Science & Technology

Why isn’t Robinhood a verb yet?

Listen here: Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s VC-focused podcast (now on Twitter!), where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week Natasha Mascarenhas, Danny Crichton and your humble servant gathered to chat through a host of rounds and venture capital news for your enjoyment. As a programming note, I am off next…

Published

6 years ago

September 25, 2020

CYBER TECH TV

Listen here:

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s VC-focused podcast (now on Twitter!), where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

This week Natasha Mascarenhas, Danny Crichton and your humble servant gathered to chat through a host of rounds and venture capital news for your enjoyment. As a programming note, I am off next week effectively, so look for Natasha to lead on Equity Monday and then both her and Danny to rock the Thursday show. I will miss everyone.

But onto the show itself, here’s what we got into:

Zoom’s earliest investors are betting millions on a better Zoom for schools: Built on Natasha’s reporting, we took a look at a neat company that wants to make Zoom better for the educational environments where it had suddenly taken the center stage. Teachers need more.
The first rule of BookClub? No boring book clubs. Another Natasha story this week, this time about a startup that we somewhat like but can’t decide how its market will be. Still, the bibliophiles in your life should read this piece and get hyped about rising access to authors.
Robinhood raised $460 million more, extending its preceding $200 million Series G to a $660 million total investment. Chime also added $485 million at a new, $14.5 billion valuation. We dug into what’s up with the pair and why they are raising so much money.
The short answer is hella growth, leading us to a question and this week’s headline: Why isn’t Robinhood a verb yet?
Willow, the startup making the wearable breast pump, raises $55 million: Natasha talked us through some of the issues with the phrase femtech, before Danny explained to us the need for what Willow offers. Here’s to more tech being used to help more folks at more stages of life.
Then we turned to VC media, namely our notes on a new venture capital game show, and, a16z launching a podcast network. We also worked what Casey Newton is up to into the same conversation.

Bon voyage for a week, please stay safe and don’t forget to register to vote.

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2 Comments

David Phillips

September 25, 2020 at 4:52 pm

This is what comes next

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Noiseless2020

September 26, 2020 at 12:10 am

Dope podcast. Is there a longer version or just small clips

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CNET

Can $5000 Worth of Tech Make You Better at Tennis? | STAT

CNET senior producer Wes Ott takes tech to the court to see what contraptions are actually useful to aspiring tennis pros and which ones are just out of bounds. #tennis #tech #sports #fitnesstech

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September 2, 2026

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CNET senior producer Wes Ott takes tech to the court to see what contraptions are actually useful to aspiring tennis pros and which ones are just out of bounds. #tennis #tech #sports #fitnesstech

Science & Technology

Pangram’s Max Spero on why AI detection is harder than ‘Real or Fake’ | Equity Podcast

The internet has a trust problem, and it’s not just because social media feeds are filling up with AI slop. AI-generated text and images are now making their way into job applications, product reviews, and even insurance claims, leaving platforms and users alike scrambling to figure out what’s real. A handful of startups have cropped…

Published

1 day ago

September 2, 2026

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A handful of startups have cropped up in the past couple of years to become the “trust layer” the internet needs — including Pangram. The startup recently snapped up $9 million for its AI detection system and landed a partnership with Substack, which is now using Pangram’s tech to show readers which of their favorite authors use AI to write their newsletters. Pangram also recently dropped a new AI image detection tool.

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Pangram co-founder and CEO Max Spero joins Rebecca Bellan to dig into the promise of AI detection tools and where to draw the line between AI assisted and AI generated.

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 Intro

1:15 Building Pangram: from binary detector to gauging AI assistance

2:06 Why job applications, reviews, and Amazon are drowning in slop

5:39 How Pangram actually spots AI writing

9:26 Where people draw the line on AI-assisted vs. AI-generated

12:50 The false positive problem, and “America has a Pangram problem”

14:30 Detecting fake images, now that AI photos are scarily good

19:13 Competing with GPTZero, Winston, and building “core infrastructure”

21:43 Will good writing jobs actually come back?

23:36 Outro

CNET

Every Product ACER Announced at IFA 2026 in 14 Minutes

ACER came to IFA 2026 with a stacked product lineup, including the much talked about Project Dualplay Mini, a handheld gaming device with a rotatable screen. See what else ACER showed in our highlight reel of the keynote. You can find the products mentioned in this article linked below Acer Aspire Vero 16 AI Powered…

Published

1 day ago

September 2, 2026

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You can find the products mentioned in this article linked below
Acer Aspire Vero 16 AI Powered Laptop 16.0″ IPS WQXGA
*CNET may get a commission on these offers

Read more about Acer’s IFA 2026 press conference on CNET.com
Acer Recommits to Repairability With New Vero 16 Laptop

0:00 Intro
0:03 Packard Bell Returns
0:13 Packard Bell: Bluetooth Turntable
0:43 Packard Bell: Notebook
1:23 ACER SFF RTX Spark
2:21 NVIDIA Talks RTX Spark
4:17 ACER Veriton RI110 AI Mini Workstation
5:03 ACER Swift Blade 14
5:40 ACER Vero 16
6:50 ACER EP 130 K
7:25 ACER PD163Q P3
7:46 ACER Swift Air 16
8:13 GoogleBooks!
9:09 Predator Atlas 7
10:32 Nitro XV275X P
11:33 Predator XB253Q U1
12:11 ACER Aspire G 3D 16
13:00 Project Dualplay Mini

Video Credits:
Producer/Editor: Numidas Prasarn

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#acer #newlaunch #gaming