meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Equity

The billionaires are trying to live longer… again

Equity

TechCrunch

Entrepreneurship, Business News, News, Business, Technology

4.2372 Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week Mary Ann, Becca, and Alex gathered to chew through the biggest news of the week. Here’s what the gang got into today: Vice goes bankrupt: Now is not a great time for media companies. The advertising market is in the toilet, layoffs are rampant, and the end of Vice is like a cherry atop a trash sundae. Mary Ann points out during the show that some operational difficulties were at play at the company. Here’s a real unicorn death for us to stare at. Deal Dive: AI. AI coaching. AI human relationship coaching? It’s a thing, and whether or not it is the future, we have questions. Freshly-Nestle: How often do you see a venture firm sue an acquirer? Not very often. We dig into the what and why of the Freshly suit. Why is Musk buying other companies? What do you do if you buy a company and fire most of its staff? You buy a tech jobs platform, it turns out. NewLimit and the limits of life: NewLimit is a company that Alex likes. Why? Because he doesn’t want to die before he can go to space. Mary Ann and Becca noted that the company’s setup is more than non-traditional. For NewLimit, the proof will be in the pudding. What’s ahead for venture debt? Becca’s work on the venture debt landscape has been critical reading since the SVB crisis unfolded earlier this year. Her latest venture survey helped us understand where founders will be hunting up capital in the back half of 2023 and beyond. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups where we unpack the numbers and the nuance behind the headlines.

0:18.5

My name is Alex Wilhelm and it is May 19th, 2023 and I'm joined today by seeing your Tech Ranch reporter on the FinTech

0:24.9

beat, it is Mary Ann Asvetto. Mary Ann, hello, how are you?

0:28.2

Alex, I'm good. I have to share very quickly that I choked last night while laughing and drinking water.

0:34.0

And it was one of the scariest things I've experienced in a while.

0:37.1

So I just want to tell everybody,

0:39.7

be careful not to have a laughing fit, even just drinking water. like I saw my life flush before my eyes.

0:45.0

You're not allowed to die just as a data point and also too it'd be very ironic to be

0:50.6

killed by ingesting a substance required to keep you alive.

0:53.4

Right. Yes, okay, well that's terrifying. Yes, but otherwise I'm doing pretty well. I just had to share that as like a PSA.

1:00.0

I appreciate that. We also have Becca Skutak with us.

1:02.4

Becca, hi, have you recently been attacked by a beverage?

1:05.3

You know, I haven't, but I wouldn't rule it out.

1:08.0

Yeah, yeah, I'm kind of a klutz personally, like physically, kind of klutzy,

1:11.7

and so I, that's something that would happen to me, Mary,

1:14.0

and I empathize.

1:15.3

Yeah.

1:16.3

But given that we're all able to breathe at the moment,

1:18.0

we have quite a show ahead of us.

1:19.4

Deal of the week include Vice, Amorai, and Nestle.

1:22.4

Why is Nestle on the show? We'll stick around and find out.

1:25.0

The first major theme on today's episode is all about an acquisition that Twitter did that we don't understand, so we try to learn more.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from TechCrunch, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of TechCrunch and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.