‘The Ultimatum’ and social fintech have more in common than you’d think

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 was TechCrunch Early Stage, so Natasha and Alex got together — in person! — to record the episode for the very first time. Shout out to Grace for somehow helping us figure out a tech setup in the middle of a sold-out event.

• We started with a recap of TechCrunch Early Stage so far, but check out TechCrunch+ for posts about every single panel next week. Pro listener tip: Use code “EQUITY” for a solid discount off your TechCrunch+ subscription.
• Then we of course pivoted to Elon Musk, who is still making news about his newest fixation, Twitter. This time, we led with the fact that he’s trying to buy the whole darn thing.
• Deel made news with an ARR number that actually had some weight behind it, which got us thinking more about remote work bets.
• We had to talk about Braid, a new social fintech startup that wants to make shared wallets easier. We got into crypto culture without the coins, and then it took a turn when we started getting into “Love is Blind” and “The Ultimatum.”
• Finally, we ended the show with SoftBank’s latest pivot: a spinout of its early-stage LatAm fund into a new firm called Upload Ventures.

And with that, we are back Monday morning. Chat soon!