Good news for Rubrik, bad news for TikTok and medium news for early-stage startups

You don’t have to be venture-backed to be successful

Rubrik’s strong IPO pricing and warm reception by the public markets after its listing add more weight to the perspective that the public markets are not as closed to tech startups as some thought. If Rubrik’s result isn’t enough to break the logjam, well, maybe there’s something else going on.

But there was a lot more that happened this week, which meant that the Equity crew had a pile of news to get through as always, with a little bit of our own mixed in. Happily it was all pretty darn interesting, so Mary Ann and Alex started with Rubrik before pivoting to Pomelo, a startup that has a very interesting twist on the remittances market.

From there it was time to talk about TikTok. What was once an unfathomable result — TikTok being forced to divest from its parent company or face a ban — became reality pretty darn quickly. The United States is not the first company to ban the service, but we noted during the show that the company we are keeping is not the most enticing. Still, here we are; what does it mean for consumers?

And to close, Early Stage. TechCrunch held its annual early-stage focused event this year, and it was a banger. Not to toot our own horn, but it was the second year in a row that our shindig in Boston was packed, useful and lots of fun. The coffee was even good. At a tech conference. Alex had notes.

Equity is back on Monday, thanks for hanging out with us!

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast and posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and you can subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

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For the full interview transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, read on, or check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast.