Instacart now delivers market trends

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

Welcome to our Friday show! Our regular co-host Natasha was off this time, so Mary Ann and Alex linked arms with our producer Grace to blast our way through the news of the week. As always, we had to pick and choose what seemed to matter the most.

Here’s what we got into:

• All Things Y Combinator: Here’s our first set of favs, and our second. Here’s a rundown of fintech companies from the batch, and our look at the Indian participants, and those hailing from Africa.
• Instacart as trendsetter: The well-known grocery delivery company has lowered the price at which it will value employee equity comp, something that could become a trend. It seems so, with Instacart leading a potential vanguard of similar actions from other companies in time. Also, we’re thinking about how startup valuations could regain their shine.
• Gaming: With the huge Axie Infinity hack making headlines, we talked about the matter and how other startups are tinkering with the play-to-earn market.
• And we closed with the topic of social networks, what Elon Musk is up to and how Facebook managed to confirm everyone’s suspicions about its ethics.

Whew! What a week, y’all. Chat Monday!