Podcasts about techcrunch disrupt

Isabelle is the Head of the Startup Battlefield Program at TechCrunch, where she leads the sourcing and selection of 200 game-changing, early-stage companies each year to showcase at TechCrunch Disrupt. Before this, she managed a global startup accelerator, helping hundreds of startups from countries like Japan, South Korea, Italy, and Spain expand to the U.S. Isabelle is passionate about supporting women founders and was recognized by the World Trade Organization for launching an accelerator program that brought women entrepreneurs from Spain to the U.S., winning the International Prize for Gender Equality in Trade. In this episode, you'll hear about: Behind the scenes with Isabelle Johannessen, head of TechCrunch Startup Battlefield, exploring the selection of 200 innovative startups for TechCrunch Disrupt. Insights into the rigorous selection process and the global reach of the program, emphasizing diversity with nearly 50% international founders. The evolution of Startup Battlefield from Battlefield 20 to featuring 200 startups, showcasing groundbreaking innovations. The importance of perfecting pitch presentations, leveraging AI, and engaging with top-tier VC judges. Tips for startup applications, focusing on progress towards KPIs, realistic business models, and market readiness. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabelle-johannessen/ Website - https://techcrunch.com/apply Alcorn Immigration Law: Subscribe to the monthly Alcorn newsletter Sophie Alcorn Podcast: Episode 16: E-2 Visa for Founders and Employees Episode 19: Australian Visas Including E-3 Episode 20: TN Visas and Status for Canadian and Mexican Citizens Immigration Options for Talent, Investors, and Founders Immigration Law for Tech Startups eBook

David Rose is the CEO of US Expansion Partners, a firm that helps European venture-backed tech companies expand into the US. With over 20 years of leadership experience, he has served as CEO three times and participated in five venture-backed startups, achieving four successful exits. David Rose has pitched at Google Demo Day, Silicon Valley Open Doors, and TechCrunch Disrupt. He holds a degree in economics from the University of Tennessee and an MBA from the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School. In this episode… Raising venture capital is a daunting challenge, especially for founders outside major tech hubs like Silicon Valley. Many struggle to connect with the right investors, facing rejection after rejection, often without understanding why. How can entrepreneurs improve their chances of securing funding and avoid common pitfalls in the fundraising process? David Rose, an experienced startup leader and investor, shares key strategies for targeting the right investors and making meaningful connections. He emphasizes the importance of aligning with an investor's thesis, securing warm introductions through other founders, and refining the pitch to stand out in competitive funding environments. David also warns against tranche deals, which can leave startups vulnerable, and stresses the need for persistence, as it often takes hearing 100 no's before receiving a term sheet. Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews David Rose, CEO of US Expansion Partners, about how founders can successfully navigate the fundraising landscape. David shares insights on building investor relationships, overcoming geographic barriers, and leveraging pitch competitions. He also discusses the role of AI in streamlining outreach, lessons from bootstrapping after working in a Fortune 500, and why persistence is key to startup success.

In this episode, Valentina Agudelo Vargas, CEO of Salva Health and winner of TechCrunch Disrupt, discusses her journey of scaling a health tech startup while managing distributed teams. She shares valuable insights on the challenges of maintaining a unified culture, fostering communication across different cities, and overcoming the complexities of managing diverse teams. As a leader, Valentina emphasizes the importance of team alignment, executive coaching, and establishing clear communication channels to drive success. Take 5 seconds and sign up for my free newsletter:https://www.cpoplaybook.com/newsletter. You'll get a short email from me with exclusive insights, expert tips, and actionable advice from top business leaders on how to transform your people strategy, and more. SHOW INSIGHTS: https://www.cpoplaybook.com/podcast/tech-crunch-disrupt-winner-CEO-executive-coaching CONTACT US: Share feedback: https://forms.gle/jBoWh8RmLph5Lo3H7 Sponsor us: https://forms.gle/d8Cb3hMM6LQ4cQdL8 Executive coaching or consulting services: https://www.cpoplaybook.com/contact-us Request Felicia as a Speaker: https://forms.gle/KaGQBtAzTv9tCYcM7 CHAPTERS 00:00 Navigating Rapid Growth Challenges 08:33 Cultural Divergence and Team Dynamics 12:14 Communication Gaps and Team Alignment 17:49 Exploring Solutions for Team Cohesion 22:48 Implementing Collaborative Structures 27:45 Performance Management and OKRs 32:32 Measuring Success and Feedback Mechanisms SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/@feliciashakiba?sub_confirmation=1 ABOUT FELICIA SHAKIBA: Felicia Shakiba, CEO and Podcast Host at CPO PLAYBOOK, is an executive coach with over 20 years in people strategy, impacting over 200,000 employees globally. She is a Harvard Business Review Council Member, Studied at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and advises organizations in tech, healthcare, life sciences, finance, and more. Her podcast is a top ranking show worldwide. PODCAST LINKS: Website: https://www.cpoplaybook.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cpo-playbook-with-felicia-shakiba/id1692423879 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1wTqXXnFfD6vWaitS8iYBe RSS: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/cpoplaybook Podcast Playlist:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0TewOJ3vwWFnPO_6cPX-EvNgYbn4cQXz CONNECT WITH FELICIA SHAKIBA: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/feliciashakiba YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@feliciashakiba X: https://x.com/FeliciaShakiba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/feliciashakiba/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@feliciashakiba Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cpoplaybook

Drew Houston is the co-founder and CEO of Dropbox. Under his leadership, Dropbox has grown from a simple idea to a service used by over 700 million registered users globally, with a valuation exceeding $9 billion. Drew has led Dropbox through multiple phases, from explosive viral growth, to battling all the tech giants at once, to reinventing the company for the future of work. In our conversation, he opens up about:• The three eras of Dropbox's growth and evolution• The challenges he's faced over the past 18 years• What he learned about himself• How he's been able to manage his psychology as a founder• The importance of maintaining your learning curve• Finding purpose beyond metrics and growth• The micro, macro, and meta aspects of building companies• Much more—Brought to you by:• Paragon—Ship every SaaS integration your customers want• Explo—Embed customer-facing analytics in your product• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security—Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/behind-the-founder-drew-houston-dropbox—Where to find Drew Houston:• X: https://x.com/drewhouston• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewhouston/—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Drew and Dropbox(04:44) The three eras of Dropbox(07:53) The first era: Viral growth and early success(14:19) The second era: Challenges and competition(20:49) Strategic shifts and refocusing(29:36) Personal reflections and leadership lessons(40:19) Unlocking mindfulness and building support systems(43:14) The Enneagram test(50:35) The challenges of being a founder CEO(58:11) The third era: Rebooting the team and core business(01:22:41) Lessons and advice for aspiring founders(01:27:46) Balancing personal and professional growth(01:42:38) Final reflections and future outlook—Referenced:• Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/• Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/• Paul Graham's website: https://www.paulgraham.com/• Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/• Arash Ferdowsi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arashferdowsi/• Sequoia Capital: https://www.sequoiacap.com/• Pejman Nozad on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pejman/• Mike Moritz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelmoritz/• TechCrunch Disrupt: https://techcrunch.com/events/tc-disrupt-2024/• Dropbox viral demo: https://youtu.be/7QmCUDHpNzE• Digg: https://digg.com/• Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/• Hadi and Ali Partovi: https://www.partovi.org/• Zynga: https://www.zynga.com/• Steve Jobs announces Apple's iCloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilnfUa_-Rbc• Dropbox Carousel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox_Carousel• Dropbox Is Buying Mega-Hyped Email Startup Mailbox: https://www.businessinsider.com/dropbox-is-buying-mega-hyped-email-startup-mailbox-2013-3• 5 essential questions to craft a winning strategy | Roger Martin (author, advisor, speaker): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-ultimate-guide-to-strategy-roger-martin• Intel: https://www.intel.com/• Gordon Moore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Moore• Netscape: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape• Myspace: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myspace• Bill Campbell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Campbell_(business_executive)• Enneagram type descriptions: https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-descriptions/• The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: https://www.themyersbriggs.com/en-US/Products-and-Services/Myers-Briggs• Brian Chesky's new playbook: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/brian-cheskys-contrarian-approach• Ben Horowitz on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz• Why Read Peter Drucker?: https://hbr.org/2009/11/why-read-peter-drucker• GitLab: https://about.gitlab.com/• Automattic: https://automattic.com/• Dropbox Dash: https://www.dash.dropbox.com/• Welcome Command E to Dropbox: https://blog.dropbox.com/topics/company/welcome-command-e-to-dropbox-• StarCraft: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarCraft_(video_game)• Procter & Gamble and the Beauty of Small Wins: https://hbr.org/2009/10/the-beauty-of-small-wins• Teaching Smart People How to Learn: https://hbr.org/1991/05/teaching-smart-people-how-to-learn—Recommended books:• Guerrilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business: https://www.amazon.com/Guerilla-Marketing-Inexpensive-Strategies-Business/dp/0618785914• Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works: https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Win-Strategy-Really-Works/dp/142218739X• High Output Management: https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884/• Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company: https://www.amazon.com/Only-Paranoid-Survive-Exploit-Challenge/dp/0385483821• Zone to Win: Organizing to Compete in an Age of Disruption: https://www.amazon.com/Zone-Win-Organizing-Compete-Disruption/dp/1682302113• Warren Buffett's books: https://www.amazon.com/warren-buffett-Books/s?k=warren+buffett&rh=n%3A283155• Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger: https://www.amazon.com/Poor-Charlies-Almanack-Essential-Charles/dp/1953953239• Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos: https://www.amazon.com/Invent-Wander-Collected-Writings-Introduction/dp/1647820715/• The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable: https://www.amazon.com/15-Commitments-Conscious-Leadership-Sustainable-ebook/dp/B00R3MHWUE—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Today on Equity, we're taking you on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt for Kirsten Korosec's conversation with Zoox co-founder and CEO Jesse Levinson. The pair discuss building custom robotaxis, how Zoox's approach compares to that of Tesla, and the 'current and future landscape' of AI on wheels. It's also worth noting that Amazon-owned Zoox recently scooped up some of Tesla's top talent, bringing on Zheng Gao late last month to lead hardware engineering. Equity will be back on Friday with a full CES recap, so don't miss it! Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. We'd also like to thank our illustrator, Bryce Durbin, and the TechCrunch audience development team.

For this week's episode, we're sharing a bonus conversation from backstage at this year's TechCrunch Disrupt. Tim De Chant talked with Areeb Malik, co-founder and CTO of Glacier; Allison Wolff, co-founder and CEO of Vibrant Planet, and Hyuk-Jeen Suh, co-founder of Venx and general partner at SkyRiver Ventures. On stage the panel discussed how a startup can balance doing good with delivering the financial returns they need to keep the lights on. They continue in that vein for this bonus conversation as they dive deep into how successful founder have built profitable companies that are good for the world.

At this year's TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco,  President and CEO of the Aerospace Corporation Steve Isakowitz and Agency Chief Technologist at NASA A.C. Charanya Charania took the stage to discuss a literal moonshot: how to build a thriving lunar ecosystem. Today on Equity, we're taking you behind the scenes of TechCrunch Disrupt once again, this time with Devin Coldewey at the helm. For those keeping track, Devin's kept the Equity podcast crew up to date on space startups over the past few months, including Starfish Space's $29 million round and, more recently, SpaceX's second commercial deal for the Starship lunar lander with Lunar Outpost.Listen to the full conversation to hear Devin and Steve Isakowitz discuss: What the path ahead looks like for space startupsThe shift away from government-dominated space programs to a more commercial landscapeAnd what's in store for Aerospace Corporation in 2025.Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate, and we'll be back on Friday for a special episode from our sister podcast, Found.Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Colin Fowler and guest host John Fuller visit TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Listen in as they meet and mingle with the foremost startup entrepreneurs.2:12 Metal Light – is a clean-tech startup that advances metal-air technology and develops clean and sustainable power generators.9:50 BANF – is a Korea-based company that uses sensors to collect data on tire pressure, temperature, tread wear, wheel alignment, and even lug nut stability.17:36 Rarefied – is developing a novel propulsion mechanism that allows lightweight platforms to fly in near-space (30 km-100 km altitudes) using only sunlight.28:10 Tensor Tech – specializes in guidance, navigation, and control for satellites. 36:55 Solideon – is a manufacturing entity capable of crafting any aerospace vehicle.47:23 Witching Hour – creates low-cost, rapid, and effective forest fire mitigation technology, with the mission of ending forest fires.53:34 - SkiiMoo Tech – is the first ultra-humanistic prosthetic penis that can go from flaccid to erect at the push of a button via a smartphone or smartwatch.01:00 Posha – is transforming how the world eats healthy by building cooking robots for the home.

In this conversation I'm joined by Zumper Co-founder and CEO, Anthemos Georgiades. We discuss the evolving landscape of the rental market, highlighting the record supply of rental units in 2024 and the implications for renters and property management companies. I was excited to discuss the latest partnership between Zumper and Airbnb, exploring how this collaboration reflects the convergence of long-term and short-term rental markets. Anthemos has been in the trenches of this industry for quite a few years, stays in the data, and have some interesting outlooks for the industry to come. Do not miss this important episode! More about Anthemos and ZumperAfter standing in the rain in London to try and get an apartment in his 20s, Anthemos realized how antiquated yet massive the rental industry was. So, Zumper was founded in 2012 in San Francisco, kicking off at TechCrunch Disrupt, to modernize the rental industry and they are now the largest privately owned rental platform in North America. Zumper is the largest privately owned rental platform in North America with more than 76 million site visits a year. Zumper is on a mission to make renting a home as easy as booking a hotel. To date, Zumper has raised over $178 million from Kleiner Perkins, Goodwater Capital, Headline, Dawn Capital, and the Blackstone Group.Connect with Anthemos on LinkedInFollow Anthemos on TwitterFollow Zumper on TwitterCheck out Zumper

Today on Equity, we're taking you backstage at TechCrunch Disrupt. Rebecca Bellan caught up with  Rebecca Gevalt, Managing Partner at Dcode Capital following their onstage discussion about the boom in national interest startups. Also on the panel was Topher Haddad, CEO of satellite imagery startup Albedo, and Kai Klepfer, CEO of biometric gun startup Biofire. Tune in to hear Bellan and Gevalt dive deeper into how startups can get a foot in the door of government contracts. Check out the full onstage conversation here, and Equity will be back on Friday!Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast.   Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

This week we're taking you backstage at TechCrunch Disrupt. Becca Szkutak had the chance to talk with Dan Lorenc, the CEO and co-founder of cybersecurity startup Chainguard following their conversation on stage with prominent investors, The Chainsmokers. They discuss how the EDM duo's venture fund MANTIS went from being viewed skeptically by traditional VCs to becoming a highly sought-after investment partner in the B2B space, how Lorenc scaled the company in a difficult time for cybersecurity, and what value celebrity investors can add to a startup.Check out the full onstage conversation here.00:00 - Introduction02:27 - Chainguard: Company Overview and Open Source Security 05:27 - Google Background and Solar Winds Impact 08:02 - Building Chain Guard: Product Evolution 11:44 - Early Fundraising and Timing 12:53 - The Legendary Alex Pall Cold Emails 15:01 - MANTIS Investment Impact 16:11 - Company Growth and Future Plans 16:51 - Learning from Early Mistakes 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 TwitterOn InstagramVia email: found@techcrunch.com

CareYaya, a platform that matches people who need caregivers with healthcare students, is working to disrupt the caregiving industry. The startup, which exhibited as part of the Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt, is looking to enhance affordable in-home support, while also helping students prepare for their future healthcare careers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CoffeeSpace is on a mission to help people find partners for their startup ideas online. The startup, which exhibited as part of the Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, has launched a social networking app that matches people exploring startup ideas and looking for co-founders.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Many automakers have been shifting toward touchscreens embedded in their vehicles' dashboards and away from dedicated physical buttons. While it may enable more potential features, it could also make driving less safe and possibly more annoying. But one company makes it sound like touchscreens are here to stay, at least until the industry moves onto the new thing.Wassym Bensaid, chief software officer at EV maker Rivian, spoke this week at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 and addressed in-vehicle buttons, calling them an “anomaly.”“It's a bug. It's not a feature,” he told the crowd. “Ideally, you would want to interact with your car through voice. The problem today is that most voice assistants are just broken.”Download and listen to the audio version below and click here to subscribe to the Today in Manufacturing podcast.

This was the week of Techcrunch Disrupt, one of San Francisco's biggest technology events of the year. That Was The Week publisher Keith Teare attended Disrupt this year and, as he explained in our weekly round up of tech news, the event - which was attended by over 10,000 people - only confirmed to him that we are living in profoundly disruptive technology times. And yet, as Keith and I discuss, the more things change in technology, the more things seem to stay the same in politics. So while AI is radically disrupting the world, next week's election is, essentially, a rerun of the Biden-Trump race from four years ago. So will new Silicon Valley technology ever successfully disrupt politics? Or will American tech and American politics continue to exist in surreally parallel universes?Keith Teare is the founder and CEO of SignalRank Corporation. Previously, he was executive chairman at Accelerated Digital Ventures Ltd., a U.K.-based global investment company focused on startups at all stages. Teare studied at the University of Kent and is the author of “The Easy Net Book” and “Under Siege.” He writes regularly for TechCrunch and publishes the “That Was The Week” newsletter.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

As the founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, Peter Beck is a familiar face to anyone in the space industry. But the company's ambitions go far beyond its popular Electron launch vehicle.Today, we're bringing you an interview from TechCrunch Disrupt when Devin Coldewey sat down with Beck to discuss his belief that to thrive, perhaps even to survive, space companies will have to become fully integrated one-stop shops.Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Space executives took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Monday to talk about the challenges and opportunities of building out dual-use technology, or tech that has both a defense and a commercial use case.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Say thanks and learn more about our podcast sponsor Omnisend. In this episode of The WP Minute, Brian Coords and I unpacked Matt Mullenweg's recent interview at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 with Connie Loizos. What struck me most was how this wasn't just another tech conference appearance - it was a deep dive into the ongoing controversy between Automattic and WP Engine. The interview revealed several surprising details, including how Automattic was "kicked out" as an investor in WP Engine in 2018 during the Silver Lake acquisition, and the potential for this legal battle to stretch into 2026-2027.https://youtu.be/Bq_Gny09JzUConnie's interviewing style was refreshingly direct, pushing for clarity on issues that many in the WordPress community have been afraid to address. She repeatedly pressed Matt on the 8% revenue request and the criteria for determining when a company has crossed the line with trademark usage. While Matt was open about many aspects, some key questions remained unanswered, particularly about the specific threshold that would trigger similar actions against other WordPress-based businesses.Key Takeaways for WordPress Professionals:Be cautious with WordPress/WP branding in your business nameConsider your contribution strategy to the WordPress ecosystemStay aware of the distinction between wordpress.org and WordPress FoundationMonitor how this might affect plugin repository policiesKeep an eye on trademark usage guidelinesConsider diversifying your business strategy beyond WordPress-dependent brandingImportant URLs Mentioned:Matt Mullenweg: The Future of WordPress and the WebConnie LoizosBrian CoordsSupport WP MinuteSubscribe to our newsletter ★ Support this podcast ★

A new startup setting out to combat the scourge of deepfakes and spoofed evidence in the age of AI is showing off its wares on the Startup Battlefield stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 this week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new startup setting out to combat the scourge of deepfakes and spoofed evidence in the age of AI is showing off its wares on the Startup Battlefield stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 this week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Equity crew was live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024! Hosts Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey and Margaux MacColl took over the Builders Stage to kick off day 2 of Disrupt with no shortage of conference highlights, startups deals and venture news to chew through.Listen to the full episode to hear about:Devin's plans to go to space thanks to his chat with Rocket Lab Founder Peter Beck.What Sierra, the AI startup co-founded by Bret Taylor, plans to do with its fresh $175 million funds.Waymo's who's who of Silicon Valley round, and why Kirsten's routing for the robotaxis over the competition.How General Catalyst is breaking down its latest fund and setting its sights on European startups.Equity will be back with a special interview episode on Friday, so stay tuned!Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Recorded live from TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, Found co-hosts Becca Szkutak and Dominic Davis sit down with Kai Kloepfer, CEO of Biofire, a smart gun company that aims to prevent firearm misuse. Kloepfer gets into the hurdles of building a hardware startup in the firearm industry from fundraising to building a reliable product. Please note this conversation deals with topics around gun violence and suicide.  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 TwitterOn InstagramVia email: found@techcrunch.com

It's no secret that Stripe has doubled down on its crypto offerings, enabling crypto purchases in the EU back in July and announcing a Pay with Crypto feature earlier this month. This week, the fintech giant made its dedication to crypto even clearer with its largest deal to date: its acquisition of stablecoin platform Bridge for an eye-popping $1.1 billion. Today on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha and Devin Coldewey kicked off the show with their thoughts on the deal – mainly how surprising it is to see anyone spending over $1 billion on crypto in 2024.But of course, there was so much more startup and venture news for the crew to get into this week. Listen to the full episode for more about:Mobileye founder and CEO Amnon Shashua's latest startupA 3D metal printing startup's $14 million round from Boeing's AE Ventures and NvidiaAndreessen Horowitz's plans to provide its portfolio companies with Nvidia GPUsAnd who we're expecting to see at TechCrunch's Disrupt 2024.Equity will be live at Disrupt on Tuesday, so we'll see you there! Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Experiential and cognitive diversity help a team thrive. Specifically, an organizational culture that welcomes neurodivergent people limits groupthink risks and helps to foster innovation, translating into a competitive edge. To reap these benefits, companies are realizing they need to do more to both support their existing neurodivergent employees and recruit more.In this episode, author, cognitive scientist and neurodivergent business leader Maureen Dunne joins Wesley and Kim to discuss the benefits neurodiverse employees bring to the workplace and how leaders can build a culture that allows them to succeed. DR. MAUREEN DUNNE is a bestselling author, cognitive scientist, global keynote speaker, faculty member, board director, and neurodivergent business leader driving systems change in business, technology, education, and public policy.As CEO of Autism Community Ventures, a neurodiversity consultancy firm, Dr. Dunne has been retained by some of the world's top brands, Fortune 500 companies, leading start-ups, and global non-profit organizations as a neurodiversity expert and organizational change leader with over two decades of experience.Her work has been featured widely in major media, including Forbes, Bloomberg, MIT Sloan Management Review, Fast Company, Big Think, Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, SHRM, TechCrunch, People Management Magazine, Chicago Tribune, DiversityQ, UNLEASH, Guy Kawasaki's Remarkable People, and Inside Higher Ed. Dr. Dunne has been a Keynote Speaker at the United Nations, Stanford University, London Tech Week, the National Science Foundation, and other prominent venues. She has also served as a featured speaker at The Atlantic Festival, the Global Education Summit, TechCrunch Disrupt, The Next Web Conference, Cornell University, Young Presidents' Organization (YPO), and LEGO Foundation.Maureen is also the author of the 2024 bestselling book, The Neurodiversity Edge. The Neurodiversity Edge made the USA Today National Bestseller List (Top 150 books across all genres), Barnes & Noble Top 100 Books, Porchlight Book Company's Business Book Bestseller List, as well as #1 New Bestseller in several categories on Amazon, including Human Resources and Personell Management, Business Diversity & Inclusion and Autism Spectrum Disorders. SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) selected Dr. Dunne's book as one of twelve to feature on its recommended 2024 summer reading list. It was also selected as an Editor Pick at Audible to be featured during Neurodiversity Acceptance Month.She is the first community college graduate to be awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship for study at New College, Oxford and is a former National Science Foundation Fellow. She currently serves as a faculty affiliate at the Discovery Partners Institute, a billion-dollar public/private partnership to drive economic development through business innovation and entrepreneurship and as an advisory board member at Cornell University. She is the former President of the Illinois Community College Trustees Association where she drove the legislative and policy agenda for the state of Illinois, the third largest community college system in the United States with 48 member colleges, serving over 700,000 students. At the national level, she represents the interests of more than 12 million students in the USA and beyond. In these leadership roles, she has driven real-world change in workforce development, education, and policy, paving new economic opportunity pathways for neurodivergent people around the world.She received joint BA/MA degrees from the University of Chicago, her MSc from the London School of Economics, and her doctorate from the University of Oxford, where she attended as a Rhodes Scholar.About Maureen Dunne

Neobanks are reshaping the banking sector with expanding membership and revenue. Notable neobank leaders, Jason Wilk of Dave and Colin Walsh of Varo Bank, will present at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San Francisco. Dave Bank has 10 million members and reported $73.7 million in revenue for the first quarter, while Varo Bank serves 7 million members with revenues of approximately $129 million. The executives will explain their growth strategies in a competitive market and provide insights into their visions for digital banking. TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 will occur from October 28 to October 30 at the Moscone Center, attracting over 10,000 industry leaders to discuss trends such as AI, SaaS, and space.Learn more on this news visit us at: https://greyjournal.net/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stan Rapp is a Ukrainian product designer who currently resides in the US. With 15 years of experience in design, including a decade in design leadership roles, Stan is currently leading a mission-critical design team at Asana. Before Asana, Stan scaled design teams at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Ford. Stan has won multiple design awards, including SF Design Week, TechCrunch Disrupt, Red Dot, and Innovation by Design from FastCompany. In this eye-opening episode of Nodes of Design, we dive deep into the world of workplace dynamics with Stan Rapp, a Ukrainian product designer leading mission-critical teams at Asana. With 15 years of experience and a track record of scaling design teams at major organizations, Stan offers invaluable insights on navigating power and politics at work. Discover: Strategies for effective conflict resolution Tips for navigating office politics while maintaining integrity Real-life stories of power dynamics in action The impact of company structure on team dynamics Future trends in workplace power structures with the rise of hybrid work and AI Whether you're a design professional, team leader, or anyone looking to advance their career, Stan's practical advice and personal experiences will equip you with the tools to thrive in today's complex work environments. Don't miss this candid discussion on the often unspoken realities of professional life. Get a Copy of the Nodes of Wisdom: Lesson from 100 Creative Visionaries on Amazon - https://amzn.in/d/02yZPlUj Thank you for listening to this episode of Nodes of Design. We hope you enjoy the Nodes of Design Podcast on your favorite podcast platforms- Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and many more. If this episode helped you understand and learn something new, please share and join the knowledge-sharing community Spreadknowledge. This podcast aims to make design education accessible to all. Nodes of Design is a non-profit and self-sponsored initiative by Tejj.

The Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 features entrepreneurs presenting their innovations to venture capitalists. The event occurs from October 28 to 30 in San Francisco, attracting numerous applicants. The first group of judges includes five venture capitalists: Erin from Pivotal Ventures, Eylul from Gradient Ventures, Victor from Benchmark, Ana from Pear VC, and Corinne from Greylock. These judges will assess startups and provide feedback based on company viability criteria. The winner of Startup Battlefield will receive a $100,000 equity-free prize.Learn more on this news visit us at: https://greyjournal.net/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 will occur from October 28 to 30 in San Francisco. This event allows thousands of applicants to pitch ideas to experienced venture capitalists who will evaluate the startups and provide crucial feedback. A panel of investors will judge the pitches, including Morgan from NFX, Shravan from IVP, Jon from Insight Partners, Sharon from Atomic, and Sangeen from GV. The judges bring diverse expertise, focusing on blockchain strategy, enterprise applications, software management, company building, and AI investments. The winner of the competition will receive a $100,000 equity-free prize.Learn more on this news visit us at: https://greyjournal.net/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 will introduce an AI Stage on October 30, featuring sessions and speakers such as Alexandr Wang and Aravind Srinivas. Srinivas will discuss Perplexity's AI-powered search engine, while Wang will reflect on Scale AI's growth and role in generative AI. Experts like Pamela San Martin and Imran Ahmed will tackle the misuse of generative AI for deepfakes and disinformation. Ali Farhadi and Irene Solaiman will debate open versus closed AI models. A panel with Sarah Myers West, Jingna Zhang, and Ben Zhao will address ethical and legal challenges in AI, focusing on issues faced by companies and content creators. Mikey Shulman and Amit Jain will explore the market for generative media and support for artists. TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 occurs from October 28-30 in San Francisco, aiming to provide essential resources for startups.Learn more on this news visit us at: https://greyjournal.net/news/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Manuela Seve is the CEO and co-founder of Alphaa.io, a Web3 company with a majority of female employees changing the way we think of asset ownership by connecting the physical and digital realms via blockchain certification.  Using Web3 to help brands build community and loyalty, her clients include major sports teams and fashion powerhouses. Brazilian-born and Los Angeles-based, Manuela has been a thought leader in the tech and collectibles sector for the past 8 years. She was named by Bloomberg in 2022 one of the top 100 influential Latinos worldwide, as well as 33 under 33 entrepreneurs in 2018. She has moderated and led panels on Web3 at major industry events including the Bushwick film festival, Stanford GSB, L'Attitude, NFT LA & NYC, and more. Her panel submission, “NFTs for Real World Problems,” won TechCrunch Disrupt's Audience Choice Award in 2022.

Ryan is the founder of Accelerate Design Company. He's a Product and Design leader who brought food photography, live-order tracking, and remote driver training to DoorDash, launched step-function improvements to Airbnb's checkout, messaging, search, and host calendar products, and launched products at TechCrunch Disrupt, Dreamforce, and WWDC. Ryan has led teams of all sizes, from two to 200, and is now advising companies on product management, design, and go-to-market strategy, as well as helping mid-career designers develop business skills to do more influential work and have more meaningful careers.Timestamps:00:00 – Intro02:39 – Ryan's career and his thoughts on design education08:03 – Describing the ROI of Design – his course for designers14:57 – Gaining credibility by connecting design to business metrics24:17 – Tailoring tactics for your specific environment28:28 – Pursuing stakeholders through building good relationships with them30:45 – How does Design work at the different companies he worked 39:00 – The befits of scrapping incremental testing43:34 – Assessing the quality of a team before joining47:15 – On Accelerate Design company, his new business53:06 – End of show questions.Connect with RyanLinkedIn, Accelerate DesignSelected links from the episodeDescribing the ROI of Design, Ryan's course

Today — ahead of the relaunch of our Wednesday episode that we discussed earlier this week — we have an interview to share featuring TechCrunch's very own Morgan Sung and Shruti Dwivedi, the co-founder and CEO of health-tech startup, Duly.Duly took part in TechCrunch Disrupt's 2023 Battlefield cohort, showing a global audience its contraceptive care platform that is initially targeted at the Indian market.Why India? The company cites a large, young population in the country with more than 700 million people under the age of 30. However, Duly also reports that fewer than 15% of Indians have access to sexual education. Even more, the startup notes that condom usage in the country is modest at best, and nearly half of young, unmarried women felt “judged when seeking contraception.”Put that all together, there's a massive market gap that Duly wants to bridge.Sexual wellness is not a small market, naturally, and other startups are active in the space. News broke late last year, for example, that Evofem Biosciences — which makes Phexxi, a non-hormonal contraceptive gel — found a buyer after financial struggles. Changes to American law regarding abortion make it clear that access to contraceptive care is critical for women around the world.A big thanks to Morgan for the interview, Mary Ann for the intro, and Theresa and Kell for the edit and production!For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity's Simplecast website.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more! Credits: Equity is hosted by Editor in Chief of TechCrunch+ Alex Wilhelm and TechCrunch Senior Reporter Mary Ann Azevedo. We are produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Episode 317 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Deon Nicholas, CEO & Co-Founder of Forethought. I was at a couple of networking events the other week and let's just say the word AI was brought up many, many times. Yes, we are in a major shift in terms of a tech platform, but doesn't it feel like some companies are forcing AI into their business model or solution… versus an organic solution. Well, this is not the case for Forethought where AI has been core to their platform since the beginning. Forethought is a leading Generative AI company providing customer service solutions that transform the customer experience. The company has raised over $92M in VC funding from top investors. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A discussion around AI and how it should be organically applied to a business and not forced. * Deon's background story including how he got involved in AI back in high school and getting his career started at Dropbox and Pure Storage. * The background story of Forethought and how they ended up pitching at and winning TechCrunch Disrupt. * How Forethought is disrupting the customer service industry and why AI as a solution makes sense. * The current state of the company and future outlook. * The importance of storytelling for raising capital, hiring, sales, etc. * And so much more.

Today, we're bringing you another conversation from TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, when Alex sat down with Serhii Bohoslovskyi, the founder of no-code app-builder Trible. Trible is a no-code software product that helps folks construct online courses. We love Disrupt because it gives us lots of room to chat with founders that we might otherwise have missed. We even had a dedicated podcasting area! Expect even more of this sort of chat in the future.Here's what we got into with Bohoslovskyi:The state of the creator economy now that the hype has somewhat worn off the product category. How are creators doing today?The use of no-code tooling today, and how it is received by non-technical creators.And the state of startups that have roots in Ukraine, given that the nation is currently defending itself from external invasion.Talking to founders never, ever gets boring. That's all for us today, and we'll be back on Friday! For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity's Simplecast website.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more!

TechCrunch Disrupt hosted Ryan and a top-notch panel for a conversation on the increasing importance of commercial stakeholders in the exercise of military power in and from space. It features John Plumb, the first assistant secretary of defense for space policy; Mandy Vaughn, the CEO and founder of GXO, Inc.; and Gen. James H. Dickinson, the commander of U.S. Space Command. Listen to their discussion, which was recorded in September. Thanks to TechCrunch for allowing us to use this recording.  

Today on Equity, we're bringing you two bonus conversations all about sustainability in fashion from TechCrunch Disrupt 2023. First up you'll hear our very own Harri Weber sit down with three guests: Jim Ajioka from Colorifix, Beth Esponnette from unspun and Julie Willoughby from Circ. They are all powerhouses in sustainable fashion and they all happened to join Harri on the Sustainability Stage. Watch their full conversation here. In part two, we have a great conversation between TechCrunch's Morgan Sung and Jemima Bunbury from BLEND, a curated fashion app that is changing the way we shop online. BLEND uses AI-powered personalized recommendations to help customers quickly and easily find products that suit their style, size and budget. Their goal is to prevent impulse purchases, and of course, make it possible to stay trendy and shop sustainably.Here's what our guests are diving into:Fixing the fashion supply chain so all the materials are created in a sustainable wayHelping consumers find products that will lastEnticing larger brands to shift to sustainable practicesWhy a holistic approach to sustainable fashion is crucial when trying to eliminate waste in the industryThat's all for us today, but we'll catch up again on Monday!For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity's Simplecast website.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more!

For this week's episode, we're re-sharing Jacquelyn's conversation with Tiago Sada, head of product for Tools for Humanity and core contributor to Worldcoin, at TechCrunch's Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco. The saga behind Sam Altman's departure from OpenAI has been a whirlwind, but his involvement in his crypto project Tools for Humanity, the team building Worldcoin, is uninterrupted, a source close to the matter told TechCrunch. Given that OpenAI is the talk of the town this week — we thought it would be a great idea to resurface this episode to give listeners a refresher on Worldcoin. In this conversation we cover we talk about Tools for Humanity, which is the team building Worldcoin, raised $115 million in a Series C round back in May with investors like Blockchain Capital, a16z, Bain Capital Crypto and Distributed Global. In March 2022, Worldcoin raised $100 million at a $3 billion valuation.The project was co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman with a three part mission to create a global ID, a global currency and an app that enables payments, purchases and transfers with its token. Worldcoin has been on a world tour since April, hitting major cities like Tokyo, Miami, New York City and San Francisco. It has also set up shop in major cities in countries like Kenya, India and China. We dive into why someone would scan their eyes, alternate options and privacy concerns some skeptics have about the project. We also talked about: Global adoption of WorldcoinKenya 'indefinitely'' pausing Worldcoin iris scansProjects' biggest challenges for growthHow AI can fit into WorldcoinFuture opportunities and roadmapsChain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on  Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

Meet Stan Rapp, a name in the design world who transitioned from being a self-taught designer to leading Enterprise Design at Asana. Before his current role, Stan shaped product design at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. On top of his design expertise, he's a certified coach and a recent graduate of UPenn's Executive Design Leadership program. Specializing in design strategy and co-creation, he's particularly interested in designing for emotions and behavior change. A native of Ukraine, now residing in the SF Bay Area, Stan has shared his insights at several notable conferences, including The Next Web and Adobe. He has also won awards from SF Design Week and TechCrunch Disrupt.

Today on Found, we have something a little different and extra special for you. We're bringing you two bonus conversations all about sustainability in fashion from TechCrunch Disrupt 2023. First up you'll hear our very own Harri Weber sit down with three guests, Jim Ajioka from Colorifix, Beth Esponnette from unspun and Julie Willoughby from Circ. They are all powerhouses in sustainable fashion and they all happened to join Harri on the Sustainability Stage. Watch their full conversation here. In part two, we have a great conversation between TechCrunch's Morgan Sung and Jemima Bunbury from BLEND, which is a curated fashion app that is changing the way we shop online. They focus on impulse purchases, how to help customers develop their own style and, of course, how we can make it possible to stay trendy and shop sustainably.Some topics they covered include:Fixing the fashion supply chain so all the materials are created in a sustainable wayHelping consumers find products that will lastEnticing larger brands to shift to sustainable practicesWhy a holistic approach to sustainable fashion is crucial when trying to eliminate waste in the industry

Join host Colin Fowler and guest host Suzana Gadzo as they travel the floor at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 to meet inspiring entrepreneurs committed to creating innovation's next wave.Your guided tour begins here:Toi Labs - 00:59: provides early detection and health monitoring through advanced toilet technology.Plantiga - 08:28: is a human analytics company focused on gait analytics, sensors, and instrumented footwear. PetNow - 16:35: is a biometric pet ID that utilizes a unique pattern of a dogs' noses and cats' faces to help find lost pets.Simpleem - 24:10: builds Artificial Emotional Intelligence (AEI) designed to apply AI for humanizing interactions and leverage behavior for success.Helm.AI - 34:48: develops and licenses AI software throughout the L2-L4 autonomous driving stack: perception, intent modeling, path planning and vehicle control.Aviant - 43:28: is a last-mile drone home delivery service.

Matt is the Co-Founder of Omneky. His company raised $11m and presented at Techcrunch Disrupt in 2022 (before the generative AI wave!)In August 2021, Matt joined Omneky as a Chief Business Officer.The first month went well. Working side by side with the founder Hikari they hit record numbers.The second month he took full responsibility. And sales crashed…The calendar was nearly empty, leads weren't inquiring and he started to worry.But he quickly fell back on his years of experience at AT&T and worked hard to uncover the reasons for this.Matt and I discuss short-term fluctuations in lead enquiries, and what the best strategies are to make sure you are networking properly and building trust with your contacts.He soon understood that short sprints of pressure can stimulate innovative thinking, but it is crucial to allow for periods of rest to prevent burnout.In today's episode, we also talk about:Understanding short-term fluctuations and how to combat themThe importance of networking and the power of reconnecting with old contactsThe impact of generative AI on the content landscapeTune in and listen to Matt's journey, a lesson about the unpredictability of market fluctuations and the importance of testing different messaging strategies consistently.This discussion is a humane, insightful, and personal exploration of the world of startups, sales, networking, and AI technology.Want to know how Future Fit you are? Take 3 mins to benchmark yourself with our Founder Fitness Test on peer-effect.com. You might discover some surprising gaps! Or just follow James on LinkedIn for more thoughts around coaching and being future fit.

This week we're bringing you a conversation with Hilary Mason from Hidden Door, an AI-driven narrative game engine. This mini-episode recorded in person at TechCrunch Disrupt and Dom and Hilary get into how generative AI is changing online gaming, building a team of creatives, and fundraising in the gaming space. Found posts every Friday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity, and Chain Reaction.Connect with us:On TwitterOn InstagramVia email: found@techcrunch.com

For this week's episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Grace Torrellas, Polygon Labs' VP of product and zkEVM product lead and co-founder and executive director of Blockchain for Humanity, at TechCrunch's Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco.Blockchain for Humanity aims to use Bitcoin and blockchain technology to help social impact projects. Separately, Polygon Labs is focused on the Ethereum blockchain through its own scaling protocols to make the web3 ecosystem more “affordable, secure and sustainable.” The chain also aims to grow the zero-knowledge ethereum virtual machine (zkEVM) space. Breaking it down for you: zkEVM is just fancy jargon for scalable smart contracts that are compatible with Ethereum and supports a type of computation known as “zero-knowledge proofs,” that verify each transaction. Polygon Labs has over 2.9 billion total transactions since inception in 2017. The Polygon network works with web3 organizations like Aave, Uniswap and OpenSea as well as big name brands like Disney and Starbucks. We talked about her work at both Polygon and Blockchain for humanity and how humanitarian work can be advanced in the web3 space. We also discussed: Scaling businesses with blockchain tech‘Aha' moments in web3 Opportunities in social impact Polygon's ecosystem growth Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

For this week's episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Tiago Sada, head of product for Tools for Humanity and core contributor to Worldcoin, at TechCrunch's Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco.Tools for Humanity, which is the team building Worldcoin, raised $115 million in a Series C round back in May with investors like Blockchain Capital, a16z, Bain Capital Crypto and Distributed Global. In March 2022, Worldcoin raised $100 million at a $3 billion valuation.The project was co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman with a three part mission to create a global ID, a global currency and an app that enables payments, purchases and transfers with its token. Worldcoin has been on a world tour since April, hitting major cities like Tokyo, Miami, New York City and San Francisco. It has also set up shop in major cities in countries like Kenya, India and China. We dive into why someone would scan their eyes, alternate options and privacy concerns some skeptics have about the project. We also talked about: Global adoption of Worldcoin Kenya 'indefinitely'' pausing Worldcoin iris scansProjects' biggest challenges for growth How AI can fit into Worldcoin Future opportunities and roadmaps Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on  Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

Equity is back from Disrupt and  fired up for the rest of the year. Here's what Alex got into today:Stocks are not peppy to start the week, while crypto prices have also moderated in recent days.Alex could not not talk about the Cisco-Splunk deal, mostly to promise that he'll finish that post today come hell or high water.The Amazon + Anthropic news is the biggest item of the day. A $1.25 billion deal that could stretch to $4 billion is no small fee. And with Google and Amazon and Anthropic tied up and Microsoft buddied to OpenAI we could be seeing big tech choosing sides in the LLM model war.Meta is building AI chatbots, while Apple is working to build more stuff in India.To close out, Correcto's neat round, and the finalists from Startup Battlefield 2023 — more on the winner of Battlefield here.For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity's Simplecast website.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more!

The Equity crew is back with another live recording from the Moscone Center in San Francisco for TechCrunch Disrupt 2023. Alex, Kirsten and Becca sat down to recap a very busy (and dare we say successful) event, and walk through our favorite moments for the listeners who couldn't make it out this year.Here's what we got into:Providing early liquidity to founders and employeesWhat advice VCs are giving their early stage founders Why Cruise might join the call to ban human drivers in city centersAnd why Shaq can do whatever he wants.We recorded shortly before the winner of Startup Battlefield was announced, but you can get caught up on that here.Now, it's time to fly back home. Equity will be back to our regularly scheduled programing bright and early Monday morning! Talk then.For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity's Simplecast website.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more!

For this week's episode, Jacquelyn did a live interview with Chris Lehane, chief strategy officer at Haun Ventures, at TechCrunch's Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco.Prior to joining the firm, Chris was an executive at Airbnb. He also co-founded a strategic consultancy firm, Fabiani & Lehane, that advised political, corporate, technology, entertainment and professional sports clients. In the 1990s, Chris held various government roles like press secretary to Vice President Al Gore and was special assistant counsel to President Bill Clinton.After a number of decades working across different industries, Chris landed in the world of crypto at Haun Ventures, a web3-focused venture capital firm that has two investment vehicles: a $500 million early stage fund and a $1 billion acceleration fund. Aside from Haun, he is also a member of Coinbase's Global Advisory Council.We discussed Haun's investment strategy amid U.S. and global regulatory challenges, how the firm advises portfolio companies to navigate the ever changing environment and whether Chris find's the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's regulation tactics productive, among other things. Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

We were live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023! Yes, even though our dear friend and colleague Mary Ann had to handle a family emergency, the larger Equity family rallied to put on a rollicking early-morning show at the venue. From the Builders' stage where Alex had to introduce himself, Kirsten Korosec and Becca Szkutak rounded out our hosting crew and we had a blast.Here's the rundown:Instacart went public! Finally, at last, at long last, Instacart is a public company. It priced at $30, the top-end of its raised range, and then went on to trade higher. More here, but a solid result.Joby is all-in on the Buckeye state: What has batteries and goes straight up? EVTOLs, apparently, even if that acronym is a big of a mouthful. Kirsten reports that a TechCrunch scoop was born out when Joby picked Ohio for its manufacturing hub. A lot of state-derived help did not hurt, either.Eldertech is a growth market: Becca wanted to talk about her latest Deal Dive, which was all about getting senior citizens to move for. Exercise is a pretty massive hack for a healthy body and life. We also had to point out that a graying world means that elder tech is only seeing expanding TAM.Writer brings back nine-figure joy! And to close out, Alex wanted to riff on the latest Writer round, which is building a generative AI service for other companies. With some demonstrated traction, and a model that we think seems well rounded, Writer is one to watch.Whew! The Equity crew is all over Disrupt for the next few days so make sure to say hello!For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity's Simplecast website.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews foundersand more!

This week, we brought TechCrunch+ senior climate reporter Tim De Chant on to talk climate tech, hardware breakthroughs, and why we have a whole stage this year at Disrupt focused on sustainability.On that last point, perhaps you have gone outside recently. Extreme weather around the world, warming oceans, fires — it's a mess out there. That's the bad news. The good news is that a number of startups are working hard to build new technologies that could shoothe our struggling planet. And perhaps make a lot of money in the process.Here's what we got into on the show:Climate tech venture capital activity. Why aren't we seeing more capital despite some interesting activity.The question of fusion. Is it really around the corner (this time)?Why we're both excited about potential hardware breakthroughs, even if LK-99 was not the real deal.Dread about our changing world.Tim is not only a great journalist, he's also very good at the whole science thing, so he was a treat to talk to!We're back on Friday for our last recording before we're on stage at Disrupt! Talk soon.For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity's Simplecast website.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more!

This is our Friday show, and we're talking about the week's biggest startup and tech news. Here's what Mary Ann, Alex and Kirsten Korosec got into:Nvidia blew the doors off with its earnings report. We talked through some of the high-level numbers and marveled at the company's growth. TechCrunch has more on the matter here.Ramp raises $300M: In this market, a multi-billion-dollar valuation is a win for a fintech, even if Ramp's new price tag is a bit lower than it was previously. So, while Ramp likely doesn't love that it raised a down-round, it does have fresh capital and is worth $5.8 billion. That's simply not that bad.Lex raised $2.75M: Alex covered AI-powered writing tool's Lex seed round. Kirsten got to give the app a try, and we all had nice things to say about the nascent startup.Northvolt is bringing its volts to North America: The global battery-building boom includes Swedish company Northvolt building a new facility in the United States. The company raised $1.2 billion from BlackRock.Better.com went public: Mary Ann interviewed the company's CEO ahead of its SPAC-led public market listing, which got panned.In the transit world, Cruise got its wings clipped in San Francisco after an accident involving a fire truck. Alex is annoyed. Mary Ann is not.This year's TechCrunch Battlefield 200 companies feature a lot of startups focused on excrement. We're not kidding.That's all from us this week. We are back Monday morning, chat then!For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity's Simplecast website.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews foundersand more!