
* From there it was time to talk layoffs at Robinhood and other companies, focused around how some companies that did well in the pandemic are now suffering from what could be described as at least a hangover.
* And we closed with notes on Copper and Step and the ethics of teens investing…
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Apr 27, 2022
Yes, we're talking about Elon
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha was out due to a family matter, so Alex and Amanda came together to chat through the larger Elon Musk-Twitter saga.
Yes, the TechCrunch crew got together on Tuesday for a very long, fun, and relaxed Twitter Space when the news broke. However, instead of going back through all that audio to just pull out the key bits, we decided to focus ourselves down to the core elements of that team chat and produce something a bit tighter.
Here's our question set:
* How much of an active participant will Elon really be?
* What does the deal mean for Twitter employees?
* What impact will the sale have on security, and algorithmic transparency?
* The free speech question
* What does the transaction mean for users?
In case you need more, our coverage of locked code changes is here, more on the privacy question here, and our larger tick-tock can be read here. Ok…
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Apr 25, 2022
What will Elon actually do if he buys Twitter?
Every Monday, Grace and Alex scour the news and record notes on what’s going on to kick off the week.
* Stocks are down, and cryptos not looking too impressive as the world gears up for a packed week of mega-tech earnings.
* The Twitter-Elon Musk deal could happen soon? As soon as today? It appears that after Musk dropped a filing indicating that he actually had the funds to buy the deal, talks shook loose. What's ahead? I have precisely and exactly no idea.
* Hopin is perhaps enduring some turbulence, per the FT. The company, once riding a torrid wave of market demand, is seeing its business molt into a more steady form. That meant layoffs earlier in the year, and a decline in its share price on secondary exchanges.
* Startups! From the startup-realm this morning, new rounds for Zenda and Rooser. Not Rooster, mind, just Rooser.
* And there's a general climate of fear out there, which won't do much for market sentiment. Alas, 2022 is not 2021 when it comes to investor exci…
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Apr 22, 2022
If you could go to Andreessen Horowitz or YC as a startup, which would you choose?
This week was a good week because we had the full team back together. Natasha Mascarenhas was on hand, Mary Ann Azevedo was on the mic, and Alex Wilhelm was around as well. Grace, our ever-trusty producer and lead on the Friday show, was on the dials.
As with nearly every week this year, we had to cut and cut to make the show fit into its allotted time. This is what we got into:
* Brief updates on SoftBank, Better.com, and Elon's quest to buy Twitter.
* On the deals front, we talked about Mary Ann's coverage of Kindred, the latest from the Indian crypto scene and Chipotle. Why Chipotle? Because it turns out that it is cooking up more than lunch!
* From there we dug into Natasha's coverage of the latest early-stage effort from a16z, and what it could mean for competition with Y Combinator, among other entities. The theme of large funds going earlier and earlier-stage will be with us forever, it seems.
* Shares of Netflix took a hammering this week. Why? Growth at the company i…
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Apr 20, 2022
More money doesn’t mean more growth, and other startup myths
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, fresh off of a reunion that included pasta and green rooms, Natasha and Alex asked: What are some startup assumptions that get it wrong?
The question comes after one of Natasha’s recent Startups Weekly column, "Let’s stop pretending there are silos in startup land." In the piece, which was teased out in her newsletter, she talked about how separations between late-stage and early-stage companies aren't as iron as investors may try to sell. Of course, that spiraled into an op-ed about what other startup notions we have, and the difference between a silo and a semblance of one.
Here's an excerpt from the piece:
You don’t need to be a web3 company to benefit from the growing mindshare around decentralization and alternative assets; just like you don’t need to be an angel investor to adopt the idea that your advice is worthy of equity in a company; and, as I…
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Apr 18, 2022
Are poison pills really that bitter?
Every Monday, Grace and Alex scour the news and record notes on what’s going on to kick off the week.
We are sitting on the precipice of a very busy few weeks, so let's get right to work!
* Stocks are mixed around the world to start the day, cryptos are off a little more but nothing too scary.
* Didi will vote on leaving the US public markets this May, and has promised to not list anywhere else in the interim. This saga is nearly behind us, but what a mess it will leave in its wake.
* The Beanstalk exploit was bad news this weekend, but my hunch is that so long as votes are tied to economic might, many neat ideas in crypto-land will remain open to exploit.
* Zambian fintech startup Union54 raised a $12 million Seed extension, led by Tiger, that caught our eye. And over in India, food-delivery rivals Swiggy and Zomato are both backing UrbanPiper.
* Finally, it seems that some private-market investors are not stoked about poison pills, a defensive setup by public companies…
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Apr 15, 2022
‘The Ultimatum’ and social fintech have more in common than you’d think
This week was TechCrunch Early Stage, so Natasha and Alex got together - in person - to record the episode for the very first time. Shout out to Grace for somehow helping us figure out a tech set up in the middle of a sold out event.
* We started with a recap of TechCrunch Early Stage so far, but check out TechCrunch+ for posts about every single panel next week. Pro listener tip: use code "EQUITY" for a solid discount, for your TechCrunch+ subscription.
* Then we of course pivoted to Elon, who is still making news about his newest fixation Twitter. This time, we led with the fact that he's trying to buy the whole darn thing.
* Deel made news with an ARR number that actually had some weight behind it, which got us thinking more about remote work bets.
* We had to talk about Braid, a new social fintech startup that wants to make shared wallets easier. We got into crypto culture without the coins, and then it took a turn when we started getting into Love is Blind and The Ultimat…
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Apr 13, 2022
Venture needs crypto more than crypto needs venture
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, given a parade of headlines and news that Fast shut down, Natasha and Alex brought on our new senior TechCrunch+ reporter Jacquelyn Melinek to ask: How is ‘Web3’ blowing up venture’s traditional playbook?
The question comes after Jacquelyn and Natasha looked into how crypto companies are altering the investing landscape for even the most disciplined VCs. Use code "EQUITY" for a sweet, sweet discount.
Here's an excerpt from that post:
The main difference between web3 cap tables and traditional startup cap tables is the structure of a company, because the way a C-corp would provide investors with equity would differ from the way a decentralized organization or DAO would, Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky said. Today, Celsius owns half of its CEL tokens and only sold investors tokens in its initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017 when the company first launched, he added…
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Apr 11, 2022
Did we learn anything from the Elon-Twitter brouhaha?
Every Monday, Grace and Alex scour the news and record notes on what’s going on to kick off the week.
This week was big-tech heavy, as the startup market had a slow start to the week. Sign of the times or one day fluke? We'll see in time, I suppose.
Here's what we got into on the show today:
* Stocks are down today, and cryptos are doing even worse in recent days.
* Elon Musk's flirtation with becoming a Twitter board member is over, the company said. Precisely why Musk backed out is not entirely clear, though the social media company's statement might hold some clues.
* Shopify is splitting its stock, and changing up its corporate governance structure; crypto volumes are tanking in India following a legal change -- and Coinbase is struggling in the country; SailPoint is selling to private equity for $6.9 billion.
* Turning the clock back, the Ellevest round is very cool.
* And to close things out, NIO's production is on hold in China due to COVID issues. Such much for s…
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Apr 8, 2022
Startups in 2022 are indeed ‘harder, Better, Faster, stronger’
This was our live show week! Yes, Mary Ann and Natasha and Alex got together with Grace for our Friday recording on Thursday, meaning that we gathered on Hopin and Twitter Spaces to yammer through the week's news. It was a very busy week, with breaking news up to the minute before we recorded -- including this piece from the Better.com saga.
* Square’s Better.com name Block is Butter-y smooth
* Failure is a choose-your-own adventure for startups
* Will rising interest rates decimate startup valuations?
* Is today's market sad or sane?
So! What did we get into? A lot:
* How Conceive is helping people manage the matter of infertility, Cottage raising $15 million to make ADUs more common, and how Tandem is taking on the hybrid work future.
* Next up was Austin, Mary Ann's home turf. We held an event there this week that we touched on, but the main thrust of our chat circled around this piece.
* From there it was time for the bad news -- including layoffs at Workrise, Be…
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Apr 6, 2022
Failure is a choose-your-own adventure for startups
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, given a parade of headlines and news that Fast shut down, Natasha and Alex asked: What are we missing when we talk about startup failure?
The question comes after one of Natasha’s recent Startups Weekly columns, where she looked into the complexity of startup failure, fallacy of takedown stories, and importance of diversity in newsrooms. Here's an excerpt:
"_There’s the argument that startup tensions are inevitable and common, so should we spotlight every time something bubbles to the surface, especially at the cost of an underrepresented founder who may just be doing their best? There’s also an argument that the business is messy, so we should report on the issues as we hear about them; and there’s the narrative of the female takedown story, in which people believe that women are targeted by the press more than men due to unreasonably high standards."_
I…
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Apr 4, 2022
Equity Monday: Elon's Twitter stake and the fate of rival social networks
Every Monday, Grace and Alex scour the news and record notes on what’s going on to kick off the week.
After last weeks super startup-heavy show, we were back to our regular Monday grab-bag of news! Here's what we got into:
* A strong start to the week from global stocks, and a general updraft to crypto prices in recent days.
* Elon Musk buying a huge stake in Twitter, the popular American social network. The move comes after the Tesla and SpaceX CEO tweeted that Twitter was not allowing enough free discourse. Naturally we look forward to yet another idealist learning about content moderation, but we're also tracking Twitter rivals, making the situation both complex, and entertaining.
* PrimeBlock is going public via a SPAC! The deck hadn't dropped in time for the show, but the initial release is here.
* From the rest: Tesla deliveries were hot, lemon.markets raised $17 million, and Jumia is working with UPS.
Equity is live this week, so swing by to hang out if you want to…
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Apr 1, 2022
Instacart now delivers market trends
Welcome to our Friday show! Our regular co-host Natasha was off this time, so Mary Ann and Alex linked arms with our producer Grace to blast our way through the news of the week. As always, we had to pick and choose what seemed to matter the most.
Here's what we got into:
* All Things Y Combinator: Here's our first set of favs, and our second. Here's a rundown of fintech companies from the batch, and our look at the Indian participants, and those hailing from Africa.
* Instacart as trendsetter: The well-known grocery delivery company has lowered the price at which it will value employee equity comp, something that could become a trend. It seems so, with Instacart leading a potential vanguard of similar actions from other companies in time. Also we're thinking about how startup valuations could regain their shine.
* Gaming: With the huge Axie Infinity hack making headlines, we talked about the matter and how other startups are tinkering with the play-to-earn market.
* And we c…
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Mar 30, 2022
Demo days definitely amplify a brand, but not the one you'd think
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, in light of Y Combinator's bi-annual demo day, Natasha and Alex asked about the utility of the parade of pitches. Our big question:
Are demo days outdated?
The question comes after Natasha’s latest Startups Weekly column, where she looked into the trend of everyone constantly trying to re-invent startup accelerators. We've seen everything from in-person events, to virtual pitch-a-thons, to record efforts, and more. Name it, it's been tried.
Today's show is a continuation of that conversation, specifically digging into how demo days served founders in the past, and how they amplify in the present. There's a good bit of factors that jolted things up, including the proliferation of accelerators, a boom in pre-seed funding and the pandemic forcing programming to go remote. We also ask for whom are demo days really for?
Listen in to hear what we landed on, disagree…
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Mar 28, 2022
Gearing up for demo day
Every Monday, Grace and Alex and Kell scour the news and record notes on what’s going on to kick off the week.
This week had a theme. Which was startups. Lots and lots of startups. Here’s the rundown:
* Markets are mixed this morning, with strong crypto trading results and big news from Tesla.
* The weekend’s leading conversation in the tech and startup world was about this analysis regarding crypto upstarts not giving out board seats to investors. Call it peak founder-friendliness? It’s also a huge risk, as investors have taken board seats for a reason, historically. All the same, you gotta win those deals.
* Y Combinator Demo Day is this week: We are going to see hundreds of startups make their pitch in rapid-fire fashion. Sure, many will have already raised capital, but the capitalist confab is still worth watching. I am looking for API-led startups and any hints about where DAOs are heading, personally.
* Zepto raised, which TechCrunch covered here, and I had a fe…
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