Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week’s startup news and trends. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.
I’m out this week, but that doesn’t mean I’m leaving you alone. TechCrunch has been not-so-quietly growing its podcast universe. So, I thought I’d take a second to highlight the podcasts, the minds behind them and my favorite episodes so far. Thanks to Yashad, Maggie, Grace and Kell for their work behind the scenes making us sound smart and informed.
- Equity: You know this one. Co-hosted by myself, Alex Wilhelm and Mary Ann Azevedo, Equity is a thrice-weekly podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. My recent favorite episodes include an interview with a founder about All That VC advice and a fintech battle of the bands chat.
- Found: Now a little over one year old, Found is a weekly podcast co-hosted by Jordan Crook and Darrell Etherington about the stories behind the startups. Each week, the duo profiles a different founder and their journey toward solving some sort of massive problem — whether its building a faster way to fly or ocean floor green tech.
- Chain Reaction: Co-hosted by Anita Ramaswamy and Lucas Matney, Chain Reaction dives into the world of crypto, web3 and NFTs in the freshest way I’ve seen yet. Even better, the duo has a weekly newsletter by the same name that gets into web3 happenings, spicy tweets and big funding rounds included. My recent favorite episodes including Outdoor Voices and unpredictable ones, too.
- The TechCrunch Podcast: Our newest edition to the podcast fam, The TechCrunch Podcast gets staff reporters to talk through the week’s biggest headlines. I like to describe the show as a reporter’s notebook meets noise-cancelling headphones, leaving you with a true pulse of what’s going on. Oh, and it’s again hosted by Darrell Etherington, and that’s not even his last podcast.
That’s the rundown. And every week, Matt Burns rounds up what we’ve published, but so you don’t miss out, go ahead and subscribe.
In the rest of this newsletter, we’ll talk about my new beat and some startup math. As always, you can support me by forwarding this newsletter to a friend or following me on Twitter or subscribing to my blog. Thanks for hanging with me this week, back to normal programming next time!
New beat, who this?
You know you’re in a good place when your own co-worker scoops you on your own personal news. As Mary Ann Azevedo mentioned in her newsletter earlier this month, I’m joining the fintech desk to write about entrepreneurship’s answers to access, wealth creation and socialization of finance.
Here’s why it’s important: Selfishly, I hope this doesn’t need an explanation. The economic empowerment of individuals has been a constant mission of startups before, during and assumedly long after the COVID-19 pandemic put it into focus. I’m just happy to finally have the words to describe what I care about!
Tip me about happenings in the fintech world — especially the ones that don’t always have something to do with your company and coverage. I can never be a fly on the wall the same way a founder can, so tell me what I’m missing! Oh, and the best way to actually do the above is just to tweet at me @nmasc_ or e-mail me.
Startup math is a subtweet at journalists everywhere
As the downturn threatens the ability for companies to hit profitability and simultaneously emphasizes the need for them to get there faster, we’re going to see more creative math from founders pitching the process, potential employees and investors. So, we dug into it on Equity this week in an episode featuring our own Haje Jan Kamps. Along with the episode, we put together three views with a more granular take on the manner.
Here’s why it’s important: Growth is subjective, sadly, which means that oftentimes private companies (which are not required to share their financials publicly) can float a semblance of it without many repercussions. For example, a startup’s revenue may have grown 100% year over year, but that can either be from $1 to $100 dollars, thanks to its first customer, or $1 million to $10 million; who’s to say? Sometimes that example in and of itself can get a founder to tell me the true range of their growth, but sometimes it just means I need to place an asterisk next to any vague growth metric I include in stories. As the downturn crowds conversations with vagueness, or worse, silence, it’s more important than ever for founders to provide specifics when touting growth. Not everything is up and to the right, and it’s finally okay to say that out loud.
Across the week
Seen on TechCrunch
Coinbase CEO says it is laying off 18% of its workers
Dogecoin investor sues Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX for $258 billion
Redfin and Compass lay off a combined 900+ employees as mortgage interest rates continue to climb
India’s Dukaan expands globally to take on Shopify
Crypto lender Celsius pauses withdrawals, transfers citing ‘extreme market conditions’<
Seen on TechCrunch+
A decade after the bubble burst, 5 climate tech investors explain why they’re all in
Pitch Deck Teardown: Ergeon’s $40M Series B deck
Is consolidation on the horizon for Southeast Asia’s tech industry?
8 steps for building a financial model to calculate your fundraising needs
Growth marketing experts survey: How would you spend a $75,000 budget in summer 2022?
Until next time,