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Elon dips from DOGE, and Silicon Valley enters the ‘find out’ stage

Elon Musk has officially announced he’s stepping down () as a U.S. special government employee and the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency, better known as DOGE. The move follows Musk’s cooling relationship with the Trump administration and slumping Tesla sales () tied to his political advocacy. Today on Equity () , Kirsten,…

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Elon Musk has officially announced he’s stepping down () as a U.S. special government employee and the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency, better known as DOGE. The move follows Musk’s cooling relationship with the Trump administration and slumping Tesla sales () tied to his political advocacy.

Today on Equity () , Kirsten, Max and Anthony unpack who else is departing DOGE, and why Silicon Valley’s relationship with politics is entering, as Kirsten put it, the “find out” stage.

Listen to the full episode for more of the week’s tech headlines including:

GameStop bought $500 million of bitcoin () , and the move is giving us 2021 déjà vu

Neuralink’s $600 million raise () , valuing Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface startup at $9 billion

The New York Times and Amazon’s landmark AI licensing deal () and what it signals for how editorial content powers generative AI

Nvidia’s tale of two earnings () , and why the forecast is not as bleak as CEO Jensen Huang makes it seem

Equity will be back next week, so don’t miss it!

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. 

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts () , Overcast () , Spotify () and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X () and Threads () , at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here () .

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. We’d also like to thank TechCrunch’s audience development team. Thank you so much for listening, and we’ll talk to you next time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices ()

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2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. @canardVN

    May 30, 2025 at 1:21 pm

    Why does everyone sound gay and woke in this podcast?

  2. @AliceSawayn

    May 30, 2025 at 1:34 pm

    Great content, thanks for sharing! Slightly unrelated, but I’d like to ask something: My okx wallet holds some USDT, and I have 12 words (light joke coast great adjust unveil salt energy gallery pulp hockey fluid). How can I send them to Binance?

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Americans loved drinking radioactive ‘miracle water’ in 1920s

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Radithor promised to cure everything from wrinkles to leukemia, but its unintended results were deadly.

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How to handle layoffs with compassion with Ayal Yogev, Anjuna

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This week’s guest is Ayal Yogev, co-founder and CEO of Anjuna Security, who has experienced both sides of the startup journey: scaling quickly during the boom years and then making the incredibly difficult decision to lay off a significant portion of his team when the market shifted.

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In this episode, Isabelle Johannessen and Yogev unpack what it really means to lead through layoffs with compassion and how founders can support their teams even in the most challenging moments. They also explore the lessons learned from scaling too quickly and how to build a more resilient company the second time around.

Apply to Startup Battlefield: We are looking for early-stage companies that have an MVP. So nominate a founder (or yourself): techcrunch.com/apply. Be sure to say you heard about Startup Battlefield from the Build Mode podcast.
TechCrunch Disrupt: If you’re thinking about applying to Startup Battlefield, then October 13 to 15 in San Francisco, we’re back for TechCrunch Disrupt, where the Startup Battlefield 200 takes the stage. So if you want to cheer them on, or just network with 1000s of founders, VCs, and tech enthusiasts, then grab your tickets.

Use code buildmode15 for 15% off any ticket type.

New episodes of Build Mode drop every Thursday. Hosted by Isabelle Johannessen. Produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience development led by Morgan Little. Special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams.

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04:45 Scaling the team quickly
06:10 The market crash hits
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12:10 Supporting employees the right way
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20:50 The hiring mistake founders make
27:40 When to scale your sales team
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First Look at Dyson’s $99 HushJet Mini Cool Portable Fan 🪭

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