Theresa Loconsolo

News that Jack Dorsey is out at Bluesky caused a stir this weekend. After all, Dorsey is a former Twitter co-founder and CEO, so his investment of time into the rival social network carried weight. The decentralized social networking service said that it is looking for a new board member. But while we had to talk about Dorsey’s latest on Equity today, it was far from the only topic we got to chat about. Past

Startups are not shying away from big projects. That’s my takeaway from news that The Browser Company’s Arc browser is now generally available for Windows users, just as Island raised a massive grip of capital for its enterprise-focused browser tool. It’s very encouraging to see startups going after core pieces of technology and not just the apps that sit atop platforms. Of course, Chromium still reigns supreme, but unseating that horse might take a while.

We’re off to an AI-heavy start to the week. OpenAI has a new deal with the Financial Times that caught our eye. Sure, it’s another content licensing deal, but there appears to be a bit more in the tie-up than just content flowing one way and money the other. We also dug into the xAI news that TechCrunch broke recently: Musk’s AI enterprise is not looking to raise $3 billion on a $15 billion valuation.

To some investors, “down round” is a dirty phrase, but not to Notable Capital’s Hans Tung. Hans is a managing partner at Notable Capital, formerly GGV Capital, a venture firm focusing on investments in the U.S., Latin America, Israel, and Europe. Hans, whose portfolio includes the likes of Airbnb, StockX and Slack, sat down with TechCrunch’s Equity podcast to discuss the overall state of venture and why he still believes down rounds can make a

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast and airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You can 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 interview transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, read on, or check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast.

When it comes to news items that we love at TechCrunch, IPOs rank pretty darn high. Another great newsy bit that comes along less frequently than we’d like is a startup buying another startup. These deals are often very interesting as they either bring a gob of talent or technology to an already growing company, potentially accelerating it. So it was with joy that the Equity Podcast crew dug into Automattic buying Beeper for $125

Ah, spring has sprung here in the Northeast United States, and it’s not only flowers that are blooming. No, startup-on-startup deals are the crop this season! Today on Equity’s startup-focused Wednesday show, we dug into the Multiverse-Searchlight deal, which reminded us of the Wonderschool-Early Day transaction that we covered on the show a few weeks ago. We also talked about the latest Guesty round, which was both large and interesting; the Monad Labs transaction that