Equity

Latest Episodes:

2022's best and worst dinner guest: Elon Musk Dec 30, 2022

Show notes

In honor of 2022 finally coming to a close, the Equity crew is getting reflective. We dug through the archives, and this week, we're listening back to Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann's coverage of the biggest stories of the year as they unfolded.

Here's what the trio got into with help from guest hosts, Becca Szkutak and Anita Ramaswamy:

How Alex jinxed us from the start when he asked for more tech drama (TC+) back in January
Early signs of the downturn to come with Better.com and the human cost of layoffs
The will-they-won't-they courtship of Elon Musk and Twitter
The downfall of FTX (TC+) and why you should never let FOMO guide your investments (TC+)

Some of these stories are still evolving as we type, but don't fret - we'll catch you up in the new year.

Of course, we can't sign off without saying thank you to all of you for sticking by us during this rollercoaster of a year, and we can't wait to see you in 2023!

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, one that details how our stories come together, 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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Failure is a choose-your-own adventure for startups (re-run) Dec 28, 2022

Show notes

Following a parade of headlines and news that Fast shut down back in April, Natasha and Alex asked: What are we missing when we talk about startup failure?

The question comes after one of Natasha’s Startups Weekly columns, where she looked into the complexity of startup failure, fallacy of takedown stories, and importance of diversity in newsrooms. Here's an excerpt:

"There’s the argument that startup tensions are inevitable and common, so should we spotlight every time something bubbles to the surface, especially at the cost of an underrepresented founder who may just be doing their best? There’s also an argument that the business is messy, so we should report on the issues as we hear about them; and there’s the narrative of the female takedown story, in which people believe that women are targeted by the press more than men due to unreasonably high standards."

We discussed our own definitions of failure past Theranos and WeWork, examples of rising tensions, and what this means for early-stage startups and historically overlooked founders. We took a closer look at another wave of layoffs, some notable valuation cuts, and the implosion of Fast to weigh against 2021's strident startup optimism.

don't forget to take our listener survey and enter for a chance to win a free year of TC+!

Equity drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 a.m. PT, 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, a show that details how our stories come together and more!

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Special episode: Augmenting creativity with Alice Albrecht from re:collect (Found) Dec 27, 2022

Show notes

The Equity crew is kicking off your week with a special episode from our sister podcast, Found, the stories behind the startups. Co-hosts Darrell Etherington and Becca Szkutak spoke 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.

If you want to hear more from Equity and Found, don't forget to take our listener survey and enter for a chance to win a free year of TC+!

For more from Found, connect with us:

On Twitter
On Instagram
Via email: found@techcrunch.com

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Special episode: How to pitch a Series A (TechCrunch Live Podcast) Dec 23, 2022

Show notes

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.

As you’ll hear from Lefourt and de Zwirek, there are notable differences between raising a seed round and a Series A round. Investors look at different aspects of the company, and the founder must prepare for the fundraising differently. Rather than selling a story, they’re selling a company. To help even more founders, Lefcourt prepared a blog post to go along with her TechCrunch Live appearance that goes even deeper into raising a Series A.

If you want to hear more shows like this, don't forget to take our listener survey and enter for a chance to win a free year of TC+!

Equity drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has agreat show on crypto, ashow that interviews founders, ashow that details how our stories come togetherand more!

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Brex's 2022 reality Dec 21, 2022

Show notes

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.

The conversation candidly uncovers details behind the fintech's pandemic pivot, layoffs, and going remote. If you love the conversation, share it with a friend. And if you want more on Brex, Mary Ann dove deeper into the conversation last month .

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Special episode: SBF doesn't need SPF where he's going and other TC news (The TechCrunch Podcast) Dec 19, 2022

Show notes

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.

Articles from the episode:

Other news from the week:

Don't forget to take our listener survey for a chance to win a free year of TC+ at bit.ly/tcpodsurvey.

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Equity's 2023 predictions on the future of building, crypto and AI Dec 16, 2022

Show notes

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, anyways.

Let's not ruin the episode, but to give you a taste, here's what topics we based our predictions on:

Startup building and culture trends
M&A and the return of secondaries
The future of media and how social will shift
Deep tech and generative AI
And, of course, crypto

We end on an earnest note. Good luck to Alex as he embarks on parenthood, welcome to Becca, who will be joining Equity in the new year, and, of course, thank you to all of you for sticking by us during this rollercoaster of a year.

And with that, chat in 2023!

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The impact of hype with Clubhouse's Paul Davison Dec 14, 2022

Show notes

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.

The conversation touches on the company's hyper growth, celebrity power, and navigating social platforms and social patterns, with a round of questions from the audience at the end. If you love the conversation, share it with a friend. And if you want more on Clubhouse, Natasha dove deeper into the conversation here.

Equity drops every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us onApple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has agreat show on crypto, ashow that interviews founders, ashow that details how our stories come togetherand more!

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Special episode: AI art? More like AI fart and other TC news (The TechCrunch Podcast) Dec 12, 2022

Show notes

Hey, Equity family! While we're off preparing more end-of-year special 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.

Articles from the episode:

Other news from the week:

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2022: The good, the bad, and the wake-up calls Dec 09, 2022

Show notes

We are nearly at the end of the year, so your friendly, local podcast crew is trying to make sense of just what happened in 2022.

We started the year on a venture capital high which quickly turned into a downturn. Startups kicked off the year hiring and wrapped the year shedding staff. The stock market kept going down. A crypto winter kicked off. We saw some PE deals but very few IPOs. And the world saw a bit more geopolitical upheaval than we might have anticipated.

There were elections and shutdowns and frauds and mistakes and big wins. It was, well, a lot.

Thankfully Mary Ann, Natasha, and Alex were able to collate the news into a few distinct categories, so that we can all look back at 2022 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.

We have even more good stuff coming, including our yearly predictions episode. Get hype, and we'll talk to you soon!

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, one that details how our stories come together, and more!

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