Equity

By TechCrunch, Rebecca Bellan, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, Sean O'Kane, Theresa LoconsoloBusiness Entrepreneurship News Technology Business News

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Equity episodes

January 16, 2024See? Fintech isn’t doomed, it just needs more time
Here's what we got into:
Stocks are down around the world to start a week that only features a single key earnings report, TSMC this Thursday. Next week really starts the tech reporting deluge, so get ready.
In crypto, bitcoin's price failed to pump after its ETF products launched, which surprised some. Also surprising was the value jump that the Ethereum blockchain offers. Buy the rumor, sell the news? (Elsewhere, a crypto exchange raised around $100 million. In 2024! Who would have expected that!)
Uber is killing Drizly: You can still get booze delivered to your house, but Axios notes that the $1.1 billion acquisition by Uber has run its course. Pour one out.
On the deal front, Spot Technologies raised $2 million, while TechCrunch reports that Kuda raised $20 million last year at a flat valuation. That's pretty solid a result for a fintech startup that last raised in 2021.
To close out, Apple is the world's smartphone king and has found a way to sell its Watch product sans legal issues, while Microsoft is very busy with AI.
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

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11 min
January 13, 2024 When it comes to startups’ flight to quality, have we swung too far in the other direction?
This is our interview show, where we sit down with a guest, think about their work, and unpack the rest. This week, we talked to Jenny Fielding, co-founder and managing partner at Everywhere Ventures, a founder collective and early-stage (think pre-seed) venture firm. Jenny and I discussed a wide variety of topics, including startups’ flight to quality in 2024 and how smaller firms are competing with larger firms in the current investment landscape.
We also dug into the “great VC resignation” so stay through to the end for that. Jenny was a great guest – not afraid to speak her mind and share valuable insights.
Besides founding her own venture firm, Jenny previously worked as a managing director for accelerator Techstars and founded several companies including mobile software company Switch Mobile, which was acquired by Via One.
Equity will be back next Tuesday due to a U.S. holiday on Monday. See you then!
For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.
Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

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29 min
January 12, 2024CES, Circle-ing back to IPOs and why we're over the moon about Overmoon
Today, Alex Wilhelm and Mary Ann Azevedo dig through the key stories from the week. Then, Kirsten Korosec and Haje Jan Kamps are aboard to bring us the latest from CES!
Deals of the Week: Shimmer raised $2.2 million to bring one-on-one ADHD care at a lower price point; Alex chose this one because mental health care startups that try to expand access are cool. Overmoon's recent fundraising and business progress were Mary Ann's choice for the week, showing that proptech is not dead yet!
Circle is going public: Yep, the company behind the USDC stablecoin is once again heading for the public markets. The company's confidential IPO filing follows an aborted SPAC attempt in the past. Alex is bullish on the deal, though we'll need to wait for the full details before we can actually make some predictions.
And speaking of IPOs, we're really far behind on how many exits are needed to clear the venture capital decks.
CES: We went over a ton of cool stuff this year, including this Bane-style mask, ChatGPT in cars, eVTOLs and more!
Equity will be back next Tuesday due to a U.S. holiday on Monday. See you then!
For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.
Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews foundersand more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

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37 min
January 10, 2024AI hardware, fintech woes and venture capital's shedding phase
This is our newly revamped Wednesday episode, and we’re going to be digging deep into critical startup and venture capital news. If you are a long-time Equity listener, you will note that this is not the same interview show that we used to run mid-week! Don’t worry, we are still going to do interviews, so keep an eye out for those on Saturdays.
Here’s what’s we got into on the show today:
PhotoRoom is raising more money. French startup PhotoRoom is raising $50 million to $60 million at a $500 million to $600 million valuation. The round marks another potential win for AI in France, a market that is working to set itself apart in the EU.
Treasure Financial cuts 14 staff members. The reductions in personnel represent a material percentage of the startup’s headcount, which feels a little weird given that the company raised $7.5 million last year, and reportedly saw its AUM soar.
Tier and Dott are betting that 1+1=3. Two micromobility companies are tying the knot to try and use scale to their advantage. The moves comes in the wake of U.S. scooter company Bird filing for bankruptcy.
AI Hardware, Part 1: The new rabbit r1 looks super cool, and is surprisingly cheap. I dig it.
AI Hardware, Part 2: Humane trimmed staff before shipping its AI hardware.
On the venture capital side, Keith Rabois is heading back to Khosla Ventures, and Seedstars Africa Ventures added $30 million to its upcoming fund.
We’ll be back on Friday with our weekly roundtable!
For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.
Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

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11 min
January 08, 2024Equity Monday: Bitcoin ETFs, Carta’s latest mess, and let’s go to the Moon
Here’s what we got into on the show today:
Stocks and Crypto: Tech stocks aren’t moving too much this morning as the market digests the Boeing mess. In crypto-land, the price of bitcoin is up.
Bitcoin ETFs: And this is why. A rush of new filings this morning showed that bitcoin spot ETFs are targeting a very low-fee structure as they compete for investor dollars. These investment vehicles are expected to get approved this week, or at least some of them, so expect a little market turbulence ahead.
Carta is once again in trouble: Carta, which makes cap table software for startups, is in trouble after some of its sales people used internal information to try and broker trades without customer consent. Guess how well that is going over.
The ULA managed to get its rocket into the sky! This is great news for space launch competition. And for going back to the Moon.
And the GPT store is supposed to come this very week.
All that and more, we promise. Talk to you in two days!
For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.
Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
12 min
January 05, 2024Are megafunds squeezing out small VCs and distorting the seed market?
Here’s what we got into:
Deals of the Week: Ruth Foxe Blader is leaving Anthemis, albeit slowly; Exponent has a second fund set up, but without a pure fintech focus; and Alex wanted to talk about why 2024 could be a pretty alright year for crypto.
Layoffs, shutdowns: Frontdesk laid off 200 people and is shutting down, which makes for a good conversation about its business model. Countdown Capital is also throwing in the towel, due in part to larger multi-stage funds inflating the entry point for hot seed deals. It’s a trend worth keeping an eye on.
Helping one another: Israel is working to support its startup industry which has been disrupted by the Israel-Hamas war, and how the new Tech for Palestine group was formed.
And that’s Equity for this week! We’ll be back on Monday!
Connect with Equity on X and Threads @EquityPod, and keep up with all of TechCrunch's podcasts @TechCrunchPods on TikTok.
For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.
Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
30 min
January 03, 2024 How Duly is shaking up the Indian sexual wellness market
Today — ahead of the relaunch of our Wednesday episode that we discussed earlier this week — we have an interview to share featuring TechCrunch’s very own Morgan Sung and Shruti Dwivedi, the co-founder and CEO of health-tech startup, Duly.
Duly took part in TechCrunch Disrupt’s 2023 Battlefield cohort, showing a global audience its contraceptive care platform that is initially targeted at the Indian market.
Why India? The company cites a large, young population in the country with more than 700 million people under the age of 30. However, Duly also reports that fewer than 15% of Indians have access to sexual education. Even more, the startup notes that condom usage in the country is modest at best, and nearly half of young, unmarried women felt “judged when seeking contraception.”
Put that all together, there’s a massive market gap that Duly wants to bridge.
Sexual wellness is not a small market, naturally, and other startups are active in the space. News broke late last year, for example, that Evofem Biosciences — which makes Phexxi, a non-hormonal contraceptive gel — found a buyer after financial struggles. Changes to American law regarding abortion make it clear that access to contraceptive care is critical for women around the world.
A big thanks to Morgan for the interview, Mary Ann for the intro, and Theresa and Kell for the edit and production!
For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.
Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
10 min
January 02, 2024AI versus copyright, and why you shouldn't put all your eggs in one NFT basket
We're covering the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. This being the first week of the year, we had to go over a thing or two that broke just as 2023 gave up the ghost. Here's what we have on deck for you!
Financial updates: Global stock market news, and the latest from crypto. On the decentralized front, strong price movements are driving trading volume. That's good news for exchanges around the world.
AI versus Copyright: The New York Times suit against OpenAI that dropped in the final days of 2023 is still the biggest story in tech at the moment. If major LLMs are built on shaky grounds, what does that mean for the generative AI boom?
X's value continues to fall, further evidence that social media is hard to monetize for nearly anyone who isn't Meta.
Climatetech job growth could bode well for the startup genre.
And, to close out, this Times story is fascinating if you want to understand where venture dollars are flowing.
That’s it for today! More on Wednesday and Friday!
Connect with Equity on X and Threads @EquityPod, and keep up with all of TechCrunch's podcasts @TechCrunchPods on TikTok.
For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.
Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
11 min
December 29, 2023 The Equity crew predicts we'll see a lot less VCs in 2024
It's time to brush the dust off of an Equity tradition that stretches back into the years: our predictions episode.
As we try to do every year, we brought in a number of voices to ensure that we covered a good amount of ground. And, we went back and vetted our predictions from last year as well, in case you wanted to see how off we were!
Who took part? Alex Wilhelm, Mary Ann Azevedo, Kirsten Korosec, and Becca Szkutak. The voices you heard the most on the podcast this year! (A big thanks to Theresa Loconsolo for getting the whole gang together!)
We bucketed our predictions into a few categories, including startup trends, media, proptech, AI, and transport. Mary Ann expects venture to continue contracting in personnel terms, Alex wanted to talk about AI at the OS level, Becca had notes on media, and more.
There are other themes mixed in as well, but find your headphones and get ready for some Hot Takes, yeah?
That is a wrap on Equity in 2023. We recorded something around 150 episodes, racked up seven-figures worth of downloads, oodles of streams, and more. But most importantly, we got to spend time with you. Thank you, for being you. Hugs, and more soon!
Connect with Equity on X and Threads @EquityPod, and keep up with all of TechCrunch's podcasts @TechCrunchPods on TikTok.
For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.
Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
27 min
December 27, 2023 Equity down under: How Australian startups can crack the US market
Today, we’re spinning the globe with not one but two interviews, thanks to our friend and colleague Rebecca Bellan, who’s been in Auckland, New Zealand for the past three years. She recently hopped across the Tasman to Australia to report on the startup scene in Australia, and is coming back to us with a temperature check on VC in the Antipodes.
Rebecca spoke to two Aussie VCs: Dan Krasnostein from Square Peg and Gabrielle Munzer from Main Sequence. Rebecca and our guests dug into why early stage funding is popping off in the region, the government's role in growing a startup ecosystem, fintech, climate tech, and what it’s like to compete and collaborate with Silicon Valley.
In addition to these conversations, Rebecca wrote a few deep dive stories from her time in Australia, including a look at its burgeoning climate tech scene and some of the people who are fighting to lift women up in the ecosystem. Rebecca also chatted with Canva — the SaaS darling of Australia — to learn how the company is embracing generative AI at its core and pursuing more B2B clients.
We have one more episode to share before saying goodbye to 2023. It's a fun one and a tradition: Equity's 2024 predictions. Stay tuned!
Connect with Equity on X and Threads @EquityPod, and keep up with all of TechCrunch's podcasts @TechCrunchPods on TikTok.
For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.
Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
49 min

About Equity

From the publisher's feed

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…