The Equity Podcast crew wraps up another eventful week, covering real estate, AI agents, gambling, and the secondary market (a form of legal gambling, of course).
Mary Ann Azevedo, Becca Szczak, and Devin Caldway acknowledged at the start of this Friday's episode that the X/Twitter ban situation in Brazil is probably too complicated an issue to give an opinion on. Let's think about that for a moment.
In this week's Deals, Devin started off by talking about You.com spending $50 million to tackle harder AI tasks — tasks that Google Search can't solve. The company aims to become the go-to for complex tasks that combine live search, coding, and natural language understanding, and unlike many of its competitors, some customers are actually paying for it.
Becca, an occasional gambler, is intrigued by DubClub, a start-up that claims to systematize and legitimize professional betting handicappers – people who claim to be able to beat the odds, but who tend to offer their services in a more informal way. Can DubClub run a clean business in this popular but legally questionable line of work?
Nine-figure deals are always worth talking about. Mary Ann is referring to Paylocity's acquisition of Airbase for $325 million, but as she points out, the actual value of the deal is probably higher than that. A lot of money, sure, but compared to previous valuations… right? Somehow, we can't imagine founder Thejo Kote is shedding too many tears about this.
If you've ever bought or tried to buy a home, you know how painful real estate agent commissions can be. What percentage? A recent court ruling overturned established business practices in the real estate industry, and if startup Landian has their way, percentage commissions may be gone. They want flat fees and payment at closing to be the standard. Redfin is not amused! But they're not angry. At least, that's what they'd like to think.
Investing in AI is super popular, and people are investing in investors who are investing in AI. In the secondary market, positions in Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI are currently trading at a staggering 30% premium. This gives actual shareholders a fair bit of breathing room and potentially a chance for smaller investors to get in on the frenzy, but it also gives off a whole “Beanie Baby economy” vibe, as Devin puts it – a reference used by millennials to mean “thanks for listening.”
Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast produced by Theresa Loconsolo and posts every Wednesday and Friday.
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