Public tech’s espresso shot is quite literally the cloud

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.

Last week we said that you needed to pay attention to the public markets, and we weren’t kidding. It was a huge week for earnings — with notes from all over, including the ad market and cloud spend. But this week’s Monday show was more than just another entry in the series — it was an experimental live show! Natasha joined Alex for the fun, and this is what they got into:

• Stocks up, crypto mostly flat after a solid week of gains.
• Will Alibaba delist, or not? That question matters more than just what happens to the singular Chinese tech giant. The question really belies a larger query regarding the ability of Chinese tech companies to access foreign markets more generally, places where the capital can flow at a high clip. Given China’s economic woes, cutting off that particular liquidity pipe might be risky.
• From there we went to Clearco layoffs, UiPath buying Re:infer and Oui’s first close of its new fund.
• And then we wrapped with a dive into Big Tech earnings. The key gist? These companies are too big to summarize, and without the cloud they would be struggling.
  • Amazon’s shares rise on earnings beat, despite $2 billion loss
  • Apple’s services revenue growth slows to $19.6 billion in Q3, reaches 860 million paid subscriptions
  • Microsoft misses expectations, points to foreign exchange rates and weakened PC market 
  • Meta posts its first ever quarterly revenue decline
  •  And via CNBC, Alphabet misses on earnings and revenue for second quarter

So, what’d you think? Should we go live again? Next time with Equity-themed espresso cups that no one can enjoy other than us? Let us know, and don’t worry, the Equity team is back on Wednesday with a smashing bootstrapping show.