How to avoid all the IPO work without annoying investors

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Hello, and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Equity turns 7 years old this week, so in honor of its birthday, drop us a review? More reviews helps more folks discover the show, and supports all our hard work!

Mary Ann is off on a well-deserved break, so we brought on fellow podcaster Rebecca Szkutak to take advantage of her insight and humor for this episode. Here’s what we got into:

Regulators return with a resolve : The push to force a divestment of TikTok or ban it in the United States is making progress, and the EU is hammering out its new AI regulations. Deals of the Week: Peak XV’s new fund is fascinating, and we can learn a lot from it about the Indian startup market. Also, Ada Ventures’ new $80 million fund felt rather contra-narrative in the best possible way. AI and privacy: After AI got booed at SXSW, we took a look at several new AI startups that are raising rounds for their audio-focused projects. These include Nijta and Tavus, as well as a host of startups from the current Y Combinator cohort. What to do when there’s no liquidity? According to Becca, the answer is to stay private. That’s the bad news. The good news is that secondary transactions might be a way to resolve lots of founder-investor tensions regarding exit timing.

That’s it for today. Talk again on Monday!