Build Mode: Capital is a commodity (but your investor relationships aren’t)

The World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos felt different this year, and not just because Meta and Salesforce took over storefronts on the main promenade. AI dominated the conversation in a way that overshadowed traditional topics like climate change and global poverty, and the CEOs weren't holding back. There was public criticism of trade policy, warnings about AI bubbles popping, and a lot of talk about what comes next for the industry.    Meanwhile, back in Silicon Valley, AI startup Humans& raised a $480 million seed round with no product on the market, just a vision for "social intelligence" AI and a team of ex-Anthropic, Google, and xAI employees.    Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane discuss why raising hundreds of millions before building a product is apparently the new norm, which conversations took over Davos this week, and more.    Listen to the full episode to hear more from the week, including:  Whether Meta's 10% layoffs at Reality Labs means the end for the metaverse, and who’s defending Meta's VR investments  Serve Robotics' acquisition of Diligent, a startup bringing delivery bots into hospitals  OpenAI’s rumored earbuds and what we expect to see from the AI company’s first hardware product.  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

Today on Equity, we're teaming up with our newest podcast, Build Mode. In this interview, Build Mode host Isabelle Johannessen sits down with Ross Fubini of XYZ Ventures and Leslie Feinzaig of Graham & Walker Ventures to pull back the curtain on how VCs build their own go-to-market strategies. They dig into what it’s really like raising a first fund, why founder-market fit applies to investors too, and how the best investor relationships start years before you ever need the money. 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

AI companies are clustering around healthcare and fast.  In just the past week, OpenAI bought health startup Torch, Anthropic launched Claude for Health, and Sam Altman-backed MergeLabs closed a $250 million seed round at an $850 million valuation. The money and products are pouring into health and voice AI, but so are concerns about hallucination risks, inaccurate medical information, and massive security vulnerabilities in systems handling sensitive patient data.  Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into why the AI world is suddenly obsessed with health care, what other products can expect an AI-makeover, and more.  Listen to the full episode to hear:   How Anthropic's co-work tool could threaten Salesforce and other enterprise software giants  Bandcamp’s move against AI, banning AI-generated music from its platform  Why fusion energy is heating up, with startups like Type One Energy suddenly raising hundreds of millions  The latest on Luminar's bankruptcy and a potential bidding war overits LIDAR assets  Chapters:  00:00 - Introduction   00:29 - Waymo testing in New York City?  02:13 - Bandcamp bans AI-generated music   04:57 - Luminar's bankruptcy and LIDAR fire sale   10:28 - Type One Energy's fusion funding frenzy   16:10 - AI's healthcare land grab   23:28 - Voice AI deals heat up   25:26 - Anthropic's co-work tool threatens enterprise software  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

AI agents are supposed to make work easier. Instead, they're creating a whole new category of security nightmares.    As companies deploy AI-powered chatbots, agents, and copilots across their operations, they're facing a new risk: how do you let employees and AI agents use powerful AI tools without accidentally leaking sensitive data, violating compliance rules, or opening the door to prompt-based injections? Witness AI just raised $58 million to find a solution, building what they call "the confidence layer for enterprise AI."    Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan was joined by Barmak Meftah, co-founder and partner at Ballistic Ventures, and Rick Caccia, CEO of Witness AI, to discuss what enterprises are actually worried about, why AI security become an $800 billion to $1.2 trillion market by 2031, and what happens when AI agents start talking to other AI agents without human oversight.    Listen to the full episode to hear:   How enterprises accidentally leak sensitive data through "shadow AI" usage.  What CISOs are actually worried about right now, how the problem has evolved rapidly over 18 months, and what it will look like over the next year.  Why traditional cybersecurity approaches don't work for AI agents.  Real examples of AI agents going rogue, including one that threatened to blackmail an employee.  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

After years of chatbots and image generators, AI is finally leaving the screen. At CES 2026, that shift became impossible to ignore.    The annual tech showcase in Las Vegas was dominated by "physical AI" and robotics, from Boston Dynamic's newly redesigned Atlas humanoid robot to AI-powered ice makers (yes, really). The companies in attendance clearly want consumers to know: AI isn't just capable of answering questions anymore. It's ready to movecar parts in factories, catchcatching drones with net guns, and dance in automaker booths.    Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane break down everything we saw at CES 2026 and more deals from the week that caught our eye.    Listen to the full episode to hear about:   Discord’s rumored IPO, years after shutting down a Microsoft acquisition  xAI's massive $20 billion raise and the dark side of Grok's content moderation failures  How Mobileye is getting into the humanoid robotics game with its acquisition of Mentee Robotics  OpenAI's potential shift toward audio-first, screenless AI experiences  Chapters: 00:00 - Intro 00:38 - Discord's surprise IPO filing 03:24 - xAI's $20B raise amid CSAM controversy 11:06 - Mobileye's pivot to humanoid robotics 14:41 - Physical AI takes over CES 18:31 - Why humanoid robots still don't make sense 24:26 - OpenAI's war on screens and ambient computing 29:56 - Wrap-up 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

Vanessa Larco, partner at Premise and former partner at NEA, thinks 2026 will finally be the year of consumer AI.  Larco, who's been investing in consumer and prosumer for years, thinks we're about to see a shift in how consumers spend time online, with AI powering “concierge-like” services. The question is, will legacy consumer products like WebMD and TripAdvisor continue to exist as standalone apps, or will they just get absorbed into ChatGPT or Meta AI? And where can startups carve out an AI-powered niche for themselves?  Today on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan sat down with Larco to talk about why consumer is back, what OpenAI won't kill, and where the real opportunities are hiding.  Listen to the full episode to hear about:  Why Larco thinks OpenAI won't build marketplace businesses that require managing real humans.  Larco’s take on "disposable software" and why AI apps “should be treated like Word docs.”  How Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses turned Larco into a believer in voice interfaces (and why she thinks screens are optional for most tasks).  More predictions for 2026, including another huge year for M&A.  What new business models stablecoins could unlock.   00:00 - Introduction   00:53 - Why founders are excited about consumer again   04:40 - The moat against OpenAI: Managing real humans   09:22 - Apps as disposable as Word docs   12:48 - Social media in the AI era  18:48 - Meta Ray-Bans and why wearables are actually good   23:35 - Stablecoins and consumer fintech opportunities   26:54 - M&A predictions for 2026  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

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Fizz is betting that Gen Z is tired of performing their lives on Instagram and TikTok.   What started as a pandemic-era group chat frustration has turned into the dominant social platform on college campuses across the US, focused on the 99% of life that doesn't make it into a highlight reel. Capturing the attention of a demographic typically glued to Instagram and TikTok, the app's hybrid anonymous model and hyperlocal focus has made it what Solomon calls "the biggest college social app since Facebook.”   Today we're bringing you a conversation that Dominic Madori Davis had with Fizz’s co-founder and CEO Teddy Solomon from this year's Disrupt, digging into why he thinks social media stopped being social.   Listen to the full episode to hear:  Why Solomon thinks Instagram and TikTok became pure entertainment platforms, and why that created an opening  How Fizz uses 7,000 volunteer student moderators plus AI to keep the platform safe  The company's expansion strategy beyond college and what "Global Fizz" actually means  Solomon’s case for why New York is a better place to build a consumer company than San Francisco  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.     Chapters:   00:00 - Introduction   01:34 - What broke in social media   04:03 - Building for the 99% of life   07:29 - Content moderation at scale   11:16 - The risks of anonymous social   13:22 - Pandemic origins and IRL community   16:49 - Why the company moved to New York   19:45 - Scaling with "arguably the most retentive social product in history"   21:32 - Almost getting arrested at Pepperdine…for donuts  26:09 - The future of social media  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TechCrunch's Equity crew is bringing 2025 to a close and getting ahead on the year to come with our annual predictions episode! Hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Rebecca Bellan were joined by Build Mode host Isabelle Johansson to dissect the year's biggest tech developments, from mega AI funding rounds that defied expectations to the rise of "physical AI," and make their calls for 2026.  The group tackles everything from why AI agents didn't live up to the hype in 2025 (but probably will in 2026), to how Hollywood will push back against AI-generated content, to why VCs are facing a serious liquidity crisis.   Listen to the full episode to hear:  Why world models are the next big thing in AI and how they're different from large language models  The death of "stealth mode" for AI startups and the rise of alternative funding sources  Predictions on regulatory chaos around AI policy and what Trump's recent executive order means for startups  Hot takes on IPOs: Will OpenAI and Anthropic actually go public in 2026?  Rapid-fire predictions including Johnny Ive and Sam Altman's inevitable public breakup, the return of dumb phones, and why everyone will be calling themselves "AI native"  What's coming in Build Mode season 2: A deep dive into team building, hiring, and finding co-founders  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.    Chapters:   00:00 - Introduction   01:43 - Rating our 2025 predictions   04:19 - Funding in the bubble era   06:35 - World models and the future of AI   09:05 - The year of AI agents (for real this time)   11:58 - Physical AI everywhere   15:19 - AI meets Hollywood   16:25 - Regulatory chaos and federal preemption   18:34 - The liquidity crisis and LP direct investing   22:19 - IPO predictions for 2026   23:57 - Startup trends for 2026  27:06 - Buzzwords we're sick of hearing   28:15 - Rapid fire predictions   32:50 - What's next for Build Mode  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's plenty of hype around AI and robots in healthcare, but the problem that's actually costing hospitals money right now is operating room coordination. Two to four hours of OR time is lost every single day, not because of the surgeries themselves, but because of everything in between from manual scheduling and coordination chaos to guesswork about room turnover.      Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, we're bringing you a conversation that TechCrunch AI Editor Russell Brandom had with Conor McGinn, co-founder and CEO of Akara, the startup that recently landed a spot on Time's Best Inventions of 2025 and is building what’s essentially air traffic control for hospitals using thermal sensors and AI.       Listen to the full episode to hear:  Why Akara pivoted from cleaning robots to ambient sensing, and how thermal sensors document surgeries without privacy concerns  How NHS vetting became McGinn's backdoor into US hospitals  The real bottleneck holding back medical robotics. (Spoiler: it's not the robots, it's the infrastructure)  Why 40% of the nursing workforce could leave in the next five years, and what that means for automation  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.    Chapters:    00:00 - Introduction   00:54 - Air traffic control for ORs   02:35 - Where hospitals lose hours daily   03:54 - Selling into risk-averse hospitals   06:21 - Thermal sensors and edge AI  09:11 - NHS as proof of concept   13:16 - The AI under the hood   18:12 - Privacy benefits of thermal   21:22 - Infrastructure before robots  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices