This Week in Startups

No matter if it's AI or a template you use, if you have no prior knowledge in design, these are the tools you use to get a beautiful first version. This is why startups can now have functional and pretty designs without spending thousands on designers. Once the startup has some traction, founders can invest in a designer for custom designs. Until then, AI design and templates are your best options.

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Quo https://quo.com/TWiST PayPal Open http://paypalopen.com Northwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Today’s show: Jason spent $11 building out PodMeme, an AI tool that tracks down the best segments from top podcasts about a specific topic, then stitches them together into a single stream. His post laying out how he did it, featuring a simple screenshot of the product, reached 1.1M views in just a few days. It’s a simple fact: builders love to see what other people are building, and growing your new project “in public,” sharing your journey on social media, is a great way to develop buzz around your product before it even exists. Today’s guest, Thibault “Tibo” Louis-Lucas, walks us through how he grew products like Tweet Hunter and Taplio on his social media account, using social media buzz and a focus on tools for creators to very quickly expand to over $1M ARR. PLUS why Apple would only sue OpenAI if they knew they had them dead to rights… why Uber and Waymo are fighting over DC robotaxis… Jason’s response to the public backlash against surveillance startup Flock Safety… and the guys remember iconic New Zealand actor Sam Neill. Guest: Tibo Louis-Lucas on X: https://x.com/tibo_maker Revid.ai: https://www.revid.ai/ Tweet Hunter: https://tweethunter.io/ Taplio: https://taplio.com/ Relevant Links: Lemlist: https://www.lemlist.com/ GRIN influencer marketing: https://grin.co/ TechCrunch: “Apple Sues OpenAI”: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/10/apple-sues-openai-over-alleged-trade-secret-theft/ We Must Act Now statement: https://www.wemustactnow.ai/ TechCrunch: “Uber’s Robotaxi Lobbying Effort”: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/ubers-robotaxi-lobbying-effort-has-put-it-on-a-collision-course-with-waymo/ DC Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Authorization Amendment of 2026: https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/2003462 DoorDash: Meet Dot: https://about.doordash.com/en-us/dot Flock Safety: https://www.flocksafety.com/ DeFlock: https://deflock.org/ Gigazine: Flock accuses Deflock of being a “terrorist org”: https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20260209-flock-ceo-deflock/#gsc.tab=0 Unifi AI Security Systems: https://ui.com/physical-security Jason’s PodMeme post: https://x.com/Jason/status/2076231055443440105 Jason responds to Justine Bateman: https://x.com/Jason/status/2076326740050206959 NYT Sam Neill obituary: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/movies/sam-neill-dead.html “Possession” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLXW-oVbTxE FanEdit: https://fanedit.org/forums/news-publisher/ “Manhunter” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLqHlg2fAnE HBO “The Man Will Burn” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRhUYPtp6Ao Timestamps: 0:00 There's no air conditioning in Paris 6:49 Tibo Maker's "ship 1 product a week" challenge 8:46 The power of building products in public 10:21 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) - Quo gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://quo.com/TWiST 11:26 Excitement for JCal's "PodMeme" set-up 15:02 Compounding an audience and enlisting influencers 18:35 Your follower count is not important any more 20:21 PayPal - Built for payments, growth, and agentic. Paypal Open, built for all business. Visit http://paypalopen.com to get started 21:50 How Tibo got banned on LinkedIn twice 28:10 Apple sues OpenAI 30:21 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 38:06 How OpenAI should have handled the New York Times 44:32 DC's new robotaxi bill 51:28 Managing the AV and delivery-bot transition 52:45 Economists warn of AI job displacement 1:06:22 How Jason would fix Flock's messaging 1:16:48 Remembering Sam Neill 1:22:27 Lon's Dream AI edit 1:25:57 HBO's Burning Man docuseries Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

Bernstein thinks people romanticize farm work. People think younger folks want to work outdoors, but the reality is: no one wants these jobs. Picking fruit in 110° heat might look good on Instagram, but is hard work in real life. That's why he's building technology to do the work at scale. Even with enough workers, you couldn't scale it this far anyway.

A lot of young people want to get into YC and Thiel to get credentials, not to build companies. Alex calls them tourist founders. In the ZIRP era, tourist money funded everything, and now the tourist founders are collecting it. Neither of them lasts. Building a company takes time and hard work.

Young founders at Harvard, MIT and Stanford who are fearless and unencumbered by experience. Veterans know all the reasons it can't be done. 20-year-olds just see the next problem to solve. One of Michael Kim's portfolio companies is building inference chips to compete with Nvidia. The founder is 20 years old. He didn't know it was impossible.

This Week In Startups is made possible by: NetSuite https://netsuite.ai/twist Squarespace https://squarespace.com/twist YSecurity https://YSecurity.io/TWIST Today’s show: America posted 400,000 farm jobs last year, and fewer than 1% got a single domestic applicant. Danny Bernstein of Reservoir believes it’s time to start automating this backbreaking labor, like picking stone fruit in 110°F temperatures. So he built the world’s first on-farm robotics incubator on 40 acres of California farmland. Here’s why he argues that automating farms isn’t just a new opportunity, it’s a national security issue. PLUS Jason responded to Gal Shir’s viral “AI beat me at design” tweet, got into a kerfuffle with Figma CEO Dylan Field, and wound up making a brand new J-Trade. AND we’re talking about the Dept. of Education’s new “do no harm” policy, the Brown University AI cheating chart that’s blowing up social media, and Lon has fresh streaming recommendations in an all-new Off Duty. Guest: Danny Bernstein on X: https://x.com/bernsteind Reservoir Farms: https://reservoir.co/ Reservoir VC: https://reservoir.vc/ Relevant Links: Bonsai Robotics: https://bonsairobotics.ai/ Root AI acquired by AppHarvest: https://www.therobotreport.com/root-ai-acquired-by-appharvest-for-60m/ John Deere: https://www.deere.com/en-us/ Western Growers Association: https://www.wga.com/ Tanimura & Antle: https://www.taproduce.com/ Naturipe Berry Growers: https://www.naturipefarms.com/ Driscoll’s: https://www.driscolls.com/ Taylor Farms: https://www.taylorfarms.com/ The Wonderful Company: https://www.wonderful.com/ Capital Factory: https://www.capitalfactory.com/ Gal Shir “quitting design” post: https://x.com/galshirart/status/2074854464729629060 Dylan Field response to Gal Shir: https://x.com/zoink/status/2075290218660298807 JCal response to Field and “J-Trade”: https://x.com/Jason/status/2075481565115654305 Figma: https://www.figma.com/ Dept. of Education: “Do No Harm” policy announcement: https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-issues-final-rule-hold-all-colleges-and-universities-accountable-low-earning-programs NPR coverage on Dept. of Education earnings test: https://www.npr.org/2026/06/30/nx-s1-5835631/turner-camhi-do-no-harm-college-loans Paul Graham “cheating chart” post: https://x.com/paulg/status/2075031014628311236 Off Duty Recommendations: “Lioness” on Paramount+: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNRQ0PR4a8U “Mayor of Kingstown” on Paramount+: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkQzvwxOp0s “Human Vapor” on Netflix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xe6dRKVAb8 “Sugar” on Apple TV+: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twvPGxuEOEA “Wind River” (now on Netflix): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZgN0dpFoaE “Not Fade Away” by Peter Barton & Laurence Shames: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Fade-Away-Short-Lived/dp/1579546889 Timestamps: 0:00 Jason's ongoing World Tour 0:55 Danny Bernstein joins live from Reservoir Farms 2:50 What is "specialty crop agriculture" 4:27 Why strawberries are the "white whale" of AgTech 6:07 The labor crisis in farming 8:32 Why AgTech never scaled 9:03 NetSuite - For the first time ever, you can try NetSuite Next for free. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, go to https://NetSuite.ai/TWIST 10:03 Inside Reservoir's business model 16:56 Agriculture as national security 19:21 Squarespace - Turn your idea into a beautiful website! Go to https://www.squarespace.com/twist for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. 21:27 Did AI beat a designer at design? 30:08 YSecurity - The on-demand security team for startups. Need enterprise-grade security without hiring a $400k CISO? YSecurity gives you 40+ expert engineers, matched to exactly what you need, by the hour, with your first six hours completely free. Go to https://YSecurity.io/TWIST 36:35 The "do no harm" college earnings test 42:39 Brown University students cheated on their midterms 51:34 Lon's streaming recommendations 58:58 Jason's new snake grabber Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This is the power law playing out in real time. Most LPs have a list of 6, maybe 10 companies they want to get in. It's getting harder and harder, and people have to get creative to get in. Every connection you have counts.

They started scraping websites to put your content at the top of their page. Gemini and its AI overview is just the perfected version. They don't even need to link it to your website anymore. People don't have a reason to click on it. Google optimized for monetization and became one of the biggest players in this field. That's the reason OpenAI was founded - to ensure safe and open AI development.

He's like Bill Gates or Zuckerberg. He doesn't want a partnership. He just wants their ideas and to build it himself, so he can get more market share. In the end, he will build everything: smartphones, gadgets, glasses... as long as he can compete with others and take on all commerce, he will build it. Remember Jason's final warning: don't build on their software. Go open source.

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Digital Ocean - https://do.co/twist Agree.com - https://agree.com Every.io - https://every.io Today’s show: How many startups matter in tech? Fewer than you think. That’s why venture capitalists are tripping over themselves to get onto their cap tables, no matter the cost. Why? Footwork’s Nikhil Basu Trivedi argues that the Valley has never been more “power-law-pilled” than it is today. Basu Trivedi joined Cendana Capital’s Michael Kim and TWiST’s Alex Wilhelm to go deep on secondary markets, the state of startup M&A, why the SaaSpocalypse may be temporary, and what could trigger a retrenchment of the AI trade. It’s Wednesday, so it’s time for our venture capital roundtable to go deep on how VCs are investing today, and where on the horizon they have their eyes fixed! Guest links: Nikhil Basu Trivedi https://x.com/nbt Footwork https://www.footwork.vc/ Michael Kim https://x.com/MKRocks Cendana Capital https://www.cendanacapital.com/ Show links: The USVC-Anduril blowup https://x.com/ankurnagpal/status/2072701195714531398 Kline Hill Cendana Partners https://www.secondariesinvestor.com/kline-hill-and-cendana-raise-400m-for-second-vc-secondaries-fund/ GPTZero’s exit https://gptzero.me/news/preserving-whats-human/ Salesforce buys Fin https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2026/06/15/salesforce-signs-definitive-agreement-to-acquire-fin/ Vercel buys Better Auth https://vercel.com/blog/vercel-acquires-better-auth Figma buys Bud https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/07/figma-acquires-team-behind-a-vibe-coding-app/ Protoge https://withprotege.ai/ Windborne https://windbornesystems.com/ Etched https://www.etched.com/ Lovable’s reported raise https://sifted.eu/articles/lovable-300m-13-2bn-valuation Josh Browder https://x.com/Joshuabrowder Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction: Nikhil Basu Trivedi (Footwork) & Michael Kim (Cendana Capital) 1:21 The Anduril vs. USVC secondary market blowup 3:30 Why Silicon Valley is 'power-law-pilled' 7:45 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! 8:59 Information asymmetry in the secondary markets 9:07 Every.io — For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io 14:24 Is SPV fraud smoke or fire? 15:54 Superhuman acquires GPTZero 19:16 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! 20:32 The M&A wave 26:41 The SaaSpocalypse debate 29:21 DigitalOcean - Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today — and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%. 30:06 Data's moment in the energy → compute → data loop 34:23 Where will AI value accrue? 39:26 What could cause an AI correction? 41:39 Why some companies are "too big to miss" 45:45 China's possible open-weight model ban 52:50 Young founders: Etched, Thiel Fellows, Z Fellows, Neo 54:55 Portfolio spotlight: WindBorne's weather balloons and data moat 58:09 Michael's favorite fund manager: Josh Browder Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

Even before Covid, people were thinking about remote work options and how they could impact productivity: long commutes gone, more free time and downtime... the signs were already there, but Covid forced the new reality on us. Pop culture thinks Covid invented remote work, because it happened simultaneously. It simply accelerated it.

Some accountants in Kentucky manage the fund with QuickBooks, Excel and other outdated software. CFOs even need to ask permission to get their own data. This legacy practise of fund management needs a better model. Hanover Park is replacing the duct tape with AI.

Chamath offers a perfect analogy: Imagine two restaurants with the same ingredients and menus. How could you differentiate? Source your own ingredients. It’s time to build your own software and stand out.

Just share all your thoughts. Give the AI everything it might need to know. It will take that chaos and produce a better, more refined result.

Aileen Lee has never seen anything like this: newly founded startups raising $20M only to spend half of it on tokens. But she predicts that with more and better open-source models, token prices will drop. The days of raising $20M just to cover token costs are numbered. Especially considering that every product already has 10-20 competitors.

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Vanta https://www.vanta.com/twist Sentry https://sentry.io/twist Today’s show: There are $100 trillion in global assets sitting on top of what Hanover Park co-founder/CEO Chris Hladczuk calls “human duct tape”: armies of accountants in offices patching together work from various legacy tools (QuickBooks, Excel) that are holding funds’ own data hostage. Can all of this be replaced with AI? Find out how their startup went from overseeing $1B to $20B in assets in just 15 months. PLUS, we flash back to March 2020, when Jason and Figma co-founder/CEO Dylan Field broke down the design tool’s initial go-to-market strategy, made some WILDLY inaccurate COVID predictions, and considered anxiety about “SaaS burnout” years before the category went full apocalyptic. Guests: Chris Hladczuk on X: https://x.com/chrishlad Hanover Park: https://www.hanoverpark.com/ Dylan Field: https://x.com/zoink Figma: https://www.figma.com/ Relevant Links: Turner Novak on X: https://x.com/TurnerNovak Banana Capital: https://www.bananacapital.vc/ Emergence Capital: https://www.emcap.com/ Lux Capital: https://www.luxcapital.com/ Susa Ventures: https://susaventures.com/ Bill.com: https://www.bill.com/ METR: https://metr.org/ Granola AI note taker: https://www.granola.ai/ Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/ Foo Camp on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/foocamp TechCrunch Mahalo coverage: https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/27/inside-mobile-news-launch/ Timestamps: 0:00 Hanover Park & the fund admin problem 2:51 Why funds outsource instead of building 5:03 Why fund accounting is so complex 9:57 The "one click migration" goal 10:07 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 13:10 Context vs. intelligence gaps 15:30 No PMs, No Designers 20:05 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist 22:37 This is a $100T opportunity 24:55 Flashback w/ Dylan Field of Figma 28:34 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 30:41 Pre-AI enterprise security worries 35:49 SaaS overload and SaaS burnout 36:49 The evolution of Figma pricing 41:57 The rise and fall of Mahalo dot com 50:57 The work-from-home revolution begins Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

Chamath's businesses were never meant to be billion dollar ventures. They are just parts of his life that happened to make a little money. If you can align what you love with what you build, you'll never look at your work the same way again.

People over-engineer their startups. They work too hard on designs that can't be manufactured. They run out of money before the first prototype is even made. That's why people think hardware startups are hard. You just need to start with a basic prototype to prove that your vision works. Then build from there. VCs and customer need to understand the experience, before they invest in your idea.

There were no regulations. No oversight for social media. It's hard for parents and kids to be the only kids in class without Snapchat. A lot of kids can't read or do math anymore. Giving them powerful tools such as AI won't help their learning. Parents still don't know how to handle this. Does anyone actually?

This Week In Startups is made possible by: CLA -⁠ https://claconnect.com/withyou⁠ Northwest Registered Agent -⁠ https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist⁠ ⁠Agree.com⁠ -⁠ https://agree.com⁠ Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Today’s show: Forget the triple-triple-double-double-double; the new bar for startups hoping to raise venture capital has reached the stratosphere, though our venture panel is worried that startups are focusing too much on today’s problems that may not become companies tomorrow. During a lively VC roundtable, Cowboy’s Aileen Lee, Floodgate’s Mike Maples, and Lerer Hippeau’s Ben Lerer joined Alex to dig into exiting pre-AI startups, rising valuations, token spend, why they are keeping their funds small, and whether the government just tripped OpenAI and Anthropic! Guest Links: Aileen Lee⁠ https://x.com/aileenlee⁠ Cowboy VC⁠ https://cowboy.vc⁠ Mike Maples⁠ https://x.com/m2jr⁠ Floodgate⁠ https://www.floodgate.com⁠ Bene Lerer⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjlerer⁠ Lere Hippeau⁠ https://www.lererhippeau.com⁠ Timestamps: 0:00 Aileen Lee, Mike Maples, and Ben Lerer join the show 4:34 Venture liquidity returns: what SpaceX/Stripe distributions mean for LPs 8:34 Bending Spoons prices IPO at $29/share, roughly $18.4B valuation 9:52 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! 11:30 "Companies get bought, not sold" — Ben on taking first offers seriously 17:02 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! 18:55 Mutiny's burn-the-boats AI pivot with Jaleh Rezaei 19:40 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 21:36 Mike's KeepSafe story: the "rule of 70" and profit-first companies 24:33 The new growth bar: 5x, 4x replaces triple-triple-double-double 28:16 Fund size is your strategy: why Floodgate and Lerer Hippeau stay small 29:32 CLA - Innovation takes balance. CLA's CPAs, consultants, and wealth advisors can help you get from startup to where you want to end up. Get started now at https://www.claconnect.com/withyou 37:00 The $100M Series A: Starcloud, General Intuition, Scale Cognition, Scout AI 39:56 King-making rounds and why mega-seeds destroy optionality 53:32 Open-weight models: the GLM-5.2 moment and going model-agnostic 54:51 Why fine-tuning open models is a treadmill, with Cursor/Kimi as an example 1:02:49 Grading the Trump administration on Mythos and Fable 1:05:54 Rising anti-AI sentiment, the wealth gap, and lessons from social media 1:11:04 Raising kids in the post-intelligence era 1:11:56 Where to find the panel and what each firm is investing in Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter:⁠ https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com⁠ Check out the TWIST500:⁠ https://www.twist500.com⁠ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple:⁠ https://rb.gy/v19fcp⁠ Follow Lon: X:⁠ https://x.com/lons⁠ Follow Alex: X:⁠ https://x.com/alex⁠ LinkedIn:⁠ ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm⁠ Follow Jason: X:⁠ https://twitter.com/Jason⁠ LinkedIn:⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis⁠ Check out all our partner offers:⁠ https://partners.launch.co/⁠ Great TWIST interviews:⁠ Will Guidara,⁠⁠ Eoghan McCabe⁠,⁠ Steve Huffman⁠,⁠ Brian Chesky⁠,⁠ Bob Moesta,⁠⁠ Aaron Levie⁠,⁠ Sophia Amoruso⁠,⁠ Reid Hoffman⁠,⁠ Frank Slootman⁠,⁠ Billy McFarland⁠ Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters:⁠ https://substack.com/@calacanis⁠ Follow TWiST: Twitter:⁠ https://twitter.com/TWiStartups⁠ YouTube:⁠ https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin⁠ Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups⁠ TikTok:⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups⁠ Substack:⁠ https://twistartups.substack.com⁠

People are mad about a small group of people getting rich while they fear job loss. People don't want to feel powerless. Cuban's solution: AI companies should fund programs for impacted people. Jason calls for empathy. Stop the generators. Get people soundproof windows. And give them free electricity.

There hasn't been a successful new US car company since decades. Elon saw the opportunity anyway, and Tesla is now booming. No one has started a successful fighter jet manufacturer since the 1950s either. The F-22 and F-35 took over two decades and $30 to $60 billion to build. AJ Piplica took the same bet with Hermeus. 5x faster, for a fraction of the cost.

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud https://Plaud.ai/twist Shopify https://shopify.com/twist LinkedIn Jobs https://LinkedIn.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Today’s show: It’s another All Star Summer, as we welcome back some of our favorite guests from throughout “This Week in Startups” history. Chamath Palihapitiya’s development platform 8090 just raised $135 million, and he’s using it to go after a $4 trillion market: the software maintenance, migration, and middleware spending that’s currently “pure waste” for enterprises. Find out why the All-In Podcast bestie says every company should use AI to build custom software the way that Google, Facebook, and Meta already do, then go inside Software Factory, the “system on a chip” organizational model, and why Chamath believes AI will allow every human on Earth to start their own company. Guest: Chamath on X:⁠ https://x.com/chamath⁠ 8090:⁠ https://www.8090.ai/⁠ Learn With Me on Substack:⁠ https://chamath.substack.com/p/learn-with-me⁠ Drink With Me:⁠ https://www.drinkwithme.com/age-verify.html⁠ All-In Podcast:⁠ https://allin.com/⁠ Social Capital:⁠ https://www.socialcapital.com/⁠ Relevant Links: 8090 Series A announcement:⁠ https://x.com/chamath/status/2071571183665881515⁠ Salesforce Ventures:⁠ https://salesforceventures.com/⁠ Craft Ventures:⁠ https://www.craftventures.com/⁠ The Production Board:⁠ https://www.tpb.co/⁠ WNDR:⁠ https://www.wndr.vc/⁠ LAUNCH:⁠ https://www.launch.co⁠ Coatue Management:⁠ https://www.coatue.com/⁠ Jack Dorsey: “From Hierarchy to Intelligence”:⁠ https://block.xyz/inside/from-hierarchy-to-intelligence⁠ Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry:⁠ https://thomaskeller.com/tfl/⁠ Timestamps: 0:00 It's TWiST All-Star Summer! 0:06 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! 2:43 Chamath's origin story 7:16 Tom Sawyer entrepreneurship 10:51 Shopify - Turn those what-ifs into sales with the e-commerce platform powering millions of businesses. Sign up for your $1-per-month trial today at https://shopify.com/twist 15:47 The $5 trillion software market 20:28 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist 24:22 Building "a co-founder for every human" 31:13 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 34:22 How product development lost its way 44:22 Regulated industries are the beachhead 49:22 Raising the $135M Series A 54:22 8090's "System on a Chip" model 1:04:06 What to tell your kids about AI Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter:⁠ https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com⁠ Check out the TWIST500:⁠ https://www.twist500.com⁠ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple:⁠ https://rb.gy/v19fcp⁠ Follow Lon: X:⁠ https://x.com/lons⁠ Follow Alex: X:⁠ https://x.com/alex⁠ LinkedIn:⁠ ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm⁠ Follow Jason: X:⁠ https://twitter.com/Jason⁠ LinkedIn:⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis⁠ Check out all our partner offers:⁠ https://partners.launch.co/⁠ Great TWIST interviews:⁠ Will Guidara,⁠⁠ Eoghan McCabe⁠,⁠ Steve Huffman⁠,⁠ Brian Chesky⁠,⁠ Bob Moesta,⁠⁠ Aaron Levie⁠,⁠ Sophia Amoruso⁠,⁠ Reid Hoffman⁠,⁠ Frank Slootman⁠,⁠ Billy McFarland⁠ Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters:⁠ https://substack.com/@calacanis⁠ Follow TWiST: Twitter:⁠ https://twitter.com/TWiStartups⁠ YouTube:⁠ https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin⁠ Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups⁠ TikTok:⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups⁠ Substack:⁠ https://twistartups.substack.com⁠

Most apps don't make it because the founders don't want to look like idiots online. Louis Phillips built Intvl with organic content. 100k followers and 1 million downloads later, they wanted predictability. Paid ads made this happen. Built the basis with organic, founder-led content. Make it repeatable with paid ads.

Top tech people aren't leaving for competitors or a better offer. They don't want to be stressed. They made enough money. They have kids. They'd rather spend their time in Kauai, Salt Lake City or Tokyo. It's not about money or reputation. It's about a stressfree life.

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Sentry - https://sentry.io/twist Northwest Registered Agent-https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist DigitalOcean - https://do.co/twist Today’s show: F1 teams spend up to a third of their budgets on aerodynamics, often utilizing wind tunnels to simulate what happens on the track. But Lyall Davenport of SKN Systems created a sensor-embedded tape that sticks directly to race cars as they drive around the real world, generating 420M data points per hour. And it comes in at roughly 95% less cost than running a full simulator. Hear about how Lyall’s background in racing helped him develop the concept, plans to expand from motorsports to drones and defense, and his experiences going through Jason’s various programs. PLUS OpenAI’s new models are so good, you can’t use them. Why Apple’s Vision Pro chief defected to OpenAI (and why their laptops and devices are getting more expensive). A look at the world’s most annoying data center in Sterling, Virginia. And Jason remembers iconic and influential tech journalist Om Malik. Guest: Lyall Davenport: https://x.com/Lyalldavenport SKN Systems: https://www.skn.systems/ Relevant Links McLaren Racing: https://www.mclaren.com/racing/ Cadillac F1 Team: https://www.cadillacf1team.com/ LAUNCH Accelerator: https://launch.co/ The Syndicate: https://www.thesyndicate.com Capital Factory: https://www.capitalfactory.com/ Buck’s Restaurant of Woodside: https://www.buckswoodside.com/ OpenAI: “Previewing GPT-5.6 Sol”: https://openai.com/index/previewing-gpt-5-6-sol/ METR (Model Evaluation and Threat Research): https://metr.org/ Bloomberg: “Apple’s Vision Pro and Smart Glasses Chief to Join OpenAI”: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-26/apple-s-vision-pro-and-smart-glasses-chief-paul-meade-is-leaving-for-openai NewsNation: “Data center noise irks Virginia neighbors”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtXD4EFOsCg Mark Cuban data center post: https://x.com/mcuban/status/2070211760196587534/ NYT: “Mark Zuckerberg Directed Meta to Create a Prediction Markets App”: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/23/technology/meta-prediction-markets-app.html Annie Duke: “Thinking in Bets”: https://www.annieduke.com/thinking-in-bets/ Om.co: “Om Malik, 1966-2026”: https://om.co/2026/06/24/1966-2026/ Jason post on Om Malik: https://x.com/Jason/status/2070287418138460164 Starlink for Aviation: https://starlink.com/business/aviation MrBeast comments on Starlink: https://x.com/teslaownersSV/status/2042490675716091942?s=20 Kodak PIXPRO WPZ2 Digital Camera: https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Optical-Waterproof-Shockproof-Cleaning/dp/B0GSS7PCL8 Netflix “Maternal Instinct” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzW61JgRbNk AMC+ “Vampire Lestat” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c7JFMTBeVk Timestamps: 0:00 How SKN uses tape to generate aerodynamic data 3:14 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! 5:27 How SKN uses tape to generate aerodynamic data 9:05 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 16:30 F1 teams are worth HOW MUCH? 18:52 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 19:45 Future markets beyond motorsports 29:13 DigitalOcean - Want to see what building on a true AI-native platform looks like? Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today — and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%. 31:55 GPT-5.6 is banned for now 42:56 Vision Pro chief makes for the exit 50:34 Apple raises their prices 55:15 The data center you're allowed to hate 1:05:14 Zuck's new prediction market app 1:07:52 RIP Om Malik (1966-2026) 1:19:00 Streaming and camera recommendations 1:27:16 All about eFoiling Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

The US government is hitting pause on OpenAI's new GPT-5.6 models—Sol, Terra, and Luna—limiting access to a handful of trusted partners. Why is Washington holding back frontier AI, and is this the new normal? Plus: Apple's top Vision Pro exec jumps ship to OpenAI's hardware team, and we sit down with Lyall Davenport of SKN Systems to talk about the sensor tape that could replace the wind tunnel.

Many startups are racing to get us to the moon. But our destiny is Mars. The moon is simply a stepping stone. We need to build the infrastructure on the moon first. We can't be dependent on Earth, if we want to get to Mars. There will be startups on the moon one day. Maybe even on Mars.

Board is the first face-to-face gaming console. The days of every player staring at their own screen are over. You can control the 24-inch touchscreen with game pieces that unlock hundreds of games. No more buying hundreds of different board games. Just one Board. And you have all the board game fun without the hustle of setting it up.

Microsoft and Facebook did it before: Offer you space to build your product. Then steal it and make it better. These companies don't invest in you. They study you, your product and your customers. Then they make it better themselves. Don't get into the mouse trap. Build on open source.