This week, we had Carta CEO Henry Ward on to chat through the early-stage market with us. Alex had a grip of data and a sheaf of questions, so here's what we got into:The current state of the early-stage venture capital market: From Ward's perspective, the early-stage market is in better shape than many folks think. It's the later-stages of venture capital that are the most moribund. We also riffed on the quality of startups that are raising today, and how much pain is coming for young tech companies that can't quite attract more capital.Carta's new Seed and Series A product: Carta is offering a mostly-automated method of closing early-stage rounds; we wanted to better understand the economics of the effort, and what the unicorn hopes to achieve from the work.We closed with a look ahead, and a series of fun closing questions with Ward.That's just the high-level summary. We also discussed entrepreneurship more broadly, the importance of LLCs, and even how to construct a podcast interview.Don't forget: our listener survey is back! Take a moment to let us know what you want more of, what you want less of, and how we can make this the kind of podcast you want to come back to every week. Chat soon!For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders, one that details how our stories come together and more!