Freshworks, Toast go public and we have takes

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture-capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

Today we got the gang together — Natasha and Danny and Alex — to chat about the most recent IPOs in tech-land, namely debuts from Freshworks and Toast.

TechCrunch has covered their pair of firms somewhat closely during their IPO run, as they each have some notable characteristics:

• Freshworks’ IPO provided a fresh window into how public market investors are willing to value growth-oriented software companies out the gate. The news is good. Which means that we could see more unicorns looking to list in coming months.
• Toast’s IPO provided a lens by which we could gauge public-market sentiment for hybrid software-and-payments companies. The answer? That the stock market is pretty dang enthused about the companies in question.

So it’s a good news day for unicorns, for tech startups, and for Boston, a city that Danny has many thoughts about. Please send him your complaints, and not the show. We take no responsibility.

It’s Disrupt week, so we’ll have more in a few days but until then we’ll see you at the event!