Stripe is playing checkers with Plaid

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

The crew was back at full-speed, and maybe even full excitement meets exhaustion, this week. Alex Wilhelm, Natasha Mascarenhas and Mary Ann Azevedo were on the mic with moral and edit support from the wonderful Grace. If we had to give this episode its own autobiography we'd call it: "Drama, tech twitter and therapeutic moments in between."

We got into a whole ton of news, including:

• Musk's new best friends back his $44 billion bid for Twitter -- and why one of them is probably experiencing déjà vu.

• For deals of the week, Natasha spoke about Line's play for more inclusive fintech, Mary Ann got into Truist paying attention (and money) to a fintech startup and Alex took us to the music world with the latest on SoundCloud's thought bubbles.

• Then we talked about how digital health startups are bracing for a post-Roe world, and which companies to pay attention to. (Insider tip: We're taking about this topic in more depth on Equity Wednesday, coming up next week!)

• Next up, how early can early-stage investors go? Recent news from Backstage Capital includes a milestone and a pause -- and has us scratching our heads on what other pivots we may see from investment firms.

• Finally, we ended with our favorite part of the show and spoke about the latest Stripe and Plaid drama. The two companies went from partners to competitors this week, and we talk about the tensions that result.

Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PDT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.