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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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  • 42 episodes
  • Avg 1 hr 6 min
  • English

Episodes 42

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  • #2302
    June 18 · 1 hr 41 min

    Why SpaceX Buying Cursor Changes Everything

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Deel - deel.com/twist LinkedIn - linkedIn.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent - northwestregisteredagent.com/twistPlaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: Anthropic stabbed Cursor in the back. Then SpaceX swooped in with $60 billion. Today, TWiST connects the dots on the biggest deal in AI since the Microsoft-OpenAI partnership, and why it's a warning sign for every startup building on top of a frontier model. Jason is joined by Bling Capital's Ben Ling, Banana Capital's Turner Novak, and co-host Alex to go deep on the future of coding models, the current golden age of venture liquidity, OpenAI's financials, and the 'Four Ds' of venture investing. The show closes with a tribute to Josh Baer, the founder of Capital Factory. Guest Links: Ben Ling https://x.com/bling0?lang=en Bling Capital https://www.blingcap.com/ Turner Novak https://x.com/TurnerNovak Banana Capital https://www.bananacapital.vc/ Show Links: Hanover Park https://www.hanoverpark.com/ SpaceX buys Cursor https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/16/spacex-spcx-cursor-acquisition-ipo.html Cursor Composer 2.5 https://cursor.com/blog/composer-2-5 OpenAI financials source https://www.wheresyoured.at/exclusive-openai-financials/ AMD's new deskside data center https://www.amd.com/en/products/processors/desktops/ryzen/ryzen-ai-halo.html Perplexity Model Council https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-model-council Timestamps: 0:00 Guest introductions 1:15 Guest introductions 2:43 SpaceX acquires Cursor for $60B 6:13 The golden era of M&A 9:13 Northwest Registered Agent: Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 12:04 Cursor's negative gross margins & the compute problem 13:22 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 15:04 Rolling your own model: When does it make sense? 19:35 LinkedIn: Thanks to our partners at LinkedIn! Post your job for free at https://linkedIn.com/twist then promote it to get access to LinkedIn Jobs' new AI assistant. 22:53 The "headless product" thesis 28:31 Deel: Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more. 34:22 OpenAI financials leaked: $13B revenue, $38.5B net loss 40:13 Where does AI value accumulate? 45:34 Portfolio Spotlight: Hanover Park 48:37 Seed stage graduation rates have fallen from 50% to 25% 54:59 The four Ds of venture: Deal flow, Decisions, Doubling down, Distributions 1:06:36 How to find 'undiscovered gems' 1:30:59 Snap Specs AR glasses: $2,195, and a bit chunky 1:39:29 Tribute to Joshua Baer, Capital Factory's founder 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 Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm 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

  • #2301
    June 15 · 1 hr 40 min

    The Startup Building the First Hotel on the Moon…

    This Week In Startups is made possible by: Every.io - visit every.io Sentry.io - sentry.io/twist Vanta - vanta.com/twist Today's show: The next SpaceX won't be building rockets; it'll build the first hotel on the Moon. Today on TWiST, GRU Space founder Skyler Chan brings a brick made from lunar soil into the studio and lays out a plan to manufacture on the Moon as early as next year. We get into the science, the business model, and the regulatory land-grab ahead! Then, the US government forces Anthropic to pull Fable 5 and Mythos 5. Jason and Lon unpack what it means when a single AI model can vanish overnight, and the US government's emergency order. Stick around for the winner (or winners?!) of the $5,000 AI podcast-companion bounty! Timestamps: 0:00 Knicks playoff run, San Antonio & Texas BBQ (Black's vs. Terry Black's) 8:23 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 9:52 Guest intro: Skyler Chan, GRU Space — and the lunar-soil brick 10:29 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io 12:14 Why the next SpaceX builds habitats, not rockets 15:18 NASA's $20B moon-base signal & the TRL contracting path 16:13 Business model: from construction contractor to owning lunar land 18:06 Building the hotel robotically + $1M refundable deposits 20:00 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 31:09 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist 39:28 News: US government blocks Anthropic's Fable 5 & Mythos 5 41:34 The politics: Hegseth, Sacks, Jassy & the "conspiracy" angle 1:09:39 Why no single model dependency is safe (multi-model harnesses) 1:18:47 Bounty results: MySidecast wins $3,000 1:19:07 Honorable mentions: Couchverse (Lemon Slice) & Convalenz 1:29:44 Next bounty: the Annotated app 🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned: Guest & company Skyler Chan: Founder, GRU Space → https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/galactic-resource-utilization-space-inc-gru-space GRU Space (Galactic Resource Utilization): YC startup building lunar-regolith bricks and a robotic Moon hotel → https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/galactic-resource-utilization-space-inc-gru-space GRU Space lunar hotel bookings → https://payloadspace.com/gru-space-opens-bookings-for-planned-lunar-hotel/ 🎙️ About the Guest: Skyler Chan is the founder of GRU Space (Galactic Resource Utilization), a Y Combinator–backed startup developing a payload factory that manufactures bricks from lunar regolith to build the first robotic hotel on the Moon. Follow GRU Space → https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/galactic-resource-utilization-space-inc-gru-space 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 Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm 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 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 41–42 of 42 episodes