The new Equity crew on a proposed AI 'kill switch' and why it's rough out there for VCs

May 24, 2024

Meet the new crew diving into the latest in tech! They discuss the intriguing departure of Techstars CEO and reflect on the evolving landscape for emerging VCs. A massive $150 million funding round for a blockchain-based social protocol raises the question: Is crypto making a comeback? They also tackle the promising immigrant banking platform that just secured $20 million. Lastly, the team weighs in on the new AI safety commitments, including the concept of a 'kill switch,' stirring both optimism and skepticism in a rapidly changing tech world.

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ANECDOTE

Techstars CEO Departure

Techstars CEO, Maëlle Gavet, stepped down, likely due to internal struggles.
The company closed accelerators and faced infighting, causing concern among startups.

INSIGHT

Farcaster's Hybrid Approach

Farcaster, a crypto-based social protocol, raised $150 million despite a relatively small user base.
Its hybrid approach stores user identities on the blockchain but keeps posts and interactions off-chain.

INSIGHT

Maturing Crypto Market

Farcaster's substantial funding round suggests a potential shift in the crypto market towards applied blockchain.
This signifies finding practical use cases for blockchain beyond infrastructure.

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Say hi to the new Equity crew! To kick off today's show, Mary Ann invited her new co-hosts - Becca Szkutak, Rebecca Bellan, and Haje Kamps - to introduce themselves and shared a bit more about what they do here at TC. The team then jumped right into the news, starting with Techstars CEO Maëlle Gavet announcing she is leaving the company, just weeks after TechCrunch reporter Dominic Madori-Davis published an in-depth investigative article on what’s been going on behind the scenes at the accelerator in recent years. (You can listen to Dom talk more about it here).

As always, there was plenty more to uncover in the world of startups and venture. Mary Ann, Rebecca and Haje dug into two funding deals, one straddling the lines of crypto and social media and the other in the fintech space.

Rebecca wanted to talk about Farcaster, a blockchain-based social protocol that invites developers to build other apps on top of it. The startup raised a $150 million round, news that had the Equity team asking, “Is crypto back?” Mary Ann dug into immigrant banking platform Majority securing $20M in funding after notching an impressive $40 million in ARR as of April.

Last but not least, our trio riffed on the fact that a bunch of tech majors made commitments to the safe development of their AI models, including a potential “kill switch.” While we felt the news was mostly positive, we are also skeptical, too. The team also discussed the challenging environment for emerging fund managers, and our surprise at just how many of them there are.

That’s it for this week, but we’ll be back bright and early Tuesday morning (thanks to a U.S. holiday on Monday) with more tech and startup news, along with another round of Pitch Deck Teardown. Talk soon!

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast.

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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