Nora: Backed by General Catalyst, Stripe, and Founders Fund... and still shutting down.
Dex: That's the sound of a cap table company folding. I'm Dex.
Nora: And I'm Nora. It's Thursday, September 17th, 2026.
Dex: And this is Startup Drama, where we dig into the three stories shaping the startup world.
Nora: On the show today: a well-funded Carta rival calls it quits, proving just how hard it is to dethrone the king.
Dex: Plus, we're heading to Iceland, where a voice simulation startup just made some serious noise with a huge new funding round.
Nora: And get ready for some static... literally. The U.S. government might force automakers to put AM radio back in new cars. Yes, AM.
Dex: Alright, let's start with Pulley. The cap table management platform just announced it's shutting down this December.
Nora: The great unbundling of Carta... gets rebundled. This was always the risk. Cap table management is sticky. Once a company is on a platform, they never, ever want to move.
Dex: But Pulley had so much momentum! They had a great product, good buzz... and a killer list of backers. General Catalyst, Stripe, Founders Fund. Those are not small names.
Nora: Money doesn't solve a customer-inertia problem. Carta has a functional monopoly. They're the default. Being 'a slightly better Carta' isn't a business, it's a feature.
Dex: Ouch. But they really tried! They wanted to build better tools for founders, offer more transparency. Carta has been taking so much heat for its business practices.
Nora: And none of it mattered. It's a B2B trench war, and Carta has the high ground, the supply lines, and all the ammunition. Pulley showed up with a shiny new rifle and no map.
Dex: So what's the lesson for founders? Just don't pick the shiny new thing?
Nora: The lesson is, if you're choosing a vendor for something as critical as your cap table, you have to price in counterparty risk. Now hundreds of startups have to migrate off Pulley by December. It's a total nightmare.
Dex: A nightmare delivered by the very company that was supposed to be less of a nightmare than the incumbent. The irony...
Nora: There's always a bigger shark. And in the cap table ocean, Carta is the megalodon. This is a massive cautionary tale for venture capital.
Dex: Alright, let's find some good news before you get any more cynical. Over to Iceland, where a company called Treble just raised $18 million for its voice simulation platform.
Nora: Eighteen million dollars. Not bad for simulating... voices?
Dex: Not just voices, Nora! It's for simulating how sound works in an environment. Think about it—if you're building a new AI wearable, or a robot that needs to understand commands in a noisy room, you have to test that.
Nora: So it's a... digital wind tunnel for audio.
Dex: Exactly! They create virtual spaces so AI developers can test how their models perform with echoes, background chatter, everything. It's the perfect pick-and-shovel play for the voice AI gold rush.
Nora: Okay, I'll admit, that's a clever niche. Instead of building the AI model, they're building the gym where the AI models go to train.
Dex: And it's clearly working. They're already partnered with major AI wearable and robotics companies. That eighteen mil is to scale up and meet all that demand.
Nora: So the takeaway for our listeners is... everyone should move to Iceland and simulate sound?
Dex: The takeaway is that the AI boom isn't just about the big models! It's about all the tools and infrastructure around them. The testing, the data, the simulation... that's where a ton of value is being created.
Nora: The boring stuff is where the money is. Got it.
Dex: Okay, for our last story, we're going from the cutting edge of AI all the way back to the 1920s. Automakers in the US might soon be forced to include AM radio in new cars.
Nora: Sorry, did I tune into a tech podcast or a history lesson? AM radio? The thing my grandfather listened to baseball games on?
Dex: The very same. The House just overwhelmingly approved a bill to mandate it. And with rare bipartisan support, no less.
Nora: Of course it's bipartisan. The one thing they can agree on is forcing a 100-year-old technology into a sixty-thousand-dollar EV. Why?!
Dex: The argument is public safety. AM is the backbone of the Emergency Alert System. If there's a disaster and cell towers go down, that low-fi AM signal is still the most reliable way to get information out.
Nora: Right. Because when the world is ending, my first thought is to tune into the farm report. This feels less like a public service and more like a massive lobbying win for the broadcast industry.
Dex: Well, automakers argue that the electric motors in EVs interfere with AM signals, so it's a pain to implement. They'd much rather just leave it out.
Nora: So what does this mean for car buyers? We're just getting a free, mandatory history lesson with every purchase?
Dex: It means get ready for a button you'll probably never press! But it's this fascinating clash, right? Old tech versus new, regulation versus the market, public safety versus corporate convenience.
Nora: It means your new Rivian is going to come with a feature that was popular when the Model T was still on the road. Progress.
Dex: Alright, let's run through that one more time.
Nora: Pulley, a heavily-backed Carta competitor, is dead. The king stays the king.
Dex: Voice simulation platform Treble raised $18 million to build the training ground for AI audio.
Nora: And your next car will have AM radio, whether you want it or not, because the government says so.
Dex: Hey, before we get out of here, did you see that new startup, 'Aura Cables'?
Nora: Don't tell me. Artisanal, hand-braided, small-batch, sustainably-sourced USB-C cables for $150.
Dex: You're not even wrong! They're 'tuned for optimal energy flow.' I kind of want one.
Nora: I'll stick with the one that came in the box, thanks. At least I know it works.
Dex: And that's our show! This is Startup Drama, and we'll be back with more tomorrow.
Nora: Maybe we can broadcast it over AM radio. See you then.
This show is made with AI: the hosts’ voices are synthetic and the scripts are AI-assisted. Every story links to its original source.