Flat is the new up, down is the new flat, dead is the new down

@alex / @bayareawriter / 7:00 am PST • March 10, 2023

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

This week Mary Ann Azevedo, Natasha Mascarenhas and Alex Wilhelm gathered to riff through the week’s biggest startup and venture news. And what news it was!

At the top of the show, we riffed about the situation at Silicon Valley Bank — which, of course, kicked off a little more after we wrapped our recording. So, more to come there. But we had other stories to get into:

Deals of the Week: Roami (taking on Airbnb), Qualtrics (will it finally find its forever home?), the latest on the VC-AI affair (Upfront Summit recap).
ADHD startups are a big thing now: From a browser to gamified help with to-dos, there’s a host of startups in the market today looking to help folks get their work done, and life organized. We’re big accessibility tech fans here at Equity, so this was right up our alley.
How fintech investors are coping in the new venture climate: Mary Ann spoke to seven different fintech investors about the coming year, and where they are putting capital to work. The answer from many of them? B2B payments. It does look rough out there for fintech companies generally, but some VCs are still bullish.
Bias, women and how to brand in venture: We then discussed Natasha and Becca’s excellently reported piece tracking how women VCs navigate bias through branding.