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3月12日

When startups become a family business

In startups, choosing a co-founder is often compared to choosing a spouse. But what happens when your co-founder actually is family? In this episode of Build Mode, host Isabelle Johannessen explores how founders navigate co-founder relationships that come with built-in trust and unique challenges. First up is Hala Jalwan and Alessio Tresanti, the married co-founders of AI agent for procurement focusing on autonomous sourcing, Rivio. They discuss building a company from the same household and why clear roles and communication matter when both your personal and professional lives are on the line. Then Isabelle talks with Anna Sun, co-founder of Nowadays, an AI co-pilot for corporate event planning that she launched with her sister Amy shortly after graduating from MIT. Sun explains how their sibling dynamic shapes decision-making, team culture, and the way they move quickly as founders. They discuss: How trust shapes strong co-founder partnerships The benefits and challenges of building a startup with family Dividing roles and decision-making between co-founders Hiring and culture in early-stage startups Why some founders turn to co-founder coaching to navigate conflict This episode looks at how unconventional co-founder relationships can become a startup’s biggest advantage and why trust may be the most powerful tool a founding team has. Apply to Startup Battlefield: We are looking for early-stage companies that have an MVP. So nominate a founder (or yourself): techcrunch.com/apply. Be sure to say you heard about Startup Battlefield from the Build Mode podcast. TechCrunch Disrupt: If you're thinking about applying to Startup Battlefield, then October 13 to 15 in San Francisco, we're back for TechCrunch Disrupt, where the Startup Battlefield 200 takes the stage. So if you want to cheer them on, or just network with 1000s of founders, VCs, and tech enthusiasts, then grab your tickets. Use code buildmode15 for 15% off any ticket type. New episodes of Build Mode drop every Thursday. Hosted by Isabelle Johannessen. Produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience development led by Morgan Little. Special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams.
17/12/2025

Eclipse's Jiten Behl thinks the next unicorns won't be built in software

Jiten Behl, partner at Eclipse Ventures and former chief growth officer at Rivian, thinks we're entering an era of major re-industrialization in the US — one where factories run on AI-powered robots, not cheap overseas labor. Behl, who helped scale Rivian from a conference room idea in 2015 to a publicly traded EV maker, is now investing in the next wave of industrial and mobility startups, including two Rivian spinouts: Also and Mind Robotics. It's part of Eclipse's larger bet that the physical world is finally ready for the kind of disruption software saw a decade ago. Today on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec sat down with Behl to talk about why Rivian keeps spinning out companies, what founders in the "physical world" need that software founders don't, and why automation is becoming necessary if the US wants to compete without Chinese supply chains. Listen to the full episode to hear about: Why Behl looks for founders who are both "hyper-optimistic" and grounded in reality, and why that combination is surprisingly rare, even in Silicon Valley. How vertical integration worked for Rivian but won't work for most startups today. Behl's prediction that autonomy will become "real and something we can touch and feel" in the next five years. Subscribe to Equity on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
5月27日

Your SEO strategy is optimized for a search engine that no longer exists.

Google I/O made it official: AI-generated answers are now front and center in search, and most brands have almost no visibility into how AI is describing them to their customers. For anyone who has spent years building a strategy around 10 blue links, the rules just changed in a pretty significant way. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan caught up with Matt Thompson, VP of partnerships at Scrunch, a startup positioning itself at the center of the AI search shift, to talk about what Google’s changes mean and marketers and founders should actually do about it. Listen to the full episode to hear: Why AI referrals are converting at 400% higher than traditional organic search, and what that means for how to think about traffic. How ChatGPT still has the lion's share of AI search traffic, and why optimizing only for Google means missing most of the market. Why Google's own SEO best practices might be leading marketers in the wrong direction. What it actually means to make your website "agent ready" and why most enterprise sites aren't. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
3月4日

How PopSockets broke the VC-backed consumer hardware mold

Does a consumer hardware company need to get on the VC treadmill to succeed? Eleven years and 290 million products sold across 115 countries later, PopSockets has proven that the bootstrapped, low-dilution path more viable than the industry gives it credit for. The global consumer hardware brand was built on less than $500k, no institutional capital, and a philosophy professor's determination. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Dominic-Madori Davis caught up with founder and former CEO of PopSockets David Barnett to talk about how he scaled from a Boulder garage, stood up to Amazon at a $10–20 million cost, and eventually handed off the CEO role to someone who'd grown up inside the company. Listen to the full episode to hear: How a house fire and some insurance money became the unlikely seed funding for a global brand What nearly sinking the company in manufacturing defects actually taught him about building one that lasts How ignoring his investors' advice turned out to be the right call What he looked for in a successor CEO (and why culture was non-negotiable) What he'd do completely differently if he launched PopSockets today 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 01:15 From philosophy professor to phone grip inventor 05:17 How a house fire funded PopSockets 07:33 Manufacturing nightmares nearly killed the business 10:08 The local toy store that proved it could work 13:14 The $20M Amazon standoff 16:09 Growing too fast? 18:20 Beating counterfeits in China through brand building 19:11 Why David never wanted to be CEO 23:07 The worst advice received, and what to do instead 26:35 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
18/12/2025

Making life (and death) better despite regulatory barriers

Founders Gabriel Sanchez (Enspectra Health) and Tom Harries (Earth Funeral) share what it takes to build in heavily regulated industries where "move fast and break things" simply won't work. In this episode of Build Mode, they reveal the realities of navigating FDA approval processes, state-by-state regulations, and cultural taboos while building products that are literally matters of life and death. Gabriel walks through Enspectra's nearly decade-long journey to FDA clearance for their skin imaging device, while Tom discusses building a human composting service as an alternative to cremation and burial. They offer tactical advice on iterating while waiting for regulatory approval, planning your runway when success is largely out of your hands, and raising venture capital in spaces that many investors consider too taboo to touch. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:30 Meet Gabriel Sanchez - Enspectra Health 02:34 The First FDA-Approved Skin Imaging Physics in 28 Years 04:24 From Stanford Lab to Clinical Device 06:43 Navigating FDA Clearance and Reimbursement Strategy 43:33 Scaling While Managing Regulatory Barriers 46:55 Where Earth is Today and Future Growth 48:00 Outro New episodes of Build Mode drop every Thursday. Isabelle Johannessen is our host. Build Mode is produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience Development is led by Morgan Little. And a special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams.
3月18日

The PhD students who became the judges of the AI industry

Artificial intelligence models are multiplying fast, and competition is stiff. With so many players crowding the space, which one will be the best — and who decides that? Arena, formerly LM Arena, has emerged as the de facto public leaderboard for frontier LLMs, influencing funding, launches, and PR cycles. In just seven months, the startup went from a UC Berkeley PhD research project to being valued at $1.7 billion. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan catches up with Arena co-founders Anastasios Angelopoulos and Wei-Lin Chiang to determine how a team like theirs can build a neutral benchmark when the companies they’re ranking are also their backers. Listen to the full episode to hear: How Arena actually works, and why its founders say you can't game it the way you mighta static benchmark. What "structural neutrality" actually means, and whether taking money from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic is a conflict of interest. How Arena is moving beyond chat to benchmark agents, coding, and real-world tasks with a new enterprise product. Why Claude is currently winning the expert leaderboard for legal and medical use cases. Arena's bet on what comes after LLMs, and why agents are next on the leaderboard. 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 03:00 How Arena's leaderboard works, and why it's different from static benchmarks 07:00 Reproducibility concerns and how to scale 08:45 Can Arena stay independent while taking money from the labs it ranks? 11:15 Diversity, fraud prevention, and abuse mitigation 18:15 Arena's "data moat" 19:20 Agent benchmarking and expert leaderboards 21:40 Open sourcing data 22:45 How do Arena's rankings shape AI development? 24:15 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
30/04/2024

How Midi raised millions for a menopause-focused platform with Joanna Strober from Midi

Most OBGYNs are not specifically trained in menopause, which means that women are left to suffer through their symptoms on their own. This week’s guest on Found is looking to change that. Joanna Strober is the CEO and founder of Midi, a virtual healthcare platform built specifically for women in midlife staffed with healthcare providers specifically trained to care for people going through perimenopause and menopause. In this conversation they cover: Why there is such a wide gap in care for women’s health and the negligent studies that are partly to blame Working with employers and insurance companies to make sure that their services are covered under insurance How the Midi team has raised $100 million despite many investors not understanding the potential market for care for women in midlife (0:00) Introduction (1:27) Midi and Joanna’s background (4:38) The care gap (7:12) Building out research-based care protocols (10:00) Demand for menopause care (13:28) Joanna’s previous founder experience (17:04) Learnings from starting in VC (19:33) Building out the Midi team (22:56) Working with employers and insurance companies (24:50) Launching in 50 states (28:59) Fundraising experience Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each Connect with us: On Twitter On Instagram Via email: found@techcrunch.com
22/10/2024

How smart UX can lead to company success with Howie Liu from Airtable

This week on Found, Dom and Becca talk with Howie Liu, the CEO and co-founder of Airtable to talk about how the Airtable team used smart UX to make app development accessible to even the least technical users. They also discuss how human-computer interaction is at the core of Airtable’s mission and behind each new product they put out. And they get into early missteps, the investor advice that Liu didn’t follow, and the unlikely inspiration behind Airtable’s design. Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each Connect with us: On Twitter On Instagram Via email: found@techcrunch.com
1月28日

The SpaceX IPO could finally happen (and it's a big deal)

SpaceX is reportedly lining up four major Wall Street banks for a 2026 IPO that could provide the reset the market needs. The company just completed a tender offer at an $800 billion valuation, and secondary market demand is through the roof. If SpaceX goes public anywhere near its rumored $1.5 trillion valuation, it could trigger an IPO cascade for other late-stage unicorns like OpenAI, Stripe, and Databricks. Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan spoke with Greg Martin, Managing Director at Rainmaker Securities, to discuss why this IPO feels different, how tech employees are cashing out through secondary markets before companies go public, and what investors are actually looking for in pre-IPO shares. Listen to the full episode to hear: Which other late-stage unicorns are seeing the most secondary trading action right now. Why SpaceX is ready to go public, despite previously saying it “wouldn't IPO until rockets were flying to Mars regularly” (and why Martin doesn’t think SpaceX will continue on its debut path if the market tanks) The "Elon halo effect" and how much of SpaceX's valuation is based on Musk himself What happens when SpaceX employees want to sell shares before the IPO Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:39 The Booming Secondary Market for Pre-IPO Shares 04:06 SpaceX as an IPO Bellwether 06:31 Why Elon Musk Changed His Mind on Going Public 10:04 The Race to a Trillion-Dollar Valuation 12:27 The Elon Halo Effect on Valuations 15:17 What Signals an Upcoming IPO? 17:50 How Secondaries Drive Better Price Discovery 20:47 How SpaceX Secondaries Actually Work 24:03 What Investors Want from Pre-IPO Companies 25:11 The Have and Have-Not World of Secondaries 26:42 Outro Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
19/12/2025

Hardware's brutal week: iRobot, Luminar, and Rad Power go bankrupt

The hardware world had a brutal week, with iRobot, Luminar, and Rad Power Bikes all filing for bankruptcy. Each company faces its own mix of tariff pressures, supply chain issues, and shifting markets, but together they tell a larger story about the challenges of building physical products in an era of global trade tensions and cheap overseas competition. From the Roomba maker that almost got acquired by Amazon to the e-bike company that couldn't escape its Chinese supply chain, this week's bankruptcies are a warning sign for hardware startups everywhere. Today on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Anthony Ha, Rebecca Bellan, and Sean O'Kane discuss what went wrong for three once-promising hardware companies, plus Amazon's massive OpenAI bet and Trump's new approach to AI regulation. Listen to the full episode to hear more news from the week, including: How "slop" became Merriam-Webster's word of the year — and why it's become bigger than just AI-generated content Why Databricks raised $10 billion at a $134 billion valuation (in a Series L!) instead of just going public already The Coursera-Udemy merger and whether online course platforms can survive the AI era Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 00:24 - AI slop is Merriam-Webster's word of the year 06:07 - Amazon's $10 billion OpenAI investment 10:43 - Databricks raises $10 billion in a Series L 14:14 - Coursera acquires Udemy 19:17 - Hardware bankruptcies: iRobot, Luminar, and Rad Power Bikes 26:21 - Trump's AI executive order targets state regulation Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TechCrunch podcasts cover the business of technology, startups, venture capital funding, crypto, and the humans behind it all.

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When startups become a family business

Eclipse's Jiten Behl thinks the next unicorns won't be built in software

Your SEO strategy is optimized for a search engine that no longer exists.

How PopSockets broke the VC-backed consumer hardware mold

Making life (and death) better despite regulatory barriers

The PhD students who became the judges of the AI industry

How Midi raised millions for a menopause-focused platform with Joanna Strober from Midi

How smart UX can lead to company success with Howie Liu from Airtable

The SpaceX IPO could finally happen (and it's a big deal)

Hardware's brutal week: iRobot, Luminar, and Rad Power go bankrupt

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