Why Om Malik thinks ‘the VC subsidized life is over’

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

This week we had the full Equity staff on hand to dig through the week’s news, helmed by Kate Clark and Connie Loizos with Alex Wilhelm in the studio too. Plus, Om Malik, a former scribbler and current venture capitalist, joined us to riff on the latest.

Before we dig into what we covered, a small note from the team: As this episode is going out before Uber will trade, we’ll have another episode coming to you tomorrow after the madness. Stay tuned.

Uber priced its IPO at $45 per share right before we hit record, so we first touched on the final pricing of what should be the year’s largest tech IPO. Pricing towards the lower-end of its range, Uber could be setting itself up for a strong first day. Or, demand was lower than expected following Lyft’s slide. Either way, Uber will trade tomorrow as a public company at last. Om predicts Uber and Lyft rides will get a whole lot more expensive in the next eighteen months, so hold onto your hats, the future for riders and drivers alike is… unclear.

Next, we debated Harry’s exit to Edgewell Personal Care. The direct-to-consumer razor supplier sold this week for more than $1 billion in a deal reminiscent of the Dollar Shave Club’s sale to Unilever. From there, we spoke about the latest from the Luckin Coffee IPO. The news, in brief, is that its IPO is moving forward. Next up is pricing, we’ll be sure to discuss any updates on the podcast.

In big deal news, Carta closed a $300 million round. Connie has learned a lot about the business in recent weeks and it turns out, Om wishes he was an investor!

Finally, Cruise’s latest new round, and the capital needs of autonomous driving. As we all quickly agree, it’s an expensive business and not one that will get cheaper. But, given that so many companies are working on the tech, we hope it works out. Especially Om, who doesn’t have a driver’s license, it turns out.

All that and we had fun! Chat tomorrow!

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