Hello and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday episode, where we niche down to a single person, think about their work and unpack the rest.

With Alex leading today’s interview, we dove once more into the world of startup financing. In the wake of TechCrunch reporting on venture results, valuations and unicorns more generally thanks to Q1 data, we invited Janelle Teng from Bessemer Venture Partners on the program to riff with us on the state of the cloud.

That’s also the title of Bessemer’s latest data dump concerning cloud stocks, startups, AI and more. Teng, a co-author on the report, walked through some of key bits with us to better explain her firm’s perspective, and to answer our critical commentary regarding Figma and why startups should always kill goliath, instead of joining him for a round of grapes and lounging.

We digress. You can find the report that we chatted about here, our early notes thereof here. Finally, a rundown of topics:

• Is the valuation massacre that startups have survived since late 2021 finally over?
• Why is investor preference swinging back toward growth from profitability?
• What is the state of runway at late-stage startups?
• Is the M&A pause nearly over?
• And, naturally, AI and SaaS and where VCs see the pair heading!