Nothing wants your money, AWS wants your trust, and Spotify wants your data
AWS announced a wave of new AI agent tools at re:Invent 2025, but can Amazon actually catch up to the AI leaders? While the cloud giant is betting big on enterprise AI with its third-gen chip and database discounts that got developers cheering, it's still fighting to prove it can compete beyond infrastructure.
This week on Equity, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into the ROI on AI agents, plus the collision course between Hollywood and generative AI, and why everyone wants their own version of Spotify Wrapped.
Listen to the full episode to hear about:
Why Hollywood filmmakers are drawing hard lines between performance capture and AI, and another spiked attempt at AI regulation
Nothing's $5 million community funding round and whether letting consumers invest is genuine community-building or just IPO hype
Autolane's $7.4 million raise to build "air traffic control for robotaxis"
Wrapped battles from Spotify, YouTube, and others chasing their viral moment
Subscribe to Equity on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.
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29:51
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29:51
This VC charges $0 for PR, and has 12 unicorns to show for it
Tech is racing ahead while society struggles to keep up. Masha Bucher, founder and GP of Day One Ventures, built her firm around closing that gap by combining venture capital with hands-on PR to help portfolio companies not just raise money, but actually break through the noise.
Day One's been an early backer of companies like World, Superhuman, and Remote.com, with 12 of its portfolio companies hitting multibillion-dollar valuations.
Today on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan sat down with Bucher to talk about why traditional PR is broken, how she picks founders, and why every startup founder now needs to be chronically online.
Listen to the full episode to hear about:
Why Bucher thinks being a VC first makes her better at PR, and why the traditional PR model is "misaligned" for startups.
How she vets building teams and finds the “most exceptional founders.”
Why founders can't just pick one platform anymore, along with Bucher’s simple – and potentially contentious -- advice for getting started on social media.
Subscribe to Equity on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.
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32:00
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32:00
Supabase CEO on the "painful" decisions that built a $5B company
Vibe coding has taken the tech industry by storm, and it's not just the Lovables and Replits of the world that are winning. The startups building the infrastructure behind them are cashing in too.
Supabase, the open-source database platform that's become the backend of choice for the vibe-coding world, raised $100 million at a $5 billion valuation just months after closing $200 million at $2 billion. But co-founder and CEO Paul Copplestone has a surprising strategy: he keeps turning down million-dollar enterprise contracts, betting instead that vibe coding will birth the next generation of companies.
Today on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Julie Bort sat down with Copplestone to explore Supabase's rise and what it means for the database race.
Listen to the full episode to hear about:
Why Copplestone believes "the death of Oracle won't take a generation"
The technical moonshots Supabase is funding to make Postgres even more scalable
How he decides which enterprise deals to turn down, and why it still "feels very painful"
Subscribe to Equity on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.
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30:07
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30:07
The Nordic startup scene has quietly become one of tech’s fastest-growing hubs
Ten years ago, raising €1 million in Copenhagen was enough to make waves in the region’s tech scene. Today, the Nordics are turning out billion-dollar companies like Lovable — which hit $200M in revenue just 12 months after launching.
Dennis Green-Lieber, founder of AI-powered customer intelligence platform Propane, has had a front-row seat to that shift over the last 15 years. His take? The region's social safety net gives founders room to take real swings without putting their personal lives on the line, and they're accelerating faster than Silicon Valley as a result.
Today on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Dominic-Madori Davis caught up with Green-Lieber to talk about the Nordic startup ecosystem, from its collaborative culture to its deep tech future.
Listen to the full episode to hear about:
How Danish founders can access free quantum computing power and what that means for the region's deep tech ambitions
Why the cultural shift from "don't stick your neck out" is creating a new generation of globally ambitious founders
The hidden problem AI tools are creating for startups that can now ship products in days instead of months
Subscribe to Equity on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.
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27:37
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27:37
AI mania is making Nvidia a lot of money
AI companies are spending so much on infrastructure that Nvidia's data center business now brings in nearly $50 billion. But is this sustainable growth or just the latest tech mania? And should we even be calling it a "bubble" when the belief in AI's future is what's holding the whole ecosystem together?
This week on Equity, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into Nvidia's massive earnings beat, the circular economy of AI infrastructure spending, and whether Jensen Huang's optimistic vision of AI agents handling everything in our daily lives can justify the investment.
Listen to the full episode to hear about:
Jeff Bezos newest venture, an AI startup called Project Prometheus.
Suno's $2.5 billion valuation and $200 million raise despite facing lawsuits from three major music labels and what it says about investor confidence in AI music
Waymo's expansion to new cities and approval to hit the freeways. As well as updates on Zoox and Tesla.
Nvidia's 62% year-over-year revenue growth hitting $57 billion, and why their data center dominance makes them uniquely positioned in the AI ecosystem
Subscribe to Equity on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.
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The intersection of technology, startups, and venture capital touches everything now. That’s why Equity, TechCrunch's flagship podcast, digs into the business of startups for entrepreneurs and enthusiasts alike. Every Wednesday and Friday, TechCrunch reporters keep you up-to-date on the world of business, technology, and venture capital. Equity is ranked the No.2 podcast in the Top 100 Venture Capital All time leaderboard on Goodpods—As well as No.17 for the Top 100 Finance All time chart and No.32 for the Top 100 Business News All time chart.
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