Equity

Theranos's reckoning, BroadQual's stunning conclusion and Lyft's platform ambitions

Magic Leap gets $461M more, Travis goes VC, and HQ Trivia scales up

Spotify’s anti-IPO, Dropbox’s going public, Amazon’s $1B doorbell; and more money for DoorDash

We had the full crew on hand this week with Matthew Lynley, Katie Roof, and myself, along with Mar Hershenson from Pear Ventures who stepped into the guest chair. It was a damn busy week, with news raining down from the skies. We had to pick the best, so we went with the biggest rounds and exits. You are welcome. First up, Spotify’s massive not-really-an-IPO, which has a listed $1 billion maximum raise that won’t happen. Indeed, the company is racing ahead with its direct listing, which sho...

Equity Shot: Dropbox is going public, and Aaron Levie has some advice

At long last, after many predictions and even a private filing, Dropbox dropped its S-1 today. The filing marks the public beginning of the end of Dropbox’s life as a private company. Dropbox is going public! To mark the occasion, Katie Roof and Alex Wilhelm met up in the TechCrunch podcast studio to chat about the company’s numbers. And, we got Aaron Levie, CEO of Dropbox competitor Box, on the phone to talk about the occasion.

Roku's reckoning, Snap's huge CEO payout, Airbnb goes upscale and a big NYC acquisition

This week the full gang was in town, with Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley and Alex Wilhelm all back in the podcast studio. The trio was joined by Hilary Gosher, a managing director at Insight Venture Partners who helped dig through the news. The packed week meant some things had to get left behind (Rovio's dive, and so forth), but, as always, we picked the best of the bunch to chew over. First up: Roku's earnings results and ensuing share price shellacking. The company was a 2017 IPO, and a brea...

Uber’s losing billions, Amazon lays off hundreds and somehow Instacart gets more money

Welcome to “Equity,” TechCrunch’s venture capital and tech business podcast. On this week, we were joined by Mike Ghaffary from Social Capital, who was the perfect guest because he used to run Eat24, when it was Yelp’s food delivery business. Food delivery is highly relevant to this week’s news. First up, we talked about Uber, which is losing lots of money in Asia and also from Uber Eats. It could be profitable if it wants to, says Uber’s chief, but it doesn’t want to because the company i...

Equity Shot: Twitter and Snap's surprising, synchronized social success

Today we're doing another Equity Shot, a short topic-centered episode where we assemble the troops to dive into one particular thing. Or, in this case, two particular things. Matthew Lynley, myself, and Katie Roof gathered to pick over Snap and Twitter's respective earnings reports. They each managed to best expectations, leading to sharp rises in their respective share prices. First up, Snap shot sharply higher after beating Wall Street revenue and profit expectations. The firm remains de...

Live from SaaStr: The market loses its mind, bitcoin tanks, and when will Slack go public

This week was a treat. Not only did venture capitalist Annie Lamont join our own Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley, and Alex Wilhelm, we also recorded this episode live at SaaStr, a yearly SaaS-focused confab in San Francisco. Happily for us, though not happily for your 401k, the markets took a massive dive and wound up bouncing SaaS stocks right as we were prepping the episode. Perfect fodder, if you will, for the moment. What the market's chop means in practice is that quite a few companies tha...

Dog-walking startup gets $300M, Airbnb isn't going public and Amazon is fine

This week Matthew Lynley and Alex Wilhelm were joined by General Catalyst's Steve Herrod, who helped us dig through the week's biggest news. As a group, we looked at Wag's mega-round, a $300 million infusion from SoftBank's Vision Fund. The scale of the capital was surprising, though the round had been rumored previously. What will the company do with the money, and why might it need so much were questions on the top of our minds. Next up was Airbnb's recent executive shakeup and its publi...

Netflix soars, Twitter loses a big bird, Lyft isn't woke and more ICOs

This week we once again had the full crew on set: Matthew Lynley, Katie Roof, and myself. And even better, we were joined by Sarah Tavel from Benchmark, who helped us unspool a topic or three. Equity is recording a live ep at SaaStr which is cool. And topics we had. This being earnings season, we had little choice but to talk about at least one public company's results. Obviously, we picked Netflix, a firm whose stock has gone parabolic as its cashflow has moved in the opposite direction. ...

Dropbox and Xiaomi want to go public, and how big is Telegram's ICO?

This week was a corker. Our co-host Matthew Lynley is back, Katie and myself were on hand, and our guest, Shruti Gandhi from Array Ventures, was brilliant. And the news gods were kind, as there was quite a lot to get through. First, we looked into the Dropbox IPO. Dropbox has reportedly filed confidentially to go public, meaning that the company's long dance towards the public markets is nearing its conclusion. But what will it be worth when it does go public? That is the new Silicon Valle...

2017’s top tech acquisitions and what’s in store for 2018

This week we took a look back at the year’s M&A market, which brought some big wins and some low lights. Equity this week was Katie Roof, Alex Wilhelm, and Jamie Leigh, a partner at Cooley, who joined us to go over the year’s receipts. What to look for ahead? Leigh mentioned big box stores, Roof brought up automakers, and we also kicked over the idea of non-tech companies buying smaller firms that are not merely talent plays. (Instead, this about investments in long-term efforts to build in...

Spotify's impending debut, Uber's done deal, and Nasdaq 7,000

This episode, the first of 2018, saw our own Katie Roof and your humble servant (Alex) joined by Atish Davda, CEO, and founder of EquityZen. Matthew Lynley is off this week. (Davda's firm put together a landing page for Equity, which we thought was neat.) This week saw the culmination of a huge number of stories that we have discussed in 2017. Namely that Spotify has finally filed for its direct listing, and the Uber-Softbank deal is done. Regarding Spotify, we got into why it would pursu...

2017 IPO recap and who will go public in 2018

This week the crew — Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley, Alex Wilhelm — were joined by Barrett Daniels, the CEO of Nextstep Advisory, an IPO shop that helps companies go public. Guess what we talked about? Yes, we went back through the biggest debuts of 2017, several of the quiet hits and the laggards. We also answered critical questions like "what was the worst IPO of 2017?" (For more results, check the spreadsheet here.) And, it being our holiday episode, we played a bit of what if. Or what may...

Stitch Fix tumbles, stocks go crypto, and VCs still love unicorns

This week the crew -- Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley, Alex Wilhelm -- were joined Jeff Richards, a managing partner at GGV. (GGV has raised nearly $4 billion to invest, according to Crunchbase.) This week we turned our eyes to Stitch Fix's first-ever earnings report as a public company. As you may recall, we've spent time on the Stitch Fix IPO given that it drove a bit of disagreement regarding if, or if not it was a success. The firm's financial miss but market disappointment in its financial ...

Apple’s $400M deals, Target buys a startup and uh-oh net neutrality

Normally, happenings are slow this time of year. But, living up to its reputation as a year-apart, 2017 is not delivering the normal news slowdown. So, putting aside the latest from Uber, we started with a look at Apple's massive $400 million Shazam deal, and its other, nearly-$400 million deal in a component company. Apple, not really known as an overly acquisitive firm, is richer than Croesus. That fact makes its business dealings with smaller firms all the more interesting. Why did Apple...

Lyft's driving fast, Blue Apron's troubles and bitcoin infinity

On the latest episode, we were joined by Nagraj Kashyap, who runs Microsoft Ventures. Topics this week included Lyft's growing financials and its driverless cars. It looks like the company benefitted during Uber's eventful year.  We also talked about the change of leadership at Blue Apron.The company has had a very unfortunate ride on the stock market since it went public in June. Then we discussed the latest sexual harassment allegations in the venture capital community. A well-known VC ...

Uber’s big discount, more money for Pokémon, and Jeff Bezos is worth how much?

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-themed podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week Katie Roof and Alex Wilhelm were joined by Heather Hartnett of Human Ventures. It has been a surprisingly newsy November, so we narrowed ourselves to just a few topics: Uber, Niantic, Meetup, and Jeff Bezos' checking account. First up, Uber. We know that we've spent a lot of time on the Uber saga in recent months. We're not enormous fans of the fact, fra...

Stitch Fix and SailPoint get their IPOs done before the turkey dies

This week we assembled the full crew — Matthew Lynley, Katie Roof and Alex Wilhelm — along with Stephanie Palmeri from Uncork Capital. Palmeri has invested in Poshmark, Chariot, and ClassDojo, for context. Her investment in Poshmark made her a perfect guest as we spent the bulk of our time in the podcast room digging through the Stitch Fix IPO, which wound up attracting both positive and negative commentary on Twitter and in the media. Here’s Katie’s roundup of the fracas, and, here’s some...

Musical.ly, Bumble, SendGrid and not Uber

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. And news there was. We first dug into the big Musical.ly deal, working to understand why the company was worth as much as its rumored price tag purports. Anytime things get up to the billion-dollar range, it's eyebrow-raising and worth our time. Next, Bumble might be selling. Bumble is an important dating app that is, according to Forbes, working toward the $100 ...

An Equity Shot: The Uber-Softbank deal explained

Hello and welcome to another Equity Shot, a quick-hit episode of our venture-capital themed podcast. (Equity, released every Thursday, focuses on the money behind the headlines.) This week Katie Roof and I — Alex Wilhelm — sank our teeth into the story that roiled the tech community’s weekend and continued to cause waves today. Yes, the Uber-SoftBank story — which we might want to call the Uber-SoftBank-Dragoneer story now, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves. A quick refresher is in order...

Roku's on a tear, and Snap had an awful week

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley, and Alex Wilhelm dug into the recent earnings run and talked through what’s coming next in the IPO pipeline. We were joined by Heidi Mayon from Gunderson Dettmer, perfect company this week to help us understand the next public offerings. Up first was Snap’s earnings miss. The firm came short on both revenue and user growth, l...

Apple and Tesla report earnings, and IPOs are back

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week was a treat due to the huge news cycle we were following. So, Katie Roof and I — Alex Wilhelm — brought David Golden into the studio to help us carve through it all. Golden is a Managing Partner at Revolution Ventures, an investing shop based primarily in DC.

Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Twitter earnings madness

This week Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley and myself — Alex Wilhelm — took it back to our roots with a show with just us hosts. Which worked out great as we had a lot to unpack. Tech, it never stops. This week brought an earnings influx, with Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Twitter reporting today. In order: Amazon beat expectations partially on the strength of AWS, Microsoft beat expectations and reached a cloud milestone early, Alphabet beat expectations and managed to change one of is key me...

IPOs for Stitch Fix, MongoDB and SendGrid, and Alphabet's Lyft investment

On the latest episode, we were joined by Barry Eggers, co-founder and a general partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. There was a lot of IPO news this week. MongoDB debuted and we saw filings on Thursday for both Stitch Fix and SendGrid. And, of course, there was the inevitable ridesharing news. Uber competitor Lyft is now flush with cash after a $1 billion investment from Alphabet. (Alphabet is also involved in a lawsuit against Uber...go figure!)

IPO spree continues and Magic Leap wants $1 billion

Staying in that lane, this week was IPO-heavy. First up we took on the HelloFresh IPO. The German company is following in the footsteps of Blue Apron, an ocean away. We were curious: why go now, when Blue Apron has had such a rough go of it. But, looking at the numbers, there are some encouraging signs that could help this market comp not take a discount at the IPO window.

Uber's board gets bigger, ForeScout's security IPO, and venture investment trends

This week we had no choice but to dive into Uber's most recent headlines and happenings. We did not get into every possible topic -- Uber is a cornucopia of news these days, and our show can't be four hours long. Instead, we focused our attentions on the Softbank situation, Uber's board, and how much new capital the firm may raise in the coming weeks.

Google goes shopping and IPO madness

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Today's episode was especially fun, coming during what we might call "IPO Week" for obvious reasons. Happily, the whole crew was around the table to chew over the latest: Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley and myself — Alex Wilhelm. We were joined by Megan Quinn, a general partner at Spark Capital, who helped us get through the week's mix. Up first we went into the big ...

Equity Live From Disrupt SF: Slack's Rich, Google Loves Lyft, And Flying Cars For Some Reason

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s weekly venture capital-themed podcast where we work to unpack the numbers lurking behind the news. This week we have a special episode for you all. We recorded live from Disrupt San Francisco, right in the middle of the main floor. What did we get into? A host of things, including Slack’s new mega round — and what it means for SoftBank’s massive fund — the potential Alphabet-Lyft tie up and the various intrigues in that space, flying cars, the...

SoFi loses its CEO, big rounds for unicorns, and will this VC buy the iPhone X

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture-capital themed podcast. This week Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley, and myself — Alex Wilhelm — were joined by Accel’s Jake Flomenberg to dig through the biggest news of the week.

An Equity Shot: Equifax Hack

Each week Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley, and myself -- Alex Wilhelm -- try to de-obfuscate the opaque and arcane world of startup finance with the help of someone from the industry.

Roku is going public, 23andMe raises $200M, and Juicero is dead

This week Matthew Lynley, Katie Roof, and myself -- Alex! -- sat down with Micah Rosenbloom, an investor with Founder Collective to sit down and chew over the week's news. We managed to not talk about Uber this episode, which was a welcome respite from the last few months during which we couldn't not talk about the company. However, that didn't mean that there wasn't quite a lot to get through. First up, Roku dropped its S-1 documentation for what is currently tagged as a $100 million IPO....

The Uber Saga, Delayed IPOs And Just What Is An ICO

This week Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley, and myself -- Alex! -- were joined by Samuel Angus, a partner on the corporate team of Fenwick & West, where he represents a number of venture-backed firms, including Airbnb and Github. But before we could bring Angus on, we had Uber to get through. The ridesharing company wouldn't leave us alone this week, as per usual, dropping a sheaf of news items since the last time we came together. Let's see: Uber has a new CEO, after he accepted the job this we...

An Equity Shot: Uber's new CEO

Each week Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley, and myself -- Alex Wilhelm -- try to de-obfuscate the opaque and arcane world of startup finance with the help of someone from the industry.

Uber grows against all odds, Amazon makes Whole Foods cheaper, and WeWork raises $4.4 billion

Each week Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley, and myself -- Alex Wilhelm -- try to de-obfuscate the opaque and arcane world of startup finance with the help of someone from the industry.

Uber's board mess, the Angry Birds IPO, and MongoDB files to go public

Each week Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley, and myself -- Alex Wilhelm -- try to de-obfuscate the opaque and arcane world of startup finance with the help of someone from the industry. This week, Trinity Ventures' Dan Scholnick was in the studio to assist us. And what a week it has been. First, the Uber goat rodeo continued with investors sending public nasty-grams to one another. According to our guest, this sort of squabble isn't precisely rare, but to see so much aired in public by a company o...

Benchmark sues Kalanick, and what’s next for IPOs after Snap and Blue Apron’s very bad day

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s weekly venture-themed podcast where we dive into the numbers behind the noise. Forget the summer lull, friends. This week was chock full of news that broke right up until the very last minute. Matthew Lynley was off this week, but Katie Roof and Alex Wilhelm were incredibly lucky to have Kate Mitchell, co-founder and partner at Scale Venture Partners on hand to help us shift the weight. Picking from among the various conflagrations, mistakes, ...

Tesla rides high, Apple inches toward $1 trillion, and Redfin surges

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-themed podcast where we walk through the numbers driving Silicon Valley each and every week. This episode, Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley and Alex Wilhelm were joined by NEA partner Rick Yang to dig into the week’s earnings, IPOs, and surprise M&A. It was a packed news cycle, with so much to go over that we left the Reddit deal on the table. Sorry, kids.

Facebook good, everyone else bad

This week we had the full crew on deck, including Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley, and myself -- Alex! -- to dive into the biggest news of the week. We weren't alone, thankfully, as Maveron partner Rebecca Kaden joined us in the studio to mull over the latest. The news of the week was earnings-themed, unsurprisingly, including Amazon's big revenue beat and profit miss, Alphahbet's slightly fretful growth and losses on its "Other Bets," whatever the hell happened to Twitter during the San Francis...

Roku's IPO, Netflix's momentum and Shyp layoffs

Cord-cutting was a theme of the latest Equity episode. We were joined by Bloomberg Beta's Roy Bahat and TechCrunch's Silicon Valley editor Connie Loizos joined the crew this week. We talked about Roku's upcoming IPO and Netflix's earnings. We also talked about the challenges facing on-demand shipping company Shyp, which is closing shop in three markets.

Snap reaches new low, and Uber cries uncle in Russia

Snap’s share price has fallen dramatically in recent weeks, adding to its woes sourced from a lackluster Q1 earnings report. Snap now trades below its IPO price. Its declines are worrisome for other unicorns looking to defend private valuations in the public sphere. The venture capital sexual harassment scandal continued this week, with allegations leading to the ouster of Frank Artale from Ignition Partners. More on that, and a round-up of the rest of the mess here. Uber grew about 10 per...

500 Startups scandals, disappointing IPOs, and the end of Jawbone

This week was a fun one. Matthew Lynley is out on vacation, so TechCrunch's own Megan Rose Dickey (the current host of Bullish and general badass) joined Katie Roof and myself -- Alex Wilhelm -- to dive into the news of the week. And news there was. We kicked off with a deep dive into the continuing venture capital harassment scandal, which has already brought down one firm, led to a number of smashed reputations, and most recently led to dramatic shakeups at 500 Startups. We also dug into...

Sexual harassment takes down Binary Capital and Blue Apron's lackluster IPO

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s recurring venture capital-focused podcast that, against odds laid by its arcane subject matter, is still on the air. This week was a corker. To help out our regular contingent Matthew Lynley, Katie Roof and myself -- Alex Wilhelm -- Charles Moldow, a general partner at Foundation Capital swung by the studio. And help out he did as we took on topics technical, serious and whimsical. We also dove into the Binary Capital mess. After six women (th...

Too much damn Uber news and Jeff Bezos buys a grocery chain

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a weekly podcast of high finance gossip and low GAAP intrigue. It's TechCrunch's show focused on all things venture capital. This week, Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley and I — Alex Wilhelm — were joined by Cyan Banister, a prolific investor on her own (Uber, Postmates, the list goes on), and partner at Founders Fund, a team with more than $3 billion under management. This week we hit on three core topics: Uber's turmoil, Amazon's epic M&A moves, and Slack's app...

An Equity Shot: Unpacking the Amazon-Whole Foods deal

We've got an Equity Shot for you, an irregular extra hit from the Equity podcast crew. Today the big news is the potential Amazon-Whole Foods deal, which has led to rampant media speculation, depressed grocery stocks around the nation, and allegations of intelligent corporate strategy. It's the sort of day that forces you to sit back and re-cast your views of the technology world. It demands answers to questions like "Why is Amazon buying a grocery store?" And "if it makes sense, why?" Tha...

Uber’s shakeup and Pandora’s new tune

This week, the Equity crew was lucky enough to have Charles Hudson join our little crew. Hudson is both a managing partner at Precursor and a venture partner at SoftTech. The week was busy. We started with a quick unpacking of the Uber situation, including the exit of its executives, its CEO’s temporary departure, the loss of a board member of a sexist joke, and more. It’s Uber’s world in a way, and we are stuck in it. Uber aside, tech stocks were on our minds, as a number of firms in the ...

Pinterest's path to IPO, and Snap tries to buy a future

Our little quorum this week, which included Indy Guha from Bain Capital Ventures, dove into critical stories, including Pinterest's new capital event which saw the firm bring in a comparatively modest sum for a comparatively modest valuation bump; Snap's purchase of Placed to, in the words of TechCrunch's Josh Constine "prove geofilters drive store visits"; ShotSpotter's debut; and, as you must have guessed, the Tintri IPO filing, which left us with a few questions.

Blue Apron files for IPO and Uber tells us how much money they're losing

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s premier venture capital-focused podcast. This week the News Gods disbursed unto the crew a juicy morsel: Blue Apron filed to go public minutes before we sat down to chew over what’s been happening. As you can imagine, it took up a chunk of our time. But no episode of Equity is complete without our own Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley, myself — Alex Wilhelm — and a fresh victim, or guest, depending on your perspective. This week Ted Smith, an M&A ban...

The largest tech fund in history, and where are the IPOs?

This week we take a dive into IPOs, what constitutes a good pop and who might be next. We also drilled into the massive new Softbank fund and what it might mean for tech rounds both big, and small. Oh, and Peloton remains something that we can't get enough of. Some of us even Soul Cycle.

Instagram copies Snap again and Greycroft's Ellie Wheeler on cybersecurity and self-driving cars

This week we pulled off our very first live episode, taping the session during the last day of TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2017. For our inaugural public show, Ellie Wheeler of Greycroft joined our merry band of nerds: Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley, and Alex Wilhelm. In honor of the venue and time, we kept the format the exact same, focusing this time around on Apple’s double $200 million dosh disbursements, the Lyft-Waymo tie up and all its irony, Facebook’s recent Snap Xerox and Crowdstrike’s neat...