Equity

Here's what we got into for this week's Monday episode:Big Tech: Vista Equity Partners scooped up Duck Creek for $2.6 billion, and that's not the only billion-dollar figure we've seen from them over the past twelve months. Enterprise deals to start off the year? Take notes, startups.Big Idea: I'm thinking all about generative AI, especially thanks to Rebecca Szkutak's latest piece: "Whoops! Is generative AI already becoming a bubble?" I talk through the thesis of the piece, why venture always needs a buzzword, and why that's not necessarily a bad thing.And Big Innovation: We end with our roots in the world of startups. I'm talking Magic Leap's comeback story and a can't miss Dominic-Madori Davis piece tracking Black founder funding trends. And with that, goodbye until Wednesday! You can follow me on Twitter @nmasc_ or on Instagram @natashathereporter. And, as always, follow Equity on Twitter @equitypod. Equity drops at 10:00 a.m. PT every Monday and at 7:00 a.m. PT on Wednesdays and Fridays, so subscribe to u

To start off the year, we are welcoming Rebecca Szkutak as a returning host who will be joining us while Alex is out on paternity leave. We're lucky to have her for a few months, so give her a warm welcome!With that, Natasha, Mary Ann and Becca returned to the mic to unpack the latest and greatest on this first week back. 2022 was a dreary, relentless storm at times, but it also surprised us with how much innovation continues to brighten up this downturn. The start of 2023 has been no different.Here's what we got into:Some early standouts from CES, the annual consumer electronics show that is taking over Las Vegas right now. Yep, we're talking comfort pillows that are even more comfortable than you think, a smarter smart laundry machine and a security dash-cam for ride-sharing drivers. Then we jumped into deals of the week, which included Doorstead and USV's $200 million climate fund.Our first theme got into the latest development in the FTX and SBF saga. If you're like us, there's been so much happening that

Happy New Year and welcome to 2023! As promised, Natasha is taking over Equity Monday for the beginning of this year as Alex is out on paternity leave. Big hugs to his growing family!We're starting the year with big post-PTO energy, because there's no other way we know how to do it. Here's what we chatted:Tesla missing expectations, Meta doing its let's-just-acquire-smart-talent thing, and a debut in the S&P 500 that caught our attention.A big idea that is running around over at Matrix. TC's Paul Sawers looks into how messaging apps may become more interoperable thanks to a fascinating new protocol. To us, this screams the ideas of decentralization from crypto last year, but with a more understandable pitch. Catch me Slacking you on WhatsApp!Finally, we end with a look ahead at CES this week. We have reporters on the ground catching the moonshots, and we'll have updates for you with the full crew on Friday!As always, there's more to come, so follow us on Twitter @EquityPodEquity drops at 10 a.m. PT every

In honor of 2022 finally coming to a close, the Equity crew is getting reflective. We dug through the archives, and this week, we're listening back to Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann's coverage of the biggest stories of the year as they unfolded.Here's what the trio got into with help from guest hosts, Becca Szkutak and Anita Ramaswamy:How Alex jinxed us from the start when he asked for more tech drama (TC+) back in JanuaryEarly signs of the downturn to come with Better.com and the human cost of layoffsThe will-they-won't-they courtship of Elon Musk and TwitterThe downfall of FTX (TC+) and why you should never let FOMO guide your investments (TC+) Some of these stories are still evolving as we type, but don't fret - we'll catch you up in the new year.Of course, we can't sign off without saying thank you to all of you for sticking by us during this rollercoaster of a year, and we can't wait to see you in 2023!Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcas

Following a parade of headlines and news that Fast shut down back in April, Natasha and Alex asked: What are we missing when we talk about startup failure?The question comes after one of Natasha’s Startups Weekly columns, where she looked into the complexity of startup failure, fallacy of takedown stories, and importance of diversity in newsrooms. Here's an excerpt:"There’s the argument that startup tensions are inevitable and common, so should we spotlight every time something bubbles to the surface, especially at the cost of an underrepresented founder who may just be doing their best? There’s also an argument that the business is messy, so we should report on the issues as we hear about them; and there’s the narrative of the female takedown story, in which people believe that women are targeted by the press more than men due to unreasonably high standards."We discussed our own definitions of failure past Theranos and WeWork, examples of rising tensions, and what this means for early-stage startups and hist

The Equity crew is kicking off your week with a special episode from our sister podcast, Found, the stories behind the startups. Co-hosts Darrell Etherington and Becca Szkutak spoke with Alice Albrecht from Re:collect, a software tool that augments creativity by helping people focus, recall, and connect their ideas. The conversation covered a lot of ground from how to hone your pitch when your product is so cerebral, how technology can help creativity but Alice argues will never replace it, and how developing AI requires building safeguards from the jump.If you want to hear more from Equity and Found, don't forget to take our listener survey and enter for a chance to win a free year of TC+!For more from Found, connect with us:On TwitterOn InstagramVia email: found@techcrunch.comEquity drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto,  a show that details how our stories come together and

This week, the Equity team is spotlighting one of our sister podcasts: TechCrunch Live.  Matt Burns hopped on the mic with Jenny Lefcourt from Freestyle Partners and Guillaume de Zwirek, CEO and co-founder of WELL Health, to talk all about raising a Series A and specific steps for founders to follow.As you’ll hear from Lefourt and de Zwirek, there are notable differences between raising a seed round and a Series A round. Investors look at different aspects of the company, and the founder must prepare for the fundraising differently. Rather than selling a story, they’re selling a company. To help even more founders, Lefcourt prepared a blog post to go along with her TechCrunch Live appearance that goes even deeper into raising a Series A. If you want to hear more shows like this, don't forget to take our listener survey and enter for a chance to win a free year of TC+!Equity drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCru

This week, Mary Ann is taking the reins with another favorite from the TechCrunch Disrupt stage. She sat down with Brex CEO and co-founder, Henrique Dubugras, and Anu Hariharan, YC’s managing director for continuity and an early Brex investor, to expose the context around this whirlwind of a year.The conversation candidly uncovers details behind the fintech's pandemic pivot, layoffs, and going remote. If you love the conversation, share it with a friend. And if you want more on Brex, Mary Ann dove deeper into the conversation last month.Equity drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 a.m. PT, 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, a show 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 like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio

Darrell talked with Tim De Chant about his coverage of fusion energy and what feels like a rare hopeful story in renewable energy tech. And Jacquelyn Melinek walks us through Sam Bankman-Fried’s alleged crimes and confirmed arrest.  Plus he goes over the top stories in tech from the week.  And as always, Darrell breaks down the biggest stories in tech.Articles from the episode:World-record fusion experiment produced even more energy than expectedFTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested in the BahamasUS attorney says ‘we are not done’ charging individuals for FTX collapseOther news from the week:Instagram adds text updates with new Notes featureOpenAI’s attempts to watermark AI text hit limitsElon Jet, the Twitter account tracking Elon Musk’s flights, was permanently suspendedDon't forget to take our listener survey for a chance to win a free year of TC+ at bit.ly/tcpodsurvey. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank

To end the year, we are bringing back our predictions episode with the entire Equity crew: Alex, Natasha, Mary Ann, Theresa, Maggie, and Becca. Grace couldn't make the mic but we have a feeling she'd agree with at least 2% of our predictions, anyways.Let's not ruin the episode, but to give you a taste, here's what topics we based our predictions on:Startup building and culture trendsM&A and the return of secondariesThe future of media and how social will shiftDeep tech and generative AIAnd, of course, cryptoWe end on an earnest note. Good luck to Alex as he embarks on parenthood, welcome to Becca, who will be joining Equity in the new year, and, of course, thank you to all of you for sticking by us during this rollercoaster of a year.And with that, chat in 2023!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, one that details how our stories c

This week, Natasha is bringing one of her favorite panels from Disrupt to your ears. She sat down with Clubhouse co-founder and CEO, Paul Davison, to talk about the core of Clubhouse, competition, and the impact of hype.The conversation touches on the company's hyper growth, celebrity power, and navigating social platforms and social patterns, with a round of questions from the audience at the end. If you love the conversation, share it with a friend. And if you want more on Clubhouse, Natasha dove deeper into the conversation here.Equity drops every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us onApple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has agreat show on crypto, ashow that interviews founders, ashow that details how our stories come togetherand 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 products.

Hey, Equity family! While we're off preparing more end-of-year special episodes for you, we wanted to share an episode from our sister pod: The TechCrunch Podcast.This week Darrell Etherington talks with Taylor Hatmaker on to talk about Lensa AI and the possible ramifications for artists. Then we’ll hear from some attendees at the TC sessions: Space event  And as always, Darrell breaks down the biggest stories in tech.Articles from the episode:Lensa AI, the app making ‘magic avatars,’ raises red flags for artistsUPDATED: It’s way too easy to trick Lensa AI into making NSFW imagesRead all of the stories from TC Sessions: SpaceOther news from the week:Meta won’t let staff discuss topics like abortion, gun control and vaccines at workAmazon will give your overworked delivery driver $5 if you ask Alexa to say thank youConfirmed: Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield stepping down in JanuaryThe FTC is suing to block Microsoft from buying Activision Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bry

We are nearly at the end of the year, so your friendly, local podcast crew is trying to make sense of just what happened in 2022.We started the year on a venture capital high which quickly turned into a downturn. Startups kicked off the year hiring and wrapped the year shedding staff. The stock market kept going down. A crypto winter kicked off. We saw some PE deals but very few IPOs. And the world saw a bit more geopolitical upheaval than we might have anticipated.There were elections and shutdowns and frauds and mistakes and big wins. It was, well, a lot.Thankfully Mary Ann, Natasha, and Alex were able to collate the news into a few distinct categories, so that we can all look back at 2022 with a bit more clarity. And we even got to hear from a bunch of you, thanks to your dozens and dozens of great taglines you sent in concerning the year and how it felt from your chair.We have even more good stuff coming, including our yearly predictions episode. Get hype, and we'll talk to you soon!Equity drops at 7 a.m.

This week, Natasha chatted with Alex about ego, how recent news from Sam Bankman-Fried and Elizabeth Holmes gives us a window into how it works, and impacts on the tech and venture landscape.We talked about:What Holmes and Bankman-Fried have in common, from centralized ownership to a cult of personalityThe differences between the two entrepreneurs, and why their stories tend to blur togetherHow Adam Neumann, Elon Musk and others fit into the conversationLearning lessons from startups from a chaotic, and main-character-driven yearWe have a lot of really fun stuff coming up in the next week or two. Thanks for sticking with Equity in 2022, and we cannot wait for 2023.Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PT, 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, a show that details how our stories come together and more! Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing

Stocks in China are ripping higher on news that its drastic COVID-related policies could be starting to ease. It's a long way from a reopening, but after years of hard-edged lockdowns, Chinese tech companies are breathing a sigh of relief — at least in valuation terms. Shares are down in Europe and the United States.How much are Chinese equities rallying? Bilibili is in the lead, up around 16% in pre-market trading. The day's gains won't cover all prior losses, but for the nation's beleaguered tech industry, the valuation gains are beyond welcome news.And sticking to the good news vibe, the fact that the U.S. central bank may slow the pace at which it raises interest rates could provide some useful tailwinds to tech companies.The Circle SPAC deal is off.Giraffe360 raised new capital, which surprised us, given our perspective on the housing market.And we closed with notes on ChatGPT, the thing that everyone on Twitter cannot stop playing with.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday and Wednesday, and at 6 a.m.

For the last time in 2022, the whole Friday gang got together to chat through the latest and greatest in the world of technology and startup news:ResortPass raises money. Mary Ann explains the business model.Post.News raises money. Alex digs into what he likes and doesn't like about the new Twitter competitor.SBF wants you to know he had no idea what was going on. We are not so sure.Venture red flags are great in hindsight, but would have been more useful last year.Layoffs at DoorDash and Kraken are a reminder that we're still in a risk-off environment when it comes to tech spending today.Plus, the latest regarding Pipe, and Alex's notes on Series A and C rounds.Equity is not done for the year, but we are settling into our final 2022 holiday groove. This is Alex writing this, and I wanted to take the moment to thank you for sticking around with us this year. Really. I think we broke a bunch of records in terms of downloads and the like. Wild that the show just keeps getting bigger. Hugs.Equity drops at 7 a.m.

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 person, think about their work and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha interviewed Vijay Chattha, a startup comms leader who has spent over 20 years in the storytelling world. Chattha is the CEO and founder of VSC and founding partner of VSC Ventures, a $21 million investment vehicle to back startups. Here's what we spoke about:How his clients are reacting to the downturn in terms of their openness, vulnerability, and general hunger to tell their storyThe difference between pitching a VC and pitching a journalist (lol)How startup's goal with media coverage can sometimes inherently clash with the media's goal to cover a startup (and why we disagree on the importance of disclosing valuations)The best framework for the different types of media form out there, from Twitter to billboards to earned media.How the #MeToo mov

It's me! Hi! (I'm not the problem, just the podcast's host, here to bring you the latest greatest in startup and tech news this fine Monday morning). Welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. And for those of you who hummed the first sentence of this post, extra points to you.I'm starting things off this week as a test run before Alex heads on paternity leave. We have lots to get to, so shake off the holiday feels and let's remember how this ecosystem works?Here's what we got to:The markets are broadly down, due to COVID-19 protests breaking out in China. Blockfi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Our crypto reporter Jacquelyn Melinek has more on what happened - and she explains just how intertwined this universe is. I'll also get to notes I took from our recent crypto conference and how the reality may be looking like Web 2.5 before it looks like Web 3.0.We also talk about Amazon's three-pronged retreat, and the common threa

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.While the Equity crew unwinds from Thanksgiving here in the U.S., we're bringing you one of our favorite conversations from this year:Natasha, along with Alex's help, asked: Who should be raising Party Rounds? The episode was inspired by Natasha’s recent Startups Weekly column, “When the party has confetti but no allergen-friendly appetizers" and the companion TechCrunch+ piece with Anita, “Investment clubs are cool again, and maybe community is, too.”Here's what we got into:The definition of party rounds, boundaries and the fact that we don't entirely agree on if there needs to be a lead or nahHow has party round funding changed? What place do they hold in the ecosystem?Is this vehicle better for experienced founders versus first-time founders?The pros and cons of each sideEquity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday and Wednesday, and at 6 a.m. PT on Fridays, so subscribe to us 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 is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single person, think about their work and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha interviewed Karla Monterroso, a long time leadership coach, racial equity advocate and the founder of Brava Leaders. We talked about her route into the leadership coaching space, but mainly sought to answer questions about the challenges facing executives today. Here are some of the topics we touch onDiverse leadership and the unique semblance of power on a person of colorHow she's thinking through the second-order impacts of Elon Musk's Twitter takeover and what signal it sends to the industry.Tech's homogeneity problem and if it's getting better or worseHow leaders can cultivate a workforce that leans into conflictAnd of course, we end with a lightning round - including but not limited to how Monterroso would define 2022 in a headline.We'll be b