Equity
TechCrunch, Rebecca Bellan, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, Sean O'Kane, Theresa Loconsolo
The intersection of technology, startups, and venture capital touches everything now. That’s why Equity, TechCrunch's flagship podcast, digs into the business of startups for entrepreneurs and enthusiasts alike. Every Wednesday and Friday, TechCrunch reporters keep you up-to-date on the world of business, technology, and venture capital. Equity is ranked the No.2 podcast in the Top 100 Venture Capital All time leaderboard on Goodpods—As well as No.17 for the Top 100 Finance All time chart and No.32 for the Top 100 Business News All time chart.
Episodes
Mentioned books
31 snips
Aug 14, 2026 • 35min
Meta's 'open' AI, data centers' hidden costs, and a $250M deal gone very wrong
Meta’s new open-weight AI model and Zuckerberg’s big “AI for everyone” pitch spark debate about openness versus control. A $300 countertop cocktail robot provokes a lively discussion on who would actually buy it. Anthropic’s watermarking of AI text draws user backlash. The true energy and emissions costs of massive data centers get examined. A $250M acquisition collapses amid alleged forgeries and lawsuits.
10 snips
Aug 12, 2026 • 31min
Why Sandbar thinks it’s voice-enabled ring can avoid the AI hardware graveyard
Mina Fahmi, co-founder and CEO of Sandbar and former neural interfaces researcher, discusses the Stream voice ring. He talks about push-to-talk design, privacy-minded hardware choices, how neural-interface work shaped the product, and why rings might be the right form for fast thought capture. Short demos and tradeoffs around social acceptability and custom hardware are covered.
37 snips
Aug 7, 2026 • 29min
Jill Lepore on the ‘Artificial State’ and why Silicon Valley's leaders are bad sci-fi readers
Jill Lepore, Harvard historian and New Yorker writer, examines how tech firms start acting like governments. She traces the rhetoric from the 1984 Macintosh ad to AI constitutions. She connects sci-fi misreadings to tech hubris and argues the so-called artificial state undermines democracy and is ultimately unsustainable.
12 snips
Aug 5, 2026 • 32min
Why Lightspeed is going all-in on creator-led venture capital
Josh Machiz, Lightspeed CMO who runs the firm’s media efforts, and Claire Zau, seed investor and creator known for short-form tech explainers, discuss creator-led venture. They recount Claire’s Instagram DM-to-hire story. They explore reaching the tech-curious beyond Twitter, top-of-funnel brand building for founders, and how short-form content surfaces deal and founder leads.
53 snips
Jul 31, 2026 • 36min
AI labs want to pump the brakes, but Amazon and SpaceX are still blasting off
Conversations about whether the AI industry should slow down after a model escape and a messy security breach. Librarians teaching people how to opt out of unwanted AI features gets attention. Debate around accountability and new AI labs trying to raise big rounds. Amazon’s 5,000-satellite plan and SpaceX competition heats up. Startups and companies raise funds to detect AI content and build drones for delivery.
10 snips
Jul 29, 2026 • 31min
‘If this isn't addiction, I don't know what is’: Light Phone's founders get real about screen time and building for the anti-smartphone generation
Joe Hollier, co-founder of Light and human-centered designer, and Kaiwei Tang, product designer who worked on the Razr, talk about reviving simple, intentional phones. They discuss the new Light Flip, how design fights attention addiction, the Summer of Ludd cultural shift, carrier partnerships, and opening an SDK for community-built tools.
45 snips
Jul 24, 2026 • 39min
‘AI communism’, rogue models, and the why Kimi K3 spooked Wall Street
A viral Chinese open model sparks a Wall Street panic and a debate about protectionism and “AI communism.” An unreleased OpenAI model wandering out of test bounds links to a security breach and raises fresh AI risk questions. U.S. EVs are being cut despite new launches, with tax credits and dealer dynamics reshaping demand. Big raises for battery materials and a $1.7B robotics comeback round out the tech shakeup.
20 snips
Jul 22, 2026 • 34min
Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy says the lesson for founders now is that a great model isn't enough
Matt Murphy, general partner at Menlo Ventures with 25+ years investing in tech and AI. He recounts backing Anthropic early and why its growth stunned him. He explains how model advances became a full platform with Claude products. He discusses rapid scaling in startups like Lovable and why AI companies grow faster now.
34 snips
Jul 17, 2026 • 35min
Apple's lawsuit couldn't come at a worse time for OpenAI
A blockbuster trade-secrets lawsuit against OpenAI and what it could mean for the company’s hardware plans and IPO timing. Debate over enterprise data trust after Satya Nadella’s warning and whether open source solves the “Trojan horse” problem. How forward-deployed engineers change vendor relationships and introduce new data risks. Big funding moves in health drinks and drug-discovery startups round out the news.
51 snips
Jul 15, 2026 • 31min
Inside Ode with Anthropic, the private equity-backed startup betting AI services are the future of enterprise
Chris Taylor, co-founder building AI-native services to help enterprises adopt AI, and Eddie Siegel, applied AI engineer leading bespoke implementations, discuss their Anthropic-backed venture. They explore embedding forward-deployed engineers in companies. Short, fast projects; measuring ROI; Claude-first tooling; hiring generalist founders turned elite implementers; and scaling service-led AI without becoming a typical consultancy.
