“So many folks in D.C. don’t actually know what it is,” he remarked.
When Graham put out a call for startup applications, a dozen startups got into YC’s debut class.
Lowe didn’t confirm where that was a strategy on Tan’s part, but he praised Tan for his warmness and his dedication.
After educating the D.C. market, YC aims to leverage its influence, particularly in areas like competition policy.
And if we don’t do that, then it’s pretty easy to see how this plays out,” Lowe said.
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 Monday show, where we dig into the weekend and take a peek at the week that is to come.
Now that we are finally past Y Combinator’s demo day — though our Friday show is worth listening if you haven’t had a chance yet — we can dive into the latest news.
So, this morning on Equity Monday we got into the chance that the United States might pass a real data privacy law.
There’s movement to report, but we’re still very, very far from anything becoming law.
Well-known startup accelerator Y Combinator held one of its two yearly demo day events this week, showcasing hundreds of startups that recently went through its program.
Judging from our coverage of the two-day event, TechCrunch found lots to like in the presenting companies.
There was lots more than just AI on display, so for today’s TechCrunch Minute I compiled a few trends and vibes from the shindig for your enjoyment.
Accelerators play an important role in the startup world, giving founders early capital and advice as they get off the ground.
Y Combinator competes with Techstars and other platforms globally.
Tesla is dropping prices of unsold Model Y SUVs in the U.S. by thousands of dollars in an attempt to clear out an unprecedented backlog of inventory.
The discounts come as Tesla once again made far more vehicles than it sold in the last quarter.
The company built 433,371 vehicles in the first quarter but only shipped 386,810, likely adding more than 40,000 EVs to its inventory glut.
It announced a $1,000 price hike was coming to the Model Y, its most popular vehicle, on April 1.
He has largely blamed the struggle on high interest rates, all while his company dramatically cut prices on the Model Y and Model 3 throughout 2023.
What a week, everyone.
Two full days of Y Combinator demo day activity kept us busy, but the latest accelerator cohort’s launch was far from the only big story in startup-land.
Then to close out, we chatted through the impending Ibotta and Rubrik IPOs.
The latter deal could provide a fascinating heat-check for unprofitable unicorns that need to find some sort of exit, and quickly.
All told we chatted through startups from their very earliest form all the way through their most mature.
The cross-border payments market is forecasted to reach over $250 trillion by 2027, according to the Bank of England.
So it’s no surprise that one of the trends among Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 batch of nearly 30 fintech startups is how to more easily move money globally.
Users get a U.S. bank account and access to low-cost local payment rails.
InfinityWhat it does: Cross-border banking for small businesses in IndiaWe heard from a lot of childhood friends during the past two days, so it was refreshing to see two siblings form a company.
Businesses in India account for $700 billion in cross-border trades per year, and Infinity makes 1% from those transactions.
These AI startups stood out the most in Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 batchDespite an overall decline in startup investing, funding for AI surged in the past year.
So it’s not exactly surprising that AI startups dominated at Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 Demo Day.
The Y Combinator Winter 2024 cohort has 86 AI startups, according to YC’s official startup directory — nearly double the number from the Winter 2023 batch and close to triple the number from Winter 2021.
As we did last year, we went through the newest Y Combinator cohort — the cohort presenting during this week’s Demo Day — and picked out some of the more interesting AI startups.
Datacurve hosts a gamified annotation platform that pays engineers to solve coding challenges, which contributes to Datacurve’s for-sale training data sets.
Nvidia might be clouding the funding climate for AI chip startups, but Hailo is still fightingHello, 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, when we take a moment to dig into a raft of startup and venture capital news.
No big tech here!
Keep in mind that Y Combinator’s demo day kicks off today, so we’re going to be snowed-under in startup news the rest of the week.
Consider today’s show the calm before the storm.
Y Combinator President Garry Tan took to the social platform X Tuesday to again express his displeasure at elected officials representing San Francisco, where the storied accelerator is based.
This time, he was lambasting California state assembly member Matt Haney, over a proposed late-night email bill he authored.
Haney represents San Francisco in the state’s house-of-representatives equivalent.
Meaning they’d have the legal right to ignore calls, emails, texts or messages sent after that time, unless an emergency, and employers in violation could be subject to fines, The San Francisco Standard reported.
He went on a rant in January on X about seven San Francisco supervisors that took a violent tone.
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 Monday show, where we dig into the weekend and take a peek at the week that is to come.
We’ll talk more about Wednesday, but this is Y Combinator Demo Day week, so expect a deluge of startup news.
On the podcast today we dug into the latest news from Discord that indicates it is moving towards opening its gates for advertisements.
Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast and posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and you can subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.
