Natasha is starting the week with a look at Vista Equity Partners' acquisition of Duck Creek, the generative AI bubble, Magic Leap's comeback, and Black founder funding trends

Natasha and Mary Ann were joined by Equity regular Becca Szkutak for the first Friday episode of the year. The crew took a look at some early standouts from CES, USV and Doorstead's deals of the week, the latest development in the FTX and SBF saga, and an exploration into how laid off talent is rethinking risk for their next jobs.

Happy New Year and welcome to 2023! Natasha is kicking things off with our first episode of the year. Here's what she got into: Tesla stocks, new Meta acquisitions, Matrix, and a look at CES.

In honor of 2022 finally coming to a close, the Equity Crew is getting reflective. We dug through the archives, and this week, we invite you to relive the biggest stories of the year as they unfolded.

This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. In April, given a parade of headlines and news that Fast shut down, Natasha and Alex asked: What are we missing when we talk about startup failure?

Take our listener survey for a chance to win a free year of TC+ at bit.ly/tcpodsurvey. We're kicking off the week with Found, the stories behind the startups. This week co-hosts Darrell Etherington and Becca Szkutak talk with Alice Albrecht from Re:collect, a software tool that augments creativity by helping people focus, recall, and connect their ideas. The conversation covered a lot of ground from how to hone your pitch when your product is so cerebral, how technology can help creativity but Alice argues will never replace it, and how developing AI requires building safeguards from the jump.

This week, the Equity team is spotlighting one of our sister podcasts: TechCrunch Live. Matt Burns hopped on the mic with Jenny Lefcourt from Freestyle Partners and Guillaume de Zwirek, CEO and co-founder of WELL Health, to talk all about raising a Series A and specific steps for founders to follow.

This week, Mary Ann is taking the reins with another favorite from the TechCrunch Disrupt stage. She sat down with Brex CEO and co-founder, Henrique Dubugras, and Anu Hariharan, YC’s managing director for continuity and an early Brex investor, to expose the context around this whirlwind of a year.

This week on the TechCrunch podcast: Darrell talked with Tim De Chant about his coverage of fusion energy and what feels like a rare hopeful story in renewable energy tech. And Jacquelyn Melinek walks us through Sam Bankman-Fried’s alleged crimes and confirmed arrest.  Plus he goes over the top stories in tech from the week.  And as always, Darrell breaks down the biggest stories in tech.

To end the year, we are bringing back our predictions episode with the entire Equity crew: Alex, Natasha, Mary Ann, Theresa, Maggie, and Becca. Grace couldn't make the mic but we have a feeling she'd agree with at least 2% of our predictions.

This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha is bringing one of her favorite panels from Disrupt to your ears. She sat down with Clubhouse co-founder and CEO, Paul Davison, to talk about the core of Clubhouse, competition, and the impact of hype.

While the Equity team prepares more special end-of-year episodes for you, we wanted to share an episode from our sister pod: The TechCrunch Podcast! This week Darrell Etherington talks with Taylor Hatmaker on to talk about Lensa AI and the possible ramifications for artists. Then we’ll hear from some attendees at the TC sessions: Space event  And as always, Darrell breaks down the biggest stories in tech.

Your friendly, local podcast crew is trying to make sense of just what happened in 2022. Mary Ann, Natasha, and Alex were able to collate the news into a few distinct categories, so that we can all look back at the year with a bit more clarity. And we even got to hear from a bunch of you, thanks to your dozens and dozens of great taglines you sent in concerning the year and how it felt from your chair.

This week, Natasha chatted with Alex about ego, how recent news from Sam Bankman-Fried and Elizabeth Holmes gives us a window into how it works, and impacts on the tech and venture landscape.

It is the first Monday of December, so this show is getting into the holiday spirit. And by that, we mean thinking far too much about the geopolitical-technological landscape, naturally. Alex has you covered with this morning's latest on stocks, Chinese tech, Circle's SPAC deal, Giraffe360, and ChatGPT.

For the last time in 2022, the whole Friday gang got together to chat through the latest and greatest in the world of technology and startup news. From here on out, Equity is heading into Holiday Mode. We have a regular Monday show for you next week, but past that we have a string of kick-butt end-of-year episodes planned for you. Onward!

This week, Natasha interviewed Vijay Chattha, a startup comms leader who has spent over 20 years in the storytelling world. Chattha is the CEO and founder of VSC and founding partner of VSC Ventures, a $21 million investment vehicle to back startups.

Natasha is starting things off this week as a sneak peek of what's to come while Alex is on paternity leave. We have lots to get to, so shake off the holiday feels, and let's remember how this ecosystem works : starting with markets, a look at BlockFi and the crypto landscape, Pact, and Pipe.

While the Equity crew unwinds from Thanksgiving here in the U.S., we're bringing you one of our favorite conversations from earlier this year when Natasha, along with Alex's help, asked: Who should be raising Party Rounds?

This week, Natasha interviewed Karla Monterroso, a long time leadership coach, racial equity advocate and the founder of Brava Leaders. We talked about her route into the leadership coaching space, but mainly sought to answer questions about the challenges facing executives today.

Alex, as per usual, is back with the kickstart to your week! Let's talk through the latest on stocks, crypto, Twitter, and good news on the startup front from Wove and SponsorUnited.

This week, Alex and Natasha discussed the latest and greatest of this consuming news cycle starting with some good news on the growth front from Maven and Alibaba followed by a deeper dive into the FTX fallout and tech layoffs.

To get more perspective on the role a corporate comms team plays in both startups and public companies alike -- especially in light of the never-ending Musk-Twitter saga -- Alex sat down with two folks who have just that experience set: Kelly Boynton, senior director of communications at Gusto, and Keyana Corliss, former head of global communications and PR at Databricks.

Alex is back with the weekly kick-off, and here's what he got into: stocks, FTX & the crypto market, fake meats, Klarna, India's VLC un-ban, and e-commerce infra startups

We thought that last week was a lot. It was, but this week was somehow more. More chaotic, rapid-fire change at a number of massive tech companies kept us on our toes. So, while our beloved co-host Natasha was out, we couldn’t do the recording down a set of hands, so we brought Becca aboard with Mary Ann and Alex.