Equity

Today on Equity, Index Ventures' Shardul Shah joins to break down the largest venture-backed acquisition in history. The crew also looks into a DOGE data breach, the growing battle between Anthropic and the Trump administration, and more deals of the week.

Allison Ellsworth joins Equity to talk about her journey from creating Poppi in her kitchen to selling it to PepsiCo for nearly $2 billion. She discusses the importance of authenticity, digital-first marketing, strategic exits, and navigating the competitive beverage industry.

The Pentagon has officially designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk after the two failed to agree on how much control the military should have over its AI models, including its use in autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance. As Anthropic’s $200 million contract fell apart, the DoD turned to OpenAI instead, which accepted and then watched ChatGPT uninstalls surge 295%. As the stakes keep rising, the question remains: how much unrestricted access should the military have to an AI model?    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into what startups should think about when chasing federal contracts, especially when nobody seems to know what to do with AI in Washington, and more of the week's headlines.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  Paramount’s massive deal with Warner Bros, and the Equity crew’s ideas for what the new HBO Max-Paramount+ hybrid should be called  MyFitnessPal's acquisition of Cal AI, the calorie-tracking app built by teenagers  Who dropped $1 billion on Pinterest’s AI mission and how the company spent it on share buybacks. (Spoiler: Kirsten has thoughts.)  Anduril is raising again at a reported $60 billion valuation  Whether companies should brace themselves for the SaaSpocalypse, or if it’s just another chapter of the AI hype cycle   Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dominic-Madori Davis caught up with founder and former CEO of PopSockets ⁠David Barnett⁠ to talk about how he scaled from a Boulder garage, stood up to Amazon at a $10–20 million cost, and eventually handed off the CEO role to someone who'd grown up inside the company. 

On this episode of TechCrunch's ⁠Equity⁠ podcast, Rebecca Bellan sits down with Alex Bores, New York Assembly member and congressional candidate. Bores sponsored New York's first-of-its-kind AI safety law the RAISE Act — and quickly became the target of a ⁠Silicon Valley super PAC with $125 million to spend⁠ on attack ads.