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A Startup Is Trying to Buy PayPal… Craziest Deal of 2026! | E2312
15 juli 2026 · 1 uur 14 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
MongoDB - MongoDB.com/ai
Rippling - Rippling.ai/twist
Agree.com - agree.com Lees meerToday'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-inTimestamps:
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 Ri… -
Jason turned $11 and one tweet into 1.1M views | E2311
13 juli 2026 · 1 uur 30 min
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 Lees meerToday'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… -
Danny Bernstein left Big Tech to fund farm-bots | E2310
10 juli 2026 · 1 uur 1 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
NetSuite https://NetSuite.ai/TWIST
Squarespace https://squarespace.com/twist
YSecurity https://YSecurity.io/TWIST Lees meerToday'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/… -
Why Data Is the Next $1 Trillion Market
8 juli 2026 · 1 uur 6 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Digital Ocean - do.co/twist
Agree.com - agree.com
Every.io - every.io. Lees meerToday'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/JoshuabrowderTimestamps:
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 depen… -
$100T is managed by "human duct tape" | E2308
6 juli 2026 · 58 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lees meer
Northwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
Vanta https://www.vanta.com/twist
Sentry https://sentry.io/twistToday'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. intellig… -
Why the VC Hype Cycle Always Gets It Wrong | VC Roundtable | E2307
2 juli 2026 · 1 uur 14 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lees meer
CLA - www.claconnect.com/withyou
Northwest Registered Agent - www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
Agree.com - www.agree.comToday'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.comTimestamps:
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… -
Chamath on why young people need more agency, risk, and adventure
30 juni 2026 · 1 uur 12 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lees meer
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!
1:22 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!
3:21 Chamath's origin story
7:54 Tom Sawye…
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Why F1 Teams are Replacing Wind Tunnels with Smart Tape | E2305
27 juni 2026 · 1 uur 30 min
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 Lees meerToday'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… -
Why the Future of Video Games is Moving Back to the Dinner Table
24 juni 2026 · 1 uur 9 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lees meer
Deel - deel.com/twist
Northwest Registered Agent - northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
LinkedIn - linkedIn.com/twistToday'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.htmlTimestamps:
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 hottest running app has nothing to do with speed | E2303
22 juni 2026 · 1 uur 3 min
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 Open… Lees meer -
Why SpaceX Buying Cursor Changes Everything
18 juni 2026 · 1 uur 41 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lees meer
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-councilTimestamps:
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 ou… -
The Startup Building the First Hotel on the Moon…
16 juni 2026 · 1 uur 41 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lees meer
Every.io - visit every.io
Sentry.io - sentry.io/twist
Vanta - vanta.com/twistToday'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: MySidec… -
SpaceX IPO Day: What Wall St. and the media missed | E2300
13 juni 2026 · 1 uur 20 min
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 Lees meerAfter 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=QCce8e02IswRelevant 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:… -
Why the most expensive Seed deals are the cheapest | E2299
11 juni 2026 · 1 uur 8 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lees meer
NetSuite - Netsuite.com/TWiST
Deel - Deel.com/TWiST
Squarespace - Squarespace.com/TWiSTTwo 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 TWIS… -
The AI Tutor That Makes Kids Actually Think | E2298
9 juni 2026 · 1 uur
The AI Tutor That Makes Kids Actually Think | E2298 Lees meer
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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/2060378988606878147Relevant 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/0062560700Timestamps:
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 identit… -
Anthropic wants to slow AI down and Bernie wants 50%: JCal Reacts | E2297
6 juni 2026 · 1 uur 33 min
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Grasshopper Bank https://grasshopper.bank/twist
Vanta https://www.vanta.com/twist
Render https://render.com/twist
Plaud https://Plaud.ai/twistToday'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-incomeTimestamps:
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 Grass… -
The project SpaceX's first employee raised $500M for
4 juni 2026 · 1 uur 2 min
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Every - Every.io
Sentry - Sentry.io/TWISTToday'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… -
This Startup Fused Human Brain Cells with Silicon Chips | E2295
1 juni 2026 · 1 uur 6 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Deel https://deel.com/twist
Quo https://quo.com/TWiST
LinkedIn Jobs https://LinkedIn.com/twist Lees meerToday'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=enFurther 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-faf91034fa8cNotable 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 v… -
How to Raise a Seed Round in 2026: Ask Jason | E2294
29 mei 2026 · 58 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lees meer
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 h… -
The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery
27 mei 2026 · 1 uur 1 min
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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 Lees meerTimestamps:
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, … -
From hypercars to cruise missiles: Lukas Czinger on the future of US defense | E2292
23 mei 2026 · 1 uur 47 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lees meer
Every.io https://every.io
Shopify https://shopify.com/twist
Render https://render.com/twist
Plaud https://Plaud.ai/twistToday'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.comTimestamps:
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/twis… -
Avi Patel on the startup that copied Kled and why he called out General Catalyst by name | E2291
21 mei 2026 · 1 uur 34 min
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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 Lees meerTimestamps:
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 … -
Why does Gen Z hate AI?
19 mei 2026 · 1 uur 9 min
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! Lees meerTWIST 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 capt… -
The Self-Driving Startup Nobody Saw Coming | E2289
15 mei 2026 · 1 uur 13 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lees meer
IM8 Health: IM8health.com/TWIST
Squarespace: Squarespace.com/TWIST
Render - Render.com/TWISTSelf-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-solutionTimestamps:
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… -
How Many Startups Will Survive OpenAI? | E2288
14 mei 2026 · 1 uur 25 min
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 capi… Lees meer
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How the 1% Will Own Compute (and What It Means for You)
13 mei 2026 · 1 uur 8 min
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). Lees meer
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 … -
Cerebras's IPO goes vertical, and the death of OpenClaw? | E2287
12 mei 2026 · 1 uur 23 min
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 Lees meerTimestamps:
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… -
5,000+ Tech Workers Laid Off This Week. It's Just The Beginning. | E2286
9 mei 2026 · 1 uur 12 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lees meer
IM8 Health - https://IM8health.com/TWIST
Every - Every.io
Sentry - https://Sentry.io/TWISTBanks 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 growthTimestamps:
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 Chica… -
The end of Venture Capital? (VC Roundtable) | E2285
7 mei 2026 · 1 uur 24 min
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… Lees meer -
Naval's GP, Ankur Nagpal, Breaks Down The Viral "USVC" Fund | E2284
5 mei 2026 · 1 uur 38 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lees meer
Render - render.com/twist
Vanta - vanta.com/twist
Northwest Registered Agent - northwestregisteredagent.com/twistHave 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 … -
Can an AI Agent Legally Own a Company? Christian van der Henst's Wild Experiment| E2283
2 mei 2026 · 1 uur 10 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Pilot - https://pilot.com/twist
Shopify - https://shopify.com/twist
Grasshopper Bank - https://grasshopper.bank/twist Lees meerToday'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 demo4:28 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/… -
Mastering AI Video Marketing w/ Magnific CEO Joaquín Cuenca Abela | AI Basics
30 april 2026 · 23 min
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 reportConn… Lees meer
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The $10M+ Bet on a Beanie That Reads Your Brain | Sabi & the Future of BCI | E2282
29 april 2026 · 56 min
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 Lees meerTimestamps:
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 hosp… -
China Kills Meta / Manus Deal (Story Of The Year) | E2281
28 april 2026 · 53 min
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 Lees meerWhat'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 AWSTimestamps:
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 … -
Naval's $500 VC fund, the Maduro Polymarket scandal, and NYT defends theft and murder | E2280
25 april 2026 · 50 min
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 No… Lees meer -
The Defense Tech Startup YC Kicked Out of a Meeting is Now Arming America | E2280
25 april 2026 · 59 min
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 Lees meerToday'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 a… -
SpaceX and Cursor team up to topple Claude Code | E2279
23 april 2026 · 1 uur 13 min
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… Lees meer -
Why Your Company Should Own Its AI Model | E2278
21 april 2026 · 1 uur 17 min
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 Lees meerToday'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 fo… -
3D-Printed Homes for $99K: ICON's Jason Ballard on the future of housing | E2277
18 april 2026 · 1 uur 47 min
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 us… Lees meer
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This 22-Year-Old Built TikTok for Mobile Games, and It's Growing Fast | E2276
16 april 2026 · 1 uur 3 min
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 aroun… Lees meer -
Bittensor's (alleged) $10M rug pull (feat. Mark Jeffrey) | E2275
14 april 2026 · 1 uur 19 min
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… Lees meer -
Bittensor Drama! TAO down 15%! | E2274
11 april 2026 · 1 uur 22 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lees meer
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://no… -
Anthropic's Mythos is a cyber-weapon, so you can't have it | E2273
9 april 2026 · 1 uur 17 min
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 Lees meerThis 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
19:1… -
3 AI Agents That Actually Replaced Human Jobs | E2272
7 april 2026 · 1 uur 19 min
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 t… Lees meer -
AI Rebuilt Every YC W26 Startup. Should Founders Be Scared? | E2271
4 april 2026 · 1 uur 21 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lees meer
Deel - deel.com/twist
Grasshopper Bank - grasshopper.bank/twist
Render - render.com/twist
Plaud - Plaud.ai/twistAn 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… -
How 3 CEOs Use AI to Run $10B in Companies | This Week in AI
2 april 2026 · 30 min
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… Lees meer -
Venture Roundtable: SpaceX IPO, AI's PR Crisis, and the Defense Tech Bubble | E2270
2 april 2026 · 1 uur 28 min
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. Lees meerTimestamps:
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 Quinnipia… -
The 5-Step Framework for AI Agents That Improve While You Sleep | E2269
31 maart 2026 · 1 uur 27 min
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 Lees meerToday'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 hireStop 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 http… -
The $60 billion resource hiding in space, and the start trying to mine it (feat. Matt Gialich, Astroforge) | E2268
28 maart 2026 · 1 uur 39 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lees meer
Wispr Flow - https://wisprflow.ai/twist
Circle - http://circle.so/twist
Deel - http://deel.com/twistToday'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/OpenOatsTimestamps:
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 Bitc… -
This Bittensor Subnet Could Cut Drug Discovery Costs in HALF | E2267
26 maart 2026 · 1 uur 13 min
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Luma AI - https://lumalabs.ai/twist
Every.io - https://every.io
Lemon.io - https://Lemon.io/twistPlaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist
Today's show:
What do drug discovery, the creator economy, and AI vision models have in common? In the case of Metanova, Bitcast, and Score, the answer is Bittensor. Yes, each of the three companies leverages the Bittensor network to get more work done, more quickly, in a completely decentralized fashion.
Metanova uses its subnet to run developer competitions to find exciting molecular candidates, parsing through a mountain of possibilities to pluck out the most promising for further investigation.
Bitcast uses its subnet to collect visibility demand from brands, which is served by video creators. The company is focused on the crypto niche to start, but will expand in time to other technology topics.
Score uses its subnet to generate highly performant, specialized vision models, which it then sells to customers through a platform (Manako).
In each case, the Bittensor's economic engine unlocks global creativity to tackle tasks that were previously time-consuming, fragmented, or expensive to complete. Let's see how quickly each company can scale and whether startups building on Bittensor can grow faster than their non-decentralized peers.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:19 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!
3:40 What is Bittensor?
7:22 Metanova Labs joins the show
9:28 Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist
17:16 How Metanova tackles the multi-billion dollar cost of drug discovery
20:48 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io
30:20 Bitcast joins the show
31:23 Luma AI - Luma builds accessible, profession… Lees meer