The huge TAM of fake breaded chicken bits

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

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Despite it being a short week, as always, it was a busy, busy time. We had Grace on the dials today, and Danny, Natasha and Alex making chit-chat about the tech world. As with every week this year, we had to cut and cut and cut to get the show down to size. Here’s what made it in in the end:

• Medium saw more employees depart the company after CEO Ev Williams published a “culture memo.” While the Medium memo doesn’t wholly ban politics, some allege that the undertone of the statement, timed weeks after a failed unionization attempt, created an unsafe environment. A week later, Natasha covered another controversy, this time at Y Combinator. We riff on the takeaway, and what this story looks like three months from now.
• The issue of company culture is attracting companies. Or more precisely startups, with Blendoor dropping a new report this week that TechCrunch covered, and Vault raising $8.2 million to provide a software solution to aid employees in reporting misconduct.
• On the funding round beat, we explored ChartHop’s new $35 million round that Danny had many thoughts about, fake-chicken nuggets startup Nuggs raising $50 million and Faculty’s latest deal that will help power its vision for the future of male grooming. We also got into Lifted’s elder-care focused round, a startup in the larger health tech beat that Natasha is giving some of her attention to.
• And we wrapped with the ExtraHop exit. We spent a minute trying to figure out why the company was valued at $900 million in its exit. The number, while large, felt light based on what we knew about the company.

Thanks for hopping along with us this week and every week. Quick programming note: Natasha will take Alex’s spot on the Monday show for next week since he’s out, so be nice, and send her stuff to mention.

Equity drops every Monday at 7:00 a.m. PST, Wednesday, and Friday morning at 7:00 a.m. PST, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.