Equity
860 episodes - English - Latest episode: 12 days ago - ★★★★ - 321 ratingsThe intersection of technology, startups, and venture capital touches everything now. That’s why Equity, TechCrunch's flagship podcast, digs into the business of startups for entrepreneurs and enthusiasts alike. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, TechCrunch reporters keep you up-to-date on the world of business, technology, and venture capital.
Equity is ranked the No.2 podcast in the Top 100 Venture Capital All time leaderboard on Goodpods—As well as No.17 for the Top 100 Finance All time chart and No.32 for the Top 100 Business News All time chart.
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Episodes
Unicorns are rare, but what about real?
April 14, 2023 14:00 - 32 minutes - 30.4 MBThis 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 whi...
Founders shouldn't have to choose between mental health and grit
April 12, 2023 14:00 - 42 minutes - 38.5 MBThis 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 t...
The petty shall inherit the pennies
April 10, 2023 14:00 - 9 minutes - 8.38 MBToday, 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 disc...
Don’t ever leak data, but especially if you’re building this type of startup
April 07, 2023 14:00 - 38 minutes - 35.1 MBThis 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 sha...
How hard was it to raise venture capital in Q1?
April 06, 2023 14:00 - 29 minutes - 27 MBAlex 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 di...
Welcome to Q2, Equity family
April 03, 2023 14:00 - 9 minutes - 8.35 MBAlex 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 ...
Burn, community, burn
March 31, 2023 14:00 - 35 minutes - 32.9 MBAI? 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 crowd...
AI's moral compass with the responsible AI expert behind CredoAI
March 29, 2023 14:00 - 30 minutes - 27.9 MBThis 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 mem...
Not all unicorns are in trouble, just a lot of them
March 27, 2023 14:00 - 8 minutes - 7.95 MBAlex 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-friend...
Not-so-fake dry powder, AI and the future of DAOs
March 24, 2023 14:00 - 36 minutes - 33.3 MBWhat 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 th...
One of venture’s most iconic duos wants to have a word with you
March 22, 2023 14:00 - 38 minutes - 35.6 MBNatasha 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 th...
As banks totter, crypto is busy racking up gains
March 20, 2023 14:00 - 8 minutes - 7.95 MBAlex 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-Twitte...
Don’t use Sam Altman and AI hype in the same sentence
March 17, 2023 14:00 - 30 minutes - 28.4 MBThis 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 ...
One founder's account of what is left behind from SVB's crash
March 15, 2023 14:00 - 22 minutes - 20.3 MBThis 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...
The one where Alex and Natasha catch the Equity audience up on SVB
March 13, 2023 17:00 - 15 minutes - 13.8 MBThis 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 ...
Flat is the new up, down is the new flat, dead is the new down
March 10, 2023 15:00 - 38 minutes - 35.4 MBThis 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...
Dear startups, your developers and engineers are on an island
March 08, 2023 15:00 - 31 minutes - 28.9 MBThis 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 ...
Equity Monday: We'd give an arm and a leg for an ARM IPO filing
March 06, 2023 15:02 - 8 minutes - 8.01 MBAlex 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! -- t...
Bonus Episode: Say Hello to the Startup Battlefield Winner
March 06, 2023 15:00 - 32 minutes - 29.8 MBIt’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. Credits: Equity is produced...
Why hasn’t generative AI come up with something easier to say than “generative AI”?
March 03, 2023 15:00 - 34 minutes - 32.1 MBMary 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 is fintech's 'Noah's Ark Year'
March 01, 2023 15:00 - 30 minutes - 27.6 MBMary 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 fi...
Equity Monday: Who still loves fintech?
February 27, 2023 15:00 - 8 minutes - 8.12 MBAlex 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 t...
Bonus Episode: Getting to know the Battlefield 200
February 27, 2023 15:00 - 14 minutes - 13.6 MBInside 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 t...
Scooters and social media companies are surprising IPO candidates
February 24, 2023 15:00 - 37 minutes - 34.3 MBThis 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. ...
Female check-writers alone aren’t enough to close the female fundraising gap, data shows
February 22, 2023 15:00 - 35 minutes - 32.1 MBHello, 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’...
Bonus Episode: Making the Pitch Perfect
February 20, 2023 15:00 - 31 minutes - 28.9 MBInside 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 questio...
Outsized seed rounds, neobanks and booming M&A? Well hello, 2023
February 17, 2023 15:00 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBNatasha, 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 t...
Caretakers, ageism and other topics venture needs to stop overlooking
February 15, 2023 15:00 - 32 minutes - 29.7 MBThis 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: Buildi...
Bonus Episode: The Startup Battlefield Basics
February 13, 2023 15:00 - 31 minutes - 29 MBCheck 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 ...
Wait a secondary
February 10, 2023 15:00 - 32 minutes - 29.9 MBThis 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 ac...
The individual mistake that tech startups are collectively making
February 08, 2023 15:00 - 35 minutes - 32.2 MBThis 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...
Equity Monday: SoftBank's vibe shift is using silence loudly
February 06, 2023 19:00 - 10 minutes - 9.21 MBHere'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...
The impact investor and climate correspondent walk into a bar
February 03, 2023 15:00 - 32 minutes - 30.3 MBThis 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 looki...
Be relevant, or get downturned
February 01, 2023 15:00 - 29 minutes - 27.3 MBHello 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 wea...
Equity Monday: If (and only if) McDonald's had an appetite for acquisitions
January 30, 2023 18:00 - 10 minutes - 10 MBHere'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 l...
You could be Wasted and not even know it
January 27, 2023 14:51 - 33 minutes - 30.4 MBThis 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 ...
All is fair in love and moderation
January 25, 2023 15:00 - 32 minutes - 29.5 MBThis 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 ...
Equity Monday: All that VC dry powder is damper than you think
January 23, 2023 19:00 - 11 minutes - 11 MBHere'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 analy...
Gas, Slay, what’s next? Fire?
January 20, 2023 15:00 - 32 minutes - 29.8 MBNatasha 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 o...
What's next for the entrepreneur behind Layoffs.FYI
January 18, 2023 15:00 - 31 minutes - 29 MBThis 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 a...
Equity Monday: Twitter rivals, unicorn trivia and valuation homework
January 17, 2023 18:00 - 11 minutes - 10.6 MBHere'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 C...
Frank-ly, the Kardashian method won’t work for SBF
January 13, 2023 15:00 - 32 minutes - 30.1 MBThis 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...
Will what happened at CES stay at CES?
January 11, 2023 16:00 - 34 minutes - 31.8 MBThis 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,...
Equity Monday: Generative AI's Magic Leap
January 09, 2023 18:00 - 8 minutes - 8.16 MBHere'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 a...
CES, NYE, SBF and FTX. Lol.
January 06, 2023 15:00 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBTo 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 diff...
Equity Monday: Remember how this whole working thing works?
January 03, 2023 20:00 - 8 minutes - 7.65 MBHappy 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...
2022's best and worst dinner guest: Elon Musk
December 30, 2022 15:00 - 51 minutes - 47.2 MBIn 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 co...
Failure is a choose-your-own adventure for startups (re-run)
December 28, 2022 15:00 - 27 minutes - 25.2 MBFollowing 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 t...
Special episode: Augmenting creativity with Alice Albrecht from re:collect (Found)
December 27, 2022 15:00 - 58 minutes - 54 MBThe 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, ...
Special episode: How to pitch a Series A (TechCrunch Live Podcast)
December 23, 2022 15:00 - 54 minutes - 50 MBThis 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 m...