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

It was a live recording this week, which was good fun. Our co-host Natasha was off, so Mary Ann and Alex teamed up with Grace to hammer our way through the news of the week live, with friends on Hopin, Twitter Spaces, and other locations on deck to hang out and ask questions.

Down a co-host or not, we tackled a whole slew of topics, including:

  • Katie Haun’s new mega crypto fund and why the blockchain world seems to be so capital-hungry.
  • The simply bonkers pace at which Jeeves, a fintech startup, has accreted value in successive funding rounds.
  • Ramp’s latest round brought up the question of fintech versus the world and how startup commentary can at times miss the mark slightly.
  • From there, we pivoted to CEO changes at Kickstarter (here) and Cityblock Health (here). The changes were a jumping-off point to the never-ending question of when startups should think about replacing their founders as CEOs.
  • And we closed with a look at Forge’s neat SPAC launch and what its positive debut could mean for unicorns more generally.
Also, you can snag Mary Ann’s fintech newsletter here, which is going to launch in short order. Get hype!

Equity drops every Monday at 7:00 a.m. PT and Wednesday and Friday at 6:00 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.