Hello and welcome back to Equitya podcast about the business of startups, where we uncover the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann got together with Maggie for our weekly roundup show this week, and as usual there was a lot to talk about, including the fact that there were even more topics than usual to choose from as the summer delay seems to be fading.
What else have we been up to? The following:
- To kick off Deals of the week, we discussed the fact that a startup focusing on depression, suicidality and related mental illness buys a company called KetaMD in an effort to expand its telehealth capabilities and, in particular, expand its technology-enabled ketamine-based treatments. Don’t know what ketamine is? You are not alone.
- From there it was time to talk about a new $100 million fund, which features a number of high-profile LPs and partners, that aims to invest exclusively in Latino(a) startup founders. We then delved into the hows and whys of a fintech company that wants to get consumers deduct daily expenses straight from their paycheck – a concept that took us a bit to wrap our heads around.
- We then moved on to Robinhood and the news the retail investment giant had 23% of staff laid off — just 3 months after the redundancy of 9% of the workforce. The three of us had thoughts about CEO Vlad Tenev taking responsibility for the layoffs, and of course, how much bad news has surrounded the company over the past 18 months or so.
- Next one? We chatted about Y Combinator’s somewhat surprising decision to shrink his cohort by 40% – what that could mean for the start-up business scene. We also address the larger check size and personal return. So many variables! Just one experiment!
- Finally, we wrote about Uber and how the company can do both reported positive free cash flow yet was very unprofitable in the second quarter (thanks to Alex splitting that up for us).
And we had a blast to boot! Until next time!
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Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.