Equity

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 company and its power-users continues to bl

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, this investor survey from 2021 on all things creator-economy is

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 heard! We are back bright and early tomorrow. Talk soon!For ep

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 capital money, we get to cover!All things SEC and Cr

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 a podcast interview.Don't forget: our list

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 of similar headlines for other unicorns.Closing, WWDC is today.

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 climate, Mary Ann argued. The show also touched

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 thatHow inflation may be making it harder for people to save when they have less money to do soWe ended, as always, with a “lightning” round Q&A in which Suze revealed her secret weapon for successFor 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 transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. E

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 show that interviews founders, one that details how our stories come together an

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 buybacks?Anthropic's massive funding round and wh

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 Twitter @EquityPodFor episode transcripts and more

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 healthcare business, while Infinite Uptime raised mor

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 want to die before he can go to space. Mary Ann and Becca noted

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 marketThe mutually beneficial relationship between the large tech players and startupsThe close relationship between Microsoft and OpenAIAs always, Equity will be back on Friday with your weekly news round up, but until then, you can catch us on Twitter @EquityPodFor 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! Credits: Equity is produced by T

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 drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to u

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 early-stage founders out there, don’t forget to a

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 buildsMaking the difficult decision to shut down, and why Catch chose to do so publiclyWe 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 @EquityPodFor 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, Ov

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 Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch als

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 LastA 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 roundsWe 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.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to u

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 investorWhy ClassDojo doesn’t see itself as an edtech companyHow Sam landed early traction with a difficult-to-capture consumerHow both Sam and Chris are thinking through the AI question brewing in every officeIf 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 keep up with us in the meantime @EquityPod.For episod