INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where each week we discuss other people’s money and
what sense their investment choices make (or don’t).This week was honestly a treat
We had Kate Clark in the studio along with Alex Wilhelm and a special guest, Sarah Guo from Greylock Partners, a venture firm (obviously)
Guo has the distinction of having the best-ever fun fact on the show.We kicked off with Grammarly, a company that recently put $90 million
We chatted about for whom it was built, and if we use it today
One thing that felt clear was that consumers are more willing than before to pay for their tooling
And that means that companies like Grammarly may prove strong investment candidates.Next, we hit on two more rounds, namely Tiger Global’s
investment into Lattice and Clari’s $60 million Series D
Starting with Lattice, a performance management company founded by none other than Sam Altman’s brother, Jack
The startup raised $25 million from Tiger Global; read more about that here.Clari led us to a discussion of vertical SaaS, and Guo’s views
on the future of SaaS products (she’s bullish)
Alex and Guo had a lot to say on this subject.After talking over a few rounds, the discussion turned to the Q3 venture market
A few things stood out from the data and projections
First, that early-stage fundraising was a little light in the quarter
It could be a single-quarter wobble, but the data was worth chewing on all the same
And, second, that seed deal and dollar volume were hot once again.And we wrapped with a discussion of Tempest, a new sobriety-focused
startup that raised a $10 million round
Honestly, we aren’t sure how we feel about the business model
Please let us know if you have thoughts.It was a good time
A big thanks to Guo for coming on the show, and a shout-out to the team that makes Equity happen: Chris Gates and Henry Pickavet.Equity
drops every Friday at 6:00 am PT, so subscribe to us on iTunes, Overcast, Pocketcast, Downcast and all the casts.
