TechCrunch
It's not AI anymore, it's ‘super intelligence’ (according to the White House) | Equity Podcast
- Title
- It's not AI anymore, it's ‘super intelligence’ (according to the White House) | Equity Podcast
- Runtime
- 36:41
- Date posted
- 6 hours ago
- Description
- This week, the White House got nearly every major tech CEO in one room — Zuckerberg, Bezos, Musk, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei among them — to sign an AI safety pledge that President Donald Trump called “morally binding.” Trump also signed an executive order officially rebranding AI as “super intelligence,” and meanwhile, Meta and OpenAI are putting friendlier faces on their AI products, even as the biggest money in AI still appears to be coming from the enterprise.
On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into this week’s AI moves, the ugly economics of consumer AI, plus the shifting IPO market and a handful of startup deals.
If you enjoy our show, join us at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, where Equity will kick things off with a live episode on the Builders Stage at 9 a.m.
Get 25% off your tickets with code Equity25 at TechCrunch.com/events.
Subscribe to Equity o...
- Title
- The Case for Crowdfunding Before Raising Venture Capital with Everette Taylor, Kickstarter
- Runtime
- 34:23
- Date posted
- 1 day ago
- Description
- For years, crowdfunding had a reputation as the place founders went when they couldn’t raise venture capital. Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor thinks founders should look at it very differently.
In this episode of Build Mode (https://techcrunch.com/podcasts/build-mode/) , host Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Everett to talk about crowdfunding as an alternative and sometimes a precursor to traditional venture funding.
Everette’s own path into entrepreneurship was unconventional. Growing up in Richmond, Virginia, far from Silicon Valley, he says he didn’t know what venture capital, SaaS, or ARR were when he started his first company. Instead, he threw parties to make enough money to fund the software he was building. He eventually sold that company at 21, an experience that taught him some hard lessons about understanding the value of what you’ve built.
Today, as CEO of Kickstarter, Everette is mak...
- Title
- Could Kickstarter Replace Your Seed Round? l Build Mode
- Runtime
- 34:06
- Date posted
- 1 day ago
- Description
- For years, crowdfunding had a reputation as the place founders went when they couldn’t raise venture capital. Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor thinks founders should look at it very differently.
In this episode of Build Mode, host Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Everette to talk about crowdfunding as an alternative and sometimes a precursor to traditional venture funding.
Everette’s own path into entrepreneurship was unconventional. Growing up in Richmond, Virginia, far from Silicon Valley, he says he didn’t know what venture capital, SaaS, or ARR were when he started his first company. Instead, he threw parties to make enough money to fund the software he was building. He eventually sold that company at 21, an experience that taught him some hard lessons about understanding the value of what you’ve built.
Today, as CEO of Kickstarter, Everette is making the case that founders don’t necessarily have to choose between crowdfunding and v...
- Title
- Neko Health raised $700M to scan your body. Is it worth it? | Equity Podcast
- Runtime
- 30:47
- Date posted
- 2 days ago
- Description
- Spotify founder Daniel Ek’s Neko Health raised $700 million to build a business around scanning your body, but it’s not the only company centering its roadmap around a new kind of preventative healthcare. Midjourney is building its own body scanner, while Function Health has also raised significant capital to build out its preventative-health platform. Why are investors betting so big on this category?
On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Dominic-Madori Davis talks with Farooq Abbasi, founder and general partner of Preface Ventures and an investor in Neko Health, about how Neko compares with other consumer-health startups. They discuss what has to happen for body scanning to become part of the broader healthcare system.
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You can also follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.
Chapters
00:00 Intro
1:44 From Spotify t...
- Title
- You can talk with an AI twin of this TechCrunch Reporter
- Runtime
- 2:23
- Date posted
- 6 days ago
- Description
- @synthesia-io created a digital twin of TechCrunch reporter Dominic-Madori Davis that can hold conversations and deliver scripts in her voice.
Dominic put it to the test and explored what digital twins could mean for the future of work.
Read the story and talk to Dominic’s digital twin yourself: https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/26/i-created-an-interactive-digital-avatar-of-myself-and-you-can-talk-to-it/
- Title
- TechCrunch Reporter Makes a Digital Twin
- Runtime
- 2:00
- Date posted
- 6 days ago
- Description
- TechCrunch reporter Dominic-Madori Davis got a chance to find out. Synthesia created a digital twin of her that can hold conversations, along with an AI avatar that can deliver scripted lines in her voice.
It’s an impressive — and slightly surreal — look at where AI-generated video is heading. If a digital version of you can talk to clients, take calls, deliver the news, or interact with people on your behalf, what still needs to be done by the real you?
Dominic put the technology to the test and explored what digital twins could mean for the future of human-facing work.
Read the full story on TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/26/i-created-an-interactive-digital-avatar-of-myself-and-you-can-talk-to-it/
- Title
- Do you trust Meta with your digital life?
- Runtime
- 0:58
- Date posted
- 7 days ago
- Description
- Meta’s AI agent Muse stole the spotlight this week, but would you trust Meta with your entire digital life?
The Equity crew looks at the company’s consumer AI ambitions and why some users (like Sean) might prefer to hand that information to another provider
Listen to the full episode: https://techcrunch.com/podcast/metas-muse-just-stole-the-ai-spotlight-from-openai-and-anthropic/
- Title
- Meta’s AI Tamagotchi bet is...working? | Equity Podcast
- Runtime
- 33:36
- Date posted
- 7 days ago
- Description
- It’s turned into a model drop week as Anthropic rolled out Opus 5.5, followed by OpenAI’s GPT-6 model updates just 90 minutes later. But the company that stole the spotlight was Meta, whose personal AI agent Muse is reportedly outpacing ChatGPT’s early numbers and is headed for smart glasses and a tiny Tamagotchi-style device next.
On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into Meta’s consumer AI strategy and what it means for the startups trying to build on top of this technology, from where the money is flowing to which AI products might actually become part of people's daily lives. They also get into a16z's new school for aspiring founders and two very different AI and hardware deals.
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
3...
- Title
- AI Hacking is Forcing Humans to Use AI to Combat It
- Runtime
- 0:37
- Date posted
- 7 days ago
- Description
- Is the next era of cybersecurity machine vs. machine?
Shardul Shah of Index Ventures tells Equity that as AI-powered attacks get faster and cheaper, human-in-the-loop defense won’t be enough. The result could be an entirely new security stack.
- Title
- Bootstrapping Gets Brutal
- Runtime
- 1:08
- Date posted
- 8 days ago
- Description
- Bootstrapping forces founders to get creative.
FarmboxRx founder Ashley Tyrner-Dolce shares how she managed cash flow, made payroll, and kept building without venture funding.
Watch the full episode of Build Mode: https://youtu.be/rtuizA324b8
- Title
- How a first-time founder bootstrapped her way to a $47.5 Million Exit with Ashley Tyrner-Dolce, F...
- Runtime
- 42:41
- Date posted
- 8 days ago
- Description
- Ashley Tyrner-Dolce spent more than a decade building FarmboxRx without taking a single dollar of venture capital and ultimately exited the company while still owning the majority of it.
In this episode of Build Mode (https://techcrunch.com/podcasts/build-mode/) , host Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Ashley to talk about what bootstrapping actually looks like when you don’t have money from a previous exit or a wealthy network to fall back on.
Ashley started the company after experiencing food insecurity herself. Years earlier, while pregnant with her daughter, she relied on food stamps and lived in a rural food desert where getting fresh food could mean a 30-minute drive. She eventually launched Farmbox Direct as a direct-to-consumer produce delivery company before pivoting the business into healthcare and building what became FarmboxRx.
Along the way, Ashley tried to raise venture capital, but invest...
- Title
- This Founder Bootstrapped Her Way to a $47.5 Million Exit l Build Mode
- Runtime
- 42:23
- Date posted
- 8 days ago
- Description
- Ashley Tyrner-Dolce spent more than a decade building FarmboxRx without taking a single dollar of venture capital and ultimately exited the company while still owning the majority of it.
Join us at TechCrunch Disrupt October 13-15 in San Francisco. Use promo code: buildmode25 for 25% off your ticket.
In this episode of Build Mode, host Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Ashley to talk about what bootstrapping actually looks like when you don’t have money from a previous exit or a wealthy network to fall back on.
Ashley started the company after experiencing food insecurity herself. Years earlier, while pregnant with her daughter, she relied on food stamps and lived in a rural food desert where getting fresh food could mean a 30-minute drive. She eventually launched Farmbox Direct as a direct-to-consumer produce delivery company before pivoting the business into healthcare and building what became FarmboxRx.
Along the way, Ashley tri...
- Title
- Why Index Ventures’ Shardul Shah thinks the old cybersecurity model is breaking | Equity Podcast
- Runtime
- 31:53
- Date posted
- 9 days ago
- Description
- As concern over AI safety and rogue agents continue to make headlines, it’s no surprise that cybersecurity stocks are rising, or that investors are pouring massive amounts of capital into startups trying to build the next generation of security for an AI-native world. We’re even seeing companies like Instinct and Simile bring in nine-figure checks and valuations that wouldn't have made sense a few years ago.
With a front row seat to it all is Shardul Shah, a partner at Index Ventures who’s spent nearly two decades investing in cybersecurity and enterprise software — including six consecutive rounds in cloud security startup Wiz, which Google acquired for $32 billion earlier this year in one of its largest acquisitions ever.
On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Shah joins Rebecca Bellan to break down why he thinks periodic, human-in-the-loop security can’t keep up anymore, and why Index continues investing in AI-native security companies ...
- Title
- Going public 3 years in
- Runtime
- 0:37
- Date posted
- 13 days ago
- Description
- Archer has raised nearly $4 billion, and CEO Adam Goldstein says taking the company public early was an “amazing decision” he’d make again every single time.
The catch? Public companies have to prove their progress every 90 days.
Watch the full conversation on Build Mode: http://spr.ly/6051BGVmnW
- Title
- This Startup Aims to Put Nuclear Reactors on Floating Barges
- Runtime
- 2:14
- Date posted
- 14 days ago
- Description
- Just two months after it emerged from stealth, Bluecore Energy raised another $50M for its mission to put small nuclear reactors on floating barges.
The company says the portable plants could deliver clean power to ports, data centers and communities, pending review by the NRC and Coast Guard.
- Title
- How will Anthropic's CEO "pace the frontier" of AI? It's still a mystery
- Runtime
- 1:00
- Date posted
- 14 days ago
- Description
- AI leaders are suddenly talking about "pacing the frontier," but the specifics are still pretty fuzzy.
Equity breaks down why we're skeptical that the AI industry is actually headed for a slowdown, even as leaders at Anthropic and OpenAI say they want to put the brakes on.
- Title
- Dario Amodei and other AI leaders want to 'Pace the Frontier' but…how? | Equity Podcast
- Runtime
- 34:23
- Date posted
- 14 days ago
- Description
- A week after an Anthropic researcher's doomsday warning rattled the AI world, the company's CEO Dario Amodei has outlined his plan to “pace the frontier” of AI development. The proposal leans on independent safety evaluators and coordination between AI labs in democratic countries, and it's already picked up some industry support, along with some pointed pushback from Nvidia's Jensen Huang.
On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into whether companies can agree on what slowing down means and who gets to police it. Plus, WordPress parent Automattic's boardroom coup, and a couple of the week's biggest deals.
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
1:00 Dario Amodei's plan to "pace the frontier"
5:03 Jensen Huang pushes...
- Title
- The Startup Bringing Air Taxis to the LA Olympics with Adam Goldstein l Build Mode
- Runtime
- 37:09
- Date posted
- 15 days ago
- Description
- Building flying taxis takes billions of dollars. So instead of relying on traditional venture rounds, Archer Aviation went public just a few years after it was founded.
In this episode of Build Mode, host Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer Aviation, to talk about the unconventional fundraising strategy behind building one of the most capital-intensive startups around.
Archer is building electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs, designed to turn trips that can take 90 minutes by car into flights of 10 or 15 minutes. The company is developing the technology for both commercial air taxis and defense applications and has been selected as the exclusive air taxi provider for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
But developing and certifying an entirely new category of aircraft requires enormous amounts of capital. Adam explains why he realized early on that raising $50 million or $100 million at a tim...
- Title
- Flying taxis are coming to the 2028 LA Olympics.
- Runtime
- 0:59
- Date posted
- 15 days ago
- Description
- Could flying taxis be one of the technologies people remember from the 2028 LA Olympics?
Archer CEO Adam Goldstein explains why he believes the Games could become a major showcase for the emerging air taxi industry.
Watch the full conversation on Build Mode: http://spr.ly/6057BGViVD
- Title
- Archer Went Public Just 3 Years After Launching and It Paid Off with Adam Goldstein l Build Mode
- Runtime
- 37:09
- Date posted
- 15 days ago
- Description
- Building flying taxis takes billions of dollars. So instead of relying on traditional venture rounds, Archer Aviation went public (https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/10/archer-lands-1-1b-order-from-united-airlines-and-a-spac-deal/) just a few years after it was founded.
In this episode of Build Mode (https://techcrunch.com/podcasts/build-mode/) , host Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer Aviation, to talk about the unconventional fundraising strategy behind building one of the most capital-intensive startups around.
Archer (https://www.archer.com/) is building electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs, designed to turn trips that can take 90 minutes by car into flights of 10 or 15 minutes. The company is developing the technology for both commercial air taxis and defense applications and has been selected as the exclusive air taxi provider for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
...
- Title
- How Fortell is using AI (and $163M) to crack a hearing aid monopoly | Equity Podcast
- Runtime
- 27:27
- Date posted
- 16 days ago
- Description
- “Why do I have to beg my grandparents to put on their hearing aids, but no one has ever needed to ask me to put on my glasses?”
That’s the question that drove Matthew de Jonge to spend six years building Fortell, an AI hearing aid startup that recently raised $163 million from the likes of Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, and Valor Equity Partners CEO Antonio Gracias. The buzzy startup aims to build hearing aids that understand the sounds around you in real time, figure out what’s important and turn down the rest — instead of turning everything up at the same time, as most hearing aids do.
On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan is joined by de Jonge to break down what it takes to disrupt a decades-old industry where five companies make 97% of the products, insurance won’t cover the cost, and innovation has been slow to arrive.
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts....
- Title
- This Robot Hit a 99.6% Success Rate
- Runtime
- 0:49
- Date posted
- 20 days ago
- Description
- This robot achieved a 99.6% success rate over an eight-hour test. But when a single failure can stop an entire production line, how reliable do robots actually need to be?
Mbodi co-founder Xavier Chi explains why reliability is one of robotics’ biggest real-world challenges on Build Mode.
Watch the full episode: http://spr.ly/6053BGzuJ1
- Title
- AI researchers go full doomer while Apple puts AI front-and-center | Equity Podcast
- Runtime
- 38:06
- Date posted
- 21 days ago
- Description
- An Anthropic researcher resigned this week, warning in a post on X that the company is “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives”. The company's own alignment lead even co-signed the message rather than walking it back. It's the kind of doomer warning the AI industry has flirted with before, but the timing, with Anthropic reportedly preparing for an IPO, makes it land differently.
On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into the latest AI safety warning and what it says about the industry's race toward increasingly capable models. Plus, Apple's first big event under new CEO John Ternus and more of the week's headlines.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
3:28 Anthropic researcher's resignation warning
9:33 What's actually being done about AI risk?
15:56 Apple's AI-first hardware event
19:56 The case...
- Title
- Robotics Won’t Have a “ChatGPT Moment”
- Runtime
- 0:34
- Date posted
- 22 days ago
- Description
- Mbodi co-founder Xavier Chi says there’s a fundamental difference between the two technologies: robotics doesn’t have an internet of data to learn from.
Instead, he expects the robotics revolution to happen one real-world deployment at a time.
Watch the full episode: http://spr.ly/6056BGzOhq
- Title
- How Mbodi Is Solving Robotics’ Scaling Problem with Xavier Chi
- Runtime
- 32:04
- Date posted
- 22 days ago
- Description
- Robotics is having an AI boom, but don’t expect it to have a ChatGPT moment.
In this episode of Build Mode (https://techcrunch.com/podcasts/build-mode/) , host Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Xavier Chi, co-founder of Mbodi, a startup building AI software that lets people teach industrial robots new skills using natural language.
Xavier first joined Isabelle on the Startup Battlefield stage, where Mbodi (https://www.mbodi.ai/) became a crowd favorite with a live robot demo (https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/27/mbodi-will-show-how-it-can-train-a-robot-using-ai-agents-at-techcrunch-disrupt-2025/) . Now, he’s back to talk about what happened after Battlefield and why he believes this generation of AI could finally help robotics companies overcome some of the problems that have historically made them so difficult to scale.
Xavier breaks down why traditional industrial automation still requires so much pro...
- Title
- The Robotics Revolution Won’t Be Humanoid l Build Mode
- Runtime
- 32:04
- Date posted
- 22 days ago
- Description
- Robotics is having an AI boom, but don’t expect it to have a ChatGPT moment.
In this episode of Build Mode, host Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Xavier Chi, co-founder of Mbodi, a startup building AI software that lets people teach industrial robots new skills using natural language.
Xavier first joined Isabelle on the Startup Battlefield stage, where Mbodi became a crowd favorite with a live robot demo. Now, he’s back to talk about what happened after Battlefield and why he believes this generation of AI could finally help robotics companies overcome some of the problems that have historically made them so difficult to scale.
Xavier breaks down why traditional industrial automation still requires so much programming and customization, how Mbodi is working with ABB Robotics to bring its software into factories and warehouses, and why deploying robotics in the physical world creates a very different set of challenges from building traditiona...
- Title
- One more thing...
- Runtime
- 0:46
- Date posted
- 23 days ago
- Description
- One more thing... Apple's first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, is here.
- Title
- The Ternus era is here
- Runtime
- 0:32
- Date posted
- 23 days ago
- Description
- Tim Cook hands it off to John Ternus saying, "that's your guy," to kick off the new CEO's first keynote, officially launching the Ternus-era.
- Title
- Apple's first foldable
- Runtime
- 1:07
- Date posted
- 23 days ago
- Description
- Apple has entered the foldable arena with the iPhone Duo, which the company said was inspired by “the versatility of the iPad.” The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 with 256GB of storage and is available in two colors. Pre-orders for Apple’s new foldable open October 16, with the device hitting stores on October 23.
Catch up on everything that was announced on http://spr.ly/6051BGJFzv.
- Title
- How to Turn Pitch Nerves Into Excitement
- Runtime
- 0:34
- Date posted
- 23 days ago
- Description
- Before becoming a scientist and startup founder, Demetri Maxim was a competitive skier.
He says pitching on stage can feel surprisingly similar to standing at the top of a downhill race: your brain tells you to be scared, and you have to turn that fear into excitement.
Hear more from Demetri and Dr. Eike Gerhardt on Build Mode.
- Title
- Superintelligence is coming. Should we let it? | Equity Podcast
- Runtime
- 41:45
- Date posted
- 23 days ago
- Description
- AI companies have been talking about superintelligent AI like it's inevitable, but recent safety incidents like OpenAI's Hugging Face breach are demonstrating the potential dangers of deploying AI systems that are more capable than humans. So what happens when we can't reliably control what these systems do?
On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan is joined by Connor Leahy, an AI researcher, entrepreneur, and now the U.S. Executive Director of nonprofit ControlAI, which is pushing for a far more radical approach to AI safety: stopping companies from developing superintelligence altogether. Leahy explains why he thinks the risks have become too great to manage through alignment and containment alone, and how what sounded far-fetched six months ago is now being backed by a wave of new legislation.
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPo...
- Title
- How Do You Make Investors Take Your Startup Seriously?
- Runtime
- 0:57
- Date posted
- 25 days ago
- Description
- Early-stage startups face something called the “liability of newness” so they have to signal credibility to investors.
Dr. Eike Gerhardt breaks down how Nephrogen founder Demetri Maxim used his Startup Battlefield pitch to overcome it.
Watch the full episode of Build Mode for more startup pitching advice. http://spr.ly/6052BGBkmk
- Title
- Your Q&A Can’t Save a Bad Pitch
- Runtime
- 0:34
- Date posted
- 27 days ago
- Description
- Demetri Maxim thought the Q&A was where he could really win investors over.
Then he realized: if you lose them during the pitch, they may never ask the questions that let you shine.
Hear what Demetri learned from pitching Nephrogen at Startup Battlefield on the latest Build Mode with Dr. Eike Gerhardt.
- Title
- John Ternus Takes Over Apple
- Runtime
- 0:38
- Date posted
- 27 days ago
- Description
- Tim Cook had the unenviable job of following Steve Jobs. Now John Ternus has to follow Cook, and he’s taking over an Apple that looks very different from the one Cook inherited.
Equity asks what Ternus’ product background could mean for Apple, and how he’ll balance hardware, services, and the company’s push into AI.
- Title
- Why Everyone Wants to Sidle Up to Nvidia
- Runtime
- 0:54
- Date posted
- 28 days ago
- Description
- Nvidia has the chips, the cash, and now a growing collection of bets across the AI stack from Hugging Face to MediaTek. So why does everyone keep sidling up to Nvidia?
The Equity podcast team digs into what the company understands that its competitors don't.
- Title
- What will Apple's John Ternus era look like? | Equity Podcast
- Runtime
- 37:26
- Date posted
- 28 days ago
- Description
- It's officially the Ternus era at Apple.
Tim Cook stepped down as CEO this week, handing the company to former hardware chief John Ternus, whose first memo promised a “huge launch next week” — timing that puts Apple's next iPhone event on his desk before he's even settled in. Cook isn't going far, though: he's staying on as executive chairman, focused on the kind of policy relationships that recently turned something as small as a map label into a very public balancing act. All of which raises an obvious question: what does the Ternus era look like, and how much rope will shareholders give him to figure it out?
On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec and Sean O'Kane unpack what Ternus is walking into, why he may actually be better positioned to make progress on software than hardware in this new AI era, and more of the week's news.
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all th...
- Title
- Investors Are Asking AI About Your Startup
- Runtime
- 0:45
- Date posted
- 29 days ago
- Description
- What does ChatGPT say about your startup?
Dr. Eike Gerhardt explains why founders should think about what LLMs will find when investors use AI to research their companies.
Watch the full episode of Build Mode with Eike and Nephrogen founder Demetri Maxim for more advice on building a stronger investor pitch. http://spr.ly/6057BG6RtV
- Title
- Mistakes That Make Investors Nervous, According to a PhD in Pitching
- Runtime
- 55:15
- Date posted
- 29 days ago
- Description
- There is no such thing as the perfect pitch. But you can get close by implementing a few research-backed methods to your delivery, deck, and message.
In this episode of Build Mode (https://techcrunch.com/podcasts/build-mode/) , host Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Dr. Eike Gerhardt, (https://www.linkedin.com/in/eike-gerhardt/) who has aPhD in pitching and spent nearly a decade studying the science of startup pitching before starting Autopoiesis Sciences (https://autopoiesis.science/) . And he’s joined by Demetri Maxim (https://www.linkedin.com/in/demetri-maxim/) , co-founder and CEO of Nephrogen (https://www.nephrogenbiotech.com/) , who came in second at TechCrunch Startup Battlefield (https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/29/and-the-winner-of-startup-battlefield-at-disrupt-2025-is-glid/) 2025.
Together, they break down Demetri’s actual Startup Battlefield (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkD6yqqI-Pw) pitch to unpack what worked,...
- Title
- A PhD in Pitching Breaks Down a Startup Battlefield Pitch l Build Mode
- Runtime
- 55:15
- Date posted
- 29 days ago
- Description
- There is no such thing as the perfect pitch. But you can get close by implementing a few research-backed methods to your delivery, deck, and message.
In this episode of Build Mode, host Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Dr. Eike Gerhardt, who has aPhD in pitching and spent nearly a decade studying the science of startup pitching before starting Autopoiesis Sciences. And he’s joined by Demetri Maxim, co-founder and CEO of Nephrogen, who came in second at TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2025.
Together, they break down Demetri’s actual Startup Battlefield pitch to unpack what worked, what could be improved, and what research tells us about how investors respond to founders. Eike explains why credibility signals matter, how technical founders can simplify without oversimplifying, and why Q&A should be treated as a second pitch. Demetri shares how he learned to explain complex biotech to generalist investors, how redesigning his deck changed his confidence onst...
- Title
- Pangram's Max Spero on why AI detection is harder than 'Real or Fake' | Equity Podcast
- Runtime
- 24:15
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- The internet has a trust problem, and it’s not just because social media feeds are filling up with AI slop. AI-generated text and images are now making their way into job applications, product reviews, and even insurance claims, leaving platforms and users alike scrambling to figure out what’s real.
A handful of startups have cropped up in the past couple of years to become the “trust layer” the internet needs — including Pangram. The startup recently snapped up $9 million for its AI detection system and landed a partnership with Substack, which is now using Pangram’s tech to show readers which of their favorite authors use AI to write their newsletters. Pangram also recently dropped a new AI image detection tool.
On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Pangram co-founder and CEO Max Spero joins Rebecca Bellan to dig into the promise of AI detection tools and where to draw the line between AI assisted and AI generated.
Subsc...
- Title
- Could Liquid Death's Pee Campaign Actually Cool Data Centers?
- Runtime
- 0:40
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Liquid Death’s new ad proposes urine as a solution for the data center water resourcing problem. But could it actually help cool the data centers powering AI?
On the latest episode of Equity, the team also digs into skyrocketing robotics valuations, why robots still struggle with useful real-world work, injuries among Waymo and Zoox test drivers, Gatik’s $200 million raise, and what a potential Nvidia acquisition of Hugging Face could mean for AI.
Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts: http://spr.ly/6051B140Sb
- Title
- What Meta's Settlements Means for TikTok and Youtube
- Runtime
- 1:01
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Meta’s $18 billion settlement could have consequences far beyond Meta.
Equity’s Kirsten Korosec and Sean O'Kane break down how the deal could put pressure on YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms to play by similar rules and whether they’ll actually follow Meta’s lead.
Listen to the latest episode of Equity wherever you get your podcasts.
- Title
- Why Nvidia is Ready to Pay $13B for Hugging Face l Equity
- Runtime
- 32:07
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Earlier this week, Meta agreed to pay $18 billion and make sweeping changes to how minors access its social networks to settle a lawsuit brought by 29 states. But the eye-popping settlement figure wasn't what caught the attention of the Equity podcast team. Instead, it was what Meta did next. The social media giant sent an open letter to TikTok and YouTube asking the companies to join it in setting industry-wide standards for teens, including daily time limits, blocking access to apps at night, and restricting notifications during school hours.
But will these other companies follow? The Equity team doesn't think they will.
On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan, Kirsten Korosec, and Sean O'Kane dig into the Meta settlement, rising investor interest in robotics startups, and the reported Nvidia and Hugging Face deal that's in the works.
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and wherever yo...
- Title
- No One Feels Ready to Be CEO
- Runtime
- 0:54
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Becoming CEO doesn’t mean you suddenly have all the answers.
When Julia Hartz stepped into the CEO role at Eventbrite, she didn’t feel ready. In fact, the first word she uses to describe the transition is “terrifying.”
On this episode of Build Mode, Julia talks about learning to lead in real time, the uncertainty that comes with taking the top job, and why even experienced CEOs are sometimes making it up as they go.
Watch the full episode: http://spr.ly/6053B1La65
- Title
- How a Crisis Turned Julia Hartz Into the CEO Eventbrite Needed
- Runtime
- 58:04
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Eventbrite has survived nearly every kind of challenge a startup can face: launching into a financial crisis, raising venture capital after 27 rejections, going public, watching its core business disappear during COVID, and eventually leaving the public markets after nearly two decades of building.
In this episode of Build Mode (https://techcrunch.com/podcasts/build-mode/) , host Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Julia Hartz, co-founder and former CEO of Eventbrite, to unpack the decisions that helped the company weather those highs and lows. When Eventbrite went public in 2018, Julia became just the 21st woman founder-CEO to lead her company through an IPO and the second-youngest woman to do so (milestones she remembers as both an achievement and a stark reminder of how few women had reached that point).
But getting to the IPO, and navigating what came afterward, was anything but straightforward. Julia explains what it was like to...
- Title
- How a Crisis Turned Julia Hartz Into the CEO Eventbrite Needed l Build Mode
- Runtime
- 58:04
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Eventbrite has survived nearly every kind of challenge a startup can face: launching into a financial crisis, raising venture capital after 27 rejections, going public, watching its core business disappear during COVID, and eventually leaving the public markets after nearly two decades of building.
In this episode of Build Mode, host Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Julia Hartz, co-founder and former CEO of Eventbrite, to unpack the decisions that helped the company weather those highs and lows. When Eventbrite went public in 2018, Julia became just the 21st woman founder-CEO to lead her company through an IPO and the second-youngest woman to do so (milestones she remembers as both an achievement and a stark reminder of how few women had reached that point).
But getting to the IPO, and navigating what came afterward, was anything but straightforward. Julia explains what it was like to take over as CEO from her husband and co-founder Kevin Hartz, why she init...
- Title
- Don't Give VCs More Leverage Than You Have To
- Runtime
- 0:28
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Investors know when a founder is desperate. Sasha Orloff has raised a collective $1 billion in his career and he shares his advice for staying on top of your financial situation.
Listen to the full episode of Build Mode with Puzzle's founder and CEO: http://spr.ly/6053B1mVSb
- Title
- The Singularity Isn't the Real Reason Stripe Paid $7.5B for OpenRouter
- Runtime
- 0:45
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Stripe claims "the singularity" is here, and justifies its $7.5B acquisition of OpenRouter.
The truth, as the Equity podcast crew highlights, is much more practical, as unglamorous as token expense management may seem: http://spr.ly/6059B1m8F7
- Title
- Why is the DOJ investigating Andreessen Horowitz over board seats? | Equity Podcast
- Runtime
- 39:03
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Andreessen Horowitz has two partners sitting on the boards of companies that now compete with each other: Ben Horowitz at Databricks and Martin Casado at Fivetran. Nothing too scandalous on the surface, except the Department of Justice has reportedly been investigating the arrangement for almost a year, dusting off a 112-year-old antitrust law that's rarely used against VCs.
Board conflicts aren't exactly new, and these companies weren't necessarily direct competitors when a16z first invested in them. But as portfolio companies expand into each other's markets, the DOJ's scrutiny raises a much bigger question for venture firms: How do you manage board seats when the boundaries between your portfolio companies keep moving?
On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into the a16z probe, what it could mean for VCs, and more of the week’s headlines.
Subscribe to Equity on Y...
- Title
- Don't Believe the Hype Posts: No Startup Has Everything Figured Out
- Runtime
- 1:09
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Despite what other founders are posting, no one's startup is perfect. Every company has problems so the real way to stand out to investors is to know how to focus your resources for success.
Watch the full episode of Build Mode with the Puzzle founder and CEO Sasha Orloff: http://spr.ly/6055B1cNt3
