Equity

Latest Episodes:

Special Episode: Who's betting on fashion tech? Nov 24, 2023

Show notes

Today on Equity, we’re bringing you two bonus conversations all about sustainability in fashion from TechCrunch Disrupt 2023. First up you’ll hear our very own Harri Weber sit down with three guests: Jim Ajioka from Colorifix, Beth Esponnette from unspun and Julie Willoughby from Circ. They are all powerhouses in sustainable fashion and they all happened to join Harri on the Sustainability Stage. Watch their full conversation here.

In part two, we have a great conversation between TechCrunch’s Morgan Sung and Jemima Bunbury from BLEND, a curated fashion app that is changing the way we shop online. BLEND uses AI-powered personalized recommendations to help customers quickly and easily find products that suit their style, size and budget. Their goal is to prevent impulse purchases, and of course, make it possible to stay trendy and shop sustainably.

Here's what our guests are diving into:

Fixing the fashion supply chain so all the materials are created in a sustainable way
Helping consumers find products that will last
Enticing larger brands to shift to sustainable practices
Why a holistic approach to sustainable fashion is crucial when trying to eliminate waste in the industry

That's all for us today, but we'll catch up again on Monday!

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

Will the OpenAI chaos boost open-source models? Nov 21, 2023

Show notes

We’re discussing the recent turmoil in the AI market today. OpenAI has kept the journalistic corps busy, but we also need to consider what the latest twists and turns in the l’affaire Altman may bring for startup founders.

So, I rallied TechCrunch’s own Kyle Wiggers, and Supervised founder and former Equity host Matthew Lynley to help me dig into the latest. Here’s the show rundown:

What has happened to OpenAI since Monday morning when we last recorded the podcast?
What do the two experts think will happen to OpenAI’s staff in the coming weeks?
What should startups that use OpenAI technology do to lower their platform risk?
And, does the OpenAI mess provide a boost to open-source AI models?

We had a really lovely time. A big thank you to our ever-busy producer Theresa Loconsolo for getting an extra episode out on a holiday week!

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

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

Catching up on OpenAI’s wild weekend Nov 20, 2023

Show notes

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 the last few days brought. We discussed the following:

The timeline that brought us to today regarding OpenAI, from the firing of Sam Altman through all the recent activity.
The latest, including Emmett Shear being appointed interim CEO of Open AI, Sam Altman and others heading to Microsoft, and a seeming recantation of everything that happened by Ilya Sutskever at OpenAI.

The situation remains far from settled, but you only have to stick close to TechCrunch to stay updated. The above podcast is going to age quickly, so we may have extra episodes in the coming days.

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

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

The future of M&A and why founders are getting whiplash Nov 17, 2023

Show notes

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: Alex dug up a recent venture round in the sobriety space. This time it was Sunnyside, which just raised $11.5 million for its subscription service that helps folks cut back on their drinking. We've discussed other players in the space before, including Reframe.
What's ahead for the startup M&A market? The Getir-FreshDirect deal had us thinking. Becca Szkutak thinks that it represents the sort of deal that we'll see next year. Even more, we may see more, similar deals next year.
Will AI help startups regain their former value? A recent report from Battery Ventures had Alex thinking about how AI-powered automation could help startups spend less as they grow; Rule of 40, here we come!
Hormonal health will be is big: The Equity team dug into Allara the other week. Now we're adding Inito, which just raised $6 million, to our list of startups that are building in the hormonal health market. Natasha was right.

And that was the show! Next week is a holiday week here in the United States, so expect something special from us next Friday. We'll be on our regular schedule Monday and Wednesday!

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

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

What you need to know about Google's search antitrust case Nov 15, 2023

Show notes

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, but our focus is search.

Catch up on the state of affairs with Bellan’s reporting here.

Now, the startup angle. Why is this a topic for Equity? A few reasons:

If Google’s current methods of maintaining its domestic search market share are forced to change, it could create a more competitive search market, full stop. That could change up where startups advertise, and how much they pay for those ads.
More competitive search results amongst emboldened rivals could also lead to search results that lean more towards organic information instead of paid insertions. That would be good for startups looking to get the word out, without having to get their wallet out.

We could go on. But hit play and hang out with Rebecca and Alex for more. We’ll have her back on when the verdict comes down. Talk to you Friday for our news roundup!

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

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

Equity Monday: Are we at the start of a new crypto bull cycle? Nov 13, 2023

Show notes

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, kicking off a busy week for Chinese tech companies including Alibaba, NetEase, and Tencent Music.
The Block is getting its cap table into shape.
And Shekel Mobility raised an interesting round that we just had to talk about.

Don’t forget that next week is a holiday week here in the United States!

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

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

OpenAI's DevDay, reinventing the REIT and good actors in crypto Nov 10, 2023

Show notes

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 startup wooing trend.
WeWork is bankrupt, and we are Not Shocked.
All things from OpenAI’s developer day, and how its latest news is a good example of platform risk.
It’s raining IPOs! Here, there, everywhere!

And with that, we’re going to go rest for the weekend and come back Monday at full steam!

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

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

It’s been a long time since we’ve seen such positive signals in fintech Nov 08, 2023

Show notes

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 space. Sure, no one wants to return to 2021-era insanity, but after so long in the valuation doghouse, perhaps fintech has reached its nadir?
And we leaned on data. Here’s the American consumer debt information Alex referenced, Affirm results will drop here, and the CB Insights venture data we cited is here.

More to come in our Friday news roundup! Talk to you then!

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

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

Equity Monday: The race to build tomorrow’s AI models, and signs of life in the crypto markets Nov 06, 2023

Show notes

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 01.AI in China, which is now a unicorn, and the latest offering from Elon Musk’s X.AI service. The latter will have some sort of tie to X, formerly known as Twitter.
In India, a former Sequoia group is racking up impressive results.
Elsewhere in technology-land, OpenSea cut staff, and China’s government is still writing big checks to chip firms. Let’s see how the latter plays out this time.

Equity is back in Wednesday! We’ll see you then!

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

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

'Buy now, pay later' is just another way of saying 'debt' Nov 03, 2023

Show notes

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 startups and others access to H100s; Becca brought Almouneer to the table, an interesting healthtech play in the Middle East.
From there we dug into massive fintech rounds, which are seemingly back. For more, you can read up on QI Tech, Tabby, and Next Insurance.
And, finally, what to do when founding teams break up? Becca has notes.

As always, Equity is back for you on Monday, but you can catch up with us in the meantime on X and Threads @EquityPod. Talk soon!

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

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

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected