Hello and welcome back to Equitya podcast about the business of startups, where we unravel the numbers and nuances behind the headlines.

This week, Alex and Natasha discussed the latest and greatest of this consuming news cycle. Our goal with this episode, as always, is to go beyond what you might see in a 140-character version of [insert big story here]. And in today’s recording? That was not difficult at all.

• We started with our good news segment: 1) Maven, now valued at $1.35 billion, answers a nationwide demand: more fertility benefits and 2) Alibaba sees logistics growth in LatAm as trade slows in China. We love a chance to talk about growth, despite all the odd and even trends!
• Then, right after our awesome debut crypto conference, we’ll take a moment to talk about the FTX outage. Yes, we’re talking about how an African web3 startup got screwed and why SoftBank joined Sequoia to write down its investment in the crypto exchange.
• Next, we look at the latest layoffs: Amazon’s 3% cut, cuts at Morning Brew and Protocol, and Musk’s latest attempt to hire (or retain?) Twitter employees. We still don’t know what’s going on there, don’t ask us. Okay fine, you can.
• And we end with this little gem right here, with little to no context: I volunteer in tribute.

Done. As always, you can follow the show @equitypodleave us alone a review on Apple Podcasts and, most importantly, be nice to your people. Talk soon!