Equity

This was Y Combinator week in a sense, with the well-known accelerator showing off hundreds of startups over a two-day period. We had some thoughts about that. But! There was a lot more for Mary Ann, Natasha and Alex to dig into, so we have a little something for everyone today.Here's the show notes, enjoy:First, support our sibling podcasts Found and Chain Reaction in the Webbys! They deserve it, and we're voting for them too.For our Deals of the Week, we had: Monument and Tempest shared patients’ private data with advertisers, Acorns buys GoHenry, and Alex has notes on how the Q1 venture capital market is shaping up.Looking for all the Y Combinator notes your heart could desire? You can find our favorites from days one and two at those links, and read this Natasha piece on why the Bay is Back.We also took the time to discuss the term 'demo day' for an event where there are no, you know, demos.Latin America was back on the show thanks to Mary Ann, giving us a good reminder that we have not spent enough time

Alex filled in for Natasha as host this week, and to celebrate the end of Q1 2023 and the start of another earnings cycle, we invited PitchBook Senior Analyst Kyle Stanford onto the show. Stanford and his company are key providers of data concerning the domestic and global venture capital markets making him a perfect guest to help kickstart our look at recent venture results, and trends.We had a lot to talk about:Where early-2023 venture aggregates are trending, including a chat about different stages of startup size and how investors are approaching those groups.Sectors that are hot and sectors that are, well, not.When we might get an exit market that actually exists, again. And why Stanford popped our fading optimism that we could get more IPOs later this year.And we had a good time. We hope that this episode helps you form an informed posture towards fundraising for, and operating your company.For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. Equity drops at 7:00 a.m. PT every Monday,

Alex is back with the first episode of our Q2 run. Welcome to the new tranch of 2023!On the show today we riffed through the stock market and crypto sector. The gist? Shares are mixed here in the United States while major crypto tokens are not doing too much.In startup news, Paris is cracking down on e-scooters after a vote, Zamp Finance raised nearly $22 million for a neat way to keep startup cash safe and yield-friendly, and Fourthline reminded us that applied AI is a sentence that we are going to say again and again this year.Tesla's Q1 delivery and production numbers are out, and while the beat certain expectations the results come after price cuts. It will be curious to see what the new figures translate to in financial terms when we get the company's financial results.And then this a16z-Saudi Arabia thing that was a bit weird to chat about, but we took a stab at regardless.The show is back Wednesday and Friday, we'll see you then!For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. Equ

AI? Crypto? Equity crowdfunding and former startup founders trying to bribe China? We had it all this week, friends, so please strap in and get ready for another catchup with your besties Mary Ann, Natasha and Alex. Here's the show rundown in case you want to play along as you listen:Deals of the Week: How Seed Checks could disrupt early-stage fundraising, notes on StellarFi's latest capital raise, and the end of the Lyft founders' operational saga.All about Substack and its equity crowdfunding round, an event that we have lots of good things to say about, and one complaint.Then there was crypto. Let's see: We WTF'd about the latest from FTX's SBF, CZ is in trouble, and more.And we closed with notes on an open letter asking for AI development work to pause — ha -— and had some fun with ChatGPT!It was a hell of a week. We do it again starting Monday!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 us on Apple

This week, Natasha interviewed a Jack of all trades in the AI world with a focus on governance: Navrina Singh. Navrina is the founder and CEO of CredoAI,  a governance platform helping organizations monitor, measure and manage AI-introduced risks.We're talking about:Navrina's wedge into the world of AI, and when governance went from a lonely conversation to a global focus. Her experience with Microsoft, observing how the EU AI Act's legislation is coming together, and her work as a member of the U.S. Department of Commerce National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee (NAIAC) - which advises President Biden and the National AI Initiative OfficeRegulation, responsible AI and getting over "AI hypocrisy"Casting fear aside as a motivator for changeNavrina's thoughts on recent news in AI, including GPT-4's launch and Microsoft's ethical AI team layoffs.As always, Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann will be back for our weekly news roundup on Friday, but you can follow us on Twitter @EquityPod for live updates and mor

Alex had a lot of ground to cover from the weekend, so let's get started. Here's the rundown:The global stock market is mixed today, if leaning positive. Some concerns about global banks appear to be settling. In contrast, things are quiet on the crypto front.Salesforce is getting a reprieve from certain activist pressure after it took a cleaver to its staffing.The Silicon Valley Bank crisis is slowly coming to a close. TechCrunch has the latest on the sale of the former startup-friendly bank's commercial banking operations.In other tech news: France is cracking down on TikTok and other social apps, and some of Twitter's source code made its way onto GitHub.Finally, Turo is doing fine and could, ahem, drive us toward a reopening of the IPO market. Maybe more unicorns than we thought are going to be ok?How about we have a relaxed week? That would be nice. Something slow and calm to end the quarter? We deserve it, after all!For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. Equity drops at 7

What did Mary Ann and Natasha and Alex dive into? Here's the rundown:A quick update on TikTok: The CEO of the popular social media service went before Congress today. It was a pretty darn hostile meeting. Alex caught a chunk of it live, and also has a few thoughts on the matter.From there it was time for our 'deals of the week' section, which today included Duolingo's new music product, a new DAO fund, and the latest eToro investment.Then it was time to talk payroll. We started with the Rippling deal to raise $500 million during the SVB crisis, and then discussed the larger HR tech space, which is both bigger and valuable than we realized.We closed with AI. So, so much AI. Everyone and their least favored parental unit is building a large language model, and TechCrunch is busy covering in all their glory, or lack thereof.Whew! What a week. The show is back Monday morning. We'll see you there.For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. Equity drops at 7:00 a.m. PT every Monday, Wedne

 Natasha interviewed one of venture's most iconic duos: Mitch Kapor and Freada Kapor Klein of Kapor Capital. The investors recently published a book, "Closing the Equity Gap: Creating Wealth and Fostering Justice in Startup Investing," connecting scrappy stories of entrepreneurs to their investment thesis to the returns that other venture capitalists are clamoring to land.In today's episode, we're talking about:Their book and why the pair chose to do it nowMitch and Freada's broader thoughts on impact investingcriteria for success and investor due diligence.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 us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotifyand 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 Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also li

Alex is here to do our Monday show, a kickoff for the week that covers startup news, tech news and a little bit of the money that powers both. After a hectic few weeks, are we done with banking news? No, but there's some good news in the offing, at least.Banking stocks are whipsawing this morning, in the wake of the UBS-Credit Suisse deal, and First Republic's continued woes.The crypto markets have had a good few weeks, leading to asset price appreciation that has reignited crypto-Twitter.News that TikTok is now more popular than ever is compounded by massive gains in the popularity of other Bytedance apps in the United States. The CEO of TikTok goes before Congress this week.Parker is taking on the corporate card market with a focus on ecommerce, and neat repayment periods, while PitchBook wants to predict which startups are going to exit.And, interest rate hikes could cool in the coming quarters, which could help tech companies recover some value.We're off! Another week stretches before us. Get your dancing

This week, Alex and Natasha took the mic to talk about the slowest news cycle we've had since the beginning of the grocery delivery wars and WeWork. Just kidding. Here's what we got into:The M&A spree that includes updates from Qualtrics, Cvent, and Mint Mobile. We're happy to see some M&A, even if we'd rather see more startup deals and IPOs.GPT-4. GPT-4. GPT-4. What's in a name and more from the world of AI, including where we're seeing companies race to build the new tech into their products.SVB collapse update, including what we are looking for next.And what Y Combinator's round of layoffs tells us about the accelerator scaling back from late stage. (More on the trend here.)Busy few weeks, yeah? Don't forget to follow us on Twitter @EquityPod for live updates, and Alex will be back bright and early Monday morning with the latest.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 us on Apple Podcasts

This week, Natasha interviewed Series CEO Brexton Pham, who has been building a full-stack enterprise platform for institutions and enterprises since March 2021. Brexton was pushed out of stealth this week in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank's crash, which of course was the main topic of our conversation. What else did you expect?Here's what we got into:How much trust do our banks deserve today, and how much has reasonable trust fallen in recent weeks?How startups can (and should) start diversifying their banksWhat questions Series and its competitors are getting from investors todayThe long-term impacts beyond SVBBrexton also did a fantastic job of helping us zoom out and take a look at the past week from a refreshingly non-tech angle.Follow us on Twitter @EquityPod for live updates, and as always, the Equity crew will be back to unpack the week's headlines on Friday.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 subsc

This is Alex and we are here to do our Monday show, a kickoff for the week that covers startup news, tech news and a little bit of the money that powers both. Given how bonkers the last few days have been, this is not a normal show. Sure, we're talking money up top, but I also dragooned Natasha into running us through her amazing reporting from over the weekend on all things SVB. (Please excuse the Friends joke in the headline, we are very tired!)Here's what we got into:The stock market is suffering around the world, kinda. In the United States things when we recorded were somewhat positive. Since, shares have sank some. Put simply, the equity markets don't know how to trade the news. And it shows.Cryptos, in contrast, have had a great last day.From the news docket, Qualtrics' deal to sell for $12.5 billion is a go, and Rivian might get a little bit of breathing room from Amazon.And then Natasha and I dug into SVB. The first warning signs, the fear, the takeover, and the resolution. And then there's this. The

This week Mary Ann Azevedo, Natasha Mascarenhas and Alex Wilhelm gathered to riff through the week’s biggest startup and venture news:At the top of the show, we riffed about the situation at Silicon Valley Bank - which, of course, kicked off a little more after we wrapped our recording. So, more to come there. But we had other stories to get into:Deals of the Week: Roami (taking on Airbnb), Qualtrics (will it finally find its forever home?), the latest on the VC-AI affair (Upfront Summit recap).ADHD startups are a big thing now: From a browser to gamified help with to-dos, there's a host of startups in the market today looking to help folks get their work done, and life organized. We're big accessibility tech fans here at Equity, so this was right up our alley.How fintech investors are coping in the new venture climate: Mary Ann spoke to seven different fintech investors about the coming year, and where they are putting capital to work. The answer from many of them? B2B payments. It does look rough out there

This week, Natasha interviewed Lizzie Matusov, the co-founder and CEO of Quotient, which wants to fix the "leaky pipeline problem" in tech onboarding that doesn't set up engineers for success. Yes, that's right, this week we're talking about the work needs, habits and aspirations of developers.Here's a few topics we get into:The stereotype of a coder, and where collectivism contrasts with those characteristics.How Quotient is using research, not just aspiration, to fuel its onboarding processThe status quo of tech jobs and if we're seeing employers question some of their pre-conceived notionsDeveloper resistance to change and if engineers really do want to work together moreFor episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. As always, the full Equity crew will be back on Friday, but you can keep up with us in the meantime on Twitter @EquityPod.Equity drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7:00 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrun

Alex is here to do our Monday show, a kickoff for the week that covers startup news, tech news, and a little bit of the money that powers both. Sound good? Here's what we have for you this morning:Money: Stocks are mixed around the world, and the crypto world is muted after some price swings last week.IPO news: ARM, the chip design concern, may go public in the United States this year, raising $8 billion in the process. Given the importance of chips these days -- you may have heard! -- the company's debut could be a very big deal indeed.Startup news: Abound raised a simply massive fintech round that had our head snapping around in surprise, Wunderkind put together a big Series C for its marketing tech, and several African fintech companies have had better weeks.Finally, Tesla: More price cuts. It will be fascinating to see what impact recent price reductions at Tesla have on the company's gross margins in the first quarter. More when we get those numbers.And that is our show! Hugs, and talk to you soon!For ep

 It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for—the winner is announced! In this episode, we get to know the winner of the 2022 Startup Battlefield competition. We’ll hear what’s next for their company and get insight from TechCrunch staff, VCs, and audience members on why they were the right choice.Be sure to check out all of the other podcasts in the TechCrunch Podcast Network: Found, Equity, The TechCrunch Podcast, Chain Reaction and The TechCrunch Live Podcast. 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 products.

Mary Ann, Becca, and Alex  gathered to riff through the week's biggest startup and venture news. A big thank you to Becca for stepping in while Alex was on leave, and a note before we dive into topics that Natasha Mascarenhas will be back on the podcast next week!Now, here's what we got into:Deals of the Week: Divert's $100 million round to tackle food waste, Trust & Will's $15 million round, and what's happening in the land of NFT sales.Boston: TechCrunch held a Boston City Spotlight this week, so we took a look at a few pieces that we wrote about the lovely city to our North. Boston for example has a pretty good list of reasons why it's worth considering as a place to build a startup, and investors in the area are pretty hyped about its resilience.AI, crypto, and venture hype cycles: The crypto venture capital boom has collapsed; but is there a new AI bubble forming? Not in the way that we expected, it turns out.Amazon and Better.com: Of all the things that we didn't expect to see this year, the latest

Mary Ann is taking over while Natasha attends a summit in LA, and this week, she interviewed Mark Goldberg, partner and fintech lead at Index Ventures. Since 2015, Mark has spent his time investing in - and sitting on the boards of - financial services companies including Plaid, Persona, Lithic, Cocoon, and Pilot.The duo talked about:The party that was 2021 and the hangover that was 2022Mark's Twitter prediction that raised some eyebrows on TwitterWhy 2023 will be a survival of the fittestAlex, Mary Ann, and Becca are back Friday with more Equity, but as always, you can keep up with us in the meantime on Twitter @EquityPod.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 us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotifyand 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 Theresa Loconsolo

Inside Startup Battlefield is back in our feed with episode three. There are 180 companies solving crucial problems that didn’t make it to the Disrupt stage, but that doesn’t mean they’re making any less of an impact. TechCrunch writers Devin Coldewey and Harri Weber take us on a walk through the Expo Hall and let us listen into their conversations with a handful of the most interesting companies in the Battlefield 200.New episodes of Inside Startup Battlefield drop every Monday. Be sure to check out all of the other podcasts in the TechCrunch Podcast Network: Found, Equity, The TechCrunch Podcast, Chain Reaction and The TechCrunch Live Podcast. 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 products.

Alex is back! After taking some time to learn how to care for tiny humans, he's returned and is more than fired up to get back to podcasting. That means early mornings to get the Monday show off the page, and into your ears, made worth it thanks to the startup economy proving incredibly interesting thus far in 2023.Now, what did we get into? The following:Stocks are largely up today, but only after a terrible week last week. So, a little plus/minus there. Cryptos are not too changed in the last day, but NFT trading results are rising again which is good news for folks into the tokens.News broke recently that the United States is also taking a hard look at the Adobe-Figma deal, more evidence that the mega-transaction could fail to consummate. This is notable as we have some historical notes regarding what happens when a huge deal falls apart before it can get done. Hello, Plaid.In more business-friendly news, the fintech market is not dead and two venture firms are taking pole position.Moving along to startup