This Week in Startups
- Episodios
- 587
- Se publica
- varias veces por semana
- Último episodio
- 13 Nov 2026
Sobre el podcast
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.
Episodios 587
Jason: Jensen Huang will be back at Nvidia within 12 months | E2363
This Week In Startups is made possible by: PayPal: https://paypal.com/business G2i: https://g2i.co/twist Deel: https://deel.com/twist Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Today’s show: Jensen Huang is out at Nvidia …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
PayPal: https://paypal.com/business
G2i: https://g2i.co/twist
Deel: https://deel.com/twist
Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist
Today’s show:
Jensen Huang is out at Nvidia, the company he founded and ran for three decades, but Jason has a prediction: he’ll be back in 12 months. If Sam Altman and Steve Jobs can return, then Jason says, so can Jenson.
On this Friday news show, Jason and Lon break down the Nvidia board’s decision to push out Huang, the WSJ report that he called his replacement “a deer in the headlights,” and the congressional investigations that are surely on the way. Jason asks why this story is breaking right now, so quickly after the midterm elections, and who stands to benefit from Huang’s ouster.
PLUS: Hubspot’s bringing back Brian Halligan to “re-found” the company. What does this mean, and why does it seem to be such a successful strategy?
Then we’re answering the X question of the day, considering the SpaceX-Tesla merger rumors, fiending for a Salt Hank’s French Dip sandwich, and wondering if “GTA VI” will be the last video game sequel to require 8 years of development.
Relevant Links
X Question of the Day: From @verifact: did $1B of Megaspeed's Nvidia chips reach China?: https://x.com/verifact
Nvidia's Jensen Huang resigns; CFO Colette Kress named interim CEO (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2026/11/11/nvidia-oust-jensen-huang-spy-affairs/
Who is Colette Kress? (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/12/jensen-huang-is-out-at-nvidia-who-is-colette-kress-his-interim-replacement/
Bessent points the finger at Commerce over Megaspeed (CNN): https://www.cnn.com/2026/11/13/politics/bessent-lutnick-nvidia-megaspeed-blame
David Sacks on the spy narrative: https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/2121070881258504395
Ken Leung on Industry (The Daily Beast): https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/industry-star-ken-leung-on-hbos-most-underrated-masterpiece
Hillary Clinton co-hosts with Kara Swisher (Pivot): https://podcasts.happyscribe.com/pivot/michigan-s-primary-drama-the-doj-s-next-boss-and-hillary-clinton-co-hosts [swap for official Pivot link]
Kelly Clarkson's feud with Brooklyn shop Art of Play (The Daily Beast): https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/why-kelly-clarkson-and-a-15000-bird-broke-the-internet
HubSpot: Brian Halligan returns as CEO to lead a refounding (HubSpot) → https://www.hubspot.com/company-news/leadership-transition
Refounding Ro to $3B+ Run Rate (Zach Reitano): https://x.com/ZReitano/status/2120502035455811893
Megan Fox fronts the Ro Sparks campaign (Adweek): https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/megan-fox-is-the-ed-treatment-in-new-ro-sparks-campaign/
Matt Shumer's AI-built GTA-style New York (Digg): https://digg.com/gaming/2iodwuom
Salt Hank's sells to Wonder (Willkie): https://www.willkie.com/news/2026/08/willkie-advises-salt-hanks-on-sale-to-wonder
The Altruists: cast and release date (Netflix Tudum): https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-altruists-cast-release-date-news
House Gem coffee mug warmer: amazon.com/House-Gem-Mug-Warmer-Temperature/dp/B0CCP46DK9
Timestamps:
0:00 Jensen Huang fallout continues
7:27 Casting the Jensen miniseries
9:15 PayPal: PayPal is built for all businesses. Get started at https://paypal.com/business
12:57 Jason on the podcast “Super-Team” format
19:11 Tim Cook as Nvidia CEO?
20:17 G2i: G2i has been recruiting software engineers for over a decade. Go to https://g2i.co/twist to find out how G2i vets engineers, and can help you hire them in days, not weeks.
21:18 Plaud (Black Friday): Meet Plaud, your AI-powered work companion that captures meetings and calls and turns them into summaries, key insights, and action items - so you can focus on making decisions and growing your business. BLACK FRIDAY: 20% OFF Plaud devices through November 30! Shop here: https://plaud.ai/twist Use code: TWIST Less time taking notes. More time building. Limited-time offer. Eligible devices only.
22:21 The “Refounding” trend comes to HubSpot
25:57 Not job loss, but static team size
30:11 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.
31:12 Tesla’s lost five years
43:47 The X Question of the Day
48:04 GTA VI vs. a Fable-built Manhattan
49:59 Salt Hank’s French Dip sandwich
52:17 The best true tech shows
58:08 Check out our “Tactical & Practical” Substack
Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:
TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/
TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/
TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow Lon:
Follow Jason:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
Thank you to our partners:
PayPal - PayPal is built for all businesses. Get started at https://paypal.com/business
G2i - G2i has been recruiting software engineers for over a decade. Go to https://g2i.co/twist to find out how G2i vets engineers, and can help you hire them in days, not weeks.
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.
(Plaud - Meet Plaud, your AI-powered work companion that captures meetings and calls and turns them into summaries, key insights, and action items — so you can focus on making decisions and growing your business.
BLACK FRIDAY: 20% OFF Plaud devices through November 30!
Shop here: https://plaud.ai/twist
Use code: TWIST
Less time taking notes. More time building. Limited-time offer. Eligible devices only.
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
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TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com
Running Google’s Gemma on Satlyt’s orbital AI (w/ CEO Rama Afullo)
The TWiST AI Basics series is made possible by Google for Startups! Today’s show: Rama Afullo pitched orbital data centers while working at both Google and SpaceX. At the latter, he was told that the previous …
Notas del episodio
The TWiST AI Basics series is made possible by Google for Startups!
Today’s show:
Rama Afullo pitched orbital data centers while working at both Google and SpaceX. At the latter, he was told that the previous staffers who made the suggestion “are no longer at the company.”
So he left and started Satlyt, designing software that allows satellites from different manufacturers to run AI onboard and pool their compute into an orbital network.
Rama joins Jason Calacanis on a new AI Basics to explain why compute is headed to space, and what has to happen to make an orbital data center as cost-effective as one located firmly on the ground.
The benefits of orbital compute are clear: 24/7 solar power in sun-synchronous orbit, avoiding local opposition to new data center construction, and providing needed compute to any spot on earth within just 90 minutes.
Join us for an exclusive chat with one of the builders actually bringing this sci-fi dream to life. And get an answer to the ongoing debate: if space is so cold, why do chips in orbit still overheat?
Guest
Rama Afullo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rama-afullo
Satlyt: https://satlyt.ai/
Book your software into orbit: https://satlyt.ai/book-orbit
Related Links
SpaceX and Google both said no. Now his software is riding a SpaceX rocket next to Google’s (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/13/satlyt-founded-by-a-former-google-and-spacex-product-manager-raises-8m-to-run-ai-on-satellites/
How Satlyt is building local AI for space with Gemma (DeepMind): https://deepmind.google/models/gemma/gemmaverse/satlyt/
Gemma 3 1B: the small model Satlyt has run in orbit: https://huggingface.co/google/gemma-3-1b-pt
NASA Glenn's High-rate Delay Tolerant Networking (HDTN) software: https://software.nasa.gov/software/LEW-19897-2
Google Project Suncatcher: https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/google-research/google-project-suncatcher-facts/
Planet (Planet Labs): https://www.planet.com/
Starcloud: https://www.starcloud.com/starcloud-1
SpaceX Starship Flight 15: https://www.spacelaunchschedule.com/news/starship-flight-15-launch-date-how-to-watch/ *
Timestamps:
0:00 Rama's origin story
6:08 Why put compute in space?
14:12 Direct-to-cell and the end of classic telco
17:59 Demo: Satlyt's mission operations center
23:08 How will we get our data back from Mars?
27:03 The great overheated chips debate
29:51 Can off-the-shelf hardware survive a launch?
Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:
TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/
TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/
TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow Jason:
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
Founders Are Now Sending VCs a File Written for AI
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Odoo: https://Odoo.com/twist Superhuman: https://superhuman.com/ Stripe: https://stripe.com/startups Athena: https://www.athena.com/jcal Plaud: https://Plaud.ai/twist …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Odoo: https://Odoo.com/twist
Superhuman: https://superhuman.com/
Stripe: https://stripe.com/startups
Athena: https://www.athena.com/jcal
Plaud: https://Plaud.ai/twist
Today’s show:
Lerer Hippeau managing partner Ben Lerer predicts that venture funds under $500M will raise less money this year than in any other year this past decade. LPs are piling into megafund platforms, while family offices skip commitments for SPVs. For everyone in between, he says, “the middle is cooked.”
On a new TWiST VC roundtable, Lerer joins Jason Calacanis, Jenny Fielding (Everywhere Ventures) and D.A. Wallach (Time BioVentures) to discuss Beezer Clarkson’s data, showing that family offices now put 34% of their VC commitments into SPVs.
OpenAI and Anthropic obviously skew those numbers a bit, but nonetheless, family offices increasingly want to “play venture capitalist” in hot late-stage deals.
What about LPs who sit in five or more platform funds? Don’t they now own all the same companies?
Plus D.A. warns about “freelance investment bankers” collecting SPV fees, Jason shares his 2% one-time SPV fee and his fights to protect pro rata, Jenny flags LPs asking managers for allocations in companies their funds don’t own, and lots more insights from our panel of insiders and experts.
Guests
Ben Lerer on X: https://x.com/benjlerer
Lerer Hippeau: https://www.lererhippeau.com/
Jenny Fielding on X: https://x.com/jefielding
Everywhere Ventures: https://www.everywhere.vc/
D.A. Wallach on X: https://x.com/dawallach
Time BioVentures: https://www.timebioventures.com/
Relevant Links
Haseeb Qureshi on founders shipping a company.md with their pitch: https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2120531493613400210
Travis Kalanick's Atoms raises $1.7B (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/22/travis-kalanicks-robotics-company-raises-1-7b-led-by-a16z/
Jelly, Everywhere Ventures' private market intelligence platform (beta waitlist): https://jelly.buildwitheverywhere.com/
Jack Dorsey takes on Slack with Buzz (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/jack-dorsey-is-taking-on-slack-with-buzz-a-group-chat-platform-for-teams-and-their-ai-agents/
Crosby raises a $60M Series B for its AI law firm (Global Legal Post): https://www.globallegalpost.com/news/cooley-backed-contract-review-start-up-crosby-raises-60m-in-fresh-funding-1011864931
Beezer Clarkson's thread: family offices put 34% of VC commitments into SPVs: https://x.com/Beezer232/status/2120231905618432314
Anthropic's IPO roadshow site and video: https://ipo.anthropic.com/us/
Anthropic sets an IPO price range of $70 to $78 per share (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/10/anthropic-sets-ipo-price-range-of-70-to-78-per-share-to-reach-an-implied-valuation-of-1-404-trillion/
Experts push back on Amodei's disease timeline (Moneywise via Yahoo Finance): https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/wildly-off-impossible-anthropics-dario-104000073.html
D.A. Wallach on TBPN: https://x.com/tbpn/status/2118838400539361298
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's GPU cluster to "cure, prevent or manage all diseases" (Engadget): https://www.engadget.com/the-chan-zuckerberg-initiative-is-building-a-massive-gpu-cluster-to-cure-prevent-or-manage-all-diseases-205454041.html
Neuralink: https://neuralink.com
LaunchPoint: https://www.launchpointhq.com
Abliteration.ai is making a business out of removing AI guardrails (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/03/abliteration-ai-is-making-a-business-out-of-removing-ai-guardrails/
Timestamps:
0:00 AI is moving the ground under every startup’s feet
7:52 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!
8:39 Why founders are shipping a company.md with their pitch
10:40 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
12:56 When you disagree with your AI
18:23 The one trait founders can’t game
19:20 Is VC still a profession in the future?
22:02 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://odoo.com/twist
31:40 Stripe - Stripe Startups offers early-stage, venture-backed startups access to Stripe fee credits and more. Apply today on https://stripe.com/startups.
32:49 Distribution, data moats, and enterprise hardening
37:58 The AI law firm that charges for work, not time
47:14 Jason’s late-stage SPV program
52:02 Small funds are shrinking
59:32 Athena - Get $1,500 off your first EA at https://www.athena.com/jcal
1:00:50 Dario’s roadshow video highlights
1:09:25 Checking the panel’s P-Dario scores
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:
Follow 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
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Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com
Can Nvidia Survive the Jensen Huang Spy Scandal? | E2361
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Stripe: https://stripe.com/startups Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Upwork: https://www.upwork.com Plaud …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Stripe: https://stripe.com/startups
Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
Upwork: https://www.upwork.com
Plaud: https://Plaud.ai/twist
Today’s show:
Nvidia’s board is investigating CEO Jensen Huang after he admitted to an affair with Alice Huang (no relation), the leader of Singapore cloud computing and data center interest Megaspeed. US officials now believe that Alice Huang may have been recruited by Chinese intelligence to spy on the Nvidia chief or use him as an asset.
Jason’s take: benching Jensen would be the wrong move, and play precisely into the Chinese government’s hands.
On a Monday all-news special, Jason and Lon dig into the unfolding Nvidia scandal: what it means about Jensen’s past statements regarding Chinese AI, the seemingly intractable chip diversion problem, and whether or not the China hawks were actually right all along on the issue of GPU exports.
Plus: is Sequoia vs. Roelof Botha really happening, or is it just a media narrative? Why Apple CEO John Ternus wants to get more aggressive about using Siri as an agent. And why Jason thinks Democrat will focus more on slowing the spread of self-driving cars and humanoid robots rather than stalling new data centers.
Relevant Links
Nvidia investigates Jensen Huang's relationship with alleged Chinese spy (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/08/nvidia-jensen-huang-investigation-china-spy.html
What is Megaspeed? The Nvidia chip buyer at the center of the story (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/09/megaspeed-nvidia-jensen-huang-alice-huang.html
What the Nvidia board's probe could look at (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2026/11/09/nvidia-board-probe-jensen-huang-affair-suspected-china-spy-statements/
Shaun Maguire on nation-state kompromat: https://x.com/shaunmmaguire/status/2119582151985574371
Sequoia hits rewind, undoing 20 years of expansion (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/04/sequoia-hits-rewind-undoing-20-years-of-expansion/
FT: Sequoia partners blindsided by Botha's SpaceX board seat (summary): https://mlq.ai/news/sequoia-partners-were-blindsided-when-roelof-botha-joined-spacexs-board-ft-reports/
Ternus presses Federighi to move faster on an agentic Siri (The Next Web, via Bloomberg): https://thenextweb.com/news/ternus-federighi-agentic-siri-apple-ai-bloomberg
Siri chief Mike Rockwell may step down (MacRumors): https://www.macrumors.com/2026/11/09/apple-siri-boss-may-leave/
Introducing Inkling 2 Small (Thinking Machines): https://thinkingmachines.ai/news/inkling-2-small/
Thinking Machines nears a $5B round at a $40B valuation (Dealroom): https://dealroom.co/news/170334-thinking-machines-lab-nears-5b-round-at-40b-valuation-led-by-accel/
Nous Research introduces Arete-27B (X): https://x.com/NousResearch/status/2118822925445050435
Trump says deportations were "too tough" and hurt him in the midterms (NBC News): https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-says-deportations-tough-hurt-midterms-rcna608208
Democratic wave has the robotaxi industry sweating (Axios): https://www.axios.com/2026/11/05/democrat-election-robotaxi-industry
Musk bet big on keeping Texas red. What now for his companies? (CNN): https://www.cnn.com/2026/11/05/business/musk-texas-donations-midterms-spacex-tesla
ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (ARKQ): https://www.ark-funds.com/funds/arkq
Tesla to wind down Cybertruck production to make room for Cybercab (Fox Business): https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/tesla-wind-down-cybertruck-production-texas-factory-next-year-make-room-cybercab
Bring a Trailer: https://bringatrailer.com
Peterson Automotive Museum: https://www.petersen.org
Julian Wasser's 1968 photo of Joan Didion with her Corvette Stingray (Danziger Gallery): https://danzigergallery.com/exhibitions/julian-wasser-joan-didion
Dueling proofs from OpenAI and Anthropic astound scientists (Scientific American): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dueling-proofs-from-openai-and-anthropic-astound-scientists/
Timestamps:
0:00 Jason's in his Jay Gatsby era
2:05 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!
3:22 How much damage does this scandal do to Nvidia?
5:57 Corporate espionage and Shaun Maguire's thread
10:49 Stripe - Stripe Startups offers early-stage, venture-backed startups access to Stripe fee credits and more. Apply today on https://stripe.com/startups.
15:20 Winning the superintelligence race
17:43 Time to buy the Nvidia dip? (Not investment advice)
22:55 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
23:44 Sequoia closes London office, but why?
27:45 Why Roelof's SpaceX board seat matters.
32:12 GoDaddy - GoDaddy helps founders seek out the perfect domain and will work through brokers if the name you want is already owned by someone else. Find out more at https://GoDaddy.com.
34:16 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.
38:04 Apple CEO wants Siri to get more agentic
42:05 Lon got a new iMac!
45:45 Upwork - Upwork helps businesses find highly skilled freelance professionals for specialized work. Post your job for free at https://www.upwork.com
46:56 New models from Thinking Machines + Nous
52:10 Local first, then on the cloud: how agent should run
57:00 Gov. Gina Hinojosa and robotaxi rules
1:01:40 Where to put the new data centers
1:16:08 Refusing the "exponential time hypothesis"
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:
Follow 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
Did the Midterms Destroy All Hope for Data Centers? | E2360
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Odoo: https://Odoo.com/twist Sentry: https://sentry.io/twist Stripe: https://stripe.com/startups Plaud: https://Plaud.ai/twist Today’s show: Democrats swept the …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Odoo: https://Odoo.com/twist
Sentry: https://sentry.io/twist
Stripe: https://stripe.com/startups
Plaud: https://Plaud.ai/twist
Today’s show:
Democrats swept the midterms, and a lot of their candidates ran explicitly against AI data centers. Then on Thursday, the Nasdaq fell 5%. But fear not: Jason says the panic is overblown. Back in August, he predicted that the anti-data center rhetoric on the campaign trail would transform into cutting a deal once the voters were counted.
On TWiST, Jason and Lon discuss the route to compromise that could define the next year of AI discourse. Find out why Jason still gives President Trump an A+ on AI, even as he lost touch with the country’s mood on other issues.
Plus we’re checking out some highlights from the archive, as the show followed the decline of Trump 2.0 in real time, and Jason explains his simple method for staying informed and in touch with everyday reality. (Talk to lots of different people!)
Plus: OpenAI’s post-election pledge, Anthropic’s first content licensing deal, Apple cuts engineer AI budgets, Lon’s latest This Week in AI demo, and the guys get mega-hyped for “Godzilla Minus Zero.”
Relevant Links
Voters rebuff data centers in every ballot measure except one (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/04/data-center-ballot-measures-2026-midterm.html
Hinojosa's call for a data center moratorium until the legislature acts (campaign): https://ginafortexas.com/2026/07/new-hinojosa-calls-on-greg-abbott-to-put-moratorium-on-data-centers-until-a-legislative-session-that-puts-texans-first/
Talarico defeats Ken Paxton (Texas Tribune): https://www.texastribune.org/2026/11/03/texas-ken-paxton-james-talarico-us-senate-elections-2026/
Microsoft pulls out of its UK data center deal with Nscale (Computing): https://computing.co.uk/news/2026/ai/microsoft-exits-nscale-deal-ipo-at-risk
Gavin Baker on TX data center rules: https://x.com/GavinSBaker/status/2118420042283102604
California's billionaire tax (Prop 40) goes down (Bloomberg): https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-11-05/california-voters-poised-to-reject-first-ever-billionaire-tax
TWiST E2113 w/ Steven Borrelli of Cuts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qxDoJvzSiY
TWiST E2332 w/ Jason’s data center prediction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojSmG6xHCdI
OpenAI pledges to pay for its data centers' power and halt NDAs (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/05/openai-to-pay-for-data-center-power-after-election-shows-ai-concern.html
Anthropic strikes its first licensing deal, with the AP, for election coverage (Adweek): https://www.adweek.com/media/anthropic-licensing-deal-ap-election/
The New York Times v. OpenAI discovery fight (Bloomberg Law): https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/new-york-times-wants-access-to-top-openai-executives-documents
Apple's first touchscreen MacBook Pro, from $2,899 (Tom's Guide): https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/macbooks/apple-reveals-oled-touchscreen-macbook-pro
Lon’s Plaud demo post: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/p/record-your-ideas-with-plaud-then
Plaud MCP for ChatGPT and Claude: https://in.plaud.ai/blogs/news/plaud-mcp-for-chatgpt-and-claude
Terry Black's Barbecue: https://terryblacksbbq.com
P. Terry's: https://www.pterrys.com
Torchy's Tacos: https://torchystacos.com
Velvet Taco: https://www.velvettaco.com
”Godzilla Minus Zero” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu0pH5BuCPM
“Hope” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYRc2Gl7geY
“Dark Matter” Season 2 trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhB6_1UbR7s
“House of the Dragon” Season 3 trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JlMjgqduVw
Timestamps:
0:00 Jason’s initial take on the Blue Wave 6:40 The data center pause was about appeasing voters 10:55 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist 11:56 Corruption, Iran, and the cost of living brought down Republicans 16:18 How the Cuts CEO shifted Jason’s tariff take 21:12 Sentry - New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST26 29:06 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! 29:15 Lon’s Plaud Agent demo 33:40 Stripe - Stripe Startups offers early-stage, venture-backed startups access to Stripe fee credits and more. Apply today on https://stripe.com/startups. 34:48 Leadership is repetition 40:19 Why AI labs should revenue share with publishers 50:16 Pricing out the new touchscreen MacBook Pro 56:46 Income taxes, capital gains, and margin loans 1:01:17 Godzilla returns in “Minus Zero”
Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:
TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/
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Why a Do-Nothing Congress could be great for markets | E2359
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Every: https://every.io/ Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/twist G2i: https://g2i.co/twist Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Fintrx: https://www.fintrx.com/ Today’s show …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Every: https://every.io/
Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/twist
G2i: https://g2i.co/twist
Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist
Fintrx: https://www.fintrx.com/
Today’s show:
Democrats took the House and Senate, and overnight trading suggested a huge market drop. But in the morning, the markets went another way, and D.A. Wallach thinks he knows why. A Congress that can’t get anything done can’t do anything BAD, like start a war or a tariff fight. The only thing markets hate than gridlock is uncertainty.
On the first post-midterm This Week in VC roundtable, Jason is joined by Wallach (Time BioVentures), Elana Gold (Two Roads Capital), and Tomasz Tunguz (Theory Ventures).
Together, they work out what a split government could mean for tech and venture. Data centers are now a political target for both parties. 2027 might be the last major window for big M&A. Plus, D.A. worries that an intergenerational war could be brewing, between the people who own AI’s upside, and the young workers who fear getting replaced.
Plus thoughts on Cava’s 22% layoffs, Sequoia shutting down its Scouts and Arc program, the SPV “boiler room,” and more.
Guests
D.A. Wallach on X: https://x.com/dawallach
Time BioVentures: https://www.timebioventures.com/
Elana Gold on X: https://x.com/ItsElanaGold
Two Roads Capital: https://tworoads.vc/
Tomasz Tunguz on X: https://x.com/ttunguz
Theory Ventures: https://theoryvc.com/
Relevant Links:
NBC exit poll: 56% say AI and data centers were a crucial or major factor (DCD): https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/nbc-exit-poll-56-say-ai-data-centers-were-a-crucial-or-major-factor-in-congressional-vote-decision/
How AI backlash shaped the 2026 midterms (TIME): https://time.com/article/2026/11/04/midterm-elections-results-ai-industry-data-centers/
Musk on chips outrunning electricity in 2026, with Elon's reply: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2117649850644705591
Panthalassa raises $140M for wave-powered AI compute at sea (Tom's Hardware): https://tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/palantir-co-founder-peter-thiel-backs-usd140m-wave-powered-ai-data-center-startup-panthalassa-aims-to-run-offshore-compute-nodes-using-ocean-energy
Marvell to buy Lumentum in a $115B deal (The Next Web): https://thenextweb.com/news/marvell-lumentum-acquisition-115bn-all-stock
San Francisco mourns bodega cat killed by a Waymo (CBS SF): https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/sf-mission-district-mourns-store-cat-killed-by-waymo
Meta launches $115M program to train workers for data center jobs (Axios): https://www.axios.com/2026/06/08/meta-data-center-workforce-academy-job-guarantee
Keep track of the value you're getting from AI (TWiST): https://twistartups.substack.com/p/keep-track-of-the-value-youre-getting-da4
Meta's Muse hits 10.9M downloads (Yahoo Finance): https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/metas-muse-ai-agent-hits-109-million-downloads-as-chatgpt-slides-25-153532560.html
Curbie (Revere Robotics): https://www.revererobotics.com/
Canva lays off over 1,200 people amid slowing growth (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/04/canva-lays-off-over-1200-people-amid-slowing-growth/
Ollama raises $65M as it nears 9M developers (Startup Fortune): https://startupfortune.com/ollama-raises-65-million-as-it-grows-to-nearly-9-million-developers/
Sequoia hits rewind, undoing 20 years of expansion (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/04/sequoia-hits-rewind-undoing-20-years-of-expansion/
"The Sequoia of Tomorrow" (Sequoia): https://x.com/sequoia/status/2117961312143855764
Travis Kalanick's Atoms raises $1.7B (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/22/travis-kalanicks-robotics-company-raises-1-7b-led-by-a16z/
Vast: https://www.vastspace.com
SEC accredited investor exam could expand private-market access (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/01/sec-accredited-investor-exam-private-markets.html
General Compute raises a $100M Series A (DCD): https://datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/neocloud-general-compute-raises-100m-in-series-a-funding-round
Hyperliquid CEO Jeff Yan on democratizing pre-IPO access (Motley Fool): https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/10/19/hyperliquid-ceo-jeff-yan-says-perpetual-futures-ma/
Kalshi Perps: https://kalshi.com/perps
Aalo Atomics: https://www.aalo.com
Exowatt: https://www.exowatt.com
Timestamps:
0:00 The Blue Wave: Dems take Congress
0:10 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!
6:42 What a split gov’t means for defense tech
9:21 Is 2027 the last big window for tech M&A?
11:04 Every.io: For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io.
13:44 Are anti-robotaxi laws coming?
18:51 The need for positive AI stories
24:12 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist
25:59 How AI can make voters smarter
31:22 Self-driving and the future of car insurance
40:17 G2i has been recruiting software engineers for over a decade. Go to https://g2i.co/twist to find out how G2i vets engineers, and can help you hire them in days, not weeks.
45:00 Jason’s $12K Mac Studio
50:12 Sequoia retires its Scouts and Arc programs
58:21 Jason’s barbell: Zipline, Atoms, and Vast
1:01:19 When VC firms go public
1:08:42 Scrap the accredited investor rule
1:14:26 Hyperliquid and permissionless synthetic markets
1:17:17 Kalshi perps and Anthropic price discovery
Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:
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Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
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Odyssey CEO Oliver Cameron is 90% sure we live in a simulation | E2358
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Paper: https://getpaper.ai/twist G2i: https://G2i.co/twist Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Plaud …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Paper: https://getpaper.ai/twist
G2i: https://G2i.co/twist
Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
Plaud: https://Plaud.ai/twist
Today’s show:
Odyssey co-founder and CEO Oliver Cameron builds simulated worlds for a living, so we asked him the obvious question: are we all living in one, right now? He says he’s 90% certain that, yes, we are.
To help make the case (and show off their world model technology), Oliver’s team dropped a simulated fruit fly brain into an AI world, that’s being rendered and created in real time. So far, on X, 6.2 million people have watched the virtual fly navigate an imaginary world.
On TWiST, we’re digging into how world models learn about physics, gravity, and causality just by watching videos, what make Odyssey-3 an ideal trainig ground for AI agents, and why a world model only renders the parts of the world that are currently being experienced.
It’s a peek inside the technology that may, one day, allow us to enslave people in The Matrix and turn them into batteries. Or train self-driving cars more effectively! One of those.
Plus: SpaceX throttles Grok Bot over unsustainably high costs, but Jason says it’s worth every penny. And will OpenAI’s suggested name change from data centers to “compute campuses,” and Meta’s efforts to improve El Paso, help turn around American attitudes? Or is blasting them into space the only remaining viable option?
Guest
Oliver Cameron on X: https://x.com/olivercameron
Odyssey: https://odyssey.systems/
Relevant Links
The fruit fly brain flying inside Odyssey-3 (6.2M views): https://x.com/odysseyml/status/2111589148146749616
Meet Odyssey-3, Odyssey's foundation world model: https://odyssey.systems/meet-odyssey-3
FlyWire: https://flywire.ai/
Nick Bostrom, "Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?”: https://simulation-argument.com/simulation.pdf
Do we live in a simulation? Chances are about 50-50 (Scientific American): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-we-live-in-a-simulation-chances-are-about-50-50/
"Beyond Perception: Proposing Our Reality as an ASI Alignment Simulation" (Ali Eslami, IPI Letters): https://ipipublishing.org/index.php/ipil/article/view/350
The double-slit experiment explained (Royal Institution, Jim Al-Khalili): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9tKncAdlHQ
“A Glitch in the Matrix” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au8eT79WUJ0
Elon Musk throttles Grok Bot limits over "unsustainably high" costs (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/02/elon-musk-throttles-grok-bot-limits-due-to-unsustainably-high-costs/
Elon's post: "The cost of serving Grok Bot was unsustainably high relative to revenue”: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2116992258520064397
Jason's post: "< $40k a year on tokens… getting $2m+ in value": https://x.com/Jason/status/2117126320962351277
Grok Bot: https://x.ai/bot
Plaud Web: https://web.plaud.ai
Founder University Japan: https://japan.founder.university/
Most Americans say AI is bad for society and oppose more data centers (ABC/WaPo/Ipsos): https://abc7ny.com/story/most-americans-say-ai-is-bad-society-oppose-more-data-centers-abcpostipsos-poll/19964027/
Chris Lehane's memo: AI will be the issue in 2028 (TNW): https://thenextweb.com/news/chris-lehane-memo-openai-2028-ai-election
Meta touts El Paso water and grid pledges as council weighs incentives (KFOX): https://kfoxtv.com/news/local/meta-touts-10b-el-paso-data-center-water-and-grid-pledges-as-council-weighs-incentives
UT Austin's Texas Advance Commitment (free tuition under $100K): https://admissions.utexas.edu/cost-aid/financial-aid/texas-advance-commitment/
Andrej Karpathy's HackerTube post: https://x.com/karpathy/status/2116957135661945283
Jason's "Unsponsored" Chrome extension for Amazon: https://x.com/Jason/status/2116380861167714594
Google's first data center satellite is online and writing poetry (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/30/googles-first-data-center-satellite-is-online-and-writing-poetry/
What is low Earth orbit? (Universe Today): https://www.universetoday.com/articles/what-is-low-earth-orbit
Timestamps:
0:00 Grok Bot users are at their limit
3:36 How Jason and LAUNCH get $2M+ in value out of AI
5:46 Jason’s Grok-made jacket lookbook
10:35 Paper is the legal backbone for thousands of startup founders and fund managers - including Jason. Use https://getpaper.ai/twist to get your cap table free for a year - or two years if you're leaving Carta.
14:12 Everything changed in AI over the last 90 days
20:41 G2i has been recruiting software engineers for over a decade. Go to https://g2i.co/twist to find out how G2i vets engineers, and can help you hire them in days, not weeks.
22:06 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!
22:37 Wiring our Plaud into our Grok Bot
23:24 Odyssey’s fruit fly video zooms to 6.2M views
27:32 All About Simulation Theory
34:34 Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
38:33 What is the double slit experiment?
40:47 How to teach a robot about physics
50:01 OpenAI’s plan to make Americans love data centers
56:53 Meta’s El Paso data center pitch
1:02:26 AI companies should overfund local schools
1:06:27 Karpathy’s HackerTube project
1:13:02 Google’s first space data center goes online
1:17:51 How much room is there in low Earth orbit?
Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:
TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/
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Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow Lon:
Follow Jason:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
Thank you to our partners:
Paper is the legal backbone for thousands of startup founders and fund managers - including Jason. Use https://getpaper.ai/twist to get your cap table free for a year - or two years if you're leaving Carta.
G2i has been recruiting software engineers for over a decade. Go to G2i.co/twist to find out how G2i vets engineers, and can help you hire them in days, not weeks.
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
Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/
Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
Follow TWiST:
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Binance Hacked $6.3B Stolen, DoorDash Buys Instacart For $17B, Jake Newfield from Hermetiq, + More!
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Stripe: https://stripe.com/startups Rippling: https://rippling.ai/twist Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Plaud …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Stripe: https://stripe.com/startups
Rippling: https://rippling.ai/twist
Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist
Today’s show:
Binance lost an estimated $6.3 billion in the biggest crypto hack ever, and Jason proposes a radical solution. The entire tech industry should stop shipping new features for one month a year, and do nothing but patch. (Call it No App November?)
On a busy Friday show, Jason and Lon dig into the. Binance breach and look back at Jason’s prescient 2021 warning about leaving your money in crypto exchanges. (He recommends spreading your wealth around various different banks!) Plus, why he’s giving CZ credit for backstopping customer losses out of his own fortune.
Plus, DoorDash’s $17B acquisition of Instacart… Did DoorDash overpay? And is this happening now to avoid the harsher regulatory climate should Democrats regain power in the midterms?
Then we’ve got Hermetiq co-founder and CEO Jake Newfield, who has twice won the LAUNCH Accelerator’s pitch competition. Hear the celebrated two-minute pitch for an AI build engineer, and find out why Jason thinks having a “lighthouse customer” makes such a huge difference.
Finally, we’re awarding the Grand Prize in our $5K bounty competition to create Jason’s Annotated app, and remembering the legendary film and TV actor Sir Patrick Stewart.
Guest
Jake Newfield on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakenewfield/
Hermetiq: https://www.hermetiq.com/
Bazel: https://bazel.build
Apply to the LAUNCH Accelerator: https://www.launch.co/apply
Relevant Links
Binance links the $6.3B theft to a compromised DevOps laptop (BleepingComputer): https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/binance-links-63-billion-crypto-theft-to-compromised-devops-laptop/
The 1978 Lufthansa heist (History.com): https://www.history.com/articles/1978-lufthansa-heist-jfk-henry-hill-goodfellas
Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (KWTX/AP): https://www.kwtx.com/2025/10/23/trump-pardons-binance-founder-changpeng-zhao
CrowdStrike: https://www.crowdstrike.com/en-us/
Palo Alto Networks: https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/
Grant Cardone challenges Jason to $1M Bitcoin bet: https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/grant-cardone-challenges-bitcoin-bear-to-1-million-bet
DoorDash to acquire Instacart for $17B (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/29/doordash-to-acquire-instacart-for-17b/
Economic Liberties calls on the FTC to block the deal: https://www.economicliberties.us/press-release/economic-liberties-calls-on-ftc-to-block-doordash-instacart-merger/
Central Market, H-E-B's upscale banner, expands home delivery (Supermarket News): https://www.supermarketnews.com/foodservice-retail/central-market-expands-curbside-and-home-delivery
People are using AI to make their smart TVs dumb again (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/19/people-are-using-ai-to-make-their-smart-tvs-dumb-again/
TWiST $5K Bounties: https://bounty.thisweekinstartups.com/
Founder University: https://founder.university/
Founder University x Japan: https://japan.founder.university/
Inside.com domain auction: https://inside.com/
Yank Sing: https://yanksing.com/
Cafe du Monde coffee and chicory: https://shop.cafedumonde.com/product/coffee-beignets/cafe-du-monde-coffee-and-chicory
Patrick Stewart, "Star Trek" and "X-Men" actor, dead at 86 (CNN): https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/29/entertainment/patrick-stewart-death
“Time Squared” (Star Trek: TNG S2E13): https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Time_Squared_(episode)
“Green Room” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8XSARX3DQg
“X-Men: Days of Future Past” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK2zYHWDZKo
Timestamps:
0:00 The largest crypto hack or theft in history
5:45 Jason gives CZ credit for backstopping losses
7:34 Jason’s cybersecurity proposals
11:48 Stripe Startups - Stripe Startups offers early-stage, venture-backed startups access to Stripe fee credits and more. Apply today on https://stripe.com/startups.
14:49 DoorDash buys Instacart for $17B
18:48 Is DoorDash overpaying?
24:28 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.
26:26 Vibecoding your smart TV
27:20 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
30:04 Jake Newfield (Hermetiq) gives a perfect pitch
34:13 Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! - Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
37:12 Lead with your lighthouse customer
43:14 The Cafe Du Monde branding lesson
51:10 The Annotated Bounty finals begin
1:04:00 Jason announces the grand prize winner
1:07:34 RIP Sir Patrick Stewart
Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:
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Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow Lon:
Follow Jason:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
Follow TWiST:
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Is AI the new cigarettes? Our VC panel digs into Anthropic’s S-1 | E2356
This Week In Startups is made possible by: PayPal: https://paypal.com/business The Conservation Fund: https://www.conservationfund.org/ Hostinger: https://hostinger.com/twist Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
PayPal: https://paypal.com/business
The Conservation Fund: https://www.conservationfund.org/
Hostinger: https://hostinger.com/twist
Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist
Today’s show:
Anthropic’s S-1 is here, and finally, we can start to develop a real understanding for the AI economy and whether the numbers add up. Anthropic shows an operating profit, a mostly non-cash $80.7 billion loss, and customers spending a shocking 9x what they were spending on intelligence just one year ago.
Is this the greatest business in history? Is AI now as addictive to enterprises as cigarettes once were to impressionable teens?
On this week’s VC Roundtable, Jason Calacanis is joined by D.A. Wallach (Time BioVentures), Dave McClure (Practical Venture Capital), and Ben Black (Akkadian Ventures / Powerlaw Corp.) to seek some answers.
They dig into the numbers, including that wild 900% net revenue retention, and consider how retail investors will consider the convertible-note charge behind their $80B loss. Plus they’ll debate whether Anthropic’s founders are really true believers driven by religious fervor, and if so, whether they’re destined to be out-competed by “rabid capitalists.”
Guests
D.A. Wallach on X: https://x.com/dawallach
Time BioVentures: https://www.timebioventures.com/
Dave McClure on X: https://x.com/davemcclure
Practical Venture Capital: https://practicalvc.com/
Trading Places podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@PracticalVentureCapital
Ben Black on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/benblack
Akkadian Ventures: https://akkadian.vc/
Powerlaw Corp: https://pwrl.com
Relevant Links
Anthropic’s S-1, by the numbers (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2026/10/27/anthropic-s1-ipo-filing-financials-profits/
900% NRR and an $80.7B loss that mostly ins’t (HackerNoon): https://hackernoon.com/anthropics-s-1-shows-163b-in-half-year-revenue-a-900percent-nrr-and-an-807b-loss-that-mostly-isnt
Tickertrends: https://tickertrends.io/
Replit makes OpenAI its default (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/17/replit-is-no-longer-working-with-anthropic-ceo-says/
Dario Amodei warns that rivals’ spending could risk bankruptcy (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2026/02/14/anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-spending-capex-risk-ai-revenue-forecasts-bankruptcy
Machines of Loving Grace (Dario Amodei): https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/machines-of-loving-grace
Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar says AI researchers are taking up smoking (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2026/10/13/palantir-cto-shyam-sankar-ai-researchers-smoking-cigarettes-cure-cancer-artificial-general-intelligence-silicon-valley-mass-psychosis-effective-altruism/
Microsoft offers its first-ever voluntary buyouts (TechSpot): https://www.techspot.com/news/112174-microsoft-offers-voluntary-buyouts-thousands-us-workers-ai.html
Canva ranks among the top consumer AI apps (SmartCompany): https://www.smartcompany.com.au/artificial-intelligence/canva-new-ai-consumer-web-app-ranking-andreesen-horowitz/
SpaceX Q3: Musk says it could rent out its AI compute several times over (Constellation Research): https://www.constellationr.com/insights/news/spacexs-q3-musk-says-it-could-rent-out-its-ai-compute-several-times-over
Jason’s 2026 “Bitcoin is Dead” post: https://x.com/Jason/status/2114956980674605075
Jason to Michael Saylor: "there are better places to invest your money”: https://x.com/Jason/status/2115274438979756346
Timestamps:
0:00 Anthropic files its public S-1
4:58 Anthropic vs. OpenAI revenue run rates
9:20 PayPal is built for all businesses. Get started at https://paypal.com/business
10:02 “The greatest business in the history of capitalism”
11:58 Is intelligence the new tobacco?
18:08 The “meat sack constraint”
20:36 Thanks to our partner, The Conservation Fund! Learn more at https://www.conservationfund.org/
22:13 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
24:32 The Who Has the Most Subscribers Challenge
28:08 Is Apple waiting out the AI race on purpose
30:22 Hostinger: The all-in-one platform for domains, websites, email, and marketing. Go to https://hostinger.com/twist and use the code TWIST for an additional 10% off Black Friday and Cyber Monday
34:19 Is Canva an AI company?
39:08 True Believers who still want to make money
48:21 The $72.4B convertible-note charge, explained
51:03 How long does AI compute stay useful?
58:19 Jason’s monthly “Bitcoin is Dead” post
1:04:41 Alicorns are unicorns with pegasus wings
1:09:58 Subscribe to the TWiST Newsletter!
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Hostinger: The all-in-one platform for domains, websites, email, and marketing. Go to https://hostinger.com/twist and use the code TWIST for an additional 10% off Black Friday and Cyber Monday
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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
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Pregame Your Launch Before Your App Exists (w/ Amanda Bradford) | E2355
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Odoo: https://odoo.com/twist G2i: https://g2i.co/twist Rippling: https://rippling.ai/twist Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Today’s show: Amanda Bradford’s “launch party” …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Odoo: https://odoo.com/twist
G2i: https://g2i.co/twist
Rippling: https://rippling.ai/twist
Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist
Today’s show:
Amanda Bradford’s “launch party” for her dating app The League actually extended for months.
She “pre-gamed” the app’s formal launch with months of mixers, boat parties, and free events, where the only ticket required for admission was having the app on your phone.
By launch day, she had a massive wait list, and still just let in 500 people, who ensure maximum buzz (and FOMO).
At LAUNCH’s first-ever Tactical & Practical live event from San Francisco, Amanda walks the crowd through how she built a vetted, two-sided dating marketplace as a solo founder, eventually getting prominent enough to attract the attention of Match Group. (She sold The League for ~$30 million in 2020.)
Hear exclusive tips you won’t get anywhere else, like how Amanda used a “fake paywall” to gauge willingness to pay for subscriptions, and how to time your rate of expansion into new markets.
Plus, an all-new Flashback segment, featuring Alex and Lon looking back at a classic 2017 interview between Jason and Stripe’s Patrick Collison.
Guests
Amanda Bradford on X: https://x.com/amandabradford
Book a Call with Amanda: https://intro.co/amandabradford
The League: https://www.theleague.com/
Patrick Collison on X: https://x.com/patrickc?lang=en
Stripe: https://stripe.com/
Relevant Links:
The League was called "elitist." Its founder says that was never the case (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/20/founder-of-the-league-on-dating-ambition-and-that-viral-ad-campaign.html
Alex Wilhelm’s Cautious Optimism: https://www.cautiousoptimism.news/
TWiST E723: Patrick Collison (2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-NepiMQGvY
Timestamps:
0:00 Amanda Bradford on building The League
4:30 Hand-reviewing early applications
6:40 Building an MVP with a rented co-founder
8:56 The VIP approach
13:10 Why Amanda only let in 500 people
15:44 The “Heavy Hitter” fake paywall test
16:44 Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://odoo.com/twist
17:46 Why live events are the real unlock
21:35 Controversy as a hook
24:22 Flashback to Patrick Collison in 2017
25:13 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
28:13 Stripe: Then vs. Now
30:53 G2i has been recruiting software engineers for over a decade. Go to https://g2i.co/twist to find out how G2i vets engineers, and can help you hire them in days, not weeks.
32:17 Why did PayPal stay PayPal?
37:50 Problem, not a product
44:33 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.
45:46 The outage nobody noticed
51:00 Why persistence beats pivoting
52:13 What’s left before a Stripe IPO?
Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
Thank you to our partners:
Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist
G2i has been recruiting software engineers for over a decade. Go to G2i.co/twist to find out how G2i vets engineers, and can help you hire them in days, not weeks.
Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.
Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/
OpenAI’s $1.25T Raise, Starlink Mobile & Zuck’s Tax Deal | EP 2354
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud - https://plaud.ai/twist Sentry - https://sentry.io/twist Lightfield - https://lightfield.app Rippling - https://rippling.ai/twist Today’s show: Is OpenAI …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Plaud - https://plaud.ai/twist
Sentry - https://sentry.io/twist
Lightfield - https://lightfield.app
Rippling - https://rippling.ai/twist
Today’s show:
Is OpenAI finally priced correctly? Jason argues that the reported $30 billion raise at a $1.25 trillion valuation is finally “right-sized.” He also says that he’d put money in at that price, while walking through the risks that could still sink the investment.
It’s a Friday all-news episode with Jason and Lon, covering OpenAI’s latest round, SpaceX’s push to become America’s fourth major carrier, Zuck and Meta’s creative move around the proposed California billionaire tax, and some of Lon and Jason’s favorite documentaries.
Plus we’re asking the timely question: who watches the AI watchdogs?
Relevant Links
OpenAI nears up to $30B round at $1.25T valuation, led by UAE investors (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/22/openai-funding-round-uae-investors.html
Anthropic investors eye a $2T IPO (Nasdaq): https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/move-over-spacex-anthropic-targets-2-trillion-valuation
Uber puts all 30,000 employees on ChatGPT Work (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/22/uber-puts-all-30000-employees-on-chatgpt-work/
Telecom stocks fall as SpaceX eyes 80,000 cell sites (Yahoo Finance): https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/telecom-stocks-fall-spacex-eyes-134838815.html
Verizon launches simpler plans and drops activation and upgrade fees (Fox Business): https://foxbusiness.com/markets/verizon-launches-simpler-plans-new-loyalty-program-drops-some-fees
Amazon Leo's launch slips past early 2026 (ITdaily): https://itdaily.com/news/network/amazon-leo-faces-delays/
METR and Redwood Research's write-up on red-teaming OpenAI's agent monitoring: https://metr.org/blog/2026-10-22-red-teaming-openai-agent-monitoring/
Open Philanthropy is now Coefficient Giving: https://coefficientgiving.org/research/the-story-behind-our-new-name/
Court documents show the alleged FSU shooter's ChatGPT chats (AOL): https://www.aol.com/news/court-documents-show-florida-state-233829466.html
Meta's 8-K filing on the Founder Alignment Agreement (SEC): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001326801/000162828026066700/meta-20261019.htm
Polymarket: will California's billionaire tax pass?: https://polymarket.com/event/billionaire-one-time-wealth-tax-passes-in-california-election-2026
Mark Cuban vs. Ro Khanna on the billionaire tax (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2026/08/17/mark-cuban-california-billionaires-tax-wealth-ro-khanna/
Elizabeth Holmes: The Theranos Deception (60 Minutes archive): https://cbsnews.com/video/elizabeth-holmes-the-theranos-deception-60-minutes-archive
“The Act of Killing” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3FcB1UZHlg
“Grizzly Man” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWA7GtDmNFU
“Hoop Dreams” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf9Nq2ju0t0
“The King of Kong” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5XvArGGIzk
“A Short Stay in Hell” by Steven L. Peck: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0983748446
“The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges [PDF]: https://sites.evergreen.edu/politicalshakespeares/wp-content/uploads/sites/226/2015/12/Borges-The-Library-of-Babel.pdf
“The Eureka Machine” by Richard Socher: https://www.amazon.com/dp/154170570X
Timestamps:
0:00 Jason’s in SF with the LAUNCH Accelerator 37 cohort
2:40 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
6:34 Tactical & Practical talks live at Salesforce Tower
10:21 Using Claude for brainstorming, not writing
19:26 Sentry - New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST26
20:42 OpenAI closing $30B at a $1.25T valuation
26:04 Why OpenAI could still lose
30:25 Would you put 30% of your retirement into OpenAI?
32:34 Lightfield - Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you - it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app
34:27 Every Tesla becomes a Starlink hotspot
43:06 What would be the ultimate SpaceX domain name?
45:00 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.
46:10 Is METR a fair watchdog for OpenAI?
54:03 Jason’s “Know Your Customer” plan for AI models
1:03:34 Meta’s deal to keep Zuckerberg in Cali
1:14:35 Why Jason would raise the minimum wage
1:18:42 Does Nathan Fielder give Liz Holmes a pass?
1:30:59 “A Short Stay in Hell” and “The Eureka Machine”
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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
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We asked 3 VCs: would you invest in Elizabeth Holmes’ next startup? | E2353
This Week In Startups is made possible by: DigitalOcean - Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today — and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50% Odoo: The all-in-one …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
DigitalOcean - Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today — and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%
Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://odoo.com/twist
Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.
Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
Today’s show:
Elizabeth Holmes remains in prison for defrauding Theranos investors, even as she stars in the hit Nathan Fielder/Lance Oppenheim documentary “You Can See Everything.” But we’re asking the real question: After all the very public accusations… the hit pieces in the press and the Hulu drama series picking apart the scandal… would tech investors and VCs be willing to back her NEXT startup, if the numbers were right?
On today’s TWiST roundtable, Jason Calacanis is joined by Sam Lessin (Slow Ventures), Paige Finn Doherty (Behind Genius Ventures), and Jenny Fielding (Everywhere Ventures). In addition to reviews of the movie tech insiders can’t stop talking about, they cover why every seed portfolio needs a little bit of fraud, how diligence scales with check size, having trademark rights to your own voice, and the pro rata rights debate that’s still raging over Valar Atomics’ lawsuit with seed investors Day One Ventures.
Guests
Sam Lessin on X: https://x.com/lessin
Slow Ventures: https://slow.co/
Paige Finn Doherty on X: https://x.com/paigefinnn
Behind Genius Ventures: https://www.behindgeniusventures.com/
Jenny Fielding on X: https://x.com/jefielding
Everywhere Ventures: https://www.everywhere.vc/
Relevant Links
OpenSnow: https://opensnow.com/
“You Can See Everything” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvW_N5p1q44
HBO Max “The Rehearsal” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fjPFt8cpic
Elizabeth Holmes moves to halfway house in 2027 (ABC7): https://abc7.com/story/elizabeth-holmes-scheduled-move-halfway-house-august-2027/19862832/
Billy Evans’ blood-testing startup Haemanthus (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/10/elizabeth-holmes-partner-reportedly-fundraising-for-new-blood-testing-startup/
Polymarket: Oscars 2027 Best Picture: https://polymarket.com/event/oscars-2027-best-picture-winner-20260727173620857
Kalshi: Oscars 2027 Best Documentary: https://kalshi.com/markets/kxoscardocu/event/kxoscardocu-27
Charlie Javice sentenced to 7 years (NBC News): https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/charlie-javice-sentenced-7-years-prison-fraudulent-175m-sale-financial-rcna234536
Trump pardons Nikola founder Trevor Milton (Axios): https://www.axios.com/2025/03/28/trump-pardons-nikola-founder-trevor-milton
Sequoia writes its FTX stake down to zero (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2022/11/10/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-sequoia-writes-down-214-million-investment-to-zero-venture-capital-crypto
Who lost money on Theranos? (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2018/05/04/theranos-investment-lost
“Barbarians at the Gate” on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Barbarians-Gate-Fall-RJR-Nabisco/dp/B08YP9MDHX
a16z backs Adam Neumann’s Flow (Commercial Observer): https://commercialobserver.com/2022/08/adam-neumann-350m-backing-andreessen-horowitz/
Martin Shkreli lifetime pharma ban (FTC): https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/01/statement-chair-lina-m-khan-ruling-judge-denise-l-cote-federal-trade-commission-et-al-v-vyera
Isaia Taylor post announcing Valar suit: https://x.com/isaiah_p_taylor/status/2108679133467414855
Day One Ventures response: https://x.com/mashadrokova/status/2108732979191390528
ElevenLabs Iconic Marketplace: https://elevenlabs.io/iconic-marketplace
Apple Corps vs. Apple Computer, a history (MacTech): https://www.mactech.com/2004/04/09/a-history-of-the-apple-vs-apple-dispute
Cameo for Business: https://www.cameo.com/business
Nox Metals: https://noxmetals.co
Electric Plant Company: https://www.electricplant.co/
Ablieration: https://abliteration.ai/
Timestamps:
0:00 Our new “This Week in VC” newsletter
2:15 Panel intro: Sam Lessin, Paige Doherty, Jenny Fielding
8:09 Why gambling loses appeal for VCs
11:02 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
16:18 DigitalOcean - Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today - and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%
17:35 Best moments from “You Can See Everything”
21:42 Unreliable narrators and unknowable situations
24:41 Living in a post-truth moment
30:02 Due diligence horror stories
32:45 Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://odoo.com/twist
34:50 The VCs remember their fraud investments
38:39 How LAUNCH trains founders to prep for diligence
44:31 How Elizabeth Holmes kept raising money
54:54 Would you invest in an Elizabeth Holmes company?
57:27 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.
1:02:28 Why seed funds need pro rata rights
1:09:02 When “founder friendly” means rolling over
1:16:25 The three investor relationships: team, founders, LPs
1:21:02 ElevenLabs “Archer” voice controversy
1:27:16 How NIL deals reshaped college sports
1:33:54 Cameo for Business and long-tail celeb endorsements
1:35:51 Portfolio company shoutouts
Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:
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Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow Lon:
Follow 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:
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Anthropic Gives Away 5% of Its Shares, Clone’s Muscle Robot, ElevenLabs Steals Podcaster's Voice
This Week In Startups is made possible by:Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twistNorthwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomainVanta: https://www.vanta.com/twistRippling …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist
Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/twist
Rippling: https://rippling.ai/twist
Today’s show:
Jason can’t stop praising Nathan Fielder’s new A24 hybrid documentary about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, “You Can See Everything,” and he’s insisting that Lon check it out before the next podcast. Hear his spoiler-free review, how the film upended his expectations based on Fielder’s previous work, and why Lon also recommends Lance Oppenheim’s HBO Max series “Ren Faire.”
Plus, we’re talking to Clone Robotics co-founder and CEO Dhanush Radhakrishnan about why he thinks robots should not just be humanoid but should look and move precisely like humans. We’re digging deep into how his hydraulic myofiber artificial muscle technology alters and even improves on the pulley-based systems being deployed by competitors, why he thinks the models that power domestic helper-bots will be commoditized, and how quickly he thinks he can put a robo-butler in every American home.
Plus we’re comparing the potential impact of Anthropic’s new Public Benefit Fund vs. Elon Musk’s plan to give every baby a share of SpaceX, and re-considering simulation theory after Odyssey dropped an artificial fruit fly brain into an artificial landscape.
Guest
Dhanush Radhakrishnan on X: https://x.com/dhanushisrad
Clone Robotics: https://clonerobotics.com/
Related Links
“You Can See Everything” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvW_N5p1q44
“You Can See Everything” on Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/you_can_see_everything
John Carreyrou’s Theranos investigation (Wall Street Journal): https://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-has-struggled-with-blood-tests-1444881901
“Ren Faire” HBO Max trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHZUVTrrexE
“Nathan for You”: Smokers Allowed clip (Comedy Central): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HttB2fYAm-8
Anthropic: Investing in the Public Benefit: https://www.anthropic.com/news/public-benefit-fund
Elon Musk SpaceX pledge: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2112089556615123114
Dell’s $6.25B Invest America commitment: https://www.onedell.com/investamerica/
Odyssey Fly Simulation X post: https://x.com/odysseyml/status/2111589148146749616
Chris Williamson: “The ElevenLabs Situation is Crazy”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxDNHLgWInU
ElevenLabs’ Legendary Voices marketplace: https://elevenlabs.io/iconic-marketplace
TWiST newsletter on Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com/
LAUNCH Careers page: https://careers.launch.co/
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:10 Plaud - If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
03:18 Jason's "You Can See Everything" reaction
14:37 Northwest Registered Agent - Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
15:27 What films max out RT's critic and audience scores
20:08 Anthropic commits 5% equity to Public Benefit Fund
24:28 Would equity change how Americans feel about AI?
27:08 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist
38:38 Rippling - Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.
39:48 Dhanush from Clone Robotics joins the show
42:43 How hydraulic muscle technology actually works
54:55 When can we have our robot butlers please?
56:55 Where will Clone get its robot brains?
1:12:17 Odyssey trapped a fake fly brain in a simulated environment
1:23:09 Did ElevenLabs steal a podcaster's voice?
1:30:13 Check us out on Substack!
Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:
TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/
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Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
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Flying Cars, OpenAI Spies, Why AI Isn’t Sticking (Superhuman CEO)
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lightfield: https://lightfield.app Every.io: https://every.io/ PayPal: https://paypal.com/business Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist GoDaddy: https://www.godaddy.com/ …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Lightfield: https://lightfield.app
Every.io: https://every.io/
PayPal: https://paypal.com/business
Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist
GoDaddy: https://www.godaddy.com/
Today’s show:
Today’s college grads are showing up to work at Jason’s company unable to write three sentences. He’s asking what Shishir Mehrotra of Superhuman, the company behind Grammarly, can do to fix that.
Shishir delves into Superhuman’s reasons for acquiring GPTZero, the most popular AI detector, and the AI notetaker Fathom, and the spreadsheet startup Rows. Plus, how Shishir responds to accusations that Grammarly helps students cheat in the classroom, why writers should disclose when they’re collaborating with an LLM, and Jason's CEO wish list for fresh Grammarly features.
In the news, Tesla demoed its long-awaited Roadster, which used SpaceX thrusters to do some flips and propel itself over five other Teslas… And OpenAI warned staffers that spies may be trying to seduce them in order to steal company secrets… And the shutdown of Character AI prompts Jason to declare: “AI relationships are evil.”
Guests:
Shishir Mehrotra on X: https://x.com/shishirmehrotra Superhuman: https://superhuman.com
Relevant Links:
Rows, the spreadsheet startup Superhuman bought, announces the deal → https://rows.com/blog/post/rows-is-joining-superhuman
Superhuman to acquire GPTZero (Business Wire) → https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260623083788/en/Superhuman-to-Acquire-GPTZero-AI-Authenticity-Platform
Is the Internet AI, GPTZero's live tracker of AI content on Reddit, LinkedIn and X → https://istheinternetai.com
GPTZero AI Vision, the extension that flags AI posts as you browse → https://gptzero.me/ai-vision
Superhuman acquires YC-backed notetaker Fathom (TechCrunch) → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/14/superhuman-acquires-yc-backed-notetaker-fathom-as-productivity-platforms-push-for-agentic-work/
Grammarly Authorship, which shows how much of your writing came from AI → https://www.grammarly.com/authorship
GPTZero Authorship and Writing Replay → https://gptzero.me/authorship
Stanley Druckenmiller says his WSJ op-ed was written with AI (NOTUS) → https://www.notus.org/media/stanley-druckenmillers-wsj-op-ed-bessent-ai
Superhuman Go, the AI assistant that works wherever you type → https://superhuman.com/go
Tesla reveals its new Roadster with SpaceX thrusters (TechCrunch) → https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/15/tesla-reveals-spacex-powered-roadster-that-flies-and-falls-with-style/
OpenAI employee arrested over a hidden listening device in an executive conference room (NBC News) → https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/openai-employee-arrested-hidden-listening-device-company-says-rcna603262
Eight states sue OpenAI over ChatGPT's alleged harm to kids (NBC News) → https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/openai-sued-eight-states-alleged-harm-chatgpt-rcna603614
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Intro
00:07:14 GPTZero and the fight over what's human
00:09:27 How much of Reddit, LinkedIn and X is AI
00:10:56 Fathom and the 90% of work that's spoken
00:12:05 Lightfield - Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you - it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app/
00:16:27 Why Jason says every employee should use Grammarly
00:18:04 How to test whether new hires can actually write
00:22:08 Every - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io/.
00:24:22 Grammarly Authorship and proving the work is yours
00:25:53 How accurate are AI detectors
00:30:36 Jason wants AI writing flagged by default
00:32:34 Enforcing Grammarly and Go across a whole team
00:36:45 PayPal - PayPal is built for all businesses. Get started at https://paypal.com/business
00:37:28 Assist, chat and do, three kinds of AI agents
00:41:06 Jason's feedback on the Grammarly keyboard
01:13:27 Tesla demos the Roadster on SpaceX thrusters
01:21:20 OpenAI engineer charged with bugging an executive conference room
01:21:43 Why OpenAI warned employees about foreign spies
01:27:57 Eight states sue OpenAI over harm to kids
Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:
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Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow Lon:
Follow 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:
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The Ex-DeepMind Researcher Taking On China’s Open Source AI
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Paper: https://getpaper.ai/twist Superhuman: https://superhuman.com/ Odoo: https://Odoo.com/twist Today’s show: Misha Laskin of Reflection AI joins Jason to explain …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Paper: https://getpaper.ai/twist
Superhuman: https://superhuman.com/
Odoo: https://Odoo.com/twist
Today’s show:
Misha Laskin of Reflection AI joins Jason to explain why big companies are done renting their AI from closed labs. Enterprises want to keep their data, cut their costs, and tune their models to their unique businesses.
Reflection is launching its first open-weight model, Beam, just three months after acquiring its first big cluster. Misha admits that Beam trails the best Chinese open models by a couple of months, and needs 3 to 4 times fewer tokens to reach the same answer, but nonetheless, the race is on.
PLUS, Misha explains how “reward hacking” led that rogue OpenAI model to break out of its test sandbox and steal the answers from Hugging Face's servers. The model solved the problem, just not the way anyone intended.
There’s simply no way a few hundred safety researchers at closed labs can catch every flaw; open source is how software has always been made secure. It's also why he wants America to lead in open models again.
So how close is America to catching up to the Chinese open source leaders? Watch this brand new TWiST and find out.
Guests:
Misha Laskin on X: https://x.com/MishaLaskin
Reflection AI: https://reflection.ai/
Relevant Links:
Introducing Beam, Reflection's first open model (Reflection AI) → https://reflection.ai/blog/introducing-beam
Reflection AI unveils Beam as an open answer to Chinese labs (Semafor) → https://www.semafor.com/article/10/05/2026/reflection-ai-unveils-an-open-source-answer-to-chinese-labs
Cursor's Composer 2 coding model, built on an open model (VentureBeat) → https://venturebeat.com/technology/cursors-new-coding-model-composer-2-is-here-it-beats-claude-opus-4-6-but
micro1 passes $1 billion annual run rate, mentioned by Jason → https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/949082966/micro1-end-of-q3-update
Hackers heat French supermarket fridges, sparking fires and spoiling food (CNN) → https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/12/europe/france-supermarket-cyberattack-fridges-intl
Hugging Face postmortem on the OpenAI agent that broke out of its sandbox → https://huggingface.co/blog/agent-intrusion-technical-timeline
NVIDIA OpenShell, an open-source sandbox for AI agents → https://docs.nvidia.com/openshell/latest/about/overview.html
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Why companies are switching from renting AI to owning it
00:09:10 How Reflection sells the whole AI stack
00:10:24 Paper is the legal backbone for thousands of startup founders and fund managers - including Launch. Use getpaper.ai/twist to get your cap table free for a year - or two years if you're leaving Carta.
00:11:28 Who is moving AI onto their own servers
00:14:37 What it took to train Beam
00:20:26 Superhuman Go is an AI chat that's always there when you need it, already aware of what you're doing, and doesn't ask you to start from zero. Sign up to get the best in AI at https://superhuman.com/
00:21:29 How reinforcement learning tasks get built
00:26:41 Hackers heat French supermarket fridges
00:29:07 The AI that broke out of its sandbox to cheat
00:31:05 The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist
00:33:10 Why open source makes software safer
00:38:13 The encryption fight and Tim Cook's stand
00:42:53 Why China raced ahead in open models
00:47:35 How Beam stacks up against Chinese models
00:50:21 When American open models catch up
00:58:39 Staying independent
Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:
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Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow 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:
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The Gadget That's Better in Crowds Than Your Phone + Ring’s Founder Before Amazon Bought It | E2349
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain NetSuite: https://netsuite.ai/twist The Conservation …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist
Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
NetSuite: https://netsuite.ai/twist
The Conservation Fund: https://conservationfund.org
Today’s show:
At packed concerts, festivals, and stadiums, your phone gets WORSE with every person who shows up. Totem gets better.
Carter Fowler of Totem joins Alex to explain how his screen-free compass points you straight to your friends without relying on cell towers. Find out why Carter says Apple will never ship this in an iPhone, and why kids, ski patrols, and blind users have become some of his most loyal fans.
PLUS, Lon and Alex dig into the archives for Jason's 2017 CES interview with Ring founder Jamie Siminoff, a year before Amazon bought the company. Jamie explains how a doorbell he couldn't hear in his garage became Ring, and why a strong mission is "cheating" when it comes to keeping a team focused. Then he tells Jason he wants to take Ring public, not sell it. Ironic because about a year later, Amazon bought it. And get ready for some hot takes on neighborhood license-plate cameras, years before the anti-Flock backlash.
Guests:
Carter Fowler on X: https://x.com/Carter_S_Fowler
Totem: https://totemlabs.com
Jamie Siminoff on X: https://x.com/JamieSiminoff
Ring: https://ring.com
Relevant Links:
Totem Compass, the offline friend-finding compass → https://totemlabs.com
Totem closes its $1.3M pre-seed round (Business Wire) → https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250212385814/en/Totem-Closes-%241.3M-in-Pre-Seed-Funding-to-Scale-Operations-for-Explosive-Demand
Totem's community crowdfunding round → https://wefunder.com/totemlabs
Totem's record Lost Lands deployment last year (Business Wire) → https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251009622355/en
The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen, mentioned by Alex → https://www.amazon.com/dp/1633691780
Original TWiST Interview with Jamie from 2017 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puP_D3k7vVI
Amazon officially closes its Ring acquisition in 2018 (TechCrunch) → https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/12/amazon-officially-owns-ring-so-lets-talk-product-integration/
Ring calls off its Flock Safety partnership after the Super Bowl ad backlash (Engadget) → https://engadget.com/home/ring-calls-off-partnership-with-police-surveillance-provider-flock-safety-031717605.html
Flock Safety plans to cut about 18% of its staff (Reuters via The Star) → https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2026/10/09/exclusive-ai-surveillance-startup-flock-safety-to-cut-several-hundred-jobs-amid-backlash-sources-say
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Totem, an offline compass for finding friends at festivals
00:00:31 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
00:04:27 Why phones fail in big crowds
00:06:42 How more devices make the mesh network stronger
00:09:07 Why Totem beats phone GPS in a crowd
00:11:40 Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! - Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
00:13:34 Why Apple won't build this into the iPhone
00:18:10 Raising money for hardware in an AI world
00:22:10 NetSuite: For the first time ever, you can try NetSuite Next for free. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, go to https://netsuite.ai/twist
00:23:08 Turning crowd movement into a predictive model
00:28:04 Rentals, kids and accessibility use cases
00:32:22 The Conservation Fund: Find out more about how The Conservation Fund is protecting land, wildlife, and our shared access to the great outdoors while also providing economic opportunities. Visit https://conservationfund.org.
00:35:47 Mesh networks on the front lines in Ukraine
00:38:01 Flashback to Jason and Ring's Jamie Siminoff at CES 2017
00:41:44 Roasting Jamie's earlier startups
00:48:26 How a doorbell in the garage became Ring
00:53:34 Why you should always bet on your friends
01:02:21 Why a strong mission is cheating
01:07:45 Selling to Amazon versus going public
01:12:09 License plate readers and the Flock backlash
Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:
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Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow Lon:
Follow Jason:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
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Follow TWiST:
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Jason Reacts To Japanese Founder Pitches + Fireside Chat With Yuki Shirato
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lightfield: https://lightfield.app Rippling: https://Rippling.ai/twist Upwork: https://upwork.com Today’s show: AssetHub built an AI agent that recreates licensed …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Lightfield: https://lightfield.app
Rippling: https://Rippling.ai/twist
Upwork: https://upwork.com
Today’s show:
AssetHub built an AI agent that recreates licensed characters in 3D while respecting copyright rules... But Jason says he needs to think BIGGER. 11 founders pitched their companies to Jason and Yuki Shirato of Techstars Tokyo at our Osaka event this week, and neither investor held back.
Find out why Jason says Seekr feels more like a vitamin than a painkiller, and needs to ditch the press mentions from their deck. Plus, a vital lesson for founders: if everyone already knows about the problem you're solving, investors expect a tight solution and business plan. Truly novel business ideas get more leeway. Japan's startup community is booming, with many recent grads bailing on lifelong gigs at major corporations to start companies. But here's why Yuki says the fear of failure is still holding back progress.
Guests:
Yuki Shirato on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuki-shirato
Techstars Tokyo: https://www.techstars.com/accelerators/tokyo
Founder Pitches:
Seekr: https://seekrai.global/product
Arabat: https://arabat.it/
AssetHub: https://assethub.io/
CRAZIA: https://crazia.co/
JuJuJuu: https://jujujuu.com/
JAPANMEDIA: https://lp.japanmedia.ai/
Tsuin AI: https://www.tsuin.ai
Rumi Light: https://www.rumilight.jp/
GENCHI: https://www.toraru.me/en
TattvaSilicon: https://tattvasilicon.com/
Mimi AI: https://nihongo-chat-ruby.vercel.app/onboarding
Relevant Links:
Founder University Japan, Jason's pre-accelerator program with JETRO → https://japan.founder.university/
Techstars Tokyo announces its Class of 2026 → https://www.techstars.com/newsroom/techstars-tokyo-accelerator-announces-class-of-2026
Yuki Shirato on why Japan should be on every founder's radar (Techstars) → https://www.techstars.com/blog/insights-and-trends/should-japan-be-on-your-radar-as-a-founder
How Techstars Tokyo is helping make Japan a global startup hub (The Japan Times) → https://www.japantimes.co.jp/2025/12/25/special-supplements/accelerating-business-ambitions-global-scale-techstars-tokyo/
VidiLabs, maker of the Seekr indoor positioning platform → https://seekrai.global/
Density, the people-counting sensor company Jason has backed for a decade → https://www.density.io
Arabat, recovering critical minerals from batteries with citrus and farm waste → https://arabat.it/
AssetHub raises a $2M seed for its AI 3D platform (The Bridge) → https://thebridge.jp/en/2025/08/aix3d-production-platform-assethub-raises-approximately-¥300-million-in-seed-funding
Seedance 2.0, the ByteDance AI video model Jason says fans are using to make Marvel shorts → https://seed.bytedance.com/en/blog/seedance-2-0-official-launch
Bending Spoons, the company Jason cites for buying apps and running them with tiny AI-powered teams (TechCrunch) → https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/31/what-is-bending-spoons-everything-to-know-about-aols-acquirer/
Burning Chrome by William Gibson, the source of “the street finds its own uses for things” → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ICMWZH4/
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Jason's first trip to Japan and the food crawl
00:03:07 Why everyone in Japan acts like a founder
00:03:42 Founder University comes to Japan
00:08:44 Techstars Tokyo and Japan's push for global founders
00:10:28 Why Japanese startups stay on the island
00:12:44 Parents, lifetime jobs, and the fear of failure
00:15:13 How Japan mastered product market fit
00:18:43 Lightfield: Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you - it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app
00:20:10 The white lab coat and the man who named his daughter Cinnamon
00:25:05 Seekr: centimeter-precise indoor navigation
00:27:38 Why investors want the business case, not the press
00:28:21 Rippling: Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.
00:34:54 Arabat: recovering rare earths with orange peels
00:38:26 Getting from free pilots to paid pilots
00:38:38 Upwork: Upwork helps businesses find highly skilled freelance professionals for specialized work. Post your job for free at https://upwork.com
00:43:57 AssetHub: AI 3D models for anime and game IP
00:52:40 Come for the tool, stay for the marketplace
00:54:35 CRAZIA: turning customer conversations into growth
00:56:42 JuJuJuu: giving alternative protein the structure of steak
00:59:02 JAPANMEDIA: AI manga and anime at a fifth of the cost
01:01:24 Tsuin AI: AI twins that think and act like you
01:03:15 Picking the layup and the wild card
01:09:29 Rumi Light: faster data paths inside AI servers
01:11:40 GENCHI: a local avatar that shops Japan for you
01:13:51 TattvaSilicon: analog circuit design in a day
01:15:36 Mimi AI: learning to actually speak Japanese
01:17:51 Why a live shopping avatar is Jason's wild card
Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:
TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/
TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/
TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow Jason:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/
Follow TWiST:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups
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Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com
What VCs Really Think About Personal AI Agents | E2347
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Odoo: https://odoo.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Quo …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist
Odoo: https://odoo.com/twist
Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
Quo: https://www.quo.com/perks/twist
Today’s show:
A personal AI agent that’s still invite-only just hit a $10 billion valuation. Guest host Deedy Das of Menlo Ventures is joined by Kanu Gulati of Khosla Ventures, Chris Farmer of SignalFire, and Sheel Mohnot of Better Tomorrow Ventures to debate whether Instinct can beat Meta’s Muse, what they actually use their own agents for, and what breaks when everyone’s agent makes the same move.
Plus we’re also talking about OpenAI’s math breakthroughs, the Factory vs. Cognition fight, and whether SaaS is still worth funding. Catch the whole debate on this week’s VC roundtable.
Guests:
Deedy Das on X: https://x.com/deedydas
Menlo Ventures: https://menlovc.com
Kanu Gulati on X: https://x.com/KanuGulati
Khosla Ventures: https://www.khoslaventures.com
Chris Farmer on X: https://x.com/chriswfarmer
SignalFire: https://www.signalfire.com
Sheel Mohnot on X: https://x.com/pitdesi
Better Tomorrow Ventures: https://www.btv.vc
Relevant Links:
OpenAI’s 722 math manuscripts from an unreleased internal model → https://github.com/openai/math
OpenAI’s earlier Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize result → https://openai.com/index/navier-stokes-solution/
Pramaana Labs, the Khosla-backed startup turning tax rules into provable logic → https://pramaanalabs.ai
Logos Research, the Imperial College spinout verifying AI-written financial code → https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/articles/2026/logos-research-plans-to-make-ai-reasoning-trustworthy-in-high-stakes-environments/
EvenUp, SignalFire’s AI company for personal injury law → https://www.evenuplaw.com/
WindBorne Systems, the Khosla-backed weather balloon company Kanu mentioned → https://windbornesystems.com
Gokul Rajaram’s X Post: https://x.com/gokulr/status/2107851356019290569?s=20
micro1, the AI training data company Chris and LAUNCH backs → https://www.micro1.ai
Vercel’s data on companies shifting to open-weight models → https://vercel.com/i/open-weight-models
Instinct raises $1B at a $10B valuation (SiliconANGLE) → https://siliconangle.com/2026/09/28/everyday-personal-ai-assistant-startup-instinct-raises-1b-at-10b-valuation/
Meta introduces Muse, its personal AI agent → https://about.fb.com/news/2026/09/introducing-muse-personal-ai-agent/
Wajo, maker of the Fo agent Kanu uses → https://wajo.ai
Factory’s CEO accuses his board adviser of spying for Cognition (TechCrunch) → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/factory-ceo-just-accused-his-vc-board-advisor-of-spying-for-cognition/
xAI rents its Colossus 1 data center to Anthropic (Data Center Dynamics) → https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/musk-spacex-xai-is-actively-seeking-more-ai-compute-customers-following-anthropic-deal/
Bending Spoons agrees to buy Miro, weeks after Airtable → https://investors.bendingspoons.com/newsroom/bending-spoons-agrees-to-acquire-miro
The FCC’s new rule on foreign-made robots → https://www.fcc.gov/covered-list-faqs-robots-inverters
Timestamps:
00:00:00 VC roundtable with guest host Deedy Das
00:01:23 If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
00:02:11 OpenAI's math results and what's left to invest in
00:05:10 Formalizing taxes and code so AI can prove its work
00:06:37 Why science breakthroughs still need the real world
00:09:44 Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist
00:10:54 Can startups compete with the labs on compute?
00:13:02 Private data and vertical AI as the moat
00:18:54 Would you invest in AI training data companies?
00:20:34 Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! - Learn more at www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
00:26:29 What a great founder looks like in the AI era
00:29:13 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://quo.com/TWiST
00:34:35 Is Instinct worth $10 billion?
00:41:31 Can Muse reach a billion daily users?
00:44:49 Favorite personal agent use cases
00:49:06 What happens when everyone's agent makes the same call
00:53:17 Factory vs. Cognition and VCs backing rivals
01:03:49 Is SaaS still worth venture money?
01:09:49 Where the panel gets its information
01:14:45 What a seed fund means in 2026
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Jason Mentors The Next Generation + Why AI Is Bad at Teaching (Aristotle Interview) | E2346
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/twist DigitalOcean: https://do.co/twist Sentry: https://sentry.io/twist Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Today’s show: The smarter AI gets …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/twist
DigitalOcean: https://do.co/twist
Sentry: https://sentry.io/twist
Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist
Today’s show:
The smarter AI gets, the more it just does the work for you, and the less helpful it becomes as a tutor.
Shan Reddy of Aristotle joins Jason to demo a voice-first tutor built to run a session the way a $200-an-hour human tutor would. We also dive into why frontier models are trained to hand you answers rather than build real understanding.
PLUS, in Ask Jason, an incoming Fordham student (Jason’s alma mater!) wants to prepare for a career in finance. Plus, David from NYU calls back and wants to discuss what everyone would do with $500K in free money. Then, why does Jason think the Doomerism is coming from inside the AI labs?
Guests:
Shan Reddy on X: https://x.com/rshanreddy
Aristotle: https://www.heyaristotle.com/
Relevant Links:
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_Dog
Something Like an Autobiography by Akira Kurosawa → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Like_an_Autobiography
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson, which Dovid is reading now → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein:_His_Life_and_Universe
Gartner, Jason's example of firms doing research on behalf of corporations → https://www.gartner.com/
"Religious Scholars Met With Anthropic. What They Heard Stunned Them." by Elizabeth Dias, The New York Times, Sept. 29, 2026; the story Lon brings up → https://www.inquirer.com/news/nation-world/religious-leaders-met-with-anthropic-20260930.html
David Sacks accuses Anthropic of a "regulatory capture strategy based on fear-mongering"; the line Lon references (Bloomberg Law) → https://news.bloomberglaw.com/artificial-intelligence/anthropic-is-running-a-strategy-based-on-fear-mongering-sacks
Aristotle's $5M seed round (PR Newswire) → https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aristotle-secures-5m-to-replace-the-chatbot-with-high-dosage-ai-tutoring-for-students-302880500.html
"The 2 Sigma Problem" by Benjamin Bloom (1984), original paper → https://web.mit.edu/5.95/readings/bloom-two-sigma.pdf
Journal record (Educational Researcher / SAGE) → https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0013189X013006004
NYC's AI moratorium through 8th grade (ABC News) → https://abcnews.com/Technology/new-york-city-public-schools-banning-ai-middle/story?id=136134872
Alpha School → https://www.alpha.school
Brilliant's origin story at the LAUNCH Festival (NPR) → https://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/07/23/203677692/giving-brightest-kids-the-cram-school-experience-online
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Live Ask Jason kicks off
00:00:14 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
00:00:56 Fordham-bound caller asks how to break into finance in the AI era
00:05:59 Jason's gift: read one biography a month
00:10:06 Vanta: Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist
00:12:06 Returning caller David: what would you do with $500K?
00:19:53 DigitalOcean: Want to see what building on a true AI-native platform looks like? Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today - and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%.
00:24:40 Bringing an AI protein folding tool into drug discovery
00:27:19 How to do customer discovery with big companies
00:29:44 The "dark arts" of market research and corporate intelligence
00:30:13 Sentry: Your team should be focused on shipping features - not chasing down bugs. New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST26
00:33:43 Is AI fear a dark PR campaign?
00:35:01 Anthropic meets with religious scholars
00:40:45 Are AI labs living through an Oppenheimer moment?
00:42:50 Why we need to talk about AI's upside in education
00:44:31 Sean Ready, co-founder and CEO of Aristotle, joins
00:45:42 Why AI models are getting worse at teaching
00:47:53 Aristotle demo: a voice AI tutor for AP Calculus
00:51:13 Predicting the next best teaching action
00:54:16 Bloom's two sigma problem and one-on-one tutoring
00:55:22 Aristotle's business model and pricing
00:57:53 Building a tutoring harness vs. relying on frontier labs
01:01:05 Why dyslexic students love Aristotle
01:02:40 Hand-grading thousands of hours of tutoring sessions
01:05:06 Socialization, classrooms and the future of public education
01:09:16 Where to try Aristotle and open roles
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Inside The Startup Building Uncensored AI (Abliteration AI) | EP 2345
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Every.io: https://every.io/ Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Odoo: https://odoo.com/twist Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Every.io: https://every.io/
Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
Odoo: https://odoo.com/twist
Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist
Today’s show:
What can AI do with the guardrails OFF? Devon Thomas of Abliteration.ai thinks defenders should have access to the same kinds of tools, rather than having one hand tied behind their backs.
Then, on Ask Jason, learn what AI means for the billable hour from a legal-tech founder. PLUS, are AI microdramas a real ecosystem or a fad, and does AI finally make solo founders fundable?
Guests:
Devon Thomas on X: https://x.com/founderengineer
Abliteration: https://abliteration.ai/
Relevant Links:
Abliteration.ai on a16z speedrun — the accelerator Jason congratulated Devon on → https://speedrun.a16z.com/companies/abliteration
TechCrunch: "Abliteration.ai is making a business out of removing AI guardrails" — the coverage behind the recent attention → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/03/abliteration-ai-is-making-a-business-out-of-removing-ai-guardrails/
Abliteration.ai press page → https://abliteration.ai/press
Anthropic Frontier Red Team: "GLM-5.3 and the spread of advanced cyber capabilities" — the blog Devon cited on how capable abliterated GLM-5.3 is → https://www.anthropic.com/research/glm-5-3-and-the-spread-of-advanced-cyber-capabilities
CNBC: Trump's executive order renaming AI "super intelligence," signed the same day → https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/29/trump-ai-super-intelligence.html
Nextgov/FCW: OpenAI agents accessed Census and SEC data — detail on the dozens of organizations OpenAI notified → https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2026/09/openai-says-its-advanced-models-may-have-gone-after-government-websites/416250/
Financial Times: "AI wrecking ball fractures billable-hour fee model"
Seedance 2.5 — ByteDance's video model Bruno asked about → https://technode.com/2026/07/31/bytedance-launches-seedance-2-5-video-generation-model/
Pixar / Toy Story — the CGI "Toy Story moment" Jason expects for AI video → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story
Practi — Mathew's platform for helping law firms move from hourly billing to subscriptions → https://practi.ai/hello
Timestamps:
00:00:00 What http://Abliteration.ai does, and who the frontier labs are shutting out
00:02:44 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
00:02:56 Why defenders don't get the attackers' tools
00:04:16 "Inversion of control": letting customers set their own guardrails
00:06:47 Who's liable? The hammer analogy and the White House self-regulation pact
00:10:11 Every: For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io.
00:13:10 Why AI labs publicize their scariest hacks
00:18:52 Customers: from cyber startups to Fortune 500 CISOs
00:19:56 Northwest Registered Agent: Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! - Learn more at http://northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
00:24:41 Chinese image and video models
00:27:20 Why most businesses still barely use AI
00:29:02 Ask Jason begins
00:29:24 Mathew Kerbis (Practi): What does AI do to the billable hour?
00:30:16 Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist
00:32:45 Will subscriptions replace hourly billing?
00:37:27 Bruno Vilela: Are AI microdramas an ecosystem or a fad?
00:39:35 Lon's microdrama pitch to Snapchat and TikTok's PineDrama
00:48:09 Josh Ezell: Does AI change the bias against solo founders?
00:49:26 Jason's three-two-one framework and the risks founders must eliminate
Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:
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Follow Lon:
Follow 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
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Justin Kan & Brian Chesky: The Rejections That Built Twitch and Airbnb | E2344
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist CLA: https://www.claconnect.com/withyou Sentry: https://sentry.io/twist Lightfield: https://lightfield.app Today’s show: Google once …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist
CLA: https://www.claconnect.com/withyou
Sentry: https://sentry.io/twist
Lightfield: https://lightfield.app
Today’s show:
Google once interviewed the entire Justin.tv (now Twitch) team and then walked away from an acquisition deal, saying they weren’t good enough. Seven investors passed on buying 10% of Airbnb for $150,000, a stake pegged at roughly $9.25 billion today.
Lon Harris and Alex Wilhelm revisit classic TWiST interviews with Justin Kan of Twitch and Brian Chesky of Airbnb to find out what those founders understood that the market didn't.
PLUS, how did a box of cereal win over Paul Graham and get Airbnb into Y Combinator?
Flashback Guests:
Justin Kan on X: https://x.com/justinkan
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/
Justin Kan (@justinkan) on X
Brian Chesky on X: https://x.com/bchesky
AirBnB: https://www.airbnb.com/
Relevant Links:
TWiST E900: Justin Kan, co-founder of Justin.tv, Twitch & Atrium (Feb 5, 2019) → https://thisweekinstartups.com/episodes/L3DP8VCE12s
TWiST E1735: Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky on early rejection, customer focus & AI (May 4, 2023) → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ-BjJZxNoA
Halo 3: the game that flooded Mahalo with traffic → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3
Weblogs, Inc.: Jason's blog network, home of Engadget → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weblogs,_Inc.
Instinct: the invite-only personal AI agent from founder Noah Shinn → https://www.instinct.co/
AMD to acquire World Labs for $8.2B in stock; Li becomes AMD chief scientist (Bloomberg) → https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-28/amd-to-buy-fei-fei-li-s-world-labs-ai-startup-for-8-2-billion
Lovable: where Lon says he'd rebuild a bad app in two hours → https://lovable.dev/
Y Combinator → https://www.ycombinator.com/
Paul Graham on X → https://x.com/paulg
Obama O's and Cap'n McCain's: the cereal that funded Airbnb → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbnb#History
Stripe: what Paul Graham suggested they build instead → https://stripe.com/
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Justin Kan on episode 900 (Feb 2019)
00:03:44 When Jason and Justin realized people watch gaming
00:05:52 Mahalo, Halo 3, and betting a company on 3% of its traffic
00:10:21 CLA: Get started with CLA's CPAs, consultants, and wealth advisors now at https://www.claconnect.com/withyou
00:11:42 The "zombie startup" years and Google's rejection
00:17:06 Instinct: the AI agent built for venture capitalists
00:19:43 Sentry: New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST26
00:28:08 Kozmo.com and the era of "make number go up"
00:30:06 Lightfield: Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you - it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app
00:32:57 Why AI companies have to monetize faster
00:34:00 Clip: Justin Kan on knowing yourself as a founder
00:37:24 An early rejection of "founder mode"?
00:38:33 Brian Chesky on episode 1735 (May 2023)
00:39:27 "I hope that's not the only idea you're working on"
00:43:27 What 10% of Airbnb for $150K is worth today
00:46:05 Obama O's and the Y Combinator interview
00:48:15 Why investors fund unkillable, attention-hacking founders
00:54:37 Clip: Chesky on AI, deepfakes, and authenticity
00:58:13 Is AI costing jobs or just making them busier?
01:05:04 Did AI create "millions of startups"?
Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:
TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/
TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/
TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow Lon:
Follow 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:
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Jason’s Put a $5K Bounty on His Dream Chrome Extension | E2338
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Every.io: https://every.io/ Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Sentry: https://sentry.io/twist Today’s show: A product …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Every.io: https://every.io/
Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
Sentry: https://sentry.io/twist
Today’s show:
A product that would have cost $500,000 to build in 2006 now costs less than a used car. Jason put up $5,000 on an idea he'd been sitting on for 20 years, and so far, we’ve received dozens of amazing submissions from vibecode experts.
See how well the Top 3 demos fare, and which app was so good, Jason’s already thinking about spinning it off into a startup.
PLUS, an unhoused founder calls in asking how to raise money for not one but two pre-revenue startups? Hear Jason and Lon’s advice.
Submissions:
Submission 1 — https://annotated.wtf By Robert
Submission 2 — https://annotated.bytetalk.ai/feed By Alan Shiflett
Alan on X: https://x.com/alanshiflett
Submission 3 — https://anotated.com/ By Chirag Asarpota
Chirag on X: https://x.com/ChiragAsarpota
Relevant Links:
annotated.com bounty brief — https://annotated.lovable.app/
All active TWiST bounties — https://www.thisweekinstartups.com/bo...
The other open $5,000 bounty: a sidebar companion app for podcasts — https://www.notion.so/launch1/5K-Boun...
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Why Jason bought annotated.com
00:00:33 The original idea: highlight any sentence on the web and dispute it
00:01:25 The rules: the code is open source, and Jason can cancel any time
00:02:06 Submission 1: Robert's annotated.wtf
00:10:08 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io
00:12:13 Submission 1 Scoring
00:12:28 Submission 2: Allan Shifflet's take
00:13:56 What it got right: profiles, follower counts, trending topics
00:16:40 Submission 3: annotaed.com, and buying the typo domain on purpose
00:20:20 Northwest Registered Agent - Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent....
00:23:26 Final scores, and how to enter round two
00:24:48 Incubating annotated inside a venture firm
00:29:46 Sentry - New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST
00:30:18 Ask Jason: a homeless founder with two startup ideas
Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
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X: / jason
LinkedIn: / jasoncalacanis
The 5 Companies Apple Must Buy
This Week In Startups is made possible by: PayPal: https://paypal.com/business Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Odoo: https://Odoo.com/twist Today’s show: Wall …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
PayPal: https://paypal.com/business
Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
Odoo: https://Odoo.com/twist
Today’s show:
Wall Street suspects new Apple CEO John Ternus may do something predecessor Tim Cook almost never did: writing a huge check.
So Jason and Lon are playing “fantasy draft” with Apple’s balance sheet, choosing five real companies to acquire over five “rounds.” Disney buys them a ton of IP and unlocks theme park synergies. Sony gets them a gaming console and massive anime distribution. Boston Dynamics buys them lots of robots, while Etched nets them cheaper inference. So many options!
Then, we chat with Stacy Salvi of The90. Her wearable pendant tells you exactly how much sun damage you’re accumulating, long before you start to burn.
Guest
The90: https://the90.com/
Stacy Salvi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacysalvi/
Relevant Links
John Ternus becomes Apple CEO: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/04/tim-cook-to-become-apple-executive-chairman-john-ternus-to-become-apple-ceo/
Analyst: Ternus could bring bigger acquisitions: https://9to5mac.com/?p=1065466
“Grok Has Money” meme origin: https://x.com/gmfarcaster/status/2026318035103965414
Sunlight linked with lower COVID-19 deaths: https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2021/sunlight-linked-with-lower-covid-19-deaths
Reid Hoffman: “If there aren’t any typos in this essay, we launched too late”: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/arent-any-typos-essay-we-launched-too-late-reid-hoffman/
Draft Picks
ElevenLabs: https://elevenlabs.io/
Disney: https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/
Sony Group: https://www.sony.com/en/
Crunchyroll: https://www.crunchyroll.com/
Boston Dynamics: https://bostondynamics.com/
Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/
DigitalOcean: https://www.digitalocean.com/
Etched: https://www.etched.com/
Rivian: https://rivian.com/
Lucid Motors: https://lucidmotors.com/
Superhuman: https://superhuman.com/
World Labs: https://www.worldlabs.ai/
PrismML: https://prismml.com/
Liquid AI: https://www.liquid.ai/
Kagi: https://kagi.com/
Sonos: https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop
Whoop: https://www.whoop.com/
Oura: https://ouraring.com/
Peloton: https://www.onepeloton.com/
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Will Ternus take "massively big swings"?
00:03:43 Round 1: ElevenLabs
00:04:46 Round 1: Disney
00:06:18 Round 2: Sony
00:08:22 Round 2: Boston Dynamics
00:09:23 Round 3: Perplexity
00:10:02 AD: PayPal is built for all business. Get started at https://paypal.com/business
00:11:52 Round 3: DigitalOcean
00:13:02 More picks: Etched
00:14:30 More picks: Lucid
00:15:58 More picks: Superhuman
00:16:48 More picks: Higgsfield and more
00:18:09 Fans make their selections
00:19:47 AD: Got a new business idea? @northwestagent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more, with no purchase required! Learn more at www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
00:25:37 Stacy Salvi of The90 joins
00:29:28 AD: Thanks to our partner, Odoo, the all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist
00:34:38 How the app calculates your Sunscore
00:42:12 Building a UV research dataset
00:45:09 Should The90 make a version for men?
Names & Links
Stacy Salvi - https://www.instagram.com/stacysalvi/
The90 - https://the90.com/
Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:
TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/
TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/
TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow Lon:
Follow 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
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Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com
A rogue OpenAI agent hacked Australia’s government. Does this matter? | E2342
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lightfield: https://lightfield.app Paper: https://getpaper.ai/twist The Conservation Fund: https://conservationfund.org/ Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Athena …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Lightfield: https://lightfield.app
Paper: https://getpaper.ai/twist
The Conservation Fund: https://conservationfund.org/
Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist
Athena: https://www.athena.com/jcal
Today’s show:
An OpenAI agent breached Australia's Medicare statistics portal in June, and it took 84 days for the Frontier Lab to publicly acknowledge it. Jason and Lon dig into whether this is an important cautionary tale about alignment, or if PM Anthony Albanese looking to join the AI conversation.
Then Bryant Chou of Ploy joins to explain skipping pre-seed and seed entirely to raise $27M, and why he’s taking his time to build his all-in-one agentic solution for running businesses.
Learn why Google is launching four TPUs into orbit for Project Suncatcher. PLUS, how many robots a week is Tesla now shipping with Optimus, and Jensen Huang told Ezra Klein basic math no longer matters. Is he right? Can we forget long division, at last?
Guests:
Bryant Chou on X: https://x.com/bryantchou
PloyAI: https://ploy.ai/
Relevant Links:
Ploy raises $27M seed led by First Round Capital and Y Combinator (Founderland) → https://www.founderland.ai/articles/webflow-co-founder-launches-ai-marketing-platform-with-27m-s-mqj8o952
OpenAI's $2M-in-tokens offer to every YC startup(TechCrunch via Yahoo) → https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/sam-altman-makes-mic-drop-212302858.html
Original Bloomberg report on the a16z probe → https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-17/andreessen-horowitz-focus-of-doj-probe-over-board-directors
Google: Project Suncatcher's first test launch on SpaceX's Transporter-18 → https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/google-research/google-project-suncatcher-facts/
ABC News (Australia): full timeline, from the June 18 breach to OpenAI's Sept. 10 email → https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-24/ai-agent-accessed-australian-government-site-pm-says/107189078
Ando emerges from stealth with $20M to take on Slack (TechCrunch) → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/24/ando-eyes-slack-as-it-builds-team-messaging-platform-for-humans-and-agents-to-work-together/
Google's $900M investment in SpaceX's $1B round, January 2015 (VentureBeat) → https://venturebeat.com/technology/google-confirms-it-put-900m-into-spacexs-1b-round
Tesla ramps Optimus to several hundred robots a week; hands are the bottleneck (Electrek, summarizing The Information) → https://electrek.co/2026/09/25/tesla-optimus-production-ramp-hands-ai-generalization-problems/
Jensen Huang tells Ezra Klein forgetting basic math may not matter, and that he doesn't know his own address (Kotaku) → https://kotaku.com/nvidia-ceo-doesnt-care-that-kids-are-forgetting-basic-math-because-of-ai-i-actually-dont-know-my-address-2000737092
Sydney Sweeney's Novig "Just Sports" ad and the athlete backlash, including Amy Hunt's comment (Yahoo) → https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/sydney-sweeney-novig-ad-controversy-172900515.html
Nike exits the S&P 100 after 18 years (Fortune) → https://fortune.com/2026/09/08/nike-stock-plummets-sp500-market-cap-index/
The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth trailer: David Fincher directs Tarantino's script; IMAX Nov. 25, Netflix Dec. 23 (Variety) → https://variety.com/2026/film/news/the-further-mis-adventures-cliff-booth-trailer-brad-pitt-1236701901/
Timestamps:
0:00 Whoop fire alarm: Jason's dry-aged steak incident
1:30 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
4:45 News: an OpenAI agent breached Australia's Medicare statistics portal
12:48 Scraper or hack? Australia's PM jumps into the AI safety debate
13:31 News: Google launches four TPUs into orbit for Project Suncatcher
18:27 Guest: Bryant Chou of PloyAI
20:07 AD: Paper is the legal backbone for thousands of startup founders and fund managers - including Launch. Use getpaper.ai/twist to get your cap table free for a year - or two years if you're leaving Carta.
21:11 Ploy's thesis: your website as your hardest working employee
27:05 Why a repeat unicorn founder went back to Y Combinator
38:55 The DOJ probe into a16z's Databricks and Fivetran board seats
44:57 "Nobody's thinking about you": Jason's stair story
45:17 Frontier models vs. your own model, and OpenAI's $2M YC token deal
54:04 News: Ando wants to replace Slack with agent-native chat
1:01:08 News: Tesla ramps Optimus to several hundred robots a week
1:04:48 Off-Duty: Jensen Huang tells Ezra Klein basic math may not matter
1:08:31 The MIT "Your Brain on ChatGPT" EEG study
1:09:57 Jason's five-part reset: sleep, diet, exercise, socializing, meditation
1:11:45 Off-Duty: Sydney Sweeney's Novig ad backlash
1:21:07 The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth trailer
1:23:41 Jason's first car: a 1970 Mustang Grande
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VCs Would Bet on Open-Source AI Over OpenAI and Anthropic | E2341
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Odoo: https://odoo.com/twist Rippling: https://rippling.ai/twist Plaud …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
Odoo: https://odoo.com/twist
Rippling: https://rippling.ai/twist
Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist
Harmonic: https://harmonic.ai/twist
Today’s show:
Anthropic and OpenAI released cheaper models on the same day with Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6, and these VCs would still bet on open source. Jason brings on Dave McClure of Practical Venture Capital, Jeff Clavier of Uncork Capital, and Jenny Fielding of Everywhere Ventures to discuss the argument for open-weight models over the frontier labs.
Learn why median seed valuations have more than tripled since 2017. Why does Dave say it's a buyer's market for secondaries right now? PLUS, does Meta's Muse leave any room for Instinct, and why are fintech and healthcare suddenly out of favor?
Guests:
Dave McClure on X: https://x.com/davemcclure?lang=en
Practical Venture Capital: https://practicalvc.com/
Jeff Clavier on X: https://x.com/jeff
Uncorked Capital: https://uncorkcapital.com/
Jenny Fiedling on X: https://x.com/jefielding
Everywhere Ventures: https://www.everywhere.vc/
Relevant Links:
Instinct reportedly seeking $1B at a $10B valuation (report via The Information) → https://cryptobriefing.com/ai-assistant-startup-instinct-targets-10b-valuation-in-new-funding-talks-report/
Meta's Muse, the agent the panel sees as Instinct's biggest threat, now on Mac → https://aiweekly.co/alerts/meta-ships-muse-for-mac-agent-now-acts-in-native-macos-apps
Trump calls Jensen Huang onstage at the All-In Summit → https://thenextweb.com/news/trump-phoned-jensen-huang-onstage-at-the-all-in-summit-to-call-ai-fear-a-hoax
AI-assisted intel error nearly triggered a US intercept of a Chinese ship (CNN via gCaptain) → https://gcaptain.com/ai-error-nearly-triggered-u-s-intercept-of-chinese-ship-cnn-reports/
Bernie Sanders' 50% AI sovereign wealth fund bill + Altman meeting (Fortune) → https://fortune.com/2026/06/18/bernie-sanders-ai-fund-bill-sam-altman-1000-payments/
Stanley Druckenmiller's AI-written WSJ op-ed (Axios) → https://axios.com/2026/08/26/stanley-druckenmiller-ai-writing-wsj-op-ed
Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Sol/Luna launch the same day with price cuts (SiliconANGLE) → https://siliconangle.com/2026/09/22/anthropic-releases-claude-opus-5-5-and-openai-counters-with-two-cheaper-gpt-6-models/
Zipline: LAUNCH's "miss," later backed through the syndicate → https://www.flyzipline.com/
Micro1 → https://www.micro1.ai/
Founder University → https://www.founder.university/ [VERIFY]
The Syndicate: angel invest alongside LAUNCH (apply, waitlist) → https://thesyndicate.com/
Timestamps:
0:00 What seed rounds looked like then: Fitbit's $2M seed
2:38 Jenny's Techstars NYC years and the two-unicorn mug
6:10 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
7:51 All-In Summit: Trump calls Jensen Huang onstage. Staged or not?
8:56 P(doom) roundtable + Dave's AI sovereign wealth fund prediction
10:08 Northwest Registered Agent - Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
13:35 The AI intel error that nearly triggered a US-China incident
17:44 "McClure's Law": a human with AI is the real risk
19:59 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist
21:37 Stripe + OpenRouter: an anti-fraud play, not a routing play?
23:07 Seed valuations: median $8M (2017) to $28M today
23:58 Instinct: $2.5B to a reported $10B in weeks
29:49 Rippling - Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.
44:01 Opus 5.5 vs. GPT-6 Sol: the same-day price war
46:51 Gun to your head: open-weight models or frontier labs?
51:00 Secondaries: the top 30 names vs. everyone else
52:30 Why fintech and healthcare are unloved (and Jason's Robinhood bet)
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Elon's New Hyperloop, Trump's AI Rename, and a Model That Won't Talk | E2340
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/twist DigitalOcean: https://do.co/twist Lightfield: https://lightfield.app Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Today’s show: Elon revives the …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/twist
DigitalOcean: https://do.co/twist
Lightfield: https://lightfield.app
Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist
Today’s show:
Elon revives the Hyperloop, promising a 30-minute commute between Austin and San Antonio. It's the kind of project that could reshape how Texans think about getting between two major cities entirely. Then, Jason and Lon explain why this pitch is different from the other Boring Company tunnels.
Learn why President Trump wants to rename artificial intelligence itself and launch an "AI Force." It's a move that could reshape how the government talks about AI policy going forward. PLUS, a new startup's model refuses to write a single word of text, and it is 5 to 18 times faster with better accuracy. It's a completely different approach to how AI agents make decisions, and it might be a preview of where the industry heads next.
Relevant Links:
"Elon Musk's latest Boring Company pitch involves a Hyperloop between Austin and San Antonio" → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/20/elon-musks-latest-boring-company-pitch-involves-a-hyperloop-between-austin-and-san-antonio/
The Boring Company → https://www.boringcompany.com/
Elon Musk's original 2013 Hyperloop white paper → https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/blog_images/hyperloop-alpha.pdf
Trump's Truth Social post proposing "Superior/Extreme/Supreme Intelligence" and announcing an AI Force and AI czar → https://www.unite.ai/trump-proposes-renaming-artificial-intelligence-announces-ai-force/
TechCrunch: "Trump says it's time to rebrand AI with a new name — and he's also creating an AI Force" → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/19/trump-suggests-rebranding-ai-with-a-new-name-says-hes-also-creating-an-ai-force/
Vercel AI Open vs Closed Source Volume Chart → https://vercel.com/ai-gateway/leaderboards/models
TypeSafe AI — makers of Jev, the "System One Model" → https://typesafe.ai/
TypeSafe AI blog: "Introducing System One Models & Jev" → https://typesafe.ai/blog/introducing-system-one-models-and-jev
GeekWire: "Amazon blocks Meta's Muse AI assistant in new standoff over agentic shopping" → https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-blocks-metas-muse-ai-assistant-in-new-standoff-over-agentic-shopping/
Meta's Muse — the AI agent Amazon blocked from shopping on its site → https://www.meta.ai/
"Meta's Dina Powell McCormick: The Case for Data Centers, Backlash, AI Job Boom & Meta's Future" (All-In Podcast, YouTube) — the clip discussed on the show → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp2IbgJ5Z-8
Robocurve's RoboHarm report — the robot-safety benchmark discussed on air → https://robocurve.org/roboharm/
RoboHarm on GitHub (tasks, protocol, and tooling) → https://github.com/robocurve/roboharm
Timestamps:
0:00 Elon Musk revives the Hyperloop: a 30-minute Austin–San Antonio tunnel
1:03 A brief history of Hyperloop and the white paper
8:56 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist
16:46 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
20:32 DigitalOcean - Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today — and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%.
21:40 News: Trump proposes an "AI Force," an AI czar, and renaming AI itself
22:49 "Get back to work, nerds"
30:22 Lightfield - Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you — it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app
31:56 TypeSafe's Jev, a "System One" model built to decide, not chat
39:49 Amazon blocks Meta's Muse AI agent
49:57 Dina Powell McCormick's tense All-In Summit exchange with Jason
1:02:38 Off-Duty: Robocurve's RoboHarm benchmark
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Hugging Face Co-Founder on Open-Source, Microduck, and NVIDIA | E2339
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Superhuman: https://superhuman.com/ Paypal: https://paypal.com/business Odoo: https://odoo.com/twist Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Harmonic: https://harmonic.ai/twist …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Superhuman: https://superhuman.com/
Paypal: https://paypal.com/business
Odoo: https://odoo.com/twist
Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist
Harmonic: https://harmonic.ai/twist
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://plaud.ai/twist
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.com/business
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
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Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
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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 …
Notas del episodio
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
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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
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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://www.claconnect.com/withyou Today's show: A 27-year-old Anthropic researcher …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Quo: http://quo.com/TWiST
The Conservation Fund: https://conservationfund.org
CLA: https://www.claconnect.com/withyou
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://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
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Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
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The Pentagon Wants Equity in AI Startups | E2336
This Week In Startups is made possible by: DigitalOcean: https://do.co/twist Odoo: https://odoo.com/twist Upwork: https://upwork.com Today's show: The Pentagon is reportedly in talks to lend AI cloud startup …
Notas del episodio
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
DigitalOcean: https://do.co/twist
Odoo: https://odoo.com/twist
Upwork: https://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://plaud.ai/twist
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:
Follow Jason:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/
Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
Follow TWiST:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com
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