This week, the hosts celebrate their recent Webby win while diving into exciting startup innovations. They discuss Fave's mission to unite fandoms and Somewhere Good's approach to community building. The conversation shifts to Spoken and Spot Meetings, which are reinventing workplace communications through audio solutions. Insights into the challenges for startups like Piano and the impact of platforms like LinkedIn reveal a shifting media landscape. Their analysis of IPO trends brings attention to the pressures faced by companies like Squarespace.
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Fave and Fandoms
Fave raised $2.2M to connect fandoms, starting with Taylor Swift fans (Swifties).
The music industry is betting on weaponizing fandoms for profit.
insights INSIGHT
Somewhere Good's Approach
Somewhere Good raised $3.75M to build feedless micro-communities.
It aims to be a less time-consuming alternative to 24/7 communities.
insights INSIGHT
Audio-Focused Enterprise Software
Spokn and SpotMeetings target internal corporate communications with audio.
Spokn helps create internal podcasts, while Spot focuses on walk-and-talk meetings.
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Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.
This week was good fun not only because we had the whole team together to record, but also because we are still basking in the endless glory of our winning a Webby earlier this week. Frankly we are still shocked. But happy-shocked, like when you get a new toy and it is covered in static electricity.
Anyhoo, we had a packed show with much, much left on the floor as we tried to shoehorn the week into our time slot. Here's what we got into:
The world of connections: Fave raised $2.2 million to connect fandoms, Somewhere Good raised $3.75 million to build feedless micro-communities, and both Spokn ($4 million) and Spot ($5 million) are hoping to use the spoken word to connect companies and their staffs. Honestly we think that the overall connection-community world is super exciting.
Piano, one of those startups we actually have the luck of using, raised $88 million for analytics, subscription, and personalization tools. We get into why the round makes sense, and why one investor stood out more than the others.
The show flew by, much like our days recently, simply because it was so fun and jam-packed with news. And we got to make jokes about our listeners and Monday.com PR timing, so what else could we ask for? Talk soon!
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