Equity

This is our interview show, where we sit down with a guest, think about their work, and unpack the rest. This week, we talked to Jenny Fielding, co-founder and managing partner at Everywhere Ventures, a founder collective and early-stage (think pre-seed) venture firm. Jenny and I discussed a wide variety of topics, including startups’ flight to quality in 2024 and how smaller firms are competing with larger firms in the current investment landscape.We also dug into the “great VC resignation” so stay through to the end for that. Jenny was a great guest – not afraid to speak her mind and share valuable insights.Besides founding her own venture firm, Jenny previously worked as a managing director for accelerator Techstars and founded several companies including mobile software company Switch Mobile, which was acquired by Via One.Equity will be back next Tuesday due to a U.S. holiday on Monday. See you then!For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monda

Today, Alex Wilhelm and Mary Ann Azevedo dig through the key stories from the week. Then, Kirsten Korosec and Haje Jan Kamps are aboard to bring us the latest from CES!Deals of the Week: Shimmer raised $2.2 million to bring one-on-one ADHD care at a lower price point; Alex chose this one because mental health care startups that try to expand access are cool. Overmoon's recent fundraising and business progress were Mary Ann's choice for the week, showing that proptech is not dead yet!Circle is going public: Yep, the company behind the USDC stablecoin is once again heading for the public markets. The company's confidential IPO filing follows an aborted SPAC attempt in the past. Alex is bullish on the deal, though we'll need to wait for the full details before we can actually make some predictions.And speaking of IPOs, we're really far behind on how many exits are needed to clear the venture capital decks.CES: We went over a ton of cool stuff this year, including this Bane-style mask, ChatGPT in cars, eVTOLs and

This is our newly revamped Wednesday episode, and we’re going to be digging deep into critical startup and venture capital news. If you are a long-time Equity listener, you will note that this is not the same interview show that we used to run mid-week! Don’t worry, we are still going to do interviews, so keep an eye out for those on Saturdays.Here’s what’s we got into on the show today:PhotoRoom is raising more money. French startup PhotoRoom is raising $50 million to $60 million at a $500 million to $600 million valuation. The round marks another potential win for AI in France, a market that is working to set itself apart in the EU.Treasure Financial cuts 14 staff members. The reductions in personnel represent a material percentage of the startup’s headcount, which feels a little weird given that the company raised $7.5 million last year, and reportedly saw its AUM soar.Tier and Dott are betting that 1+1=3. Two micromobility companies are tying the knot to try and use scale to their advantage. The moves com

Here’s what we got into on the show today:Stocks and Crypto: Tech stocks aren’t moving too much this morning as the market digests the Boeing mess. In crypto-land, the price of bitcoin is up.Bitcoin ETFs: And this is why. A rush of new filings this morning showed that bitcoin spot ETFs are targeting a very low-fee structure as they compete for investor dollars. These investment vehicles are expected to get approved this week, or at least some of them, so expect a little market turbulence ahead.Carta is once again in trouble: Carta, which makes cap table software for startups, is in trouble after some of its sales people used internal information to try and broker trades without customer consent. Guess how well that is going over.The ULA managed to get its rocket into the sky! This is great news for space launch competition. And for going back to the Moon.And the GPT store is supposed to come this very week.All that and more, we promise. Talk to you in two days!For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’

Here’s what we got into:Deals of the Week: Ruth Foxe Blader is leaving Anthemis, albeit slowly; Exponent has a second fund set up, but without a pure fintech focus; and Alex wanted to talk about why 2024 could be a pretty alright year for crypto.Layoffs, shutdowns: Frontdesk laid off 200 people and is shutting down, which makes for a good conversation about its business model. Countdown Capital is also throwing in the towel, due in part to larger multi-stage funds inflating the entry point for hot seed deals. It’s a trend worth keeping an eye on.Helping one another: Israel is working to support its startup industry which has been disrupted by the Israel-Hamas war, and how the new Tech for Palestine group was formed.And that’s Equity for this week! We’ll be back on Monday!Connect with Equity on X and Threads @EquityPod, 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 a

Today — ahead of the relaunch of our Wednesday episode that we discussed earlier this week — we have an interview to share featuring TechCrunch’s very own Morgan Sung and Shruti Dwivedi, the co-founder and CEO of health-tech startup, Duly.Duly took part in TechCrunch Disrupt’s 2023 Battlefield cohort, showing a global audience its contraceptive care platform that is initially targeted at the Indian market.Why India? The company cites a large, young population in the country with more than 700 million people under the age of 30. However, Duly also reports that fewer than 15% of Indians have access to sexual education. Even more, the startup notes that condom usage in the country is modest at best, and nearly half of young, unmarried women felt “judged when seeking contraception.”Put that all together, there’s a massive market gap that Duly wants to bridge.Sexual wellness is not a small market, naturally, and other startups are active in the space. News broke late last year, for example, that Evofem Biosciences

We're covering the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. This being the first week of the year, we had to go over a thing or two that broke just as 2023 gave up the ghost. Here's what we have on deck for you!Financial updates: Global stock market news, and the latest from crypto. On the decentralized front, strong price movements are driving trading volume. That's good news for exchanges around the world.AI versus Copyright: The New York Times suit against OpenAI that dropped in the final days of 2023 is still the biggest story in tech at the moment. If major LLMs are built on shaky grounds, what does that mean for the generative AI boom?X's value continues to fall, further evidence that social media is hard to monetize for nearly anyone who isn't Meta.Climatetech job growth could bode well for the startup genre.And, to close out, this Times story is fascinating if you want to understand where venture dollars are flowing.That’s it for today! More on Wednesday and

It's time to brush the dust off of an Equity tradition that stretches back into the years: our predictions episode.As we try to do every year, we brought in a number of voices to ensure that we covered a good amount of ground. And, we went back and vetted our predictions from last year as well, in case you wanted to see how off we were!Who took part? Alex Wilhelm, Mary Ann Azevedo, Kirsten Korosec, and Becca Szkutak. The voices you heard the most on the podcast this year! (A big thanks to Theresa Loconsolo for getting the whole gang together!)We bucketed our predictions into a few categories, including startup trends, media, proptech, AI, and transport. Mary Ann expects venture to continue contracting in personnel terms, Alex wanted to talk about AI at the OS level, Becca had notes on media, and more.There are other themes mixed in as well, but find your headphones and get ready for some Hot Takes, yeah?That is a wrap on Equity in 2023. We recorded something around 150 episodes, racked up seven-figures worth

Today, we’re spinning the globe with not one but two interviews, thanks to our friend and colleague Rebecca Bellan, who’s been in Auckland, New Zealand for the past three years. She recently hopped across the Tasman to Australia to report on the startup scene in Australia, and is coming back to us with a temperature check on VC in the Antipodes.Rebecca spoke to two Aussie VCs: Dan Krasnostein from Square Peg and Gabrielle Munzer from Main Sequence. Rebecca and our guests dug into why early stage funding is popping off in the region, the government's role in growing a startup ecosystem, fintech, climate tech, and what it’s like to compete and collaborate with Silicon Valley.In addition to these conversations, Rebecca wrote a few deep dive stories from her time in Australia, including a look at its burgeoning climate tech scene and some of the people who are fighting to lift women up in the ecosystem. Rebecca also chatted with Canva — the SaaS darling of Australia — to learn how the company is embracing generat

Today, Alex got Deepka Rana from Northzone on the mic to chat through a bevy of key topics for the new year:Where venture capital is heading in the new yearThe prognosis for startups at different stages of maturityWhy 2023 was the year of adjustment, and 2024 could be the new venture-startup normalAnd, the fate of AI in the EU where regulation is afoot. (n.b. When we recorded this, the EU's first-draft of AI regulation had not yet dropped).We think that every person in startups and venture is hoping that 2024 brings a warmer macroeconomic environment, and lots of exits. We'll see. What was clear from our chat with Rana, however, is that the new year is going to be anything but boring.We have two more episodes headed your way before we officially wrap up 2023, so stay close to Equity!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

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