Unpacking Away’s $1.4B valuation, the startup studio model and CrowdStrike’s S-1

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

This week was something a bit special for the team, albeit in a sad way. It marked the last episode in which we’d all be together in the current TechCrunch office. It’s a place in which we’ve spent so much time, so we were all a bit nostalgic. (TC is moving offices, nothing else is changing!)

Anyway, there was news to discuss!

After Alex went through what he called a “mid-quarter check-in” we got into the meat of things, kicking off with Kate’s recent story on Madrona’s new startup studio. The $11 million that will be spent on spinning up ideas and spinning out companies forms a model that could be exported to other cities. In Kate’s view, there are a few other cities in the nation where the idea could work.

After that, we dug into two different pieces of scooter news (Boo!), namely that you can get a Boosted-branded electric scooter for $1,600 or the new Bird One scooter for around $1,300. You know, if you can’t find one to rent and want to absorb the maintenance and charging headaches yourself.

Next, we turned to Away, a brand you would recognize if we showed you its most famous product. Away has raised another $100 million in Series D funding at a $1.4 billion valuation. Sure, that’s a big jump from its $400 million Series C valuation, but we think it makes sense.

After that, we had to get to the latest from Impossible Foods, which is now sitting atop $300 million fresh dollars. This announcement comes hot off the heels of Impossible Foods’ partnership with Burger King.

Finally, we turned to the latest S-1 filing from tech: CrowdStrike. You can read Kate’s notes here, and Alex’s here, but the gist is that this company will go public, the only question is how to price it.

Oh, and Slack is pulling off its direct listing on June 20th. Get hyped!