The startup world is going through yet another evolution. A few years ago, VCs were focused on growth over profitability. Now, making money is just as important, if not more, than sheer growth. And we’re in the midst of a global pandemic, which has brought the economy to a crawl and forced entrepreneurs to rethink both their short and long-term priorities.
Startups want to hear from the voices they trust for guidance on how to navigate this difficult situation. That’s why we’re excited to introduce Extra Crunch Live, a virtual speaker series complete with live Q&A exclusive for Extra Crunch members. Sign up for Extra Crunch to get access to this webinar series.
If you are already an Extra Crunch subscriber, click here to grab the details to add to your calendar.
Upcoming Extra Crunch Live Events
Extra Crunch Live Access Details for EC Subscribers
Past Extra Crunch Live Episodes
Extra Crunch Live with GC’s Katherine Boyle and Peter Boyce
Tuesday, December 8 at 1:00pm PT / 4:00pm ET
The pandemic has been nothing if not disruptive. But disruption favors the nimble young startup. Hear from General Catalyst partners Katherine Boyle and Peter Boyce on what it takes for early stage startups to not just survive, but thrive in these uncertain times.
Extra Crunch Live with Sapphire’s Jai Das
Tuesday, December 1 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
TechCrunch is excited to sit down with Sapphire Ventures’ Jai Das as part of our Extra Crunch Live series. As Sapphire is a former corporate venture capital firm, we’ll explore both sides of today’s VC world and how the two cooperate, or not. And thanks to Sapphire investing globally, we’ll be able to discuss several continents’ startup ecosystems, hunting for news, trends, and what’s coming next.
Extra Crunch Live with Bessemer’s Byron Deeter
Tuesday, November 17 at 12:00pm PT / 3:00pm ET
Byron Deeter, partner at Bessemer, is one of the world’s most notable SaaS and cloud investors. His portfolio includes Twilio, DocuSign, Box and Canva, to name a few. On this episode of ECL, we’ll talk to Deeter about what’s next in cloud innovation and what SaaS startups must do to succeed.
Extra Crunch Live with TMV’s Soraya Darabi
Tuesday, November 10 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
Venture capitalist Soraya Darabi cofounded TMV, formerly Trail Mix Ventures, in 2016. Since then, TMV has built a portfolio of 27 startups that is majority women and minority owned, including employee wellness platform Bravely, holistic healthcare company Parsley Health, and waste reduction upstart Ridwell. Now, Darabi is joining us at Extra Crunch Live to talk about impact-focused innovation, and what it means to juggle purpose, politics, and returns all at the same time.
Extra Crunch Live with Greylock’s Asheem Chandna
Thursday, November 5 at 12:00pm PT / 3:00pm ET
For nearly two decades, Asheem Chandna has been investing in enterprise and security startups at Greylock, with massive investment wins in Palo Alto Networks, AppDynamics, and Sumo Logic. These days, he continues to invest in cybersecurity with companies like Awake Security and Abnormal Security, data platforms like Rubrik and Delphix, and the stealthy search engine company Neeva. As a leading early-stage investor and mentor in the space, he’s seen a multitude of companies transition from inception to product-market fit to IPO.
Join us for this episode of ECL as we discuss how 2020 has upended enterprise startups with the rise of remote work and the dissolution of the cybersecurity perimeter as well as what company building looks like today for founders.
Extra Crunch Live with GV’s M.G. Siegler
Tuesday, October 27 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
M.G. Siegler has a unique perspective and ample experience when it comes to early-stage startups and storytelling. As a journalist, he assessed startups’ abilities to communicate the problems they were solving and the technology they built to solve those problems. Now he applies that experience as an investor, looking for startups with potential and founders with the ability to tell compelling stories about what they’re doing and why.
Extra Crunch Live with Unusual Ventures’ Sarah Leary and John Vrionis
Tuesday, October 20 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
Unusual Ventures has investments spanning the consumer and enterprise space, including Robinhood, AppDynamics, Mulesoft, Winnie, and more. Prepare for a wide-ranging conversation on early-stage and beyond.
Extra Crunch Live with Yext’s Howard Lerman
Tuesday, October 13 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
Yext’s Howard Lerman is coming to Extra Crunch Live. His company, a TechCrunch 50 alum, is an enterprise success story, having gone public in 2017. Yext’s journey has given him good perspective on building a SaaS startup, taking it public, and navigating those waters post-IPO. We’ll dig into how Yext has handled the pandemic, economic disruption of its customer base, and more. With cultural issues back on the front-burner of Silicon Valley, it’s going to be a busy hour.
Extra Crunch Live with Index Ventures’ Nina Achadjian & Sarah Cannon
Tuesday, September 29 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
Venture capital is among the many industries that has been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. Hear from Index Ventures’ Nina Achadjian and Sarah Cannon on how the business of VC has shifted and what the VC firm of the future might look like.
Extra Crunch Live with Andrew Braccia & Sonali De Rycker
Tuesday, September 22 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
Join us for an expansive chat with Accel’s Andrew Braccia and Sonali De Rycker, where we’ll focus on some of the hottest trends in startup-land like no-code, the remote-work boom, and API-delivered startups. Accel has invested in to Webflow in the no-code realm, Slack and other services when it comes to remote-work, and has even wrote an op-ed for TechCrunch back in the day about the power of APIs, so bring your questions!
Extra Crunch Live with Jeff Lawson
Tuesday, August 25 at 11:30am PT / 2:30pm ET
TechCrunch is excited to have Jeff Lawson back for a chat. Jeff’s company, Twilio, has become an enormous, and enormously valuable public company on the back of its telephony API business. But it was once a startup. Which matters given the sheer number of startups today that are also building their businesses with an API-delivery mechanism. We want to dig into the model to understand its strengths, weaknesses, and what Jeff learned as he took Twilio from zero to the $37 billion valuation it sports today.
Extra Crunch Live with Anu Duggal
Thursday, August 20 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
Anu Duggal, founding partner at Female Founders Fund, named her fund with precision. The serial entrepreneur turned angel investor turned entrepreneur cuts checks solely in women, and has put millions into companies like Billie, Tala and Zola. Hear from Duggal on how her thesis has changed, the competitive advantage of diversification, and what she defines as fast-growing and female-led.
Extra Crunch Live with Eric Hippeau
Thursday, August 13 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
Eric Hippeau, managing partner at Lerer Hippeau, is no stranger to the world of media. But even as former CEO of Huffington Post and board member for BuzzFeed, his interests in the tech sector stretch far and wide, with investments in Warby Parker, Casper, Mirror, and more. Hear from Hippeau about what sectors he’s most excited about and the do’s and don’ts of fundraising in this pandemic world.
Extra Crunch Live with Andy Rachleff
Tuesday, August 11 at 10:00am PT / 1:00pm ET
The investment world has been entirely scrambled since the advent of COVID-19, not just in VC but also in the public markets, where new volatility has changed the nature of consumer investing. We’re excited to bring Andy Rachleff, President and CEO of robo-investor juggernaut Wealthfront to talk more about all the changes going on in fintech, personal finance, and VC investing. Rachleff has been at Wealthfront for more than a decade, and before that, served a decade at Benchmark, investing across many of the booms and busts of our industry. He’ll be bringing his experience and acumen to bear on this critical discussion for Extra Crunch Live
Extra Crunch Live with Max Levchin
Thursday, August 6 at 1:00pm PT / 4:00pm ET
Max Levchin, cofounder of PayPal, runs one of the biggest fintech companies in Silicon Valley in Affirm. He was an early investor in Yelp, with portfolio companies that include Evernote, Pinterest, Transferwise and Yammer. Hear Levchin’s leadership advice for new founders and what he expects from Silicon Valley in the future.
Extra Crunch Live with Y Combinator President Geoff Ralston
Thursday, July 30 at 12:00pm PT / 3:00pm ET
Geoff Ralston is the President of Y Combinator, the startup accelerator that helped to nurture companies like Twitch, Docker, Dropbox, Instacart, Stripe, and AirBnB into the giants they are today. We’ll hear from Geoff about how YC has changed over the years, how they’ve adapted the accelerator program to work through a pandemic, and what he looks for in a startup in 2020.
Extra Crunch Live with Peter Barrett of Playground Global
Tuesday, July 28 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
Founded in 2015, Palo Alto-based Playground has one of the most diverse and forwarded-looking portfolios in the Valley. The firm’s investments included Eero, Skydio, Farmwise, Agility, Devialet and recent Amazon acquisition, Canvas. Cofounder Peter Barrett will join us to discuss the fund’s strategies and the future of robotics, mobility and scientific investments in the age of COVID-19.
Extra Crunch Live with Jason Green of Emergence Capital
Thursday, July 9 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
Jason Green is founder and general partner at Emergence Capital, one of the top enterprise and cloud venture firms in the world. His portfolio companies include Box, Betterworks, Yammer and many more. Hear Green talk about the acceleration of the sector and what he’s looking for in enterprise investments.
Extra Crunch Live with Hans Tung and Jeff Richards of GGV Capital
Tuesday, June 30 at 12:30pm PT / 3:30pm ET
Hans Tung and Jeff Richards are managing partners at GGV Capital, a global VC firm that invests in startups from seed through growth-stage. The firm has invested in well-known companies like Slack, Square, Peloton, Zendesk, Hashicorp, ByteDance, and Airbnb. During our conversation we’ll examine how the duo’s investment appetite has changed in recent months, what it means to be a globally-focused investor amidst a pandemic, and how their mom-and-pop shop investment thesis is working out.
Extra Crunch Live with Alexa Von Tobel
Thursday, June 25 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
As an entrepreneur turned investor, Alexa Von Tobel can cover a lot of ground for founders looking to build the next big startup and, of course, get it funded.
Extra Crunch Live with Zach Perret of Plaid
Thursday, June 18 at 10:00am PT / 1:00pm ET
Zach Perret is the CEO and co-founder of Plaid, an API banking platform that empowers fintech apps to access their users’ financial information. Plaid announced a blockbuster acquisition earlier this year by Visa for $5.3 billion, roughly double the company’s reported last private valuation. We’ll talk about how he and his co-founder William Hockey blazed a new path in fintech, the opportunities that still exist in that space to be tackled by new founders, and what he’s thinking about next.
Extra Crunch Live with Julia Hartz of Eventbrite
Wednesday, June 17 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
Eventbrite CEO and co-founder Julia Hartz is at the center of an unprecedented time for the events world. The publicly-traded company is more popular than ever with hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, but the global slowdown of in-person event ticketing due to COVID-19 has had a material impact on Eventbrite’s business. We’ll talk with Hartz on how she is leading her company through a crisis and what the future holds for bringing people together. We’ll also talk about how widespread layoffs may impact the future of diversity in our workforces.
Extra Crunch Live with Superhuman’s Rahul Vohra
Tuesday, June 16 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
Superhuman dared to do what few could imagine possible: change email. Hear from Superhuman CEO Rahul Vohra about how he developed a product around a ubiquitous tool, the challenges of that, and where Superhuman is headed next.
Extra Crunch Live with Aaron Levie of Box
Thursday, May 28 at 12:00pm PT / 3:00pm ET
Box CEO Aaron Levie launched his company in 2005 in the quintessential college dorm room. He helped build it into a public company with almost $700 million in revenue. Along the way, he guided his young company through the financial crisis of 2008 and is helping do the same today. We are going to talk to him about how his company is adapting in this crisis, the impact its having on his business, and how it will change the enterprise software market moving forward.
Extra Crunch Live with Hans Vestberg of Verizon
Tuesday, May 26 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
Hans Vestberg is the chief executive of Verizon, the biggest wireless carrier in the country. The company (which owns TechCrunch) is providing critical infrastructure during the pandemic while also in the midst of a massive 5G network push. We’ll talk about how business has changed in the COVID-19 era, if his investment focus has changed, and his advice for other business leaders as we move into a new normal.
Extra Crunch Live with Steve Case and Clara Sieg of Revolution
Thursday, May 21 at 12:00pm PT / 3:00pm ET
Steve Case founded Revolution in 2005 following his departure from AOL, the company he helped found and built into the Internet 1.0 giant. In 2010 Clara Sieg joined the venture firm and helped start Revolution’s San Francisco office. Together, along with the firm’s other partners, Revolution has found success investing inside and out of the Valley, with a focus on companies based outside of the coastal tech hubs. We are going to talk to the pair about how they’re advising their portfolio companies to survive, thrive, and raise in the current climate.
Extra Crunch Live with Niko Bonatsos of General Catalyst and Alexia Tsotsis Bonatsos of Dream Machine
Tuesday, May 19 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
Niko Bonatsos is the managing partner at General Catalyst, with a portfolio that includes Livongo, Snap, Wag! and ClassDojo. Alexia Tsotsis Bonatsos is former co-Editor at TechCrunch and now runs her own early stage fund called Dream Machine. We’ll chat venture appetite, adaptation strategies during coronavirus, and which industries they’re taking a closer look at for investment.
Extra Crunch Live with Kirsten Green of Forerunner Ventures
Tuesday, May 12 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
Kirsten Green is one of the most respected VCs in the country, with investments in Bonobos, BirchBox, Dollar Shave Club, Glossier, Outdoor Voices, Rockets of Awesome, Hims and Modern Fertility. There is, perhaps, no more sought-after D2C investor in the world. Hear from Green on how D2C is changing amidst the coronavirus pandemic and what opportunities lie ahead for consumer brands.
Extra Crunch Live with Hunter Walk of Homebrew
Thursday, May 7 at 10:00am PT / 1:00pm ET
Hunter cofounded Homebrew, a seed stage venture fund, in 2013 with his friend and former colleague Satya Patel. Homebrew takes an ‘old school’ approach to venture, making a small number of investments and working closely to support those founders. They back startups like Chime, Plaid, Cruise, Gusto, Finix, Bowery Farming, and Weave. Hear from Walk on what comes next in tech.
Extra Crunch Live with Roelof Botha of Sequoia Capital
Wednesday, May 6 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
Roelof Botha is a general partner at one of Silicon Valley’s most prestigious VC firms, Sequoia Capital and leads their US business. He has invested in companies like Instagram, Square, Tumblr, Evernote, Unity, Eventbrite, YouTube and many more. Hear from this seasoned VC on how he’s advising his portfolio companies during the coronavirus pandemic, the opportunities he sees for entrepreneurs in the coming years and what trends are piquing his interest right now.
Extra Crunch Live with entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Mark Cuban
Thursday, April 30 at 8:00am PT / 11:00am ET
Join Mark Cuban and TechCrunch to talk about startups in the age of COVID-19 and learn how Mark is advising his investments to weather the storm. As a longtime investor in and out of the Valley, Cuban is uniquely placed to provide valuable advice for founders and investors alike.
Extra Crunch Live with Freada & Mitch Kapor of Kapor Capital
Tuesday, April 28 at 10:00am PT / 1:00pm ET
There was a time when some said the COVID-19 pandemic was a great equalizer, but data is beginning to show its disproportionate impact on black people in America. Combine that with the ongoing racial inequities in the tech industry and the wave of layoffs hitting startups, it’s more important now than ever to ensure tech companies approach this new normal through an equitable lens. Hear from Kapor Capital partners Freada Kapor Klein and Mitch Kapor, in conversation with TechCrunch’s Megan Rose Dickey, about how to make tough but equitable decisions.
Extra Crunch Live with Charles Hudson
Thursday, April 23 at 3:00pm PT / 6:00pm ET
TechCrunch is speaking to seed-stage investor Charles Hudson this Thursday on Extra Crunch Live. Hudson is a well-known early-stage investor whose firm was reported to be raising a new, larger fund earlier this year. We’re going to ask about Hudson’s investment pace and appetite right now and what this time means for Precursor’s diversity and inclusion thesis. We’ll also take a step out and get his thoughts on what’s changing for early-stage valuations, which data matters the most when pitching amid a pandemic, how a later-stage slowdown might impact seed-stage companies, and what the bridge investment round might look like in 2020 as COVID-19 continues to bring change to the world of startups.
Extra Crunch Live with Aileen Lee & Ted Wang of Cowboy Ventures
Monday, April 20 at 10:30am PT / 1:30pm ET
We’ll be chatting with Aileen Lee (former KPCB partner, founder and managing director at Cowboy.vc and coiner of the term “Unicorn”) and Ted Wang (Cowboy.vc partner, former partner at Fenwick & West, and former outside counsel to Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, Square and more) about how they’re advising their portfolio companies, if there are new and innovative ways for early-stage startups to secure capital beyond the traditional VC route and whether startups should hunker down or lean in during these uncertain times.