This week, the hosts dive into the exciting world of influencer-driven products and how Cobalt is empowering creators. They discuss Found's groundbreaking take on weight management, focusing on body positivity and community. The conversation then shifts to innovative educational platforms like Fiveable, which is transforming study sessions for high school students. Lastly, they explore the rising trend of startups going full-stack and the implications of consolidations in the venture landscape, particularly in fintech and digital health.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Fiveable's Pivot to Social Learning
Fiveable, an ed-tech platform, acquired 'Hours' after observing students using it extensively.
This acquisition led Fiveable to shift its focus from teacher-led lessons to student-centric social learning.
insights INSIGHT
Fiveable's Differentiators
Fiveable differentiates itself by focusing on student camaraderie and focused study sessions.
It employs paid student interns for product feedback, directly incorporating student voices into ed-tech development.
insights INSIGHT
Cobalt's Creator Product Focus
Cobalt helps creators develop and sell products beyond basic merchandise.
It focuses on more ambitious projects, like skincare or food brands, taking a small cut from creator-expert connections.
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Natasha and Mary Ann and Alex were all aboard this week under the guidance of Chris and Grace, meaning that we were running full-strength for our roundup of this super busy week.
Before we hop into the topics, you can follow the show on Twitter -- all the cool kids do! -- and keep in mind that on Mondays Equity provides a short kickoff to the week, we chat a single topic on Wednesdays, and Fridays are when we go through the full week. Make sense? Hell yeah:
Fiveable
Cobalt raised $2.8 million to help creators build and sell more stuff. As part of our continuing focus on creators more broadly, we had a few questions!
Found came out of stealth with $32 million in total funding from GV, Atomic and Define Ventures. The startup is focused on "weight care management" and it's notable that the co-founder of Atomic, which incubated this company, also co-founded hims and hers -- which also has a telehealth component. Found's new CEO is the former COO of Bumble, who drafted its S-1 while getting chemo treatment for stage 3 breast cancer.
From there we dug into trends! First up was the trend of startups going full-stack, which we kicked off with a look at AngelList's new Stack -- har har -- product. It's a bit like what Carta and Stripe offer, which gave us some good angles to chat about the news from.
Next up was consolidation, which echoed our first conversation. Discussing a recent deal in the RPA space, the Equity team made predictions about which sectors in the startup world are the most likely to see consolidation in the coming quarters.
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.
Equity