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Cruise layoffs, exosuits, and why French startups are bubbling up Dec 15, 2023

Show notes

This is our very last regular news roundup of the year. We still have a lot planned for you, though, with special interviews, guest appearances, and predictions. But that’s all to come. This time ’round we once again had Mary Ann Azevedo and Alex Wilhelm together to hammer through the key news from the week:

Cruise layoffs: Breaking as we went to record, self-driving company Cruise is cutting a simply massive number of staff.
Deals of the Week: Prevu’s $6 million Series A and why proptech is Not Dead Yet, and why Verve Motion just raised $20 million for supportive lifting suits.
What’s up with France? With Mistral AI making waves, other French startups are also snagging our attention. This includes Pivot which just raised $21.6 million, and what’s going on with startup studio Hexa.
And then there’s AI: We can’t not talk about it, yeah? Sorry if you are a bit over AI, but while deals keep happening and founders keep building, it’s going to be in the rundown. This time we’re digging how a few mega-deals are changing the numbers, and also how AI might need to pay for itself.

We are back Monday with some really fun stuff! Stay tuned, we have done work just for you!

Connect with Equity on X and Threads @EquityPods, 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.

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Why Automattic spent $50M on Texts.com Dec 13, 2023

Show notes

This week we brought Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of Automattic and co-founder of WordPress onto the show, along with Kishan Bagaria, the founder of Texts.com. Automattic bought all-in-one messaging app Texts.com for $50 million back in October. Well, we had questions, not only about the deal, but also the state of the written word online.

A few notes before you hit play. First, Automattic is more acquisitive than you thought. A look at its history of purchases is critical context for our conversation. And, second, TechCrunch uses WordPress. We in fact are WordPress VIP customers. Neither fact is news, and of course had no bearing on our choice to bring Mullenweg and Bagaria on the podcast, but felt worth noting all the same.

Alright, sit back, hit play, and have some fun with us! We’re back on Friday with our news roundup!

Connect with Equity on X and Threads @EquityPods, and keep up with all of TechCrunch's podcasts @TechCrunchPods on TikTok.

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

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Equity Monday: TikTok loves ecommerce and VCs think Mistral AI will be fine (potential EU regulatory overhang or not) Dec 11, 2023

Show notes

Our Monday show covers the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. Here's what Alex got into:

The end of earnings: With just Adobe and Oracle from the tech world reporting this week, we have finally (mostly) wrapped up earnings season for Q4 2023, and thus the year.
Crypto’s doing things again: Recent price appreciation is driving another massive spike in trading activity.
TikTok forms joint venture: Teaming up with Tokopedia, the Bytedance company has its eyes on the Indonesian ecommerce market. But the tie-up comes at a stiff price.
EU&AI: Last Friday the EU got its regulatory plan in place for AI. Criticism followed. Then on Monday Mistral AI raised a bunch more money. So is European AI work kaput, or just getting started?
Elsewhere, don’t forget that the chip war is still raging, there are more fintech unicorns being born lately than before, and SumUp raised again.

That’s it for today! More on Wednesday and Friday!

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

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Chain Reaction: Crypto VC space may be on the cusp of recovery (w/ David Pakman) Dec 09, 2023

Show notes

This week on Chain Reaction, Jacquelyn interviewed David Pakman, managing partner and head of venture investments at CoinFund.

Before CoinFund, David spent 14 years at the venture capital firm Venrock. He also led the Series A and B rounds at Dollar Shave Club which was acquired by Unilever for $1 billion. And in 1991, David co-created Apple Music when he was a part of Apple’s system software product marketing group

We discussed the state of the crypto VC environment, areas he’s focusing on for investments and what he thinks investors are missing.

We also talked about:

AI compared to crypto
Future of NFTs
Regulatory impact on investors
2024 outlook
Advice for startups

Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.
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SaaS goes to space as some software startups are in a race to survive Dec 08, 2023

Show notes

This week Mary Ann Azevedo, Kirsten Korosec, and Alex Wilhelm gathered to hash out the news over some coffee and good times. Here’s what the gang got into today:

Deals of the Week: Simply Homes raises $22 million for an interesting property play, SoftBank buys majority share of connected-vehicles company Cubic Telecom, and OurSky raises $9.2 million for its space-viewing software system.
Troubles in Fintech: With ZestMoney shutting down, and layoffs at Navan (fka TripAction) it seems that fintech is not out of the woods yet. That said, Alex has some notes on enthusiasm in one area of financial technology.
What’s up with software? TechCrunch coverage of tech earnings is leading to a mess of mixed signals for startups, and VCs to interpolate; are valuations rising again, or will 2023 end as it began? For more on the software market today, head here.

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

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No-code for creators and how regular folks can build an online business Dec 06, 2023

Show notes

Today, we’re bringing you another conversation from TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, when Alex sat down with Serhii Bohoslovskyi, the founder of no-code app-builder Trible. Trible is a no-code software product that helps folks construct online courses.

We love Disrupt because it gives us lots of room to chat with founders that we might otherwise have missed. We even had a dedicated podcasting area! Expect even more of this sort of chat in the future.

Here’s what we got into with Bohoslovskyi:

The state of the creator economy now that the hype has somewhat worn off the product category. How are creators doing today?
The use of no-code tooling today, and how it is received by non-technical creators.
And the state of startups that have roots in Ukraine, given that the nation is currently defending itself from external invasion.

Talking to founders never, ever gets boring. That’s all for us today, and we’ll be back on Friday!

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!

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

Equity Monday: Bitcoin is on the move as Spotify cuts staff, and more money floods AI Dec 04, 2023

Show notes

Our Monday show covers the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. And we had a lot to cover this morning!

Crypto prices are rising, which is good news for the decentralized economy, as increasing prices track with heightened trading activity and consumer interest.
We have another busy week of SaaS companies reporting quarterly results, which will hopefully provide a useful temperature check for tech valuations.
CoreWeave's new $7 billion valuation had our tongues wagging, as did delays at Google's AI project.
And then there was Spotify cutting staff in light of economic conditions. The company can't outgrow its core market forever, and with largely static gross margins, the only lever it can really pull is its cost base.

That's it for today! More on Wednesday and Friday!

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

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Big wins for Latin America, climate tech momentum and Rover’s $2.3B sale Dec 01, 2023

Show notes

Here's what the Equity crew got into today:

Self-driving setbacks: Cruise is set to slash its costs in the wake of a safety mess, and greater scrutiny from regulators. Alex hopes that the current set of news items doesn’t slow down the progress of self-driving tech.
Webull snaps up Flink: Free trading is not just a business model that is popular in the United States. Webull is taking the Latin American market more seriously with its purchase of Flink.
Uber <3’s taxis: What are London’s iconic black cabs doing on Uber’s platform? And how long does it take to go from enemies to frenemies?
Rover finds the exit: Who would have guessed that dog walking would be worth $2.3 billion?
IPOs are heating back up (a little): With Shein and Reddit targeting the IPO market in the coming months, it’s time to get our S-1 boots back on and prepare for some new debuts.
Venture downturns are not death sentences: EU venture funding levels are down, but not out. And what’s going on Down Under?

We are back on Monday! Chat then!

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

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What founders can escape venture's no-man's land? (w. Anu Hariharan update) Nov 29, 2023

Show notes

Anu Hariharan, who previously led YC Continuity, has partnered with two of her former colleagues and former Brex executive Lucas Fox to launch a new fund, Avra. The fund aims to raise about $350 million and operate a program that some are referring to as a “YC for growth.” In light of the news, we’re throwing it back to a conversation we had with Anu earlier this year:

Alex spoke to Anu back in August, after she tweeted about how "great" founders were successfully guiding their companies towards cash flow positivity. Since that very interesting post, both Instacart (a former Y Combinator company) and Klaviyo have filed to go public. And both have super strong cash flows.

Our chat could not have come at a better time. We dug into how early- and late-stage startups should approach growth and cash conservation (in her view), the future of venture as an asset class, and how healthy the unicorn herd really is. We had a blast recording this one! Enjoy!

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

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How soon can I get a computer-brain implant? Nov 27, 2023

Show notes

You might be glad to know today was not all about OpenAI. Instead, we took on a bunch of news from the weekend that had to do with other companies:

It’s a big earnings week for software companies, which means we’re about to get a bushel of information on how things are shaping up for SaaS startups in the latter half of 2023.
On the crypto front, price movements have slowed as the industry digests the recent Binance verdict.
Neuralink has raised more capital, which is great news for nerds like myself.
Gaming layoffs are still coming in hot and heavy, adding to a long list of cuts this year.
In the wake of a massive shopping weekend, how did e-commerce hold up? Here’s data from the U.S., and from around the world.
China-linked groups are coming for your industrial secrets, and Meta is again in regulatory hot water.

And that’s that! We'll be back on Wednesday, but keep up with us in the meantime @EquityPod.

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

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