Hello and welcome back to Equity , a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Natasha took over Equity Monday this week alongside Grace, as Alex enjoys some always-deserved vacation. Thankfully, there was way too much to get into. So much so that I recommend you listening to this podcast immediately before a whole news cycle breaks. Here's what we got into: Morning markets update, which is somewhat a story about reaction to China's slow...
Aug 15, 2022•12 min•Ep. 555
Hello and welcome back to Equity , a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Alex , Natasha and Mary Ann worked with Grace to record yet another weekly round up on all the tech news that may have flown past your radar. Or bumped into it so hard that you're still dizzy and looking for more information. Regardless of where you're at, here's what we got into: For our deals of the week, we spoke about QED making its first African investmen...
Aug 12, 2022•35 min•Ep. 554
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 topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: Despite all the dollars and deals out there, does a drop in activation energy change how many entrepreneurs we'll see in the early-stage market? But, we're not alone! Found co-hosts Jordan Crook and Darrell Etheringt...
Aug 10, 2022•32 min•Ep. 553
Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest and most interesting technology, startup and markets news. This morning was a fun mix of stuff that we don't always get to, so strap in for the following: Stocks and cryptos are mostly higher today, meaning that most listeners of the show are now richer than they were Friday. Congratulations! Coinbase earnings on the horizon, but we got word today from Palantir and SoftBank . Palantir's stock is off due to a guidance miss, while SoftBank reported mass...
Aug 08, 2022•9 min•Ep. 552
Hello and welcome back to Equity , a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Alex , Natasha and Mary Ann got together with Maggie and Grace this week for our weekly roundup show, and per usual, there was a lot to talk about, including the fact that there were even more topics than usual to pick from as the summer slowdown seems to be fading away. What else did we get into? The following: To kick off our Deals of the Week, we discussed ...
Aug 05, 2022•33 min•Ep. 551
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 topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: Is it the bootstrapper’s time to jump on the venture treadmill? The episode was inspired by Natasha's recent Startups Weekly column, " The bootstrapped are coming, the bootstrapped are coming " and the companion Tech...
Aug 03, 2022•24 min•Ep. 550
Hello and welcome back to Equity , a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Last week we said that you needed to pay attention to the public markets, and we weren't kidding. It was a huge week for earnings -- with notes from all over including the ad market and cloud spend. But this week's Monday show was more than just another entry in the series, it was an experimental live show! Natasha joined Alex for the fun, and this is what the...
Aug 01, 2022•28 min•Ep. 549
Hello and welcome back to Equity , a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Alex , Natasha and Mary Ann got together with Grace once again this week for our weekly roundup show, and hot dang was there a lot to talk about. So much so that we actually had to cut one topic from our notes, any guesses what that may have been? Regardless, here's the rundown: We had a big fintech theme this week, kicking off with the huge news that Jack Ma ...
Jul 29, 2022•31 min•Ep. 548
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 topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Anita asked: When is a company taking internal valuation cut a good thing? Normally, when we hear about valuations going down, that's a red flag that things aren't going well at a given company or in the market at large. We wrot...
Jul 27, 2022•32 min•Ep. 547
Hello and welcome back to Equity , a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest and most interesting technology, startup and markets news. Sitting as we are on the precipice of a huge data dump, we had lots to chat through! Stocks are mixed around the world, while crypto selloff modestly after some recovery gains. In general, the value of securities are down in recent weeks and months, and now,...
Jul 25, 2022•9 min•Ep. 546
Hello and welcome back to Equity , a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Alex , Natasha and Mary Ann got together with Grace once again this week for our weekly roundup show, and as often happens, news broke as we were gearing up to record. So we had to touch on the huge Amazon-One Medical deal to get started. Naturally we all had thoughts. What else did we get into? The following: Crunchbase raised $50 million! Yes, our former emp...
Jul 22, 2022•36 min•Ep. 545
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 topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: How do founders hold two ideas in their heads: both that there is an economic downturn, but also that things are looking up for many industries? After a series of episodes about the tensions within the downturn, this...
Jul 20, 2022•30 min•Ep. 544
Hello and welcome back to Equity , a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest, and most interesting technology, startup, and markets news. Today was a fun day in that we didn't start off with just bad news -- what a change! Stocks are up around the world, and cryptos have rallied in the last week. The positive price movement in crypto-land, however, doesn't appear to be lighting a fire undern...
Jul 18, 2022•11 min•Ep. 543
Hello and welcome to a special edition of Equity ! Today, Alex sat down Brian Heater , a long-tenured TechCrunch denizen, our hardware editor, podcast extraordinaire , and genial chap. He also put together a really neat robotics-focused event that we're hosting next week. The event is online, and free, which means that everyone can come and hang (that means you!) The confab was also a good excuse to snag time with Heater, and have a bit of a natter about robotics, how the self-driving hardware s...
Jul 16, 2022•22 min•Ep. 542
Hello and welcome back to Equity , a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Alex , Natasha and Mary Ann enjoyed yet another edition of Equity Live this week, hopping on Twitter Spaces to chat everything from Musk’s meme suit to a new take on Wordle that landed Spotify’s attention. When we stopped recording the episode, news broke that Stripe is cutting its internal valuation by 28%. Luckily, we do this three times a week to stay tuned...
Jul 15, 2022•38 min•Ep. 541
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 topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha asked: How does Roe’s reversal impact the ways that companies are built? The question was inspired by a recent TechCrunch+ column, "Roe reversal weighs heavily on emerging tech cities in red states." The reporters behind the piece, ...
Jul 13, 2022•26 min•Ep. 540
Hello and welcome back to Equity , a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest, boldest and baddest technology news. After some holiday weeks, we are back on an actual Monday! What a treat. Here's what we got into: Stocks are off around the world, partially due to government action, partially due to the complex web of negative factors that we've discussed for months now. Cryptos are more staid...
Jul 11, 2022•7 min•Ep. 539
Hello and welcome back to Equity , a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. It doesn't feel like a short week, does it? Alex , Natasha and Mary Ann got on the mic to bring an especially packed episode full of big news, fire transitions and even a pun or three. Deals of the week: Maolac raises $3.2 million to bring breast milk nutrition to adults, Peakflo raises a few million to scale its billpay tech in South East Asia, and Cauldron r...
Jul 08, 2022•34 min•Ep. 538
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 topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: Why is tech full of copycats, and what’s the next full circle moment we can expect? The question was inspired by Natasha's recent Startups Weekly column: "YC makes a Product Hunt, Product Hunt makes an a16z, a16z mak...
Jul 06, 2022•28 min•Ep. 537
Hello and welcome back to Equity , a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest, boldest and baddest technology news. We are back on Tuesday, as the United States was off yesterday. So a day late, but hopefully not a dollar short, here's what we got into today: Stocks are mixed around the world, and set to fall in the United States at the open. At the same time, the crypto market has been somew...
Jul 05, 2022•9 min•Ep. 536
Hello and welcome back to Equity , a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This was a live week on the podcast, meaning that Mary Ann and Alex and Natasha and Grace teamed up with the fine audio and visual folks from our mothership Yahoo to not only record the show, but to do so in front of, well, all of you! It's fun to record live, and we'll do it again in two weeks! What did we get into? The following: Deals of the Week: HomeListe...
Jul 01, 2022•36 min•Ep. 535
This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha asked: What’s in the fine print for term sheets these days, and what does that tell us about who is going to be in control during the downturn? The question was inspired by a recent story by Becca Szkutak - one of TC's newest venture reporters - about how deal terms look different in a downturn. Of course that means we had to bring on Szkutak to talk about her story a...
Jun 29, 2022•27 min•Ep. 534
Hello and welcome back to Equity , a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest, boldest and baddest technology news. This week we are not recording on a Tuesday as it's a regular week. Though we would add that Equity will be live on Thursday, when we record our Friday episode. So if you wanted to come hang, make sure that you are following the show on Twitter. Right, so what did we get into th...
Jun 27, 2022•10 min•Ep. 533
Hello and welcome back to Equity , TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Today Natasha and Alex were on the mics, kicking back and riffing through the biggest technology stories of the week. Our dear Mary Ann was off this week, but will be back in short order. What did we get into? A bevy of blistering bromides, naturally: Accel has a new $4 billion fund, focused on the late-stage, which is at once a pile of duckets and a fascinating timi...
Jun 24, 2022•32 min•Ep. 532
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 topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: After a multi-year fundraising boom, what is the current health of the fintech startup market? The episode was inspired by a rigamarole of news, including but not limited to Klarna's potential valuation haircut , App...
Jun 22, 2022•22 min•Ep. 531
Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest, boldest and baddest technology news. This is our Monday show, coming to you this week on a Tuesday as, hey, yesterday was a holiday for many American workers, in honor of Juneteenth. So, we're doing our weekly kickoff one day later than usual. Here's what we got into: Stocks are higher globally, while the crypto market is somewhat quiet after a tumultuous few weeks. We're coming up on the end of Q2 2022, which means that we're at once heading into ea...
Jun 21, 2022•10 min•Ep. 530
Equity is back in the saddle this week, with Mary Ann and Alex and Grace powering through a busy week's news. And while much of the news in startup-land is a bit lacking these days -- you may have noticed a sentiment shift on Twitter! -- we did find some good tidings as well. Here's the rundown: Sesame, which operates an online medical care marketplace, raised $27 million to help people without insurance or those with high deductibles get affordable health care. Interestingly, its lead investor ...
Jun 17, 2022•31 min•Ep. 529
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 topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex brought on TechCrunch reporter Haje Jan Kamps , who, prior to and in between his journalism careers, spent years as a founder and a venture capitalist. Together, the trio asked: How might companies use math in the coming mo...
Jun 15, 2022•27 min•Ep. 528
Hello and welcome back to Equity , a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Alex and Grace are back to cover the biggest, best, and baddest technology news. We are back once again here with your weekly kickoff! Here’s what we got into: Stocks are down around the world, with nearly every major index that we checked falling 2% or more. Crypto prices are in the tank, with bitcoin and ether losing double-digit percentage points in the las...
Jun 13, 2022•9 min•Ep. 527
The show is largely off this week, which means that we don't have our usual deluge of new startup news covered for you. But, we didn't want to leave you with nothing at all on this lovely Friday, so we went to the time machine to see what we could find. The episode in the feed today is the same episode we put out nearly exactly one year ago today (June 11, 2021) to give some flavor and context to what was going on a now a year past. The idea was that we've spent so much time talking about how 20...
Jun 10, 2022•30 min•Ep. 526
