Natasha Mascarenhas
Senior Reporter
The Latest from Natasha Mascarenhas
Hear ClassDojo and SignalFire unpack edtech’s opportunity ahead on TechCrunch Live
Sam Chaudhary takes his time. The founder of ClassDojo, an edtech consumer app that focuses on student classrooms, spent eight years building the company before introducing a formal revenue model. All
Despite regulatory concerns, the US is far from losing its venture crown
We can learn quite a lot from venture capital investments themselves.
Yep, ‘Learning Man’ is becoming a thing
Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced take on this week’s startup news and trends by Senior reporter Natasha Mascarenhas. After a Tahoe-based tech conference, Sheel Mohnot, the fintech investor be
Unicorns are rare, but what about real?
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, Natasha and Alex enjoyed the warming
Founders shouldn’t have to choose between mental health and grit
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 show, where today we’re niching do
This fintech startup ideally wants to be ‘a lot more boring’ than Robinhood
Soon after launching Ocho, a startup offering personal finance support for business owners, Ankur Nagpal realized that the company’s debut product — a solo 401(k) retirement account —
Silicon Valley Bank’s chief risk officer is out, months after taking the job
When Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse was first unfolding, a belated disclosure colored some of the chaos: The bank spent most of last year without a chief risk officer, and the one who left sold more
In edtech, history matters: Reach Capital just closed its largest fund to date
Reach Capital, one of the first venture firms to focus exclusively on edtech, closed its last investment vehicle during an unprecedented boom within tech. The San Francisco-based venture firm saw an i
We’re still talking about Y Combinator valuations
Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced take on this week’s startup news and trends by Senior Reporter and Equity co-host Natasha Mascarenhas. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. Y Combinato
Don’t ever leak data, but especially if you’re building this
Hello, and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This was Y Combinator week in a sense, with the well-known ac
Our favorite startups from YC’s Winter 2023 Demo Day — Part 2
Over 20,000 applications flew into Y Combinator, which ended up plucking out 282 startups for its latest batch. Now we’re getting our first look at them through Demo Day. The first day’s demos inc
Our favorite startups from YC’s Winter 2023 Demo Day — Part 1
Here’s a crazy statistic: More than half of the companies in Y Combinator’s latest cohort were accepted to the accelerator with only an idea, no minimum viable product or revenue strategy needed.
Y Combinator is back to bet on the Bay Area
Y Combinator, the startup accelerator that has launched the likes of Instacart, Stripe and Airbnb, has broadened its investing lens in recent years, backing companies all over Africa and India, and be
Amazon wants to boost ten generative AI startups around the globe
Amazon’s first foray into the world of accelerator programs, designed to help early-stage startups build and launch, was focused on conversational AI back in 2016. Now, seven years later, Amazon has
‘There’s too much opportunity’ in Cerebral Valley
Evan Buhler moved to San Francisco’s Hayes Valley three months ago to build an AI company that would combine the buzzy technology and his experience as a startup attorney. At the time, he didn’t r
Always be prompting
Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced take on this week’s startup news and trends by Senior Reporter and Equity co-host Natasha Mascarenhas. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. Reporter’s n
Stability AI CEO has the ambition to IPO in next few years
Emad Mostaque, the CEO and founder of open source platform Stability AI, hinted at plans to go public in the next few years, during the Cerebral Valley AI Conference in San Francisco on Thursday. He a
Burn, community, burn
AI? Crypto? Equity crowdfunding and former startup founders trying to bribe China? We had it all this week.
Hampton is tech’s new membership community for chief executive officers
Sam Parr, founder of HubSpot-acquired newsletter and media brand The Hustle, doesn’t watch “Succession” because “it’s too real” (and because he prefers watching comedy compared to
Startup founders are trying to automate the worst part of the job: Fundraising
With a drier than normal investment scene, founders are looking for more effective ways to reach the right VCs. To that end, over the past few weeks, thousands of founders have applied to land capital