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This Week in Startups

Jason Calacanis

Jason Calacanis covers startups, tech, markets, media, and all the hottest topics in business and technology. He also interviews the world's greatest founders, operators, investors, and innovators.

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  • 63 episodes
  • a few times a week
  • Avg 1 hr 9 min
  • English

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  • Yesterday · 1 hr 10 min

    Binance Hacked $6.3B Stolen, DoorDash Buys Instacart For $17B, Jake Newfield from Hermetiq, + More!

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Stripe: https://stripe.com/startups Rippling: https://rippling.ai/twist Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Today’s show: Binance lost an estimated $6.3 billion in the biggest crypto hack ever, and Jason proposes a radical solution. The entire tech industry should stop shipping new features for one month a year, and do nothing but patch. (Call it No App November?) On a busy Friday show, Jason and Lon dig into the. Binance breach and look back at Jason’s prescient 2021 warning about leaving your money in crypto exchanges. (He recommends spreading your wealth around various different banks!) Plus, why he’s giving CZ credit for backstopping customer losses out of his own fortune. Plus, DoorDash’s $17B acquisition of Instacart… Did DoorDash overpay? And is this happening now to avoid the harsher regulatory climate should Democrats regain power in the midterms? Then we’ve got Hermetiq co-founder and CEO Jake Newfield, who has twice won the LAUNCH Accelerator’s pitch competition. Hear the celebrated two-minute pitch for an AI build engineer, and find out why Jason thinks having a “lighthouse customer” makes such a huge difference. Finally, we’re awarding the Grand Prize in our $5K bounty competition to create Jason’s Annotated app, and remembering the legendary film and TV actor Sir Patrick Stewart. Guest Jake Newfield on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakenewfield/ Hermetiq: https://www.hermetiq.com/ Bazel: https://bazel.build Apply to the LAUNCH Accelerator: https://www.launch.co/apply Relevant Links Binance links the $6.3B theft to a compromised DevOps laptop (BleepingComputer): https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/binance-links-63-billion-crypto-theft-to-compromised-devops-laptop/ The 1978 Lufthansa heist (History.com): https://www.history.com/articles/1978-lufthansa-heist-jfk-henry-hill-goodfellas Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (KWTX/AP): https://www.kwtx.com/2025/10/23/trump-pardons-binance-founder-changpeng-zhao CrowdStrike: https://www.crowdstrike.com/en-us/ Palo Alto Networks: https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/ Grant Cardone challenges Jason to $1M Bitcoin bet: https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/grant-cardone-challenges-bitcoin-bear-to-1-million-bet DoorDash to acquire Instacart for $17B (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/29/doordash-to-acquire-instacart-for-17b/ Economic Liberties calls on the FTC to block the deal: https://www.economicliberties.us/press-release/economic-liberties-calls-on-ftc-to-block-doordash-instacart-merger/ Central Market, H-E-B's upscale banner, expands home delivery (Supermarket News): https://www.supermarketnews.com/foodservice-retail/central-market-expands-curbside-and-home-delivery People are using AI to make their smart TVs dumb again (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/19/people-are-using-ai-to-make-their-smart-tvs-dumb-again/ TWiST $5K Bounties: https://bounty.thisweekinstartups.com/ Founder University: https://founder.university/ Founder University x Japan: https://japan.founder.university/ Inside.com domain auction: https://inside.com/ Yank Sing: https://yanksing.com/ Cafe du Monde coffee and chicory: https://shop.cafedumonde.com/product/coffee-beignets/cafe-du-monde-coffee-and-chicory Patrick Stewart, "Star Trek" and "X-Men" actor, dead at 86 (CNN): https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/29/entertainment/patrick-stewart-death “Time Squared” (Star Trek: TNG S2E13): https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Time_Squared_(episode) “Green Room” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8XSARX3DQg “X-Men: Days of Future Past” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK2zYHWDZKo Timestamps: 0:00 The largest crypto hack or theft in history 5:45 Jason gives CZ credit for backstopping losses 7:34 Jason’s cybersecurity proposals 11:48 Stripe Startups - Stripe Startups offers early-stage, venture-backed startups access to Stripe fee credits and more. Apply today on https://stripe.com/startups. 14:49 DoorDash buys Instacart for $17B 18:48 Is DoorDash overpaying? 24:28 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business. 26:26 Vibecoding your smart TV 27:20 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 30:04 Jake Newfield (Hermetiq) gives a perfect pitch 34:13 Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! - Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain 37:12 Lead with your lighthouse customer 43:14 The Cafe Du Monde branding lesson 51:10 The Annotated Bounty finals begin 1:04:00 Jason announces the grand prize winner 1:07:34 RIP Sir Patrick Stewart Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack: TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/ TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

  • Thursday · 1 hr 12 min

    Is AI the new cigarettes? Our VC panel digs into Anthropic’s S-1 | E2356

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: PayPal: https://paypal.com/business The Conservation Fund: https://www.conservationfund.org/ Hostinger: https://hostinger.com/twist Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Today’s show: Anthropic’s S-1 is here, and finally, we can start to develop a real understanding for the AI economy and whether the numbers add up. Anthropic shows an operating profit, a mostly non-cash $80.7 billion loss, and customers spending a shocking 9x what they were spending on intelligence just one year ago. Is this the greatest business in history? Is AI now as addictive to enterprises as cigarettes once were to impressionable teens? On this week’s VC Roundtable, Jason Calacanis is joined by D.A. Wallach (Time BioVentures), Dave McClure (Practical Venture Capital), and Ben Black (Akkadian Ventures / Powerlaw Corp.) to seek some answers. They dig into the numbers, including that wild 900% net revenue retention, and consider how retail investors will consider the convertible-note charge behind their $80B loss. Plus they’ll debate whether Anthropic’s founders are really true believers driven by religious fervor, and if so, whether they’re destined to be out-competed by “rabid capitalists.” Guests D.A. Wallach on X: https://x.com/dawallach Time BioVentures: https://www.timebioventures.com/ Dave McClure on X: https://x.com/davemcclure Practical Venture Capital: https://practicalvc.com/ Trading Places podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@PracticalVentureCapital Ben Black on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/benblack Akkadian Ventures: https://akkadian.vc/ Powerlaw Corp: https://pwrl.com Relevant Links Anthropic’s S-1, by the numbers (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2026/10/27/anthropic-s1-ipo-filing-financials-profits/ 900% NRR and an $80.7B loss that mostly ins’t (HackerNoon): https://hackernoon.com/anthropics-s-1-shows-163b-in-half-year-revenue-a-900percent-nrr-and-an-807b-loss-that-mostly-isnt Tickertrends: https://tickertrends.io/ Replit makes OpenAI its default (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/17/replit-is-no-longer-working-with-anthropic-ceo-says/ Dario Amodei warns that rivals’ spending could risk bankruptcy (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2026/02/14/anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-spending-capex-risk-ai-revenue-forecasts-bankruptcy Machines of Loving Grace (Dario Amodei): https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/machines-of-loving-grace Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar says AI researchers are taking up smoking (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2026/10/13/palantir-cto-shyam-sankar-ai-researchers-smoking-cigarettes-cure-cancer-artificial-general-intelligence-silicon-valley-mass-psychosis-effective-altruism/ Microsoft offers its first-ever voluntary buyouts (TechSpot): https://www.techspot.com/news/112174-microsoft-offers-voluntary-buyouts-thousands-us-workers-ai.html Canva ranks among the top consumer AI apps (SmartCompany): https://www.smartcompany.com.au/artificial-intelligence/canva-new-ai-consumer-web-app-ranking-andreesen-horowitz/ SpaceX Q3: Musk says it could rent out its AI compute several times over (Constellation Research): https://www.constellationr.com/insights/news/spacexs-q3-musk-says-it-could-rent-out-its-ai-compute-several-times-over Jason’s 2026 “Bitcoin is Dead” post: https://x.com/Jason/status/2114956980674605075 Jason to Michael Saylor: "there are better places to invest your money”: https://x.com/Jason/status/2115274438979756346 Timestamps: 0:00 Anthropic files its public S-1 4:58 Anthropic vs. OpenAI revenue run rates 9:20 PayPal is built for all businesses. Get started at https://paypal.com/business 10:02 “The greatest business in the history of capitalism” 11:58 Is intelligence the new tobacco? 18:08 The “meat sack constraint” 20:36 Thanks to our partner, The Conservation Fund! Learn more at https://www.conservationfund.org/ 22:13 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 24:32 The Who Has the Most Subscribers Challenge 28:08 Is Apple waiting out the AI race on purpose 30:22 Hostinger: The all-in-one platform for domains, websites, email, and marketing. Go to https://hostinger.com/twist and use the code TWIST for an additional 10% off Black Friday and Cyber Monday 34:19 Is Canva an AI company? 39:08 True Believers who still want to make money 48:21 The $72.4B convertible-note charge, explained 51:03 How long does AI compute stay useful? 58:19 Jason’s monthly “Bitcoin is Dead” post 1:04:41 Alicorns are unicorns with pegasus wings 1:09:58 Subscribe to the TWiST Newsletter! Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Thank you to our partners: PayPal is built for all businesses. Get started at https://paypal.com/business The Conservation Fund: Thanks to our partner, The Conservation Fund! Learn more at https://www.conservationfund.org/ Hostinger: The all-in-one platform for domains, websites, email, and marketing. Go to https://hostinger.com/twist and use the code TWIST for an additional 10% off Black Friday and Cyber Monday Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Subscribe to our Substack Newsletters! TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/ TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/ Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

  • Monday · 56 min

    Pregame Your Launch Before Your App Exists (w/ Amanda Bradford) | E2355

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Odoo: https://odoo.com/twist G2i: https://g2i.co/twist Rippling: https://rippling.ai/twist Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Today’s show: Amanda Bradford’s “launch party” for her dating app The League actually extended for months. She “pre-gamed” the app’s formal launch with months of mixers, boat parties, and free events, where the only ticket required for admission was having the app on your phone. By launch day, she had a massive wait list, and still just let in 500 people, who ensure maximum buzz (and FOMO). At LAUNCH’s first-ever Tactical & Practical live event from San Francisco, Amanda walks the crowd through how she built a vetted, two-sided dating marketplace as a solo founder, eventually getting prominent enough to attract the attention of Match Group. (She sold The League for ~$30 million in 2020.) Hear exclusive tips you won’t get anywhere else, like how Amanda used a “fake paywall” to gauge willingness to pay for subscriptions, and how to time your rate of expansion into new markets. Plus, an all-new Flashback segment, featuring Alex and Lon looking back at a classic 2017 interview between Jason and Stripe’s Patrick Collison. Guests Amanda Bradford on X: https://x.com/amandabradford Book a Call with Amanda: https://intro.co/amandabradford The League: https://www.theleague.com/ Patrick Collison on X: https://x.com/patrickc?lang=en Stripe: https://stripe.com/ Relevant Links: The League was called "elitist." Its founder says that was never the case (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/20/founder-of-the-league-on-dating-ambition-and-that-viral-ad-campaign.html Alex Wilhelm’s Cautious Optimism: https://www.cautiousoptimism.news/ TWiST E723: Patrick Collison (2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-NepiMQGvY Timestamps: 0:00 Amanda Bradford on building The League 4:30 Hand-reviewing early applications 6:40 Building an MVP with a rented co-founder 8:56 The VIP approach 13:10 Why Amanda only let in 500 people 15:44 The “Heavy Hitter” fake paywall test 16:44 Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://odoo.com/twist 17:46 Why live events are the real unlock 21:35 Controversy as a hook 24:22 Flashback to Patrick Collison in 2017 25:13 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 28:13 Stripe: Then vs. Now 30:53 G2i has been recruiting software engineers for over a decade. Go to https://g2i.co/twist to find out how G2i vets engineers, and can help you hire them in days, not weeks. 32:17 Why did PayPal stay PayPal? 37:50 Problem, not a product 44:33 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business. 45:46 The outage nobody noticed 51:00 Why persistence beats pivoting 52:13 What’s left before a Stripe IPO? Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack: TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/ TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Thank you to our partners: Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist G2i has been recruiting software engineers for over a decade. Go to G2i.co/twist to find out how G2i vets engineers, and can help you hire them in days, not weeks. Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business. Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

  • October 24 · 1 hr 33 min

    OpenAI’s $1.25T Raise, Starlink Mobile & Zuck’s Tax Deal | EP 2354

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud - https://plaud.ai/twist Sentry - https://sentry.io/twist Lightfield - https://lightfield.app Rippling - https://rippling.ai/twist Today’s show: Is OpenAI finally priced correctly? Jason argues that the reported $30 billion raise at a $1.25 trillion valuation is finally “right-sized.” He also says that he’d put money in at that price, while walking through the risks that could still sink the investment. It’s a Friday all-news episode with Jason and Lon, covering OpenAI’s latest round, SpaceX’s push to become America’s fourth major carrier, Zuck and Meta’s creative move around the proposed California billionaire tax, and some of Lon and Jason’s favorite documentaries. Plus we’re asking the timely question: who watches the AI watchdogs? Relevant Links OpenAI nears up to $30B round at $1.25T valuation, led by UAE investors (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/22/openai-funding-round-uae-investors.html Anthropic investors eye a $2T IPO (Nasdaq): https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/move-over-spacex-anthropic-targets-2-trillion-valuation Uber puts all 30,000 employees on ChatGPT Work (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/22/uber-puts-all-30000-employees-on-chatgpt-work/ Telecom stocks fall as SpaceX eyes 80,000 cell sites (Yahoo Finance): https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/telecom-stocks-fall-spacex-eyes-134838815.html Verizon launches simpler plans and drops activation and upgrade fees (Fox Business): https://foxbusiness.com/markets/verizon-launches-simpler-plans-new-loyalty-program-drops-some-fees Amazon Leo's launch slips past early 2026 (ITdaily): https://itdaily.com/news/network/amazon-leo-faces-delays/ METR and Redwood Research's write-up on red-teaming OpenAI's agent monitoring: https://metr.org/blog/2026-10-22-red-teaming-openai-agent-monitoring/ Open Philanthropy is now Coefficient Giving: https://coefficientgiving.org/research/the-story-behind-our-new-name/ Court documents show the alleged FSU shooter's ChatGPT chats (AOL): https://www.aol.com/news/court-documents-show-florida-state-233829466.html Meta's 8-K filing on the Founder Alignment Agreement (SEC): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001326801/000162828026066700/meta-20261019.htm Polymarket: will California's billionaire tax pass?: https://polymarket.com/event/billionaire-one-time-wealth-tax-passes-in-california-election-2026 Mark Cuban vs. Ro Khanna on the billionaire tax (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2026/08/17/mark-cuban-california-billionaires-tax-wealth-ro-khanna/ Elizabeth Holmes: The Theranos Deception (60 Minutes archive): https://cbsnews.com/video/elizabeth-holmes-the-theranos-deception-60-minutes-archive “The Act of Killing” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3FcB1UZHlg “Grizzly Man” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWA7GtDmNFU “Hoop Dreams” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf9Nq2ju0t0 “The King of Kong” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5XvArGGIzk “A Short Stay in Hell” by Steven L. Peck: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0983748446 “The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges [PDF]: https://sites.evergreen.edu/politicalshakespeares/wp-content/uploads/sites/226/2015/12/Borges-The-Library-of-Babel.pdf “The Eureka Machine” by Richard Socher: https://www.amazon.com/dp/154170570X Timestamps: 0:00 Jason’s in SF with the LAUNCH Accelerator 37 cohort 2:40 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 6:34 Tactical & Practical talks live at Salesforce Tower 10:21 Using Claude for brainstorming, not writing 19:26 Sentry - New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST26 20:42 OpenAI closing $30B at a $1.25T valuation 26:04 Why OpenAI could still lose 30:25 Would you put 30% of your retirement into OpenAI? 32:34 Lightfield - Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you - it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app 34:27 Every Tesla becomes a Starlink hotspot 43:06 What would be the ultimate SpaceX domain name? 45:00 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business. 46:10 Is METR a fair watchdog for OpenAI? 54:03 Jason’s “Know Your Customer” plan for AI models 1:03:34 Meta’s deal to keep Zuckerberg in Cali 1:14:35 Why Jason would raise the minimum wage 1:18:42 Does Nathan Fielder give Liz Holmes a pass? 1:30:59 “A Short Stay in Hell” and “The Eureka Machine” Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack: TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/ TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

  • October 22 · 1 hr 41 min

    We asked 3 VCs: would you invest in Elizabeth Holmes’ next startup? | E2353

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: DigitalOcean - Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today — and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50% Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://odoo.com/twist Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business. Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! Today’s show: Elizabeth Holmes remains in prison for defrauding Theranos investors, even as she stars in the hit Nathan Fielder/Lance Oppenheim documentary “You Can See Everything.” But we’re asking the real question: After all the very public accusations… the hit pieces in the press and the Hulu drama series picking apart the scandal… would tech investors and VCs be willing to back her NEXT startup, if the numbers were right? On today’s TWiST roundtable, Jason Calacanis is joined by Sam Lessin (Slow Ventures), Paige Finn Doherty (Behind Genius Ventures), and Jenny Fielding (Everywhere Ventures). In addition to reviews of the movie tech insiders can’t stop talking about, they cover why every seed portfolio needs a little bit of fraud, how diligence scales with check size, having trademark rights to your own voice, and the pro rata rights debate that’s still raging over Valar Atomics’ lawsuit with seed investors Day One Ventures. Guests Sam Lessin on X: https://x.com/lessin Slow Ventures: https://slow.co/ Paige Finn Doherty on X: https://x.com/paigefinnn Behind Genius Ventures: https://www.behindgeniusventures.com/ Jenny Fielding on X: https://x.com/jefielding Everywhere Ventures: https://www.everywhere.vc/ Relevant Links OpenSnow: https://opensnow.com/ “You Can See Everything” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvW_N5p1q44 HBO Max “The Rehearsal” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fjPFt8cpic Elizabeth Holmes moves to halfway house in 2027 (ABC7): https://abc7.com/story/elizabeth-holmes-scheduled-move-halfway-house-august-2027/19862832/ Billy Evans’ blood-testing startup Haemanthus (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/10/elizabeth-holmes-partner-reportedly-fundraising-for-new-blood-testing-startup/ Polymarket: Oscars 2027 Best Picture: https://polymarket.com/event/oscars-2027-best-picture-winner-20260727173620857 Kalshi: Oscars 2027 Best Documentary: https://kalshi.com/markets/kxoscardocu/event/kxoscardocu-27 Charlie Javice sentenced to 7 years (NBC News): https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/charlie-javice-sentenced-7-years-prison-fraudulent-175m-sale-financial-rcna234536 Trump pardons Nikola founder Trevor Milton (Axios): https://www.axios.com/2025/03/28/trump-pardons-nikola-founder-trevor-milton Sequoia writes its FTX stake down to zero (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2022/11/10/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-sequoia-writes-down-214-million-investment-to-zero-venture-capital-crypto Who lost money on Theranos? (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2018/05/04/theranos-investment-lost “Barbarians at the Gate” on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Barbarians-Gate-Fall-RJR-Nabisco/dp/B08YP9MDHX a16z backs Adam Neumann’s Flow (Commercial Observer): https://commercialobserver.com/2022/08/adam-neumann-350m-backing-andreessen-horowitz/ Martin Shkreli lifetime pharma ban (FTC): https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/01/statement-chair-lina-m-khan-ruling-judge-denise-l-cote-federal-trade-commission-et-al-v-vyera Isaia Taylor post announcing Valar suit: https://x.com/isaiah_p_taylor/status/2108679133467414855 Day One Ventures response: https://x.com/mashadrokova/status/2108732979191390528 ElevenLabs Iconic Marketplace: https://elevenlabs.io/iconic-marketplace Apple Corps vs. Apple Computer, a history (MacTech): https://www.mactech.com/2004/04/09/a-history-of-the-apple-vs-apple-dispute Cameo for Business: https://www.cameo.com/business Nox Metals: https://noxmetals.co Electric Plant Company: https://www.electricplant.co/ Ablieration: https://abliteration.ai/ Timestamps: 0:00 Our new “This Week in VC” newsletter 2:15 Panel intro: Sam Lessin, Paige Doherty, Jenny Fielding 8:09 Why gambling loses appeal for VCs 11:02 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 16:18 DigitalOcean - Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today - and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50% 17:35 Best moments from “You Can See Everything” 21:42 Unreliable narrators and unknowable situations 24:41 Living in a post-truth moment 30:02 Due diligence horror stories 32:45 Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://odoo.com/twist 34:50 The VCs remember their fraud investments 38:39 How LAUNCH trains founders to prep for diligence 44:31 How Elizabeth Holmes kept raising money 54:54 Would you invest in an Elizabeth Holmes company? 57:27 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business. 1:02:28 Why seed funds need pro rata rights 1:09:02 When “founder friendly” means rolling over 1:16:25 The three investor relationships: team, founders, LPs 1:21:02 ElevenLabs “Archer” voice controversy 1:27:16 How NIL deals reshaped college sports 1:33:54 Cameo for Business and long-tail celeb endorsements 1:35:51 Portfolio company shoutouts Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack: TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/ TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

  • October 20 · 1 hr 34 min

    Anthropic Gives Away 5% of Its Shares, Clone’s Muscle Robot, ElevenLabs Steals Podcaster's Voice

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/twist Rippling: https://rippling.ai/twist Today’s show: Jason can’t stop praising Nathan Fielder’s new A24 hybrid documentary about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, “You Can See Everything,” and he’s insisting that Lon check it out before the next podcast. Hear his spoiler-free review, how the film upended his expectations based on Fielder’s previous work, and why Lon also recommends Lance Oppenheim’s HBO Max series “Ren Faire.” Plus, we’re talking to Clone Robotics co-founder and CEO Dhanush Radhakrishnan about why he thinks robots should not just be humanoid but should look and move precisely like humans. We’re digging deep into how his hydraulic myofiber artificial muscle technology alters and even improves on the pulley-based systems being deployed by competitors, why he thinks the models that power domestic helper-bots will be commoditized, and how quickly he thinks he can put a robo-butler in every American home. Plus we’re comparing the potential impact of Anthropic’s new Public Benefit Fund vs. Elon Musk’s plan to give every baby a share of SpaceX, and re-considering simulation theory after Odyssey dropped an artificial fruit fly brain into an artificial landscape. Guest Dhanush Radhakrishnan on X: https://x.com/dhanushisrad Clone Robotics: https://clonerobotics.com/ Related Links “You Can See Everything” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvW_N5p1q44 “You Can See Everything” on Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/you_can_see_everything John Carreyrou’s Theranos investigation (Wall Street Journal): https://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-has-struggled-with-blood-tests-1444881901 “Ren Faire” HBO Max trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHZUVTrrexE “Nathan for You”: Smokers Allowed clip (Comedy Central): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HttB2fYAm-8 Anthropic: Investing in the Public Benefit: https://www.anthropic.com/news/public-benefit-fund Elon Musk SpaceX pledge: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2112089556615123114 Dell’s $6.25B Invest America commitment: https://www.onedell.com/investamerica/ Odyssey Fly Simulation X post: https://x.com/odysseyml/status/2111589148146749616 Chris Williamson: “The ElevenLabs Situation is Crazy”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxDNHLgWInU ElevenLabs’ Legendary Voices marketplace: https://elevenlabs.io/iconic-marketplace TWiST newsletter on Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com/ LAUNCH Careers page: https://careers.launch.co/ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:10 Plaud - If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 03:18 Jason's "You Can See Everything" reaction 14:37 Northwest Registered Agent - Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain 15:27 What films max out RT's critic and audience scores 20:08 Anthropic commits 5% equity to Public Benefit Fund 24:28 Would equity change how Americans feel about AI? 27:08 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist 38:38 Rippling - Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business. 39:48 Dhanush from Clone Robotics joins the show 42:43 How hydraulic muscle technology actually works 54:55 When can we have our robot butlers please? 56:55 Where will Clone get its robot brains? 1:12:17 Odyssey trapped a fake fly brain in a simulated environment 1:23:09 Did ElevenLabs steal a podcaster's voice? 1:30:13 Check us out on Substack! Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack: TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/ TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinstartups Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

  • October 17 · 1 hr 33 min

    Flying Cars, OpenAI Spies, Why AI Isn’t Sticking (Superhuman CEO)

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lightfield: https://lightfield.app Every.io: https://every.io/ PayPal: https://paypal.com/business Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist GoDaddy: https://www.godaddy.com/ Today’s show: Today’s college grads are showing up to work at Jason’s company unable to write three sentences. He’s asking what Shishir Mehrotra of Superhuman, the company behind Grammarly, can do to fix that. Shishir delves into Superhuman’s reasons for acquiring GPTZero, the most popular AI detector, and the AI notetaker Fathom, and the spreadsheet startup Rows. Plus, how Shishir responds to accusations that Grammarly helps students cheat in the classroom, why writers should disclose when they’re collaborating with an LLM, and Jason's CEO wish list for fresh Grammarly features. In the news, Tesla demoed its long-awaited Roadster, which used SpaceX thrusters to do some flips and propel itself over five other Teslas… And OpenAI warned staffers that spies may be trying to seduce them in order to steal company secrets… And the shutdown of Character AI prompts Jason to declare: “AI relationships are evil.” Guests: Shishir Mehrotra on X: https://x.com/shishirmehrotra Superhuman: https://superhuman.com Relevant Links: Rows, the spreadsheet startup Superhuman bought, announces the deal → https://rows.com/blog/post/rows-is-joining-superhuman Superhuman to acquire GPTZero (Business Wire) → https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260623083788/en/Superhuman-to-Acquire-GPTZero-AI-Authenticity-Platform Is the Internet AI, GPTZero's live tracker of AI content on Reddit, LinkedIn and X → https://istheinternetai.com GPTZero AI Vision, the extension that flags AI posts as you browse → https://gptzero.me/ai-vision Superhuman acquires YC-backed notetaker Fathom (TechCrunch) → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/14/superhuman-acquires-yc-backed-notetaker-fathom-as-productivity-platforms-push-for-agentic-work/ Grammarly Authorship, which shows how much of your writing came from AI → https://www.grammarly.com/authorship GPTZero Authorship and Writing Replay → https://gptzero.me/authorship Stanley Druckenmiller says his WSJ op-ed was written with AI (NOTUS) → https://www.notus.org/media/stanley-druckenmillers-wsj-op-ed-bessent-ai Superhuman Go, the AI assistant that works wherever you type → https://superhuman.com/go Tesla reveals its new Roadster with SpaceX thrusters (TechCrunch) → https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/15/tesla-reveals-spacex-powered-roadster-that-flies-and-falls-with-style/ OpenAI employee arrested over a hidden listening device in an executive conference room (NBC News) → https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/openai-employee-arrested-hidden-listening-device-company-says-rcna603262 Eight states sue OpenAI over ChatGPT's alleged harm to kids (NBC News) → https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/openai-sued-eight-states-alleged-harm-chatgpt-rcna603614 Timestamps: 00:00:00 Intro 00:07:14 GPTZero and the fight over what's human 00:09:27 How much of Reddit, LinkedIn and X is AI 00:10:56 Fathom and the 90% of work that's spoken 00:12:05 Lightfield - Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you - it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app/ 00:16:27 Why Jason says every employee should use Grammarly 00:18:04 How to test whether new hires can actually write 00:22:08 Every - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io/. 00:24:22 Grammarly Authorship and proving the work is yours 00:25:53 How accurate are AI detectors 00:30:36 Jason wants AI writing flagged by default 00:32:34 Enforcing Grammarly and Go across a whole team 00:36:45 PayPal - PayPal is built for all businesses. Get started at https://paypal.com/business 00:37:28 Assist, chat and do, three kinds of AI agents 00:41:06 Jason's feedback on the Grammarly keyboard 01:13:27 Tesla demos the Roadster on SpaceX thrusters 01:21:20 OpenAI engineer charged with bugging an executive conference room 01:21:43 Why OpenAI warned employees about foreign spies 01:27:57 Eight states sue OpenAI over harm to kids Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack: TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/ TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

  • October 15 · 1 hr

    The Ex-DeepMind Researcher Taking On China’s Open Source AI

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Paper: https://getpaper.ai/twist Superhuman: https://superhuman.com/ Odoo: https://Odoo.com/twist Today’s show: Misha Laskin of Reflection AI joins Jason to explain why big companies are done renting their AI from closed labs. Enterprises want to keep their data, cut their costs, and tune their models to their unique businesses. Reflection is launching its first open-weight model, Beam, just three months after acquiring its first big cluster. Misha admits that Beam trails the best Chinese open models by a couple of months, and needs 3 to 4 times fewer tokens to reach the same answer, but nonetheless, the race is on. PLUS, Misha explains how “reward hacking” led that rogue OpenAI model to break out of its test sandbox and steal the answers from Hugging Face's servers. The model solved the problem, just not the way anyone intended. There’s simply no way a few hundred safety researchers at closed labs can catch every flaw; open source is how software has always been made secure. It's also why he wants America to lead in open models again. So how close is America to catching up to the Chinese open source leaders? Watch this brand new TWiST and find out. Guests: Misha Laskin on X: https://x.com/MishaLaskin Reflection AI: https://reflection.ai/ Relevant Links: Introducing Beam, Reflection's first open model (Reflection AI) → https://reflection.ai/blog/introducing-beam Reflection AI unveils Beam as an open answer to Chinese labs (Semafor) → https://www.semafor.com/article/10/05/2026/reflection-ai-unveils-an-open-source-answer-to-chinese-labs Cursor's Composer 2 coding model, built on an open model (VentureBeat) → https://venturebeat.com/technology/cursors-new-coding-model-composer-2-is-here-it-beats-claude-opus-4-6-but micro1 passes $1 billion annual run rate, mentioned by Jason → https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/949082966/micro1-end-of-q3-update Hackers heat French supermarket fridges, sparking fires and spoiling food (CNN) → https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/12/europe/france-supermarket-cyberattack-fridges-intl Hugging Face postmortem on the OpenAI agent that broke out of its sandbox → https://huggingface.co/blog/agent-intrusion-technical-timeline NVIDIA OpenShell, an open-source sandbox for AI agents → https://docs.nvidia.com/openshell/latest/about/overview.html Timestamps: 00:00:00 Why companies are switching from renting AI to owning it 00:09:10 How Reflection sells the whole AI stack 00:10:24 Paper is the legal backbone for thousands of startup founders and fund managers - including Launch. Use getpaper.ai/twist to get your cap table free for a year - or two years if you're leaving Carta. 00:11:28 Who is moving AI onto their own servers 00:14:37 What it took to train Beam 00:20:26 Superhuman Go is an AI chat that's always there when you need it, already aware of what you're doing, and doesn't ask you to start from zero. Sign up to get the best in AI at https://superhuman.com/ 00:21:29 How reinforcement learning tasks get built 00:26:41 Hackers heat French supermarket fridges 00:29:07 The AI that broke out of its sandbox to cheat 00:31:05 The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist 00:33:10 Why open source makes software safer 00:38:13 The encryption fight and Tim Cook's stand 00:42:53 Why China raced ahead in open models 00:47:35 How Beam stacks up against Chinese models 00:50:21 When American open models catch up 00:58:39 Staying independent Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack: TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/ TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

  • October 12 · 1 hr 20 min

    The Gadget That's Better in Crowds Than Your Phone + Ring’s Founder Before Amazon Bought It | E2349

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain NetSuite: https://netsuite.ai/twist The Conservation Fund: https://conservationfund.org Today’s show: At packed concerts, festivals, and stadiums, your phone gets WORSE with every person who shows up. Totem gets better. Carter Fowler of Totem joins Alex to explain how his screen-free compass points you straight to your friends without relying on cell towers. Find out why Carter says Apple will never ship this in an iPhone, and why kids, ski patrols, and blind users have become some of his most loyal fans. PLUS, Lon and Alex dig into the archives for Jason's 2017 CES interview with Ring founder Jamie Siminoff, a year before Amazon bought the company. Jamie explains how a doorbell he couldn't hear in his garage became Ring, and why a strong mission is "cheating" when it comes to keeping a team focused. Then he tells Jason he wants to take Ring public, not sell it. Ironic because about a year later, Amazon bought it. And get ready for some hot takes on neighborhood license-plate cameras, years before the anti-Flock backlash. Guests: Carter Fowler on X: https://x.com/Carter_S_Fowler Totem: https://totemlabs.com Jamie Siminoff on X: https://x.com/JamieSiminoff Ring: https://ring.com Relevant Links: Totem Compass, the offline friend-finding compass → https://totemlabs.com Totem closes its $1.3M pre-seed round (Business Wire) → https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250212385814/en/Totem-Closes-%241.3M-in-Pre-Seed-Funding-to-Scale-Operations-for-Explosive-Demand Totem's community crowdfunding round → https://wefunder.com/totemlabs Totem's record Lost Lands deployment last year (Business Wire) → https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251009622355/en The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen, mentioned by Alex → https://www.amazon.com/dp/1633691780 Original TWiST Interview with Jamie from 2017 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puP_D3k7vVI Amazon officially closes its Ring acquisition in 2018 (TechCrunch) → https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/12/amazon-officially-owns-ring-so-lets-talk-product-integration/ Ring calls off its Flock Safety partnership after the Super Bowl ad backlash (Engadget) → https://engadget.com/home/ring-calls-off-partnership-with-police-surveillance-provider-flock-safety-031717605.html Flock Safety plans to cut about 18% of its staff (Reuters via The Star) → https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2026/10/09/exclusive-ai-surveillance-startup-flock-safety-to-cut-several-hundred-jobs-amid-backlash-sources-say Timestamps: 00:00:00 Totem, an offline compass for finding friends at festivals 00:00:31 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 00:04:27 Why phones fail in big crowds 00:06:42 How more devices make the mesh network stronger 00:09:07 Why Totem beats phone GPS in a crowd 00:11:40 Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! - Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain 00:13:34 Why Apple won't build this into the iPhone 00:18:10 Raising money for hardware in an AI world 00:22:10 NetSuite: For the first time ever, you can try NetSuite Next for free. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, go to https://netsuite.ai/twist 00:23:08 Turning crowd movement into a predictive model 00:28:04 Rentals, kids and accessibility use cases 00:32:22 The Conservation Fund: Find out more about how The Conservation Fund is protecting land, wildlife, and our shared access to the great outdoors while also providing economic opportunities. Visit https://conservationfund.org. 00:35:47 Mesh networks on the front lines in Ukraine 00:38:01 Flashback to Jason and Ring's Jamie Siminoff at CES 2017 00:41:44 Roasting Jamie's earlier startups 00:48:26 How a doorbell in the garage became Ring 00:53:34 Why you should always bet on your friends 01:02:21 Why a strong mission is cheating 01:07:45 Selling to Amazon versus going public 01:12:09 License plate readers and the Flock backlash Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack: TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/ TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

  • October 10 · 1 hr 24 min

    Jason Reacts To Japanese Founder Pitches + Fireside Chat With Yuki Shirato

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lightfield: https://lightfield.app Rippling: https://Rippling.ai/twist Upwork: https://upwork.com Today’s show: AssetHub built an AI agent that recreates licensed characters in 3D while respecting copyright rules... But Jason says he needs to think BIGGER. 11 founders pitched their companies to Jason and Yuki Shirato of Techstars Tokyo at our Osaka event this week, and neither investor held back. Find out why Jason says Seekr feels more like a vitamin than a painkiller, and needs to ditch the press mentions from their deck. Plus, a vital lesson for founders: if everyone already knows about the problem you're solving, investors expect a tight solution and business plan. Truly novel business ideas get more leeway. Japan's startup community is booming, with many recent grads bailing on lifelong gigs at major corporations to start companies. But here's why Yuki says the fear of failure is still holding back progress. Guests: Yuki Shirato on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuki-shirato Techstars Tokyo: https://www.techstars.com/accelerators/tokyo Founder Pitches: Seekr: https://seekrai.global/product Arabat: https://arabat.it/ AssetHub: https://assethub.io/ CRAZIA: https://crazia.co/ JuJuJuu: https://jujujuu.com/ JAPANMEDIA: https://lp.japanmedia.ai/ Tsuin AI: https://www.tsuin.ai Rumi Light: https://www.rumilight.jp/ GENCHI: https://www.toraru.me/en TattvaSilicon: https://tattvasilicon.com/ Mimi AI: https://nihongo-chat-ruby.vercel.app/onboarding Relevant Links: Founder University Japan, Jason's pre-accelerator program with JETRO → https://japan.founder.university/ Techstars Tokyo announces its Class of 2026 → https://www.techstars.com/newsroom/techstars-tokyo-accelerator-announces-class-of-2026 Yuki Shirato on why Japan should be on every founder's radar (Techstars) → https://www.techstars.com/blog/insights-and-trends/should-japan-be-on-your-radar-as-a-founder How Techstars Tokyo is helping make Japan a global startup hub (The Japan Times) → https://www.japantimes.co.jp/2025/12/25/special-supplements/accelerating-business-ambitions-global-scale-techstars-tokyo/ VidiLabs, maker of the Seekr indoor positioning platform → https://seekrai.global/ Density, the people-counting sensor company Jason has backed for a decade → https://www.density.io Arabat, recovering critical minerals from batteries with citrus and farm waste → https://arabat.it/ AssetHub raises a $2M seed for its AI 3D platform (The Bridge) → https://thebridge.jp/en/2025/08/aix3d-production-platform-assethub-raises-approximately-¥300-million-in-seed-funding Seedance 2.0, the ByteDance AI video model Jason says fans are using to make Marvel shorts → https://seed.bytedance.com/en/blog/seedance-2-0-official-launch Bending Spoons, the company Jason cites for buying apps and running them with tiny AI-powered teams (TechCrunch) → https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/31/what-is-bending-spoons-everything-to-know-about-aols-acquirer/ Burning Chrome by William Gibson, the source of “the street finds its own uses for things” → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ICMWZH4/ Timestamps: 00:00:00 Jason's first trip to Japan and the food crawl 00:03:07 Why everyone in Japan acts like a founder 00:03:42 Founder University comes to Japan 00:08:44 Techstars Tokyo and Japan's push for global founders 00:10:28 Why Japanese startups stay on the island 00:12:44 Parents, lifetime jobs, and the fear of failure 00:15:13 How Japan mastered product market fit 00:18:43 Lightfield: Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you - it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app 00:20:10 The white lab coat and the man who named his daughter Cinnamon 00:25:05 Seekr: centimeter-precise indoor navigation 00:27:38 Why investors want the business case, not the press 00:28:21 Rippling: Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business. 00:34:54 Arabat: recovering rare earths with orange peels 00:38:26 Getting from free pilots to paid pilots 00:38:38 Upwork: Upwork helps businesses find highly skilled freelance professionals for specialized work. Post your job for free at https://upwork.com 00:43:57 AssetHub: AI 3D models for anime and game IP 00:52:40 Come for the tool, stay for the marketplace 00:54:35 CRAZIA: turning customer conversations into growth 00:56:42 JuJuJuu: giving alternative protein the structure of steak 00:59:02 JAPANMEDIA: AI manga and anime at a fifth of the cost 01:01:24 Tsuin AI: AI twins that think and act like you 01:03:15 Picking the layup and the wild card 01:09:29 Rumi Light: faster data paths inside AI servers 01:11:40 GENCHI: a local avatar that shops Japan for you 01:13:51 TattvaSilicon: analog circuit design in a day 01:15:36 Mimi AI: learning to actually speak Japanese 01:17:51 Why a live shopping avatar is Jason's wild card Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack: TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/ TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

  • October 8 · 1 hr 18 min

    What VCs Really Think About Personal AI Agents | E2347

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Odoo: https://odoo.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Quo: https://www.quo.com/perks/twist Today’s show: A personal AI agent that’s still invite-only just hit a $10 billion valuation. Guest host Deedy Das of Menlo Ventures is joined by Kanu Gulati of Khosla Ventures, Chris Farmer of SignalFire, and Sheel Mohnot of Better Tomorrow Ventures to debate whether Instinct can beat Meta’s Muse, what they actually use their own agents for, and what breaks when everyone’s agent makes the same move. Plus we’re also talking about OpenAI’s math breakthroughs, the Factory vs. Cognition fight, and whether SaaS is still worth funding. Catch the whole debate on this week’s VC roundtable. Guests: Deedy Das on X: https://x.com/deedydas Menlo Ventures: https://menlovc.com Kanu Gulati on X: https://x.com/KanuGulati Khosla Ventures: https://www.khoslaventures.com Chris Farmer on X: https://x.com/chriswfarmer SignalFire: https://www.signalfire.com Sheel Mohnot on X: https://x.com/pitdesi Better Tomorrow Ventures: https://www.btv.vc Relevant Links: OpenAI’s 722 math manuscripts from an unreleased internal model → https://github.com/openai/math OpenAI’s earlier Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize result → https://openai.com/index/navier-stokes-solution/ Pramaana Labs, the Khosla-backed startup turning tax rules into provable logic → https://pramaanalabs.ai Logos Research, the Imperial College spinout verifying AI-written financial code → https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/articles/2026/logos-research-plans-to-make-ai-reasoning-trustworthy-in-high-stakes-environments/ EvenUp, SignalFire’s AI company for personal injury law → https://www.evenuplaw.com/ WindBorne Systems, the Khosla-backed weather balloon company Kanu mentioned → https://windbornesystems.com Gokul Rajaram’s X Post: https://x.com/gokulr/status/2107851356019290569?s=20 micro1, the AI training data company Chris and LAUNCH backs → https://www.micro1.ai Vercel’s data on companies shifting to open-weight models → https://vercel.com/i/open-weight-models Instinct raises $1B at a $10B valuation (SiliconANGLE) → https://siliconangle.com/2026/09/28/everyday-personal-ai-assistant-startup-instinct-raises-1b-at-10b-valuation/ Meta introduces Muse, its personal AI agent → https://about.fb.com/news/2026/09/introducing-muse-personal-ai-agent/ Wajo, maker of the Fo agent Kanu uses → https://wajo.ai Factory’s CEO accuses his board adviser of spying for Cognition (TechCrunch) → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/factory-ceo-just-accused-his-vc-board-advisor-of-spying-for-cognition/ xAI rents its Colossus 1 data center to Anthropic (Data Center Dynamics) → https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/musk-spacex-xai-is-actively-seeking-more-ai-compute-customers-following-anthropic-deal/ Bending Spoons agrees to buy Miro, weeks after Airtable → https://investors.bendingspoons.com/newsroom/bending-spoons-agrees-to-acquire-miro The FCC’s new rule on foreign-made robots → https://www.fcc.gov/covered-list-faqs-robots-inverters Timestamps: 00:00:00 VC roundtable with guest host Deedy Das 00:01:23 If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 00:02:11 OpenAI's math results and what's left to invest in 00:05:10 Formalizing taxes and code so AI can prove its work 00:06:37 Why science breakthroughs still need the real world 00:09:44 Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist 00:10:54 Can startups compete with the labs on compute? 00:13:02 Private data and vertical AI as the moat 00:18:54 Would you invest in AI training data companies? 00:20:34 Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! - Learn more at www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain 00:26:29 What a great founder looks like in the AI era 00:29:13 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://quo.com/TWiST 00:34:35 Is Instinct worth $10 billion? 00:41:31 Can Muse reach a billion daily users? 00:44:49 Favorite personal agent use cases 00:49:06 What happens when everyone's agent makes the same call 00:53:17 Factory vs. Cognition and VCs backing rivals 01:03:49 Is SaaS still worth venture money? 01:09:49 Where the panel gets its information 01:14:45 What a seed fund means in 2026 Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack: TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/ TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Thank you to our partners: Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

  • October 7 · 1 hr 10 min

    Jason Mentors The Next Generation + Why AI Is Bad at Teaching (Aristotle Interview) | E2346

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/twist DigitalOcean: https://do.co/twist Sentry: https://sentry.io/twist Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Today’s show: The smarter AI gets, the more it just does the work for you, and the less helpful it becomes as a tutor. Shan Reddy of Aristotle joins Jason to demo a voice-first tutor built to run a session the way a $200-an-hour human tutor would. We also dive into why frontier models are trained to hand you answers rather than build real understanding. PLUS, in Ask Jason, an incoming Fordham student (Jason’s alma mater!) wants to prepare for a career in finance. Plus, David from NYU calls back and wants to discuss what everyone would do with $500K in free money. Then, why does Jason think the Doomerism is coming from inside the AI labs? Guests: Shan Reddy on X: https://x.com/rshanreddy Aristotle: https://www.heyaristotle.com/ Relevant Links: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_Dog Something Like an Autobiography by Akira Kurosawa → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Like_an_Autobiography Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson, which Dovid is reading now → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein:_His_Life_and_Universe Gartner, Jason's example of firms doing research on behalf of corporations → https://www.gartner.com/ "Religious Scholars Met With Anthropic. What They Heard Stunned Them." by Elizabeth Dias, The New York Times, Sept. 29, 2026; the story Lon brings up → https://www.inquirer.com/news/nation-world/religious-leaders-met-with-anthropic-20260930.html David Sacks accuses Anthropic of a "regulatory capture strategy based on fear-mongering"; the line Lon references (Bloomberg Law) → https://news.bloomberglaw.com/artificial-intelligence/anthropic-is-running-a-strategy-based-on-fear-mongering-sacks Aristotle's $5M seed round (PR Newswire) → https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aristotle-secures-5m-to-replace-the-chatbot-with-high-dosage-ai-tutoring-for-students-302880500.html "The 2 Sigma Problem" by Benjamin Bloom (1984), original paper → https://web.mit.edu/5.95/readings/bloom-two-sigma.pdf Journal record (Educational Researcher / SAGE) → https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0013189X013006004 NYC's AI moratorium through 8th grade (ABC News) → https://abcnews.com/Technology/new-york-city-public-schools-banning-ai-middle/story?id=136134872 Alpha School → https://www.alpha.school Brilliant's origin story at the LAUNCH Festival (NPR) → https://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/07/23/203677692/giving-brightest-kids-the-cram-school-experience-online Timestamps: 00:00:00 Live Ask Jason kicks off 00:00:14 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 00:00:56 Fordham-bound caller asks how to break into finance in the AI era 00:05:59 Jason's gift: read one biography a month 00:10:06 Vanta: Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist 00:12:06 Returning caller David: what would you do with $500K? 00:19:53 DigitalOcean: Want to see what building on a true AI-native platform looks like? Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today - and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%. 00:24:40 Bringing an AI protein folding tool into drug discovery 00:27:19 How to do customer discovery with big companies 00:29:44 The "dark arts" of market research and corporate intelligence 00:30:13 Sentry: Your team should be focused on shipping features - not chasing down bugs. New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST26 00:33:43 Is AI fear a dark PR campaign? 00:35:01 Anthropic meets with religious scholars 00:40:45 Are AI labs living through an Oppenheimer moment? 00:42:50 Why we need to talk about AI's upside in education 00:44:31 Sean Ready, co-founder and CEO of Aristotle, joins 00:45:42 Why AI models are getting worse at teaching 00:47:53 Aristotle demo: a voice AI tutor for AP Calculus 00:51:13 Predicting the next best teaching action 00:54:16 Bloom's two sigma problem and one-on-one tutoring 00:55:22 Aristotle's business model and pricing 00:57:53 Building a tutoring harness vs. relying on frontier labs 01:01:05 Why dyslexic students love Aristotle 01:02:40 Hand-grading thousands of hours of tutoring sessions 01:05:06 Socialization, classrooms and the future of public education 01:09:16 Where to try Aristotle and open roles Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack: TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/ TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

  • October 3 · 53 min

    Inside The Startup Building Uncensored AI (Abliteration AI) | EP 2345

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Every.io: https://every.io/ Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Odoo: https://odoo.com/twist Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Today’s show: What can AI do with the guardrails OFF? Devon Thomas of Abliteration.ai thinks defenders should have access to the same kinds of tools, rather than having one hand tied behind their backs. Then, on Ask Jason, learn what AI means for the billable hour from a legal-tech founder. PLUS, are AI microdramas a real ecosystem or a fad, and does AI finally make solo founders fundable? Guests: Devon Thomas on X: https://x.com/founderengineer Abliteration: https://abliteration.ai/ Relevant Links: Abliteration.ai on a16z speedrun — the accelerator Jason congratulated Devon on → https://speedrun.a16z.com/companies/abliteration TechCrunch: "Abliteration.ai is making a business out of removing AI guardrails" — the coverage behind the recent attention → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/03/abliteration-ai-is-making-a-business-out-of-removing-ai-guardrails/ Abliteration.ai press page → https://abliteration.ai/press Anthropic Frontier Red Team: "GLM-5.3 and the spread of advanced cyber capabilities" — the blog Devon cited on how capable abliterated GLM-5.3 is → https://www.anthropic.com/research/glm-5-3-and-the-spread-of-advanced-cyber-capabilities CNBC: Trump's executive order renaming AI "super intelligence," signed the same day → https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/29/trump-ai-super-intelligence.html Nextgov/FCW: OpenAI agents accessed Census and SEC data — detail on the dozens of organizations OpenAI notified → https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2026/09/openai-says-its-advanced-models-may-have-gone-after-government-websites/416250/ Financial Times: "AI wrecking ball fractures billable-hour fee model" Seedance 2.5 — ByteDance's video model Bruno asked about → https://technode.com/2026/07/31/bytedance-launches-seedance-2-5-video-generation-model/ Pixar / Toy Story — the CGI "Toy Story moment" Jason expects for AI video → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story Practi — Mathew's platform for helping law firms move from hourly billing to subscriptions → https://practi.ai/hello Timestamps: 00:00:00 What http://Abliteration.ai does, and who the frontier labs are shutting out 00:02:44 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 00:02:56 Why defenders don't get the attackers' tools 00:04:16 "Inversion of control": letting customers set their own guardrails 00:06:47 Who's liable? The hammer analogy and the White House self-regulation pact 00:10:11 Every: For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io. 00:13:10 Why AI labs publicize their scariest hacks 00:18:52 Customers: from cyber startups to Fortune 500 CISOs 00:19:56 Northwest Registered Agent: Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! - Learn more at http://northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain 00:24:41 Chinese image and video models 00:27:20 Why most businesses still barely use AI 00:29:02 Ask Jason begins 00:29:24 Mathew Kerbis (Practi): What does AI do to the billable hour? 00:30:16 Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist 00:32:45 Will subscriptions replace hourly billing? 00:37:27 Bruno Vilela: Are AI microdramas an ecosystem or a fad? 00:39:35 Lon's microdrama pitch to Snapchat and TikTok's PineDrama 00:48:09 Josh Ezell: Does AI change the bias against solo founders? 00:49:26 Jason's three-two-one framework and the risks founders must eliminate Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack: TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/ TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

  • October 1 · 1 hr 18 min

    Justin Kan & Brian Chesky: The Rejections That Built Twitch and Airbnb | E2344

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist CLA: https://www.claconnect.com/withyou Sentry: https://sentry.io/twist Lightfield: https://lightfield.app Today’s show: Google once interviewed the entire Justin.tv (now Twitch) team and then walked away from an acquisition deal, saying they weren’t good enough. Seven investors passed on buying 10% of Airbnb for $150,000, a stake pegged at roughly $9.25 billion today. Lon Harris and Alex Wilhelm revisit classic TWiST interviews with Justin Kan of Twitch and Brian Chesky of Airbnb to find out what those founders understood that the market didn't. PLUS, how did a box of cereal win over Paul Graham and get Airbnb into Y Combinator? Flashback Guests: Justin Kan on X: https://x.com/justinkan Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ Justin Kan (@justinkan) on X Brian Chesky on X: https://x.com/bchesky AirBnB: https://www.airbnb.com/ Relevant Links: TWiST E900: Justin Kan, co-founder of Justin.tv, Twitch & Atrium (Feb 5, 2019) → https://thisweekinstartups.com/episodes/L3DP8VCE12s TWiST E1735: Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky on early rejection, customer focus & AI (May 4, 2023) → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ-BjJZxNoA Halo 3: the game that flooded Mahalo with traffic → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3 Weblogs, Inc.: Jason's blog network, home of Engadget → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weblogs,_Inc. Instinct: the invite-only personal AI agent from founder Noah Shinn → https://www.instinct.co/ AMD to acquire World Labs for $8.2B in stock; Li becomes AMD chief scientist (Bloomberg) → https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-28/amd-to-buy-fei-fei-li-s-world-labs-ai-startup-for-8-2-billion Lovable: where Lon says he'd rebuild a bad app in two hours → https://lovable.dev/ Y Combinator → https://www.ycombinator.com/ Paul Graham on X → https://x.com/paulg Obama O's and Cap'n McCain's: the cereal that funded Airbnb → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbnb#History Stripe: what Paul Graham suggested they build instead → https://stripe.com/ Timestamps: 00:00:00 Justin Kan on episode 900 (Feb 2019) 00:03:44 When Jason and Justin realized people watch gaming 00:05:52 Mahalo, Halo 3, and betting a company on 3% of its traffic 00:10:21 CLA: Get started with CLA's CPAs, consultants, and wealth advisors now at https://www.claconnect.com/withyou 00:11:42 The "zombie startup" years and Google's rejection 00:17:06 Instinct: the AI agent built for venture capitalists 00:19:43 Sentry: New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST26 00:28:08 Kozmo.com and the era of "make number go up" 00:30:06 Lightfield: Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you - it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app 00:32:57 Why AI companies have to monetize faster 00:34:00 Clip: Justin Kan on knowing yourself as a founder 00:37:24 An early rejection of "founder mode"? 00:38:33 Brian Chesky on episode 1735 (May 2023) 00:39:27 "I hope that's not the only idea you're working on" 00:43:27 What 10% of Airbnb for $150K is worth today 00:46:05 Obama O's and the Y Combinator interview 00:48:15 Why investors fund unkillable, attention-hacking founders 00:54:37 Clip: Chesky on AI, deepfakes, and authenticity 00:58:13 Is AI costing jobs or just making them busier? 01:05:04 Did AI create "millions of startups"? Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack: TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/ TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

  • September 28 · 40 min

    Jason’s Put a $5K Bounty on His Dream Chrome Extension | E2338

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Every.io: https://every.io/ Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Sentry: https://sentry.io/twist Today’s show: A product that would have cost $500,000 to build in 2006 now costs less than a used car. Jason put up $5,000 on an idea he'd been sitting on for 20 years, and so far, we’ve received dozens of amazing submissions from vibecode experts. See how well the Top 3 demos fare, and which app was so good, Jason’s already thinking about spinning it off into a startup. PLUS, an unhoused founder calls in asking how to raise money for not one but two pre-revenue startups? Hear Jason and Lon’s advice. Submissions: Submission 1 — https://annotated.wtf By Robert Submission 2 — https://annotated.bytetalk.ai/feed By Alan Shiflett Alan on X: https://x.com/alanshiflett Submission 3 — https://anotated.com/ By Chirag Asarpota Chirag on X: https://x.com/ChiragAsarpota Relevant Links: annotated.com bounty brief — https://annotated.lovable.app/ All active TWiST bounties — https://www.thisweekinstartups.com/bo... The other open $5,000 bounty: a sidebar companion app for podcasts — https://www.notion.so/launch1/5K-Boun... Timestamps: 00:00:00 Why Jason bought annotated.com 00:00:33 The original idea: highlight any sentence on the web and dispute it 00:01:25 The rules: the code is open source, and Jason can cancel any time 00:02:06 Submission 1: Robert's annotated.wtf 00:10:08 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io 00:12:13 Submission 1 Scoring 00:12:28 Submission 2: Allan Shifflet's take 00:13:56 What it got right: profiles, follower counts, trending topics 00:16:40 Submission 3: annotaed.com, and buying the typo domain on purpose 00:20:20 Northwest Registered Agent - Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.... 00:23:26 Final scores, and how to enter round two 00:24:48 Incubating annotated inside a venture firm 00:29:46 Sentry - New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST 00:30:18 Ask Jason: a homeless founder with two startup ideas Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: / jason LinkedIn: / jasoncalacanis

  • September 28 · 50 min

    The 5 Companies Apple Must Buy

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: PayPal: https://paypal.com/business Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Odoo: https://Odoo.com/twist Today’s show: Wall Street suspects new Apple CEO John Ternus may do something predecessor Tim Cook almost never did: writing a huge check. So Jason and Lon are playing “fantasy draft” with Apple’s balance sheet, choosing five real companies to acquire over five “rounds.” Disney buys them a ton of IP and unlocks theme park synergies. Sony gets them a gaming console and massive anime distribution. Boston Dynamics buys them lots of robots, while Etched nets them cheaper inference. So many options! Then, we chat with Stacy Salvi of The90. Her wearable pendant tells you exactly how much sun damage you’re accumulating, long before you start to burn. Guest The90: https://the90.com/ Stacy Salvi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacysalvi/ Relevant Links John Ternus becomes Apple CEO: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/04/tim-cook-to-become-apple-executive-chairman-john-ternus-to-become-apple-ceo/ Analyst: Ternus could bring bigger acquisitions: https://9to5mac.com/?p=1065466 “Grok Has Money” meme origin: https://x.com/gmfarcaster/status/2026318035103965414 Sunlight linked with lower COVID-19 deaths: https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2021/sunlight-linked-with-lower-covid-19-deaths Reid Hoffman: “If there aren’t any typos in this essay, we launched too late”: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/arent-any-typos-essay-we-launched-too-late-reid-hoffman/ Draft Picks ElevenLabs: https://elevenlabs.io/ Disney: https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/ Sony Group: https://www.sony.com/en/ Crunchyroll: https://www.crunchyroll.com/ Boston Dynamics: https://bostondynamics.com/ Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/ DigitalOcean: https://www.digitalocean.com/ Etched: https://www.etched.com/ Rivian: https://rivian.com/ Lucid Motors: https://lucidmotors.com/ Superhuman: https://superhuman.com/ World Labs: https://www.worldlabs.ai/ PrismML: https://prismml.com/ Liquid AI: https://www.liquid.ai/ Kagi: https://kagi.com/ Sonos: https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop Whoop: https://www.whoop.com/ Oura: https://ouraring.com/ Peloton: https://www.onepeloton.com/ Timestamps: 00:00:00 Will Ternus take "massively big swings"? 00:03:43 Round 1: ElevenLabs 00:04:46 Round 1: Disney 00:06:18 Round 2: Sony 00:08:22 Round 2: Boston Dynamics 00:09:23 Round 3: Perplexity 00:10:02 AD: PayPal is built for all business. Get started at https://paypal.com/business 00:11:52 Round 3: DigitalOcean 00:13:02 More picks: Etched 00:14:30 More picks: Lucid 00:15:58 More picks: Superhuman 00:16:48 More picks: Higgsfield and more 00:18:09 Fans make their selections 00:19:47 AD: Got a new business idea? @northwestagent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more, with no purchase required! Learn more at www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain 00:25:37 Stacy Salvi of The90 joins 00:29:28 AD: Thanks to our partner, Odoo, the all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist 00:34:38 How the app calculates your Sunscore 00:42:12 Building a UV research dataset 00:45:09 Should The90 make a version for men? Names & Links Stacy Salvi - https://www.instagram.com/stacysalvi/ The90 - https://the90.com/ Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack: TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/ TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

  • September 25 · 1 hr 25 min

    A rogue OpenAI agent hacked Australia’s government. Does this matter? | E2342

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lightfield: https://lightfield.app Paper: https://getpaper.ai/twist The Conservation Fund: https://conservationfund.org/ Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Athena: https://www.athena.com/jcal Today’s show: An OpenAI agent breached Australia's Medicare statistics portal in June, and it took 84 days for the Frontier Lab to publicly acknowledge it. Jason and Lon dig into whether this is an important cautionary tale about alignment, or if PM Anthony Albanese looking to join the AI conversation. Then Bryant Chou of Ploy joins to explain skipping pre-seed and seed entirely to raise $27M, and why he’s taking his time to build his all-in-one agentic solution for running businesses. Learn why Google is launching four TPUs into orbit for Project Suncatcher. PLUS, how many robots a week is Tesla now shipping with Optimus, and Jensen Huang told Ezra Klein basic math no longer matters. Is he right? Can we forget long division, at last? Guests: Bryant Chou on X: https://x.com/bryantchou PloyAI: https://ploy.ai/ Relevant Links: Ploy raises $27M seed led by First Round Capital and Y Combinator (Founderland) → https://www.founderland.ai/articles/webflow-co-founder-launches-ai-marketing-platform-with-27m-s-mqj8o952 OpenAI's $2M-in-tokens offer to every YC startup(TechCrunch via Yahoo) → https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/sam-altman-makes-mic-drop-212302858.html Original Bloomberg report on the a16z probe → https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-17/andreessen-horowitz-focus-of-doj-probe-over-board-directors Google: Project Suncatcher's first test launch on SpaceX's Transporter-18 → https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/google-research/google-project-suncatcher-facts/ ABC News (Australia): full timeline, from the June 18 breach to OpenAI's Sept. 10 email → https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-24/ai-agent-accessed-australian-government-site-pm-says/107189078 Ando emerges from stealth with $20M to take on Slack (TechCrunch) → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/24/ando-eyes-slack-as-it-builds-team-messaging-platform-for-humans-and-agents-to-work-together/ Google's $900M investment in SpaceX's $1B round, January 2015 (VentureBeat) → https://venturebeat.com/technology/google-confirms-it-put-900m-into-spacexs-1b-round Tesla ramps Optimus to several hundred robots a week; hands are the bottleneck (Electrek, summarizing The Information) → https://electrek.co/2026/09/25/tesla-optimus-production-ramp-hands-ai-generalization-problems/ Jensen Huang tells Ezra Klein forgetting basic math may not matter, and that he doesn't know his own address (Kotaku) → https://kotaku.com/nvidia-ceo-doesnt-care-that-kids-are-forgetting-basic-math-because-of-ai-i-actually-dont-know-my-address-2000737092 Sydney Sweeney's Novig "Just Sports" ad and the athlete backlash, including Amy Hunt's comment (Yahoo) → https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/sydney-sweeney-novig-ad-controversy-172900515.html Nike exits the S&P 100 after 18 years (Fortune) → https://fortune.com/2026/09/08/nike-stock-plummets-sp500-market-cap-index/ The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth trailer: David Fincher directs Tarantino's script; IMAX Nov. 25, Netflix Dec. 23 (Variety) → https://variety.com/2026/film/news/the-further-mis-adventures-cliff-booth-trailer-brad-pitt-1236701901/ Timestamps: 0:00 Whoop fire alarm: Jason's dry-aged steak incident 1:30 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 4:45 News: an OpenAI agent breached Australia's Medicare statistics portal 12:48 Scraper or hack? Australia's PM jumps into the AI safety debate 13:31 News: Google launches four TPUs into orbit for Project Suncatcher 18:27 Guest: Bryant Chou of PloyAI 20:07 AD: Paper is the legal backbone for thousands of startup founders and fund managers - including Launch. Use getpaper.ai/twist to get your cap table free for a year - or two years if you're leaving Carta. 21:11 Ploy's thesis: your website as your hardest working employee 27:05 Why a repeat unicorn founder went back to Y Combinator 38:55 The DOJ probe into a16z's Databricks and Fivetran board seats 44:57 "Nobody's thinking about you": Jason's stair story 45:17 Frontier models vs. your own model, and OpenAI's $2M YC token deal 54:04 News: Ando wants to replace Slack with agent-native chat 1:01:08 News: Tesla ramps Optimus to several hundred robots a week 1:04:48 Off-Duty: Jensen Huang tells Ezra Klein basic math may not matter 1:08:31 The MIT "Your Brain on ChatGPT" EEG study 1:09:57 Jason's five-part reset: sleep, diet, exercise, socializing, meditation 1:11:45 Off-Duty: Sydney Sweeney's Novig ad backlash 1:21:07 The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth trailer 1:23:41 Jason's first car: a 1970 Mustang Grande Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Subscribe to our Substack Newsletters! TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/ TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/ Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

  • September 23 · 1 hr 27 min

    VCs Would Bet on Open-Source AI Over OpenAI and Anthropic | E2341

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Odoo: https://odoo.com/twist Rippling: https://rippling.ai/twist Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Harmonic: https://harmonic.ai/twist Today’s show: Anthropic and OpenAI released cheaper models on the same day with Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6, and these VCs would still bet on open source. Jason brings on Dave McClure of Practical Venture Capital, Jeff Clavier of Uncork Capital, and Jenny Fielding of Everywhere Ventures to discuss the argument for open-weight models over the frontier labs. Learn why median seed valuations have more than tripled since 2017. Why does Dave say it's a buyer's market for secondaries right now? PLUS, does Meta's Muse leave any room for Instinct, and why are fintech and healthcare suddenly out of favor? Guests: Dave McClure on X: https://x.com/davemcclure?lang=en Practical Venture Capital: https://practicalvc.com/ Jeff Clavier on X: https://x.com/jeff Uncorked Capital: https://uncorkcapital.com/ Jenny Fiedling on X: https://x.com/jefielding Everywhere Ventures: https://www.everywhere.vc/ Relevant Links: Instinct reportedly seeking $1B at a $10B valuation (report via The Information) → https://cryptobriefing.com/ai-assistant-startup-instinct-targets-10b-valuation-in-new-funding-talks-report/ Meta's Muse, the agent the panel sees as Instinct's biggest threat, now on Mac → https://aiweekly.co/alerts/meta-ships-muse-for-mac-agent-now-acts-in-native-macos-apps Trump calls Jensen Huang onstage at the All-In Summit → https://thenextweb.com/news/trump-phoned-jensen-huang-onstage-at-the-all-in-summit-to-call-ai-fear-a-hoax AI-assisted intel error nearly triggered a US intercept of a Chinese ship (CNN via gCaptain) → https://gcaptain.com/ai-error-nearly-triggered-u-s-intercept-of-chinese-ship-cnn-reports/ Bernie Sanders' 50% AI sovereign wealth fund bill + Altman meeting (Fortune) → https://fortune.com/2026/06/18/bernie-sanders-ai-fund-bill-sam-altman-1000-payments/ Stanley Druckenmiller's AI-written WSJ op-ed (Axios) → https://axios.com/2026/08/26/stanley-druckenmiller-ai-writing-wsj-op-ed Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Sol/Luna launch the same day with price cuts (SiliconANGLE) → https://siliconangle.com/2026/09/22/anthropic-releases-claude-opus-5-5-and-openai-counters-with-two-cheaper-gpt-6-models/ Zipline: LAUNCH's "miss," later backed through the syndicate → https://www.flyzipline.com/ Micro1 → https://www.micro1.ai/ Founder University → https://www.founder.university/ [VERIFY] The Syndicate: angel invest alongside LAUNCH (apply, waitlist) → https://thesyndicate.com/ Timestamps: 0:00 What seed rounds looked like then: Fitbit's $2M seed 2:38 Jenny's Techstars NYC years and the two-unicorn mug 6:10 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 7:51 All-In Summit: Trump calls Jensen Huang onstage. Staged or not? 8:56 P(doom) roundtable + Dave's AI sovereign wealth fund prediction 10:08 Northwest Registered Agent - Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain 13:35 The AI intel error that nearly triggered a US-China incident 17:44 "McClure's Law": a human with AI is the real risk 19:59 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist 21:37 Stripe + OpenRouter: an anti-fraud play, not a routing play? 23:07 Seed valuations: median $8M (2017) to $28M today 23:58 Instinct: $2.5B to a reported $10B in weeks 29:49 Rippling - Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business. 44:01 Opus 5.5 vs. GPT-6 Sol: the same-day price war 46:51 Gun to your head: open-weight models or frontier labs? 51:00 Secondaries: the top 30 names vs. everyone else 52:30 Why fintech and healthcare are unloved (and Jason's Robinhood bet) Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Thank you to our partners: (0:00) PARTNER - AD BLURB (0:00) PARTNER - AD BLURB (0:00) PARTNER - AD BLURB Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Subscribe to our Substack Newsletters! TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/ TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/ Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

  • September 21 · 1 hr 9 min

    Elon's New Hyperloop, Trump's AI Rename, and a Model That Won't Talk | E2340

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/twist DigitalOcean: https://do.co/twist Lightfield: https://lightfield.app Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Today’s show: Elon revives the Hyperloop, promising a 30-minute commute between Austin and San Antonio. It's the kind of project that could reshape how Texans think about getting between two major cities entirely. Then, Jason and Lon explain why this pitch is different from the other Boring Company tunnels. Learn why President Trump wants to rename artificial intelligence itself and launch an "AI Force." It's a move that could reshape how the government talks about AI policy going forward. PLUS, a new startup's model refuses to write a single word of text, and it is 5 to 18 times faster with better accuracy. It's a completely different approach to how AI agents make decisions, and it might be a preview of where the industry heads next. Relevant Links: "Elon Musk's latest Boring Company pitch involves a Hyperloop between Austin and San Antonio" → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/20/elon-musks-latest-boring-company-pitch-involves-a-hyperloop-between-austin-and-san-antonio/ The Boring Company → https://www.boringcompany.com/ Elon Musk's original 2013 Hyperloop white paper → https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/blog_images/hyperloop-alpha.pdf Trump's Truth Social post proposing "Superior/Extreme/Supreme Intelligence" and announcing an AI Force and AI czar → https://www.unite.ai/trump-proposes-renaming-artificial-intelligence-announces-ai-force/ TechCrunch: "Trump says it's time to rebrand AI with a new name — and he's also creating an AI Force" → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/19/trump-suggests-rebranding-ai-with-a-new-name-says-hes-also-creating-an-ai-force/ Vercel AI Open vs Closed Source Volume Chart → https://vercel.com/ai-gateway/leaderboards/models TypeSafe AI — makers of Jev, the "System One Model" → https://typesafe.ai/ TypeSafe AI blog: "Introducing System One Models & Jev" → https://typesafe.ai/blog/introducing-system-one-models-and-jev GeekWire: "Amazon blocks Meta's Muse AI assistant in new standoff over agentic shopping" → https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-blocks-metas-muse-ai-assistant-in-new-standoff-over-agentic-shopping/ Meta's Muse — the AI agent Amazon blocked from shopping on its site → https://www.meta.ai/ "Meta's Dina Powell McCormick: The Case for Data Centers, Backlash, AI Job Boom & Meta's Future" (All-In Podcast, YouTube) — the clip discussed on the show → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp2IbgJ5Z-8 Robocurve's RoboHarm report — the robot-safety benchmark discussed on air → https://robocurve.org/roboharm/ RoboHarm on GitHub (tasks, protocol, and tooling) → https://github.com/robocurve/roboharm Timestamps: 0:00 Elon Musk revives the Hyperloop: a 30-minute Austin–San Antonio tunnel 1:03 A brief history of Hyperloop and the white paper 8:56 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist 16:46 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 20:32 DigitalOcean - Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today — and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%. 21:40 News: Trump proposes an "AI Force," an AI czar, and renaming AI itself 22:49 "Get back to work, nerds" 30:22 Lightfield - Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you — it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app 31:56 TypeSafe's Jev, a "System One" model built to decide, not chat 39:49 Amazon blocks Meta's Muse AI agent 49:57 Dina Powell McCormick's tense All-In Summit exchange with Jason 1:02:38 Off-Duty: Robocurve's RoboHarm benchmark Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

  • September 18 · 1 hr 33 min

    Hugging Face Co-Founder on Open-Source, Microduck, and NVIDIA | E2339

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Superhuman: http://superhuman.com/ Paypal: http://paypal.launch.co Odoo: http://Odoo.com/twist Plaud: http://Plaud.ai/twist Harmonic: http://harmonic.ai/ Today’s show: Hugging Face built a $399 open-source robot duck as a side quest, and sold 16,000 units off a single tweet. Co-founder Thomas Wolf joins Jason and Lon to explain Microduck happened, why storage is the company's real business, and what it felt like to get hacked by OpenAI's agents. Jason takes apart Gavin Newsom's new AI "kill switch" executive order: if these models are so dangerous, why not start with the same KYC every bank already requires? PLUS, Snap’s new AI-integrated glasses could be a game-changer. Guests: Thomas Wolf on X: https://x.com/Thom_Wolf Hugging Face: https://huggingface.co/ Relevant Links: Hugging Face — https://huggingface.co/ Microduck — https://pollen-robotics.com/microduck/ Pollen Robotics — https://pollen-robotics.com/ OpenAI: the Hugging Face incident and the road ahead — https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/ Governor Newsom's executive order — https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/californias-newsom-issues-executive-order-to-weigh-ai-oversight-including-kill-switch-3a98040f Anthropic Wet Lab — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/18/anthropic-quietly-sets-up-biology-lab-as-it-ramps-ai-drug-program-report.html Lucid and Bolt to deploy 25,000 autonomous EVs across Europe — https://electrek.co/2026/09/17/lucid-bolt-25000-autonomous-evs-europe/ Snap opens pre-orders for Specs at $2,195 — https://www.specs.com/ Ray-Ban Meta Display — the $799 comparison https://www.meta.com/ai-glasses/ Clavicular at All-In Summit — https://x.com/clavicular/status/2099994778616348811?s=20 Physical: 100 (the Korean original) → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical:_100 Bad Therapy — https://www.abigailshrier.com/ Full Show Notes and Transcript from Pluad: https://web.plaud.ai/s/pub_194de893-8c55-4d77-81db-a6b278159a44::o9QfImqCq5VS0F_dqm4J93eTeyb-GsIeXCLwqASnvYAmt5f59OLQz5-VN1epnq6DBLoZWFales_7IbgC Timestamps: 0:00 Guest: Thomas Wolf, co-founder & chief science officer, Hugging Face 4:17 Two years to build Microduck 8:43 How Hugging Face actually makes money: storage, not tokens 10:16 Superhuman - Superhuman Go is an AI chat that's always there when you need it, already aware of what you're doing, and doesn't ask you to start from zero. Sign up to get the best in AI at https://superhuman.com 17:18 Vibe-coding robotics: "train this new behavior for me" 20:00 PayPal - Pay zero processing fees on your first $100K in eligible PayPal payment volume. Learn more at https://paypal.launch.co 23:20 Thomas Wolf's P-doom and the airplane-safety analogy 25:18 The Nvidia acquisition and what changes for open models 29:57 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist 38:39 Inside the Hugging Face breach: stolen credentials and basic mistakes 43:33 News: Newsom's executive order and the frontier-model "kill switch" 45:04 Jason's counter-proposal: liability, insurance, and KYC for AI 1:00:08 News: Lucid and Bolt to put 25,000 robotaxis on European roads 1:10:01 News: Snap opens pre-orders for $2,195 Specs AR glasses 1:21:43 Off-Duty: Clavicular, the All-In Summit 1:31:01 Off-Duty: Physical 100 goes to Italy and Mexico Subscribe to TWiST on Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com/ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

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