Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.
This week we had the full crew in the studio along with a friend. The excellent Connie Loizos hosted, and Matthew Lynley and I were both on as well, along with our guest this week: Graham Brown, a partner at Lerer Hippeau, an early-stage venture fund based in New York.
We took a slightly different tack this episode. Yes, scooters came up, but we have some later-stage notes that should be a welcome reprieve for regular listeners. Also, no crypto!
Up first was the Uber-Lime deal. Lime, one of the two domestic scooter darlings, raised a brick of new capital recently, including monies from ridesharing giant Uber. Getting a tie-in with Uber does two things. First, it dramatically raises the profile of Lime domestically as it can perhaps tap into the Uber customer base. Second, it puts pressure on Lyft (an Uber competitor) and Bird (a Lime competitor) to do a deal themselves.
We weren’t sure if those two would link up, but hey, it’s 2018 and nothing is impossible.
Moving along we took a peek at the epic scale of new venture funds being raised. At issue is how those funds are going to have a shot at putting up venture-tier returns. Or is IRR kaput? We also chatted over some venture results from the second quarter, including a quick scan of some numbers from my team concerning the United States and global venture markets.
Lastly, we masticated over a recent WSJ article concerning Vista Equity Partners’ work ingesting SaaS companies, lopping off costs, and working to boost growth. It matters, as the market is currently seeing more money flow into software companies that are a bit more slowly growing. The rising prices that less-attractive firms are managing to command is a good indicator of the market’s current heat.
And if you have a minute, listen to the bonus clip after the closing stuff. We’ll be back in a week!
Equity drops every Friday at 6:00 am PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Downcast and all the casts.
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