This Week in Startups

This Week In Startups is made possible by: MongoDB - MongoDB.com/ai Rippling - Rippling.ai/twist Agree.com - agree.com   Today's show: Hustle Fund's Eric Bahn and Chapter One's Jeff Morris Jr. join our venture capital roundtable directly following the news breaking that Stripe wants to buy PayPal. The possible transaction highlights how little interest today's leading startups have in going public any time soon. With host Alex Wilhelm, Bahn and Morris dug into when startups should burn the boats à la Fin, physical AI as the next frontier, the power of Silicon Valley groupthink, and how startups are approaching the first days of widespread, company-specific AI evals! Guest links: Eric Bahn https://x.com/ericbahn Hustle Fund https://www.hustlefund.vc Jeff Morris Jr. https://x.com/jmj Chapter One https://chapterone.com Show links: Stripe wants to buy PayPal https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/stripe-advent-offer-buy-paypal-more-than-53-billion-sources-say-2026-07-15/ Flex https://www.flex.one/ Webflow https://webflow.com/ Oak https://www.oak.id/ Fin selling to Salesforce https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2026/06/15/salesforce-signs-definitive-agreement-to-acquire-fin/ Erebor https://erebor.bank/ "Competition is for losers" https://www.wsj.com/articles/peter-thiel-competition-is-for-losers-1410535536 Chapter One piece on the value of software https://jamesin.substack.com/p/some-areas-weve-been-investing-in   Timestamps: 0:00 Eric Bahn (Hustle Fund) & Jeff Morris Jr. (Chapter One) join the show! 1:35 Stripe's reported $53B offer for PayPal 6:29 Why founders don't want to go public 10:08 Agree.com - Stop chasing invoices and automate your entire contract-to-cash stack. Go to https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life! 15:16 When is it time to burn the boats? 20:12 MongoDB - AI-assisted and agentic coding is helping you build faster than ever. Start building at https://MongoDB.com/ai 21:16 Does VC need an AI revolution? 30:50 Rippling - Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business. 32:36 Custom evals, open source models, and avoiding vendor lock-in 36:37 Physical AI and robotics as the next frontier 37:42 Oak's $60M seed and startup clusters chasing agent infrastructure 40:43 Escaping the Silicon Valley "think tank" 48:28 Consumer AI's missing wave 1:00:18 AI regulation and how to get it right 1:12:01 Where to find our guests and wrap-up!   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

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Quo https://quo.com/TWiST PayPal Open https://paypalopen.com Northwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Today's show: *Jason spent $11 building out PodMeme, an AI tool that tracks down the best segments from top podcasts about a specific topic, then stitches them together into a single stream. His post laying out how he did it, featuring a simple screenshot of the product, got all the way to 1.1M views in just a few days. It's a simple fact: builders love to see what other people are building, and growing your new project "in public," sharing your journey on social media, is a great way to develop buzz around your product before it even exists. Today's guest Thibault "Tibo" Louis-Lucas walks us through how he grew products like Tweet Hunter and Taplio on his social media account, using social media buzz and a focus on tools for creators to very quickly expand to over $1M ARR. PLUS why Apple would only sue OpenAI if they knew they had them dead to rights… why Uber and Waymo are fighting over DC robotaxis… Jason's response to the public backlash against surveillance startup Flock Safety… and the guys remember iconic New Zealand actor Sam Neill. Guest: Tibo Louis-Lucas on X: https://x.com/tibo_maker Revid.ai: https://www.revid.ai/ Tweet Hunter: https://tweethunter.io/ Taplio: https://taplio.com/ Relevant Links: Lemlist: https://www.lemlist.com/ GRIN influencer marketing: https://grin.co/ TechCrunch: "Apple Sues OpenAI": https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/10/apple-sues-openai-over-alleged-trade-secret-theft/ We Must Act Now statement: https://www.wemustactnow.ai/ TechCrunch: "Uber's Robotaxi Lobbying Effort": https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/ubers-robotaxi-lobbying-effort-has-put-it-on-a-collision-course-with-waymo/ DC Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Authorization Amendment of 2026: https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/2003462 DoorDash: Meet Dot: https://about.doordash.com/en-us/dot Flock Safety: https://www.flocksafety.com/ DeFlock: https://deflock.org/ Gigazine: Flock accuses Deflock of being a "terrorist org": https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20260209-flock-ceo-deflock/#gsc.tab=0 Unifi AI Security Systems: https://ui.com/physical-security Jason's PodMeme post: https://x.com/Jason/status/2076231055443440105 Jason responds to Justine Bateman: https://x.com/Jason/status/2076326740050206959 NYT Sam Neill obituary: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/movies/sam-neill-dead.html "Possession" trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLXW-oVbTxE FanEdit: https://fanedit.org/forums/news-publisher/ "Manhunter" trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLqHlg2fAnE HBO "The Man Will Burn" trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRhUYPtp6Ao Timestamps: 0:00 There's no air conditioning in Paris 7:27 Tibo Maker's "ship 1 product a week" challenge 9:24 The power of building products in public 10:59 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) - Quo gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://quo.com/TWiST 12:04 Excitement for JCal's "PodMeme" set-up 15:40 Compounding an audience and enlisting influencers 19:13 Your follower count is not important any more 20:59 PayPal - Built for payments, growth, and agentic. Paypal Open, built for all business. Visit https://paypalopen.com to get started 22:28 How Tibo got banned on LinkedIn twice 28:48 Apple sues OpenAI 30:59 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 38:44 How OpenAI should have handled the New York Times 45:10 DC's new robotaxi bill 52:06 Managing the AV and delivery-bot transition 53:23 Economists warn of AI job displacement 1:07:00 How Jason would fix Flock's messaging 1:17:26 Remembering Sam Neill 1:23:05 Lon's Dream AI edit 1:26:35 HBO's Burning Man docuseries   Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp   Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons   Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm   Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis   Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/   Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland   Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis   Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com  

This Week In Startups is made possible by: NetSuite https://NetSuite.ai/TWIST Squarespace https://squarespace.com/twist YSecurity https://YSecurity.io/TWIST Today's show: *America posted 400,000 farm jobs last year, and fewer than 1% got a single domestic applicant. Danny Bernstein of Reservoir believes it's time to start automating this backbreaking labor, like picking stone fruit in 110°F temperatures. So he built the world's first on-farm robotics incubator on 40 acres of California farmland. Here's why he argues that automating farms isn't just a new opportunity, it's a national security issue. PLUS Jason responded to Gal Shir's viral "AI beat me at design" tweet, got into a kerfuffle with Figma CEO Dylan Field, and wound up making a brand new J-Trade. AND we're talking about the Dept. of Education's new "do no harm" policy, the Brown University AI cheating chart that's blowing up social media, and Lon has fresh streaming recommendations in an all-new Off Duty. Guest: Danny Bernstein on X: https://x.com/bernsteind Reservoir Farms: https://reservoir.co/ Reservoir VC: https://reservoir.vc/ Relevant Links: Bonsai Robotics: https://bonsairobotics.ai/ Root AI acquired by AppHarvest: https://www.therobotreport.com/root-ai-acquired-by-appharvest-for-60m/ John Deere: https://www.deere.com/en-us/ Western Growers Association: https://www.wga.com/ Tanimura & Antle: https://www.taproduce.com/ Naturipe Berry Growers: https://www.naturipefarms.com/ Driscoll's: https://www.driscolls.com/ Taylor Farms: https://www.taylorfarms.com/ The Wonderful Company: https://www.wonderful.com/ Capital Factory: https://www.capitalfactory.com/ Gal Shir "quitting design" post: https://x.com/galshirart/status/2074854464729629060 Dylan Field response to Gal Shir: https://x.com/zoink/status/2075290218660298807 JCal response to Field and "J-Trade": https://x.com/Jason/status/2075481565115654305 Figma: https://www.figma.com/ Dept. of Education: "Do No Harm" policy announcement: https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-issues-final-rule-hold-all-colleges-and-universities-accountable-low-earning-programs NPR coverage on Dept. of Education earnings test: https://www.npr.org/2026/06/30/nx-s1-5835631/turner-camhi-do-no-harm-college-loans Paul Graham "cheating chart" post: https://x.com/paulg/status/2075031014628311236 Off Duty Recommendations: "Lioness" on Paramount+: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNRQ0PR4a8U "Mayor of Kingstown" on Paramount+: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkQzvwxOp0s "Human Vapor" on Netflix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xe6dRKVAb8 "Sugar" on Apple TV+: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twvPGxuEOEA "Wind River" (now on Netflix): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZgN0dpFoaE "Not Fade Away" by Peter Barton & Laurence Shames: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Fade-Away-Short-Lived/dp/1579546889 Timestamps: 0:00 Jason's ongoing World Tour 1:43 Danny Bernstein joins live from Reservoir Farms 3:38 What is "specialty crop agriculture" 5:15 Why strawberries are the "white whale" of AgTech 6:55 The labor crisis in farming 9:20 Why AgTech never scaled 9:51 NetSuite - For the first time, you can try NetSuite Next for free. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, go to https://NetSuite.ai/TWIST 10:51 Inside Reservoir's business model 17:44 Agriculture as national security 20:09 Squarespace - Turn your idea into a beautiful website! Go to https://www.squarespace.com/twist for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. 22:15 Did AI beat a designer at design? 30:56 YSecurity - The on-demand security team for startups. Need enterprise-grade security without hiring a $400k CISO? YSecurity gives you 40+ expert engineers, matched to exactly what you need, by the hour, with your first six hours completely free. Go to https://YSecurity.io/TWIST 37:23 The "do no harm" college earnings test 43:27 Brown University students cheated on their midterms 52:22 Lon's streaming recommendations 59:46 Jason's new snake grabber   Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp   Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons   Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm   Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis   Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/   Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland   Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis   Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Digital Ocean - do.co/twist Agree.com - agree.com Every.io - every.io.   Today's show: How many startups matter in tech? Fewer than you think. That's why venture capitalists are tripping over themselves to get onto their cap tables, no matter the cost. Why? Footwork's Nikhil Basu Trivedi argues that the Valley has never been more "power-law-pilled" than it is today. Basu Trivedi joined Cendana Capital's Michael Kim and TWiST's Alex Wilhelm to go deep on secondary markets, the state of startup M&A, why the SaaSpocalypse may be temporary, and what could trigger a retrenchment of the AI trade. It's Wednesday, so it's time for our venture capital roundtable to go deep on how VCs are investing today, and where on the horizon they have their eyes fixed! Guest links: Nikhil Basu Trivedi https://x.com/nbt Footwork https://www.footwork.vc/ Michael Kim https://x.com/MKRocks Cendana Capital https://www.cendanacapital.com/ Show links: The USVC-Anduril blowup https://x.com/ankurnagpal/status/2072701195714531398 Kline Hill Cendana Partners https://www.secondariesinvestor.com/kline-hill-and-cendana-raise-400m-for-second-vc-secondaries-fund/ GPTZero's exit https://gptzero.me/news/preserving-whats-human/ Salesforce buys Fin https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2026/06/15/salesforce-signs-definitive-agreement-to-acquire-fin/ Vercel buys Better Auth https://vercel.com/blog/vercel-acquires-better-auth Figma buys Bud https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/07/figma-acquires-team-behind-a-vibe-coding-app/ Protoge https://withprotege.ai/ Windborne https://windbornesystems.com/ Etched https://www.etched.com/ Lovable's reported raise https://sifted.eu/articles/lovable-300m-13-2bn-valuation Josh Browder https://x.com/Joshuabrowder   Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction: Nikhil Basu Trivedi (Footwork) & Michael Kim (Cendana Capital) 1:59 The Anduril vs. USVC secondary market blowup 4:08 Why Silicon Valley is 'power-law-pilled' 8:23 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 9:37 Information asymmetry in the secondary markets 9:45 Every.io — For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io 15:02 Is SPV fraud smoke or fire? 16:32 Superhuman acquires GPTZero 19:54 Agree.com - Stop chasing invoices and automate your entire contract-to-cash stack. Go to https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life! 21:10 The M&A wave 27:19 The SaaSpocalypse debate 29:59 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%. 30:44 Data's moment in the energy → compute → data loop 35:01 Where will AI value accrue? 40:04 What could cause an AI correction? 42:17 Why some companies are "too big to miss" 46:23 China's possible open-weight model ban 53:28 Young founders: Etched, Thiel Fellows, Z Fellows, Neo 55:33 Portfolio spotlight: WindBorne's weather balloons and data moat 58:47 Michael's favorite fund manager: Josh Browder Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp   Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons   Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm   Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis   Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/   Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland   Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis   Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Vanta https://www.vanta.com/twist Sentry https://sentry.io/twist Today's show: *There are $100 trillion in global assets sitting on top of what Hanover Park co-founder/CEO Chris Hladczuk calls "human duct tape": armies of accountants in offices patching together work from various legacy tools (QuickBooks, Excel) that are holding funds' own data hostage. Can all of this be replaced with AI? Find out how their startup went from overseeing $1B to $20B in assets in just 15 months. PLUS, we flash back to March 2020, when Jason and Figma co-founder/CEO Dylan Field broke down the design tool's initial go-to-market strategy, made some WILDLY inaccurate COVID predictions, and considered anxiety about "SaaS burnout" years before the category went full apocalyptic. Guests: Chris Hladczuk on X: https://x.com/chrishlad Hanover Park: https://www.hanoverpark.com/ Dylan Field: https://x.com/zoink Figma: https://www.figma.com/ Relevant Links: Turner Novak on X: https://x.com/TurnerNovak Banana Capital: https://www.bananacapital.vc/ Emergence Capital: https://www.emcap.com/ Lux Capital: https://www.luxcapital.com/ Susa Ventures: https://susaventures.com/ Bill.com: https://www.bill.com/ METR: https://metr.org/ Granola AI note taker: https://www.granola.ai/ Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/ Foo Camp on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/foocamp TechCrunch Mahalo coverage: https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/27/inside-mobile-news-launch/ Timestamps: 0:00 Hanover Park & the fund admin problem 3:32 Why funds outsource instead of building 5:44 Why fund accounting is so complex 10:38 The "one-click migration" goal 10:48 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 13:51 Context vs. intelligence gaps 16:11 No PMs, No Designers 20:46 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist 23:18 This is a $100T opportunity 25:36 Flashback w/ Dylan Field of Figma 29:15 Sentry - Your team should be focused on shipping features — not chasing down bugs. New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST 31:22 Pre-AI enterprise security worries 36:30 SaaS overload and SaaS burnout 37:30 The evolution of Figma pricing 42:38 The rise and fall of Mahalo dot com 51:38 The work-from-home revolution begins 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: (0:00) PARTNER - AD BLURB (0:00) PARTNER - AD BLURB (0:00) PARTNER - AD BLURB Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: CLA - www.claconnect.com/withyou Northwest Registered Agent - www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Agree.com - www.agree.com Today's show: Forget the triple-triple-double-double-double; the new bar for startups hoping to raise venture capital has reached the stratosphere, though our venture panel is worried that startups are focusing too much on today's problems that may not become companies tomorrow. During a lively VC roundtable, Cowboy's Aileen Lee, Floodgate's Mike Maples, and Lerer Hippeau's Ben Lerer joined Alex to dig into exiting pre-AI startups, rising valuations, token spend, why they are keeping their funds small, and whether the government just tripped OpenAI and Anthropic! Guest Links: Aileen Lee https://x.com/aileenlee Cowboy VC https://cowboy.vc Mike Maples https://x.com/m2jr Floodgate https://www.floodgate.com Bene Lerer https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjlerer Lere Hippeau https://www.lererhippeau.com Timestamps: 0:00 Aileen Lee, Mike Maples, and Ben Lerer join the show 5:13 Venture liquidity returns: what SpaceX/Stripe distributions mean for LPs 9:13 Bending Spoons prices IPO at $29/share, roughly $18.4B valuation 10:31 Agree.com - Stop chasing invoices and automate your entire contract-to-cash stack. Go to https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life! 12:09 "Companies get bought, not sold" — Ben on taking first offers seriously 17:41 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 19:34 Mutiny's burn-the-boats AI pivot with Jaleh Rezaei 20:19 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 22:15 Mike's KeepSafe story: the "rule of 70" and profit-first companies 25:12 The new growth bar: 5x, 4x replaces triple-triple-double-double 28:55 Fund size is your strategy: why Floodgate and Lerer Hippeau stay small 30:11 CLA - Innovation takes balance. CLA's CPAs, consultants, and wealth advisors can help you get from startup to where you want to end up. Get started now at https://www.claconnect.com/withyou 37:39 The $100M Series A: Starcloud, General Intuition, Scale Cognition, Scout AI 40:35 King-making rounds and why mega-seeds destroy optionality 54:11 Open-weight models: the GLM-5.2 moment and going model-agnostic 55:30 Why fine-tuning open models is a treadmill, with Cursor/Kimi as an example 1:03:28 Grading the Trump administration on Mythos and Fable 1:06:33 Rising anti-AI sentiment, the wealth gap, and lessons from social media 1:11:43 Raising kids in the post-intelligence era 1:12:35 Where to find the panel and what each firm is investing in Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud https://Plaud.ai/twist Shopify https://shopify.com/twist LinkedIn Jobs https://LinkedIn.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Today's show: *It's another All Star Summer, as we welcome back some of our favorite guests from throughout "This Week in Startups" history. Chamath Palihapitiya's development platform 8090 just raised $135 million, and he's using it to go after a $4 trillion market: the software maintenance, migration, and middleware spending that's currently "pure waste" for enterprises. Find out why the All-In Podcast bestie says every company should use AI to build custom software the way that Google, Facebook, and Meta already do, then go inside Software Factory, the "system on a chip" organizational model, and why Chamath believes AI will allow every human on Earth to start their own company. Guest: Chamath on X: https://x.com/chamath 8090: https://www.8090.ai/ Learn With Me on Substack: https://chamath.substack.com/p/learn-with-me Drink With Me: https://www.drinkwithme.com/age-verify.html All-In Podcast: https://allin.com/ Social Capital: https://www.socialcapital.com/ Relevant Links: 8090 Series A announcement: https://x.com/chamath/status/2071571183665881515 Salesforce Ventures: https://salesforceventures.com/ Craft Ventures: https://www.craftventures.com/ The Production Board: https://www.tpb.co/ WNDR: https://www.wndr.vc/ LAUNCH: https://www.launch.co Coatue Management: https://www.coatue.com/ Jack Dorsey: "From Hierarchy to Intelligence": https://block.xyz/inside/from-hierarchy-to-intelligence Thomas Keller's The French Laundry: https://thomaskeller.com/tfl/ Timestamps: 0:00 It's TWiST All-Star Summer! 0:44 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 3:21 Chamath's origin story 7:54 Tom Sawyer entrepreneurship 11:29 Shopify - Turn those What If's into sales with the ecommerce platform powering millions of businesses. Sign up for your $1-per-month trial today at https://shopify.com/twist 16:25 The $5 trillion software market 21:06 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist 25:00 Building "a co-founder for every human" 31:51 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 35:00 How product development lost its way 45:00 Regulated industries are the beachhead 50:00 Raising the $135M Series A 55:00 8090's "System on a Chip" model 1:04:44 What to tell your kids about AI Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twistSentry - https://sentry.io/twistNorthwest Registered Agent-https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twistDigitalOcean - https://do.co/twist Today's show: F1 teams spend up to a third of their budgets on aerodynamics, often utilizing wind tunnels to simulate what happens on the track. But Lyall Davenport of SKN Systems created a sensor-embedded tape that sticks directly to race cars as they drive around the real world, generating 420M data points per hour. And it comes in at roughly 95% less cost than running a full simulator. Hear about how Lyall's background in racing helped him develop the concept, plans to expand from motorsports to drones and defense, and his experiences going through Jason's various programs. PLUS OpenAI's new models are so good, you can't use them. Why Apple's Vision Pro chief defected to OpenAI (and why their laptops and devices are getting more expensive). A look at the world's most annoying data center in Sterling, Virginia. And Jason remembers iconic and influential tech journalist Om Malik. Guest: Lyall Davenport: https://x.com/Lyalldavenport SKN Systems: https://www.skn.systems/ Timestamps: 0:00 How SKN uses tape to generate aerodynamic data 4:04 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 6:17 How SKN uses tape to generate aerodynamic data 9:55 Sentry - Your team should be focused on shipping features — not chasing down bugs. New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST 17:20 F1 teams are worth HOW MUCH? 19:42 Northwest Registered Agent: Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 20:35 Future markets beyond motorsports 30:03 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%. 32:45 GPT-5.6 is banned for now 43:46 Vision Pro chief makes for the exit 51:24 Apple raises their prices 56:05 The data center you're allowed to hate 1:06:04 Zuck's new prediction market app 1:08:42 RIP Om Malik (1966-2026) 1:19:50 Streaming and camera recommendations 1:28:06 All about eFoiling 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 LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Deel - deel.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent - northwestregisteredagent.com/twist LinkedIn - linkedIn.com/twist Today's show: Jason sits down with Brynn Putnam, CEO and founder of Board, to learn more about her company's tabletop gaming console. The pair talks about how to raise capital for yet-to-launch hardware projects, the screen-time debate, and how Board is approaching building or buying IP for its family-friendly games. Next, Alex got Heremus's AJ Piplica on the horn to chat hypersonic, autonomous jets. The startup's technology bridges the gap between rockets and airplanes, and may represent the future of warfare, yes, but also fast freight! Guest Links: Brynn Putnam https://x.com/BrynnPutnam Board https://board.fun/ Board Series A announcement https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/02/board-the-new-game-startup-from-mirror-founder-brynn-putnam-raises-20m-has-already-sold-thousands/ Mirror https://www.lululemonstudio.com/ AJ Piplica https://x.com/AJ_Piplica Heremus https://www.hermeus.com/ Heremus Series C announcement https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hermeus-reaches-1-billion-valuation-with-350-million-raise-to-build-todays-fastest-aircraft-for-the-american-warfighter-302735273.html Timestamps: 0:00 Board's Brynn Putnam joins the show 2:54 Board's proprietary AI software stack 6:43 Why Board manufactures in Mexico (not China) 9:21 LinkedIn: Thanks to our partners at LinkedIn! Post your job for free at https://linkedIn.com/twist then promote it to get access to LinkedIn Jobs' new AI assistant. 9:42 How to raise a Seed round for hardware without a finished product 15:26 Brynn's daughter and the mermaid example 17:09 Can Board limit screen time fears? 18:47 Northwest Registered Agent: Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 22:54 Selling the first 10,000 units 28:38 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more. 29:42 Why Board is steering away from simple ports toward native IP experiences 35:32 Hermeus's AJ Piplica joins the show 35:32 What is Dark Horse? 43:48 Commercial applications: Cargo, organs, flowers, and trans-Atlantic in 90 minutes 47:47 Commercial applications: Cargo, organs, flowers, and trans-Atlantic in 90 minutes 57:00 Dark Horse range and the "reusable first stage" analogy 58:42 Dark Horse range and the "reusable first stage" analogy 1:02:42 $350M Series C led by Khosla; total funding now exceeds $500M 1:03:39 The SpaceX model: get customers to fund your R&D 1:07:47 Closing: the American Dynamism pitch Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by:Agree - https://agree.comQuo - https://quo.com/TWiSTSuperhuman - https://superhuman.comToday's show:In this double-header, Jason and Lon chat with Louis Phillips, founder of the gamified running app INTVL, which turns a quick job around the block into a worldwide turf war competition. Find out how he grew the app to over 1 million downloads without any paid ads, just making videos from his home office.PLUS Alex sits down with Alice Zhang, CEO of Verge Labs, which pivoted from making drugs to building the AI infrastructure that helps pharma companies develop their own treatments. Find out how they accumulated one of the world's largest proprietary brain datasets and why brain tissue is the "LiDAR of neuroscience."Guests:INTVL: https://www.intvl.com.au/INTVL on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intvl.appLouis Phillips on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louisphillips12Verge Labs: https://vergelabs.com/Alice Zhang on X: https://x.com/AliceXinliZhangRelevant LinksMeta's Ad Library: https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/Strava: https://www.strava.com/Pokémon Go: https://pokemongo.com/Fitbod: https://fitbod.me/Tonebase: https://www.tonebase.co/Calm: https://www.calm.com/Hamilton Island official site: https://www.hamiltonisland.com.au/"Mr. Inbetween" trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EooRG3QhQOYArticle: "Verge Genomics Rebrands as Verge Labs": https://trial.medpath.com/news/verge-genomics-rebrands-as-verge-labs-following-als-drug-trial-failure-pivots-to-ai-driven-target-discoveryEli Lilly: https://www.lilly.com/Chai Discovery: https://www.chaidiscovery.com/Noetik: https://www.noetik.ai/Tempus: https://www.tempus.com/Timestamps:0:00 Louis on building in Melbourne, Australia 7:44 Why INTVL ignores how fast you run 9:59 Agree - Stop chasing invoices at https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life! 15:52 Using gamification for good 19:10 Powering INTVL's impressive growth 19:55 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) - Quo gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://quo.com/TWiST 26:16 The future of TWiST Australia 27:14 Will AI ever cure cancer? 27:54 Inside Verge's rebrand 30:31 Superhuman - Get AI that works where you work. Unlock your Superhuman potential at https://superhuman.com 32:01 Brain tissue as "ground truth" 36:01 Why brain tissue is so valuable as data 43:52 Verge's Eli Lilly partnership 51:34 "You're going to tell me when I'm going to die" 56:11 How AI could impact drug prices 58:19 Clinical trial FAILS and how to move onSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisCheck 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 McFarlandCheck out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Deel - deel.com/twist LinkedIn - linkedIn.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent - northwestregisteredagent.com/twistPlaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: Anthropic stabbed Cursor in the back. Then SpaceX swooped in with $60 billion. Today, TWiST connects the dots on the biggest deal in AI since the Microsoft-OpenAI partnership, and why it's a warning sign for every startup building on top of a frontier model. Jason is joined by Bling Capital's Ben Ling, Banana Capital's Turner Novak, and co-host Alex to go deep on the future of coding models, the current golden age of venture liquidity, OpenAI's financials, and the 'Four Ds' of venture investing. The show closes with a tribute to Josh Baer, the founder of Capital Factory. Guest Links: Ben Ling https://x.com/bling0?lang=en Bling Capital https://www.blingcap.com/ Turner Novak https://x.com/TurnerNovak Banana Capital https://www.bananacapital.vc/ Show Links: Hanover Park https://www.hanoverpark.com/ SpaceX buys Cursor https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/16/spacex-spcx-cursor-acquisition-ipo.html Cursor Composer 2.5 https://cursor.com/blog/composer-2-5 OpenAI financials source https://www.wheresyoured.at/exclusive-openai-financials/ AMD's new deskside data center https://www.amd.com/en/products/processors/desktops/ryzen/ryzen-ai-halo.html Perplexity Model Council https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-model-council Timestamps: 0:00 Guest introductions 1:15 Guest introductions 2:43 SpaceX acquires Cursor for $60B 6:13 The golden era of M&A 9:13 Northwest Registered Agent: Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 12:04 Cursor's negative gross margins & the compute problem 13:22 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 15:04 Rolling your own model: When does it make sense? 19:35 LinkedIn: Thanks to our partners at LinkedIn! Post your job for free at https://linkedIn.com/twist then promote it to get access to LinkedIn Jobs' new AI assistant. 22:53 The "headless product" thesis 28:31 Deel: Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more. 34:22 OpenAI financials leaked: $13B revenue, $38.5B net loss 40:13 Where does AI value accumulate? 45:34 Portfolio Spotlight: Hanover Park 48:37 Seed stage graduation rates have fallen from 50% to 25% 54:59 The four Ds of venture: Deal flow, Decisions, Doubling down, Distributions 1:06:36 How to find 'undiscovered gems' 1:30:59 Snap Specs AR glasses: $2,195, and a bit chunky 1:39:29 Tribute to Joshua Baer, Capital Factory's founder Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Every.io - visit every.io Sentry.io - sentry.io/twist Vanta - vanta.com/twist Today's show: The next SpaceX won't be building rockets; it'll build the first hotel on the Moon. Today on TWiST, GRU Space founder Skyler Chan brings a brick made from lunar soil into the studio and lays out a plan to manufacture on the Moon as early as next year. We get into the science, the business model, and the regulatory land-grab ahead! Then, the US government forces Anthropic to pull Fable 5 and Mythos 5. Jason and Lon unpack what it means when a single AI model can vanish overnight, and the US government's emergency order. Stick around for the winner (or winners?!) of the $5,000 AI podcast-companion bounty! Timestamps: 0:00 Knicks playoff run, San Antonio & Texas BBQ (Black's vs. Terry Black's) 8:23 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 9:52 Guest intro: Skyler Chan, GRU Space — and the lunar-soil brick 10:29 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io 12:14 Why the next SpaceX builds habitats, not rockets 15:18 NASA's $20B moon-base signal & the TRL contracting path 16:13 Business model: from construction contractor to owning lunar land 18:06 Building the hotel robotically + $1M refundable deposits 20:00 Sentry - Your team should be focused on shipping features — not chasing down bugs. New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST 31:09 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist 39:28 News: US government blocks Anthropic's Fable 5 & Mythos 5 41:34 The politics: Hegseth, Sacks, Jassy & the "conspiracy" angle 1:09:39 Why no single model dependency is safe (multi-model harnesses) 1:18:47 Bounty results: MySidecast wins $3,000 1:19:07 Honorable mentions: Couchverse (Lemon Slice) & Convalenz 1:29:44 Next bounty: the Annotated app 🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned: Guest & company Skyler Chan: Founder, GRU Space → https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/galactic-resource-utilization-space-inc-gru-space GRU Space (Galactic Resource Utilization): YC startup building lunar-regolith bricks and a robotic Moon hotel → https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/galactic-resource-utilization-space-inc-gru-space GRU Space lunar hotel bookings → https://payloadspace.com/gru-space-opens-bookings-for-planned-lunar-hotel/ 🎙️ About the Guest: Skyler Chan is the founder of GRU Space (Galactic Resource Utilization), a Y Combinator–backed startup developing a payload factory that manufactures bricks from lunar regolith to build the first robotic hotel on the Moon. Follow GRU Space → https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/galactic-resource-utilization-space-inc-gru-space Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud https://Plaud.ai/twist Pilot https://pilot.com/twist Agree https://agree.com IM8 Health https://IM8health.com/twist After watching Elon build out his rocket (and AI) company over the past 20 years, Jason celebrates the SpaceX IPO on a new TWiST. He explains why some investments are evaluated based on earnings and current numbers, while other stocks are bets on expensive visions for the future, and why SpaceX why likely pay off across multiple time horizons. PLUS Polsia solo founder Ben Cera is back with guidance for founders on creating a "Purple Cow": a unique experience that makes their brand memorable. Guest: Ben Cera on X: https://x.com/Bencera Polsia: https://polsia.com/ Polsia on X: https://x.com/polsia Ben on TWiST E2256 (Feb 2026): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCce8e02Isw Relevant Links: SpaceX: https://www.spacex.com/ SPCX on Yahoo Finance: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SPCX/ Starlink: https://www.starlink.com/ Planet Labs: https://www.planet.com/ Palantir: https://www.palantir.com/ Valor Equity Partners: https://www.valorep.com/ Seth Godin's "Purple Cow" on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Purple-Cow-New-Transform-Remarkable/dp/1591843170 Uber Ice Cream stunt article: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ubers-brilliant-marketing-stunt-hail-195946535.html Hillsborough Flintstones House article: https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/The-Flintstone-House-is-now-for-rent-on-Airbnb-10420107.php "19 Hours Inside the Airbnb X-Mansion" article: https://www.theringer.com/2024/05/29/pop-culture/x-mansion-airbnb-x-men-icons-experience Was The Pepsi Challenge based on LIES? https://www.historyoasis.com/post/the-pepsi-challenge CloudKitchens: https://cloudkitchens.com/ Cluely: https://cluely.com/ Timestamps: 0:00 SpaceX IPO details 2:12 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 7:21 The voting vs. weighing investment framework 9:41 Pilot: Focus on your product, let Pilot handle your bookkeeping. Pilot provides the most reliable accounting, CFO, and tax services for startups and small businesses. Head to https://pilot.com/twist and get $1,200 off your first year. 19:53 Agree - Stop chasing invoices at https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life! 22:25 The media's SpaceX criticisms and "hot takes" 23:54 Ben Cera of Polsia is back 26:53 Why Jason says no to a free tier 29:10 IM8 Health: Start feeling like your best self every day. Go to https://IM8health.com/twist and use the code TWiST to get a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, and 10% off your order. 34:27 The wisdom of Seth Godin's "Purple Cow" 50:37 The "Pepsi Challenge" model 1:05:45 Lon got a dog, Jason got routers 1:10:37 The YouTuber to movie theater pipeline 1:15:20 Jason's new favorite travel bag Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: NetSuite - Netsuite.com/TWiST Deel - Deel.com/TWiST Squarespace - Squarespace.com/TWiST Two days before SpaceX launches the largest IPO in history at a flat $135/share, our VC roundtable drops a scorcher: The top 1% of seed deals might actually be underpriced. Plus: the "Sequoia scam" dual-tranche controversy, tokens-for-equity deals, and whether Claude Fable 5 is a true step function. Tomasz Tunguz (Theory Ventures), Michael Downing (Castalia Capital), and Paige Doherty (Behind Genius Ventures) join Alex to go deep on Seed investing, startup economics, AI spend, and the impact of smarter AI on the founder journey. Guest Links: Tomasz Tunguz: https://x.com/ttunguz Theory Ventures: https://theoryvc.com/ Michael Downing: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldowning/ Castalia Capital: https://castalia.capital/ Paige Doherty: https://x.com/paigefinnn Behind Genius Ventures: https://www.behindgeniusventures.com Show Links: Anthropic's IPO announcement: https://www.anthropic.com/news/confidential-draft-s1-sec OpenAI's IPO announcement: https://openai.com/index/openai-submits-confidential-s-1/ Bending Spoons F-1 filing: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2004711/000110465926071170/tm2613674-7_f1.htm SpaceX IPO filing: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1181412/000162828026040364/spaceexplorationtechnologib.htm Brendan Foody's post on Sequoia: https://x.com/BrendanFoody/status/2063470286515683759 Claude Fable 5: https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-fable-5-mythos-5 OpenRouter data on Chinese models: https://openrouter.ai/rankings?view=day Saronic: https://www.saronic.com/ MotherDuck: https://motherduck.com/ Nox Metals: https://noxmetals.co/ Timestamps: 0:00 Tomasz Tunguz, Michael Downing & Paige Doherty join 2:07 The SpaceX IPO and the IPO window 4:22 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 6:30 The new bar: 10x growth (not 3x) to raise a great Series A 8:46 Net-new AI budgets 9:46 Squarespace: Turn your idea into a beautiful website! Go to https://www.squarespace.com/twist for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. 11:09 How some founders are outgrowing venture capital 11:44 The power pendulum swings back to founders 12:46 SpaceX vs. OpenAI vs. Anthropic: Which IPO is most enticing? 19:53 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more. 26:07 Tokens-for-equity, GPU-hours-for-equity & the financialization of compute 28:35 Founders airing VC dirty laundry (napping VCs included) 29:56 Netsuite - The business landscape is very chaotic right now. That's why you need NetSuite, by Oracle. Get the free business guide Demystifying AI at https://Netsuite.com/TWiST 36:38 Claude Fable 5 first impressions: pricing, benchmarks & orchestration 45:42 Where value accrues: application layer vs. models vs. private data 1:00:06 Nationalization of AI labs: Bernie Sanders, Sam Altman & Trump agree?! 1:01:25 Portfolio spotlights: Saronic, MotherDuck, and Nox Metals Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis

The AI Tutor That Makes Kids Actually Think | E2298 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist LinkedIn Jobs https://LinkedIn.com/twist Shopify https://shopify.com/twist Plaud https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: *Schools teach kids to memorize formulas. AI helps them skip thinking entirely. Brilliant founder Sue Khim joins TWiST to tell us how her new AI tutor, Koji, uses the Socratic Method to help students solve complex problems on their own. Find out why she says "People aren't anti-AI. They're anti-being replaced and anti-slop." PLUS Jason's take on the VC horror stories going around X… and his own anecdote about the tenacity and passion of legendary investor John Doerr. Guest: Sue Khim on X: https://x.com/suekhim Brilliant: https://brilliant.org/ Viral Koji launch video: https://x.com/suekhim/status/2060378988606878147 Relevant Links: Viral Greg Isenberg post about VCs: https://x.com/gregisenberg/status/2061794787825479818 Travis Kalanick's story: https://x.com/travisk/status/2062224472426365045 Matthew Prince's stories: https://x.com/eastdakota/status/2062860530360959273 John Doerr on X: https://x.com/johndoerr Roelof Botha on X: https://x.com/roelofbotha Michael Moritz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelmoritz/ Mohr Davidow Ventures: https://mdv.com/ Jason's book "Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups": https://www.amazon.com/Angel-Invest-Technology-Startups-Timeless-Investor/dp/0062560700 Timestamps: 0:00 Sue Khim's Alltuition origin story 1:41 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 4:10 Brilliant: from launch to product market pull 10:46 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 15:08 Pricing against tutors, not apps 19:25 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist 21:22 Koji demo 24:11 Keeping Brilliant local while expanding 30:22 Shopify - Turn those What Ifs into sales with the e-commerce platform powering millions of businesses. Sign up for your $1-per-month trial today at https://shopify.com/twist 40:10 Every founder has a VC horror story 44:33 John Doerr went the extra mile to hear JCal's pitch 52:55 The LAUNCH investment strategy Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Grasshopper Bank https://grasshopper.bank/twist Vanta https://www.vanta.com/twist Render https://render.com/twist Plaud https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: Anthropic wrote a blog post calling for a global AI slowdown. Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders wants the government to seize 50% of every major AI company's stock. Find out why JCal is reconsidering universal basic (or even high!) income policies, and why he thinks the 2028 presidential election will likely come down to AI policies. PLUS a live ComfyUI demo from founder Yoland Yan. Find out why the free-to-use open-source node-based platform has become a crucial part of millions of designers' and VFX experts' workflows, and how their tool has been used to create everything from "The Wizard of Oz" at the Vegas Sphere to those viral Coca-Cola holiday ads. Guest Yoland Yan: http://x.com/yoland_yan ComfyUI: https://comfy.org/ AI Models and Tools Ideogram 4.0: https://ideogram.ai/models/4.0/ Stable Diffusion: https://stability.ai/ LTX Video: https://github.com/Lightricks/LTX-Video LoRa: https://huggingface.co/docs/diffusers/training/lora Google Veo: https://deepmind.google/models/veo/ Relevant Links: Anthropic: "When AI Builds Itself": https://www.anthropic.com/institute/recursive-self-improvement Bernie Sanders: "The Public Should Own Half of the Big AI Companies": https://www.sanders.senate.gov/op-eds/the-public-should-own-half-of-the-big-a-i-companies/ Bloomberg: "Sam Altman-Backed Group Completes Largest US Study on Basic Income": https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-22/ubi-study-backed-by-openai-s-sam-altman-bolsters-support-for-basic-income Timestamps: 0:00 Guest 1: Yoland Yan, ComfyUI — live demo intro 2:06 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 4:34 Guest 1: Yoland Yan, ComfyUI — live demo intro 9:47 Grasshopper Bank - Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account. 20:05 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist 22:24 What is Outpainting? 30:01 Render - Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to https://render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers. 32:13 Jason's insider sales team advice 38:42 LA mayoral race: Bass vs. Pratt 42:25 Anthropic wants AI to slow down? 48:45 Will Sen. Sanders' argument resonate with the public? 59:39 Why 2028 will be the AI jobs election 1:05:32 Brian Chesky's new AI lab 1:15:21 Jason's "Mandalorian and Grogu" review 1:18:53 YouTubers take over the box office 1:24:16 Dean Potter vs. Alex Honnold Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent - NorthwestRegistereAagent.com/TWIST Every - Every.io Sentry - Sentry.io/TWIST Today's show: Want to get to space? Several launch companies can help you. SpaceX, Rocket Lab, the Russians, the list goes on. But what about once you make it upstairs, then what? Impulse Space CEO and CTO Tom Mueller is building the next stage of our orbital economy. With its Mira and Helios spacecraft, we'll soon be able to take mass from lower orbits to higher orbits, or even to the Moon, with ease. Meanwhile, venture capitalists are enamored with the idea of humanoid robots — robots share our shape, our work environment, and even our tools. But startups like Dusty Robotics are taking a different tack; instead of building human-shaped robots, Dusty has built a small, wheeled 'bot that can mark out building sites quickly and accurately. And it's doing more revenue than all humanoid robotics companies combined, I reckon. Dusty's CEO, Dr. Tessa Lau, joins Alex to go deep on purpose-built robots in today's build-crazy market. Timestamps: 0:00 Blue Origin, and why fixing things in orbit is hard 2:19 What Mira is and what it does 4:35 Why was the commercial demand for Mira softer than expected 5:20 Space Force demand and the GEO-capable Mira 7:08 Helios: a "rocket on top of a rocket." 10:10 Sentry - Your team should be focused on shipping features — not chasing down bugs. New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST 11:35 How Helios beats Falcon Heavy on price ($25M) 13:35 Reusability, in-orbit refueling, and propellant depots 15:38 Landers, the Moon base, and "Mega Helios." 18:52 NSSL and the politics of flying government payloads 20:16 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io 20:51 Why the Moon matters: megastructures and data centers in space 25:09 The space talent market and the SpaceX "mafia." 30:16 Northwest Registered Agent: Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 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: Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Deel https://deel.com/twist Quo https://quo.com/TWiST LinkedIn Jobs https://LinkedIn.com/twist Today's show: Cortical Labs is the world's first company selling biological computers. Their CL1 fuses lab-grown human neurons (derived from stem cells, not actual folks) with silicon hardware to create Synthetic Biological Intelligence (SBI). Founder Dr. Hon Weng Chong walks us through how the system works and why neurons are more efficient than GPUs at reinforcement learning. (Also… is this computer alive?) PLUS Pyka co-founder and CEO Michael Norcia explains the various uses for his autonomous aircraft, from crop-spraying drones in Brazil to a a hybrid-electric defense UAV for the military. Guests: Cortical Labs: ****https://corticallabs.com/ Dr. Hon Weng Chong on X: https://x.com/dr1337 Pyka: https://www.flypyka.com/ Pyka on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flypyka/?hl=en Further Reading: 2022 Pong paper in Neuron: https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(22)00806-6 2017 Paper: "Attention is All You Need"; https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762 The "Barista Test" for Artificial Intelligence: Chris Rourk: https://medium.com/predict/the-turing-test-is-so-last-century-the-barista-test-for-artificial-general-intelligence-faf91034fa8c Notable Links: Playing "DOOM" on CL1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRV8fSw6HaE DayOne Data Center: https://dayonedc.com/ NeurIPS 2026 Conference: https://neurips.cc/ Neuralink: https://neuralink.com/ CliniCloud Digital Stethoscope and Thermometer: https://www.design-industry.com.au/clinicloud Air Force Research Laboratory (AFWERX): https://afwerx.com/ Joby Aviation: https://www.jobyaviation.com/ Prime Movers Lab: https://www.primemoverslab.com/ Timestamps: 0:00 What is "biological computing"? 2:49 Cortical's new $30 million raise 4:15 The world's first biological data center 9:48 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more. 10:51 Biological computers have a learning advantage 19:43 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) - Quo gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://quo.com/TWiST 29:15 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist 38:46 From paper airplanes to Group 4 UAVs 52:20 Introducing the DropShip defense drone 58:28 How regulations block US drones 1:00:40 Why Pyka builds everything in-house Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Grasshopper Bank https://grasshopper.bank/twistLinkedIn Jobs https://LinkedIn.com/twistNorthwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Today's show: Jason breaks down the real math behind raising a seed round. Here's the funnel: contact 150 firms, get 50 first meetings, convert 2o into second meetings, and close 2 term sheets. PLUS Jason responds to viewer questions about why hardware is no longer a dirty word for investors, how to differentiate your startup from frontier-model companies like OpenAI, even when they're in your niche. Plus a pitch for "Founder Community College," and anecdotes from Lon's European odyssey. Thanks for the Questions: Richard Corral: CEO of Quanto: https://quanto.co/ ØnProtons on X: https://x.com/0nProtons SergeDawg on X: https://x.com/sergedawg Mahika Golani Peridot: https://www.tryperidot.com/ Shawn Sully on X: https://x.com/aroogle Programs and Accelerators Mentioned: Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/ Techstars: https://www.techstars.com/ Antler: https://www.antler.co/ PearX: https://pear.vc/pearx/ Sequoia ARC: https://www.sequoiacap.com/arc/ Kauffman Fellows: https://www.kauffmanfellows.org/ Companies and Startups Referenced: Whoop: https://www.whoop.com/ Knightscope: https://knightscope.com/ Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/ Cafe X: https://www.cafexapp.com/ Media Referenced: New Yorker Sam Altman profile: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may-control-our-future-can-he-be-trusted Off-Duty Recommendations Terra Kaffe Demi compact automatic espresso machine: https://www.terrakaffe.com/products/tk-demi Osteria Pastella (Florence, Italy): https://www.osteriapastella.it/ Timestamps: 0:00 Inside the TWiST private group chat 3:25 How to react when an investor says your "too early." 6:50 The ultimate seed round funnel 8:48 Jason's new Associate in Training program 10:09 Grasshopper Bank - Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account. 18:28 How have the metrics for early-stage companies changed? 20:20 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist 22:34 TWiST Bounties update 23:43 Competing against frontier labs 30:03 What signals real investor-founder alignment? 30:14 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 36:07 A crash course in Bay Area startup culture 40:15 Automatons-as-a-Service (AaaS) 42:29 Who in Silicon Valley does Jason really not like? 49:59 Museum Etiquette with Lon Harris Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Render - render.com/twist Deel - deel.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent - northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Today's show: The "Ryanair of drone delivery" just raised $50 million and plans to bring its technology from Europe to the United States. Manna founder Bobby Healy explains to TWiST how his Dublin-based company completed 300,000 deliveries while some rivals are still publishing blog posts, and why low-cost airline economics will decide who wins the autonomous skies. Sticking to the drone theme, TWiST welcomed Theseus co-founder Ian Laffey, who called in from Kyiv to tell us about his company's drone guidance system. It runs off a simple camera and Google Maps. The technology could rewrite the modern, GPS-jammed battlefield, and bring more firepower to smaller nations fending off larger foes. Guest Links: Manna https://www.manna.aero Bobby Healy https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhealy/ Manna funding announcement https://www.manna.aero/blog/series-b Theseus https://www.theseus.us/ Ian Laffey https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilaffey2/ Most recent Theseus funding announcement https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/17/defense-tech-theseus-landed-y-combinator-the-us-special-forces-and-4-3m-from-a-tweet/ The tweet that kickstarted Theseus: https://x.com/ilaffey2/status/1759353732075294766 Timestamps: 0:00 Bobby Healy of Manna joins TWiST 1:41 How a Manna base works: drones migrate around the city like Waymos 7:18 Battle-hardened in Irish weather: 97% uptime in wind and rain 8:52 Margin-positive economics & the path to $0.20 per delivery 9:25 Northwest Registered Agent: Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 12:32 $50M Series B vs competitors raising $600–800M 19:51 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more. 22:53 The peer-to-peer drone future and hyper-local commerce 25:46 Growing from 170 to 570 people and moving manufacturing to Oklahoma 28:43 Ian Laffey of Theseus joins TWIST 29:57 Render: Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to https://render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers. 30:58 Inside Ukraine's drone industry: front-line iteration and free-market speed 33:55 How GPS gets jammed across the spectrum 35:10 Theseus's approach: cameras + satellite maps + ML 37:04 The product: Raspberry Pi, SD card, camera — pretending to be GPS 49:02 Ukraine: 6–8M drones a year. The US: 300K over two years. 51:17 Are US drone primes actually reconstituting the supply chain? 58:22 Y Combinator as a defense tech accelerator 59:40 "Pick an issue and start working as hard as you can towards it" Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Every.io https://every.io Shopify https://shopify.com/twist Render https://render.com/twist Plaud https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: Startups like Divergent Technologies are producing components and aircraft for the military through new systems that are better, faster, and cheaper than conventional methods. CEO and co-founder Lukas Czinger stops by TWiST to share the company's vertically integrated, AI-driven manufacturing platform and how he transitioned from hypercar parts to working directly with the Pentagon on autonomous aircraft. Plus, 50 million Americans are on antidepressants, and it's not necessarily the right treatment for all of them. Outro Health co-founders Brandon Goode and Dr. Mark Horowitz share their hyperbolic tapering method, which helps patients get off drugs like Zoloft and Prozac without suffering through traumatic and potentially dangerous side effects. Guests Lukas Czinger: https://x.com/lukasczinger Divergent Technologies: https://www.divergent3d.com Czinger Vehicles: https://www.czinger.com/ Brandon Goode: https://www.linkedin.com/in/goodebrandon/ Dr. Mark Horowitz: https://x.com/markhoro Outro Health: https://outro.com Timestamps: 0:00 Divergent shifted from hypercar development to 3D printing all kinds of components 1:33 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 4:10 How 3D printing has exponentially improved 8:18 Making military components faster, better, and cheaper 9:58 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io 11:00 How Divergent caught the Pentagon's attention 19:51 Shopify - Turn those What Ifs into sales with the ecommerce platform powering millions of businesses. Sign up for your $1-per-month trial today at https://shopify.com/twist 25:29 Why Outro Health helps patients taper off SSRIs 30:06 Render - Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to https://render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers. 36:37 Is depression caused by a "chemical imbalance"? 46:37 Understanding the hyperbolic tapering method 58:32 How Outro makes money 1:10:01 Leaked Meta layoff audio 1:13:41 Cloudflare CEO drops "measurer" roles 1:18:16 CrowdHealth - CrowdHealth lets you ditch the bureaucracy with a peer-to-peer funding platform for your healthcare. Get started for $99 per month for your first three months by using the code TWIST at https://JoinCrowdHealth.com/twist. 1:19:17 Why Trump canceled his AI executive order 1:28:08 Polymarket sharps on Russia vs. Ukraine, SpaceX ticker symbol 1:33:34 Luel vs. Kled update: Is this nepotism at work? 1:37:02 Chris Nolan doesn't have a smartphone 1:43:04 Jason's favorite new espresso machine Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Grasshopper Bank - https://grasshopper.bank/twist LinkedIn - https://linkedIn.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twistPlaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist  Why raise $200 million if you are already profitable? That's the question Jason and Alex put to Mercury's founder and CEO, Immad Akhund, after the entrepreneur raised another massive round for his upstart, technology-friendly bank. TWiST then welcomed Kled founder Avi Patel to discuss the startup he considers a clear ripoff of his own company. Jason gavels in verdicts on all parties involved, including Y Combinator and venture capital firm General Catalyst. The show closes with a news lightning round, including OpenAI's decision to offer $2 million in token credits to hundreds of startups. Guest Links: Mercury https://mercury.com Mercury funding announcement https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260520511817/en/Mercury-Raises-$200-Million-Series-D-at-$5.2B-Valuation Immad Akhund on X https://x.com/immad Kled https://www.kled.ai/ Avi Patel on X https://x.com/avipat_/ Avi's complaint https://x.com/avipat_/status/2055384102409253056 General Catalyst https://www.generalcatalyst.com/ Y Combinator https://www.ycombinator.com/ Delve https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/23/another-customer-of-troubled-startup-delve-suffered-a-big-security-incident/ Discussion links: Anthropic's attack on secondary trading https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/12/anthropic-warns-investors-against-secondary-platforms-offering-access-to-its-shares/ Vanta https://www.vanta.com/twist Timestamps: 0:00 Welcome to This Week in Startups! 2:14 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 3:27 Immad Akhund (Mercury) joins to discuss $200M raise 6:33 Mercury's origin story and path to $650M run rate 9:53 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 14:23 Stablecoins: where they work, why Mercury won't launch its own 20:13 LinkedIn - Thanks to our partners at LinkedIn! Post your job for free at https://linkedIn.com/twist then promote it to get access to LinkedIn Jobs' new AI assistant. 22:38 AI agents, and the future of money movement 27:30 Why Mercury raised less this round 30:11 Grasshopper Bank - Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account. 42:48 Avi Patel (Kled) joins to discuss copycat startups 57:06 Jason's verdict on YC's hacker culture & "appearance of impropriety" 1:17:39 Sam Altman's $2M-in-tokens-for-equity offer to YC founders 1:24:32 NYC hotel housekeepers cross $100K in time under new union contract 1:30:14 Minimum wage, immigration & the case for raising it slowly Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Vanta - Vanta.com/TWIST Sentry - Sentry.io/TWIST Deel - Deel.com/TWIST Today's show: AI is the villain of the 2026 commencement cycle, with business luminaries — including Eric Schmidt — booed for discussing or praising the technology. As students graduate into a job market forcibly reshaped by AI, increasingly negative public polling on the potential impacts of artificial intelligence on society is clearly not missing the mark. Jason and Alex then discussed The Information's reporting that Anthropic and OpenAI earn nearly 90% of all startup AI revenue, a Stanford student's viral essay regarding their time at the university in a post-ChatGPT world, Flock Safety's impressive (and worrying) web of cameras, and the upcoming Mark II AI bookmark. The episode closes with questions from our live audience! TWIST Links: Bounty website https://www.thisweekinstartups.com/bounty Sidebar bounty challenge https://www.notion.so/launch1/5K-Bounty-Create-Sidebar-App-for-Podcasts-34150ff313d280adbd8ed6204676513c Annotated.com bounty challenge https://annotated.lovable.app/ Timestamps: 0:00 TWiST All-Stars summer lineup announcement 2:43 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 5:08 Eric Schmidt booed at University of Arizona commencement 8:57 Why Gen Z feels "double-crossed" by AI leaders 10:10 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more. 15:22 Is this AI's Vietnam moment? The anti-war parallel 18:04 Theo Baker's NYT essay on Stanford's AI cheating culture 19:24 Sentry - New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST 22:30 Why Jason says everyone should start a company 28:59 Anthropic + OpenAI capture 89% of AI startup revenue 30:17 Vanta: Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist 31:57 Are token sales a duopoly? Negative gross margins debate 35:17 Risk of building app-layer startups on top of foundation models 38:22 Inside Tracker bounty update: AI sidebar + Annotated.com 41:18 Mark II: the $159 AI bookmark Alex wants 49:31 Flock Safety solves Austin shooting via Manor PD 53:39 DeFlock map and the geography of surveillance in Texas 1:03:42 Noti Gang: AI for filing patents 1:05:45 Noti Gang: Running AI models locally on Mac Studios 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 Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: IM8 Health: IM8health.com/TWIST Squarespace: Squarespace.com/TWIST Render - Render.com/TWIST Self-driving just stopped being a science problem and became an engineering challenge instead. That's the through-line of today's double-header with the CEOs of two of the most important AV companies in the world — Wayve's Alex Kendall and Waabi's Raquel Urtasun. Between them: ~$2B raised in the last six months, Uber as a partner, Nissan and Volvo as OEMs, and a shared bet that end-to-end AI plus world models beats Waymo's city-by-city map-and-pray approach. If you want to understand the state of the self-driving industry beyond recent Waymo announcements, this is the episode for you. Guest Links: Wayve: wayve.ai/ Waabi: http://waabi.ai/ Alex Kendall https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexgkendall/ Raquel Uratsun: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raquel-urtasun-298400139/ Company Links: Wayve's GAIA-2 world model: https://wayve.ai/thinking/gaia-2/ Wayve's 500 city roadshow: https://wayve.ai/thinking/ai-500-roadshow-500-cities/ Wavye's most recent funding round: https://wayve.ai/press/series-d/ Waybe + Uber: https://wayve.ai/press/wayve-nissan-uber-robotaxi-collaboration/ Waabi closed-loop simulator: https://waabi.ai/insights/waabi-world Waabi + Volvo: https://waabi.ai/insights/waabi-and-volvo-autonomous-solutions-partner-to-jointly-develop-and-deploy-autonomous-transportation-solutions Waabi + Uber: https://www.uberfreight.com/en-US/blog/uber-freight-and-waabi-introduce-industry-first-autonomous-truck-deployment-solution Timestamps: 0:00 Alex Kendall (Wayve) joins the show 1:19 The contrarian bet on end-to-end AI and world models in 2017 3:05 What is a world model? GAIA-2 and GAIA-3 explained 7:34 Sensor agnosticism: camera, radar, LiDAR and minimum bar for safety 9:56 $1.5B raised — have we cracked self-driving? 10:09 Render: Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to https://render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers. 20:38 Squarespace: Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST 25:03 How consumers will actually pay: bundle, subscription, or free trial 30:15 IM8 Health: Start feeling like your best self every day. Go to https://IM8health.com/twist and use the code TWiST to get a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, and 10% off your order. 35:59 Raquel Urtasun (Waabi) joins the show 36:25 World models as controllable simulators for physical AI 43:34 One AI brain across trucks, robotaxis, and beyond 47:35 What changed in AI to make 2026 the deployment year 52:28 Why Waabi raised $1B when they're capital-efficient 58:52 Where Waabi is today: Volvo VNL Autonomous, Dallas-Houston, Uber Freight 1:00:50 Per-mile pricing and the Driver-as-a-Service model 1:07:20 Has Uber tried to buy Waabi? "Not for sale" Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by:Pilot -⁠ https://Pilot.com/TWIST⁠Grasshopper Bank -⁠ https://Grasshopper.bank/TWIST⁠Quo -⁠ https://Quo.com/TWiST⁠Plaud - ⁠https://Plaud.ai/twist⁠Anthropic just declared every unauthorized secondary sale of its stock "void" — naming Hiive, Forge, Sydecar, Upmarket, and others in a public hit list. Jason and Alex sit down with Jenny Fielding (Everywhere Ventures), Dave McClure (Practical VC), and Sam Lessin (Slow Ventures) to unpack what the AI lab's move to limit secondary trades means for SPV operators, brokers, and the founders trying to keep control of their cap tables. Plus: a real story of a founder who returned a $15M Series A six months after closing because Claude was going to eat his startup, SaaS moats, and just what does it mean to be rich?Timestamps:0:00 Guest introductions0:48 Anthropic voids unauthorized SPV trades8:41 Accredited investor reform & the SEC sophisticated investor test8:58 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) - Quo gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://quo.com/TWiST11:43 Naval's USVC closed-end fund as a workaround16:41 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!17:48 Pro-rata rights battles: when Series A investors push seed investors out19:36 Grasshopper Bank: Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account.29:13 Pilot: Focus on your product, let Pilot handle your bookkeeping. Pilot provides the most reliable accounting, CFO, and tax services for startups and small businesses. Head to https://pilot.com/twist and get $1,200 off your first year.30:23 Storing wealth in stories vs. cash flows34:19 Cerebras and Fervo Energy IPOs — meaningful liquidity?37:54 Will SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI IPOs redistribute capital or compound it?45:58 The $15M Series A founder who returned the money because of Claude50:01 Should founders pivot or return capital when the world changes?56:43 OpenAI's $6.6B tender and Shruti Gandhi's viral SF cost-of-living tweet1:00:25 Intercom rebrands to Fin: the AI-first late-stage pivotSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter:⁠ https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com⁠Check out the TWIST500:⁠ https://www.twist500.com⁠Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple:⁠ https://rb.gy/v19fcp⁠Follow Lon:X:⁠ https://x.com/lons⁠Follow Alex:X:⁠ https://x.com/alex⁠LinkedIn:⁠ ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm⁠Follow Jason:X:⁠ https://twitter.com/Jason⁠LinkedIn:⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis⁠Check 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 McFarland⁠Check out Jason's suite of newsletters:⁠ https://substack.com/@calacanis⁠Follow TWiST:Twitter:⁠ https://twitter.com/TWiStartups⁠YouTube:⁠ https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin⁠Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups⁠TikTok:⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups⁠Substack:⁠ https://twistartups.substack.com⁠

The future of AI isn't a smarter chatbot. It's a model that watches your screen, listens to the room, and acts on what it sees. We dug into Thinking Machines' new interaction model, what it means for compute, and the layoff wave that's already here.This week's roundtable: Anastasios Angelopoulos (CEO of Arena, formerly LMArena), Nick Harris (CEO of Lightmatter, photonic computing chips), and Philip Johnston (CEO of StarCloud, building megawatt data centers in space). Thank you to our exclusive sponsor: PayPal Open, One Platform for All Business: http://paypalopen.com/ Timestamps: 0:00 Cold open 1:21 Welcome to Episode 13 2:51 Is China closing the AI gap? Arena's data 5:16 Lightmatter and the photonic interconnect bottleneck 9:42 StarCloud 2, Nvidia Space Ruben 1, and orbital data centers 17:24 Thinking Machines' interaction model: what's actually new 28:22 Whisper Flow and the 3-pedal desk setup 33:48 Real-time desktop and camera awareness as the real unlock 40:25 Why this 100x's compute demand 42:43 The polarization of compute and $10M personal data centers 49:25 The layoff wave: Cloudflare, PayPal, Coinbase, Upwork 54:48 The 10x gap between AI-first and non-AI-first employees 59:52 Unlimited agency and the abundance future 1:00:46 Anthropic's Project Luna runs a retail store 1:03:45 Decoupling labor from value creation 1:05:03 P(doom) round 🔗 Guests: Anastasios Angelopoulos, Arena: https://arena.ai | @ML_Angelopolous Nick Harris, Lightmatter: https://lightmatter.co Philip Johnston, StarCloud: https://starcloud.com | @philipjohnston 🔗 Referenced in this episode: Thinking Machines, Introducing Interaction Models: https://thinkingmachines.ai/blog/interaction-models/ LMArena leaderboard: https://lmarena.ai Lightmatter: https://lightmatter.co Starcloud: https://www.starcloud.com TechCrunch, Cloudflare says AI made 1,100 jobs obsolete: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/08/cloudflare-says-ai-made-1100-jobs-obsolete-even-as-revenue-hit-a-record-high/ Fast Company, Tech layoffs this week due to AI (Cloudflare, PayPal, Coinbase, Upwork): https://www.fastcompany.com/91538995/tech-layoffs-due-to-ai-this-week-cloudflare-paypal-coinbase-upwork Bloomberg, South Korea floats citizen dividend from AI profits: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-05-12/korea-s-massive-ai-boom-triggers-call-for-tech-tax-roiling-market PYMNTS, Inside a retail store run entirely by AI (Andon Labs / Luna): https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2026/inside-a-retail-store-run-entirely-by-ai/ Wispr Flow (voice-to-text tool Jason uses): https://wisprflow.ai Fermi Paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox 🔗 Subscribe and follow: Newsletter and all platforms: https://thisweekinai.ai #ThisWeekInAI #AI #ThinkingMachines #Lightmatter #StarCloud #Arena #Anthropic #ProjectLuna #AIcompute #AIlayoffs #Superintelligence

Today's show: Cerebras just jacked its IPO range to $150–$160 a share, OpenAI bought a consulting firm to seed its $4 billion private-equity joint venture, and a startup in Oakland is electrolyzing magnesium out of seawater for one-third the going price. Alex Wilhelm and Jason Calacanis go deep with AI21 co-CEO Ori Goshen on why model orchestration, not bigger LLMs, will decide who wins enterprise AI. The crew also covered the decline of OpenClaw, TikTok's new £3.99 ad-free tier, more entries in the live-show sidebar bounty, and had time for a little Off Duty before signing off. Guest Links: Ori Goshen on LinkedIn AI21 Alex Grant on LinkedIn Magrathea Metals Timestamps: 0:00 Ori Goshen, CEO of AI21 joins the show 1:20 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 5:14 Why enterprises care about token cost optimization 6:01 Jamba as open-weight; Maestro as proprietary orchestration 10:08 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist 12:56 AI21 customer roster: FNAC, US tech giants, Israeli companies 19:01 Alex Grant, CEO of Magrathea Metals joins to discuss pulling magnesium from seawater 20:03 Live video of the Oakland pilot electrolyzer 20:10 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more. 22:01 Magnesium as a "gateway metal" for aluminum, defense, aerospace 23:20 TETRA joint venture & the Evergreen Project in Arkansas 23:38 Series A close, JV economics: $3,000/ton vs. $7,000/ton market 29:10 Sidebar bounty update: Glass Sidebar (Oliver Choy) demo 30:47 Netsuite - Get the free business guide Demystifying AI at https://netsuite.com/twist 31:47 Sidebar bounty update: Sidecast (Patrick Hughes) demo 36:09 Reducing scope to "real-time fact checker only" for final round 37:24 Ro.co: Ro's insurance checker will let you know if your coverage includes GLP-1s for FREE. Go to https://Ro.co/Twist for your free insurance check. 39:07 Cerebras IPO: $115–$125 → $150–$160 per share 44:19 Will OpenAI's compute commitments to Cerebras actually get funded? 49:19 Fervo Energy IPO — venture-backed geothermal company going public 49:40 OpenAI Deployment Company + Tomoro acquisition explained 53:51 Anthropic's parallel $1.5B PE joint venture with Blackstone & Goldman 56:05 Why Jason thinks these PE spinouts are convoluted financial engineering 56:40 OpenClaw's decline + competition from Cowork, Perplexity, Grok 1:04:22 TikTok's £3.99 ad-free subscription launches in the UK 1:09:09 Knicks sweep 76ers — Jason's playoff predictions 1:11:24 Off-duty: "There Is No Antimemetics Division" by qntm 1:13:25 Off-duty: Fall of Civilizations podcast by Paul Cooper 1:16:37 States' rights, federalism, housing supply & closing thoughts Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: IM8 Health - https://IM8health.com/TWIST Every - Every.io Sentry - https://Sentry.io/TWIST Banks don't want to hand over their data to AI labs. So David Moscatelli built a $250,000 box that runs AI on-prem. He already has 1,600 pre-orders. On today's episode of TWiST, Jason and Alex sit down with the Go Abacus founder and Yanez's Jose Caldera to unpack how regulated industries are getting AI without the cloud, why Bittensor subnet 54 is incentivizing miners to attack identity systems, and why Cloudflare just laid off 20% of its workforce in the same week it raised guidance. The show closes with Jason explaining what it means to build an AI-first startup, and how workers can derisk their future employment! Guest Links: Go Abacus Go1 direct link David Moscatelli on LinkedIn Yanez Bittensor Subnet 54 on TAOstats Jose Caldera on LinkedIn LAUNCH Links: Founder University Founder University Japan application portal News Links: Cloudflare lays off 20% of its staff Coinbase cuts 14% of its staff Block post on how it is rebuilding its company Block's earnings, including its raised guidance Anthropic's massive upcoming funding round WHOOP's new on-demand clinicians Stripe Atlas's growth Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction: Jason in Brooklyn, Knicks playoffs 2:30 Go Abacus joins: AI infrastructure for regulated industries 3:25 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 4:00 The Go1: 2,000-user on-prem AI appliance 7:04 Pricing the Go1: How far does $250,000 go? 7:24 1,600 orders and the hardware delivery challenge 10:14 Sentry - New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST 20:23 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io 27:22 Chicago tech scene and in-office culture 30:09 IM8 Health: Start feeling like your best self every day. Go to https://IM8health.com/twist and use the code TWiST to get a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, and 10% off your order. 35:11 Yanez joins: How to prove personhood and uniqueness 38:32 How biometric capture and bio-keys work 40:05 Agent delegation: proving humans authorized AI agents 44:19 Bittensor Subnet 54 and incentivizing adversarial miners 47:11 Founder University Japan Cohort 2 applications open 49:15 Tech layoffs: Cloudflare cuts 20%, Coinbase cuts 14%, Block raises guidance 1:02:14 Anthropic's $50B round at $900B pre-money 1:04:22 WHOOP adds on-demand clinicians 1:06:42 Federalism, state-level regulation, and AI policy Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Grasshopper Bank - https://grasshopper.bank/twist PaperOS - https://paperos.com/twist LinkedIn Jobs - https://linkedIn.com/twistPlaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist The top 5 U.S. venture firms captured 73% of all LP commits in Q1, and three veteran VCs say the math may have officially broken. Aleph's Michael Eisenberg argues we may be witnessing the end of a 60-year run for venture capital as a craft business. Maniv's Mike Granoff and Oxcart's Larry Covert push back, arguing it's merely splitting into two asset classes: "Consensus VC" and traditional VC. Either way, the implications for founders, LPs, and the next decade of innovation are enormous. TWiST is back on the beat with a venture round table discussing investment concentration, the IPO drought, "bullshit ARR" in the AI era, AI gross margins, the U.S.-China chip war, the Iran conflict's impact on defense tech, the death of NATO and the rise of allied supply chains, why Tel Aviv's stock exchange could become the next NASDAQ, and a lightning round on each VC's favorite portfolio company. Let's go! Timestamps: 0:00 Intro + sponsor reads (Grasshopper Bank, PaperOS, LinkedIn Jobs) 0:58 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 2:13 Introductions: Eisenberg (Aleph), Granoff (Maniv), Covert (Oxcart) 3:57 The impact of rising venture capital concentration 6:43 "We may be witnessing the end of venture capital" 9:17 Consensus VC vs. Traditional VC 10:01 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist 11:48 Why mid-size firms beat the behemoths on founder access 19:35 Coining "Consensus Colossal Collaborative Capital" (CCCC) 20:03 AngelList's USVC retail VC fund — does it help mid-size funds? 20:18 PaperOS - Whether you're raising a round, launching a fund, or managing a venture portfolio, PaperOS can unlock simplicity and scale across your empire of capital, contracts, and companies. Claim your $10,000 credit at https://paperos.com/twist 23:27 Are there more breakout startups today than 5 years ago? 28:36 The "bullshit ARR" problem and AI gross margins 30:03 Grasshopper Bank - Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account. 32:08 Cursor's negative gross margins and the hyperscaler funding flywheel 33:06 Are we all electron constrained? 35:35 Are we headed for surge pricing on compute? 40:22 Will anything replace NVIDIA? NextSilicon, Hailo & Israel's chip stack 43:33 Distillation, small models, and Apple's edge advantage 46:38 Public trust in AI: should government mandate Waymo & FSD? 1:02:58 Defense tech: Saronic, Anduril & the coming defense M&A wave 1:06:35 The Iran war timeline & supply chain impact 1:18:52 Lightning round: Jiga, Divergent, Volaback, Firehawk, Harbinger 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 Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Render - render.com/twist Vanta - vanta.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent - northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Have you wanted to invest in venture capital alongside your 401k contributions, but struggled to find a way to place a bet? Search no more, for the AngelList team has created USVC, a new fund that will accept investments of as little as $500 from folks who lack accreditation. USVC's Ankur Napgal swung by the show to chat about investment strategies, access, fees, and just how illiquid the venture-like vehicle will prove to be. Jason and Alex were then joined by Jon Durbin, core contributor at Chutes, and Yash Goenka, co-founder and CEO of Humwork. Chutes is the most valuable Bittensor subnet, focused on aggregating GPUs to offer trustless AI compute. Humwork wants to help bring a human into your agentic workflow to unstick your agent when it runs into a hitch. The show closes with a news lightning round — enjoy! Timestamps: 0:00 Intro + Plaud AI sponsor read (Jason demos the NotePin S) 2:06 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 3:50 Episode overview: USVC, Chutes, Humwork 7:41 USVC structure: $500 min, no accreditation, quarterly redemptions 10:28 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 11:39 Fee structure breakdown: 1% mgmt fee, ~2.5% net expense ratio 15:41 USVC portfolio: xAI, Anthropic, OpenAI, Crusoe, Vercel 16:17 Strategy: 1/3 emerging managers, 1/3 growth, 1/3 secondaries 19:00 $1B cap and path to expanding the fund 20:33 Vanta - Compliance and security shouldn't be a deal-breaker for startups to win new business. Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a SOC 2 reports fast. Get $1,000 off for a limited time at https://www.vanta.com/twist 28:00 What is sovereign compute? Permissionless GPU networks explained 30:10 Render - Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to https://render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers. 44:53 Usage history: 160B tokens/day peak, free-to-paid transition 46:41 GPU pricing: from $0.77/hr to $3.50/hr as shortage bites 49:13 DeepSeek censorship demo: Taiwan test on DeepSeek chat 57:27 Permissionless supply curves: Uber/Airbnb analogy for induced demand 59:20 Yash Goenka, co-founder of Humwork (YC S26) 1:00:49 Lightning Round: Ryan Cohen wants to buy eBay — Jason's hot take 1:12:36 Lightning Round: Cerebras IPO update ($27–36B valuation range) 1:14:05 Lightning Round: Spirit Airlines / JetBlue / M&A regulation debate 1:19:10 OFF-DUTY: Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord 1:32:57 Alex's OFF-DUTY: Captain of Industry Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by:Goldbelly - Goldbelly.comEvery.io - http://every.io/Zite - zite.com/twistToday’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 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 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 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 ZapierSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisThank 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 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 every.io.(30:18) Zite - Zite is the fastest way to build business software with AI. Go to zite.com/twist to get started.Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidarahttps://youtu.be/pvJa2pzuXWQEoghan McCabehttps://youtu.be/9dHN4YFkgv4

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Pilot - https://pilot.com/twist Shopify - https://shopify.com/twist Grasshopper Bank - https://grasshopper.bank/twist Today's show: An AI agent named Valerie is running a real vending machine in San Francisco — setting prices, ordering inventory, managing a bank account, and posting to Instagram. And it's not just a stunt. We're getting an early look at the future of one-agent companies. There's still work to do to help agents ease into the economy, potentially opening up new startup opportunities. Jason Calacanis and Alex Wilhelm cover a stacked docket: Christian van der Henst demos the Valerie AI vending machine powered by OpenClaw; Robert Myers, CEO of Manifold Labs, breaks down Targon, a confidential GPU compute marketplace running on Bittensor Subnet 4; Jason calls Bitcoin "played out;" Alex is impressed by Anthropic's stunning $900 billion upcoming valuation; and the guys discuss Big Tech's accelerating CapEx spend, Chinese AI models in Congress crosshairs, and the NBA Playoffs. Timestamps: 0:00 Intro & sponsor reads (Pilot, Shopify, Grasshopper Bank) 1:06 Christian van der Henst: Valerie the AI vending machine demo 4:28 Legal structure: Giving an AI agent business ownership via trust 7:23 Where agents can and can't operate today 10:10 Grasshopper Bank: Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account. 11:48 AI café in Stockholm running on agents 18:21 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 19:05 Robert Myers, Manifold Labs: Targon & Bittensor Subnet 4 interview 20:21 What is Bittensor? An "incubator with 128 subnets" 21:08 Shopify: Turn those What If's into sales with the ecommerce platform powering millions of businesses. Sign up for your $1-per-month trial today at https://shopify.com/twist 25:21 Pricing, utilization caps, and why GPUs are sold out 26:38 Who's using Targon? Customers, use cases, and the mom-and-pop data center argument 30:06 Pilot: Focus on your product, let Pilot handle your bookkeeping. Pilot provides the most reliable accounting, CFO, and tax services for startups and small businesses. Head to https://pilot.com/twist and get $1,200 off your first year. 35:07 Jason explains the annotated.com vision — 15 years in the making 39:11 Polymarket: Will Anthropic flip Bitcoin by Dec 31? 40:29 Jason's Bitcoin bear case: "It's played out. No incremental buyers." 46:05 MicroStrategy / Strategy updates 52:37 AI compute demand vs. the fiber overbuild analogy 55:55 Congress pressuring startups over Chinese AI models (DeepSeek, Moonshot) 57:11 A16z on the geopolitical risk of Chinese AI models 1:00:08 Reflection AI — America's open source AI champion (or lack thereof) 1:01:26 Off Duty: Knicks blow out Atlanta Hawks 140–89, Jason goes road-tripping Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

The TWiST AI Basics series is made possible by Google Cloud!Check out Google Cloud's new report, "Future of AI: Perspectives on generative media for startups," Featuring thoughts from today's guest, Joaquín Cuenca AbelaVisit: goo.gle/futureofgenmedia to check it out!Today's show:In today's edition of TWiST AI Basics, J-Cal is joined by Joaquin Cuenca Abela, co-founder and CEO of Magnific (formerly known as Freepik). We're discussing how generative AI is transforming the creative landscape for startups.In watching today's show you'll have-consider your expectations of what AI video can actually do for you and your business. What used to take a high end production team months and tens of thousands of dollars now takes 24 hours and one person with patience to learn the right tools. This conversation explores how founders can use these tools to scale their creative output better, cheaper, and faster.Timestamps:0:00 Google Cloud - Check out Google Cloud's new report, "Future of AI: Perspectives on generative media for startups," Featuring thoughts from today's guest, Joaquín Cuenca Abela at https://goo.gle/futureofgenmedia1:10 Welcome to AI Basics, presented by Google Cloud!2:11 Meet Joaquín Cuenca Abela, CEO of Magnific (formerly Freepik)3:12 Building a post-apocalyptic SF ad for TWiST in 24 hours4:25 Storyboarding characters, blending images, and text-prompting scenes6:39 The finished product: post-apocalyptic Jason!7:56 How much cheaper is this than traditional advertising?9:34 The tech stack: Magnific's upscaler and 3rd party frontier models11:02 Which Hollywood productions are actually using AI?13:14 Hollywood's 180 from "F these tools" to enthusiastic adoption14:38 One director's 600-person AI-enabled production15:23 Why Magnific built in Málaga, Spain and how they recruit AI talent16:40 Can AI ever match human creative vision?18:43 The future: 100 versions of the same ad, hyper-localized by city21:35 Where to find Magnific + Google Cloud's Future of AI reportConnect with Joaquín and Magnific!Magnific (formerly Freepik) — Joaquín's AI creative platform, 150M+ MAU, $230M ARR → https://magnific.comJoaquín Cuenca Abela on X → https://x.com/cuencaJoaquín Cuenca Abela on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/joaquin-cuenca-abela-905717a/Magnific on X → https://x.com/magnificPanoramio — Joaquín's prior startup, acquired by Google in 2007 → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PanoramioFortune feature on Magnific's $230M ARR rebrand (April 2026) → https://fortune.com/2026/04/28/freepik-magnific-joaquin-cuenca-abela-230-million-arr-video-generation-ai-pivot/Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisThank you to our partner!Google Cloud - Check out Google Cloud's new report, "Future of AI: Perspectives on generative media for startups," Featuring thoughts from today's guest, Joaquín Cuenca Abela at goo.gle/futureofgenmediaCheck 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 McFarlandCheck out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Render - https://Render.com/TWIST Northwest Registered Agent - https://NorthwestRegisteredAgent.com/TWIST LinkedIn Jobs - https://LinkedIn.com/TWIST Today's show: A beanie that reads your thoughts and turns them into text — no surgery required? Jason grills the Sabi co-founders on their noninvasive brain-computer interface, backed by Vinod Khosla, and calls a cap on the whole thing (until he doesn't). This episode of This Week in Startups covers a lot of ground: Jason's tactical tip of the day on making everyone the CEO of their domain, a deep dive into Sabi's thought-to-text beanie, a live demo of AI-powered podcast sidebars built by the TWiST audience, the announcement of a new $5K bounty for an annotation tool, and Jason's big five wellness framework. Guests: Sabi: Website, Wired article Co-founder and CEO Rahul Chhabra: LinkedIn, X Companies and people discussed: Matt Coffin, founder of LowerMyBills.com Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures Neuralink, a leading BCI company ElevenLabs, a leading voice AI startup Calm, the popular meditation app Timestamps: 0:00 Intro & tactical tip: Make everyone the CEO of their domain 1:49 Matt Coffin's "CEO of X" management philosophy 3:04 Community ownership: Deputizing Ricky, Lawn, Bianca, Maddie, Kabir 4:02 Building the Noti Gang: X group chats and community flywheels 5:08 Founder takeaways: Activate your top 1%, make someone the CEO of it 6:18 The streamer trick, parasocial dynamics, and creator ethics 7:59 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 9:34 Guest intro: Rahul Chhabra of Sabi 10:01 What is Sabi? Noninvasive BCI in a beanie with 100,000 sensors 10:13 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/TWIST 11:02 How it works: From fMRI to EEG, from hospital to hat 13:46 The brain foundation model and thought-to-text decoding 15:55 Vetting the founders: BITS Pilani, Stanford, athlete fatigue AI 17:22 Vinod Khosla's investment thesis: BCI must be noninvasive 19:30 Jason's challenge: Say "Calacanis," or it doesn't count 20:11 Northwest Registered Agent: Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 21:30 Sabi.com: Reserve your device, release by end of 2026 22:26 Privacy concerns: Does the beanie read everything? 25:41 Bounty #1: AI live sidebar contest — demos from the TWiST audience 27:04 Oliver's breakdown: What's easy vs. hard about live AI commentary 28:40 Demo #1: Armchair (by Mark Colebrook) — fact-checker + troll personas, live 30:59 Render: Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to https://render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers. 35:30 Live political violence test: The sidebar in real time on the WHCD shooting 38:45 Demo #2: Pod Commentators / SideCast — browser-based, Gemini-powered 40:35 Jason's revised Bounty #1 spec: Fact-checker + cynic, public stream or Zoom 42:41 Timeline: check-ins May 1, May 8; final winner May 15 44:51 Demo #3: BMD Pat (by Patrick Hughes) — instant URL, all-snarky personas 46:52 Bounty #2 announced: Annotated.com — a fair-use multimedia annotation tool 49:31 Annotated: the delicious.com of media commentary 51:11 Contest rules: Jason owns the domain, winner gets $5K + potential ongoing work 53:13 Wrap-up: Bounty 1 = AI sidebar, Bounty 2 = Annotated Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

This Week In Startups is made possible by: IM8 Health - IM8health.com/twist Sentry - Sentry.io/twist Deel - Deel.com/twistPlaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist What's the technology story of the year? No, it's not Anthropic's Mythos model, nor any other AI model. Upcoming IPOs? Wrong again. Jason thinks it's China's government's decision to block Meta's acquisition of Manus. The multi-billion-dollar deal was heralded as evidence that AI companies founded in China could sidestep onerous government meddling by moving their operations to Singapore. That loophole now appears closed. Jason and Lon then dug into the newly-reforged OpenAI-Microsoft partnership. The two companies have had a mutually beneficial, if fractious, operating relationship to date; that they had to rework their agreement is not a shock. Then, your hosts watched and digested a video from China purportedly showing a self-driving car hitting a child at speed. What would happen in the United States if such a tragedy struck? And is that fait accompli? Closing the show, Jason and Lon reacted to the latest Russell Brand implosion, discussed Lon's new favorite show 'Criminal Record,' and shared recommended foot pedals (for AI dictation) and headphones for the road warriors tuning in. Key Links: OpenAI and Microsoft OpenAI's announcement of its new Microsoft deal Microsoft's announcement of its new OpenAI deal OpenAI announces its deal with AWS News that Microsoft was considering legal action against OpenAI Microsoft-OpenAI negotiations late 2025 edition, and terms announced in early 2026 Amazon announces that OpenAI models are coming to AWS Timestamps: 0:00 Show starts 1:24 OpenAI and Microsoft have a new deal 3:22 Why would Microsoft cede exclusive access to OpenAI models? 5:36 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 8:09 Why Jason thinks Microsoft and Apple should work together on AI 9:45 China will block the Meta-Manus deal 12:12 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more. 12:23 Golden Shares and what they provide 14:57 How do you unravel a multi-billion-dollar deal? 22:08 Sentry - New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST 24:42 The Huawei ADC crash 29:49 What happens when something similar happens in the United States? 31:55 IM8 Health: Start feeling like your best self every day. Go to https://IM8health.com/twist and use the code TWiST to get a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, and 10% off your order. 36:15 Russell Brand's public humiliation 41:22 Don't trust palm reading! 43:59 Lon's Off Duty streaming pick: Criminal Record 46:25 Jason's Pick: Which foot pedal for AI dictation is right for you? 48:43 Jason's Pick: In the market for new headphones? Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist LinkedIn Jobs - https://LinkedIn.com/twist Today's show: It's a News and Off-Duty weekend roundup! AngelList's USVC fund is open to anyone with $500, but it's getting pushback on social media. Do the critics have a point? A Special Forces soldier made $409K betting on the military's capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Is the world just a big casino now? And a NYT podcast defends shoplifting and explores "social murder." Find out why Jason says they crossed the line. Plus: Why you should teach your kids about investment and more, Off-Duty streaming and book recommendations. Related Links USVC: https://usvc.com/ AngelList: https://www.angellist.com/ Naval Ravikant on X: https://x.com/naval "Don't Listen to the Peanut Gallery; USVC is a Watershed Moment" by Hari Raghavan: https://x.com/haridigresses/status/2047503944839016681 @Covered_Call USVC tweet: https://x.com/covered_call/status/2047020060900733306 Forge Global: https://forgeglobal.com/ Calm: https://www.calm.com/ Full DOJ indictment of Gannon Ken Van Dyke: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-soldier-charged-using-classified-information-profit-prediction-market-bets NYT "The Opinions" podcast: "The Rich Don't Play by the Rules. So Why Should I?" https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000010849055/the-rich-dont-play-by-the-rules-so-why-should-i.html Hasn Piker on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/hasanabi New Yorker: Jia Tolentino: https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/jia-tolentino NYT: Nadja Spiegelman: https://www.nytimes.com/by/nadja-spiegelman Jia Tolentino on X: https://x.com/jiatolentino Garry Kasparov on X: https://x.com/kasparov63 Prof G Media: https://www.profgmedia.com/ Kids Investment Club: https://www.kidsinvestmentclub.com/ Time stamps:0:00 Intro 1:18 Naval's $500 VC Fund Explained 5:54 Should You Trust Critics With 2K Followers? 7:21 Learn By Betting — Jason's Philosophy 10:10 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 12:30 The Maduro Polymarket Scandal 13:28 Should the Military Bet on Missions? 19:55 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist 29:32 NYT Defends Theft & "Social Murder" 30:28 There Is No Moral Equivalence 33:41 The Nepo Baby Behind the Article 35:42 Prof G's "Resist & Unsubscribe" Movement 37:54 Walk The Walk — Hasan, Bernie & Performative Outrage 44:49 Teaching Kids About Money 48:21 The Rich Get Richer & The Poor Stay Poor Off Duty Recommendations "The Complete Maus" by Art Spiegelman: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Maus-Art-Spiegelman/dp/0679406417 "Thinking in Bets" by Annie Duke: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Bets-Making-Smarter-Decisions/dp/0735216355 "Queen of Chess" trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pmJgtLKBXg Greenlight app: https://greenlight.com/ 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 v Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Render - https://render.com/twist Agree - https://agree.com Ro - https://Ro.co/Twist Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: The US military is running low on missiles, but now, Firehawk Aerospace is using 3D-printed solid rocket propellant to cut production costs in half and 5x U.S. output. Plus: PhD researcher Maruchi Kim just built camera-equipped earbuds that perform on par with Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and could be the next wearable AI platform hiding in plain sight. Guests Will Edwards: https://x.com/williewockets Firehawk Aerospace: https://firehawkdefense.com/ Maruchi Kim: https://x.com/maruchikim VueBuds project: https://vuebuds.cs.washington.edu/ Related Links This Week in AI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ "Ghost Murmur: The Heartbeat-Tracking Tech That Has Experts Questioning the Laws of Physics": https://www.military.com/feature/2026/04/18/ghost-murmur-heartbeat-tracking-tech-has-experts-questioning-laws-of-physics.html Neurometric: https://www.neurometric.ai/ Meta Ray-Bans: https://www.meta.com/ai-glasses/ Hanwha Defense USA: https://www.hanwhadefenseusa.com/ Raytheon: https://www.rtx.com/ Pilatus PC-24 corporate jet: https://www.pilatus-aircraft.com/en/pc-24 PlaneSense: https://www.planesense.com/ Slopes app: https://slopesapp.com/ Speechify: https://speechify.com/ Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://www.eff.org/ Timestamps: 0:00 Are all these layoffs really AI's fault? 8:51 Why laid off people should start their own companies 9:27 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 13:18 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 15:25 Will Edwards of Firehawk joins the show 15:46 What are Solid Rocket Motors (SRMs)? 20:06 Render: Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to https://render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers. 23:10 Who are Firehawk's customers? 24:25 Reimagining and reinventing the US military 28:35 How do missiles fit into the military's operations? 29:34 Agree - Stop chasing invoices at https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life! 31:01 What's next on the roadmap for Firehawk? 31:49 How to make propellant (with easy to find ingredients) 33:13 A cheaper way to fly private 38:03 Ro.co: Ro's insurance checker will let you know if your coverage includes GLP-1s for FREE. Go to https://Ro.co/Twist for your free insurance check. 40:48 Maruchi Kim of Vuebuds joins the show! 44:35 Why are VueBuds better than meta glasses? 46:23 The biggest VueBud use cases 48:09 Jason wants to use VueBuds on the slopes 55:38 Jason's advice for angel investors: never underestimate anyone! Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis

This Week In Startups is made possible by: LinkedIn Jobs - linkedIn.com/twist Grasshopper Bank - grasshopper.bank/twist Notion - notion.com Today's show: This week, SpaceX announced that it was partnering with AI coding startup Cursor on new AI models. xAI's parent company is bringing compute, while Cursor brings developer market share and recent successes, training its own coding models. The deal, while interesting, comes with a steep price tag. SpaceX will pay Cursor $10 billion for their shared work, with an option to buy the entire company for $60 billion later this year. After poking our way through the deal, Chris Zacharia and Brian McRindle of Bitstarter joined Lon and Alex. Bitstarter is a 'Kickstarter for Bittensor,' helping founders get their subnet up and running without tripping over their shoelaces. The Bitstarter crew also broke some news on the show, telling TWIST that they have a new accelerator-ish program kicking off. Next, Ning Ren from Trajectory RL joined the program to explain how Bittensor subnet 11 is using decentralized competitions to design and release better skills. Skills — markdown files with words — have become a critical building tool in the agentic era; how Trajectory will monetize is an open, interesting question. Timestamps: 2:27 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 4:07 SpaceX/ xAI "partners" with Cursor! 9:35 Will the Cursor deal help pump a future SpaceX IPO? 9:57 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist. 12:14 How AI coding models like Cursor help xAI grow recursively. 17:24 Chris Zacharia and Brian McRindle of Bitstarter join the show. 20:23 Grasshopper Bank: Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account. 29:59 Notion - Notion brings all your notes, docs, and projects into one connected space that just works with AI built right in. Try Notion, with Notion Agent, at https://www.notion.com/twist 33:03 How Bittensor subnets monetize and how it compares to VC funds. 37:04 Is Bittensor hard-capped at 128 subnets? 42:37 Bittensor's biggest weakness. 46:10 Ning Ren of TrajectoryRL joins the show. 47:34 Skills now need entire agents just to write them! 48:26 Back up… What are skills? 1:07:38 Amazon and Anthropic's 5 BILLION deal 1:08:48 Google has 2 new chips! 1:09:50 Apple CEO, Tim is COOKED! John Ternus is in! 1:11:37 Alex is bullish on MacBook Neo! Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Quo - https://quo.com/TWiST Vanta - https://vanta.com/twist Pilot - https://pilot.com/twist Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: *Eragon CEO Josh Sirota believes that you should "own your intelligence." He demos a live enterprise AI operating system connecting email, Slack, calendar, and financial data into a single agentic layer that's pre-trained to understand any business inside and out. PLUS we've got IONA Drones founder Etienne Louvet, a first look at Moonshot's Kimi K2.6, and a brand new Off Duty with JCal and Lon. FULL SHOW NOTES ON NOTION: https://thisweekinstartups-docket.notion.site/TWiST-2278-SHOW-NOTES-34872ca918e380bd9c71e684ce2db7c9?source=copy_link Guests : Eragon: https://eragon.ai Josh Sirota on X: https://x.com/joshua_sirota IONA: https://ionadrones.com/ Etienne Louvet on X: https://x.com/etienneldva Relevant Links Eragon Seed Round coverage: https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/18/this-startup-wants-to-make-enterprise-software-look-more-like-a-prompt/ Neurometric: https://www.neurometric.ai/ Ollama model: https://ollama.com/ Orange Slice: https://www.orangeslice.ai/ Corgi Insurance: https://www.corgi.insure/ Slash Financial: https://www.slash.com/ The Syndicate: https://thesyndicate.com/ FAA Part 108 Explained: https://pilotinstitute.com/part-108-explained/ Zipline: https://www.zipline.com/ Google Wing: https://wing.com/ Joby Aviation: https://www.jobyaviation.com/ Enterprise Ireland: https://www.enterprise-ireland.com/ Éire Composites: https://www.eirecomposites.com/ Kimi K2.6 blog post: https://www.kimi.com/blog/kimi-k2-6 Kimi K2 series on GitHub: https://github.com/moonshotai/Kimi-K2 NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 work station: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/gb300-nvl72/ Timestamps: 0:00 Josh from Eragon AI joins the show 2:01 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 5:07 Why founders should own and control their data sets 8:33 What is a "company world model?" 9:48 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) - Quo gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://quo.com/TWiST 11:32 Eragon demo 15:55 Giving agents their own bank accounts 19:07 Inside Eragon's first partnerships 20:14 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist 25:50 How does Eragon make money? 29:11 Pilot - Visit https://www.pilot.com/twist and get $1,200 off your first year. 39:33 Etienne Louvet of Iona Drones joins the show 42:37 What is FAA's Part 108? 47:13 How innovation in drones impacts the aviation industry 50:26 Working with Enterprise Ireland 58:28 Jason attended the Breakthrough Awards 1:04:10 Doug Liman's AI-powered "Bitcoin" movie 1:09:09 "Love Story" on FX and "Dust Bunny" on HBO Max 1:13:10 Jason's love of tinned fish Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by:IM8 Health - https://IM8health.com/twist Grasshopper Bank - https://grasshopper.bank/twist Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twistToday's show:Is 3D printing the key to not just solving the housing crisis but bringing us all into a more beautiful and utopian future? ICON founder Jason Ballard thinks so. His company is already building homes for the unhoused and delivering barracks to Fort Bliss at half the cost and a fraction of the time. On TWiST, he tells us space construction is also on the agenda.Explore the potential for robot-powered concrete construction can help build cheap homes for the unhoused, modernize our military infrastructure, AND colonize the solar system in this exclusive interview.Then Seby Rubino of Resi Labs demos his real estate "Oracle," which can guess the price of any home with 98% accuracy… for just fractions of a penny.PLUS Jason tells a story of the rare founder who got one over on him, and why he's moving away from vengeance and anger and into love and acceptable.AND we've got more JCal and Lon recommendations in a brand-new Off Duty.Guests :Jason Ballard: https://x.com/JasonDBallardICON: https://www.iconbuild.com/ICON on X: https://x.com/ICON3DTechSeby Rubino: https://x.com/SebyverseResi Labs: https://portal.resilabs.ai/Timestamps:0:00 Intro + "balance the ledger" tease1:10 Jason Ballard (ICON) joins — 3D-printed homes + defense (ICON Prime)5:18 Housing basics: commutes, quality of life, "food/water/shelter"7:15 ICON Prime: military construction, survivability, speed, supply chain10:08 IM8 Health: Start feeling like your best self every day. Go to https://IM8health.com/twist and use the code TWiST to get a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, and 10% off your order.11:35 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!12:43 Fort Bliss barracks: 10 in 6 months, half the cost; blast/ballistics20:23 Beautiful + dignified housing: Community First Village; "where's the floor?"20:29 Grasshopper Bank: Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account.30:10 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist37:27 Audience Q&A: longevity/cracking; plumbing + electrical41:33 ICON Titan printer + channel partners; hiring pitch45:47 Sebi Rubino (Rezzy Labs) joins — BitTensor subnet 46 real estate pricing51:18 Tau/BitTensor explained: subnet competitions, "narrow intelligence"59:15 Rezzy demo: portal + pricing engine; customers + business model1:07:49 "Got shivved for 500k" story: acquisition, investors get zero1:20:36 Bounties: annotated.com + AI sidebar + headless CMS on BitTensor1:31:10 Off-duty: View Buds (camera earbuds) + use cases1:38:13 Off-duty: Anker charger/cable/battery "trio"1:41:12 Off-duty: The Audacity (AMC) quick review1:46:43 Wrap-up + secret TWiST group chat on XSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisCheck 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 McFarlandCheck out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis

This Week In Startups is made possible by: LinkedIn Jobs - LinkedIn.com/twist Every.io - every.io Render - render.com/twist Today's show: *Imagine scrolling through mobile games the way your flip through your TikTok feed. What if you could build your own game in 90 seconds and share it with the world? That's what over 100,000 users are enjoying right now on Nanogram. On TWiST, we meet the co-founders: 22-year-old CEO Albert Brotherton and 24-year-old CTO Boris Radilov. They demo the app for us on the air, and Jason immediately spies the potential. Power users are playing 25+ games per session already. We're digging into the co-founders future plans, including the potential for ads in your game feed, in this TWiST exclusive. PLUS domestic helper bots are here. NEO from 1X Technologies can do the laundry, open the door for guests, and even read and understand Post-It Note messages. Alex talks with CEO Bernt Børnich about building the safety-first 66-lb humanoid, why world models are so crucial for training robots in particular, and why homes are even tougher places for robots to navigate than factory floors. Timestamps:0:59 Nanogram co-creators Albert and Boris join the show 3:42 Nanogram is TikTok for casual AI-generated games 4:27 Building Nanogram with Google Gemini 5:49 Draper and Associates: https://www.draper.vc 6:11 Integrating ads into the game feed 7:36 Roblox: https://www.roblox.com World of Warcraft: https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com 8:25 Building in New York 9:07 Jason is obsessed with the Staples Baddie https://www.tiktok.com/@blivxx 10:12 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist 20:36 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io 21:40 1X CEO and founder Bernt Børnich joins the show https://x.com/BerntBornich 22:31 Designing robots to actually live around people 26:30 Teaching NEO about movement in the physical world 29:00 TechCrunch coverage: https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/13/neo-humanoid-maker-1x-releases-world-model-to-help-bots-learn-what-they-see/ 29:58 Render: Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to https://render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers. 31:04 Moving beyond training data to true general intelligence 33:17 Ensuring NEO pursues the safest possible path 34:19 Why are world models so important? 41:51 1X World Model Challenge on GitHub: https://github.com/1x-technologies/1xgpt 45:14 Robots need to train on a lot of data… Where does it all come from? 50:14 Manufacturing NEO from raw materials in San Carlos 56:32 Robots building robots Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Sentry - https://sentry.io/twist Deel - https://deel.com/twist Netsuite - https://netsuite.com/twist Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: *TAO just had its worst week since launch. One of Bittensor's most prominent subnet operators allegedly dumped $10 million in tokens and walked away. We're digging into what we know, how this could change the Bittensor community… and why dedicated builders still believe in this ecosystem. Jason and Lon are joined by Stillcore Capital Partner Mark Jeffrey to break down the Covenant AI and Templar controversy in real time. Then they're joined by three prominent subnet founders: Ken Miyachi of BitMind (Subnet 34) and Will Squires of Steffen Cruz of MacroCosmos (which owns Subnets 1, 9, and 13). Together, they're investigating how Bittensor incentives work, how real products are still emerging from the TAO ecosystem, and what governance fixes could arise to prevent the next (alleged) rug pull. Timestamps: 0:00 Mark Jeffrey joins the show! https://x.com/markjeffrey 2:18 How Mark Jeffrey learned about Bittensor. https://bittensor.com/ 6:17 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 7:22 Mark Jeffrey's Bittensor investments. https://stillcorecapital.com/ 9:25 Check out our discussion with Nova: https://youtu.be/gjRt4eUyiYc?si=HopdmmSarxECark1 10:16 Sentry - New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST 10:41 Check out Ridges! https://www.ridges.ai/ 11:53 How trading alpha tokens works on Bittensor 12:44 Subnet drama: what happened? https://x.com/covenant_ai/status/2042380152831951300 16:01 Do subnet owners have too much power? 18:33 Check out our conversation with Sam Dare (2268): https://youtu.be/TN2RmNuX4-k?si=c58Byh7Fsw1ttnAY 19:10 How Sam Dare should've handled walking away (per Mark Jeffrey) 20:02 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more. 23:29 Who should subnets be owned by? 24:02 Ken Miyachi from BitMind joins the show https://x.com/kenmiyachi 30:56 Netsuite - Get the free business guide Demystifying AI at https://www.netsuite.com/twist 31:06 Ken's $3M raise & investors (Arch, Canonical, Mechanism) 33:18 Token vs. equity: how to think about a subnet investment. 41:57 Will Squires and Stefan Kruse of MacroCosmos join the show https://x.com/willsquires https://x.com/sczsteffencruz 56:29 Stefan on the Covenant drama: "disappointing, but solvable" 1:02:11 Off-duty with J-Cal, Mark Jeffrey, and Lon Harris 1:02:48 Bieber vs. Carpenter: does Coachella owe you a spectacle? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp5O72WUqTk https://x.com/FashionXGirl_/status/2043251270509592936 1:15:20 Jason says Staples should pay the "Staples baddie" $1M/year https://www.tiktok.com/@blivxx 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 LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Pilot - https://pilot.com/TWIST Squarespace -https://squarespace.com/TWIST Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/TWIST Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twistCrowdHealth - ⁠https://JoinCrowdHealth.com/twist⁠ Today's show: TAO, the token associated with the Bittensor network, fell sharply last night after a major project declared it was taking its business elsewhere. Covenant AI had used Bittensor subnets 3, 39, and 89 before its abrupt and controversial decision to depart for other digital shores. Gareth Howells, a co-founder of Vidaio (Bittensor Subnet 85), joined Jason and Alex to share the community perspective regarding Covenant's decision to leave Bittensor, a choice that was especially bitter given that its recently-released Covenant-72B model trained using the network's decentralized capabilities was hailed at the time as a demonstration of the crypto-AI hybrid's potential. (Covenant's Sam Dare was a recent guest on TWiST.) Howells walked us through Vidaio's product (AI models for high-quality video work, like upscaling) Then it was time to bring new fan-favorite Ole Lehmann on. Ole took an Andrej Karpathy concept, and turned it into a skill that you can use in either OpenClaw or Claude Cowork. Guests Ole Lehmann: https://x.com/itsolelehmann The AI Solopreneur newsletter: https://aisolo.beehiiv.com/ Vidaio: https://vidaio.io/ Vidaio on X: https://x.com/vidaio_ Timestamps: 0:00 Drama in the Bittensor space! Was there a rugpull? 1:01 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 1:47 Gareth Howells of subnet85 joins the show: https://x.com/GarethHowells 9:56 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/TWIST 11:37 Gareth reacts to the Covenant situation… Did Sam sell tokens? 14:33 How VidAIo (subnet85) optimizes video as cheaply as possible. https://vidaio.io/ 20:06 Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://squarespace.com/TWIST 21:12 Demo: Gareth shows upscaled footage of our very own Lon Harris 27:09 Who is actually doing the computing on Bittensor? 28:15 How Bittensor recruits tech talent from emerging markets 29:42 Pilot - Visit https://pilot.com/TWIST and get $1,200 off your first year. 30:58 Jason's explains the Bittensor network. https://docs.bittensor.com/ 37:28 Jason addresses "pump and dump" allegations 40:46 Ole Lehmann joins the show https://x.com/itsolelehmann 45:31 Jason's $1,000 "bounty" for enhanced show notes 49:35 Check out Ole's newsletter at aisolo.beehiiv.com ! 59:50 CrowdHealth - CrowdHealth lets you ditch the bureaucracy with a peer-to-peer funding platform for your healthcare. Get started for $99 per month for your first three months by using the code TWIST at https://JoinCrowdHealth.com/twist. 1:00:46 Off Duty with Alex and J-Cal! 1:04:46 Reacting to the Maul trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkVepshZhGc 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 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

Anthropic just built a model so dangerous, they're not even going to release it (for now). On TWiST, Jason, Alex, and Neurometric CEO Rob May discuss whether or not this is just another frontier model or a potential weapon of mass internet destruction. Claude Mythos Preview is already in the hands of over 40 Anthropic partners — including Nvidia, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google — as part of its "Project Glasswing" security council. Together, they'll test how quickly and easily the model can thwart today's most elite cybersecurity protocols, and try to develop fresh protocols to keep our most sensitive and critical software systems safe and intact. Once Mythos or a similarly powerful model hits the streets… it's all over! Plus, we're checking out the real-time SaaSpocalypse monitor Death By Clawd, and chatting with its creator, Gyani, about how it feels to have your startup one-shotted by Anthropic's latest model. Guests Rob May: https://x.com/robmay Neurometric: https://www.neurometric.ai/ Neurometric SLM Marketplace: https://marketplace.neurometric.ai/ Death by Clawd: https://deathbyclawd.com/ Nick O'Neill: https://x.com/chooserich This Week In Startups is made possible by: LinkedIn Jobs - LinkedIn.com/twist Grasshopper Bank - Grasshopper.bank/twist Render - Render.com/twist Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: Timestamps: 0:00 Anthropic's new, powerful 'Mythos' model 3:50 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 5:26 Neurometric's Rob May joins the show 10:04 Sam Altman's talent exodus 10:50 Render - Go to https://render.com/twist to apply for the Render Startup Program. You'll get anywhere from $500 to $100,000 in free credits. 11:50 Has Anthropic Passed OpenAI? 15:44 When will Claude release Mythos? Polymarket: https://polymarket.com/event/claude-mythos-released-by 18:32 The AI race turns existential 19:16 Would Anthropic's model give the CIA the ability to hack a foreign government? 20:04 Grasshopper Bank - Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account. 21:19 Should AI be nationalized? 29:43 Subsidizing secret AI development. 30:15 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist 31:29 How much of the military's $1.5T will go to AI cybersecurity? 35:17 Nick O'Neill's "not sponsored" call-in. 38:24 What is an SLM? 42:01 Tactical/Practical: How can you tune SLMs 45:43 How Neurometric can afford 100M free tokens per month for its users? 49:04 What is "harness engineering"? 50:58 Tactical/ Practical: Every Reddit rant is a startup idea 1:00:25 Why Meta is the most un-innovative AI company in the world. 1:03:43 Gyani of Deathbclawd joins the show — Is your company COOKED? Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

Anthropic just pulled the plug on Claude subscriptions for OpenClaw and every third party agentic tool. So Jason and Lon welcome back three of our top TWiST OpenClaw experts to break down what it means, how much it's going to cost now, and whether this is truly the end of the subsidized AI era. And they all brought demos! We're checking out ClawChief from Ryan Carson, Alex Finn's agent Henry, and Yazin Alirhayim's Sidecast protocol, inspired by a special request from JCal! Hosts Jason Calacanis: http://x.com/jason Lon Harris: https://x.com/lons Guests Ryan Carson: https://x.com/ryancarson Clawchief: https://github.com/snarktank/clawchief Alex Finn: https://x.com/AlexFinn Creator Buddy: https://www.creatorbuddy.io/ Yazin Alirhayim: https://x.com/yazins OpenOats / Sidecast: https://github.com/yazinsai/OpenOats Further Reading The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande: https://www.amazon.com/Checklist-Manifesto-How-Things-Right/dp/0312430000 Marc Andreessen on AI job loss: https://x.com/pmarca/status/2040919227641856307 OpenAI acquires TBPN: https://openai.com/index/openai-acquires-tbpn/ This Week In Startups is made possible by: Gusto - https://Gusto.com/twist Vanta - https://vanta.com/twist Shopify - https://shopify.com/twist Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: Timestamps: 0:00 Welcome back to TWiST 0:32 Jason's thinks Andor is as good as Empire Strikes Back… 2:30 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 3:26 Check out the checklist manifesto! https://www.amazon.com/Checklist-Manifesto-How-Things-Right/dp/0312430000 6:36 Our guests Ryan Carson, Alex Finn, and Yazin Alirhayim, and join the show 10:28 Gusto - Check out the online payroll and benefits experts with software built specifically for small businesses and startups. Try Gusto today and get three months FREE at https://Gusto.com/twist. 10:46 People are automating their coworkers and getting them fired… 18:32 Anthropic Bans OpenClaw 20:06 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist 24:06 How "caveman talk" makes AI works better 27:31 Alex thinks $2000/ month subscription plans are inevitable for AI. 29:31 Why is nobody using the leaked Anthropic Model? 30:30 Shopify: Turn those What If's into sales with the ecommerce platform powering millions of businesses. Sign up for your $1-per-month trial today at https://shopify.com/twist 32:37 Open models have been 6 months behind for the past few years 35:53 Why did OpenAI acquire TBPN? 42:01 Tactical/ Practical: The product itself is the most important thing 44:31 Demo or Die! Yazin is back to show off OpenOats 55:05 Ryan's "Claw Chief" https://github.com/snarktank/clawchief/blob/main/skills/executive-assistant/SKILL.md?plain=1 1:02:14 Alex's big announcement, "Henry intelligent machines" 1:12:33 Alex Finn DESTROYS Higgsfield's marketing strategy 1:15:35 Throwback to "Pay Per Post" Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Deel - deel.com/twist Grasshopper Bank - grasshopper.bank/twist Render - render.com/twist Plaud - Plaud.ai/twist An AI "holding company" rebuilt dozens of YC Winter '26 startups in one weekend. Now we're bringing the founder responsible into Jason's Courtroom to defend himself. PLUS a live demo of Boardy, the AI that acts like a virtual board member and makes crucial introductions. Find out why he gets to have so much agency, how creator Andrew D'Souza used him to raise his own $17 million round, and how this company ever plans to actually make money. Plus Jason celebrates Apple's 50th anniversary with a fiery rant about milking the ghost of Steve Jobs… Why OpenAI is acquiring a tech podcast… Jason's favorite weighted vest for rucking… AND Lon's Off Duty weekend streaming picks. Guests Marik Hazan:⁠ https://x.com/MarikHazan⁠ Feltsense:⁠ https://feltsense.com/⁠ Andrew D'Souza:⁠ https://x.com/andrewdsouza⁠ Boardy:⁠ https://www.boardy.ai/⁠ Timestamps: 0:00 Jason's direction for TWiST and thoughts on legacy media 5:14 Marik of Feltsense joins the show 6:10 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 7:10 Marik's viral YC replicator stunt 9:45 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more. 20:39 Grasshopper bank - Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account. 21:33 Feltsense founder goes on trial! 25:26 Jason dunks on Bank of America's app 27:59 TBPN acquired by OpenAI 29:28 The All In Podcast is worth $1B! 30:13 Render - Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to https://render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers. 33:02 Andrew D'Souza joins the show along with his agent, Boardy! 43:17 So how does Boardy make money? 48:32 Lon is becoming more and more "AI-pilled." 50:41 Tactical/ practical: "If we have data, let's look at data. If all we have are opinions, let's go with mine." -Jim Barskdale, former CEO of Netscape 1:01:00 Tactical/ practical: hire a PR firm to report on your competitors' wrongdoings. 1:02:58 Jason calls out Apple for being DISGRAZIAD! 1:15:09 Lon's TV pick of the week: "Something Very Bad is Going to Happen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMc_pWm7G7o 1:19:52 Become an Angel Investor at https://thesyndicate.com/ Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter:⁠ https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com⁠ Check out the TWIST500:⁠ https://www.twist500.com⁠ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple:⁠ https://rb.gy/v19fcp⁠ Follow Lon: X:⁠ https://x.com/lons⁠ Follow Alex: X:⁠ https://x.com/alex⁠ LinkedIn:⁠ ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm⁠ Follow Jason: X:⁠ https://twitter.com/Jason⁠ LinkedIn:⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis⁠ Check out all our partner offers:⁠ https://partners.launch.co/⁠ Great TWIST interviews:⁠ Will Guidara,⁠⁠ Eoghan McCabe⁠,⁠ Steve Huffman⁠,⁠ Brian Chesky⁠,⁠ Bob Moesta,⁠⁠ Aaron Levie⁠,⁠ Sophia Amoruso⁠,⁠ Reid Hoffman⁠,⁠ Frank Slootman⁠,⁠ Billy McFarland⁠ Check out Jason's suite of newsletters:⁠ https://substack.com/@calacanis⁠ Follow TWiST: Twitter:⁠ https://twitter.com/TWiStartups⁠ YouTube:⁠ https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin⁠ Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups⁠ TikTok:⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups⁠ Substack:⁠ https://twistartups.substack.com⁠

This Week in AI, JCal sits down with three CEOs building the infrastructure, intelligence, and interfaces for the next era of AI: Jeremy Fraenkel (CEO, Fundamental), Victor Riparbelli (CEO, Synthesia), and Nick Harris (CEO, Lightmatter). We break down what's actually happening beneath the AI hype: the data modality LLMs completely missed, why copper is the real bottleneck in AI data centers, OpenAI shutting down Sora, the build vs. buy debate for AI tools, and how close we really are to AGI. AI's Biggest Blind Spot, Tabular Data: LLMs transformed text, images, and code, but 70-80% of enterprise data lives in rows and columns. Copper Can't Keep Up: Nick explains why AI data centers are hitting a wall. GPUs compute faster than they can communicate. Lightmatter's photonic chips push 1.6 terabits per fiber and can 3x training speed. Why OpenAI Killed Sora & Anthropic's Focus is Winning: Victor breaks down why even OpenAI had to learn the lesson of focus, and why Claude Code has every founder talking. Vibe Coding Your Own CRM vs. Buying Salesforce: Jeremy reveals Fundamental built their own internal CRM using vibe coding. The panel debates when building beats buying and when it's a distraction. The Omnipresent CEO: Jason shares how he's using AI agents for root access to Slack, Gmail, and Notion, resurrecting former employees as AI personas, automating SDR workflows, and summarizing employee inboxes while they're on vacation. Are We Already at AGI?: Nick says the rate of progress is a double exponential. Jeremy argues AGI is a moving goalpost. Victor warns of "Future Shock" and societal disruption. 🔗 Learn more about Fundamental: https://fundamental.tech🔗 Learn more about Synthesia: https://www.synthesia.io🔗 Learn more about Lightmatter: https://lightmatter.coThis Week In AI is made possible by:PayPal Open - One Platform for all Business: paypalopen.comTimestamps:00:00 Welcome & intro to Jeremy Fraenkel, Victor Riparbelli, and Nick Harris01:47 What is Fundamental? Large tabular models explained07:01 Victor Riparbelli on Synthesia & why OpenAI killed Sora11:09 Claude Code dominance & the Lightspeed founder retreat12:08 Nick Harris on Lightmatter, photonics & the new Moore's Law14:38 Copper vs. fiber: why AI data centers are hitting a wall18:44 Reinventing video: interactive, real-time, personalized21:32 The economics of a custom AI movie23:55 Why Amazon, Google & Meta are building their own chips28:06 Tables have a bandwidth problem too32:27 When will compute be as cheap as storage?36:10 The future of software: every company gets a custom stack38:06 Vibe coding your own CRM vs. buying Salesforce45:57 Jason's quest for root access to Slack50:18 The omnipresent CEO: Doctor Manhattan meets Jesus CEO52:13 Resurrecting former employees as AI personas53:25 Victor's executive changelog for a 650-person company55:07 Whisper Flow & the Plaud Pin1:00:03 AGI: is it already here?1:03:37 Jeremy: we've only solved half the brain1:06:30 70% of Americans fear AI will impact jobs1:08:47 Future Shock & keeping the rope tight*Mentioned in the show:* Wisper Flow: https://wisperflow.ai Plaud Pin: https://www.plaud.ai Athena Executive Assistants: https://www.athenawow.com WHOOP: https://www.whoop.com "Future Shock" by Alvin Toffler: https://www.amazon.com/Future-ShockAlvin-Toffler/dp/0394425863 Victor on TWiST, E1776: https://youtu.be/jxET4fq_2eA Nick on TWiST, E1787: https://youtu.be/FPW2nnEqfMsSubscribe to This Week in AI on Apple: https://thisweekinai.ai/spotifySubscribe to This Week in AI on Spotify: https://thisweekinai.ai/appleThanks for watching!🤖 If you want to stay ahead of the curve on all things AI, make sure to join our community across all platforms:📩 Get the Weekly Newsletter: https://thisweekinai.ai/📺 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinAIPodcast📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinaipodcast

This Week In Startups is made possible by: PaperOS - https://PaperOS.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent- https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Every.io - https://Every.io Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: Silicon Valley just lined up its biggest liquidity event in years: SpaceX filed confidentially for an IPO that could target a $1.75 trillion valuation — potentially the largest public offering in history. Meanwhile, a new Quinnipiac poll shows that 62% of Americans aren't excited about AI, and 70% think it will destroy their jobs. The disconnect between Sand Hill Road and Main Street has never been wider, and this panel is here to argue about what to do about it. Jason Calacanis and co-host Alex Wilhelm are joined by Delian Asparouhov, Partner at Founders Fund and co-founder of Varda Space Industries; Salen Churi, General Partner at Trust Ventures, focused on regulated industries and physical infrastructure; and Larsen Jensen, Founder and GP of Harpoon Ventures and former Navy SEAL. They dig into the SpaceX IPO and what it means for LP liquidity, founder formation, and venture capital's comeback story; the gap between Silicon Valley's AI optimism and public hostility; whether defense tech is in a bubble after $49 billion flooded the sector in 2025; the Marc Andreessen "zero introspection" thesis for founders; America's reindustrialization challenge and the rare earths supply chain crisis; and Artemis's path to putting boots back on the Moon. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 1:09 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 3:50 SpaceX files confidentially for IPO: $1.75T valuation, June target 9:00 Will the SpaceX IPO reinvigorate venture capital? 10:25 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io 14:40 Quinnipiac poll: Americans use more AI but trust it less 17:31 AI's PR crisis: Dario vs. Jensen, and who's communicating well 18:02 Jason's "Invest America" proposal: give workers equity stakes 19:55 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 21:39 Larsen: Silicon Valley is walking into the same trap as China offshoring 29:04 PaperOS - Whether you're raising a round, launching a fund, or managing a venture portfolio, PaperOS can unlock simplicity and scale across your empire of capital, contracts, and companies. Claim your $10,000 credit at https://paperos.com/twist 29:50 Polymarket: 24% chance of a federal AI data center moratorium 33:57 Marc Andreessen on zero introspection (David Senra podcast clip) 46:48 Is defense tech in a bubble? 1:10:32 Saronic raises $1.75B for autonomous drone boats 1:25:07 Anthropic vs. OpenAI: where would you put your entire net worth? 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 Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Quo - https://quo.com/TWiST LinkedIn Jobs - https://LinkedIn.com/twist Iru - https://iru.com/twist Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: Google project manager Shubham Saboo is running 6 AI agents on a Mac Mini that handle all of his side business autonomously, from research, to social posts, to newsletters. He joins Jason and Lon to walk us through his 5-step framework for designing an efficient AI agent team: Start with one agent and onboard them like a new hire Stop Googling fixes; just ask your agent how to use it Put your agents on fixed schedules Add shared memory so you don't have to repeat yourself Let agents run self-reviews and rewrite their own instructions. Get the walkthrough to put this entire plan into practice on today's episode. PLUS fresh demos of the "Minecraft"-inspired virtual workspace MoltWorld and AgentMail, which is Gmail for your AI pals, and Jason explains the thinking behind his viral, controversy-stirring "don't talk to journalists" tweet. Follow Shubham: https://x.com/Saboo_Shubham_ "How I Built an Autonomous AI Agent Team That Runs 24/7" on X: https://x.com/Saboo_Shubham_/status/2022014147450614038?s=20 Follow Mike: https://x.com/mihalich1988 MoltWorld: https://moltworld.io/ Follow Haakam: https://x.com/haakamaujla AgentMail: https://www.agentmail.to/ Jason's post about talking to journalists: https://x.com/Jason/status/2037573025458016659 NYT responds: https://x.com/NYTimesPR/status/2037648223771263082 Translated Japanese tweets: https://x.com/melonneet40/status/2038020624015315289, https://x.com/rambling_28/status/2038041455999246422 Japanese people singing "Country Roads": https://x.com/harukaawake/status/2038081269830222259 Trailer for "Nuremberg" (now on Netflix in the US): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvAy9C-bipY Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 1:24 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 3:05 We're Claw-pilled once again; it's an all AI Agent showcase 6:15 Google AI PM Shubham Saboo's Top 5 OpenClaw tips 10:14 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. 13:26 Tip #1 — Onboard your agent like a new hire 17:31 Tip #2 — Talk to your agents constantly 19:02 Tip #3 — Put your agents on a schedule 19:51 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist. 23:41 Tip #4 — Add cross-agent memory 29:33 Tip #5 — Let your agents self-improve 29:51 Iru unifies identity, endpoint security, and compliance into one platform. TWiST listeners get 20% off when they book a demo at https://iru.com/twist! 34:03 Why Jason says founders should avoid journalists 38:24 How biased IS the New York Times? 47:02 DEMO: Co-founder Mike Nosov shows us MoltWorld 51:14 But what's the utility of this? 1:05:15 DEMO: Haakam Aujla presents AgentMail (YC S25) 1:09:59 How does AgentMail make money? 1:17:03 How Grok Translations are creating cross-cultural dialogue on X Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Wispr Flow - https://wisprflow.ai/twist Circle - http://circle.so/twist Deel - http://deel.com/twist Today's show: AstroForge is building low-cost, replicable spacecraft to mine platinum group metals from near-Earth asteroids — a $60 billion annual market for materials that are running out on Earth. Founder and CEO Matt Gialich joins the show to talk about the company's ambitious mission, what went wrong on their first two flights, and why Mission 3 could still change everything. PLUS Sam Dare from Templar stops by to talk about training AI models on a decentralized blockchain, and why it's so much cheaper and more efficient than the conventional "data center full of GPUs" method. AND a demo of OpenOats from creator Yazin Alirhayim of his open source Granola alternative. Astroforge: https://www.astroforge.com/ Templar: https://www.tplr.ai/ Epoch AI decentralized training post: https://epoch.ai/gradient-updates/how-far-can-decentralized-training-over-the-internet-scale OpenOats on Github: https://github.com/yazinsai/OpenOats Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:59 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 3:05 We aplaud Plaud! 3:18 Astroforge is mining… asteroids?! 6:11 How creating an abundance of Platinum will impact Humanity! 9:56 Wispr Flow: Stop typing. Dictate with Wispr Flow and send clean, final-draft writing in seconds. Visit https://wisprflow.ai/twist to get started for free today. 21:16 Circle: The easiest way to build a home for your community, events, and courses — all under your own brand. TWiST listeners get $1,000 off the Circle Plus Plan by going to https://circle.so/twist. 22:01 How Astroforge uses capitalism to unlock abundance 24:35 J-Cal subscribed to… A socialist magazine? 26:19 Sam Dare of Templar joins the show! 27:47 What is TAO doing that's uniquely different from Bitcoin 30:15 What is the incentive mechanism that Templar uses? 30:44 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more. 37:49 How much does it cost to run templar's model? 45:16 Can decentralized training over the internet scale? https://epoch.ai/gradient-updates/how-far-can-decentralized-training-over-the-internet-scale 47:16 Jason addresses his tao investment 48:48 Why brand is the moat for startups 49:47 When will a better, more exciting version of Bitcoin, can come along? 52:20 Yazin of OpenGranola Joins the show 53:36 How OpenGranola has local LLM's taking notes for you and giving you real time insights in your meeting! 1:01:45 Jason's callout for a sidebar that shows all inputs from agents 1:13:50 The economics of the new harry potter series and HBO/ Warner Brothers 1:23:33 Why Jason wants government surveillance on Disney adults… Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com