Equity

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

Business
**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.

Latest Episodes:

What will Elon actually do if he buys Twitter? Apr 25, 2022

Show notes

Every Monday, Grace and Alex scour the news and record notes on what’s going on to kick off the week.

Stocks are down, and cryptos not looking too impressive as the world gears up for a packed week of mega-tech earnings.
The Twitter-Elon Musk deal could happen soon? As soon as today? It appears that after Musk dropped a filing indicating that he actually had the funds to buy the deal, talks shook loose. What's ahead? I have precisely and exactly no idea.
Hopin is perhaps enduring some turbulence, per the FT. The company, once riding a torrid wave of market demand, is seeing its business molt into a more steady form. That meant layoffs earlier in the year, and a decline in its share price on secondary exchanges.
Startups! From the startup-realm this morning, new rounds for Zenda and Rooser. Not Rooster, mind, just Rooser.
And there's a general climate of fear out there, which won't do much for market sentiment. Alas, 2022 is not 2021 when it comes to investor excitement.

And we have a live show coming this week! Get stoked, details to follow.

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

If you could go to Andreessen Horowitz or YC as a startup, which would you choose? Apr 22, 2022

Show notes

This week was a good week because we had the full team back together. Natasha Mascarenhas was on hand, Mary Ann Azevedo was on the mic, and Alex Wilhelm was around as well. Grace, our ever-trusty producer and lead on the Friday show, was on the dials.

As with nearly every week this year, we had to cut and cut to make the show fit into its allotted time. This is what we got into:

Brief updates on SoftBank, Better.com, and Elon's quest to buy Twitter.
On the deals front, we talked about Mary Ann's coverage of Kindred, the latest from the Indian crypto scene and Chipotle. Why Chipotle? Because it turns out that it is cooking up more than lunch!
From there we dug into Natasha's coverage of the latest early-stage effort from a16z, and what it could mean for competition with Y Combinator, among other entities. The theme of large funds going earlier and earlier-stage will be with us forever, it seems.
Shares of Netflix took a hammering this week. Why? Growth at the company is on hold, at least from a user perspective. We took the chance to chat about the pandemic's tailwinds tailing off. This impacts a host of startups, both big and small.
From there we kept the cheery note afloat by talking about live audio apps and their future. There's some tremors afoot, even if everyone likes to talk.

And with that we are back next week!

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

More money doesn’t mean more growth, and other startup myths Apr 20, 2022

Show notes

This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, fresh off of a reunion that included pasta and green rooms, Natasha and Alex asked: What are some startup assumptions that get it wrong?

The question comes after one of Natasha’s recent Startups Weekly column, "Let’s stop pretending there are silos in startup land." In the piece, which was teased out in her newsletter, she talked about how separations between late-stage and early-stage companies aren't as iron as investors may try to sell. Of course, that spiraled into an op-ed about what other startup notions we have, and the difference between a silo and a semblance of one.

Here's an excerpt from the piece:

You don’t need to be a web3 company to benefit from the growing mindshare around decentralization and alternative assets; just like you don’t need to be an angel investor to adopt the idea that your advice is worthy of equity in a company; and, as I’ve hopefully shown above, you don’t need to be a late-stage company to refocus on and prioritize profitability.

Our podcast continues the conversation, getting into five specific myths that we're about ready to bust. I won't ruin what we specifically get into, but phrases like "Web 2.5" and "IPO pricing" and "poetry magazines" certainly make an appearance. It's the perfect episode for people starting out in tech, or folks who are in the mood to unlearn some of their assumptions.

Don’t forget that Equity is very present on Twitter these days so follow us there for other mid-week musings.

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

Are poison pills really that bitter? Apr 18, 2022

Show notes

Every Monday, Grace and Alex scour the news and record notes on what’s going on to kick off the week.

We are sitting on the precipice of a very busy few weeks, so let's get right to work!

Stocks are mixed around the world to start the day, cryptos are off a little more but nothing too scary.
Didi will vote on leaving the US public markets this May, and has promised to not list anywhere else in the interim. This saga is nearly behind us, but what a mess it will leave in its wake.
The Beanstalk exploit was bad news this weekend, but my hunch is that so long as votes are tied to economic might, many neat ideas in crypto-land will remain open to exploit.
Zambian fintech startup Union54 raised a $12 million Seed extension, led by Tiger, that caught our eye. And over in India, food-delivery rivals Swiggy and Zomato are both backing UrbanPiper.
Finally, it seems that some private-market investors are not stoked about poison pills, a defensive setup by public companies to prevent a hostile takeover. Which makes me laugh, as dual-class shares that many VCs either back, or at least help fund amongst hot startups are similar in that they are also designed to prevent changes of control.

To close, we have a live show this week! Yes, a live show. So come hang out with us on Thursday as we record our Friday episode!

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

‘The Ultimatum’ and social fintech have more in common than you’d think Apr 15, 2022

Show notes

This week was TechCrunch Early Stage, so Natasha and Alex got together - in person - to record the episode for the very first time. Shout out to Grace for somehow helping us figure out a tech set up in the middle of a sold out event.

We started with a recap of TechCrunch Early Stage so far, but check out TechCrunch+ for posts about every single panel next week. Pro listener tip: use code "EQUITY" for a solid discount, for your TechCrunch+ subscription.
Then we of course pivoted to Elon, who is still making news about his newest fixation Twitter. This time, we led with the fact that he's trying to buy the whole darn thing.
Deel made news with an ARR number that actually had some weight behind it, which got us thinking more about remote work bets.
We had to talk about Braid, a new social fintech startup that wants to make shared wallets easier. We got into crypto culture without the coins, and then it took a turn when we started getting into Love is Blind and The Ultimatum.
Finally, we ended the show with SoftBank's latest pivot: a spin out of its early-stage LatAm fund into a new firm called Upload Ventures.

And with that, we are back Monday morning. Chat soon!

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

Venture needs crypto more than crypto needs venture Apr 13, 2022

Show notes

This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, given a parade of headlines and news that Fast shut down, Natasha and Alex brought on our new senior TechCrunch+ reporter Jacquelyn Melinek to ask: How is ‘Web3’ blowing up venture’s traditional playbook?

The question comes after Jacquelyn and Natasha looked into how crypto companies are altering the investing landscape for even the most disciplined VCs. Use code "EQUITY" for a sweet, sweet discount.

Here's an excerpt from that post:

The main difference between web3 cap tables and traditional startup cap tables is the structure of a company, because the way a C-corp would provide investors with equity would differ from the way a decentralized organization or DAO would, Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky said. Today, Celsius owns half of its CEL tokens and only sold investors tokens in its initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017 when the company first launched, he added.

“We don’t need to give tokens anymore,” he said. “If you can raise money through equity, you want them as equity investors because they’ll stick with the company for a long time. Sometimes when you give tokens they sell them quickly because it’s like easy money, it’s not like equity.”

In today's episode, we walked through fresh PitchBook data on crypto funding, a crash course in web3 vernacular, and what crypto cap tables are the loudest about.

Don’t forget that TechCrunch Early Stage is happening this Thursday, so snag some last minute tickets here. Natasha and Alex will be there recording a live episode and hopefully meeting some listeners in real life!

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

Did we learn anything from the Elon-Twitter brouhaha? Apr 11, 2022

Show notes

Every Monday, Grace and Alex scour the news and record notes on what’s going on to kick off the week.

This week was big-tech heavy, as the startup market had a slow start to the week. Sign of the times or one day fluke? We'll see in time, I suppose.

Here's what we got into on the show today:

Stocks are down today, and cryptos are doing even worse in recent days.
Elon Musk's flirtation with becoming a Twitter board member is over, the company said. Precisely why Musk backed out is not entirely clear, though the social media company's statement might hold some clues.
Shopify is splitting its stock, and changing up its corporate governance structure; crypto volumes are tanking in India following a legal change -- and Coinbase is struggling in the country; SailPoint is selling to private equity for $6.9 billion.
Turning the clock back, the Ellevest round is very cool.
And to close things out, NIO's production is on hold in China due to COVID issues. Such much for supply chain recovery.

This week is TechCrunch: Early Stage, which is going to be good fun. See you there!

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

Startups in 2022 are indeed ‘harder, Better, Faster, stronger’ Apr 08, 2022

Show notes

This was our live show week! Yes, Mary Ann and Natasha and Alex got together with Grace for our Friday recording on Thursday, meaning that we gathered on Hopin and Twitter Spaces to yammer through the week's news. It was a very busy week, with breaking news up to the minute before we recorded -- including this piece from the Better.com saga.

So! What did we get into? A lot:

How Conceive is helping people manage the matter of infertility, Cottage raising $15 million to make ADUs more common, and how Tandem is taking on the hybrid work future.
Next up was Austin, Mary Ann's home turf. We held an event there this week that we touched on, but the main thrust of our chat circled around this piece.
From there it was time for the bad news -- including layoffs at Workrise, Better.com, and the implosion of Fast. The startup market is changing, and not every company is going to make it out the other end of 2022 it appears.
And we closed out with our take on all things Elon and Twitter, including this three views piece and why it's hard to build a single-person social network.

And with that, we are back Monday morning. Chat soon!

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

Failure is a choose-your-own adventure for startups Apr 06, 2022

Show notes

This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, given a parade of headlines and news that Fast shut down, Natasha and Alex asked: What are we missing when we talk about startup failure?

The question comes after one of Natasha’s recent 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."

In today's episode we discussed our own definitions of failure past Theranos and WeWork, current examples of rising tensions, and what this means for early-stage startups and historically overlooked founders. There's been more layoffs recently, some notable valuation cuts, and the implosion of Fast to weigh against 2021's strident startup optimism. That makes this the perfect time to dig into the topic of failure, and how to cover it from a startup perspective.

Finally, as promised, here's a look at our artsy depictions of the startup failure cycle:

https://twitter.com/nmasc\_/status/1511365442249580548

Don't forget that Equity is live this Thursday, and you can you come hang out with us on Hopin (free, and you can ask questions) or Twitter Spaces (free, but you cannot ask questions) if you'd like! See you then!

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

Equity Monday: Elon's Twitter stake and the fate of rival social networks Apr 04, 2022

Show notes

Every Monday, Grace and Alex scour the news and record notes on what’s going on to kick off the week.

After last weeks super startup-heavy show, we were back to our regular Monday grab-bag of news! Here's what we got into:

A strong start to the week from global stocks, and a general updraft to crypto prices in recent days.
Elon Musk buying a huge stake in Twitter, the popular American social network. The move comes after the Tesla and SpaceX CEO tweeted that Twitter was not allowing enough free discourse. Naturally we look forward to yet another idealist learning about content moderation, but we're also tracking Twitter rivals, making the situation both complex, and entertaining.
PrimeBlock is going public via a SPAC! The deck hadn't dropped in time for the show, but the initial release is here.
From the rest: Tesla deliveries were hot, lemon.markets raised $17 million, and Jumia is working with UPS.

Equity is live this week, so swing by to hang out if you want to this Thursday. Else we are back on a regular cadence!

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

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected