Equity

This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, in light of Y Combinator's bi-annual demo day, Natasha and Alex asked about the utility of the parade of pitches. Our big question: Are demo days outdated? The question comes after Natasha’s latest Startups Weekly column, where she looked into the trend of everyone constantly trying to re-invent startup accelerators. We've seen everything from in-person events, to virtual pitch-a-thons, to record efforts, and more. Name it, it's been tried. Today's show is a continuation of that conversation, specifically digging into how demo days served founders in the past, and how they amplify in the present. There's a good bit of factors that jolted things up, including the proliferation of accelerators, a boom in pre-seed funding and the pandemic forcing programming to go remote. We also ask for whom are demo days really for? Listen in to hear what we landed on, disagreed with and picked for founders

Every Monday, Grace and Alex and Kell scour the news and record notes on what’s going on to kick off the week. This week had a theme. Which was startups. Lots and lots of startups. Here’s the rundown: Markets are mixed this morning, with strong crypto trading results and big news from Tesla. The weekend’s leading conversation in the tech and startup world was about this analysis regarding crypto upstarts not giving out board seats to investors. Call it peak founder-friendliness? It’s also a huge risk, as investors have taken board seats for a reason, historically. All the same, you gotta win those deals. Y Combinator Demo Day is this week: We are going to see hundreds of startups make their pitch in rapid-fire fashion. Sure, many will have already raised capital, but the capitalist confab is still worth watching. I am looking for API-led startups and any hints about where DAOs are heading, personally. Zepto raised, which TechCrunch covered here, and I had a few thoughts about. The big tech landscape is

It was a live recording this week, which was good fun. Our co-host Natasha was off, so Mary Ann and Alex teamed up with Grace to hammer our way through the news of the week live, with friends on Hopin, Twitter Spaces, and other locations on deck to hang out and ask questions. Down a co-host or not, we tackled a whole slew of topics, including: Katie Haun's new mega crypto fund, and why the blockchain world seems to be so capital hungry. The simply bonkers pace at which Jeeves, a fintech startup, has accreted value in successive funding rounds. Ramp's latest round brought up the question of fintech vs. the world, and how startup commentary can at times miss the mark slightly. From there we pivoted to CEO changes at Kickstarter (here) and Cityblock Health (here). The changes were a jumping off point to the never-ending question of when startups should think about replacing their founders as CEOs. And we closed with a look at Forge's neat SPAC launch, and what its positive debut could mean for unicorns mor

We had an illness on the team, so instead of recording our usual Wednesday deep-dive, we reached into our recent archives and pulled the audio from a Twitter space we did the other week. In short, it's a Friday-style episode covering a host of topics, but just a little bit late, and on a different day. The Equity team -- Natasha, Mary Ann, Maggie, Grace, and Alex -- were not about to cut back on feeding you the latest and greatest from the startup world. (Oh, and we have a live show on Thursday, see you there!) What did we talk about? The following: Venture capital rounds for WorkWhile ($13 million) and Alloy Automation ($20 million). Mary Ann's reporting on Forage, focused around where its founders worked before building the fintech startup. Hint: Grocery delivery. Then we dug into the changes at Clearco, and what happens when founder dynamics shift. And we used the story to chat a bit about how the growth focus amongst young tech companies is changing. It was a very good time. Back soon, so chat then!

Every Monday, Grace and Alex scour the news and record notes on what’s going on to kick off the week. Markets! The stock market is a bit up and down around the world, but nothing to cause too much concern. Crypto is neutral as well, but with some gains made in the last week. Big news! Anaplan is selling to PE for more than $10 billion. Notably the deal is not cheap, which means that we're seeing private equity get its checkbook out as software company prices come down and become, well, targets. Unicorns! FTX is heading to Australia, more indication that some crypto trading platforms are going to every market that they can. What will happen to smaller crypto platforms? And when does that consolidation land? Startups! Powered by People raises $5 million, CommerceIQ raises $115 million, and Sequoia debuts Arc, which is a non-accelerator accelerator. Our live show is this week! Which means you can come hang out while we record our Friday episode on Thursday. Snag a free ticket here, or tune in on Twitter

This week our comrade Mary Ann was off, so Natasha and Alex teamed up with Grace on the dials to chat through the week's biggest news. Here's what our dynamic got into: Webflow's new round: Nine-figures of capital at a revenue multiple north of 40x? What is this, 2021? Nope, just the latest capital infusion for the no-code website company. All Raise's new CEO: The work of diversifying the venture capital market is far from over, and one group working to move the needle not only has plans to change the industry -- but also her own team. Funds: Natasha's coverage of fund-of-funds fit into news that SoftBank is turning one if its funds into an evergreen-vehicle, and Alex chatted through the numbers about Series A, B, and C rounds in the United States. Funds are maturing, experimenting and evolving into interesting vehicles. Maybe it's time we start covering them more on the show again (and check out our latest Wednesday episode for a Tiger Global-themed chat) What to know about China: From crashing stock

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: Will Tiger's second act live up to its first?  The question comes after Natasha's latest Startups Weekly column, where she looked into one example of how Tiger Global's stamp of approval is coming for the early stage. Today's conversation is a continuation of that topic, but broadened with examples, context, and of course, some jokes as well. Before digging into the question, we walked through some historical venture shakeups, looking specifically at Andreessen Horowitz, SoftBank and ultimately Tiger Global's own jolt to the startup ecosystem. Remember when we weren't numb to mega-funds, and due diligence was contrarian? Then we get into why Tiger is turning to invest in early-stage companies, now of all times (hack: listen to our episode on market re-correction for some background). We spoke about Tiger cutting a new check into AngelList, and the resulting windo

This week, Natasha is running the show, which means we're returning to our private market focus and, for the fun of it, reminding you all that Pete Davidson is getting high soon.  This is going to be a busy week for the team, so expect our sassiness to only increase as the days roll forward. Here's what I got into today: Markets have mixed feelings, thanks to the war in Ukraine, COVID-19, supply chain delays, inflation, and all around high tensions. This includes crypto, mind you. Instead of big tech, I talked about a big idea: Everyone is launching a fund to fund other funds, which is a reminder just how much relationships in VC have changed (and how much the appetite for emerging fund managers is growing). Experiments aren't just fun, they could bring big returns. I got into two top of mind deals: Sayso, which wants to change your accent, and Moove, which wants to bring car ownership from luxury to reality across the entire continent of Africa. And of course we have to end with the fact that it is Mary

This was saw Equity back on the live-taping game, with Mary Ann, Natasha, and Alex gathering with Grace and the TechCrunch video team (shoutout Julio and Yashad!) to chat through the week's news. Naturally we had to cut like all hell, but we had a simply terrific time traipsing through the following items: AngelList Ventures raising a $100 million round, and what the deal seems to mean. Mara snagging $6 million for a business that had us all hype, and the Public-Otis tie-up from earlier in the week were also on the docket. Then we worked through the history of the Better.com rolling fiasco, which took a fresh turn through well-trod ground this week by messing up layoffs. Can Better.com get better at being a dotcom? We wrote up a whole thread of what went down on our Twitter. Then we nattered on the recent Acorns and Kin Insurance rounds, following what happens when a company decides that a SPAC is no longer the proper fit for its fundraising and exit plans. Alex has more here. It reminded us of our recent

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 connected a slew of  seemingly-unrelated news items to answer a big question: How do we balance community and capitalism? The original question we sought to explore was "can you buy a community?" The answer to that question, after further exploration, felt obvious enough: no, so no what? Combining Epic Games' recent acquisition of Bandcamp, Commsor's latest raise, and Lolita Taub's new venture firm, community has a set of sharper standards around it. And nobody wants to let the buzzword go unchecked. Evergreen reminder to take advantage of code “EQUITY” when subscribing to TechCrunch+ for a hefty discount, and gratitude from your favorite trio of tech nerds. We're really enjoying using our Wednesday show to chat through trends and major topics. Tweet us with things you want us to hit on, if you have a particular bee in your bonnet! Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Every Monday, Grace and Alex scour the news and record notes on what’s going on to kick off the week. As before, the Russian invasion of Ukraine was top of mind, but lots of other things were going on so we had more than plenty to yammer about: The global stock market is taking more body-blows in the wake of rising oil prices and geopolitical instability. EA and Epic are pulling titles from Russia, as other companies have made similar moves; the tech industry has made its stance clear that doing business in Russia is off-limits for some time. FTX is moving into Europe, which struck me as big news, while Klarna reported earnings (more to come on that front). Circular.io raised $10 million for tech talent recruiting, and Founders Fund put together $5 billion for new funds. Closing out, there's an Apple event tomorrow! So, yeah, it's busy out there. Our live show is thi

Since the birth of Equity in mid-March of 2017, Chris Gates has been part of the team. Indeed, he helped found the show, and over the next half-decade produced and edited hundreds of episodes. He was, in short, a pillar of the team, and a key driver of how show operated day to day. Which is to say that he brought kindness, and warmth, and care to our work. As one of our colleagues put it, TechCrunch's podcast history can't be written without his name as a huge part of it. Sadly for the Equity team, but equally good news for his new employer, Chris's last day was last Friday. So we gathered to record a special episode of sorts. Natasha, Alex, and Chris sat down and played back a number of clips from the show, including our first-every episode, the first time that Natasha was on the podcast. That sort of thing. And we said some nice things about Chris at the same time. Technically Equity's birthday isn't for a week or two, but we decided to hybridize our look-back with Chris's exit. After all, we're an earnest

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 brought on Mary Ann for a special fintech episode, perhaps our spiciest of the year so far. We asked: Are fintech startups playing offense or defense today? To start, we spoke about Ramp and Pipe's latest moves (here, here), which include moving into the travel space and branching out into media and entertainment, respectively, and how they reflect the broader fintech competitive landscape. We even played out a scenario in which we decide if two of the buzziest fintechs will ever compete with each other. (Answer: Yes.) Before you go, make sure you subscribe to Mary Ann's new fintech newsletter and check out her recent TechCrunch+ investor survey from top investors in this noisy sector. Evergreen reminder to take advantage of code "EQUITY" when subscribing to TechCrunch+ for a hefty discount, and gratitude from your favorite trio of tech nerds. Equity drops every Monday at

Every Monday, Grace and Alex scour the news and record notes on what’s going on to kick off the week. This weekend was yet another that was full of news from Ukraine, which meant that the tech market was slightly quieter than usual. But not so quiet that we didn't have lots to chat about, so here's the latest: The Russian startup market isn't huge -- data here -- but when we consider the number of startups in Ukraine as well, the impact of Russia's war and the world's sanctions will bite. Russia is also tangling with American tech giants, which isn't going well. Over the weekend, the American Republican Party bashed large American tech companies. Gone are the days when the GOP was a reliable simp for corporate power. Today it's more fashionable to pump SPACs like TMTG, or Rumble. Weee! raised a huge sum from the second Vision Fund, we report, and OneCard is set to raise a massive round in short order, despite how recently it announced its preceding round. (Oh, and this looks very neat.) And Zip is buying

Today we gathered to do our live show, something that was scheduled a long time ago. Obviously, the world's condition has changed since. So, we sat down and tore up our notes doc and put most of the show on hold. What we wound up recording was short, and frankly a little bit raw and from the gut. But it just didn't feel right for us to sit and chit chat about funding rounds and executive shuffles when Russia is busy invading a democracy under false pretenses. TechCrunch has some notes on the situation for the tech world in Ukraine, which is worth a read. That's it from us. Equity will return in short order when we have our heads on straight. Hugs, and godspeed. Equity drops every Monday at 7:00 a.m. PST, Wednesday, and Friday at 6:00 a.m. PST, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. 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 and Henry Pickavet, who manages Tec

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 has the great resignation changed the way startups hire?  The conversation started with defining the Great Resignation and sharing numbers to back the sentiment that everyone can't stop talking about. As always, the flowed to naturally care more about the employees within startups, and their feelings, than employers and the power they've traditionally sat atop.  To check our 'what about VC' box, we talked through what startups are facing today in terms of a labor market, how it has changed, and how they might be able to compete with big-tech's big dollars. After all, is any company going to be able to beat Meta on comp? Probably not. Alex thinks VCs are the new recruiters, which will help startups some. From the other angle -- putting labor in our remit and not capital, for once -- Natasha wants to ditch her 9-5 to represent Shopify employees, it seems. We won't

Every Monday, or Tuesday, Grace and Alex scour the news and record notes on what’s going on to kick off the week. We are a day late here thanks to the American holiday, which means that it's going to be a short week -- here at least. But that doesn't mean that things are slow. In fact, the opposite: Russian military aggression in Ukraine is hammering the global stock market, although not everywhere it's worth noting. Crypto prices are also flat to down, generally. Most crypto tokens are off sharply in the last week. SoFi is buying Technisys for $1.1 billion. The deal isn't receiving rave reviews from Wall Street, but for the consumer fintech the concept of bringing its own infra in-house does make pretty good sense. TRUTH Social launched, and struggled to handle early demand. Which is funny given how long it took to build. TechCrunch has more here. FTX.us wants to bring crypto to a game near you. The Verge has the key quote here, I will not, but it failed to lift my general skepticism. And we have so muc

This is Saturday, which means it's not a usual day for us to drop an episode. But what are we if not try-hards at heart? So, we're back today. What do we have on store for you? I brought Anshu Sharma onto the podcast -- and a Twitter space, so make sure you are following the podcast, yeah? -- to chat interest rates, technology growth, startup valuations, and how they all tie together. Sharma was the right person to have on the show because he's been a big tech employee (Oracle, Salesforce), an investor (Storm Ventures, and as an angel), and he's a founder to boot. So he's been around not just the block, but several in the world of technology over time. TechCrunch has covered SkyFlow, his startup, a few times including its most recent fundraise. https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/16/welcome-to-the-post-pandemic-economy-startups/ Sharma finds some of the in-market worry about rising rates harming tech stocks silly. His thesis boils down to the value of growth on a longer time-horizon than what a DCF-tuned spreadshe

This week, Natasha and Alex and Mary Ann got together with Chris and Grace to rock our regular Friday news roundup. This time, however, with extra zip as we're staring down a long weekend that, let's be clear, everyone needs. Regardless, here's the show rundown: Don't call us your metamate, friend. Startups news of the week: Ro raises even more, Airbase partners with Amex, and Deel wants to give employers a way to fund their payroll in crypto, no matter where their employees are based. The crypto regulatory world is heating up, with news from both India and the United States to chew on. Our read is that some regulation is good, but not every loss can be spun as a win. We also took a look at the mental health market for people of color through the lens of MindFi in the APAC region, and She Matters here in the United States. We had some startup-style questions, but are generally bullish about the companies. And we closed with the cannabis market of both Germany, and the United States. Alex and Natasha are

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: What can startups learn from the rise, and now struggles, of Hopin? For companies that grew like weed, what’s next?  In the show, we talked through Hopin's meteoric rise and why we called them the fastest growth story of the era, comparable or better than what Slack and other well-known growth stories managed during their own ascent. However, with Hopin now cutting staff after raising mountains of cash and buying a half-dozen smaller companies, it's clear that hyper-scaling has limits. The economy is changing, again, which is also going to shake up which startups have tailwinds, and which have headwinds. Just like it did before. Hopin is perhaps a very visible canary, but it is hardly the only startup that rode COVID-19's economic disruptions to new heights, which means it won't be the only company left to navigate a changed world when the winds shift. https://techc