Equity

This week Mary Ann and Alex covered a host of news events. Here's the rundown: Fintech + AI = ? News that Ramp and Brex are working to lever AI in the wake of reporting that Brex's growth this year on a sequential-quarterly basis slowed had us thinking. Can AI help fintech startups grow more quickly? The fintech sector could use a boon at this juncture, perhaps this is it. Help I drink too much: Alex dug up a recent venture round in the sobriety space. This time it was Sunnyside, which just raised $11.5 million for its subscription service that helps folks cut back on their drinking. We've discussed other players in the space before, including Reframe. What's ahead for the startup M&A market? The Getir-FreshDirect deal had us thinking. Becca Szkutak thinks that it represents the sort of deal that we'll see next year. Even more, we may see more, similar deals next year. Will AI help startups regain their former value? A recent report from Battery Ventures had Alex thinking about how AI-powered automati

This week we brought TechCrunch’s own Rebecca Bellan onto the podcast to help us better understand Google’s search-related anti-trust case that is currently ongoing in the United States. There are a number of major legal cases involving tech giants and their in-market heft and behavior, from Google v. Epic to what’s going on in the EU and the U.S. government’s adtech-related suit against Google, but our focus is search. Catch up on the state of affairs with Bellan’s reporting here. Now, the startup angle. Why is this a topic for Equity? A few reasons:  If Google’s current methods of maintaining its domestic search market share are forced to change, it could create a more competitive search market, full stop. That could change up where startups advertise, and how much they pay for those ads.  More competitive search results amongst emboldened rivals could also lead to search results that lean more towards organic information instead of paid insertions. That would be good for startups looking to get the word

Here’s what we got into on this very cold November morning: Crypto’s melt-up is continuing, with rising trading volumes following in the wake of the price gains. For web3 believers, it’s great news. The FT has a great interview with Sam Altman about how AI training is going to stay expensive for a long while; Microsoft is probably not worried about the costs, however. Didi’s earnings dropped, kicking off a busy week for Chinese tech companies including Alibaba, NetEase, and Tencent Music. The Block is getting its cap table into shape. And Shekel Mobility raised an interesting round that we just had to talk about. Don’t forget that next week is a holiday week here in the United States! 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! Credits: Equity is produced

This is our Friday show, and we’re talking about the week’s biggest startup and tech news. This time ’round we had Kirsten Korosec, Mary Ann Azevedo, and Alex Wilhelm on the job to chat through a massive pile of news: For everyone who listened to our fintech deep-dive, here are Affirm’s results. Deals of the Week: $105 million for May Mobility, $3.6 million for Mogul Club, and Microsoft’s latest startup wooing trend. WeWork is bankrupt, and we are Not Shocked. All things from OpenAI’s developer day, and how its latest news is a good example of platform risk. It’s raining IPOs! Here, there, everywhere! And with that, we’re going to go rest for the weekend and come back Monday at full steam! 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! Credits: Equity is prod

Today, Mary Ann and Alex  dove deep into encouraging signs from the fintech startup market: Solid results from Klarna are on top of Alex’s mind. The company’s ability to continue growing while staying profitable is a reminder that one down-round does not a company kill. Fintech fundraising results were on Mary Ann’s mind as we wait for venture capitalists to re-accelerate their investments in the space. Sure, no one wants to return to 2021-era insanity, but after so long in the valuation doghouse, perhaps fintech has reached its nadir? And we leaned on data. Here’s the American consumer debt information Alex referenced, Affirm results will drop here, and the CB Insights venture data we cited is here. More to come in our Friday 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,

Here’s what we got into on this fine morning: Stocks and crypto: Stocks are higher in Asia, lower in Europe, and nearly flat in the United States. More interestingly, crypto prices are continuing their ascent. Even NFTs are picking up a little bit! It’s another busy week on the earnings front, meaning we’ll hear from Uber and Lyft and Hubspot, among others. On the AI front, TechCrunch is tracking 01.AI in China, which is now a unicorn, and the latest offering from Elon Musk’s X.AI service. The latter will have some sort of tie to X, formerly known as Twitter. In India, a former Sequoia group is racking up impressive results. Elsewhere in technology-land, OpenSea cut staff, and China’s government is still writing big checks to chip firms. Let’s see how the latter plays out this time. Equity is back in Wednesday! 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 us on Apple Podcasts, Over

We’re talking about the week’s biggest startup and tech news with Mary Ann, Becca, and Alex.  Here's what we got into: What happened to WeWork? As the shared office space company struggles to stay alive, we had a lot to say. Deals of the Week: Mary Ann wanted to chat about Charlie, which is building a neobank for seniors; Alex wanted to talk about an interesting non-profit-ish model to get startups and others access to H100s; Becca brought Almouneer to the table, an interesting healthtech play in the Middle East. From there we dug into massive fintech rounds, which are seemingly back. For more, you can read up on QI Tech, Tabby, and Next Insurance. And, finally, what to do when founding teams break up? Becca has notes. As always, Equity is back for you on Monday, but you can catch up with us in the meantime on X and Threads @EquityPod. 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

This is our Wednesday show, where we sit down with a guest, talk about their work and dive deep into the rest. Mary Ann and Alex invited Marisa Warren onto the show. You may remember that we discussed her new fund — ALIAVIA Ventures’ first — on the show the other week. We wanted to talk with her to go over a few key topics that we care a lot about: The current state of venture investment in women; why the numbers aren’t changing, and what she thinks could make a difference. When startups should target their second market, and how. The two themes are not as far apart as they may initially seem. ALIAVIA invests in startups based in the US and Australia that have at least one female founder, and also helps their portfolio companies tackle new markets. It was a really interesting, and fun conversation. 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 cas

Our Monday show covers the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. Here’s what we got into today: It's a massive earnings week, unlocking a massive wave of new data concerning the performance of tech public tech companies. We're hoping to learn more about the market that startups are selling into in the process. The recent crypto rally is helping bolster spot trading results, good news for Coinbase ahead of its own earnings report. The Biden administration's executive order regarding AI is out, as G7 countries look to create a code of AI conduct for companies. X users that want to make a little money from their engagement will now have to avoid getting hit with community notes. And Web Summit has a new CEO. That's all for today! We have notes coming on Wednesday all about international startups and selling cross-border! 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

Happy Saturday! We have a special bonus episode for you from our sister pod, Chain Reaction.  Alex joins Jacquelyn Melinek go over the FTX/Sam Bankman-Fried trial before getting into his testimony from Thursday and Friday. They talked about: Why the judge had the jury leave the courthouse for SBF’s testimony Thursday The general feeling of the courthouse on the fourth week of the trial A possible timeline for next week and what to look out for as the prosecution gets a chance to cross examines defendant Keep up to date with Jacquie's coverage at techcrunch.com 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 foundersand more! Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team

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 Friday show, and we’re talking about the week’s biggest startup and tech news. Mary Ann and Alex were lucky enough to have Kirsten aboard for the roundup, which means we got to tackle an even wider array of stories than usual: Updates from the trial of former FTX CEO SBF, more here from our own Jacquie. Deals of the Week: Mary Ann was very interested in I Own My Data, while Alex wanted to talk more about AgentSync's latest venture round. Carta's CEO tried to beat back criticism, but wound up making more noise about his company's missteps. Cruise hit a roadblock with its self-driving program; we dig into how to handle a crisis and how not to handle a crisis. And to close out, notes on earnings from Alphabet and Microsoft and what they may portend for startup-related AI software demand. Equity comes out thrice-weekly for your delectation. We are back early on

Hello, and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, where we sit down with a guest, talk about their work and dive deep into the rest. This week, we had Theory Ventures founder Tomasz Tunguz on the show. As long-time readers of his work, having the former Redpoint investor on the show was a no-brainer. While it would have been fun to spend our time chatting about the ups and down of writing or the Internet, we instead explored a wide range of topics:  Why Tunguz left Redpoint and started his own fund; Why seed deals do not get smaller over time; The thesis that underpins Theory Ventures’ investments and the future of machine learning; Why Tunguz is bullish on Ethereum; The value of software, the health of software companies, and why venture math still holds up at lower valuation multiples. And more! It was a great chat; Equity will be back on Friday! For episode transcripts and more, head

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 what we got into today: Stocks are down around the world, while the value of crypto tokens is heading higher. Crypto trading volume is also trending north. It’s a huge week for earnings with names like Microsoft, Alphabet, Spotify, Snap, Meta, IBM, Amazon and Mobileye reporting, among others. Apple is spending big on generative AI, and TechCrunch has notes on just where the company intends to bring the tech. ZenML is proof that startups are not dropping the ball when it comes to generative AI more generally. Foxconn is under investigation, which is notable for its timing. And venture capital raised by Black American founders has fallen sharply in recent quarters. And that’s that! We have a cracking episode coming on Wednesday, so stay tuned! For epis

This is our Friday show, and we’re talking about the week’s biggest startup and tech news. Mary Ann and Alex ran as a pair this week, and here's what they got into: Deals of the Week: Allara raised $10 million for women's hormonal health, Agnikul raised $26.7 million for its orbital launch technologies. Beef in the (leased) boardroom: WeWork is irked by Codi, which is hammering the well-known shared-office giant in an advertising campaign. Meanwhile, Anyplace raised more capital to fund its digital-nomad friendly home rental business. Plaid wants to get Paid: News that Plaid hired a CFO kicked off a predictable cycle of speculation that it will go public. Yes, but when is the question, and our view is not for a while. Finally, ChatGPT is online, and VCs are pretty darn bullish about the current AI wave. In case you missed it, we had a great chat with a Crunchbase analyst earlier this week about all things Q3 VC! As always, Equity is back on Monday, but you can keep up with us in the meantime on X and

This week Gené Teare from Crunchbase and Crunchbase News joined the podcast. She's a well-known analyst of the global venture capital market, and was instrumental to Crunchbase's early life and remains one of its more tenured staffers. So, what did the three of us get into? Here's the rundown: The big picture: What should we think about when we consider the Q3 2023 venture capital market as a whole. (More on Latin America here, Canada here, and global data here from TechCrunch+.) Here's Gené on Q3 data as well. Stage-level health. Which level of startup maturity is seeing the most capital? The least? And, venture capital flows around the world. As always, where venture dollars land is nearly as important as their total number for any particular period. Equity is back on Friday with our weekly news roundup. Chat 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 an

Here's what we got into today: Earnings season is here, and we'll hear from Tesla and Netflix this week. Expect a lot of new data to drop in the coming weeks. If we bundle a number of headlines together, it's clear that running a social media company in the modern era can be a very expensive proposition. Though, what you think about regulation may color how you view the situation. Funding to web3 gaming companies declined in Q3, but it's not all that bad. The U.S. may not see IPOs happening, but the rest of the world is not similarly bereft. Creative Force's Series A was too cool to not mention. Equity will be back Wednesday with a killer episode on all things venture capital in Q3. 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 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! Credits: Equity

This week, we have a bonus mini episode where Jacquelyn talks with TechCrunch+ editor-in-chief Alex Wilhelm to dive back into the Sam Bankman-Fried trial and what has transpired in its second week.  Major witnesses who were involved in the downfall of FTX and its sister company Alameda testified like Gary Wang, CTO and cofounder of FTX, and Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda.  The two of them plead guilty to a number of charges and could face maximum sentences of 50 to 110 years, respectively. It’s also worth noting Wang and Ellison testified as part of a cooperation agreement for pleading guilty.  Jacquelyn and Alex talk about key points from the trial, anecdotes that you can’t read on a transcript and what she anticipates from both the prosecutors and defense going forward.  Want more? Here’s the latest on the SBF trial:  Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison explains how FTX hid losses, sandbagged lenders Alameda Research allegedly paid Chinese officials around $150M to regain $1B worth of exchange accounts

Mary Ann and Alex were joined by Kirsten once again to parse the week’s news and call out the biggest stories in startups and venture: California passed a law that will require venture firms to disclose certain market data concerning whom they are investing in. Some investors and venture groups are opposed to the law. ALIAVIA Ventures has put together a new fund to invest in women building tech companies in Australia and the United States, with a focus on helping Aussie companies reach the American market. Canopy Servicing raised a $15.2 million Series A1. Alex caught up with the company, hoping to learn what it took to raise a fintech round in 2023. Things have changed since the go-go days of 2021 when every round felt like a fintech round and every fintech round felt like a pre-IPO deal. And rounding out our deals of the week, Kirsten brought a fascinating $200 million deal between a private equity group and EVPassport. If the world is going to move more toward electric cars, then we’re going to need mo

This week we had Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine, the CEO of Medium.com, a publishing platform that he has helmed for more than a year. Medium has gone through a number of versions over the years. Pivots, if you will. But what has been a steady focus in Medium's life in recent years has been its subscription business. Medium offers a paid membership tier that costs $5 per month or $50 per year. And, Tony was willing to share, it's growing once again and is heading toward a pretty key milestone. We also got into: The business of the written word. Medium's stance on AI and what its posture says about how the company views the value of writing. (More on the matter from TechCrunch here.) Why Medium thinks that everyone has something worth saying. There's a little bit of media insider chat during this podcast, which we hope you enjoy. As always, we're back with our weekly roundup on Friday. Talk then! For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wed

This time around we had a bit of a theme. See if you can spot it: Stocks are down around the world in the wake of Hamas' attack in Israel. Crypto is similarly in the red. China is working to bolster its national computing and data infrastructure. You know, the things that make AI function. In other words: the AI race between China and the United States is far from over. This Anthropic paper is a potentially big deal. The more that we understand LLMs, the better we can use them, right? Changes at YC! And from Startup Land: Wanda Fish Technologies just raised $7 million to make fake fish, and Lottie raised $21 million to keep tackling the UK care home market. That's our show for today! We have some really fun interviews coming up, so make sure to tune in on Wednesday! 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