Equity
The intersection of technology, startups, and venture capital touches everything now. That’s why Equity, TechCrunch's flagship podcast, digs into the business of startups for entrepreneurs and enthusiasts alike. Every Wednesday and Friday, TechCrunch reporters keep you up-to-date on the world of business, technology, and venture capital. Equity is ranked the No.2 podcast in the Top 100 Venture Capital All time leaderboard on Goodpods—As well as No.17 for the Top 100 Finance All time chart and No.32 for the Top 100 Business News All time chart.
351
Gen-Z is rewriting the rules of the Internet, a...
Today, we’re bringing you a bonus episode! Alex chatted with Courtney Chow, a vice president at Battery Ventures focused on early- and growth-stage consumer internet, software and fintech investments.
22 min
352
Startups that are Ramp-ing up, and startups tha...
This week on Equity, we're talking through Nvidia's impressive earnings report, raises from Ramp and AI-powered writing tool, Lex, Northvolt's move to North America, the story behind Better.com's SPAC, and startups that are literally full of crap.
37 min
353
LatAm 'plays on hard mode' according to VC Merc...
This week, Mary Ann spoke with Mercedes Bent, Partner on the early stage team at Lightspeed Ventures and co-lead of Lightspeed’s LatAm region and angel fund. The pair chatted through Mercedes' experience investing in Latin America, why she thinks the region is more resilient than others, and where fintech stands in the AI hype cycle.
26 min
354
Equity Monday: Robotaxis hit a speed bump and I...
Equity's digging into tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week, from Recur's shutdown and crypto in chaos to speed bumps for self-driving car makers, Threads, the resurrection of the IPO market and more money for fake meat startups.
8 min
355
Some good news, some Better.com news
This week, the Equity team had no shortage of news to sift through. We kicked off with an update on former celebrity exec SBF heading to jail, then got into Better.com going public, Monday.com's growth, Vinfast adding to the SPAC list, the Inflation Reduction Act's anniversary, and two bright spots in 2023's venture landscape.
33 min
356
The software market, AI moats, and when to go p...
This week, Equity had Amplitude CEO Spenser Skates on the show to talk about life after the company's successful IPO, the current state of the business software buyer, when to charge for AI products, the power of data moats in AI and
how to know when you have to cut staff.
37 min
357
Equity Monday: Another $100M for AI, why not
Equity has your Monday morning rundown with earnings to look out for this week, Anthropic raising another $100 million, what's going on with the Better.com SPAC, Mastercard buying African fintech, and how Indian electronics manufacturing is making real strides.
10 min
358
Ladies and gentlemen: the dregs of the SPAC boom
This week, Mary Ann and Alex are looking at how Lula set itself up for a massive up-round and MLOps startup Weights & Biases raised $50 million. In less-than-winsome news, BlueJeans and Sendy have folded, Proterra filed for bankruptcy, and we closed with the latest from WeWork and SoftBank.
32 min
359
Maybe we shouldn't sue away DEI in venture
This week, Dominic-Madori Davis came back on the show to chat with Mary Ann and Alex about a lawsuit targeting a grant program providing small checks to Black women small-business owners, and how some countries are taking a different track, including the United Kingdom.
30 min
360
Equity Monday: Have we reached peak smartphone?
Catching up from last week and preparing for the week ahead, Alex is diving into the latest for global stocks & crypto, why Apple earnings might mean we've reached peak smartphone, a controversial privacy-internet law passed in India, Triller's IPO, and big moves in fintech.
9 min
361
Chain Reaction: Ripple’s chief legal officer ta...
Today, we're bringing you an episode of Chain Reaction. Jacquelyn interviewed Stu Alderoty, chief legal officer of Ripple Labs to break down the nitty gritty details of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York federal court ruling for Ripple and what it means for the company, XRP token and crypto ecosystem.
23 min
362
Yeah, but is that venture backable?
Not all TAM is equal. This week, Alex and Mary Ann had Sara Mauskopf on the show, the CEO and co-founder of the childcare marketplace, Winnie. The trio is taking a look at the state of care as a venture-backable category, where startups can find the most impact and business results, and the pressures of fundraising-driven growth in care-oriented markets.
35 min
363
Equity Monday: Twitter's rebrand is a go, and ...
We're getting you ready for the week with a list of earnings to keep your eye on, what's happening in cryptoland, Tiger getting out of Flipkart, Fidelity earnings that giveth and taketh away, Twitter's rebrand and why Shein and Temu are fighting it out.
8 min
364
It's always earnings season if you look hard en...
Mary Ann and Alex were joined by Kirsten Korosec to dig through the week's headlines, starting with AngelList's acquisition of Nova, Waymo steering towards robotaxis and the latest on interest rates from the Fed. The crew also took a look at earnings for big tech and how more LP capital can funnel into diverse venture funds.
35 min
365
What’s next for social media from someone who’s...
This week, Alex had Washington Post columnist Taylor Lorenz on to chat about her upcoming book, Extremely Online, the history of online platforms, and the rise of creators.
31 min
366
Please re-xeet this podcast episode
Alex is back with your Monday morning rundown, and today we're taking a look at stocks around the globe, news from Worldcoin in crypto-land, Twitter's new brand, Spotify's price raises and why SF is the new AI hub.
9 min
367
That's capitalism, baby!
We're back with another packed news week so Alex and Mary Ann tagged in Becca Szkutak to help us out. This week, OnlyFans' CEO stepped down, South Park got deepfaked, an e-bike startup went poof and we said godspeed to Cameo.
33 min
368
Venture's Q2 was calm (and that's not good)
So, what happened in venture capital-land during Q2 2023? A lot, and not very much. We got PitchBook venture guru Kyle Stanford to come back on the podcast to riff with us on the good, the bad, and the late-stage.
33 min
369
Equity Monday: Intel backs robotics startup, Tw...
Hello, and welcome back to Equity. Here’s the rundown from this morning: Stocks are largely down around the world following weak Chinese economic data for the second quarter, the XRP/Ripple partial victory drove a short-lived boomlet for many crypto tokens, Twitter is cash-flow negative, per its CEO, but the company intends to double-down on paying individual tweeters for their high-view activities while Threads continues to grow like a weed, and startupThunes is nearly a unicorn.
7 min
370
We're in the pruning phase of tech layoffs
This week, A new Chinese AI model had us wondering who is really going to win the AI war, Founders Fund's scooped up a new partner, Connetic Ventures is using AI models to create a less biased landscape for entrepreneurs, and tech layoffs and inflation are cooling down.
32 min
371
Is ChatGPT the iBeer of LLMs?
We're digging into AI's iPhone moment with a very special guest: Matthew Lynley, one of the founding hosts of Equity and a former TechCruncher. Since his Equity days, Lynley went off and started his very own AI-focused publication called Supervised. We brought him back on the show to ask him questions about recent acquisitions from Databricks and Snowflake, what it means for the LLM stack, and where startups sit in the current AI race.
32 min
372
Equity Monday: People like Threads
Alex is back from a well-deserved vacation and ready for your Monday rundown. We're talking about Ant's new valuation, Threads' rapid growth, FrontRow shutting down, and the latest raise from Propel.
8 min
373
Hey, stuck startups, reducing growth could make...
Mary Ann took the lead this time, and she sat down (virtually) with Immad Akhund, the CEO and co-founder of Mercury. The fintech made headlines earlier this year for how it stepped in to help fill the business banking void left in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse. We're digging into the company's growth post-SVB, Immad's angel investing, and how to escape the "Startup Death Spiral."
28 min
374
Steering through venture's global correction wi...
To cap off the second quarter and get our claws into what is going on around the world, we had Cate Ambrose, the CEO of the Global Private Capital Association (GPCA) on the show to riff with us about Asia and Africa and Latin America and Central and Easter Europe, how wild the 2021-era venture peak was in less mature startup markets and where the rebound might be kicking off.
36 min
375
Well done, Pismo and Visa! You gave SoftBank a win
Mary Ann and Alex are back for another busy news week chock full of deals to chew through. We kick things off with Honey Homes' recent funding and Gusto teaming up with Remote then dive deep into the latest wave of M&A from Visa's purchase of Pismo to Databricks' deal with MosaicML. Stay 'til the end for an early Q2 review on why our unicorns are starving.
37 min