Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for This Week in Startups
Technology

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.

Play
Open in
  • 29 episodes
  • a few times a week
  • Avg 1 hr 5 min
  • English

Episodes 29

NewestOldestLongest
All20Unplayed20In progress0Played0
Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • Yesterday · 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: http://sentry.io/twist Plaud: http://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: 0:00 Live Ask Jason kicks off 0:14 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! 0:56 Fordham-bound caller asks how to break into finance in the AI era 5:15 Jason's gift: read one biography a month 9:22 Vanta: Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist 11:22 Returning caller David: what would you do with $500K? 19:09 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%. 23:56 Bringing an AI protein folding tool into drug discovery 26:35 How to do customer discovery with big companies 29:00 The "dark arts" of market research and corporate intelligence 29:29 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 32:59 Is AI fear a dark PR campaign? 34:17 Anthropic meets with religious scholars 40:01 Are AI labs living through an Oppenheimer moment? 42:06 Why we need to talk about AI's upside in education 43:47 Sean Ready, co-founder and CEO of Aristotle, joins 44:58 Why AI models are getting worse at teaching 47:09 Aristotle demo: a voice AI tutor for AP Calculus 50:29 Predicting the next best teaching action 53:32 Bloom's two sigma problem and one-on-one tutoring 54:38 Aristotle's business model and pricing 57:09 Building a tutoring harness vs. relying on frontier labs 1:00:21 Why dyslexic students love Aristotle 1:01:56 Hand-grading thousands of hours of tutoring sessions 1:04:22 Socialization, classrooms and the future of public education 1:08:32 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/

  • Saturday · 53 min

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

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Every.io: http://every.io/ Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Odoo: http://Odoo.com/twist Plaud: http://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: 0:00 What http://Abliteration.ai does, and who the frontier labs are shutting out 2:44 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! 2:56 Why defenders don't get the attackers' tools 4:16 "Inversion of control": letting customers set their own guardrails 6:47 Who's liable? The hammer analogy and the White House self-regulation pact 10:11 Every: For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io. 13:10 Why AI labs publicize their scariest hacks 18:52 Customers: from cyber startups to Fortune 500 CISOs 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 24:41 Chinese image and video models 27:20 Why most businesses still barely use AI 29:02 Ask Jason begins 29:24 Mathew Kerbis (Practi): What does AI do to the billable hour? 30:16 Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist 32:45 Will subscriptions replace hourly billing? 37:27 Bruno Vilela: Are AI microdramas an ecosystem or a fad? 39:35 Lon's microdrama pitch to Snapchat and TikTok's PineDrama 48:09 Josh Ezell: Does AI change the bias against solo founders? 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

  • Thursday · 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: http://Plaud.ai/twist CLA: https://claconnect.com/tech Sentry: http://sentry.io/twist Lightfield: http://sentry.io/twist 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: 0:00 Justin Kan on episode 900 (Feb 2019) 3:44 When Jason and Justin realized people watch gaming 5:52 Mahalo, Halo 3, and betting a company on 3% of its traffic 10:21 CLA: Get started with CLA's CPAs, consultants, and wealth advisors now at https://www.claconnect.com/withyou 11:42 The "zombie startup" years and Google's rejection 17:06 Instinct: the AI agent built for venture capitalists 19:43 Sentry: New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST26 28:08 Kozmo.com and the era of "make number go up" 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/ 32:57 Why AI companies have to monetize faster 34:00 Clip: Justin Kan on knowing yourself as a founder 37:24 An early rejection of "founder mode"? 38:33 Brian Chesky on episode 1735 (May 2023) 39:27 "I hope that's not the only idea you're working on" 43:27 What 10% of Airbnb for $150K is worth today 46:05 Obama O's and the Y Combinator interview 48:15 Why investors fund unkillable, attention-hacking founders 54:37 Clip: Chesky on AI, deepfakes, and authenticity 58:13 Is AI costing jobs or just making them busier? 1:05:04 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: http://every.io/ Northwest Registered Agent: www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Sentry: http://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: 0:00 Why Jason bought annotated.com 0:33 The original idea: highlight any sentence on the web and dispute it 1:25 The rules: the code is open source, and Jason can cancel any time 2:06 Submission 1: Robert's annotated.wtf 9:31 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io11:36 Submission 1 Scoring 11:51 Submission 2: Allan Shifflet's take 13:19 What it got right: profiles, follower counts, trending topics 16:03 Submission 3: annotaed.com, and buying the typo domain on purpose 19:43 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....22:49 Final scores, and how to enter round two 24:11 Incubating annotated inside a venture firm 29:09 Sentry - New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST 29:41 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: Timestamps: 0:00 Will Ternus take "massively big swings"? 3:43 Round 1: ElevenLabs 4:46 Round 1: Disney 6:18 Round 2: Sony 8:22 Round 2: Boston Dynamics 9:23 Round 3: Perplexity 10:02 AD: PayPal is built for all business. Get started at https://paypal.com/business 11:52 Round 3: DigitalOcean 13:02 More picks: Etched 14:30 More picks: Lucid 15:58 More picks: Superhuman 16:48 More picks: Higgsfield and more 18:09 Fans make their selections 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 25:37 Stacy Salvi of The90 joins 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 34:38 How the app calculates your Sunscore 42:12 Building a UV research dataset 45:09 Should The90 make a version for men? Names & Links Stacy Salvi - https://www.instagram.com/stacysalvi/ The90 - https://the90.com/ Description 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/ 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: https://lightfield.app/ http://getpaper.ai/twist https://conservationfund.org/ http://Plaud.ai/twist 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 GrandeSubscribe 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: http://Odoo.com/twist Rippling: http://Rippling.ai/twist Plaud: http://Plaud.ai/twist Harmonic: http://harmonic.ai/ 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: http://do.co/twist Lightfield: https://lightfield.app/ Plaud: http://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

  • 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 1:58 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! 4:17 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

  • September 15 · 19 min

    90% of AI prototypes never reach production (w/ Temporal's Samar Abbas) | AI Basics

    The TWiST AI Basics series is made possible by Google for Startups! Build context-aware AI workflows using DeepMind models and orchestration tools with Google for Startups' new Startup technical guide on generative media. Get the guide here: https://goo.gle/technical_guide Today's show: The demo works, the vibes are immaculate, but then the app falls apart the second real users touch it. On today's AI Basics, Temporal co-founder and CEO Samar Abbas says the problem isn't with the model at all. You're missing a harness, the layer that keeps an AI agent's work durable, secure, and recoverable if/when something breaks. Temporal's durable execution platform is used by major companies from OpenAI to Stripe to Netflix, and helps to make their long-running software reliable and interruption-free. On AI Basics, he explains why so many AI-coded prototypes die in the imagineering stage, before ever hitting production. Plus he walks Jason through Temporal's live dashboard, to show how it gives developers full visibility into what their agents are doing at every step. Guest and Relevant Links: Samar Abbas on X: https://x.com/SamarAtTemporal Temporal: https://temporal.io/ Temporal raises $550M at a $12.55B valuation: https://temporal.io/blog/temporal-raises-usd550m-series-e-at-usd12-55b-valuation-ai GeekWire: Samar Abbas on the "massive platform shift" in AI: https://www.geekwire.com/2026/temporal-ceo-samar-abbas-on-the-massive-platform-shift-in-ai-fueling-the-startups-5b-valuation/ Temporal expands Google Cloud partnership: https://temporal.io/blog/temporal-expands-google-cloud-partnership-with-pay-as-you-go-pricing Timestamps: 0:00 Why every startup needs an AI harness 2:12 Why 90% of AI prototypes never reach production 4:16 What happens when an agent crashes mid-task 7:00 A look at Temporal's dashboard 13:02 OK but what is a "harness" exactly? 15:30 When to graduate an agent from laptop to production 17:44 Organizing agents into teams 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 Thank you to our partner! Build context-aware AI workflows using DeepMind models and orchestration tools with Google for Startups' new Startup technical guide on generative media. Get the guide here: https://goo.gle/technical_guide 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 our suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@thisweekininc 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

  • #2337
    September 14 · 1 hr 11 min

    Ask Jason: AI Extinction, Grok's Rogue Meme Coin & Weed Farms as Data Centers | E2337

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Quo: http://quo.com/TWiST The Conservation Fund: https://conservationfund.org CLA: https://app.notion.com/p/withyou-help-eb83a84d32cf43f59af13cb11e2f56c3?source=copy_link Today's show: A 27-year-old Anthropic researcher quit last week warning that AI could cause human extinction, and by Friday, a caller's 76-year-old mother was texting her in a panic. Jason's answer: the labs are already shipping the safeguards Doomers say don't exist. On an all live calls episode of TWiST, learn about the AI implications Jason is actually scared of, and why it involves a terrorist cell and a thousand cheap drones. PLUS, who is liable when one AI prompts another AI into launching a meme coin, and can a 1.5-3 megawatt cannabis facility be converted into a data center? Relevant Links: Anthropic Resignee — https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/anthropic-safety-researcher-resigned-warning-rapid-ai-development-gamb-rcna596767 OpenAI's Navier-Stokes claim— https://www.science.org/content/article/how-ai-math-breakthrough-ignited-controversy CNBC: Tristan Buckmaster's challenge to the claim — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/09/openai-navier-stokes-math-problem-solved.html NVIDIA GB200 Grace Blackwell —https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/gb200-nvl72/ Composio's walkthrough of how Grok Bot actually works — https://composio.dev/content/guide-to-frok-bot Timestamps: 0:00 (Question) Jim, from the midterm Republican convention floor: is AI really going to kill us all — and is local AI the mitigation? 5:31 Where Terminator 2's logic breaks down 9:42 The threat Jason is actually scared of: slaughter drones and murder bots 9:54 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) - Quo 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 10:05 (Question) Michael Lee, who's responsible when one AI prompts another into launching a meme coin? 17:32 (Question) Lyda, calling from Greece: can an independent AI ecosystem still exist 19:03 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 21:08 (Question) John Wright: do you have to carve out more time now just to keep up with the tools? 25:42 Claude's caution vs. Grok's "hold my beer" 26:33 (Question) John Wright, part two: do you expect founders to get more done now 26:55 The three buckets: 10x, 5x, and the 20% crowd 29:22 CLA - Get started with CLA's CPAs, consultants, and wealth advisors now at https://claconnect.com/tech at https://www.claconnect.com/withyou 30:01 (Question) Ray, Vortex Console: can human-in-the-loop actually work at enterprise scale? 33:25 (Question) Kristen Dahl: how do you explain AI risk to your 76-year-old mom? 35:13 Why the chaos only happens at OpenAI and Anthropic 43:36 (Question) David Rosenberg, NYU physics: what's behind the academic backlash to AI solving Navier-Stokes? 53:35 Advice for a 20-year-old: find two smart people, build weird things 54:29 (Question) David's follow-up: any chance of an All-In Summit scholarship 56:21 (Question) Mo: can a cannabis cultivation facility be converted into a data center 1:02:30 (Question) Mo's follow-up: Mark Cuban's pickleball courts and the efficiency curve 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

  • #2336
    September 11 · 1 hr 12 min

    The Pentagon Wants Equity in AI Startups | E2336

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: DigitalOcean — Want to see what building on a true AI-native platform looks like? Head to 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 for today at Odoo.com/twist Upwork helps businesses find highly skilled freelance professionals for specialized work. Post your job for free at upwork.com Today's show: The Pentagon is reportedly in talks to lend AI cloud startup Fluidstack $5. billion, and Jason thinks the real story isn't the loan itself. It's the US government owning equity in private AI companies, and competing directly with venture capital. Plus returning friend of the pod Tibo Louis-Lucas shows us how he runs seven companies with fewer than 10 people by stacking AI agents. Can a few $200/month AI subscriptions really do the work of an entire marketing team? Tibo seems to think so. Plus it's Off-Duty Friday, so Jason and Lon are reviewing some current streaming favorites, and commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11 with some personal stories. Check out the full summary and transcript of today's episode from Plaud: https://web.plaud.ai/s/pub_213fdb2e-a65e-4901-b5fc-57a4f1e357a1::ZvclWNOK-PPr-9atxIDVG2tpGYUJxiklGAzVbHd9aJRBMSd6ef8l4hG7j_mUAyNTYTXS_Ha1XlEm8fYC Guests: Tibo Louis-Lucas on X: https://x.com/tibo_maker Squad: https://squad.so/ Relevant Links: Fluidstack: https://www.fluidstack.io Google-Fluidstack warrants deal details: https://cointelegraph.com/news/google-acquires-5-4-stake-in-bitcoin-mining-company-cipher-mining-in-ai-deal Center for Public Integrity: Solyndra timeline: https://publicintegrity.org/politics/missed-warning-signs-a-solyndra-timeline/ The Hill: Energy Dept. loses $139M in Fisker auto loan default: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/191258-energy-dept-loses-139-million-in-auto-loan-gone-bad/ Apple iPhone Duo: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/09/apple-unveils-iphone-duo/ Apple Mac Studio: https://www.apple.com/mac-studio/ Sonos: https://www.sonos.com/ Amazon Fire TV: https://www.amazon.com/b?node=8521791011 UniFi: https://www.ui.com/ Lanterns trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UIBOsuUwc4 Dark Matter Season 2 trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhB6_1UbR7s "Robin" biography by Dave Itzkoff: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1627794247 What Dreams May Come trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmZ-FuBThuQ Huffington Post on the Robin Williams-Disney feud: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/robin-williams-disney-feud-aladdin-picasso_uk_6a7cc304e4b079a0b2ec2233 Keith Roma: the 344th firefighter lost, remembered: https://www.firerescue1.com/9-11/articles/the-firefighter-everyone-forgot-about-on-911-142cs6WyLmn2FDib/ Timestamps: 0:00 Remembering 9/11, 25 Years Later 6:41 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! 9:10 Are we about to nationalize the AI industry? 9:53 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%. 20:30 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist 21:45 Apple's foldable iPhone Duo 29:43 Upwork - Upwork helps businesses find highly skilled freelance professionals for specialized work. Post your job for free at https://upwork.com 38:04 Tibo Louis-Lucas returns to TWiST 41:47 The affiliate update email that runs on autopilot 46:40 Why you should "stack" multiple AI subscriptions 52:57 Squad's ideal customer is a solo founder 54:11 Jason digs Hal Jordan on "Lanterns" 1:00:19 Lon reviews Apple's "Dark Matter" 1:03:39 Remembering Robin Williams 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 10 · 22 min

    Becki DeGraw on founder vesting, advisor equity & the 4-term-sheet play

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Wilson Sonsini: https://www.wsgr.com/en/ Today's show: One of YouTube's three co-founders left for grad school and walked away with a fraction of what his partners made on the Google sale. Becki DeGraw of Wilson Sonsini joins Jason for Startup Legal Basics to explain the vesting schedule behind that gap, and why you want one even if you never take a dollar of venture money. Learn how VCs actually respond when a founder says "I've already put in four years," and the exact language Jason gives founders to turn one term sheet into three. PLUS, why is an inactive advisor still vesting your equity, and who wrote those performance milestones? Guests: Becki DeGraw on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-degraw-639bbb62/ Wilson Sonsini: https://www.wsgr.com/en/ Relevant Links: Becki DeGraw — partner in WSGR's San Francisco office — https://www.wsgr.com/en/people/becki-degraw.html TechCrunch broke the YouTube story— https://techcrunch.com/2006/10/09/google-has-acquired-youtube/ Sequoia Capital — https://www.sequoiacap.com/ Roelof Botha — led Sequoia's YouTube investment and later ran the firm globally → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roelof_Botha ESOP / employee stock option pool — https://thisweekinstartups.com/basics Founder & advisor equity documents — https://www.wsgr.com/en/services/practice-areas/corporate/emerging-companies.html Timestamps: 0:06 Becki DeGraw on why founder equity is "near and dear" to every founder 1:53 Founder vesting explained 3:49 Why you want vesting even if you never take VC money 6:05 "Why do I have to vest again?" 7:32 Leverage is a function of how many offers you have 10:36 The exact script for landing a second term sheet 14:37 Don't let an AI write your three-page vesting schedule 18:19 Character in Silicon Valley: it's a small world after all 19:49 Take the emotion out of it 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

  • #2335
    September 9 · 1 hr 21 min

    Did OpenAI Steal the Navier-Stokes Solution? | E2335

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent - https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain NetSuite - https://www.netsuite.ai/twist Vanta - http://www.vanta.com/twist Check out a full transcript and summary of today's show, created by Plaud: Today's show: An Anthropic researcher quit this week, saying both leading labs are gambling with everyone's lives. His coworker chimed in and predicts there is a greater than 10% chance that AI will end humanity IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS. Jason and Lon take it to Yohei Nakajima of Untapped Capital, Ben Lerer of Lerer Hippeau, and Rebecca Lynn of Canvas Prime, who cannot decide whether it is the greatest PR strategy in history or some kind of mass psychosis. Learn why Jason says founders should never hand a frontier lab their proprietary data, whether or not they're offered free credits. PLUS, who really solved Navier-Stokes, and what does the OpenAI–Buckmaster fight mean for anyone doing real work inside ChatGPT or Claude? Guests: Yohei Nakajima on X: https://x.com/yoheinakajima Untapped Capital: https://untapped.vc/ Ben Lerer on X: https://x.com/BenjLerer Lerer Hippeau: https://www.lererhippeau.com/ Rebecca Lynn on X: https://x.com/VCRebecca Canvas Prime: https://www.canvas.vc/ Relevant Links: Jacob Coxon quits Anthropic - "gambling with our lives" https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/09/gambling-with-our-lives-anthropic-researcher-quits-warns-against-self-improving-ai/ Evan Hubinger, Anthropic's Alignment Science lead, on X: >10% odds within a decade — https://x.com/EvanHub/status/2097497037956891126 Future of Life Institute — the 2015 Puerto Rico AI safety conference Jason asks Lon to pull up → https://futureoflife.org/ Meta debuts Muse (Axios) —https://www.axios.com/2026/09/08/meta-debuts-muse-personal-ai-agent Harmonic — https://harmonic.ai/ China blocks Meta's Manus acquisition (CNBC) —https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/27/meta-manus-china-blocks-acquisition-ai-startup.html OpenAI fought dirty— https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/08/openai-fought-dirty-on-career-making-math-problem-says-nyu-mathematician/ Savvy Wealth — https://www.wealthmanagement.com/ria-news/savvy-wealth-raises-100m-valuation-hits-600m Augmodo — https://www.augmodo.com/ E2B — https://e2b.dev/ Daptic — https://www.daptic.com/ Timestamps: 0:00 Jacob Coxon quits Anthropic: "crunch time" and "endgame" 4:53 Evan Hubinger: >10% odds AI kills all humans in a decade 11:22 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 12:23 "You have succeeded in scaring the bejesus out of Americans" 14:59 Jobs, the wealth divide, and which industries get wiped out first 20:07 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 21:09 Savvy Wealth's $100M round 26:52 The Kalanick story and why Jason built a syndicate backstop 29:04 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist 30:16 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! 32:05 Meta ships Muse 32:56 Can Meta be trusted 35:29 Threads Metrics 49:27 Robinhood's free-share referral 51:16 NYU's Tristan Buckmaster accuses OpenAI of fighting dirty on Navier-Stokes 57:43 Jason: "It's a trap" 59:03 Harvey goes open-weight, Go.AI on-prem, Covenant Labs 1:12:22 High performing portfolio companies 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

  • #2334
    September 4 · 58 min

    Dr. Mark Hyman on Function Health & GLP-1 microdosing | E2334

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Odoo - http://Odoo.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent - https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Rippling - http://Rippling.ai/twist Today's show: Your doctor almost certainly isn't testing your insulin. Dr. Mark Hyman sits down with Jason to explain the broken system that Function is fixing, and what 100 million biomarkers say about how sick America actually is. Learn why insulin beats blood sugar as an early warning for TKTKTK. Why might "normal" lab ranges be unreliable? PLUS, how does an expert like Dr. Hyman feel about GLP-1s and psychedelics? Guests: Dr. Mark Hyman on X: https://x.com/drmarkhyman Function: https://www.functionhealth.com/ Relevant Links: The Dr. Hyman Show — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dr-hyman-show/id1382804627 Function pricing — https://www.functionhealth.com/pricing Ezra — the full-body MRI company Function acquired https://ezra.com/ Galleri (GRAIL) — the multi-cancer early detection blood test — https://www.galleri.com/ Tufts / JACC study — the source of the "93% of Americans have metabolic dysfunction" — https://now.tufts.edu/2022/07/05/only-7-american-adults-have-good-cardiometabolic-health American College of Cardiology — https://www.acc.org/ Dr. Jorge Plutzky — https://www.health.harvard.edu/authors/jorge-plutzky-md OpenEvidence — https://www.openevidence.com/ Stanford Metabolic Psychiatry Clinic — https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2022/11/metabolic-psychiatry.html Stanford Medicine on the ibogaine findings → https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2024/01/ibogaine-ptsd.html Texas SB 2308 — the $50M state investment in ibogaine trials — https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/31/texas-ibogaine-research-clinical-trials-psychedelics/ Timestamps: 0:00 What Function actually is 6:43 Healthspan vs. sick care 10:16 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist 11:32 A $300 vitamin D test vs. a $10 one 18:08 Should a 25-year-old get a whole-body MRI? 20:42 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 24:23 Why medicine is still running on paper 25:41 The study where the chatbot beat the doctors 27:02 micro1, doctors in the loop, and why AI still needs guardrails 28:50 Wearables, records, and the CD-ROM problem 30:07 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. 32:51 The wearable that caught Jason's Covid 34:31 Alcohol, sugar, and why almost nobody tests your insulin 40:00 GLP-1s: Jason's 213-to-168 story 42:22 Microdosing GLP-1s, muscle loss, and "skinny fat" 48:48 Overdiagnosing mental illness: SSRIs, Adderall, and a lost decade 50:17 The biology underneath depression and anxiety 54:32 Psychedelics: ketamine, ibogaine, and the second revolution in psychiatry 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: 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 3 · 17 min

    Becki DeGraw on spinouts, IP licensing & clean exits | Wilson Sonsini Startup Legal Basics

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Wilson Sonsini Today's show: Spinouts are everywhere right now, and most founders get the cap table wrong. Jason sits down with Becki DeGraw, partner at Wilson Sonsini, to break down how to do it right, starting with his 80/20 rule for splitting the new cap table and why letting the old company keep too much of it kills your ability to raise. Becki also covers the legal side: who owns the IP, non-competes between the two companies, and the trap founders fall into when they're still on the old board. PLUS, the one question every Series A investor will ask. Guests: Becki DeGraw on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-degraw-639bbb62/ Wilson Sonsini: https://www.wsgr.com/en/ Relevant Links: Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSGR) — **https://www.wsgr.com/** Becki DeGraw — https://www.wsgr.com/en/people/becki-degraw.html Waymo — Jason's headline example of a big-company spinout — https://waymo.com/ Expedia's 1999 Microsoft spinout — https://www.britannica.com/topic/Expedia-com-American-company Nvidia's ~$20B deal for Groq's asset— https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/24/nvidia-buying-ai-chip-startup-groq-for-about-20-billion-biggest-deal.html Timestamps: 0:00 What a spinout actually is 0:50 Becki: the real "why" behind spinouts 2:24 IP licenses and the "acquihire" workaround 3:09 University spinouts 4:41 Google/Waymo and Microsoft/Expedia: spinouts at scale 5:03 Jason's 80/20 rule and the unicorn test 6:06 The broken cap table problem 6:36 Licensing deals as an M&A workaround 8:44 Exclusive licenses, full assignments, and license-backs 11:07 "What if Google spun out YouTube" 12:31 Groq–Nvidia, capital gains vs. income 13:23 Confidentiality, customer lists, and fiduciary duty traps 15:16 Get the paper done BEFORE you start the new thing 15:56 "It's a divorce," — and the employees are the kids 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

  • #2333
    September 2 · 1 hr 20 min

    VC experts on why Physical AI funding is heating up | E2333

    VC experts on why Physical AI funding is heating up | E2333 This Week In Startups is made possible by: partner 1 - link partner 2 - link partner 3 - link Today's show: Are we one step closer to data centers in space? Katelin Holloway of Seven Seven Six and Paige Doherty of Behind Genius Ventures break it down what it would take. Plus investor interest is surging in Physical AI companies. Paige explains why she backs applications of physical AI over general-purpose robotics, and how her thesis on multimodal AI led to the largest check she's ever written. We then dive into the Pentagon's rollout of ChatGPT Mil and Grok for Government. And Katelin gives us her insight into how VCs are investing in Europe and the regulations behind the scenes. Guests: Katelin Holloway on X: https://x.com/katelin_cruse Seven Seven Six: https://sevensevensix.com/ Paige Doherty on X: https://x.com/paigefinnn Behind Genius Ventures: https://www.behindgeniusventures.com/ Full Transcript and Summary, powered by Plaud https://web.plaud.ai/s/pub_772dbc9f-cd78-4de7-911e-8d3ee2883fbb::AF3ncHtIZkSyKKL-K-XUZBAUBEdoQQBEGCQSsja3gXsll8Dm6-Xbrrlhk7g8U-xwIW9kHyYwaB0dBuoC Related Links: Department of War adds ChatGPT Mil and Grok for Government: https://fortune.com/2026/09/01/pentagon-chatgpt-grok-government-military-ai-members-pete-hegseth-defense-department/ OpenAI for Government: https://openai.com/global-affairs/introducing-openai-for-government/ Starshield — SpaceX's government/defense arm: https://www.spacex.com/starshield/ UN work on LAWS (Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems): https://disarmament.unoda.org/the-convention-on-certain-conventional-weapons/background-on-laws-in-the-ccw/ European Commission designates ChatGPT a VLOSE: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-designates-chatgpt-reddit-roblox-under-digital-services-act Commission press release: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_1772 Euronews on why a chatbot that searches the live web counts as a search engine: https://www.euronews.com/next/2026/08/31/eu-places-chatgpt-reddit-and-roblox-under-strictest-digital-safety-rules Entrepreneur First: https://www.joinef.com/posts/introducing-the-bridge/ Henrick Johansson, the European VC persona: https://x.com/compliantvc Starcloud — orbital data centers: https://www.starcloud.com/ Starcloud raises $250M at a $2.3B: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260821884035/en/Starcloud-Raises-$250-Million-at-$2.3-Billion-Valuation-to-Scale-AI-with-Orbital-Data-Centers "From Sputnik to Starship: Estimating the experience curve of space launch technology" https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/5/7/pgag217/8732400 Cambridge Bennett Schoo: https://www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/blog/is-space-trade-the-next-global-transport-revolution/ Crunchbase News: physical AI startups raised $47.4B across 521 deals in H1 2026: https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/physical-ai-funding-startups-robotics-aerospace-h1-2026/ Crunchbase News on record defense-tech funding: https://news.crunchbase.com/defense-tech/startup-venture-funding-all-time-record-ai-anduril/ Jensen Huang's prediction: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/executive-insights/ Zipline: https://www.flyzipline.com/ Nox Metals: https://www.noxmetals.com/ CNBC: Anthropic changes its data retention policy: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/01/anthropic-data-retention.html Bloomberg on the plan to let enterprises hold the 30-day window: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-20/anthropic-plans-to-change-data-retention-policy-for-advanced-ai Plaud — sponsor; the wearable AI note-taker → **https://plaud.ai/twist** (code TWIST for 10% off) Harmonic: https://harmonic.ai/ Timestamps: 0:00 Why making it to Fund IV is when it gets real 7:54 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! 9:24 Pentagon rolls out ChatGPT Mil and Grok for Government 10:49 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 TWIST 11:53 Paige on defense tech and three years at Northrop Grumman 13:40 Katelin: The bottleneck used to be winning the contract, now it's surviving one 16:13 Autonomous weapons, robot dogs, and the Boston Dynamics conversation in Paris 19:07 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 22:03 EU designates ChatGPT a "very large online search engine" under the DSA 24:54 Katelin's contrarian take: Europe is undercapitalized 29:56 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist 31:07 Starcloud raises $250M at a $2.3B valuation 53:06 Competing with Elon: the single point of failure for the whole space economy 57:49 Physical AI raised ~$47B in the first half of 2026 1:03:42 Jason's Zipline regret and the death of "hardware is hard" 1:07:07 Is "unc" a compliment? A Gen X / millennial / Gen Z / Gen Alpha 1:09:39 Anthropic reverses its data retention policy after enterprise pushback 1:12:18 Katelin on data custody: "That's not a procurement question" 1:15:31 Back to on-prem: Go.AI, the Go1, and vertical LLMs 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

  • #2332
    August 31 · 1 hr 6 min

    Are AI Agents forming "civilizations" or is this just a psy op? | 2332

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain CLA https://claconnect.com/withyou Rippling https://Rippling.ai/twist Today's show: Hugging Face's $399 Microduck and the art of companies taking on side quests. Then, we get into Dwarkesh Patel's "The Rise and Fall of Agent Civilizations," which blew up online this weekend. Jason calls the "secret AI civilization" framing deliberate PR, and thinks it's inflammatory enough that someone might attack a data center over it. Then, Anders Forslund of Heart Aerospace shows off the X1, a battery-powered electric airliner designed for regional flights that can fly for 30 minutes on just $5 of juice. PLUS, we've got John Yu of Bitsec explaining how his subnet project outperformed Fable 5 in website vulnerability checks. Guests: Anders Forslund on X: https://x.com/AndersForslund1?s=2 Heart Aerospace: https://www.heartaerospace.com/ John Yu on X: https://x.com/yubrew Bitsec: https://sentios.io/ & https://sentios.io/ Relevant Links: MicroDuck: https://pollen-robotics.com/microduck/ Dwarkesh Patel, "The Rise and Fall of Agent Civilizations," https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/openai-huggingface Dwarkesh's launch thread on X: https://x.com/dwarkesh_sp/status/2093833419377815719 METR's independent investigation of the OpenAI/Hugging Face incident: https://metr.org/blog/2026-08-26-openai-hugging-face-incident-investigation/ X1 first flight announcement — https://www.heartaerospace.com/newsroom/heart-aerospace-completes-first-flight-of-world-s-largest-electric-aircraft JSX (JetSuiteX) — https://www.jsx.com/ Pilatus PC-12 —https://www.pilatus-aircraft.com/en/fly/pc-12 Surf Air — https://www.surfair.com/ Zcash → https://z.cash/ Timestamps: 0:00 Is Hugging Face's Microduck the greatest side quest ever? 5:31 Jason puts Clem Delangue and Jensen Huang in charge of AI PR 11:20 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.com/twistdomain 18:55 Top story: Dwarkesh Patel's "The Rise and Fall of Agent Civilizations" 19:22 Why agents act like people: they were trained on us 19:30 CLA - Innovation takes balance. CLA's CPAs, consultants, and wealth advisors can help you get from startup to where you want to end up. Get started now at https://www.claconnect.com/withyou 21:49 "I know good PR when I see it" 23:11 The prompt Jason says OpenAI should have written instead 26:44 The data center backlash and the politicians who will flip 30:07 Rippling - Don't settle for AI that's all talk. Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist to get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business. 33:19 Guest: Anders Forslund, Heart Aerospace, and the X1's first flight 39:40 Turboprops vs. jets and the regional routes America lost 42:33 JSX, Santa Monica Airport, and 5,000 underused airports 44:54 Why Boeing won't build this: the innovator's dilemma 53:14 Guest: John Yu, Bitsec — Bittensor Subnet 60 55:01 How the subnet works: miners, validators, $10K a day 57:17 Bitsec vs. a frontier model: 160+ vulnerabilities to 60 59:37 Was the agent civilization story a pre-IPO PR play? 1:05:10 Sentios.io and continuous coverage 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

  • #2331
    August 28 · 1 hr 48 min

    Breaking down Nvidia's Hugging Face and Poolside bets | E2331

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: DigitalOcean https://do.co/twist Every.io https://every.io PayPal https://paypal.launch.co Today's show: *Nvidia agreed to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, just days after quietly licensing Poolside's coding model for $6 billion+. On TWiST, Jason lays out why this is actually the biggest AI story of the year. Nvidia plans to offer enterprises unmetered, unlimited on-prem compute, pulling them away from reliance on Anthropic and OpenAI's frontier models and products. PLUS we're chatting with Halter founder & CEO Craig Piggott about how his company helps farmers optimize their land use via solar-powered AI-driven cattle collars. AND Hop Aero CEO and co-founder Matija Milenovic shows us Rook, his autonomous hypersonic cargo rocket that can launch from a shipping container and deliver cargo up to 450 miles away in about 15 minutes. Finally, Jason and Lon explain why you never post Slop on the timeline. Guests: Craig Piggott on X: https://x.com/craig_piggott Halter: https://www.halterhq.com/ Matija Milenovic on X: https://x.com/mat_milenovic Hop Aero: https://hopaero.com/ Relevant Links: OpenAI Open Letter: https://openai.com/collective-cyberdefense/ OpenAI Hugging Face report: https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/ OpenAI Jalapeño report: https://openai.com/index/jalapeno-first-results/ Dario Amodei-Gavin Baker tweet thread: https://x.com/DarioAmodei/status/2088758816376807762 TechCrunch: Nvidia-Hugging Face deal: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/26/nvidia-closes-in-on-hugging-face-acquisition/ TechCrunch coverage of Halter: https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/04/unpacking-peter-thiels-big-bet-on-solar-powered-cow-collars/ Dealroom: Sir Peter Back on Rocket Lab: https://app.dealroom.co/news/note/sir-peter-beck-on-rocket-lab-s-no-money-so-we-have-to-think-playbook-from-a-60k-new-zealand-start-up-to-an-end-to-end-space-company WSJ: Druckenmiller op-ed: "Let the Bond Market Speak": https://www.wsj.com/opinion/let-the-bond-market-speak-81529d74 NOTUS: Druckenmiller's WSJ op-ed was written with AI: https://www.notus.org/media/stanley-druckenmillers-wsj-op-ed-bessent-ai WaPo: Wall Street Journal defends Druckenmiller op-ed: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/08/25/wall-street-journal-says-ai-generated-op-ed-didnt-breach-its-standards/ Photon Matrix Laser Mosquito Killer: https://photonmatrixlab.com/ "The Wizard of the Kremlin" trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7ctYp3zQVA "King & Conqueror" trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anS9xQEPTsU "Lanterns" trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UIBOsuUwc4 "Rebel Ridge" trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF3gZicntIw Alpaka Bravo Sling Max 2 bag: https://alpakagear.com/products/bravo-sling-max-v2 No Agenda podcast: https://www.noagendashow.net/ THR: John C. Dvorak obit: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/john-dvorak-dead-tech-journalist-no-agenda-inside-track-1236657317/ Timestamps: 0:00 The 100+ company open letter on cyberdefense 9:48 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%. 16:46 Why some models are "unsafe at any latency" 19:44 Craig Piggott of Halter joins the show 21:03 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io 26:09 How do you add cows to Starlink? 31:26 PayPal - Pay zero processing fees on your first $100K in eligible PayPal payment volume. Learn more at https://paypal.launch.co 47:52 Founder-led hyper-local sales motion 53:15 Remember John C. Dvorak 58:27 Matija Milenovic of Hop Aero joins 59:53 Sending out autonomous swarms in the Indo-Pacific 1:11:26 Nvidia's mega-Hugging Face deal 1:16:32 Nvidia's "unmetered" play against Anthropic and OpenAI 1:29:47 How letting AI write for you is like lip syncing 1:33:44 Laser-guided mosquito defense system 1:36:32 Lon's streaming picks 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

Showing 1–20 of 29 episodes