There is a whole marketplace for used tech, it isn’t just a good deal for the customer, but it also helps curb waste that can lead to soil contamination, non-pot able water, and dangerous living conditions. On this week’s episode of Found, we’re talking to Thibaud Hug de Larauze from BackMarket, a global marketplace for refurbished devices.

In this conversation they cover:

• How BackMarket has such a successful fundraise.
• Building customer trust as a refurbished marketplace
• The environmental impact of recycling electronics
• The Right to Repair and what will happen when everyone can fix their own phone if they choose.

Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

Connect with us:

• On Twitter
• On Instagram
• Via email: found@techcrunch.com

Despite the fact that water covers 71% of the Earth, there is still so much we don’t know about the ocean floor and today’s founder is looking to change that. Joe Wolfel is the co-founder and CEO of Terradepth, the company that is working towards increasing ocean knowledge through autonomous, high resolution, scalable data collection in the deep ocean. On this week’s episode of Found, Becca is joined by guest co-host, Tim De Chant to discuss why mapping geological features at the bottom of the ocean isn’t just something worth doing for curiosity’s sake, it’s important to a variety of players from companies looking to install offshore wind farms to the Navy. They also get into who is buying this kind of data, how Wolfel’s experience as a Navy Seal prepared him for entrepreneurship, and the trend of deeptech founders needing to find revenue streams early on as they’re developing their technology.

(0:00) Introduction

(2:07) Robotics role in mapping the ocean

(8:49) Scaling maritime data collection

(15:47) Fundraising challenges for hardware companies

(21:57) Transitioning from Navy to entrepreneurship

(24:13) Data-driven decision making

(29:43) Finding the right customer base

(35:14) Host discussion

Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

Connect with us:

• On Twitter
• On Instagram
• Via email: found@techcrunch.com

The higher education system isn’t working. Students pay way too much, professors don’t get paid enough, and many community college students that aspire to go on to get a Bachelor's degree aren't able to. But one startup thinks they have the solution. Today Becca is talking with Tade Oyerinde, the CEO and founder of Campus, a fully accredited online community college. They discuss how Tade found a school that was willing to come on board and align with his mission, the challenges of getting investors on board, and what he thinks it will take to make the higher education system more equitable.

(0:00) Introduction

(2:15) The current issues facing community colleges

(8:28) Serving both Students and professors with Campus

(11:17) Developing the curriculum

(16:06) Finding VC partners

(19:09) Why Tade is drawn to High Education

(24:48) What inspired Tade

Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

Connect with us:

• On Twitter
• On Instagram
• Via email: found@techcrunch.com

What is the right way to regulate AI? There appears to be as many different answers to that as there are regulators. In this week's episode of Found, we're bringing you a live interview from TechCrunch's recent Strictly VC event. Becca Szkutak talked with Helen Toner, the director of strategy and foundational research grants from the Center of Security and Emerging Technology and a former board member of OpenAI. Although she's not a founder herself, this conversation centers around topics crucial to every founder building today as AI continues to impact nearly every industry.

Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

Connect with us:

• On Twitter
• On Instagram
• Via email: found@techcrunch.com

Today on Found, we’re talking to David Rogier, the CEO and founder of Masterclass, a streaming platform where you can learn from the world’s experts on a variety of topics, from baking to screen writing to developing empathy. Before David launched MasterClass, he worked as a VC. Through his connections there received a $500,000 seed round before he even had an idea for a company. That was nearly a decade ago, and today Dom, Becca and David talk about how he’s built the company since.

They also talked about:

• How MasterClass was able to land its notable names from the beginning
• How the company has scaled after a disappointing launch
• How MasterClass has adapted to its users needs during the pandemic and beyond

Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

Connect with us:

• On Twitter
• On Instagram
• Via email: found@techcrunch.com

It probably doesn’t come as too big of a surprise that cowboy boots aren’t typically sold online. So where is the modern cowboy supposed to shop? This week we’re talking to a founder who carved out a DTC market for western wear. Paul Hedrick, the founder of Tecovas, joins Dom and Becca to discuss the marketing strategy they came up with to change the perception of shopping for cowboy boots online and how the company has expanded to brick and mortar stores.

In this conversation they cover:

• How social media played a big role in the early days of tecovas
• The challenges of modernizing such an old-school industry
• Fundraising when DTC was almost a dirty word.

Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

Connect with us:

• On Twitter
• On Instagram
• Via email: found@techcrunch.com

This week on Found, we have an interview from TechCrunch's Strictly VC event in DC. Becca sat down with Steve Case, the founder of AOL to discuss policy, innovation, and AI. Case, now the founder of Revolution Ventures, told the live audience that open access not only helped his company back in the 90s but is also why the internet was able to progress in the way that it did. Regulators should aim for the same goal with AI policy despite the potential risks. He argues that opening up access to horizontal AI players like OpenAI and Google would also help expand AI away from being concentrated on the coasts.

(0:00) Introduction

(1:29) AI regulation compared to the internet’s early days

(6:20) Supporting AI startups outside the traditional hugs

(11:49) AI Policy and the innovation economy

(16:40) Entrepreneurship and job creation in the US

Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

Connect with us:

• On Twitter
• On Instagram
• Via email: found@techcrunch.com

Many pots and pans on the market are coated in teflon, a poisonous chemical that can be harmful when it gets too hot. Luckily, there is an answer on the market — Caraway, a home goods brand that touts itself as being non-toxic but still high quality. Jordan Nathan founded the company after his own experience with Teflon poisoning that left him searching for a better — and healthier option. On this week’s episode of Found, Dom and Becca are joined by Nathan to discuss how he built a brand around aesthetically pleasing non-toxic home goods as we continue to dive into DTC companies.

In this conversation they discussed:

• Why being the last brand to fundraise can be a benefit to the company
• Sticking to the plan to bring Caraway to retail
• The product launch failure that almost killed the company before it started

(0:00) Introduction

(3:36) Creating non-toxic cookware

(7:31) Launching the brand

(13:05) Caraway Brand Strategy

(16:44) Expanding to new categories

(20:49) Influencer marketing

(25:25) Product launch failures

(29:20) Host discussion

Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

Connect with us:

• On Twitter
• On Instagram
• Via email: found@techcrunch.com