Equity

This is the second of a two-part series looking back at 2023. Mary Ann and Alex called on two colleagues to help us chat through some of the year’s biggest events. Here’s what we got into!The decline, fall of SVB: It’s a bit hard to believe, but the chaos at Silicon Valley Bank happened earlier this year. Yes, much has happened since, but the sudden, and shocking collapse of what was effectively the family bank of tech sent waves throughout the global technology landscape. Venture was impacted. Public companies were impacted, and some startups actually got a boost!Chaos at OpenAI: Another weekend-powered period of high-drama in tech this year was the defenstration of Sam Altman from his role at OpenAI, only for the tide to entirely flip in short order, Altman back the co, and most of the folks who wanted him out gone themselves. This one is still developing, so we had Devin Coldewey on to help us understand what is coming next.SBF’s trial: It was long. It was tedious. It was occasionally very interesting. But

Today, we’re bringing you a special mini episode led by TechCrunch senior reporter and co-host of our sister podcast, Found, Dominic Madori-Davis. During this year’s Disrupt, Dom caught up with Hilary Mason from Hidden Door, an AI-driven narrative game engine. Dom and Hilary got into how generative AI is changing online gaming, building a team of creatives, fundraising in the gaming space, and more.Connect with Equity on X and Threads @EquityPods, and keep up with all of TechCrunch's podcasts @TechCrunchPods on TikTok.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 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 TechCrunch audio

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 the first of a two-part series that we built for you going back over critical themes from 2023. It was a very, very busy year in the worlds of technology, startups, and venture capital. This is the first of a two-part series that we built for you going back over critical themes from 2023. It was a very, very busy year in the worlds of technology, startups, and venture capital -- so busy that we asked for your 2023 in a headline, and you delivered! Mary Ann and Alex dug into a host of key topics:Venture capital in 2023: The numbers started off the year poor, but got a bit better as time went along. In part as year-over-year comps became less onerous as we got deeper into the year thanks to 2022's own results having a downward tilt. Still, there's a lot of capital still in the market so we are closing out the year far from a freeze.Elsewhere in venture? California's new

This is our very last regular news roundup of the year. We still have a lot planned for you, though, with special interviews, guest appearances, and predictions. But that’s all to come. This time ’round we once again had Mary Ann Azevedo and Alex Wilhelm together to hammer through the key news from the week:Cruise layoffs: Breaking as we went to record, self-driving company Cruise is cutting a simply massive number of staff.Deals of the Week: Prevu’s $6 million Series A and why proptech is Not Dead Yet, and why Verve Motion just raised $20 million for supportive lifting suits.What’s up with France? With Mistral AI making waves, other French startups are also snagging our attention. This includes Pivot which just raised $21.6 million, and what’s going on with startup studio Hexa.And then there’s AI: We can’t not talk about it, yeah? Sorry if you are a bit over AI, but while deals keep happening and founders keep building, it’s going to be in the rundown. This time we’re digging how a few mega-deals are changin

This week we brought Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of Automattic and co-founder of WordPress onto the show, along with Kishan Bagaria, the founder of Texts.com. Automattic bought all-in-one messaging app Texts.com for $50 million back in October. Well, we had questions, not only about the deal, but also the state of the written word online. A few notes before you hit play. First, Automattic is more acquisitive than you thought. A look at its history of purchases is critical context for our conversation. And, second, TechCrunch uses WordPress. We in fact are WordPress VIP customers. Neither fact is news, and of course had no bearing on our choice to bring Mullenweg and Bagaria on the podcast, but felt worth noting all the same.Alright, sit back, hit play, and have some fun with us! We’re back on Friday with our news roundup!Connect with Equity on X and Threads @EquityPods, and keep up with all of TechCrunch's podcasts @TechCrunchPods on TikTok.For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.Equ

Our Monday show covers the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. Here's what Alex got into:The end of earnings: With just Adobe and Oracle from the tech world reporting this week, we have finally (mostly) wrapped up earnings season for Q4 2023, and thus the year.Crypto’s doing things again: Recent price appreciation is driving another massive spike in trading activity.TikTok forms joint venture: Teaming up with Tokopedia, the Bytedance company has its eyes on the Indonesian ecommerce market. But the tie-up comes at a stiff price.EU&AI: Last Friday the EU got its regulatory plan in place for AI. Criticism followed. Then on Monday Mistral AI raised a bunch more money. So is European AI work kaput, or just getting started?Elsewhere, don’t forget that the chip war is still raging, there are more fintech unicorns being born lately than before, and SumUp raised again.That’s it for today! More on Wednesday and Friday!For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s

This week on Chain Reaction, Jacquelyn interviewed David Pakman, managing partner and head of venture investments at CoinFund.Before CoinFund, David spent 14 years at the venture capital firm Venrock. He also led the Series A and B rounds at Dollar Shave Club which was acquired by Unilever for $1 billion. And in 1991, David co-created Apple Music when he was a part of Apple’s system software product marketing groupWe discussed the state of the crypto VC environment, areas he’s focusing on for investments and what he thinks investors are missing. We also talked about: AI compared to cryptoFuture of NFTsRegulatory impact on investors2024 outlookAdvice for startupsChain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify  or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.Connect with us:TwitterTikTokNewsletter Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience

This week Mary Ann Azevedo, Kirsten Korosec, and Alex Wilhelm gathered to hash out the news over some coffee and good times. Here’s what the gang got into today:Deals of the Week: Simply Homes raises $22 million for an interesting property play, SoftBank buys majority share of connected-vehicles company Cubic Telecom, and OurSky raises $9.2 million for its space-viewing software system.Troubles in Fintech: With ZestMoney shutting down, and layoffs at Navan (fka TripAction) it seems that fintech is not out of the woods yet. That said, Alex has some notes on enthusiasm in one area of financial technology.What’s up with software? TechCrunch coverage of tech earnings is leading to a mess of mixed signals for startups, and VCs to interpolate; are valuations rising again, or will 2023 end as it began? For more on the software market today, head here.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

Today, we’re bringing you another conversation from TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, when Alex sat down with Serhii Bohoslovskyi, the founder of no-code app-builder Trible. Trible is a no-code software product that helps folks construct online courses. We love Disrupt because it gives us lots of room to chat with founders that we might otherwise have missed. We even had a dedicated podcasting area! Expect even more of this sort of chat in the future.Here’s what we got into with Bohoslovskyi:The state of the creator economy now that the hype has somewhat worn off the product category. How are creators doing today?The use of no-code tooling today, and how it is received by non-technical creators.And the state of startups that have roots in Ukraine, given that the nation is currently defending itself from external invasion.Talking to founders never, ever gets boring. That’s all for us today, and we’ll be back on Friday! For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every

Our Monday show covers the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. And we had a lot to cover this morning!Crypto prices are rising, which is good news for the decentralized economy, as increasing prices track with heightened trading activity and consumer interest.We have another busy week of SaaS companies reporting quarterly results, which will hopefully provide a useful temperature check for tech valuations.CoreWeave's new $7 billion valuation had our tongues wagging, as did delays at Google's AI project.And then there was Spotify cutting staff in light of economic conditions. The company can't outgrow its core market forever, and with largely static gross margins, the only lever it can really pull is its cost base.That's it for today! More on Wednesday and Friday!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

Here's what the Equity crew got into today:Self-driving setbacks: Cruise is set to slash its costs in the wake of a safety mess, and greater scrutiny from regulators. Alex hopes that the current set of news items doesn’t slow down the progress of self-driving tech.Webull snaps up Flink: Free trading is not just a business model that is popular in the United States. Webull is taking the Latin American market more seriously with its purchase of Flink.Uber

Anu Hariharan, who previously led YC Continuity, has partnered with two of her former colleagues and former Brex executive Lucas Fox to launch a new fund, Avra. The fund aims to raise about $350 million and operate a program that some are referring to as a “YC for growth.” In light of the news, we’re throwing it back to a conversation we had with Anu earlier this year:Alex spoke to Anu back in August, after she tweeted about how "great" founders were successfully guiding their companies towards cash flow positivity. Since that very interesting post, both Instacart (a former Y Combinator company) and Klaviyo have filed to go public. And both have super strong cash flows.Our chat could not have come at a better time. We dug into how early- and late-stage startups should approach growth and cash conservation (in her view), the future of venture as an asset class, and how healthy the unicorn herd really is. We had a blast recording this one! Enjoy!For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast webs

You might be glad to know today was not all about OpenAI. Instead, we took on a bunch of news from the weekend that had to do with other companies:It’s a big earnings week for software companies, which means we’re about to get a bushel of information on how things are shaping up for SaaS startups in the latter half of 2023.On the crypto front, price movements have slowed as the industry digests the recent Binance verdict.Neuralink has raised more capital, which is great news for nerds like myself.Gaming layoffs are still coming in hot and heavy, adding to a long list of cuts this year.In the wake of a massive shopping weekend, how did e-commerce hold up? Here’s data from the U.S., and from around the world.China-linked groups are coming for your industrial secrets, and Meta is again in regulatory hot water.And that’s that! We'll be back on Wednesday, but keep up with us in the meantime @EquityPod.For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wedn

Today on Equity, we’re bringing you two bonus conversations all about sustainability in fashion from TechCrunch Disrupt 2023. First up you’ll hear our very own Harri Weber sit down with three guests: Jim Ajioka from Colorifix, Beth Esponnette from unspun and Julie Willoughby from Circ. They are all powerhouses in sustainable fashion and they all happened to join Harri on the Sustainability Stage. Watch their full conversation here. In part two, we have a great conversation between TechCrunch’s Morgan Sung and Jemima Bunbury from BLEND, a curated fashion app that is changing the way we shop online. BLEND uses AI-powered personalized recommendations to help customers quickly and easily find products that suit their style, size and budget. Their goal is to prevent impulse purchases, and of course, make it possible to stay trendy and shop sustainably.Here's what our guests are diving into:Fixing the fashion supply chain so all the materials are created in a sustainable wayHelping consumers find products that will

We’re discussing the recent turmoil in the AI market today. OpenAI has kept the journalistic corps busy, but we also need to consider what the latest twists and turns in the l’affaire Altman may bring for startup founders.So, I rallied TechCrunch’s own Kyle Wiggers, and Supervised founder and former Equity host Matthew Lynley to help me dig into the latest. Here’s the show rundown:What has happened to OpenAI since Monday morning when we last recorded the podcast?What do the two experts think will happen to OpenAI’s staff in the coming weeks?What should startups that use OpenAI technology do to lower their platform risk?And, does the OpenAI mess provide a boost to open-source AI models?We had a really lovely time. A big thank you to our ever-busy producer Theresa Loconsolo for getting an extra episode out on a holiday week!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

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.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. This past weekend was all about the massive shakeup at OpenAI, and the high-impact machinations that the last few days brought. We discussed the following:The timeline that brought us to today regarding OpenAI, from the firing of Sam Altman through all the recent activity.The latest, including Emmett Shear being appointed interim CEO of Open AI, Sam Altman and others heading to Microsoft, and a seeming recantation of everything that happened by Ilya Sutskever at OpenAI.The situation remains far from settled, but you only have to stick close to TechCrunch to stay updated. The above podcast is going to age quickly, so we may have extra episodes in the coming days.For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplec

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 automation could

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 out, wi

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 by Theresa Locon

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 produced by Theresa