A changing of the guard

Welcome to The TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s inspired by the daily TechCrunch+ column where it gets its name. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. 

When you start a project, it’s easy to get caught up in it. Then time passes and suddenly it’s been a half decade. Equity, a podcast I got to help start when I was wasn’t even working here, is one such project. So, too, is The Exchange.

I started writing a daily markets column the day after I got out of rehab, back in 2016. The project, then called the “Editor’s morning note” evolved over time. When I joined Crunchbase, founding Crunchbase News, it was rebranded as Morning Markets. Then when I was lucky enough to come back to TechCrunch, it re-launched without a name.

Henry Pickavet, a TechCrunch name you don’t see much but you appreciate implicitly thanks to his extensive behind-the-scenes work, helped get the series a new name. That’s how The Exchange came to be back in late 2019. We later added a newsletter once weekly, the very missive that you are reading now.

This is by no means TechCrunch’s biggest newsletter — Daily Crunch is vastly larger. But The Exchange email has long been a place for me to put bits of reporting I had laying around, and pursue topics and questions in a more relaxed manner than usual. It’s been, really, a weekly joy.

This is also the last time that I am going to write it for at least some time. Anna Heim, who you likely know by now for her regular and vital contributions to The Exchange, is going to take over starting next week. She may ask me to kick in a few words here and there, or not. It will be up to her.

What I can promise is that Anna and I are very much aligned in how we approach covering startups, venture capital, and the business climate of each. She’s been an incredible co-writer, pushing me to do more planning. I am more than thankful for her past contributions, and stoked for what she has coming up.

Why the change? Since I took over as Editor in Chief of TechCrunch+ I have had less time for certain tasks. I gave up writing most of Daily Crunch and pulled back 99% on news writing (startup funding rounds, and the like) so that I could double-down on hiring, and working to get our work out more quickly, and with more bang. We’ll see how well I do there, and I welcome your feedback.

Also, you know, if you haven’t joined TC+ yet, it’s a great time to do so as we’re staffing up and kicking ass. So, sign up and join the fun.

But I am increasingly underwater when it comes to time, and that means that this newsletter with its 40,000 or 50,000 readers has fallen down my priority list to the point when it no longer makes sense for me to selfishly hold onto it. It needs someone who can give it — give you — the proper attention.

So, in Anna hands I leave you. The change will be an upgrade, and I hope you have a blast with Anna. You can follow her on Twitter here.

I will still write the daily column, often with Anna as before. But from here on out, Saturdays are Anna’s domain. Hugs, thank you, and onward! — Alex