A Twitter Bot Wrote This – TechCrunch

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

The whole team was back together this week, which was pretty darn good as there was a lot to get through. Alex Wilhelm, Natasha Mascarenhas and Mary Ann Azevedo were on the mic, with Grace handling production.

What did we get into? A better question might be what did we not get into:

• We started with an update from the TechCrunch Mobility event, thanks to Natasha who is on-site and up in the air.
• From there it was time to talk deals, with the crew parsing Arrived’s latest round, and why Kolkata Chai took some external capital, but very much on its own terms.
• Then it was time to chat Zenly’s new mapping news, and why startups are critical when it comes to taking on incumbents.
• From there we had to ask if Elon Musk really wants to buy Twitter (seemingly no?), and how tired we are about the topic itself.
• Then we chatted through the recent unicorn vibe check that the market got, and the fact that most unicorns are not true IPO candidates. (Along with news from SpotOn, and Unit!)
• And to close, we asked about the responsibilities of tech platforms in the wake of a number of mass shootings in the United States; where should our expectations for content moderation on platforms start, and end?

Hugs from us to you, and we will talk to you Monday!