Kate Clark

Shows

Episodes

  1. Jill Lepore on the ‘Artificial State,’ and why Silicon Valley's leaders are bad sci-fi readers

    2d ago

    Jill Lepore on the ‘Artificial State,’ and why Silicon Valley's leaders are bad sci-fi readers

    Historian Jill Lepore has a theory about why tech companies often use soaring language to describe their products — almost as if they're forming a new government. And whether you're thinking of Twitter's old “town hall in your pocket” or Anthropic's Claude constitution, it's a theory that doesn't paint Silicon Valley in a very flattering light.   In Lepore's upcoming book, The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard historian and New Yorker writer argues that tech companies are gradually taking on the functions of democratic government — whether that’s Twitter giving a distorted picture of the electorate or Facebook displacing local news. In her view, these leaders often mistake technological advancement for political progress, all while outright declaring their intention to replace the nation-state.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Anthony Ha talks with Lepore about her book and why she thinks today's AI leaders — who promise a future where AI makes government more efficient, more responsive, and maybe even unnecessary — are selling an old fantasy in new packaging.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  Why Lepore sees a straight line from the classic 1984 Macintosh ad to Anthropic's AI constitution and Sam Altman's comments about an “AI president”  How E.M. Forster’s 1909 sci-fi story “The Machine Stops” provides a blueprint for the artificial state, and why Lepore says it now reads like “the diary of a very unhappy YouTuber”  Why Lepore believes the artificial state is ultimately unsustainable, and what she thinks it would take to rein it in  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  0:49 Defining the “artificial state”  2:17 Why corporations quietly took over state functions  4:43 Could the internet have gone another way?  9:01 From the 1984 Macintosh ad to Anthropic's constitution  10:20 The Twitter “town hall” myth  13:36 Structuring the book: history meets science fiction  17:46 The Machine Stops, and other bad manuals for the future  19:16 Musk, Heinlein, and misreading sci-fi  19:41 Why Lepore thinks the artificial state is “doomed”  21:51 Data centers, local politics, and the death of local news  24:44 Revisiting disruptive innovation, ten years later  26:54 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  2. Why Lightspeed is going all-in on creator-led venture capital

    4d ago

    Why Lightspeed is going all-in on creator-led venture capital

    Venture firms are turning to creators to build trust with the next generation of founders before a check is ever written. It's a trend that's been building with a16z's acquisition of Erik Torenberg’s Turpentine podcast and OpenAI's acquisition of TBPN. Lightspeed Venture Partners just made its own notable hire in that vein, bringing on Claire Zau, a seed investor with a major following on Instagram and TikTok, to source deals and co-host the firm's new show, Lightwork, alongside CMO Josh Machiz.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Dominic-Madori Davis is joined by Zau and Machiz to dive deep into whether the “creator-investor” is becoming a real function in venture or just something firms are still trying to figure out.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  How an Instagram DM turned into a hire, and why Machiz says Zau’s investing instincts (not just her follower count) made her stand out from other creators.  Why Zau thinks tech Twitter is a “minuscule” slice of the tech-curious audience, and what she's learned about public sentiment on AI that doesn't show up on X.  How Lightspeed measures ROI on a media operation that's hard to tie directly to deal flow.  The founder and portfolio-company stories that came out of Zau's content, including how a single video helped land a health-tech founder a meeting with Shaq.  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. AI labs want to pump the brakes, but Amazon and SpaceX are still blasting off

    Jul 31

    AI labs want to pump the brakes, but Amazon and SpaceX are still blasting off

    After years of pushing full speed ahead on AI, Sam Altman says maybe it’s time for the AI industry to “pace” itself. The comments come just days after one of OpenAI's own models broke out of its test environment and got tangled up in a breach at Hugging Face, though as Equity’s hosts point out, sloppy security seems to have been just as much to blame as the model itself. Altman's not alone in this stance: both OpenAI and Anthropic have come out in support of a petition echoing that same message.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into whether the industry is ready to pump the brakes or just spooked, and who's on the hook when a model goes rogue.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  The viral “Avoiding AI” workshops hosted by librarians to help people opt out of AI features they didn't ask for  How Amazon's new 5,000-satellite bid to connect directly to your phone could turn up the heat on SpaceX (even though it's unclear if anyone actually wants satellite-to-phone service)  Why somehow there's room for one more AI lab: Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus's new startup, Prentis, is in talks to raise $100M at a $1B valuation  How Pangram raised $9 million to help publishers, teachers, and readers tell human writing from AI slop  Why DoorDash is building its own drone delivery business instead of just relying on partners like Wing and Flytrex  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  1:18 Zoox gets its robotaxi exemption  2:11 Sam Altman calls for pacing the frontier  6:01 The Hugging Face hack, dissected  10:12 Responsibility, regulation, and the Elon Musk wildcard  13:29 Librarians teaching people to unplug from AI  15:16 Prentice: a new AI lab raises at a $1B valuation  16:46 Amazon files for its own satellite-to-phone network  18:42 SpaceX, Blue Origin, and the launch-business angle  23:48 Pangram raises $9M to detect AI slop  29:23 DoorDash builds its own delivery drones  33:24 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  4. ‘AI communism’, rogue models, and the why Kimi K3 spooked Wall Street

    Jul 24

    ‘AI communism’, rogue models, and the why Kimi K3 spooked Wall Street

    Chinese AI lab Moonshot's open model Kimi went viral this week for reasons that had less to do with the model itself and more to do with how the U.S. AI industry reacted to it. Meanwhile, an unreleased OpenAI model wandered outside its test environment and ended up connected to a real security breach at Hugging Face — a reminder that “China risk” isn't the only kind of AI risk worth worrying about.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into why Kimi K3 set off a fresh round of AI panic, the industry’s response to an OpenAI staffer's “regulatory FUD” post, and what that OpenAI breach means for AI security more broadly.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  Why EVs are getting killed off across the U.S. even as automakers roll out new models, and how Rivian and Ford, and a wave of new startups are betting on different EV strategies to survive  What Sila's $300 million raise says about where battery investment is headed even as EV demand cools  Travis Kalanick's comeback with a $1.7 billion raise for his robotics startup, Atoms, and why we’re surprised to see Uber among its investors  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  1:39 Chinese AI model Kimi sparks a Wall Street freakout  10:45 OpenAI model breaks out of a test, Hugging Face breach  15:53 Why EVs are getting killed off in the U.S.  20:35 Tax credits, free markets, and the road ahead for EVs  28:56 Sila raises $300M for battery materials  32:20 Travis Kalanick's Atoms raises $1.7B, with Uber as an investor  36:39 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  5. ‘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

    Jul 29

    ‘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

    With the Light Phone, Kaiwei Tang and Joe Hollier have spent over a decade exploring the value of simplicity in our relationship to technology, partnering along the way with players like Andrew Yang, Kendrick Lamar, and Pete Davidson. Now, with a new flip phone and a growing wave of “attention activists” pushing back on big tech, they think the rest of the world is finally catching up to them.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Amanda Silberling talks with Tang and Hollier about the company's newly announced flip phone, why they think the anti-smartphone backlash is only just getting started, and what it takes to break an addiction that fits in your pocket.  Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  How the design lessons from the original Motorola Razr shaped the new Light Flip  What the "Summer of Ludd" attention activist movement says about Gen Z's relationship with big tech  Why Light Phone is opening up an SDK so users can build their own tools instead of opting for an app store  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  0:51 Building Light Phone  3:10 The user shift: why people are finally ready to unplug  7:54 Designing outside the Silicon Valley bubble  9:54 Why simple tech is making a comeback (CDs, iPods, flip phones)  13:50 From the Motorola Razr to the Light Flip  17:54 Pricing and the Noble Mobile phone plan  19:44 What actually happens when you switch (and the Flip Your Life program)  23:13 Building an open-source app library for Light Phone  26:38 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  6. Inside Ode with Anthropic, the private equity-backed startup betting AI services are the future of enterprise

    Jul 15

    Inside Ode with Anthropic, the private equity-backed startup betting AI services are the future of enterprise

    Can a handful of engineers really do the work of an army of consultants? That’s the bet behind Ode with Anthropic — the joint venture dedicated to embedding forward-deployed engineers in enterprise firms, backed by Anthropic, Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Goldman Sachs and others.     On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan sits down with Ode’s leaders Chris Taylor and Eddie Siegel, who founded Fractional AI, the applied AI services startup that Ode acquired earlier this year to serve as the new venture’s core. The three discuss why so many enterprise AI pilots never make it to production and why they think AI-native services are about to become one of the biggest categories in tech.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  The case for AI-native services, and why Ode believes small teams of applied AI engineers can unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in business value.  Why the company is hiring experienced generalists and former founders instead of AI researchers, and how it's turning them into elite FDEs.  Whether an AI services company can scale like software, yet maintain a boutique feel, and why Taylor believes Ode could one day become a trillion-dollar business.  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   00:30 Fractional AI becomes "Ode with Anthropic"  1:13 Why non-AI companies are the real AI winners  2:04 Working with Blackstone, Anthropic, and beyond  3:05 Inside a real project: fixing LogicGate's bottleneck  7:29 How long does it take from hypothesis to production?  9:19 Measuring ROI: revenue, efficiency, and evals  16:37 Model choice vs. workflow redesign, and why it's Claude-first  23:10 Hiring generalists over specialized AI talent  26:39 Can this scale without turning into another consulting firm?  30:49 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  7. Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy says the lesson for founders now is that a great model isn't enough

    Jul 22

    Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy says the lesson for founders now is that a great model isn't enough

    Anthropic leaped to a $47 billion revenue run rate by May, compared to $9 billion in 2025. It’s the kind of growth that Menlo Ventures' Matt Murphy says he's never seen in 25 years of investing, not in the internet wave, not in mobile, not in the first cloud boom. Menlo led Anthropic's $500M Series D, and Murphy has had a front-row seat as the company went from a pre-revenue, pre-launch bet to one of the most valuable startups out there.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Julie Bort talks with Murphy about backing Anthropic before anyone else would, why a great model was never the point, and what's driving the fastest-growing startups he's ever seen.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  Why Menlo bet on Anthropic at a $4 billion pre-revenue valuation when the deal didn't fit cleanly into any of the firm's funds, and why Google and Amazon signing on as investors was an early “green shoot.”  Why Murphy says the model was never the real moat, and how Claude Code, MCP, and Claude Skills turned Anthropic from a strong model into a full platform.  Murphy's take on the backlash to Anthropic's Mythos rollout, and why he pushes back on the idea that it was more marketing than safety.  Why companies like Lovable and Legora are growing faster than any startups Murphy has seen in 25 years, and what that speed means for founders trying to compete.  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

  8. Apple's lawsuit couldn't come at a worse time for OpenAI

    Jul 17

    Apple's lawsuit couldn't come at a worse time for OpenAI

    Apple filed a trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI last Friday, and it's not messing around. The complaint alleges a pattern of misconduct reaching all the way up to OpenAI's chief hardware officer and claims more than 400 former Apple employees now work at the company. OpenAI's response so far has been carefully hedged, and the timing couldn't be worse with the company reportedly eyeing an IPO as early as later this year.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into what the lawsuit could mean for OpenAI's own hardware ambitions and IPO timeline, plus a bigger theme running through the week's news: how much should anyone trust AI companies with their data?    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  Why Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is warning enterprises about handing data over to AI labs, and whether open source is really a way out of the “Trojan horse” data-trust problem  How forward-deployed engineers (FDEs) are changing the relationship between AI labs and their enterprise customers  Why General Catalyst just handed David Beckham's health drink startup a $1 billion customer value fund  The scoop on a new $200M drug-discovery startup from an ex-OpenAI researcher  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   00:40 Would you want Sam Altman listening to you?  01:53 Apple sues OpenAI over trade secrets  13:24 Satya Nadella's warning: "you're paying twice" with your data  19:03 Open source vs. going deeper with AI labs  24:52 General Catalyst gives David Beckham's health drink startup $1B  30:05 Ex-OpenAI researcher raises $200M for drug discovery startup  32:58 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  9. Open source AI matters more than ever, according to Hugging Face's Clem Delangue

    Jul 10

    Open source AI matters more than ever, according to Hugging Face's Clem Delangue

    Open source AI is booming, according to Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue. The company has grown into something like a GitHub for AI in recent years, where AI builders can share and download open models and datasets, now used by roughly half the Fortune 500. Delangue has seen the same story play out again and again: companies start out on frontier APIs, but as they scale, the costs push them towards open source models.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan talked to Delangue about why the open vs closed source fight matters in the wake of Anthropic’s halted Fable release, and why he's worried about the possibility that a handful of big companies could end up controlling everything.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  How Chinese labs are producing the majority of open models being downloaded in the U.S., and why Delangue thinks that's a problem worth fixing rather than a reason to distrust open source itself.  How Hugging Face is choosing capital efficiency over the usual Silicon Valley fundraising playbook, including why the company turned down a large investment from Nvidia last year.  Why he sees robotics as an even more urgent case for open, transparent AI than chatbots or coding tools, given how much of your home and family life a robot ends up seeing.  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  00:33 Breaking down open source growth data  04:34 What's driving the open source resurgence  08:47 Who’s using Hugging Face, and how?  10:28 China overtakes the US in open model downloads  16:34 Safety, access, and the risk of AI power concentration  24:03 Hugging Face's approach to legal risk  28:00 Turning down Nvidia  31:47 Underinvested opportunities: local AI, bio, robotics  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  10. Your gaming data could be the secret to AGI, according to this Bezos-backed startup

    Jul 8

    Your gaming data could be the secret to AGI, according to this Bezos-backed startup

    When it comes to achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), large language models just don’t have what it takes. Models like ChatGPT and Claude are great at text, but they're less skilled at understanding how things actually move through space and time — an essential skill for producing intelligence that generalizes. That gap, it turns out, might be filled by gaming data. That's the bet behind General Intuition, a Bezos-backed, New York-based startup valued at $2.3 billion that just closed a $320 million round with Coatue, Eric Schmidt, and researchers at MIT and Google DeepMind joining its list of investors.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, General Intuition CEO Pim de Witte joins Rebecca Bellan to dig into why world models trained on gaming data might be the next big leap in physical AI, how the company spun out of gaming platform Medal TV, and where the ethical red lines are when your models could end up being used for defense applications.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  How eight minutes of real-world data was enough to get a robot navigating an office cold.  Why General Intuition turned down an acquisition offer reportedly from OpenAI to stay independent, and why having investors who back your mission is essential to building a generational company.  How the company is trying to get ahead of AI job displacement by building Nerve, a marketplace connecting gamers to data labeling and teleoperations work.  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

  11. Every defense startup wants to be the next Anduril. Here's what its first backer is looking for now.

    Jun 3

    Every defense startup wants to be the next Anduril. Here's what its first backer is looking for now.

    Defense tech is red hot right now, with a proposed 40% increase to the federal defense budget, Anduril doubling its valuation to $61 billion, and a wave of startups chasing government contracts. But according to Ross Fubini, the venture investor who wrote Anduril's first check, most of them won't make it. The valley of death between a prototype contract and a real production deal is about to claim a lot of companies.  On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan asks Fubini — the founder and managing partner of XYZ Venture Capital, built on the Palantir alumni network and now approaching $2B AUM — what separates the survivors from the rest.  Listen to the full episode to hear:  Why Ukraine and Iran have become live testing grounds for US defense startups, and which companies are getting in the field  How other countries are building their own defense tech ecosystems, and what that means for where startups build and sell  The sustainment problem nobody wants to talk about, and why autonomous logistics is the real moat  Where Fubini is writing checks next, from AI-driven US manufacturing to government software for health and human services  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

  12. Best of Build Mode: Think like a VC

    Jul 3

    Best of Build Mode: Think like a VC

    Instead of our usual news rundown, Equity is sending you off into the 4th of July weekend with a special episode of our sister podcast Build Mode. Season 3 launches July 9th, but before it does, Build Mode is revisiting some of the best fundraising and startup advice from the investors featured in last season. From choosing the right investors to building a differentiated go-to-market strategy, these venture capitalists and founder-turned-investors share hard-earned lessons on fundraising, portfolio dynamics, investor-founder relationships, and what separates the companies that successfully raise their next round from those that don't. In this episode, you'll hear from: ⁠⁠Yuri Sagalov, managing director at General Catalyst⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Ross Fubini, managing partner at XYZ Venture Capital⁠ and Leslie Feinzaig, founder and general partner at Graham & Walker⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Paul Irving, partner at GTMfund⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Leah Solivan, founder of TaskRabbit and founder of Precedent VC⁠⁠ Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:19 Yuri Sagalov (General Catalyst): The three types of investors and who founders should avoid 03:29 Ross Fubini (XYZ VC) & Leslie Feinzaig (Graham & Walker): What great investors actually bring to the table 08:36 Paul Irving (GTMfund): The go-to-market signals investors look for 12:30 Leah Solivan (TaskRabbit / Precedent VC): Understanding the competition inside your investors' portfolios 14:30 Outro Subscribe to Build Mode on⁠⁠ ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠ ⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠, or⁠⁠ ⁠wherever you like to listen⁠⁠⁠. And watch the full videos on⁠⁠ ⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  13. What if the AI giants are building the roads, not the destinations? Chi-Hua Chien thinks he knows who wins

    Jun 24

    What if the AI giants are building the roads, not the destinations? Chi-Hua Chien thinks he knows who wins

    In this episode, TechCrunch Editor in Chief Connie Loizos talks with Goodwater Capital co-founder Chi-Hua Chien, whose career spans some of Silicon Valley’s biggest technology shifts, from helping source Accel’s investment in Facebook as a young associate to backing a new generation of consumer and AI startups. While much of the venture world is focused on models, chips, and infrastructure, Chi-Hua argues that history suggests the biggest long-term winners of the AI era may be the application companies built on top of them. They talk about why AI startups are reaching unprecedented revenue levels with remarkably small teams, what’s driving today’s soaring valuations, and why he believes many infrastructure businesses will eventually face the same commoditization pressures seen in previous technology cycles. He also shares what he’s seeing inside consumer AI, from hyper-personalized entertainment and women’s health platforms to new products built around voice, agents, and individualized experiences. And they discuss the increasingly public tensions between founders and VCs, why some of the most interesting fintech innovation is happening outside the U.S., and why Chi-Hua believes one of the biggest opportunities in consumer technology may be helping people reconnect in the real world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  14. Andrew Yang on Noble Mobile, UBI, and why he's done waiting for policy to catch up

    Jun 10

    Andrew Yang on Noble Mobile, UBI, and why he's done waiting for policy to catch up

    Andrew Yang’s 2020 presidential campaign was based on a warning that automation and AI would hollow out the labor market and concentrate wealth in the hands of a few. At the time, ideas like Universal Basic Income felt fringe. Now Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Bernie Sanders are all saying versions of the same thing.  An entrepreneur at heart, Yang has found a new way to put money back into the hands of the people — one phone bill at a time. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan talks to Yang about his startup Noble Mobile, which pays you to use your phone less, ways to combat the “attention economy,” and what startups can do when the government won't move.  Listen to the full episode to hear:  Why Yang thinks the $100 billion gap between what Americans and Europeans pay for wireless is a startup opportunity.  How a partnership with the Light Phone fits into the growing "together tech" movement, and why Yang has been throwing no-phone parties in LA and NYC.  What he actually thinks of Bernie Sanders' proposed AI sovereign wealth fund, and why he's skeptical the money should flow through government at all.  Why UBI isn't a salary replacement but a "landing pad,” and what Noble Mobile's $600-a-year savings has to do with it.  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

  15. Snowflake’s transition from storing data to shipping with it

    Apr 8

    Snowflake’s transition from storing data to shipping with it

    Snowflake is betting that the future of AI isn’t just analyzing data, it’s acting on it. That means a shift away from chatbots and toward autonomous agents that can actually get work done. And Snowflake is reorganizing fast to keep up, from shipping hundreds of AI features to restructuring teams along the way.On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan sits down with Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy to unpack the company’s transformation and what it signals about where AI is headed next. Listen to the full episode to hear: Why Ramaswamy believes the chatbot era is ending and the agentic era is beginning. How Snowflake is evolving from a data warehouse into an AI and applications platform. What “shipping with your data” actually looks like in practice. Why the company is making big internal changes to support its AI push. 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 00:17 Snowflake’s AI shift and agentic future 01:45 Why 2026 marks the end of chatbots 04:09 Cortex Code, Snowflake Intelligence, and new products 06:09 Who benefits: non-technical users & enterprises 07:35 Adoption challenges and why AI pilots fail 12:11 How AI is reshaping jobs and skills 14:39 Layoffs, automation, and the future of documentation 18:37 Snowflake’s evolution into an AI platform 21:04 Competition: Databricks, hyperscalers, and AI giants 25:01 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  16. Is AI video just a prequel? Runway's CEO thinks world models are next

    Apr 29

    Is AI video just a prequel? Runway's CEO thinks world models are next

    AI-generated video has gone from novelty to creative tool in AI-generated video has gone from novelty to creative tool almost overnight, and Runway has a front-row seat to the shift. The New York-based company has raised close to $860 million at a $5.3 billion valuation, and its models are going toe-to-toe with the most well-funded labs in the world, including Google and OpenAI.   And the technology goes way beyond making videos: it's now pushing into general world models with applications in gaming, robotics, and maybe something closer to general intelligence.  On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, host Rebecca Bellan sits down with co-founder and CEO Cristobal Valenzuela to talk about where video generation goes from here, and why Runway's ambitions now reach well beyond Hollywood.  Listen to the full episode to hear about:  Why Valenzuela thinks the real constraint on filmmaking has never been technology, and what changes when it is  How Runway thinks about world models differently than Google and other labs building in the space  What "nonlinear media" means, and why real-time video generation opens up use cases way beyond content creation  Why Valenzuela pushes back on the idea that AI companions are “inherently dystopian”  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  00:56 Can AI really replace Hollywood?  04:18 Why "AI slop" fears miss the point  08:23 Research lab, software company, or creative studio?  13:42 From video generation to world models, explained  17:36 Omni models and multimodal training  17:50 The three pillars: linear media, non-linear media, physical AI  19:31 Real-time video and the "Characters" product  22:33 Are AI companions inherently dystopian?  25:59 Physical AI and robotics  28:35 Where growth is coming from: enterprise and prosumer  29:31 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

    May 27

    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

  18. Did you know you can't steal a charity? Don't worry. Elon Musk will remind you.

    May 1

    Did you know you can't steal a charity? Don't worry. Elon Musk will remind you.

    Elon Musk spent the better part of three days on the witness stand this week in his lawsuit against OpenAI, and it's already getting messy. Emails, texts, and his own tweets are surfacing in court, and there are plenty more witnesses to come. Musk's argument against OpenAI? By converting the company to a for-profit model, Sam Altman betrayed the “nonprofit for the benefit of humanity” mission Musk signed up to fund. As Musk keeps reminding the courtroom: “You can't steal a charity.”  On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec and Sean O'Kane break down what's actually at stake in the courtroom and what to watch for as Altman and others take the stand, plus deals, defense tech, and what Big Tech's earnings week revealed about the limits of the AI spending era. Listen to the full episode to hear about: Why cloud was the winner of earnings week, and what AWS, Google, and Microsoft's numbers say about where enterprise AI spending is actually landing The scholarship app founder taking Sallie Mae to court after they acquired his startup…and began selling its student data to ad networks and universities BMW i Ventures new $300 million fund with its sights set on AI How defense tech startup Scout AI is pitching “military AGI” using vision-language-action (VLA) models 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. Wiz's first investor breaks down Google's $32B acquisition

    Mar 13

    Wiz's first investor breaks down Google's $32B acquisition

    According to Index Ventures Partner Shardul Shah, cybersecurity startup Wiz sits “at the center of three tailwinds: AI, cloud, and security spend.” Those tailwinds powered what just became the largest venture-backed acquisition in history — Google's $32 billion deal, finalized after a declined 2024 offer, antitrust review on both sides of the Atlantic, and an extra $9 billion to sweeten the pot.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Anthony Ha, Rebecca Bellan, and Sean O'Kane sit down with Shah to dig into what made Wiz worth that price tag, and also cover more of the week's headlines.    Listen to the full episode to hear about:  Why a DOGE employee allegedly walked out of the Social Security Administration with a thumb drive full of personal data, and the questions it raises about access to sensitive systems  Taya and Sandbar, the latest startups betting voice is the next big AI interface — but do normal consumers agree?  Palmer Luckey raising for a retro gaming startup at a $1 billion valuation  Meta’s acquisition of Moltbook, the viral AI agent social network  The latest in the Anthropic vs. DoD saga, including tech workers at OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft signing their names on a legal brief in support of Anthropic  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  00:16 Did a DOGE employee steal your SSN?  02:53 AI note-taking wearables are back: Taya & Sandbar  09:18 Palmer Lucky's retro gaming startup ModRetro  13:39 Meta acquires AI agent social network Moltbot  18:54 Inside Google's $32B Wiz acquisition with Shardul Shah  28:41 Anthropic's lawsuit against the DoD  38:40 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  20. NEA's Tiffany Luck on AI IPOs, personal agents, and the ROI reckoning

    Jun 17

    NEA's Tiffany Luck on AI IPOs, personal agents, and the ROI reckoning

    Tokenmaxxing was the hottest trend in Silicon Valley earlier this year, with CEOs encouraging employees to push AI usage as far as it would go. Then the bill came due. Uber reportedly blew through its annual AI budget in a few months, some companies cut Claude licenses for parts of their org, and Meta killed its internal leaderboard.  This tension between hype and ROI is exactly where NEA partner Tiffany Luck lives these days. She got her start convincing companies that e-commerce was the future, and now she's all in on AI, especially when it comes to the possibilities for "magic moments" in the consumer business.  On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Luck joins Rebecca Bellan to talk about the future of personal agents, her thoughts on this year's AI IPOs, and how startups are stepping in to help enterprises track return on AI spend.  Listen to the full episode to hear:  What the tokenmaxxing-to-ROI shift means for how companies measure AI spend.  Why forward deployed engineers are becoming a "Trojan horse" for AI adoption.  How enterprises are mixing and matching models instead of committing to one provider.  Why Tiffany thinks value is being created at every layer of the AI stack, not just at the model layer.    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  00:51 Tiffany Luck's path from Lot18 to Amazon to VC  3:45 Magic moments: Waymo, healthcare, and the gap in personal agents  7:36 Privacy, security, and trusting AI with your life  10:39 IPO outlook: Anthropic vs. OpenAI on public markets  13:58 Compute, infrastructure, and where the value sits  15:41 What’s the ROI on tokenmaxxing?  27:07 Forward deployed engineers as a ‘Trojan horse’  32:49 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kate Clark on Apple