Equity

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 t...

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: A...

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, b...

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, kick...

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 s...

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...

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...

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 startup...

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;...

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...

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...

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 o...

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 sho...

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 tr...

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 shar...

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 whol...

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...

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...

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 co...

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, T...

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 p...

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 raise...

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 guil...

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 th...

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. A...