Apple’s €1.84B fine, new AI rules in India and the latest pre-IPO round

Equity
884 Episodes • Last Episode: July 31, 2024

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Hello, and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.

This is our Monday show, in which we take a look back at the weekend and what’s ahead in the week. Over the weekend we had a great chat with Nubank’s CEO, which you can find here. OK, on to the show notes!

We are back Wednesday, 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!

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Equity

Episodes

Global startup funding was up 16% in the second quarter, according to Crunchbase data, led by an uptick in mega-rounds. That increase was led, unsurprisingly,…

Global startup funding is picking up with AI still in the spotlight

Welcome back to another recap of Equity, TechCrunch’s flagship podcast about the business of startups. Today’s episode is packed with M&A talk, how one YouTuber…

Stripe’s easy-peasy acquisition and why is Twitch still losing money?

Welcome back to another recap of Equity, TechCrunch’s flagship podcast about the business of startups. This episode is packed with some significant fundraises, a potentially…

Alphabet is clearly looking to buy, so who’s selling, and why did Wiz say no?

Maven Ventures general partner Sara Deshpande has been investing in the consumer tech space for a decade. Over time, the seed-stage venture firm has backed…

Cracking the AI and consumer code with early Zoom-backer Maven Ventures

On today’s episode of Equity, Rebecca Bellan did a deep dive into the CrowdStrike outage that affected around 8.5 million Windows devices around the world,…

CrowdStrike’s fallout, Harris’s stance on tech and Yandex’s rise from the ashes

Welcome back to another recap of Equity, TechCrunch’s flagship podcast about the business of startups. This episode is packed with deals, antitrust musings, AI and…

Silicon Valley’s impact on the election and an acquisition making our HeadSpin

Renegade Partners co-founders Renata Quintini and Roseanne Wincek have seen it all in their careers — notably over the past four years when they launched…

If the music stops, which startup gets a chair? Renegade Partners’ co-founders are finding out

On today’s episode of Equity, Rebecca Bellan explored Google’s reported talks to acquire Wiz, a cloud security company, for around $23 billion. Wiz provides an…

Google’s talks to buy Wiz, and the gap between AI spending and AI revenue

Welcome back to another recap of Equity, TechCrunch’s flagship podcast about the business of startups. This episode is packed with deals, antitrust musings, AI and…

There’s always something happening to OpenAI’s board

Mike Maples Jr. is a prolific angel investor and co-founder of early-stage venture firm Floodgate. Over the years, he’s taken a lot of bets. Some…

Floodgate’s Mike Maples explains how startups that most people ‘don’t like’ are the best ones to back

On today’s episode of Equity, we’re taking a look at news you might’ve missed over the holiday weekend here in the U.S., starting with the…

A new trend for seed VCs and the scariest part about OpenAI’s data breach

What’s the common thread between Tesla, building startups, General Motors venture capital and Lyft?  Jon McNeill, co-founder and partner of DVx Ventures, joins TechCrunch editor…

Jon McNeill on VC 2.0 and creating startups in house

Welcome back to another recap of Equity, TechCrunch’s flagship podcast about the business of startups. This episode is jam-packed with deals, hot topics and the…

AI-powered drug development, VW teams up with Rivian and DEI is ‘bad’

Apple has been named the first of tech’s so-called “gatekeepers” to be charged for violating the EU’s Digital Markets Act. In a press release this…

The EU’s DMA is coming for Apple, and X bots are on the loose

Get ready for a jam-packed episode of Equity, TechCrunch’s flagship podcast about the business of startups! This week, co-hosts Mary Ann Azevedo and Haje Kamps…

Ilya Sutskever’s new AI venture, and time to BeReal about bankruptcy
Startups

Do co-CEOs make sense?

In this week’s episode of Equity, Haje Kamps and Mary Ann Azevedo delve into the recent decision by fintech company Brex to abandon its co-CEO…

Do co-CEOs make sense?

This week on Equity, we discussed some big news that really matters: How Black founders are addressing the diversity gap in AI chatbots. We’ve all…

Black founders are customizing ChatGPT as crypto makes a comeback

In today’s episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Mary Ann Azevedo, Becca Szkutak and Haje Kamps dug into three very different but all interesting deals of the week. Haje…

Raspberry Pi goes public, Musk drops his OpenAI lawsuit and startups compete with Apple Intelligence

Vanessa Larco, a partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), believes that generative AI’s impact on the world of SaaS could be huge. The investor joined…

NEA’s Vanessa Larco says generative AI will change the SaaS pricing model – and that’s a good thing

Apple’s WWDC is just hours away, and we’re gearing up for big announcements on — you guessed it — AI. TechCrunch’s Brian Heater tells us…

Byju’s valuation shakeup and what’s ahead for WWDC

As always, there was a lot happening in startup land this week, and the Equity team had so much fun breaking it down for you.…

Robinhood’s crypto bet, AI-powered healthcare, and Fisker’s fall 

Consumer startups have taken a hit when it comes to venture funding. But according to Eurie Kim, partner at Forerunner Ventures and founding member of…

Every startup has AI in its pitch deck and it should

We’re kicking off the week with a deep dive from this weekend into the demise of electric vehicle startup Fisker at the hands of its…

Inside the demise of EV startup Fisker, and X’s new rules allow adult content

Welcome back to Friday Equity! We kick things off with the Deal of the Week. First up, xAI. Elon Musk has once again proven that…

Who’s (not) IPO-ing, and what’s going on with BaaS?

It’s no secret that the bar for startups to land a Series A has risen, but has it risen too high? According to Jenny Fielding,…

Peering into the ‘Series A chasm’ with Everywhere Ventures’ Jenny Fielding

We’re kicking off the short week with news about Elon Musk, and no, it’s not about X or Tesla. Instead, we’re talking about Musk’s other…

Musk’s xAI raises fresh capital while Synapse’s bankruptcy could impact millions

It was an event-filled week in startup land, and the Equity crew had a blast breaking it down for you. On today’s episode of TechCrunch’s…

The proposed AI ‘kill switch,’ and why it’s rough out there for emerging fund managers

For this episode of Equity, we spoke to two Aussie VCs: Dan Krasnostein of Square Peg and Gabrielle Munzer of Main Sequence.

How Australian startups can crack the US market

Last week was a big one for AI news, and one thing that stood out to us was OpenAI’s deal with Reddit. Per the terms of…

Maven takes the clout-chasing out of social media as Reddit teams up with OpenAI

If there was one thing we heard about this week, it was AI. As a matter of fact, there were so many AI updates to…

AI’s busy week, and why the heck are so many VCs leaving their firms?