Equity

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: Is it the bootstrapper’s time to jump on the venture treadmill?The episode was inspired by Natasha's recent Startups Weekly column, "The bootstrapped are coming, the bootstrapped are coming" and the companion TechCrunch+ piece, "Will once-bootstrapped startups turn to venture during a watershed moment?" But, of course in classic Equity style, we continued the conversation with nuance and numbers as a focus.Here's what we got into:The definition of bootstrapping, and our own additions and subtractionsThe trend of more bootstrapped companies taking on venture, or at least more venture capitalists being interested in bootstrapped companiesWhat the heck is a venture treadmill, and what to drugs have to do with it?We ended by both agreei

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.Last week we said that you needed to pay attention to the public markets, and we weren't kidding. It was a huge week for earnings -- with notes from all over including the ad market and cloud spend. But this week's Monday show was more than just another entry in the series, it was an experimental live show! Natasha joined Alex for the fun, and this is what they got into:Stocks up, crypto mostly flat after a solid week of gains.Will Alibaba delist, or not? That question matters more than just what happens to the singular Chinese tech giant. The question really belies a larger query regarding the ability of Chinese tech companies to access foreign markets more generally, places where the capital can flow at a high clip. Given China's economic woes, cutting off that particular liquidity pipe might be risky.From there we went to Clearco layoffs, UiPath buying Refiner, and Oui's f

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann got together with Grace once again this week for our weekly roundup show, and hot dang was there a lot to talk about. So much so that we actually had to cut one topic from our notes, any guesses what that may have been?Regardless, here's the rundown:We had a big fintech theme this week, kicking off with the huge news that Jack Ma is giving up control of Ant Financial. Two specific tidbits stood out around Ant's origin story and Ma's flex of an ownership hold.From there, it was time to talk Guava, Pogo, and TomoCredit, our Deals of the Week. The focus here was around just how inclusive certain fintechs can be, so thank you to founders who remind us to raise the bar constantly.Next up? A new solo fund that broke out of a16z. Why leave to do a scary thing when risk is high? We talk about that, fintech innovation, and Rex Salisbury's LP base. (Plus, mor

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Anita asked:When is a company taking internal valuation cut a good thing?Normally, when we hear about valuations going down, that's a red flag that things aren't going well at a given company or in the market at large. We wrote about Stripe's 28% internal valuation cut earlier this month and as we listened to different reactions to the news, we noticed some people had an unexpected take -- that this downward revision was actually a positive for the company's employees.That's because the cut came from an internal 409A valuation appraisal, which is totally different from the investor-led valuations we normally hear reported on in the news. So we brought on two experts -- Phil Haslett of EquityZen and Sumukh Sridhara of AngelList -- to help us unp

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest and most interesting technology, startup and markets news. Sitting as we are on the precipice of a huge data dump, we had lots to chat through!Stocks are mixed around the world, while crypto selloff modestly after some recovery gains. In general, the value of securities are down in recent weeks and months, and now, frankly, quarters.This is Earnings Week: Yes, friends, get ready to hear from Alphabet and Amazon and Meta and Microsoft and Apple. The Big Five are reporting this week, providing us a glimpse into the health of a host of businesses. Recall that we have seen the major slow hiring lately, perhaps a harbinger of the (meager) feast to come?Cartona is building something neat in Egypt, TechCrunch reports. And there is still venture capital money flowing in China, despite, you know, all the stuff going on there.Zomato is sinki

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann got together with Grace once again this week for our weekly roundup show, and as often happens, news broke as we were gearing up to record. So we had to touch on the huge Amazon-One Medical deal to get started. Naturally we all had thoughts.What else did we get into? The following:Crunchbase raised $50 million! Yes, our former employer has raised a new, large round that had us all thinking about its health, our history thereof, and our love for its news team and other parts of the company we remember fondly.Just what is Arkive building, and are we in favor of its work to build a sort of NFT-powered, decentralized IRL library. There is a DAO involved as well.ForSight is building eye-surgery robots, just raised a stack itself, and we are hype about it. It reinforces a key learning from Natasha's recent robotics panel, which was part bullish, part bear

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: How do founders hold two ideas in their heads: both that there is an economic downturn, but also that things are looking up for many industries?After a series of episodes about the tensions within the downturn, this is a "good news, despite" episode.We started with a vibe check based on recent interviews with recently venture-backed founders, before getting into the bright spots from Q2 2022 data. Then we spent some time talking about specific sectors enjoying fresh cash right now, including climate and European edtech.Geographically, Africa continues to be one to watch. The continent is set to have its best year yet.In the second half of the show, lean back and enjoy the riffing: we talk VC vacation homes, good news, and somehow en

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest, and most interesting technology, startup, and markets news. Today was a fun day in that we didn't start off with just bad news -- what a change!Stocks are up around the world, and cryptos have rallied in the last week. The positive price movement in crypto-land, however, doesn't appear to be lighting a fire underneath the NFT market, for example.Robots! Yes, our robotics-themed event -- Free! And online! -- is this week, which means that I have robots on the brain. That made the Syrius round all the more interesting. It appears that ecommerce will remain a key driver of robotic innovation for some time to come.Podcast deals are still happening, kinda. Acast is buying Podchaser, which may or may not mean a lot to you. What does matter in this deal is that Spotify wasn't involved. That's a change!Quick Hits: India may ban crypto, at

Hello and welcome to a special edition of Equity!Today, Alex sat down Brian Heater, a long-tenured TechCrunch denizen, our hardware editor, podcast extraordinaire, and genial chap. He also put together a really neat robotics-focused event that we're hosting next week. The event is online, and free, which means that everyone can come and hang (that means you!)The confab was also a good excuse to snag time with Heater, and have a bit of a natter about robotics, how the self-driving hardware stack has an impact on more than just automobiles, and why we are going to need AGI for robotics to, you know, become the thing we know from the Jetsons.In short, robotics is improving rapidly, but we might continue to see more industrial applications than personal for some time. Still, there's still a lot of activity in the market, including labor policy, e-commerce applications, and a host of other topics.Enjoy! Equity is back Monday morning, and if you want to come hang at the TC Sessions: Robotics 2022, you can sign up h

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann enjoyed yet another edition of Equity Live this week, hopping on Twitter Spaces to chat everything from Musk’s meme suit to a new take on Wordle that landed Spotify’s attention. When we stopped recording the episode, news broke that Stripe is cutting its internal valuation by 28%. Luckily, we do this three times a week to stay tuned for our take soon.In the mean time, here’s what we got to in today’s episode:Spotify acquired Heardle, which felt like a throwback to trivia and of course a nod at its famous predecessor, NY Times-owned Wordle. Only one of us has played the music guessing game so far, so tweet @equitypod your thoughts on if it’s actually fun.We also spoke about a startup that is trying to address male infertility in a personalized, engaging way. It caught investors attention, and ours too.Our last deal of the week, Continuum, gave us a c

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha asked: How does Roe’s reversal impact the ways that companies are built?The question was inspired by a recent TechCrunch+ column, "Roe reversal weighs heavily on emerging tech cities in red states." The reporters behind the piece, Dominic-Madori Davis and Becca Szkutak, joined Equity to talk about the story and help us get more of the nuance behind this huge setback.We chatted about the reappearance of geographic boundaries, selective silence from the money behind the money, and how founders need to rethink their growth strategy if they're coming from red states. We also chatted about how some founders have already started to react to the overturn of Roe vs. Wade and their sentiments revolving the legality of what happens next.Equity drops every Mo

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest, boldest and baddest technology news. After some holiday weeks, we are back on an actual Monday! What a treat. Here's what we got into:Stocks are off around the world, partially due to government action, partially due to the complex web of negative factors that we've discussed for months now.Cryptos are more staid; if you like bitcoin at $20,000 this is your moment.Tiger's slowdown is no mere blip, TechCrunch reports. The investing powerhouse is going to slow its roll for the rest of 2022, and is looking to raise a new fund.Unacademy is looking to cut costs, go public in two years per TechCrunch. And Kadamos raised more capital, marking a pretty quick reload after raising a few months ago.Quick Hits: The Uber Files are a mess, layoffs aren't solving a talent crunch in Southeast Asia, and fintech staffing cuts are starting to pile u

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.It doesn't feel like a short week, does it? Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann got on the mic to bring an especially packed episode full of big news, fire transitions and even a pun or three.Deals of the week: Maolac raises $3.2 million to bring breast milk nutrition to adults, Peakflo raises a few million to scale its billpay tech in South East Asia, and Cauldron raises $6.6 million for its web3-themed gaming push.Declining drama at Bolt? A major lawsuit involving Bolt, the online checkout service, has been settled. We chatted through the company's numbers, and noted one more challenge ahead of the company.The unicorns aren't alright: Layoffs at Outschool and Loft are cutting staff, just as some venture capitalists reload. It's going to be a fascinating year.And we closed with some notes on the Q2 venture capital cycle!Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday and Friday

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: Why is tech full of copycats, and what’s the next full circle moment we can expect?The question was inspired by Natasha's recent Startups Weekly column: "YC makes a Product Hunt, Product Hunt makes an a16z, a16z makes a YC." As you can tell by that headline and this week's episode title, we're talking about how tech is full of copycats and what that means for the bar of innovation.Expect to learn about the overlap in mission between three of tech's most well-known institutions, what Prologue means for Future (literally and figuratively), and how a rising tide can both confuse and complement the founder fundraising journey.Also it was a good excuse to chat through some of the competitive dynamics that we see play out across the start

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest, boldest and baddest technology news. We are back on Tuesday, as the United States was off yesterday. So a day late, but hopefully not a dollar short, here's what we got into today:Stocks are mixed around the world, and set to fall in the United States at the open. At the same time, the crypto market has been somewhat relaxed in the last day.Sequoia Capital China is raising $9 billion, a huge amount of money at a time in which we have seen venture capital activity in China slow.Speaking of slowing venture capital, Indian activity is falling. That deceleration comes as the country's crypto market is under pressure.At the same time, Twitter is pushing back against the Indian government bullying, which is good. But maybe less good for Elon Musk, who is buying the social network, and wants to sell imported cars in the country.Closing o

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.This was a live week on the podcast, meaning that Mary Ann and Alex and Natasha and Grace teamed up with the fine audio and visual folks from our mothership Yahoo to not only record the show, but to do so in front of, well, all of you! It's fun to record live, and we'll do it again in two weeks!What did we get into? The following:Deals of the Week: HomeLister wants to make selling your home more of a DIY affair, and cheaper; Degreed's co-founder is coming back to the company he helped found, via a different company that he helped found; and can chat bots not suck in the future?Coalition: What happens when you cross a small venture capital fund, a large operator network, and shared upside? Coalition wants to find out.Layoffs: Backstage has cut its staff to the quick, while we saw smaller cuts at Substack this week in percentage terms. Both rounds of layoffs were launching poin

This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha asked: What’s in the fine print for term sheets these days, and what does that tell us about who is going to be in control during the downturn? The question was inspired by a recent story by Becca Szkutak - one of TC's newest venture reporters - about how deal terms look different in a downturn. Of course that means we had to bring on Szkutak to talk about her story and dig into a further analysis of how founder friendliness is being challenged right now. Expect a tactical episode all about different terms that may start sneaking into term sheets, the cost benefit analysis of each, and why down rounds aren't the end of the world.https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/21/deal-terms-look-different-in-a-downturn-heres-what-to-watch-out-for/Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PDT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest, boldest and baddest technology news. This week we are not recording on a Tuesday as it's a regular week. Though we would add that Equity will be live on Thursday, when we record our Friday episode. So if you wanted to come hang, make sure that you are following the show on Twitter.Right, so what did we get into this morning?Stocks are generally up, major cryptos are not doing too much this morning, and a Coinbase downgrade caught our eye.Backstage Capital is laying off staff as it focuses on only investing into existing portfolio companies. With less capital than before going to Black founders, seeing a fund that focused on investing into underrepresented founders struggle is a bummer.The Strapi startup round was a fun one to look at, fusing open-source tech and CMSs, a tool that we use here at TechCrunch rather often.And then the

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.Today Natasha and Alex were on the mics, kicking back and riffing through the biggest technology stories of the week. Our dear Mary Ann was off this week, but will be back in short order.What did we get into? A bevy of blistering bromides, naturally:Accel has a new $4 billion fund, focused on the late-stage, which is at once a pile of duckets and a fascinating timing for such a large capital vehicle.FalconX doubled its valuation in a new round, which was also a huge pile of money at an odd moment in time.Oh, and Suze Orman was also on the show today, in spirit and story.From there we noodled on the big changes at Brex, the latest in executive turnover, and why the metaverse actually had some good news this week?All in all it was a good time and we are back Monday!Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PDT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Ove

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: After a multi-year fundraising boom, what is the current health of the fintech startup market?The episode was inspired by a rigamarole of news, including but not limited to Klarna's potential valuation haircut, Apple's BNPL announcement, Brex's partial market retreat and Wealthsimple's staffing cuts.The other reason that we're chatting fintech is that after attracting a simply huge chunk of venture capital in the last few years has gone into the sector. And that means that so very many startups are in play when we discuss the fintech niche. This is not just a few unicorns, and decacorns, but a flat-out fleet of companies that are now stuck waiting for the venture capital market to reignite.With Affirm and Klarna showing just how far