A blog line is more than just a site of words. We are also building a growing series of podcasts focusing on the most critical topics related to the world of startups and venture capital. We’ve put together our audio output of the week to help you find the right show for your interests.
Embedded below is the latest from Chain Reaction, our new and awesome crypto-focused Podcast hosted by Lucas and Anita. You’ll also find Found, a lengthy piece that delves deep into Jordan and Darrell’s real-life saga of corporate formation. There’s an audio-only version of the blog line Life, hosted by Matt, with founders and investors discussing successful pitch decks. Finally, Equity, the blog line’s long-running, Webby-award-winning Podcast focused on venture capital and the latest startup news, is hosted by Natasha, Mary Ann, and Alex.
There’s more to come, so stay tuned. And if you’re more into written than the spoken word, we also have newsletters on the above topics.
chain reaction
Episode 5: Moonbirds Founder Talks Crypto Crash and Where NFTs Come From (with Kevin Rose)
Welcome back; this week, Lucas and Anita discuss turmoil and heartbreak in the crypto markets as Bitcoin and Ethereum are hit hard, several other popular tokens are crushed, and crypto-aligned public stocks like Coinbase and Robinhood see their share prices plummet. What caused this massacre? A major catalyst was the disastrous implosion of Terra’s Luna token due to ongoing problems with stablecoin.
In their interview this week, Lucas and Anita chatted with Kevin Rose. Kevin is a serial entrepreneur who founded Digg in the early 2000s and is now an investor with True Ventures and co-founder of the Proof Collective. His startup recently raised $10 million from Seven Seven Six and launched his NFT project Moonbirds, which has quickly become one of the most popular NFT endeavors. Listen in as we discuss the crypto crash, its implications, and the future challenges for NFTs.
Subscribe to the Chain Reaction newsletter to dive deeper.
The blog line Live Podcast
Episode 5: Collecting Monster Rounds for Self-Driving Mobility Startups
Raquel Urtasun founded Waabi in 2021 after serving nearly three years as Uber’s R&D head of the Advanced Technology Group (ATG). Waabi’s mission is to develop an AI-first approach to accelerate the commercial deployment of autonomous vehicles, starting with long-haul trucks. To do so, her company raised an $83.5 million Series A with Khosha Venture’s Sven Strohband leading the round. Both will talk about Urtasun’s unique (and impressive) perspective and what enabled the company to elevate the massive Series A.
This event can also be seen on YouTube. Check out the upcoming events here!
Found it
Episode 56: Sassie Duggleby, Venus Aerospace
Sassie Duggleby leads the Venus Aerospace team to develop a space plane that can go from LA to Tokyo in an hour. As CEO, Sassie sets the tone that her team doesn’t have to stick to the typical startup grind to solve serious deep tech problems. She chats with Darrell and Jordan about honoring the company’s namesake—Venus, the goddess of love—and loving her customers and employees as she works to bring the world closer together through greener, more efficient travel.
Equity
Episode 513: The Dominoes Are Falling
Welcome back to Equity, a startup business podcast where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Every Monday, Grace and Alex scan the news and take notes about what will happen to start the week.
Luckily we didn’t start the day again by talking about Elon Musk and Twitter, although the news was not good:
Shares have fallen sharply around the world. And crypto prices, which follow larger asset prices, are also sharply lower in the last day and week. The Uber CEO told his company that things were changing. Adjusted EBITDA is out, and FCF is in. Recruitment? Goes slow. Biggest Expenses? They get tougher looks, and so on. During the show, we asked about the slowdown and how it may or may not affect the booming crypto startup market. Neat rounds of funding from Pyramid, which raised $120 million, and Paymob, which raised $50 million.
Episode 514: Technical layoffs don’t happen to companies; they happen to people
This is our Wednesday show, where we focus on a single topic, think about a question, and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: What does the latest wave of layoffs mean for tech workers?
The question comes after Natasha’s recent Startups Weekly column, “The Great Resignation, meet the Great Reset.” In the piece, which featured an overview of recent tech layoffs, she explored the idea of worker whiplash and why this moment of withdrawal is different from what we saw in March 2020.
The episode’s purpose was to humanize the tech layoffs we’ve seen ripple across the startup ecosystem, from buzzing big names like Cameo, On Deck, and Robinhood to B2B platforms like Workrise and Thrasio. As our piece from last week pointed out, the common thread between most of these layoffs, according to the founders, is that there has been a shift in the market, and a serious linchpin in business is needed. A linchpin that is, hurting the workers who built your product after high demand.
Episode 515: How Close Are We To Understanding What’s Going On?
This week we recorded life, which is always fun, meaning we answered some questions from the audience. We’ve got a YouTube archive if you want that version of the show.
We’ve got you covered here for those who are more into audio. Natasha, Alex, and Grace teamed up with Julio and Yashad to host the shindig, which allowed us to cover the following:
The end of the iPod was a time to reflect on technology trends. The departure of a co-founder of Modern Fertility and the MARA round brought more money to the African fintech scene. From there, the Terra crash, the Coin base’s earnings, and the general sentiment shift in the crypto scene. The next step was Tiger and the decline in startup valuations. And we closed with some personal notes.
And that’s the week’s overview: send us a tweet if you have any suggestions or questions. Forward!
