Today we had a goodly bag of things to dig into, including: The FT finds that major social platforms are taking a bath thanks to Apple’s new privacy rules. But is that such a bad thing? The Chinese labor standard of ‘996’ is losing its dominance in its domestic market. The Dell-VMware spinoff has finally happened . At last. Digital Currency Group raises $700 million , Mosaic Building Group raises $44 million , and When I Work locked down $200 million of its own . Looking ahead, we have AllBirds ...
Nov 01, 2021•9 min•Ep. 435
This week Mary Ann and Natasha and Alex (along with our amazing production team Grace , Chris , and Kell ) took on a host of topics from the public and private markets alike. In our wheelhouse this week: An IPO rush : Sure, IPOs are still not keeping up with unicorn births, but the current pace of public offerings has us nattering. Paytm is coming . Sweetgreen as well . NerdWallet and Backblaze to boot . It's a crowd! Alchemy raised $250 million for its blockchain-infra work, reminding us that A...
Oct 29, 2021•29 min•Ep. 434
This is a special, if somewhat bittersweet episode. It marks the final official podcast with our own Danny Crichton , who is off to other pastures in short order. Danny stepped in when we lost a host a few years back, and has been both a staple and a pillar of the show since. We're going to miss the ever-loving heck out of him. But the show must go on, so we spent this episode discussing issues core to our remit: The venture capital market, startups, and the interplay between each. Natasha and D...
Oct 27, 2021•28 min•Ep. 433
Hark, all ye who pay attention to the stock market, for Elon Musk's wheels-focused company broached the $1 trillion market cap threshold today. Yeah, it finally happened, so the Equity team quickly scrambled for the microphones. Chris put together the show, allowing Alex and Kirsten to dive into the matter. Kirsten, in case you aren't familiar with her, is TechCrunch's transportation editor -- her crew handles everything that moves under its own power for the team. She's tremendous. Aside from t...
Oct 25, 2021•14 min•Ep. 432
This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can follow the show on Twitter here . I also tweet . Taking a look around the world, stocks were largely higher in Asia and Europe and are looking somewhat mixed in the United States. There are a host of technology earnings coming this week, mind. Facebook is taking all sort...
Oct 25, 2021•9 min•Ep. 431
This week Mary Ann and Natasha and Alex (along with our amazing production team Grace, Chris, and Kell) took on a bevy of topics from around the world of startups and technology more broadly. We naturally kicked off with news that Facebook intends to rebrand itself. Which we don't think will do much to detract from its various crises. But the news does underscore that Facebook is, in fact, serious about writing its next chapter. From there it was time to talk funding rounds. This week we picked ...
Oct 22, 2021•30 min•Ep. 430
Look, we don't get it either. Taking some time as a group to sit around and chat through the possibly impending PayPal-Pinterest deal , Natasha and Alex didn't wind up cracking the story. Which makes some sense, as investors sent PayPal stock down 5% on the news, implying that they didn't really get it either. Recall that PayPal has made a few other deals in recent years, including buying Honey ($4 billion) and Paidy (less than $4 billion). Regardless, the transaction -- worth potentially dozens...
Oct 20, 2021•22 min•Ep. 429
Natasha and Danny and Alex got together to dig into the recent NerdWallet IPO filing, and what it can tell us about how the written word -- in its digital form -- can still be worth quite a lot. Here's an outline of the chat: NerdWallet shows the financial power of the written word , even if it isn't the precise form of writing that we know and love. Automattic is a large, startup bet on the written word, amongst other things. Danny had notes for us on the scale of its business, thanks to a new ...
Oct 20, 2021•20 min•Ep. 428
This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can follow the show on Twitter here . I also tweet . This week, the week of October 18, 2021, kicked off with a mixed markets picture. Asian stocks were mixed, down in Europe, and set to fall in the United States. China remains a concern. There are hardware events this week ...
Oct 18, 2021•8 min•Ep. 427
In today's episode, talk our way through some big breaking news from the technology world so that we can better understand just what is going on. Danny and Alex got together late Friday on a Twitter Space to discuss Microsoft's decision to pull LinkedIn from the Chinese market , a move that lit up headlines around the world. That LinkedIn was still in China in 2021 may feel more surprising than the news that it will exit that particular market, but the moment matters all the same as it marks the...
Oct 16, 2021•18 min•Ep. 426
This week was one of our strongest shows yet, with a wide diversity of news items that were genuinely fun (and complicated) to chew through. And even though we started off kind of grumpy, we laughed through tech difficulties, crypto puns, and fintech CAC. It's called coping. Here's what we got into: Magic Leap raised $500 million about which we have thoughts, Mindbody's acquisition of ClassPass caught our eye for obvious reasons (and the fact that it also raised $500 million), and we dug into So...
Oct 15, 2021•23 min•Ep. 425
This is our Wednesday show, the time of the week when we niche down to a single topic. Today? Fashion. Natasha and Danny and Alex got together to dig into the world of fashion resale and rental. It's no small market, giving birth to both public companies, unicorns, and startups. Most recently, well-known fashion rental player Rent the Runway filed to go public, giving us a window in its own numbers. Those figures led us to a few questions about how best to go about making money from clothes in a...
Oct 13, 2021•22 min•Ep. 424
This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can follow the show on Twitter here . I also tweet . Markets were busy, with Chinese tech stocks rallying and the rest of the world posting a mix of gains and losses. If you are bullish on public markets, excellent. But if you are bearish, don't worry -- there are diverse en...
Oct 11, 2021•9 min•Ep. 423
Natasha and Mary Ann and Alex were all aboard this week with Grace on the dials, which meant that we had a flat lovely time recording Equity for you. Of course, Equity is TechCrunch's venture capital focused podcast where we dig into the most critical funding rounds, and natter about the key news items impacting startups. Before we hop into this week's topics, you can follow the show on Twitter, where we rather often host impromptu Twitter spaces that sometimes become episodes. Come hang! Here's...
Oct 08, 2021•29 min•Ep. 422
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's venture capital focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, the time of the week when we niche down to a single topic. Today? Gaming. Natasha and Danny and Alex got together to discuss the gaming world from a few perspectives, including those of startups and the largest platform players in tech. Alex is a gamer. Danny is a board gamer. And Natasha isn't big on digital games. So, we had a good array o...
Oct 06, 2021•27 min•Ep. 421
This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can follow the show on Twitter here . I also tweet . Sorry that the show is so delayed today, it's utterly my fault. Regular service returns Wednesday, and we'll make to not be late on a Monday again this year! Here's what we got into on the show: Tech shares are falling in ...
Oct 04, 2021•8 min•Ep. 420
To cap the week off, Danny and Alex and Chris got together live on Twitter to chat through the demise of the Zoom-Five9 deal . Those of you who remember how recently the deal was announced are likely a little surprised -- how did it fall apart so quickly? Well, a few reasons: There could be inherent risk in all-stock transactions provided a rapidly-changing market. It may be the case that Zoom simply did not bid enough for Five9. And there's a mix of anti-trust and national regulatory issues to ...
Oct 02, 2021•23 min•Ep. 419
Natasha and Mary Ann and Alex were all aboard this week under the guidance of Chris and Grace , meaning that we were running full-strength for our roundup of this super busy week. Before we hop into the topics, you can follow the show on Twitter -- all the cool kids do! -- and keep in mind that on Mondays Equity provides a short kickoff to the week, we chat a single topic on Wednesdays, and Fridays are when we go through the full week. Make sense? Hell yeah: Fiveable Cobalt raised $2.8 million t...
Oct 01, 2021•28 min•Ep. 418
Hello and welcome back to Equity , TechCrunch’s venture-capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. We got the crew together — Natasha and Danny and Alex — this time 'round to talk fraud, one of our favorite topics. Sure, we've riffed on the ups and downs at Luckin, and we've spent more time talking about WeWork's implosion than we want to admit. But that's not the most recent stuff. There's been a raft of fraud lately which caught our eye. The heart of today's epi...
Sep 29, 2021•26 min•Ep. 417
This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can follow the show on Twitter here . I also tweet . A few things this morning: Instagram is pausing work on the kids-focused version of its social service. It claims that the product is the right thing to build, but that it wants to talk to folks about why, first. TechCrunc...
Sep 27, 2021•11 min•Ep. 416
And the winner of TC's Startup Battlefield is.... gonna have to listen to find out 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 24, 2021•23 min•Ep. 415
Hello and welcome back to Equity , TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Today we got the gang together -- Natasha and Danny and Alex -- to chat about the most recent IPOs in tech-land, namely debuts from Freshworks and Toast. TechCrunch has covered their pair of firms somewhat closely during their IPO run, as they each have some notable characteristics: Freshworks' IPO provided a fresh window into how public market investors are willing ...
Sep 22, 2021•21 min
This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can follow the show on Twitter here . I also tweet . A few things this morning: I shook up the show format a little, including how the script came together and how it was organized. Hit me up on Twitter if you have notes. Disrupt is this week , so strap thyself in for the be...
Sep 20, 2021•11 min•Ep. 414
Natasha and Mary Ann and Alex were all aboard this week under the guidance of Chris and Grace , which meant we had the full team. And speaking of teams, Mary Ann is joining the Friday show on a weekly basis now. She's been a friend for years, and a colleague now twice-over for Natasha and Alex and we could not be more excited. That personal news aside, here's the rundown for today's show! Funding rounds in the logistics and infra markets: We went physical-world with our funding round roundup thi...
Sep 17, 2021•25 min•Ep. 413
Hello and welcome back to Equity , TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic. This time 'round we took a look into the world of on-demand delivery in Europe, with an especial focus on the so-called "instant" grocery sector, and delivered convenience items. To help Natasha and Danny and Alex get through the subject, we lassoed TechCrunch alum and present-day VP at Zapp , a compa...
Sep 15, 2021•27 min•Ep. 412
We are back! From this morning, I suppose. But the news cycle doesn't wait for our publishing schedule, so the Equity crew got together to yammer all about the Intuit-Mailchimp acquisition . A $12 billion deal comprised of stock and cash, it's a big on. And as Mailchimp has both a history of boostrapping and a founding story in a non-Silicon Valley city we had lots to chat about. As a general reminder, if you do listen to the show, hit us up on Twitter as we are doing more and more of these Spac...
Sep 13, 2021•18 min•Ep. 411
This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can follow the show on Twitter here . I also tweet . Vacation was good, and a big thanks to Mary Ann and Natasha -- not to mention Grace and Chris! -- for keeping things flowing while I mostly sat around reading books and playing video games. But enough being maudlin! To the...
Sep 13, 2021•6 min•Ep. 410
Natasha and Mary Ann took over this week's show with Chris and Grace, which meant that our overdeveloped senses of curiosity filled up the script just fine (even on a somewhat short week). Unintentionally, today's episode was built around a theme of inclusion - from auto-insurance to women's health, and from payments to knowledge. But here are some more specifics on what we got into: For our funding round section, we discussed UK’s Marshmallow getting unicorn status for its more inclusive, big-d...
Sep 10, 2021•22 min•Ep. 409
Alex is on a well-deserved vacation this week, so for the Equity Wednesday deep dive, we took the conversation to Twitter Spaces. Danny , Mary Ann , and Jonathan Metrick , Chief Growth Officer at Portage Ventures, dove into growth marketing. You can listen to the full episode on the Equity Podcast feed. This conversation was spurred by the TechCrunch Experts project , where we're looking for the best growth marketers for startups. Metrick had been recommended to us in July (you can read his feat...
Sep 08, 2021•40 min•Ep. 408
This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff to catch up on weekend news and prep for the days ahead. We're here on Tuesday this week since us folks in the United States had off for labor day. You can follow the show on Twitter here, and while you're at it, throw me a follow too. Jobs report: Over the weekend, the US government posted the Jobs Report. It wasn't ideal, with a sharp drop in percentage of women rejoining the workforce. I give you the startup angle, and talk about a somewhat poetic uni...
Sep 07, 2021•9 min•Ep. 407
