Natasha Mascarenhas
Reporter
The Latest from Natasha Mascarenhas
Array Ventures raises $56M to back tech-heavy enterprise software
Shruti Gandhi wants to clear up a misconception in first-check fundraising: Every founder doesn’t need their early-stage investors to be a shoulder for them, they just need their investor to underst
The big startup question on my mind for 2022
Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week’s startup news and trends.
Gift Guide: 6 entrepreneurs tell us what they really want this year
Welcome to TechCrunch’s 2021 Holiday Gift Guide! Need help with gift ideas? We’ve got lots of them. Looking for our other guides? Find them here! 2021 was largely defined by the great resignation
More than another check, founders need activation energy
If there’s one lesson learned amid the pandemic, it’s that we can’t take anything for granted -- whether it’s continued growth or another flood of funding.
You are the most influential person we know
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. To close out the year, Natasha and Mary Ann and Alex headed to
Z Fellows wants to give you $10K to launch a crypto startup
Capital may help someone take the jump into entrepreneurship, but what about the activation energy to let them think that big in the first place? To Cory Levy, the latter has always been more importan
For Course Hero, venture capital was once an unobvious solution
Launched in 2006, education startup Course Hero started its life away from the attention of venture capital. After launching, the company waited eight years to raise a $15 million Series A. Then, afte
Startups Weekly (Taylor’s Version)
Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week’s startup news and trends. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. If you don’t understand this headline, let’s start with a
What I unlearned about startups this year
Looking back, I unlearned a lot about startups this year, especially when it comes to due diligence, formalization and what it means to be contrarian.
3 views: The new decentralized venture landscape is changing how we report startup data
Where is Silicon Valley, really?
Your local trucker is giving us creator economy vibes
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Friends, we’re almost there: the end of the year that fel
Platzi picks up $62 million Series B to re-skill Latin American professionals
When it comes to scaling online communities, Platzi CEO Freddy Vega thinks that edtech can take a few notes from the video game industry. League of Legends, for example, doesn’t require players to c
Former Lyft CSO and Freestyle Capital co-founder team up to back climate tech startups
When it comes to saving the planet, Raj Kapoor, Lyft’s former chief strategy officer and head of business, doesn’t think asking consumers (or the government) to change their ways is an effective s
Why the founder-friendly era needs a ‘VP of Nothing’
Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week’s startup news and trends.
Founders need to uncouple their own idea from its creator
All founders want their companies to thrive without them, but the readiness to act on that awareness continues to be one of the more uncomfortable conversations within today’s market. After all, the
Square’s Better.com name Block is Butter-y smooth
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. It’s Friday, which means the whole crew was aboard for th
Sounding Board lands Series B to move coaching beyond services and into SaaS
Sounding Board, which started as a platform to connect leaders to coaches through a marketplace, realized early in the pandemic that mentorship needs a refresh. “We’ve always delivered coachin
Have we reached peak founder-friendliness?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday episode when we niche down to a single to
3 views on Jack Dorsey’s decision to step down as Twitter’s CEO
After a fun chat about Jack Dorsey's decision on Equity, we hashed out our views about the value of founders who remain in leadership long after their companies have reached maturity.
Jack is leaving Twitter and we have ~thoughts~
Well, so much for a relaxed post-holiday week on Monday. News broke this morning that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is stepping down from the company entirely. The company’s CTO, Parag Agrawal, will b