We’re all just a Hop, Skip and a Drive away from a better Hustle • TechCrunch

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Before we get into this week’s show notes, some programming notes:

OK, now to the show. This week, Natasha, Mary Ann and Rebecca took the mic, with Theresa on production duty, to talk through quite a diverse news cycle:

• Our deals of the week were Scout, HopSkipDrive and Hustle Fund’s new fund (so I think you finally get the headline of this show).
• Then we jumped into the human side of the layoff story, as Mary Ann and Christine dug into four stories of those impacted by the Better.com layoff spree.

• After that, we debated whether or not the Adobe/Figma deal will spur more M&A considering the lack of companies going public and the state of the venture market.
• Speaking of the venture market, we ended with a discussion about how VCs are funding again, but focusing on certain stages, and then looked ahead at what Q4 might look like.