Best Max Zeff Podcasts (2026)

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 t…

1
Equity's 2026 Predictions: AI Agents, Blockbuster IPOs, and the Future of VC 34:53

Play Pause

11d ago34:53

34:53

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 "…

1
Why the operating room is ripe for AI, according to Akara 27:01

13d ago27:01

27:01

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 a…

1
Hardware's brutal week: iRobot, Luminar, and Rad Power go bankrupt 33:15

18d ago33:15

33:15

The hardware world had a brutal week, with iRobot, Luminar, and Rad Power Bikes all filing for bankruptcy. Each company faces its own mix of tariff pressures, supply chain issues, and shifting markets, but together they tell a larger story about the challenges of building physical products in an era of global trade tensions and cheap overseas compe…

1
Eclipse's Jiten Behl thinks the next unicorns won't be built in software 30:10

20d ago30:10

30:10

Jiten Behl, partner at Eclipse Ventures and former chief growth officer at Rivian, thinks we're entering an era of major re-industrialization in the US — one where factories run on AI-powered robots, not cheap overseas labor. Behl, who helped scale Rivian from a conference room idea in 2015 to a publicly traded EV maker, is now investing in the nex…

1
Netflix growing up, data center jet engines, and the circular AI economy 27:46

25d ago27:46

27:46

A baby was born in a Waymo this week, and it wasn't even the first one. What started as a novelty story quickly became a reminder of how autonomous vehicles have quietly become part of everyday life, complete with all the messiness that entails. The real coming-of-age story this week, however, wasn't happening in San Francisco's robotaxis. It was p…

1
ElevenLabs just hit $6.6B, but its CEO says the real money isn't in voice anymore 23:53

27d ago23:53

23:53

ElevenLabs has made a name for itself building realistic AI voices. What started as two Polish engineers annoyed by terrible movie dubbing has grown into a profitable company now valued at $6.6 billion, doubling its valuation from just nine months ago. The company recently announced a $100 million tender offer led by Sequoia and ICONIQ, with partic…

1
Nothing wants your money, AWS wants your trust, and Spotify wants your data 29:51

1M ago29:51

29:51

AWS announced a wave of new AI agent tools at re:Invent 2025, but can Amazon actually catch up to the AI leaders? While the cloud giant is betting big on enterprise AI with its third-gen chip and database discounts that got developers cheering, it's still fighting to prove it can compete beyond infrastructure. This week on Equity, Kirsten Korosec, …

1
This VC charges $0 for PR, and has 12 unicorns to show for it 32:00

1M ago32:00

32:00

Tech is racing ahead while society struggles to keep up. Masha Bucher, founder and GP of Day One Ventures, built her firm around closing that gap by combining venture capital with hands-on PR to help portfolio companies not just raise money, but actually break through the noise. Day One's been an early backer of companies like World, Superhuman, an…

1
Supabase CEO on the "painful" decisions that built a $5B company 30:07

1M ago30:07

30:07

Vibe coding has taken the tech industry by storm, and it's not just the Lovables and Replits of the world that are winning. The startups building the infrastructure behind them are cashing in too. Supabase, the open-source database platform that's become the backend of choice for the vibe-coding world, raised $100 million at a $5 billion valuation …

1
The Nordic startup scene has quietly become one of tech’s fastest-growing hubs 27:37

1M ago27:37

27:37

Ten years ago, raising €1 million in Copenhagen was enough to make waves in the region’s tech scene. Today, the Nordics are turning out billion-dollar companies like Lovable — which hit $200M in revenue just 12 months after launching. Dennis Green-Lieber, founder of AI-powered customer intelligence platform Propane, has had a front-row seat to that…

1
AI mania is making Nvidia a lot of money 33:28

2M ago33:28

33:28

AI companies are spending so much on infrastructure that Nvidia's data center business now brings in nearly $50 billion. But is this sustainable growth or just the latest tech mania? And should we even be calling it a "bubble" when the belief in AI's future is what's holding the whole ecosystem together? This week on Equity, Kirsten Korosec, Anthon…

1
January Ventures bets AI's biggest winners won't come from Silicon Valley 28:38

2M ago28:38

28:38

While everyone's chasing the next AI infrastructure play in San Francisco, some of the most defensible AI companies are being built by founders with deep expertise in legacy industries — and they're not getting funded. January Ventures aims to fill that gap, writing pre-seed checks for underrepresented founders transforming healthcare, manufacturin…

1
Introducing TechCrunch's new podcast: Build Mode 46:54

2M ago46:54

46:54

TechCrunch has new podcast! Build Mode brings you candid startup wisdom from the people who build, break, and build again. Build Mode is hosted by our very own Startup Battlefield Editor, Isabelle Johannessen who is joined by founders, investors, and operators to dig into the uncomfortable truths about startup life. Think cap table drama, co-founde…

1
Are data centers the new oil fields? 32:53

2M ago32:53

32:53

A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) shows that $580 billion will be spent globally on AI data centers in 2025 alone. This is $40 billion more than will be spent on new oil supplies — leading us to conclude that data centers are the new oil fields. But is this a net positive for the environment or just a different kind of resourc…

1
What startups are building next, according to OpenAI’s Head of Startups 31:30

2M ago31:30

31:30

Many see OpenAI as the ChatGPT company while rivals like Anthropic and Cohere eye the enterprise space. Marc Manara, OpenAI's head of startups, says the reality looks different: AI-native companies are hitting $200 million in ARR, and product cycles have shrunk from two-week sprints to single days. Today on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Russell Bran…