Your local trucker is giving us creator economy vibes

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

Friends, we’re almost there: the end of the year that felt like a decade. This week, Mary Ann, Natasha and Alex put aside their 2021 fatigue and talked through a week full of news — and candidly, tensions. As always, shout out to Grace and Chris for producing the show and making us sound a whole lot better. 

We got into the Lyft mafia, garbage and why our local truckers are giving us creator economy vibes. Or more specifically:

• Kenya’s Pariti raised $2.85 million led by Harlem Capital to develop startup ecosystems in emerging markets, proving yet again how Africa’s entrepreneurial scene is one not to miss. The empowerment trend continued with TrueNorth’s $50 million fundraise to help biz-savvy independent truckers, and freshly anointed unicorn AgentSync with news, as Alex reminds us, that insurtech is very much alive. 
• OpenSea got a new CFO from Lyft, which led to IPO rumors, denial and rumors about why there’s denial about going public. Plus, as Natasha notes, if you’re not leaving Lyft to join crypto, you’re leaving Lyft to join climate. 
• The Trump Media SPAC is a mess, as we anticipated, frankly.
• Mary Ann is all over the Better.com saga as its comm, marketing and PR heads all submitted their resignations this week and CEO Vishal Garg issued a poorly received apology for how badly he effed up the mass layoffs last week — and as she hints, there’s a lot more to come.

We disagreed more than usual this episode, which is refreshing. So cheers to more of that next year, and we’ll see you back here on Monday.

Equity drops every Monday at 7:00 a.m. PST, Wednesday, and Friday at 6:00 a.m. PST, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts!