Podcast

This Week in Startups

From ThisWeekIn Technology

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.

Technology chart
#72
Episodes
1,497
Releases
Twice a week
Typical length
1 hr 17 min
On air since
2019
Latest episode
1 day ago

Episodes

1,497 episodes, newest first

  1. Odyssey CEO Oliver Cameron is 90% sure we live in a simulation | E2358

    Show notes

    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/

    TWiAI:https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

    TWiVC:https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/

    Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple:https://rb.gy/v19fcp

    Follow Lon:

    X:https://x.com/lons

    Follow Jason:

    X:https://twitter.com/Jason

    LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

    Thank you to our partners:

    Paper is the legal backbone for thousands of startup founders and fund managers - including Jason. Usehttps://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 tohttps://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 athttps://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 athttps://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:

    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

    1 hr 24 min

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

    Show notes

    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 (http://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/

    http://inside.com domain auction:https://inside.com/

    Yank Sing:https://yanksing.com/

    Cafe du Monde coffee and chicory:https://shop.cafedumonde.com/product/coffee-beignets/cafe-du-monde-coffee-and-chicory

    Patrick Stewart, "Star Trek" and "X-Men" actor, dead at 86 (CNN):https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/29/entertainment/patrick-stewart-death

    “Time Squared” (Star Trek: TNG S2E13):https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Time_Squared_(episode)

    “Green Room” trailer:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8XSARX3DQg

    “X-Men: Days of Future Past” trailer:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK2zYHWDZKo

    Timestamps:

    0:00 The largest crypto hack or theft in history

    5:45 Jason gives CZ credit for backstopping losses

    7:34 Jason’s cybersecurity proposals

    11:48 Stripe Startups - Stripe Startups offers early-stage, venture-backed startups access to Stripe fee credits and more. Apply today on https://stripe.com/startups.

    14:49 DoorDash buys Instacart for $17B

    18:48 Is DoorDash overpaying?

    24:28 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.

    26:26 Vibecoding your smart TV

    27:20 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

    30:04 Jake Newfield (Hermetiq) gives a perfect pitch

    34:13 Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! - Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain

    37:12 Lead with your lighthouse customer

    43:14 The Cafe Du Monde branding lesson

    51:10 The Annotated Bounty finals begin

    1:04:00 Jason announces the grand prize winner

    1:07:34 RIP Sir Patrick Stewart

    Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:

    TWiST:https://twistartups.substack.com/

    TWiAI:https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

    TWiVC:https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/

    Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple:https://rb.gy/v19fcp

    Follow Lon:

    X:https://x.com/lons

    Follow Jason:

    X:https://twitter.com/Jason

    LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

    Great TWIST interviews:Will Guidara,Eoghan McCabe,Steve Huffman,Brian Chesky,Bob Moesta,Aaron Levie,Sophia Amoruso,Reid Hoffman,Frank Slootman,Billy McFarland

    Follow TWiST:

    Twitter:https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

    YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin

    Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

    TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

    Substack:https://twistartups.substack.com

    1 hr 11 min

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

    Show notes

    This Week In Startups is made possible by:

    PayPal: https://paypal.com/business

    The Conservation Fund: https://www.conservationfund.org/

    Hostinger: https://hostinger.com/twist

    Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist

    Today’s show:

    Anthropic’s S-1 is here, and finally, we can start to develop a real understanding for the AI economy and whether the numbers add up. Anthropic shows an operating profit, a mostly non-cash $80.7 billion loss, and customers spending a shocking 9x what they were spending on intelligence just one year ago.

    Is this the greatest business in history? Is AI now as addictive to enterprises as cigarettes once were to impressionable teens?

    On this week’s VC Roundtable, Jason Calacanis is joined by D.A. Wallach (Time BioVentures), Dave McClure (Practical Venture Capital), and Ben Black (Akkadian Ventures / Powerlaw Corp.) to seek some answers.

    They dig into the numbers, including that wild 900% net revenue retention, and consider how retail investors will consider the convertible-note charge behind their $80B loss. Plus they’ll debate whether Anthropic’s founders are really true believers driven by religious fervor, and if so, whether they’re destined to be out-competed by “rabid capitalists.”

    Guests

    D.A. Wallach on X:https://x.com/dawallach

    Time BioVentures:https://www.timebioventures.com/

    Dave McClure on X:https://x.com/davemcclure

    Practical Venture Capital:https://practicalvc.com/

    Trading Places podcast:https://www.youtube.com/@PracticalVentureCapital

    Ben Black on LinkedIn:https://linkedin.com/in/benblack

    Akkadian Ventures:https://akkadian.vc/

    Powerlaw Corp:https://pwrl.com

    Relevant Links

    Anthropic’s S-1, by the numbers (Fortune):https://fortune.com/2026/10/27/anthropic-s1-ipo-filing-financials-profits/

    900% NRR and an $80.7B loss that mostly ins’t (HackerNoon):https://hackernoon.com/anthropics-s-1-shows-163b-in-half-year-revenue-a-900percent-nrr-and-an-807b-loss-that-mostly-isnt

    Tickertrends:https://tickertrends.io/

    Replit makes OpenAI its default (TechCrunch):https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/17/replit-is-no-longer-working-with-anthropic-ceo-says/

    Dario Amodei warns that rivals’ spending could risk bankruptcy (Fortune):https://fortune.com/2026/02/14/anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-spending-capex-risk-ai-revenue-forecasts-bankruptcy

    Machines of Loving Grace (Dario Amodei):https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/machines-of-loving-grace

    Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar says AI researchers are taking up smoking (Fortune):https://fortune.com/2026/10/13/palantir-cto-shyam-sankar-ai-researchers-smoking-cigarettes-cure-cancer-artificial-general-intelligence-silicon-valley-mass-psychosis-effective-altruism/

    Microsoft offers its first-ever voluntary buyouts (TechSpot):https://www.techspot.com/news/112174-microsoft-offers-voluntary-buyouts-thousands-us-workers-ai.html

    Canva ranks among the top consumer AI apps (SmartCompany):https://www.smartcompany.com.au/artificial-intelligence/canva-new-ai-consumer-web-app-ranking-andreesen-horowitz/

    SpaceX Q3: Musk says it could rent out its AI compute several times over (Constellation Research):https://www.constellationr.com/insights/news/spacexs-q3-musk-says-it-could-rent-out-its-ai-compute-several-times-over

    Jason’s 2026 “Bitcoin is Dead” post:https://x.com/Jason/status/2114956980674605075

    Jason to Michael Saylor: "there are better places to invest your money”:https://x.com/Jason/status/2115274438979756346

    Timestamps:

    0:00 Anthropic files its public S-1

    4:58 Anthropic vs. OpenAI revenue run rates

    9:20 PayPal is built for all businesses. Get started at https://paypal.com/business

    10:02 “The greatest business in the history of capitalism”

    11:58 Is intelligence the new tobacco?

    18:08 The “meat sack constraint”

    20:36 Thanks to our partner, The Conservation Fund! Learn more at https://www.conservationfund.org/

    22:13 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

    24:32 The Who Has the Most Subscribers Challenge

    28:08 Is Apple waiting out the AI race on purpose

    30:22 Hostinger: The all-in-one platform for domains, websites, email, and marketing. Go to https://hostinger.com/twist and use the code TWIST for an additional 10% off Black Friday and Cyber Monday

    34:19 Is Canva an AI company?

    39:08 True Believers who still want to make money

    48:21 The $72.4B convertible-note charge, explained

    51:03 How long does AI compute stay useful?

    58:19 Jason’s monthly “Bitcoin is Dead” post

    1:04:41 Alicorns are unicorns with pegasus wings

    1:09:58 Subscribe to the TWiST Newsletter!

    Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter:https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com

    Check out the TWIST500:https://www.twist500.com

    Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple:https://rb.gy/v19fcp

    Follow Lon:

    X:https://x.com/lons

    Follow Jason:

    X:https://twitter.com/Jason

    LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

    Thank you to our partners:

    PayPal is built for all businesses. Get started at https://paypal.com/business

    The Conservation Fund: Thanks to our partner, The Conservation Fund! Learn more at https://www.conservationfund.org/

    Hostinger: The all-in-one platform for domains, websites, email, and marketing. Go to https://hostinger.com/twist and use the code TWIST for an additional 10% off Black Friday and Cyber Monday

    Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

    Check out all our partner offers:https://partners.launch.co/

    Great TWIST interviews:Will Guidara,Eoghan McCabe,Steve Huffman,Brian Chesky,Bob Moesta,Aaron Levie,Sophia Amoruso,Reid Hoffman,Frank Slootman,Billy McFarland

    Subscribe to our Substack Newsletters!

    TWiST:https://twistartups.substack.com/

    TWiAI:https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

    TWiVC:https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/

    Follow TWiST:

    Twitter:https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

    YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin

    Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

    TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

    Substack:https://twistartups.substack.com

    1 hr 12 min

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

    Show notes

    This Week In Startups is made possible by:

    Odoo: https://odoo.com/twist

    G2i: https://g2i.co/twist

    Rippling: https://rippling.ai/twist

    Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist

    Today’s show:

    Amanda Bradford’s “launch party” for her dating app The League actually extended for months.

    She “pre-gamed” the app’s formal launch with months of mixers, boat parties, and free events, where the only ticket required for admission was having the app on your phone.

    By launch day, she had a massive wait list, and still just let in 500 people, who ensure maximum buzz (and FOMO).

    At LAUNCH’s first-ever Tactical & Practical live event from San Francisco, Amanda walks the crowd through how she built a vetted, two-sided dating marketplace as a solo founder, eventually getting prominent enough to attract the attention of Match Group. (She sold The League for ~$30 million in 2020.)

    Hear exclusive tips you won’t get anywhere else, like how Amanda used a “fake paywall” to gauge willingness to pay for subscriptions, and how to time your rate of expansion into new markets.

    Plus, an all-new Flashback segment, featuring Alex and Lon looking back at a classic 2017 interview between Jason and Stripe’s Patrick Collison.

    Guests

    Amanda Bradford on X:https://x.com/amandabradford

    Book a Call with Amanda:https://intro.co/amandabradford

    The League:https://www.theleague.com/

    Patrick Collison on X:https://x.com/patrickc?lang=en

    Stripe:https://stripe.com/

    Relevant Links:

    The League was called "elitist." Its founder says that was never the case (CNBC):https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/20/founder-of-the-league-on-dating-ambition-and-that-viral-ad-campaign.html

    Alex Wilhelm’s Cautious Optimism:https://www.cautiousoptimism.news/

    TWiST E723: Patrick Collison (2017):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-NepiMQGvY

    Timestamps:

    0:00 Amanda Bradford on building The League

    4:30 Hand-reviewing early applications

    6:40 Building an MVP with a rented co-founder

    8:56 The VIP approach

    13:10 Why Amanda only let in 500 people

    15:44 The “Heavy Hitter” fake paywall test

    16:44 Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://odoo.com/twist

    17:46 Why live events are the real unlock

    21:35 Controversy as a hook

    24:22 Flashback to Patrick Collison in 2017

    25:13 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

    28:13 Stripe: Then vs. Now

    30:53 G2i has been recruiting software engineers for over a decade. Go to https://g2i.co/twist to find out how G2i vets engineers, and can help you hire them in days, not weeks.

    32:17 Why did PayPal stay PayPal?

    37:50 Problem, not a product

    44:33 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.

    45:46 The outage nobody noticed

    51:00 Why persistence beats pivoting

    52:13 What’s left before a Stripe IPO?

    Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:

    TWiST:https://twistartups.substack.com/

    TWiAI:https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

    TWiVC:https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/

    Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple:https://rb.gy/v19fcp

    Follow Lon:

    X:https://x.com/lons

    Follow Jason:

    X:https://twitter.com/Jason

    LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

    Thank you to our partners:

    Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today athttps://odoo.com/twist

    G2i has been recruiting software engineers for over a decade. Go tohttps://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 tohttps://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 athttps://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

    Check out all our partner offers:https://partners.launch.co/

    57 min

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

    Show notes

    This Week In Startups is made possible by:

    Plaud - https://plaud.ai/twist

    Sentry - https://sentry.io/twist

    Lightfield - https://lightfield.app

    Rippling - https://rippling.ai/twist

    Today’s show:

    Is OpenAI finally priced correctly? Jason argues that the reported $30 billion raise at a $1.25 trillion valuation is finally “right-sized.” He also says that he’d put money in at that price, while walking through the risks that could still sink the investment.

    It’s a Friday all-news episode with Jason and Lon, covering OpenAI’s latest round, SpaceX’s push to become America’s fourth major carrier, Zuck and Meta’s creative move around the proposed California billionaire tax, and some of Lon and Jason’s favorite documentaries.

    Plus we’re asking the timely question: who watches the AI watchdogs?

    Relevant Links

    OpenAI nears up to $30B round at $1.25T valuation, led by UAE investors (CNBC):https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/22/openai-funding-round-uae-investors.html

    Anthropic investors eye a $2T IPO (Nasdaq):https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/move-over-spacex-anthropic-targets-2-trillion-valuation

    Uber puts all 30,000 employees on ChatGPT Work (TechCrunch):https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/22/uber-puts-all-30000-employees-on-chatgpt-work/

    Telecom stocks fall as SpaceX eyes 80,000 cell sites (Yahoo Finance):https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/telecom-stocks-fall-spacex-eyes-134838815.html

    Verizon launches simpler plans and drops activation and upgrade fees (Fox Business):https://foxbusiness.com/markets/verizon-launches-simpler-plans-new-loyalty-program-drops-some-fees

    Amazon Leo's launch slips past early 2026 (ITdaily):https://itdaily.com/news/network/amazon-leo-faces-delays/

    METR and Redwood Research's write-up on red-teaming OpenAI's agent monitoring:https://metr.org/blog/2026-10-22-red-teaming-openai-agent-monitoring/

    Open Philanthropy is now Coefficient Giving:https://coefficientgiving.org/research/the-story-behind-our-new-name/

    Court documents show the alleged FSU shooter's ChatGPT chats (AOL):https://www.aol.com/news/court-documents-show-florida-state-233829466.html

    Meta's 8-K filing on the Founder Alignment Agreement (SEC):https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001326801/000162828026066700/meta-20261019.htm

    Polymarket: will California's billionaire tax pass?:https://polymarket.com/event/billionaire-one-time-wealth-tax-passes-in-california-election-2026

    Mark Cuban vs. Ro Khanna on the billionaire tax (Fortune):https://fortune.com/2026/08/17/mark-cuban-california-billionaires-tax-wealth-ro-khanna/

    Elizabeth Holmes: The Theranos Deception (60 Minutes archive):https://cbsnews.com/video/elizabeth-holmes-the-theranos-deception-60-minutes-archive

    “The Act of Killing” trailer:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3FcB1UZHlg

    “Grizzly Man” trailer:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWA7GtDmNFU

    “Hoop Dreams” trailer:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf9Nq2ju0t0

    “The King of Kong” trailer:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5XvArGGIzk

    “A Short Stay in Hell” by Steven L. Peck:https://www.amazon.com/dp/0983748446

    “The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges [PDF]:https://sites.evergreen.edu/politicalshakespeares/wp-content/uploads/sites/226/2015/12/Borges-The-Library-of-Babel.pdf

    “The Eureka Machine” by Richard Socher:https://www.amazon.com/dp/154170570X

    Timestamps:

    0:00 Jason’s in SF with the LAUNCH Accelerator 37 cohort

    2:40 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

    6:34 Tactical & Practical talks live at Salesforce Tower

    10:21 Using Claude for brainstorming, not writing

    19:26 Sentry - New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST26

    20:42 OpenAI closing $30B at a $1.25T valuation

    26:04 Why OpenAI could still lose

    30:25 Would you put 30% of your retirement into OpenAI?

    32:34 Lightfield - Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you - it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app

    34:27 Every Tesla becomes a Starlink hotspot

    43:06 What would be the ultimate SpaceX domain name?

    45:00 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.

    46:10 Is METR a fair watchdog for OpenAI?

    54:03 Jason’s “Know Your Customer” plan for AI models

    1:03:34 Meta’s deal to keep Zuckerberg in Cali

    1:14:35 Why Jason would raise the minimum wage

    1:18:42 Does Nathan Fielder give Liz Holmes a pass?

    1:30:59 “A Short Stay in Hell” and “The Eureka Machine”

    Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:

    TWiST:https://twistartups.substack.com/

    TWiAI:https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

    TWiVC:https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/

    Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple:https://rb.gy/v19fcp

    Follow Lon:

    X:https://x.com/lons

    Follow Jason:

    X:https://twitter.com/Jason

    LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

    Check out all our partner offers:https://partners.launch.co/

    Great TWIST interviews:Will Guidara,Eoghan McCabe,Steve Huffman,Brian Chesky,Bob Moesta,Aaron Levie,Sophia Amoruso,Reid Hoffman,Frank Slootman,Billy McFarland

    Follow TWiST:

    Twitter:https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

    YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin

    Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

    TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

    Substack:https://twistartups.substack.com

    1 hr 33 min

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

    Show notes

    This Week In Startups is made possible by:

    DigitalOcean - Head tohttps://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 athttps://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 athttps://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

    Today’s show:

    Elizabeth Holmes remains in prison for defrauding Theranos investors, even as she stars in the hit Nathan Fielder/Lance Oppenheim documentary “You Can See Everything.” But we’re asking the real question: After all the very public accusations… the hit pieces in the press and the Hulu drama series picking apart the scandal… would tech investors and VCs be willing to back her NEXT startup, if the numbers were right?

    On today’s TWiST roundtable, Jason Calacanis is joined by Sam Lessin (Slow Ventures), Paige Finn Doherty (Behind Genius Ventures), and Jenny Fielding (Everywhere Ventures). In addition to reviews of the movie tech insiders can’t stop talking about, they cover why every seed portfolio needs a little bit of fraud, how diligence scales with check size, having trademark rights to your own voice, and the pro rata rights debate that’s still raging over Valar Atomics’ lawsuit with seed investors Day One Ventures.

    Guests

    Sam Lessin on X:https://x.com/lessin

    Slow Ventures:https://slow.co/

    Paige Finn Doherty on X:https://x.com/paigefinnn

    Behind Genius Ventures:https://www.behindgeniusventures.com/

    Jenny Fielding on X:https://x.com/jefielding

    Everywhere Ventures:https://www.everywhere.vc/

    Relevant Links

    OpenSnow:https://opensnow.com/

    “You Can See Everything” trailer:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvW_N5p1q44

    HBO Max “The Rehearsal” trailer:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fjPFt8cpic

    Elizabeth Holmes moves to halfway house in 2027 (ABC7):https://abc7.com/story/elizabeth-holmes-scheduled-move-halfway-house-august-2027/19862832/

    Billy Evans’ blood-testing startup Haemanthus (TechCrunch):https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/10/elizabeth-holmes-partner-reportedly-fundraising-for-new-blood-testing-startup/

    Polymarket: Oscars 2027 Best Picture:https://polymarket.com/event/oscars-2027-best-picture-winner-20260727173620857

    Kalshi: Oscars 2027 Best Documentary:https://kalshi.com/markets/kxoscardocu/event/kxoscardocu-27

    Charlie Javice sentenced to 7 years (NBC News):https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/charlie-javice-sentenced-7-years-prison-fraudulent-175m-sale-financial-rcna234536

    Trump pardons Nikola founder Trevor Milton (Axios):https://www.axios.com/2025/03/28/trump-pardons-nikola-founder-trevor-milton

    Sequoia writes its FTX stake down to zero (Fortune):https://fortune.com/2022/11/10/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-sequoia-writes-down-214-million-investment-to-zero-venture-capital-crypto

    Who lost money on Theranos? (Fortune):https://fortune.com/2018/05/04/theranos-investment-lost

    “Barbarians at the Gate” on Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Barbarians-Gate-Fall-RJR-Nabisco/dp/B08YP9MDHX

    a16z backs Adam Neumann’s Flow (Commercial Observer):https://commercialobserver.com/2022/08/adam-neumann-350m-backing-andreessen-horowitz/

    Martin Shkreli lifetime pharma ban (FTC):https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/01/statement-chair-lina-m-khan-ruling-judge-denise-l-cote-federal-trade-commission-et-al-v-vyera

    Isaia Taylor post announcing Valar suit:https://x.com/isaiah_p_taylor/status/2108679133467414855

    Day One Ventures response:https://x.com/mashadrokova/status/2108732979191390528

    ElevenLabs Iconic Marketplace:https://elevenlabs.io/iconic-marketplace

    Apple Corps vs. Apple Computer, a history (MacTech):https://www.mactech.com/2004/04/09/a-history-of-the-apple-vs-apple-dispute

    Cameo for Business:https://www.cameo.com/business

    Nox Metals:https://noxmetals.co

    Electric Plant Company:https://www.electricplant.co/

    Ablieration:https://abliteration.ai/

    Timestamps:

    0:00 Our new “This Week in VC” newsletter

    2:15 Panel intro: Sam Lessin, Paige Doherty, Jenny Fielding

    8:09 Why gambling loses appeal for VCs

    11:02 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

    16:18 DigitalOcean - Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today - and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%

    17:35 Best moments from “You Can See Everything”

    21:42 Unreliable narrators and unknowable situations

    24:41 Living in a post-truth moment

    30:02 Due diligence horror stories

    32:45 Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://odoo.com/twist

    34:50 The VCs remember their fraud investments

    38:39 How LAUNCH trains founders to prep for diligence

    44:31 How Elizabeth Holmes kept raising money

    54:54 Would you invest in an Elizabeth Holmes company?

    57:27 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.

    1:02:28 Why seed funds need pro rata rights

    1:09:02 When “founder friendly” means rolling over

    1:16:25 The three investor relationships: team, founders, LPs

    1:21:02 ElevenLabs “Archer” voice controversy

    1:27:16 How NIL deals reshaped college sports

    1:33:54 Cameo for Business and long-tail celeb endorsements

    1:35:51 Portfolio company shoutouts

    Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:

    TWiST:https://twistartups.substack.com/

    TWiAI:https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

    TWiVC:https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/

    Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple:https://rb.gy/v19fcp

    Follow Lon:

    X:https://x.com/lons

    Follow Jason:

    X:https://twitter.com/Jason

    LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

    Check out all our partner offers:https://partners.launch.co/

    Great TWIST interviews:Will Guidara,Eoghan McCabe,Steve Huffman,Brian Chesky,Bob Moesta,Aaron Levie,Sophia Amoruso,Reid Hoffman,Frank Slootman,Billy McFarland

    Follow TWiST:

    Twitter:https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

    YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin

    Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

    TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

    Substack:https://twistartups.substack.com

    1 hr 41 min

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

    Show notes

    This Week In Startups is made possible by:

    Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist

    Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain

    Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/twist

    Rippling: https://rippling.ai/twist

    Today’s show:

    Jason can’t stop praising Nathan Fielder’s new A24 hybrid documentary about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, “You Can See Everything,” and he’s insisting that Lon check it out before the next podcast. Hear his spoiler-free review, how the film upended his expectations based on Fielder’s previous work, and why Lon also recommends Lance Oppenheim’s HBO Max series “Ren Faire.”

    Plus, we’re talking to Clone Robotics co-founder and CEO Dhanush Radhakrishnan about why he thinks robots should not just be humanoid but should look and move precisely like humans. We’re digging deep into how his hydraulic myofiber artificial muscle technology alters and even improves on the pulley-based systems being deployed by competitors, why he thinks the models that power domestic helper-bots will be commoditized, and how quickly he thinks he can put a robo-butler in every American home.

    Plus we’re comparing the potential impact of Anthropic’s new Public Benefit Fund vs. Elon Musk’s plan to give every baby a share of SpaceX, and re-considering simulation theory after Odyssey dropped an artificial fruit fly brain into an artificial landscape.

    Guest

    Dhanush Radhakrishnan on X: https://x.com/dhanushisrad

    Clone Robotics: https://clonerobotics.com/

    Related Links

    “You Can See Everything” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvW_N5p1q44

    “You Can See Everything” on Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/you_can_see_everything

    John Carreyrou’s Theranos investigation (Wall Street Journal): https://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-has-struggled-with-blood-tests-1444881901

    “Ren Faire” HBO Max trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHZUVTrrexE

    “Nathan for You”: Smokers Allowed clip (Comedy Central): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HttB2fYAm-8

    Anthropic: Investing in the Public Benefit: https://www.anthropic.com/news/public-benefit-fund

    Elon Musk SpaceX pledge: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2112089556615123114

    Dell’s $6.25B Invest America commitment: https://www.onedell.com/investamerica/

    Odyssey Fly Simulation X post: https://x.com/odysseyml/status/2111589148146749616

    Chris Williamson: “The ElevenLabs Situation is Crazy”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxDNHLgWInU

    ElevenLabs’ Legendary Voices marketplace: https://elevenlabs.io/iconic-marketplace

    TWiST newsletter on Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com/

    LAUNCH Careers page: https://careers.launch.co/

    Timestamps:

    00:00 Intro

    00:10 Plaud - If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

    03:18 Jason's "You Can See Everything" reaction

    14:37 Northwest Registered Agent - Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain

    15:27 What films max out RT's critic and audience scores

    20:08 Anthropic commits 5% equity to Public Benefit Fund

    24:28 Would equity change how Americans feel about AI?

    27:08 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist

    38:38 Rippling - Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.

    39:48 Dhanush from Clone Robotics joins the show

    42:43 How hydraulic muscle technology actually works

    54:55 When can we have our robot butlers please?

    56:55 Where will Clone get its robot brains?

    1:12:17 Odyssey trapped a fake fly brain in a simulated environment

    1:23:09 Did ElevenLabs steal a podcaster's voice?

    1:30:13 Check us out on Substack!

    Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:

    TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/

    TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

    TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/

    Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

    Follow Lon:

    X: https://x.com/lons

    Follow Jason:

    X: https://twitter.com/Jason

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

    Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

    Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

    Follow TWiST:

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinstartups

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

    Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

    1 hr 34 min

  8. FLASHBACK: The future of remote work, juggling APIs, and dream integrations with Wade Foster of Zapier | E2221

    Episode 2221

    Show notes

    This Week In Startups is made possible by:

    Goldbelly - https://Goldbelly.com

    Every.io - http://every.io/

    Zite - https://zite.com/twist

    Today's show:

    Today, Zapier's a multi-billion company helping enterprises integrate AI agents and other time-saving shortcuts into their workflows… but we had the founder on TWiST when they were just getting started!

    In a 2016 chat, founder Wade Foster walked JCal through their 2012 seed round, running a small entirely remote team with no HQ, the complexities of building a tool that relies on third-party APIs, and why Microsoft Office was the "Holy Grail" for his integration software.

    PLUS we've got a new entrant in your Gamma Pitch Deck competition! Tour CEO/CTO Amulya Parmer tells us how his app is saving property managers time and grief, while eliminating "looky-loos" and increasing their "hit rate."

    FINALLY, Alex chats with Tomas Puig of TWiST 500 marketing analysis startup Alembic. It turns out, LLMs aren't ideal for scrutinizing marketing campaigns because they lack the requisite historical data. Find out how they're using Spiking Neural Networks (SNN) to dig deeper than GPT and Claude can go.

    Timestamps:

    (02:40) Amulya from Tour opens the show with praise for Jason

    (03:34) Tour's 2-minute Gamma pitch: automated property tours for managers

    (06:47) Why Jason thinks Tour is an ideal tool for Gen Z

    (10:01) Goldbelly - Goldbelly ships America's most delicious, iconic foods nationwide! Get 20% off your first order by going to https://Goldbelly.com and using the promo code TWiST at checkout.

    (13:32) How Tour can eliminate "looky-loos" and increase the "hit rate"

    (14:38) Why Tour prices based on individual properties and apartments

    (19:13) Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io.

    (20:23) Jason wants to sprinkle some AI into Tour

    (24:29) Welcoming Tomas Puig from Alembic

    (25:12) Does epic-scale brand marketing actually pay off for these brands?

    (27:27) The hardest thing about being a marketer…

    (28:31) Alembic's origins: organizing huge unstructured data sets

    (30:18) Zite - Zite is the fastest way to build business software with AI. Go to https://zite.com/twist to get started.

    (31:27) Case Study: making sense of Delta's Olympics data

    (33:37) Applying simulation models and supercomputers to marketing data

    (35:48) How Spiking Neural Networks (SNN) help Alembic spot trends and link causal relationships

    (41:13) The key advantage of training models on private data

    (43:16) Building their own clusters vs. renting

    (44:41) "You don't ask if you have Product Market Fit… You hold on for dear life."

    (46:28) Flashback with Alex and Lon to Jason's 2016 chat with Wade Foster of Zapier

    (54:48) The dangers of building atop other platform's APIs

    (01:03:00) What Zapier learned pre-pandemic about leading remote teams

    (01:13:12) Why MS Office was the "Holy Grail" for early Zapier

    Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com

    Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com

    Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

    Follow Lon:

    X: https://x.com/lons

    Follow Alex:

    X: https://x.com/alex

    LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm

    Follow Jason:

    X: https://twitter.com/Jason

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

    Thank you to our partners:

    (10:01) Goldbelly - Goldbelly ships America's most delicious, iconic foods nationwide! Get 20% off your first order by going to https://Goldbelly.com and using the promo code TWiST at checkout.

    (19:13) Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io.

    (30:18) Zite - Zite is the fastest way to build business software with AI. Go to https://zite.com/twist to get started.

    Great TWIST interviews:

    Will Guidara

    https://youtu.be/pvJa2pzuXWQ

    Eoghan McCabe

    https://youtu.be/9dHN4YFkgv4

    1 hr 17 min

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

    Show notes

    This Week In Startups is made possible by:

    Lightfield: https://lightfield.app

    Every.io: https://every.io/

    PayPal: https://paypal.com/business

    Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist

    GoDaddy: https://www.godaddy.com/

    Today’s show:

    Today’s college grads are showing up to work at Jason’s company unable to write three sentences. He’s asking what Shishir Mehrotra of Superhuman, the company behind Grammarly, can do to fix that.

    Shishir delves into Superhuman’s reasons for acquiring GPTZero, the most popular AI detector, and the AI notetaker Fathom, and the spreadsheet startup Rows. Plus, how Shishir responds to accusations that Grammarly helps students cheat in the classroom, why writers should disclose when they’re collaborating with an LLM, and Jason's CEO wish list for fresh Grammarly features.

    In the news, Tesla demoed its long-awaited Roadster, which used SpaceX thrusters to do some flips and propel itself over five other Teslas… And OpenAI warned staffers that spies may be trying to seduce them in order to steal company secrets… And the shutdown of Character AI prompts Jason to declare: “AI relationships are evil.”

    Guests:

    Shishir Mehrotra on X:https://x.com/shishirmehrotra Superhuman:https://superhuman.com

    Relevant Links:

    Rows, the spreadsheet startup Superhuman bought, announces the deal →https://rows.com/blog/post/rows-is-joining-superhuman

    Superhuman to acquire GPTZero (Business Wire) →https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260623083788/en/Superhuman-to-Acquire-GPTZero-AI-Authenticity-Platform

    Is the Internet AI, GPTZero's live tracker of AI content on Reddit, LinkedIn and X →https://istheinternetai.com

    GPTZero AI Vision, the extension that flags AI posts as you browse →https://gptzero.me/ai-vision

    Superhuman acquires YC-backed notetaker Fathom (TechCrunch) →https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/14/superhuman-acquires-yc-backed-notetaker-fathom-as-productivity-platforms-push-for-agentic-work/

    Grammarly Authorship, which shows how much of your writing came from AI →https://www.grammarly.com/authorship

    GPTZero Authorship and Writing Replay →https://gptzero.me/authorship

    Stanley Druckenmiller says his WSJ op-ed was written with AI (NOTUS) →https://www.notus.org/media/stanley-druckenmillers-wsj-op-ed-bessent-ai

    Superhuman Go, the AI assistant that works wherever you type →https://superhuman.com/go

    Tesla reveals its new Roadster with SpaceX thrusters (TechCrunch) →https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/15/tesla-reveals-spacex-powered-roadster-that-flies-and-falls-with-style/

    OpenAI employee arrested over a hidden listening device in an executive conference room (NBC News) →https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/openai-employee-arrested-hidden-listening-device-company-says-rcna603262

    Eight states sue OpenAI over ChatGPT's alleged harm to kids (NBC News) →https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/openai-sued-eight-states-alleged-harm-chatgpt-rcna603614

    Timestamps:

    00:00:00 Intro

    00:07:14 GPTZero and the fight over what's human

    00:09:27 How much of Reddit, LinkedIn and X is AI

    00:10:56 Fathom and the 90% of work that's spoken

    00:12:05 Lightfield - Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you - it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app/

    00:16:27 Why Jason says every employee should use Grammarly

    00:18:04 How to test whether new hires can actually write

    00:22:08 Every - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io/.

    00:24:22 Grammarly Authorship and proving the work is yours

    00:25:53 How accurate are AI detectors

    00:30:36 Jason wants AI writing flagged by default

    00:32:34 Enforcing Grammarly and Go across a whole team

    00:36:45 PayPal - PayPal is built for all businesses. Get started at https://paypal.com/business

    00:37:28 Assist, chat and do, three kinds of AI agents

    00:41:06 Jason's feedback on the Grammarly keyboard

    01:13:27 Tesla demos the Roadster on SpaceX thrusters

    01:21:20 OpenAI engineer charged with bugging an executive conference room

    01:21:43 Why OpenAI warned employees about foreign spies

    01:27:57 Eight states sue OpenAI over harm to kids

    Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:

    TWiST:https://twistartups.substack.com/

    TWiAI:https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

    TWiVC:https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/

    Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple:https://rb.gy/v19fcp

    Follow Lon:

    X:https://x.com/lons

    Follow Jason:

    X:https://twitter.com/Jason

    LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

    Check out all our partner offers:https://partners.launch.co/

    Great TWIST interviews:Will Guidara,Eoghan McCabe,Steve Huffman,Brian Chesky,Bob Moesta,Aaron Levie,Sophia Amoruso,Reid Hoffman,Frank Slootman,Billy McFarland

    Follow TWiST:

    Twitter:https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

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    Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

    TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

    Substack:https://twistartups.substack.com

    1 hr 33 min

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

    Show notes

    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 https://getpaper.ai/twist to get your cap table free for a year - or two years if you're leaving Carta.

    00:11:28 Who is moving AI onto their own servers

    00:14:37 What it took to train Beam

    00:20:26 Superhuman Go is an AI chat that's always there when you need it, already aware of what you're doing, and doesn't ask you to start from zero. Sign up to get the best in AI at https://superhuman.com/

    00:21:29 How reinforcement learning tasks get built

    00:26:41 Hackers heat French supermarket fridges

    00:29:07 The AI that broke out of its sandbox to cheat

    00:31:05 The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist

    00:33:10 Why open source makes software safer

    00:38:13 The encryption fight and Tim Cook's stand

    00:42:53 Why China raced ahead in open models

    00:47:35 How Beam stacks up against Chinese models

    00:50:21 When American open models catch up

    00:58:39 Staying independent

    Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:

    TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/

    TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

    TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/

    Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

    Follow Jason:

    X: https://twitter.com/Jason

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

    Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

    Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

    Follow TWiST:

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

    Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

    1 hr

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

    Show notes

    This Week In Startups is made possible by:

    Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist

    Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain

    NetSuite: https://netsuite.ai/twist

    The Conservation Fund: https://conservationfund.org

    Today’s show:

    At packed concerts, festivals, and stadiums, your phone gets WORSE with every person who shows up. Totem gets better.

    Carter Fowler of Totem joins Alex to explain how his screen-free compass points you straight to your friends without relying on cell towers. Find out why Carter says Apple will never ship this in an iPhone, and why kids, ski patrols, and blind users have become some of his most loyal fans.

    PLUS, Lon and Alex dig into the archives for Jason's 2017 CES interview with Ring founder Jamie Siminoff, a year before Amazon bought the company. Jamie explains how a doorbell he couldn't hear in his garage became Ring, and why a strong mission is "cheating" when it comes to keeping a team focused. Then he tells Jason he wants to take Ring public, not sell it. Ironic because about a year later, Amazon bought it. And get ready for some hot takes on neighborhood license-plate cameras, years before the anti-Flock backlash.

    Guests:

    Carter Fowler on X: https://x.com/Carter_S_Fowler

    Totem: https://totemlabs.com

    Jamie Siminoff on X: https://x.com/JamieSiminoff

    Ring: https://ring.com

    Relevant Links:

    Totem Compass, the offline friend-finding compass → https://totemlabs.com

    Totem closes its $1.3M pre-seed round (Business Wire) → https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250212385814/en/Totem-Closes-%241.3M-in-Pre-Seed-Funding-to-Scale-Operations-for-Explosive-Demand

    Totem's community crowdfunding round → https://wefunder.com/totemlabs

    Totem's record Lost Lands deployment last year (Business Wire) → https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251009622355/en

    The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen, mentioned by Alex → https://www.amazon.com/dp/1633691780

    Original TWiST Interview with Jamie from 2017 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puP_D3k7vVI

    Amazon officially closes its Ring acquisition in 2018 (TechCrunch) → https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/12/amazon-officially-owns-ring-so-lets-talk-product-integration/

    Ring calls off its Flock Safety partnership after the Super Bowl ad backlash (Engadget) → https://engadget.com/home/ring-calls-off-partnership-with-police-surveillance-provider-flock-safety-031717605.html

    Flock Safety plans to cut about 18% of its staff (Reuters via The Star) → https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2026/10/09/exclusive-ai-surveillance-startup-flock-safety-to-cut-several-hundred-jobs-amid-backlash-sources-say

    Timestamps:

    00:00:00 Totem, an offline compass for finding friends at festivals

    00:00:31 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

    00:04:27 Why phones fail in big crowds

    00:06:42 How more devices make the mesh network stronger

    00:09:07 Why Totem beats phone GPS in a crowd

    00:11:40 Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! - Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain

    00:13:34 Why Apple won't build this into the iPhone

    00:18:10 Raising money for hardware in an AI world

    00:22:10 NetSuite: For the first time ever, you can try NetSuite Next for free. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, go to https://netsuite.ai/twist

    00:23:08 Turning crowd movement into a predictive model

    00:28:04 Rentals, kids and accessibility use cases

    00:32:22 The Conservation Fund: Find out more about how The Conservation Fund is protecting land, wildlife, and our shared access to the great outdoors while also providing economic opportunities. Visit https://conservationfund.org.

    00:35:47 Mesh networks on the front lines in Ukraine

    00:38:01 Flashback to Jason and Ring's Jamie Siminoff at CES 2017

    00:41:44 Roasting Jamie's earlier startups

    00:48:26 How a doorbell in the garage became Ring

    00:53:34 Why you should always bet on your friends

    01:02:21 Why a strong mission is cheating

    01:07:45 Selling to Amazon versus going public

    01:12:09 License plate readers and the Flock backlash

    Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:

    TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/

    TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

    TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/

    Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

    Follow Lon:

    X: https://x.com/lons

    Follow Jason:

    X: https://twitter.com/Jason

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

    Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

    Follow TWiST:

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

    Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

    1 hr 20 min

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

    Show notes

    This Week In Startups is made possible by:

    Lightfield: https://lightfield.app

    Rippling: https://Rippling.ai/twist

    Upwork: https://upwork.com

    Today’s show:

    AssetHub built an AI agent that recreates licensed characters in 3D while respecting copyright rules... But Jason says he needs to think BIGGER. 11 founders pitched their companies to Jason and Yuki Shirato of Techstars Tokyo at our Osaka event this week, and neither investor held back.

    Find out why Jason says Seekr feels more like a vitamin than a painkiller, and needs to ditch the press mentions from their deck. Plus, a vital lesson for founders: if everyone already knows about the problem you're solving, investors expect a tight solution and business plan. Truly novel business ideas get more leeway. Japan's startup community is booming, with many recent grads bailing on lifelong gigs at major corporations to start companies. But here's why Yuki says the fear of failure is still holding back progress.

    Guests:

    Yuki Shirato on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuki-shirato

    Techstars Tokyo: https://www.techstars.com/accelerators/tokyo

    Founder Pitches:

    Seekr: https://seekrai.global/product

    Arabat: https://arabat.it/

    AssetHub: https://assethub.io/

    CRAZIA: https://crazia.co/

    JuJuJuu: https://jujujuu.com/

    JAPANMEDIA: https://lp.japanmedia.ai/

    Tsuin AI: https://www.tsuin.ai

    Rumi Light: https://www.rumilight.jp/

    GENCHI: https://www.toraru.me/en

    TattvaSilicon: https://tattvasilicon.com/

    Mimi AI: https://nihongo-chat-ruby.vercel.app/onboarding

    Relevant Links:

    Founder University Japan, Jason's pre-accelerator program with JETRO → https://japan.founder.university/

    Techstars Tokyo announces its Class of 2026 → https://www.techstars.com/newsroom/techstars-tokyo-accelerator-announces-class-of-2026

    Yuki Shirato on why Japan should be on every founder's radar (Techstars) → https://www.techstars.com/blog/insights-and-trends/should-japan-be-on-your-radar-as-a-founder

    How Techstars Tokyo is helping make Japan a global startup hub (The Japan Times) → https://www.japantimes.co.jp/2025/12/25/special-supplements/accelerating-business-ambitions-global-scale-techstars-tokyo/

    VidiLabs, maker of the Seekr indoor positioning platform → https://seekrai.global/

    Density, the people-counting sensor company Jason has backed for a decade → https://www.density.io

    Arabat, recovering critical minerals from batteries with citrus and farm waste → https://arabat.it/

    AssetHub raises a $2M seed for its AI 3D platform (The Bridge) → https://thebridge.jp/en/2025/08/aix3d-production-platform-assethub-raises-approximately-¥300-million-in-seed-funding

    Seedance 2.0, the ByteDance AI video model Jason says fans are using to make Marvel shorts → https://seed.bytedance.com/en/blog/seedance-2-0-official-launch

    Bending Spoons, the company Jason cites for buying apps and running them with tiny AI-powered teams (TechCrunch) → https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/31/what-is-bending-spoons-everything-to-know-about-aols-acquirer/

    Burning Chrome by William Gibson, the source of “the street finds its own uses for things” → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ICMWZH4/

    Timestamps:

    00:00:00 Jason's first trip to Japan and the food crawl

    00:03:07 Why everyone in Japan acts like a founder

    00:03:42 Founder University comes to Japan

    00:08:44 Techstars Tokyo and Japan's push for global founders

    00:10:28 Why Japanese startups stay on the island

    00:12:44 Parents, lifetime jobs, and the fear of failure

    00:15:13 How Japan mastered product market fit

    00:18:43 Lightfield: Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you - it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app

    00:20:10 The white lab coat and the man who named his daughter Cinnamon

    00:25:05 Seekr: centimeter-precise indoor navigation

    00:27:38 Why investors want the business case, not the press

    00:28:21 Rippling: Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.

    00:34:54 Arabat: recovering rare earths with orange peels

    00:38:26 Getting from free pilots to paid pilots

    00:38:38 Upwork: Upwork helps businesses find highly skilled freelance professionals for specialized work. Post your job for free at https://upwork.com

    00:43:57 AssetHub: AI 3D models for anime and game IP

    00:52:40 Come for the tool, stay for the marketplace

    00:54:35 CRAZIA: turning customer conversations into growth

    00:56:42 JuJuJuu: giving alternative protein the structure of steak

    00:59:02 JAPANMEDIA: AI manga and anime at a fifth of the cost

    01:01:24 Tsuin AI: AI twins that think and act like you

    01:03:15 Picking the layup and the wild card

    01:09:29 Rumi Light: faster data paths inside AI servers

    01:11:40 GENCHI: a local avatar that shops Japan for you

    01:13:51 TattvaSilicon: analog circuit design in a day

    01:15:36 Mimi AI: learning to actually speak Japanese

    01:17:51 Why a live shopping avatar is Jason's wild card

    Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:

    TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/

    TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

    TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/

    Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

    Follow Jason:

    X: https://twitter.com/Jason

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

    Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

    Follow TWiST:

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

    Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

    1 hr 25 min

  13. What VCs Really Think About Personal AI Agents | E2347

    Show notes

    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 https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain

    00:26:29 What a great founder looks like in the AI era

    00:29:13 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://quo.com/TWiST

    00:34:35 Is Instinct worth $10 billion?

    00:41:31 Can Muse reach a billion daily users?

    00:44:49 Favorite personal agent use cases

    00:49:06 What happens when everyone's agent makes the same call

    00:53:17 Factory vs. Cognition and VCs backing rivals

    01:03:49 Is SaaS still worth venture money?

    01:09:49 Where the panel gets its information

    01:14:45 What a seed fund means in 2026

    Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:

    TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/

    TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

    TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/

    Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

    Follow Lon:

    X: https://x.com/lons

    Follow Jason:

    X: https://twitter.com/Jason

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

    Thank you to our partners:

    Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

    1 hr 19 min

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

    Show notes

    This Week In Startups is made possible by:

    Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/twist

    DigitalOcean: https://do.co/twist

    Sentry: https://sentry.io/twist

    Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist

    Today’s show:

    The smarter AI gets, the more it just does the work for you, and the less helpful it becomes as a tutor.

    Shan Reddy of Aristotle joins Jason to demo a voice-first tutor built to run a session the way a $200-an-hour human tutor would. We also dive into why frontier models are trained to hand you answers rather than build real understanding.

    PLUS, in Ask Jason, an incoming Fordham student (Jason’s alma mater!) wants to prepare for a career in finance. Plus, David from NYU calls back and wants to discuss what everyone would do with $500K in free money. Then, why does Jason think the Doomerism is coming from inside the AI labs?

    Guests:

    Shan Reddy on X: https://x.com/rshanreddy

    Aristotle: https://www.heyaristotle.com/

    Relevant Links:

    Shoe Dog by Phil Knight → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_Dog

    Something Like an Autobiography by Akira Kurosawa → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Like_an_Autobiography

    Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson, which Dovid is reading now → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein:_His_Life_and_Universe

    Gartner, Jason's example of firms doing research on behalf of corporations → https://www.gartner.com/

    "Religious Scholars Met With Anthropic. What They Heard Stunned Them." by Elizabeth Dias, The New York Times, Sept. 29, 2026; the story Lon brings up → https://www.inquirer.com/news/nation-world/religious-leaders-met-with-anthropic-20260930.html

    David Sacks accuses Anthropic of a "regulatory capture strategy based on fear-mongering"; the line Lon references (Bloomberg Law) → https://news.bloomberglaw.com/artificial-intelligence/anthropic-is-running-a-strategy-based-on-fear-mongering-sacks

    Aristotle's $5M seed round (PR Newswire) → https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aristotle-secures-5m-to-replace-the-chatbot-with-high-dosage-ai-tutoring-for-students-302880500.html

    "The 2 Sigma Problem" by Benjamin Bloom (1984), original paper → https://web.mit.edu/5.95/readings/bloom-two-sigma.pdf

    Journal record (Educational Researcher / SAGE) → https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0013189X013006004

    NYC's AI moratorium through 8th grade (ABC News) → https://abcnews.com/Technology/new-york-city-public-schools-banning-ai-middle/story?id=136134872

    Alpha School → https://www.alpha.school

    Brilliant's origin story at the LAUNCH Festival (NPR) → https://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/07/23/203677692/giving-brightest-kids-the-cram-school-experience-online

    Timestamps:

    00:00:00 Live Ask Jason kicks off

    00:00:14 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

    00:00:56 Fordham-bound caller asks how to break into finance in the AI era

    00:05:59 Jason's gift: read one biography a month

    00:10:06 Vanta: Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist

    00:12:06 Returning caller David: what would you do with $500K?

    00:19:53 DigitalOcean: Want to see what building on a true AI-native platform looks like? Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today - and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%.

    00:24:40 Bringing an AI protein folding tool into drug discovery

    00:27:19 How to do customer discovery with big companies

    00:29:44 The "dark arts" of market research and corporate intelligence

    00:30:13 Sentry: Your team should be focused on shipping features - not chasing down bugs. New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST26

    00:33:43 Is AI fear a dark PR campaign?

    00:35:01 Anthropic meets with religious scholars

    00:40:45 Are AI labs living through an Oppenheimer moment?

    00:42:50 Why we need to talk about AI's upside in education

    00:44:31 Sean Ready, co-founder and CEO of Aristotle, joins

    00:45:42 Why AI models are getting worse at teaching

    00:47:53 Aristotle demo: a voice AI tutor for AP Calculus

    00:51:13 Predicting the next best teaching action

    00:54:16 Bloom's two sigma problem and one-on-one tutoring

    00:55:22 Aristotle's business model and pricing

    00:57:53 Building a tutoring harness vs. relying on frontier labs

    01:01:05 Why dyslexic students love Aristotle

    01:02:40 Hand-grading thousands of hours of tutoring sessions

    01:05:06 Socialization, classrooms and the future of public education

    01:09:16 Where to try Aristotle and open roles

    Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:

    TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/

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    Follow Lon:

    X: https://x.com/lons

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    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

    Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

    1 hr 11 min

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

    Show notes

    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 http://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:

    http://abliteration.ai on a16z speedrun — the accelerator Jason congratulated Devon on → https://speedrun.a16z.com/companies/abliteration

    TechCrunch: "http://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/

    http://abliteration.ai press page → https://abliteration.ai/press

    Anthropic Frontier Red Team: "GLM-5.3 and the spread of advanced cyber capabilities" — the blog Devon cited on how capable abliterated GLM-5.3 is → https://www.anthropic.com/research/glm-5-3-and-the-spread-of-advanced-cyber-capabilities

    CNBC: Trump's executive order renaming AI "super intelligence," signed the same day → https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/29/trump-ai-super-intelligence.html

    Nextgov/FCW: OpenAI agents accessed Census and SEC data — detail on the dozens of organizations OpenAI notified → https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2026/09/openai-says-its-advanced-models-may-have-gone-after-government-websites/416250/

    Financial Times: "AI wrecking ball fractures billable-hour fee model"

    Seedance 2.5 — ByteDance's video model Bruno asked about → https://technode.com/2026/07/31/bytedance-launches-seedance-2-5-video-generation-model/

    Pixar / Toy Story — the CGI "Toy Story moment" Jason expects for AI video → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story

    Practi — Mathew's platform for helping law firms move from hourly billing to subscriptions → https://practi.ai/hello

    Timestamps:

    00:00:00 What http://Abliteration.ai does, and who the frontier labs are shutting out

    00:02:44 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

    00:02:56 Why defenders don't get the attackers' tools

    00:04:16 "Inversion of control": letting customers set their own guardrails

    00:06:47 Who's liable? The hammer analogy and the White House self-regulation pact

    00:10:11 Every: For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io.

    00:13:10 Why AI labs publicize their scariest hacks

    00:18:52 Customers: from cyber startups to Fortune 500 CISOs

    00:19:56 Northwest Registered Agent: Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! - Learn more at http://northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain

    00:24:41 Chinese image and video models

    00:27:20 Why most businesses still barely use AI

    00:29:02 Ask Jason begins

    00:29:24 Mathew Kerbis (Practi): What does AI do to the billable hour?

    00:30:16 Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist

    00:32:45 Will subscriptions replace hourly billing?

    00:37:27 Bruno Vilela: Are AI microdramas an ecosystem or a fad?

    00:39:35 Lon's microdrama pitch to Snapchat and TikTok's PineDrama

    00:48:09 Josh Ezell: Does AI change the bias against solo founders?

    00:49:26 Jason's three-two-one framework and the risks founders must eliminate

    Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:

    TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/

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    TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/

    Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

    Follow Lon:

    X: https://x.com/lons

    Follow Jason:

    X: https://twitter.com/Jason

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

    Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

    Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

    Follow TWiST:

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    Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

    53 min

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

    Show notes

    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 http://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 http://justin.tv, Twitch & Atrium (Feb 5, 2019) → https://thisweekinstartups.com/episodes/L3DP8VCE12s

    TWiST E1735: Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky on early rejection, customer focus & AI (May 4, 2023) → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ-BjJZxNoA

    Halo 3: the game that flooded Mahalo with traffic → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3

    Weblogs, Inc.: Jason's blog network, home of Engadget → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weblogs,_Inc.

    Instinct: the invite-only personal AI agent from founder Noah Shinn → https://www.instinct.co/

    AMD to acquire World Labs for $8.2B in stock; Li becomes AMD chief scientist (Bloomberg) → https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-28/amd-to-buy-fei-fei-li-s-world-labs-ai-startup-for-8-2-billion

    Lovable: where Lon says he'd rebuild a bad app in two hours → https://lovable.dev/

    Y Combinator → https://www.ycombinator.com/

    Paul Graham on X → https://x.com/paulg

    Obama O's and Cap'n McCain's: the cereal that funded Airbnb → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbnb#History

    Stripe: what Paul Graham suggested they build instead → https://stripe.com/

    Timestamps:

    00:00:00 Justin Kan on episode 900 (Feb 2019)

    00:03:44 When Jason and Justin realized people watch gaming

    00:05:52 Mahalo, Halo 3, and betting a company on 3% of its traffic

    00:10:21 CLA: Get started with CLA's CPAs, consultants, and wealth advisors now at https://www.claconnect.com/withyou

    00:11:42 The "zombie startup" years and Google's rejection

    00:17:06 Instinct: the AI agent built for venture capitalists

    00:19:43 Sentry: New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST26

    00:28:08 Kozmo.com and the era of "make number go up"

    00:30:06 Lightfield: Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you - it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app

    00:32:57 Why AI companies have to monetize faster

    00:34:00 Clip: Justin Kan on knowing yourself as a founder

    00:37:24 An early rejection of "founder mode"?

    00:38:33 Brian Chesky on episode 1735 (May 2023)

    00:39:27 "I hope that's not the only idea you're working on"

    00:43:27 What 10% of Airbnb for $150K is worth today

    00:46:05 Obama O's and the Y Combinator interview

    00:48:15 Why investors fund unkillable, attention-hacking founders

    00:54:37 Clip: Chesky on AI, deepfakes, and authenticity

    00:58:13 Is AI costing jobs or just making them busier?

    01:05:04 Did AI create "millions of startups"?

    Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:

    TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/

    TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

    TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/

    Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

    Follow Lon:

    X: https://x.com/lons

    Follow Jason:

    X: https://twitter.com/Jason

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

    Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

    Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

    Follow TWiST:

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

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    Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

    1 hr 18 min

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

    Show notes

    This Week In Startups is made possible by:

    Every.io: https://every.io/

    Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain

    Sentry: https://sentry.io/twist

    Today’s show:

    A product that would have cost $500,000 to build in 2006 now costs less than a used car. Jason put up $5,000 on an idea he'd been sitting on for 20 years, and so far, we’ve received dozens of amazing submissions from vibecode experts.

    See how well the Top 3 demos fare, and which app was so good, Jason’s already thinking about spinning it off into a startup.

    PLUS, an unhoused founder calls in asking how to raise money for not one but two pre-revenue startups? Hear Jason and Lon’s advice.

    Submissions:

    Submission 1 — https://annotated.wtf/ By Robert

    Submission 2 — https://annotated.bytetalk.ai/feed By Alan Shiflett

    Alan on X: https://x.com/alanshiflett

    Submission 3 — https://anotated.com/ By Chirag Asarpota

    Chirag on X: https://x.com/ChiragAsarpota

    Relevant Links:

    annotated.com bounty brief — https://annotated.lovable.app/

    All active TWiST bounties — https://www.thisweekinstartups.com/bo...

    The other open $5,000 bounty: a sidebar companion app for podcasts — https://www.notion.so/launch1/5K-Boun...

    Timestamps:

    00:00:00 Why Jason bought annotated.com

    00:00:33 The original idea: highlight any sentence on the web and dispute it

    00:01:25 The rules: the code is open source, and Jason can cancel any time

    00:02:06 Submission 1: Robert's annotated.wtf

    00:10:08 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io/

    00:12:13 Submission 1 Scoring

    00:12:28 Submission 2: Allan Shifflet's take

    00:13:56 What it got right: profiles, follower counts, trending topics

    00:16:40 Submission 3: annotaed.com, and buying the typo domain on purpose

    00:20:20 Northwest Registered Agent - Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent....

    00:23:26 Final scores, and how to enter round two

    00:24:48 Incubating annotated inside a venture firm

    00:29:46 Sentry - New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST

    00:30:18 Ask Jason: a homeless founder with two startup ideas

    Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com/

    Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com/

    Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

    Follow Lon:

    X: https://x.com/lons

    Follow Jason:

    X: / jason

    LinkedIn: / jasoncalacanis

    41 min

  18. The 5 Companies Apple Must Buy

    Show notes

    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 https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain

    00:25:37 Stacy Salvi of The90 joins

    00:29:28 AD: Thanks to our partner, Odoo, the all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist

    00:34:38 How the app calculates your Sunscore

    00:42:12 Building a UV research dataset

    00:45:09 Should The90 make a version for men?

    Names & Links

    Stacy Salvi - https://www.instagram.com/stacysalvi/

    The90 - https://the90.com/

    Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:

    TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/

    TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

    TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/

    Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

    Follow Lon:

    X: https://x.com/lons

    Follow Jason:

    X: https://twitter.com/Jason

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

    Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

    Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

    Follow TWiST:

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

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    Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

    50 min

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

    Show notes

    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 https://getpaper.ai/twist to get your cap table free for a year - or two years if you're leaving Carta.

    21:11 Ploy's thesis: your website as your hardest working employee

    27:05 Why a repeat unicorn founder went back to Y Combinator

    38:55 The DOJ probe into a16z's Databricks and Fivetran board seats

    44:57 "Nobody's thinking about you": Jason's stair story

    45:17 Frontier models vs. your own model, and OpenAI's $2M YC token deal

    54:04 News: Ando wants to replace Slack with agent-native chat

    1:01:08 News: Tesla ramps Optimus to several hundred robots a week

    1:04:48 Off-Duty: Jensen Huang tells Ezra Klein basic math may not matter

    1:08:31 The MIT "Your Brain on ChatGPT" EEG study

    1:09:57 Jason's five-part reset: sleep, diet, exercise, socializing, meditation

    1:11:45 Off-Duty: Sydney Sweeney's Novig ad backlash

    1:21:07 The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth trailer

    1:23:41 Jason's first car: a 1970 Mustang Grande

    Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com

    Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com

    Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

    Follow Lon:

    X: https://x.com/lons

    Follow Jason:

    X: https://twitter.com/Jason

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

    Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

    Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

    Subscribe to our Substack Newsletters!

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    1 hr 26 min

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

    Show notes

    This Week In Startups is made possible by:

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    Today’s show:

    Anthropic and OpenAI released cheaper models on the same day with Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6, and these VCs would still bet on open source. Jason brings on Dave McClure of Practical Venture Capital, Jeff Clavier of Uncork Capital, and Jenny Fielding of Everywhere Ventures to discuss the argument for open-weight models over the frontier labs.

    Learn why median seed valuations have more than tripled since 2017. Why does Dave say it's a buyer's market for secondaries right now? PLUS, does Meta's Muse leave any room for Instinct, and why are fintech and healthcare suddenly out of favor?

    Guests:

    Dave McClure on X: https://x.com/davemcclure?lang=en

    Practical Venture Capital: https://practicalvc.com/

    Jeff Clavier on X: https://x.com/jeff

    Uncorked Capital: https://uncorkcapital.com/

    Jenny Fiedling on X: https://x.com/jefielding

    Everywhere Ventures: https://www.everywhere.vc/

    Relevant Links:

    Instinct reportedly seeking $1B at a $10B valuation (report via The Information) → https://cryptobriefing.com/ai-assistant-startup-instinct-targets-10b-valuation-in-new-funding-talks-report/

    Meta's Muse, the agent the panel sees as Instinct's biggest threat, now on Mac → https://aiweekly.co/alerts/meta-ships-muse-for-mac-agent-now-acts-in-native-macos-apps

    Trump calls Jensen Huang onstage at the All-In Summit → https://thenextweb.com/news/trump-phoned-jensen-huang-onstage-at-the-all-in-summit-to-call-ai-fear-a-hoax

    AI-assisted intel error nearly triggered a US intercept of a Chinese ship (CNN via gCaptain) → https://gcaptain.com/ai-error-nearly-triggered-u-s-intercept-of-chinese-ship-cnn-reports/

    Bernie Sanders' 50% AI sovereign wealth fund bill + Altman meeting (Fortune) → https://fortune.com/2026/06/18/bernie-sanders-ai-fund-bill-sam-altman-1000-payments/

    Stanley Druckenmiller's AI-written WSJ op-ed (Axios) → https://axios.com/2026/08/26/stanley-druckenmiller-ai-writing-wsj-op-ed

    Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Sol/Luna launch the same day with price cuts (SiliconANGLE) → https://siliconangle.com/2026/09/22/anthropic-releases-claude-opus-5-5-and-openai-counters-with-two-cheaper-gpt-6-models/

    Zipline: LAUNCH's "miss," later backed through the syndicate → https://www.flyzipline.com/

    Micro1 → https://www.micro1.ai/

    Founder University → https://www.founder.university/ [VERIFY]

    The Syndicate: angel invest alongside LAUNCH (apply, waitlist) → https://thesyndicate.com/

    Timestamps:

    0:00 What seed rounds looked like then: Fitbit's $2M seed

    2:38 Jenny's Techstars NYC years and the two-unicorn mug

    6:10 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

    7:51 All-In Summit: Trump calls Jensen Huang onstage. Staged or not?

    8:56 P(doom) roundtable + Dave's AI sovereign wealth fund prediction

    10:08 Northwest Registered Agent - Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain

    13:35 The AI intel error that nearly triggered a US-China incident

    17:44 "McClure's Law": a human with AI is the real risk

    19:59 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist

    21:37 Stripe + OpenRouter: an anti-fraud play, not a routing play?

    23:07 Seed valuations: median $8M (2017) to $28M today

    23:58 Instinct: $2.5B to a reported $10B in weeks

    29:49 Rippling - Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.

    44:01 Opus 5.5 vs. GPT-6 Sol: the same-day price war

    46:51 Gun to your head: open-weight models or frontier labs?

    51:00 Secondaries: the top 30 names vs. everyone else

    52:30 Why fintech and healthcare are unloved (and Jason's Robinhood bet)

    Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com

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    Follow Lon:

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    X: https://twitter.com/Jason

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

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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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    1 hr 27 min

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