Today on Equity, we’re bringing you two bonus conversations all about sustainability in fashion from TechCrunch Disrupt 2023. First up you’ll hear our very own Harri Weber sit down with three guests: Jim Ajioka from Colorifix, Beth Esponnette from unspun and Julie Willoughby from Circ. They are all powerhouses in sustainable fashion and they all happened to join Harri on the Sustainability Stage. Watch their full conversation here. In part two, we have a great conversation between TechCrunch’s M...
Nov 24, 2023•39 min•Ep 756•Transcript available on Metacast We’re discussing the recent turmoil in the AI market today. OpenAI has kept the journalistic corps busy, but we also need to consider what the latest twists and turns in the l’affaire Altman may bring for startup founders. So, I rallied TechCrunch’s own Kyle Wiggers, and Supervised founder and former Equity host Matthew Lynley to help me dig into the latest. Here’s the show rundown: What has happened to OpenAI since Monday morning when we last recorded the podcast? What do the two experts think ...
Nov 21, 2023•31 min•Ep 755•Transcript available on Metacast Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Our Monday show covers the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. This past weekend was all about the massive shakeup at OpenAI, and the high-impact machinations that the last few days brought. We discussed the following: The timeline that brought us to today regardin...
Nov 20, 2023•11 min•Ep 754•Transcript available on Metacast This week Mary Ann and Alex covered a host of news events. Here's the rundown: Fintech + AI = ? News that Ramp and Brex are working to lever AI in the wake of reporting that Brex's growth this year on a sequential-quarterly basis slowed had us thinking. Can AI help fintech startups grow more quickly? The fintech sector could use a boon at this juncture, perhaps this is it. Help I drink too much: Alex dug up a recent venture round in the sobriety space. This time it was Sunnyside, which just rais...
Nov 17, 2023•31 min•Ep 753•Transcript available on Metacast This week we brought TechCrunch’s own Rebecca Bellan onto the podcast to help us better understand Google’s search-related anti-trust case that is currently ongoing in the United States. There are a number of major legal cases involving tech giants and their in-market heft and behavior, from Google v. Epic to what’s going on in the EU and the U.S. government’s adtech-related suit against Google, but our focus is search. Catch up on the state of affairs with Bellan’s reporting here. Now, the star...
Nov 15, 2023•29 min•Ep 752•Transcript available on Metacast Here’s what we got into on this very cold November morning: Crypto’s melt-up is continuing, with rising trading volumes following in the wake of the price gains. For web3 believers, it’s great news. The FT has a great interview with Sam Altman about how AI training is going to stay expensive for a long while; Microsoft is probably not worried about the costs, however. Didi’s earnings dropped, kicking off a busy week for Chinese tech companies including Alibaba, NetEase, and Tencent Music. The Bl...
Nov 13, 2023•10 min•Ep 751•Transcript available on Metacast This is our Friday show, and we’re talking about the week’s biggest startup and tech news. This time ’round we had Kirsten Korosec, Mary Ann Azevedo, and Alex Wilhelm on the job to chat through a massive pile of news: For everyone who listened to our fintech deep-dive, here are Affirm’s results. Deals of the Week: $105 million for May Mobility, $3.6 million for Mogul Club, and Microsoft’s latest startup wooing trend. WeWork is bankrupt, and we are Not Shocked. All things from OpenAI’s developer ...
Nov 10, 2023•35 min•Ep 750•Transcript available on Metacast Today, Mary Ann and Alex dove deep into encouraging signs from the fintech startup market: Solid results from Klarna are on top of Alex’s mind. The company’s ability to continue growing while staying profitable is a reminder that one down-round does not a company kill. Fintech fundraising results were on Mary Ann’s mind as we wait for venture capitalists to re-accelerate their investments in the space. Sure, no one wants to return to 2021-era insanity, but after so long in the valuation doghouse...
Nov 08, 2023•30 min•Ep 749•Transcript available on Metacast Here’s what we got into on this fine morning: Stocks and crypto: Stocks are higher in Asia, lower in Europe, and nearly flat in the United States. More interestingly, crypto prices are continuing their ascent. Even NFTs are picking up a little bit! It’s another busy week on the earnings front, meaning we’ll hear from Uber and Lyft and Hubspot, among others. On the AI front, TechCrunch is tracking 01.AI in China, which is now a unicorn, and the latest offering from Elon Musk’s X.AI service. The l...
Nov 06, 2023•10 min•Ep 748•Transcript available on Metacast We’re talking about the week’s biggest startup and tech news with Mary Ann, Becca, and Alex. Here's what we got into: What happened to WeWork? As the shared office space company struggles to stay alive, we had a lot to say. Deals of the Week: Mary Ann wanted to chat about Charlie, which is building a neobank for seniors; Alex wanted to talk about an interesting non-profit-ish model to get startups and others access to H100s; Becca brought Almouneer to the table, an interesting healthtech play in...
Nov 03, 2023•36 min•Ep 747•Transcript available on Metacast This is our Wednesday show, where we sit down with a guest, talk about their work and dive deep into the rest. Mary Ann and Alex invited Marisa Warren onto the show. You may remember that we discussed her new fund — ALIAVIA Ventures’ first — on the show the other week. We wanted to talk with her to go over a few key topics that we care a lot about: The current state of venture investment in women; why the numbers aren’t changing, and what she thinks could make a difference. When startups should ...
Nov 01, 2023•32 min•Ep 746•Transcript available on Metacast Our Monday show covers the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. Here’s what we got into today: It's a massive earnings week, unlocking a massive wave of new data concerning the performance of tech public tech companies. We're hoping to learn more about the market that startups are selling into in the process. The recent crypto rally is helping bolster spot trading results, good news for Coinbase ahead of its own earnings report. The Biden administra...
Oct 30, 2023•10 min•Ep 740•Transcript available on Metacast Happy Saturday! We have a special bonus episode for you from our sister pod, Chain Reaction. Alex joins Jacquelyn Melinek go over the FTX/Sam Bankman-Fried trial before getting into his testimony from Thursday and Friday. They talked about: Why the judge had the jury leave the courthouse for SBF’s testimony Thursday The general feeling of the courthouse on the fourth week of the trial A possible timeline for next week and what to look out for as the prosecution gets a chance to cross examines de...
Oct 28, 2023•25 min•Ep 745•Transcript available on Metacast 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 Friday show, and we’re talking about the week’s biggest startup and tech news. Mary Ann and Alex were lucky enough to have Kirsten aboard for the roundup, which means we got to tackle an even wider array of stories than usual: Updates from the trial of former FTX CEO SBF, more here from our own Jacquie. Deals of the Week: Mary Ann was very intereste...
Oct 27, 2023•38 min•Ep 742•Transcript available on Metacast Hello, and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, where we sit down with a guest, talk about their work and dive deep into the rest. This week, we had Theory Ventures founder Tomasz Tunguz on the show. As long-time readers of his work, having the former Redpoint investor on the show was a no-brainer. While it would have been fun to spend our time chatting about the ups and down o...
Oct 25, 2023•31 min•Ep 741•Transcript available on Metacast Hello, and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.Our Monday show covers the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. Here’s what we got into today: Stocks are down around the world, while the value of crypto tokens is heading higher. Crypto trading volume is also trending north. It’s a huge week for earnings with names like Microsoft, Alphabet, Spotify, Snap, Meta,...
Oct 23, 2023•9 min•Ep 744•Transcript available on Metacast This is our Friday show, and we’re talking about the week’s biggest startup and tech news. Mary Ann and Alex ran as a pair this week, and here's what they got into: Deals of the Week: Allara raised $10 million for women's hormonal health, Agnikul raised $26.7 million for its orbital launch technologies. Beef in the (leased) boardroom: WeWork is irked by Codi, which is hammering the well-known shared-office giant in an advertising campaign. Meanwhile, Anyplace raised more capital to fund its digi...
Oct 20, 2023•33 min•Ep 743•Transcript available on Metacast This week Gené Teare from Crunchbase and Crunchbase News joined the podcast. She's a well-known analyst of the global venture capital market, and was instrumental to Crunchbase's early life and remains one of its more tenured staffers. So, what did the three of us get into? Here's the rundown: The big picture: What should we think about when we consider the Q3 2023 venture capital market as a whole. (More on Latin America here, Canada here, and global data here from TechCrunch+.) Here's Gené on ...
Oct 18, 2023•33 min•Ep 739•Transcript available on Metacast Here's what we got into today: Earnings season is here, and we'll hear from Tesla and Netflix this week. Expect a lot of new data to drop in the coming weeks. If we bundle a number of headlines together, it's clear that running a social media company in the modern era can be a very expensive proposition. Though, what you think about regulation may color how you view the situation. Funding to web3 gaming companies declined in Q3, but it's not all that bad. The U.S. may not see IPOs happening, but...
Oct 16, 2023•10 min•Ep 738•Transcript available on Metacast This week, we have a bonus mini episode where Jacquelyn talks with TechCrunch+ editor-in-chief Alex Wilhelm to dive back into the Sam Bankman-Fried trial and what has transpired in its second week. Major witnesses who were involved in the downfall of FTX and its sister company Alameda testified like Gary Wang, CTO and cofounder of FTX, and Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda. The two of them plead guilty to a number of charges and could face maximum sentences of 50 to 110 years, respectively. It’s ...
Oct 14, 2023•11 min•Ep 737•Transcript available on Metacast Mary Ann and Alex were joined by Kirsten once again to parse the week’s news and call out the biggest stories in startups and venture: California passed a law that will require venture firms to disclose certain market data concerning whom they are investing in. Some investors and venture groups are opposed to the law. ALIAVIA Ventures has put together a new fund to invest in women building tech companies in Australia and the United States, with a focus on helping Aussie companies reach the Ameri...
Oct 13, 2023•34 min•Ep 736•Transcript available on Metacast This week we had Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine, the CEO of Medium.com, a publishing platform that he has helmed for more than a year. Medium has gone through a number of versions over the years. Pivots, if you will. But what has been a steady focus in Medium's life in recent years has been its subscription business. Medium offers a paid membership tier that costs $5 per month or $50 per year. And, Tony was willing to share, it's growing once again and is heading toward a pretty key milestone. We a...
Oct 11, 2023•31 min•Ep 735•Transcript available on Metacast This time around we had a bit of a theme. See if you can spot it: Stocks are down around the world in the wake of Hamas' attack in Israel. Crypto is similarly in the red. China is working to bolster its national computing and data infrastructure. You know, the things that make AI function. In other words: the AI race between China and the United States is far from over. This Anthropic paper is a potentially big deal. The more that we understand LLMs, the better we can use them, right? Changes at...
Oct 09, 2023•10 min•Ep 734•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Mary Ann and Alex had the pleasure of having TC reporter extraordinaire Dominic Madori-Davis as a guest on the show. Here’s what we got into: A quick update on the SBF trial, which quite frankly, has us all riveted. An Atlanta-based fintech startup called Rainforest’s $8.25M equity raise and how it is hoping to take market share away from the likes of Stripe. A bunch of new fund raises this week, including At One’s $375M climate-focused raise; Section 32’s $525M fund close and Greyloc...
Oct 06, 2023•35 min•Ep 733•Transcript available on Metacast This time, we teamed up with the Chain Reaction podcast and Jacquelyn Melinek to talk about the ongoing trial of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF. The rise of FTX and its later implosion rocked the crypto world when the formerly massive crypto exchange went under last year. In the aftermath, the company's executives have been charged with financial crimes. Many have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with the government. SBF is not. Here's TechCrunch's reporting on the trial t...
Oct 05, 2023•34 min•Ep 732•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to Q4 2023, the period in which we are all going to pretend to have gotten enough done this year. Here’s what we got into on the show today: Stocks are mixed around the world while crypto tokens are enjoying a nice price-upswing in recent days. A recent article argues that Apple has all the ingredients it needs to build a search engine to take on Google and Microsoft. At issue? The fact that Apple makes so much money not having a search engine. For startups, more competition here could b...
Oct 02, 2023•9 min•Ep 731•Transcript available on Metacast Here's what Mary Ann, Alex and Kirsten got into this week: The writer’s strike is over, and we have thoughts about its implications on AI. OpenAI is allowing some shareholders to sell stock, and the resulting valuation could be pretty darn high. Electric boat startup Arc has raised about $70 million? We aren’t about to drop the coin needed to buy one of those, but the idea is neat nevertheless. Alex wanted to talk about fluctuations in the venture and stock markets. Is the mini-tech recovery alr...
Sep 29, 2023•37 min•Ep 730•Transcript available on Metacast This week on Equity, Alex was joined by Nathan Baschez, the CEO and founder of Lex, an AI-infused online writing tool that recently raised capital. Together, we're talking through a few key topics that have been top of mind in recent months: How many AI-powered, or AI-using writing tools can the market support? How far into the generative AI moment we are, and how much we should anticipate in the form of technology improvements? And then we discussed the nuts and bolts aspects of pricing an AI-p...
Sep 27, 2023•32 min•Ep 729•Transcript available on Metacast Equity is back from Disrupt and fired up for the rest of the year. Here’s what Alex got into today: Stocks are not peppy to start the week, while crypto prices have also moderated in recent days. Alex could not not talk about the Cisco-Splunk deal, mostly to promise that he’ll finish that post today come hell or high water. The Amazon + Anthropic news is the biggest item of the day. A $1.25 billion deal that could stretch to $4 billion is no small fee. And with Google and Amazon and Anthropic ti...
Sep 25, 2023•10 min•Ep 728•Transcript available on Metacast The Equity crew is back with another live recording from the Moscone Center in San Francisco for TechCrunch Disrupt 2023. Alex, Kirsten and Becca sat down to recap a very busy (and dare we say successful) event, and walk through our favorite moments for the listeners who couldn't make it out this year. Here's what we got into: Providing early liquidity to founders and employees What advice VCs are giving their early stage founders Why Cruise might join the call to ban human drivers in city cente...
Sep 22, 2023•22 min•Ep 727•Transcript available on Metacast 
