Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s recurring venture capital-focused podcast that, against odds laid by its arcane subject matter, is still on the air. (Thanks!)
This week was a corker. To help out our regular contingent Matthew Lynley, Katie Roof and myself — Alex Wilhelm — Charles Moldow, a general partner at Foundation Capital swung by the studio. And help out he did as we took on topics technical, serious and whimsical.
In order, then? On the technical front, our cadre chewed over Blue Apron’s first-day performance as a public company. The meal kit company initially aimed for a $15 to $17 per-share pricing in its public debut, a price range that would have given it a healthy, up valuation from its last set private valuation.
It wasn’t to be. Blue Apron was forced to cut its IPO price to a far-smaller $10 to $11 per share. It priced at the lower end of that range, $10, and finished its first day at $10. To its credit, that’s a perfectly priced IPO — the company raised every dollar that it could.
Moving to the serious, Equity dove into the Binary Capital mess. After six women (three by name) came forward alleging serial sexual harassment by a partner at Binary Capital, the accused has all but quit, a new partner has left the firm, and from today’s vantage point it looks like the firm’s new fund is kaput, and likely that the firm itself is effectively over.
Finally, we went with whimsy, chatting for a minute or two about whatever the flying hell is going on with initial coin offerings, better known as ICOs. Primers here, here and here.
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