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 nahHow 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 and Friday at 6 a.m. PDT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

Credits: Equity is hosted by TechCrunch's Alex Wilhelm and Mary Ann Azevedo. We are produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.