Chaos reigns in the tech world with significant layoffs hitting Meta. The podcast dives into the bizarre custom rug market, questioning its true consumer demand. Meanwhile, the fallout from FTX's collapse raises serious concerns about investor trust and the future of crypto. The hosts also tackle funding disparities in venture capital, spotlighting how repeat founders get ahead while underrepresented entrepreneurs struggle. Plus, hear about innovative FinTech solutions for luxury financing that could change the game.
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Peloton Founder's Rug Startup
John Foley, Peloton's former CEO, launched Ernesta, a D2C custom rug company.
This pre-launch venture raised a $25M Series A, raising eyebrows due to its unusual product and timing.
insights INSIGHT
VC Bias in Funding
Ernesta's $25M Series A funding, despite being pre-launch, highlights venture capital biases.
This contrasts with the struggles of women and minority founders, raising concerns about equity in funding.
insights INSIGHT
Repeat Founders vs. Underrepresented Founders
The ease with which repeat founders raise capital, even at early stages, can be frustrating.
This is especially true when considering the difficulties faced by underrepresented founders with more traction.
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Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
We thought that last week was a lot. It was, but this week was somehow more. More chaotic, rapid-fire change at a number of massive tech companies kept us on our toes. So, while our beloved co-host Natasha was out, we couldn't do the recording down a set of hands, so we brought Becca aboard with Mary Ann and Alex.
The list of news was so long that we were cutting entire sections up until we hit record, and even still we went over time. If you like longer episodes, this one is for you.
Mega-layoffs: From there, we had to sit down and discuss the massive Meta layoffs. Our read is that the company is doing right by the folks it is cutting, which is not as much as we can say about some other companies in the world also undergoing massive staffing cuts. Naturally, this brought up Twitter to a degree, the smaller social network being the Main Character in tech news up until, well:
WTF FTX? Ah, FTX. Last week it was worth $32 billion and its founder was arguably the face of crypto around the world. And now Sequoia has pulled its on-site hagiography, SBF is a pariah, and FTX may be going to zero. There's going to be a mini-series about this, isn't there?
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