meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Equity

The outside advantage that your investor may be interested in

Equity

TechCrunch

Entrepreneurship, Business News, News, Business, Technology

4.2 • 372 Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, Natasha Mascarenhas interviewed Sam Chaudhary, the founder of ClassDojo, and Chris Farmer, the founder and CEO of SignalFire, a venture firm that recently announced a $900 million fund to back tech startups. This interview is structured a bit differently as it was actually recorded as a TechCrunch Live session, our weekly show that focuses on helping people start better venture backed businesses. We'll hear from the trio about: What an outsider advantage looks like in startups, per a top investor Why ClassDojo doesn’t see itself as an edtech company How Sam landed early traction with a difficult-to-capture consumer How both Sam and Chris are thinking through the AI question brewing in every office If you want to check out the full video of today's conversation, including a round of Pitch Practice hosted by Matt Burns, head to our YouTube channel and stay tuned for more TechCrunch Live! As always, the full Equity crew will be back on Friday, but you can keep up with us in the meantime @EquityPod. For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.  Equity drops at 7:00 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotifyand all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders, one that details how our stories come together and more! 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 Tech Runches Venture Capital focused

0:14.4

podcast where we unpack the numbers and the nuance behind the headlines.

0:18.1

This is our Wednesday show where we grab one or a couple of folks and niche down to a

0:22.4

single topic and dive deep.

0:24.3

This week we have something a little bit special for you.

0:26.6

Natasha recently spoke to Sam Chowdery, the founder of Class Dojo and Ed Tech Company that you've

0:31.3

already heard of, and Chris Farmer, the founder and CEO of Signal Fire

0:35.0

an American Butcher Capital firm on Tech Ranch Live.

0:37.8

We thought it was a really amazing interview,

0:39.7

so we've excerpted her chat with those two founders and put it on to this feed for you.

0:44.4

If you do want to hear the entire Tech Orange Live episode you can.

0:47.2

We have linked to it in the show notes.

0:48.8

But what's ahead on this interview?

0:50.3

Well we talked to Sam about how to play the long game in ed tech and

0:53.6

what he would do differently if he could actually do it all over again and then we

0:57.4

talked with Signal Fire about navigating ed tech in today's market and

1:00.8

specifically how they're connecting kids and consumers through

1:03.7

startups. Finally we also talked about investing in companies that aren't

1:07.0

rushing to monetize and also how to lever the outsider advantage. It's an amazing

1:11.6

interview I'm going to hand it over to Natasha now. Please enjoy

1:14.4

We're here to talk about my favorite topic which is tensions in the startup

1:21.1

market how to build,

...

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.