0:11

Hello and welcome back to Equity! The

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tech runs podcast where we unpack the

0:15

numbers and the nuance behind the headlines.

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This is Alex and today is April

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Third. Two thousand and twenty four will

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come back to our Wednesday show where

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we dig into the critical, an important

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start up and venture capital stories from

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the week thus far. Now. If

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you're asking yourself, what about last week we

0:32

didn't do this last week. What happened to

0:34

the Wednesday show? Well. I got

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an eye infection and so last Wednesday

0:38

morning I was a doctor and not

0:40

after the microphone. But we're back and

0:42

there is much to talk about on

0:44

par. Today I have blah blah car

0:46

and why it is ready to buy

0:48

a smaller startups, a startup that has

0:50

a new model that I really dig

0:53

go students turn around and Ai chip

0:55

companies that is taking on in video

0:57

and some venture capital news that was

0:59

long and the make him to work.

1:04

Starting off blah Blah Car is

1:06

an iconic name over in the

1:08

French startup ecosystem that's according to

1:10

our own Roman over on Tech

1:12

crunch. The car pooling and bus

1:14

ticketing company, however, has been around

1:16

for so long that it's hard

1:18

to really think of it as

1:20

a start up any more. But

1:22

it did start life as a

1:24

scrappy online hitchhiking community, did raise

1:26

hundreds of millions of dollars, and

1:28

did reach unicorn status. So this

1:30

is definitely a startup story. Now.

1:32

The company eventually expanded across

1:35

countries and continents before scaling

1:37

back it's ambitions and starting

1:39

to think about profitability. But.

1:42

That's not why it's on the

1:44

show to day to day. the

1:46

company announced that it has secured

1:49

a one hundred million euro revolving

1:51

credit facility. However, that credit access

1:53

is not actually designed to help

1:55

fund blah blah cars own operations.

1:58

How is that possible? Well,

2:00

the company told us it has been

2:02

profitable since April of 2022. Now

2:05

the question then becomes why the capital?

2:07

Well, it turns out the word is

2:09

acquisitions. I think that's brilliant.

2:11

Right now, many companies are cheap, talent

2:14

is affordable. So if you're doing well

2:16

financially, use some credit, go

2:18

out there and snap up stuff while it

2:20

is still cheap. Now, back to

2:22

the profit point, co-founder and CEO Nicholas

2:24

Bresson told TechCrunch that back in 2022,

2:28

the company saw 195 million

2:30

Euro worth of revenue and was almost

2:32

profitable. But because of a very tough

2:34

first quarter wasn't. But from the second

2:36

quarter of 2022 and since the CEO

2:38

said that blah,

2:41

blah, car has been profitable. And last

2:44

year it saw revenue of 250 million

2:47

Euro. So it's growing about 30% a year

2:49

and profitable. Nice.

2:52

That's actually fantastic. The company eyes them

2:54

should go public and then wow, the

2:56

French public with its success. But in

2:58

the meantime, if you are a startup

3:00

in Europe and you need a place

3:02

to land, well, blah, blah, car has

3:04

money. Next up,

3:06

here's a fun startup story. You've heard this one

3:08

before. Dan Laufer swore off

3:10

ever founding a startup again after

3:13

he sold apartment rental platform, rent

3:15

lingo back in 2021. But

3:18

and I'm sure you saw where this was

3:20

going. He couldn't ignore the potential to solve

3:22

a problem. He saw unfolding back when he

3:25

was the head of growth and product marketing

3:27

at Nextdoor. And what was

3:29

that problem he wanted to solve?

3:31

Well, according to Laufer, quote, the

3:33

top use of Nextdoor is people

3:36

looking for providers, HVAC, especially now

3:38

take that and mix in the fact

3:41

that a huge number of folks out

3:43

there are heading towards retirement. And Laufer

3:45

came up with pipe trades, a startup

3:47

that acquires mom and pop HVAC and

3:49

plumbing companies, skills them using its own

3:51

software and then helps them operate. Ask

3:54

Anyone out there who owns a house

3:56

how easy or how hard it is

3:58

today to find trade relations. The help

4:00

and I'll tell you it's absolutely

4:02

not easy So I tunes is

4:05

probably chasing after a market that

4:07

is, well, not a pipe dream.

4:09

As investors agree, the company just

4:11

raised to twenty five point five

4:13

million dollars there a led by

4:15

Canvas Ventures than also saw capital

4:18

from Floral and a couple of

4:20

angels came along for the right

4:22

including Tony zoo be founder of

4:24

Door-and Thomas Laden, the former Ceo

4:26

of Open Table. The. Company is

4:28

making real progress thus far as

4:31

purchased nine companies and is I

4:33

think a unique combination of like

4:35

god, private equity roll up, vertical

4:37

size start up and I are

4:39

our business all at once. I

4:41

don't know what what to call

4:43

pipe dreams but I do think

4:46

it's absolutely awesome. How

4:48

about more Good start of news

4:50

I deliver. Go Student and Online

4:52

Tutoring Marketplace lost a valued at

4:54

three point two billion dollars has

4:57

carved out a position for itself.

4:59

Techcrunch reports as one of the

5:01

biggest and most popular startups to

5:03

ever come out of Austria, and

5:05

as eleven million families and twenty

5:07

three thousand tutors on it's platform

5:10

that is enormous scale to big

5:12

valuation. How's it all working out

5:14

for the company? Financially. Well.

5:16

Go Student is adding another distinction

5:18

to it's list of accolades, and

5:20

that is profitability. The company's Ceo

5:22

of feel it's Oswald told Techcrunch

5:24

that his company is now in

5:26

the block across it's global footprint.

5:29

What? Does that mean well A

5:31

means I Go Student is both

5:33

Iba.positive and has positive operating cash

5:35

flow across both Go Student and

5:37

the Go Student. Good. But.

5:40

For sort of others out there who wish there

5:42

were profitable, Let me tell you, it was not

5:44

easy for the company to get their. Go.

5:46

Student lost eighty nine million euro back

5:48

in two thousand and twenty one, with

5:50

that figure ballooning to two hundred and

5:53

twenty million euro in two thousand and

5:55

twenty two. That. Led to several

5:57

rounds of wealth and as you

5:59

can imagine me your cost cuts.

6:02

Quoting. From the Ceo hear from two

6:04

thousand and Nineteen to Two Thousand Twenty

6:06

two. We scaled our core business model

6:08

to more than one hundred million euro

6:10

in revenue and it was amazing. But.

6:12

The company also had quote A Casper

6:14

and of over one hundred and fifty

6:16

million Euro in two thousand and twenty

6:19

two alone in court. Put another way,

6:21

it is possible to have gotten a

6:23

bit too fast moving during covered and

6:25

the ensuing corners and still find a

6:27

way forward that is super sustainable. Those

6:29

didn't did it, he just had to

6:31

struggle it's way there. But now on

6:33

the other side of the sons welcome

6:35

to the land of profitability. And

6:38

to close out our start up coverage,

6:40

the funding climate for a chipped start

6:42

once as sunny as a mid July

6:44

day in Chicago is beginning to cloud

6:46

over like a Seattle fall as in

6:49

video, asserts it's dominance over the market.

6:51

How bad as the data? Well, according

6:53

to a recent report to us to

6:55

firms raise just eight hundred and Eighty

6:57

One million And the first quarters of

6:59

two thousand? Twenty Three Down from one

7:01

point, seven nine billion in the same

7:03

for three quarters of two Thousand and

7:06

Twenty two. That is a very. Very

7:08

sharp decline as a result. There's turbulence

7:10

out there in the markets with a

7:12

i took company mythic, running out of

7:15

cash back in two thousand twenty two

7:17

he was know the forced to actually

7:19

hot operations and Grasscourt, a once well

7:21

capitalized rival now faces mounting losses. But

7:24

don't worry, not all is lost in

7:26

the world of a I just because

7:28

Halo which is a it's a I

7:30

L O which designs specialized chips to

7:33

run a i work with on edge

7:35

devices. just raised one hundred and twenty

7:37

million. Dollars this week in an

7:39

extension to It's series see. Also.

7:42

Hillclimb three hundred customers which is good.

7:44

more competition. It was more goods and

7:46

while and videos doing great never won

7:49

once more that stuff. It's better if

7:51

someone is trying to chase them down

7:53

and steal their crown. And

7:58

just one more venture capital story. The

8:00

for we Go Now diseases whose

8:02

long ran Tgv Capital a twenty

8:04

four year old cross border from

8:07

there was something akin to a

8:09

bridge between the Us and China

8:11

have finally settled on tude new

8:13

brands. Roughly a half year after

8:16

announcing be we're going to split

8:18

their Us and Face and operations

8:20

So Better and investors Ginny Li

8:23

and Dixon through every branded their

8:25

Singapore based group as Granted Asia

8:27

which Forbes press reported and meanwhile

8:29

fans. Tongues be from cofounder who

8:32

lives in the Bay Area. Announced

8:34

on X very recently that the

8:36

Us team is now called notable.

8:38

Capital. This is not a

8:41

shock. Us and China economic ties are

8:43

a very strange points and with the

8:45

two countries competing across a host of

8:47

delay and it's hard to day to

8:50

does in both regions and not run

8:52

afoul of one of the two governments.

8:55

Other firms of course have made similar

8:57

changes, including Sequoia. I would say that

8:59

this story is evidence that the global

9:01

market today really isn't, which is probably

9:03

a tough pill for some the smaller

9:05

because lots of easy for hims invested

9:07

in China and did rather well today.

9:10

However, with capital controls in place that

9:12

are very strict in China, it's actually

9:14

tough at times to cash out even

9:16

winning baths. And so the shift of

9:18

global funds to a more geo a

9:20

specific entity model I think is going

9:22

to take a very long time to

9:25

reverse. That said, the trend of

9:27

venture capital firms have an incredibly boring

9:29

name appears to be still going in

9:31

full force. And

9:35

that is our when they show for this

9:37

lovely week. I off now into Y Combinator

9:39

Demo Day land for the next two days

9:42

of please don't call me I'm busy. We

9:44

will have all of notes about that over

9:46

on the Friday news run up the comes

9:48

you on Friday morning. In the meantime if

9:51

you need even more from Team effort into

9:53

your equity support for Rock X M. threads

9:55

that was passed over on tipped us semi

9:57

are so lucky to have a sister show

9:59

in talking to founders about how they

10:01

built what they did. This is Alex, this is Equity,

10:03

we'll talk to you soon. Equity

10:07

is hosted by myself, Alex Wilhelm

10:09

and TechCrunch Senior Reporter Mary Ann

10:11

Azevedo. We are produced by Teresa

10:13

Locun Solo with editing by Kel.

10:16

Bryce Durbin is our illustrator and a big

10:18

thank you to the audience development team and

10:20

Henry Piccavet who manages TechCrunch Audio products. Thank

10:22

you so much for listening and we'll talk

10:24

to you next time. Thank

10:30

you.