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Today's show:

*Before Bespoke's "travel concierge" chatbot could actually hold a conversation, founder/CEO Akemi Tsunagawa and her team quietly answered customers themselves. That "fake it till you make it" strategy paid off. Bespoke landed Narita Airport as a customer based on the strength of their "chatbot" answers, and now the team runs three companies, and is expanding into shipyard robots.

In the fourth and final edition of TWiST Tokyo for Summer '26, Jason and Akemi discuss her thesis: "solve the labor gap first, [then] build the tech to math." Plus insights into Japan's tourism boom, how founders should consider the country's accelerating population decline, the economics and politics of importing foreign labor, and why AI may already be taking over more jobs than you think.

Guest

Akemi Tsunagawa on X: https://x.com/AkemiTsunagawa

Bespoke: https://www.be-spoke.io/

Bebot: https://www.bebot.io

BeTrained: https://www.be-spoke.io/en/be-trained

Relevant Links

Disrupting Japan: "Silicon Valley Has Chatbots All Wrong": https://www.disruptingjapan.com/silicon-valley-has-chatbots-all-wrong-heres-how-they-really-make-money/

CNN on Japan's population decline: https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/07/asia/japan-biggest-population-decline-record-intl-hnk

Paul Graham: "Do Things That Don't Scale": https://www.paulgraham.com/ds.html

Wispr Flow: https://wisprflow.ai/

TripAdvisor: https://www.tripadvisor.com/

KPMG on Japan's Business Manage Visa Reforms: https://kpmg.com/xx/en/our-insights/gms-flash-alert/flash-alert-2025-195.html

Business Traveller on the "Akiya" renovation trend: https://www.businesstraveller.com/insights/features/japan-akiya-boom-buying-abandoned-homes/

THR on the 2004 satirical film "A Day Without a Mexican": https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/a-day-without-a-mexican-20-years-later-1236293209/

Founder University x Japan: https://tokyo.founder.university/

JETRO: https://www.jetro.go.jp/en/

Antler in Japan: https://www.antler.co/location/japan

Timestamps:

0:00 Founder U Japan Cohort 3: Coming in Jan 2027!

1:06 Introducing Akemi Tsunagawa, founder of Bespoke

3:08 Why investors passed in 2015

4:49 Selling Narita Airport on Bebot

6:29 The roots of Japan's tourism explosion

9:27 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Get started for free at https://Odoo.com/twist

14:17 Japan's population decline, by the numbers

20:06 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

21:38 Training foreign workers via smart glasses

27:50 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

33:06 Moving into shipyard robotics, too?

37:44 Some customer development lessons

48:21 Plans for even more expansion

52:52 Q&A: How AI changed hiring

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

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Today's show:

AI models can solve PhD-level math equations and code an app in minutes… So why does everything they design look like identical slop? Thais Castello Branco, founder of Taste Labs, raised $18.5M in seed funding to teach frontier models about aesthetics and outputting quality content. She talks to Jason and Lon about why even frontier models regress to the mean on subjective tasks, how paid "TasteMakers" can improve output quality, and whether AI accelerates or destroys the half-life of "what's cool."

PLUS Leopold Aschenbrenner's AI hedge fund liquidated its public stock portfolio, but it may be too soon to count this 25-year-old completely out. Google Earth adds AI generation and turns into a misinformation factory. LinkedIn and Substack join the AI slop crackdown. And why does every venture capitalist seem to have an opinion about the Ceuta border crisis?

Guest

Thais Castello Branco on X: https://x.com/thaiscbranco_

Taste Labs: https://tastelabs.com/

Amplify Partners: "Kill the Slop": https://www.amplifypartners.com/blog-posts/kill-the-slop-announcing-our-investment-in-taste

Relevant Links

Leopold Aschenbrenner's essay "Situational Awareness": https://situational-awareness.ai/

CNBC on SA fund collapse: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/31/leopold-aschenbrenner-situational-awareness-fund-fire-sale.html

Henk van Ess thread on Google Earth + Nano Banana: https://x.com/henkvaness/status/2082912544394498228

Substack CEO Chris Best: "Against Claudefishing": https://post.substack.com/p/against-claudefishing

NPR on the Ceuta crisis: https://www.npr.org/2026/07/31/g-s1-136507/morocco-spain-migration

Ethan Goodhart's self-driving golf cart post: https://x.com/EthanGoodhart/status/2082136189998682598?s=20

"Wind" app on TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/zZqmhhwf

TechCrunch: "Gritt exits stealth": https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/gritt-exits-stealth-with-34-million-for-robots-to-build-solar-plants-then-everything-else/

CA Gov: Project Nexus solar-covered canal announcement: https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/04/29/governor-newsom-announces-the-completion-of-first-of-its-kind-solar-covered-canal-in-the-central-valley-piloting-a-new-way-to-save-water-and-reduce-costs/

Molly Wood's "Everybody in the Pool" podcast: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/

Timestamps:

0:00 Coming up on today's show…

1:23 Thais Castello Branco on teaching models to have good taste

10:45 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

15:19 The "TasteMaker" community of paid human curators

20:37 MongoDB - AI-assisted and agentic coding is helping you build faster than ever. Start building at https://MongoDB.com/ai

24:40 Jason's personal "cool hunter" prompt

30:16 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Get started for free at https://Odoo.com/twist

37:36 Situation Awareness lacked situational awareness

46:59 Claude models hacked three external organizations

50:54 Google Earth adds Nano Banana for some reason

54:24 The AI Slop crackdown spreads

57:54 Too many opinions about the Ceuta migrant crisis

1:04:05 Self-driving golf carts and also cars

1:09:53 Robot arms are installing solar panels

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

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

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Today's show:

The FCC's decision to ban Chinese humanoid robots over security concerns is a boon to American startups, which now face a narrower competitive market. But where should we draw the line on security over competition? Menlo Ventures' Deedy Das, Weisburd Pierce's David Weisburd, Plexo Capital's Lo Toney, and LAUNCH's Jason Calcanis broke down how they differentiate between legitimate security concerns and purported regulatory capture. Today's venture capital roundtable also dug into OpenRouter's possible sale to Stripe, changing tokenomics, the Indian market for startups, and even DoorDash's drone-delivery business taking flight.

Guest Links:

Deedy Das https://x.com/deedydas

Menloe Ventures https://menlovc.com/

Lo Toney https://x.com/lo_toney

Plexo Capital https://www.plexocap.com/

David Weisburd https://x.com/DWeisburd

Weisburd Pierce https://www.weisburdpierce.com/

Jason Calcanis https://x.com/Jason

LAUNCH https://launch.co/

Show Links:

The FCC's decision regarding Chinese robots https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-adds-foreign-produced-power-inverters-and-robots-covered-list-0

Pacing the Frontier letter https://www.pacingthefrontier.com/

Cursor Start https://cursor.com/blog/cursor-start-india

Stripe may buy OpenRouter https://www.axios.com/2026/07/24/stripe-openrouter-merger-ai-currency

OpenRouter financials https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openrouter-financials-suggest-steep-price-possible-acquirer-stripe?rc=g3wfdp

Kimi K3 license https://huggingface.co/moonshotai/Kimi-K3/blob/main/LICENSE

Pangram https://www.pangram.com/

Tau Robotics https://www.tau-robotics.com/

Zipline https://www.zipline.com/

Manna https://www.manna.aero/

Kindred Ventures https://kindredventures.com/

Autolane https://goautolane.com/

Salmon Labs https://salmonrun.ai/

Timestamps:

0:00 The FCC bans Chinese humanoid robots

2:18 Waymo, Uber, Robotaxi, and the global BYD threat

10:30 MongoDB - AI-assisted and agentic coding is helping you build faster than ever. Start building at https://MongoDB.com/ai

15:45 The "Pacing The Frontier" letter (1,100+ AI staffers warn on RSI)

19:51 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Get started for free at https://Odoo.com/twist

21:07 Regulatory capture vs. genuine concern

30:09 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

37:57 Have we reached AGI?

38:35 Stripe eyes OpenRouter at $10B

39:19 Does OpenRouter have a moat?

47:13 Kimi K3's license and neocloud margins

49:34 Claude Tag and the future of AI-mediated workplaces

53:26 Cursor Start, ChatGPT Go, and the India market

1:02:03 Have we solved AI detection?

1:11:20 Tau Robotics $30/hour robotic housecleaning

1:12:49 Job loss, and the social safety net

1:18:25 DoorDash Air takes on Zipline, Manna

1:21:00 Portfolio shout-outs

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

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Today's show:

*Most lab-grown meat companies have already gone under. It's expensive to produce, and there's little demand from real-world consumers. But Tokyo's IntegriCulture is still standing after selling their proprietary serum to cosmetics companies.

On Episode 3 of TWiST from Tokyo, Jason sits down with Dr. Yuki Hanyu, an Oxford-trained chemist who started a DIY meat movement out of a comic convention and turned it into Japan's first cell-cultured protein company.

PLUS why the cultivated meat market stalled out, why producing a "slurry of cells" is more efficient than jumping right to muscle tissue, the regulatory framework in Japan vs. the US, and… is it fair to call this "meat"? Or is it something else entirely?

Guest

Yuki Hanyu on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuki-hanyu-b860bb34/

IntegriCulture: https://integriculture.com/en/

Relevant Links:

AG Funder News: "IntegriCulture turns a profit": https://agfundernews.com/cell-ag-picks-shovels-pioneer-integriculture-turns-a-profit-but-cautions-that-as-long-as-cell-ag-remains-so-capital-intensive-it-will-be-difficult-to-take-off

Vegconominst: Cultivated duck liver coverage: https://vegconomist.com/cultivated-cell-cultured-biotechnology/cultivated-meat/japans-integriculture-products-cultivated-duck-liver/

Cellament skin care ingredient: https://www.cellament.jp/cellament-en?lang=en

Medium: Shojinmeat Project: https://medium.com/shojin-meat

Cellular Agriculture Institute of the Commons (CAIC): https://cellagri.org/en/about-us

Japan Association for Cellular Agriculture (JACA): https://jaca.jp/en/

Upside Foods: https://upsidefoods.com/

Vow: https://www.eatvow.com/

Impossible Foods: https://impossiblefoods.com/

Fast Company: "Inside the stunning collapse of Believer Meats": https://www.fastcompany.com/91462102/believer-meats-stunning-collapse-600-million-cooling-cultured-meat-industry

AG Funder News: "FDA clears Wildtype's cell-cultivated salmon": https://agfundernews.com/fda-clears-wildtypes-cell-cultivated-salmon-for-us-debut

Food Navigator: Parima gets green light for cultivated duck: https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2026/04/15/parima-gets-regulatory-approval-for-cultivated-foie-gras/

Protein Production: "Japan publishes first draft safety guidelines for cultivated meat…": https://www.proteinproductiontechnology.com/post/japan-publishes-first-draft-safety-guidelines-for-cultivated-meat-as-regulatory-debate-advances

Stateline: "Texas bans lab-grown meat": https://stateline.org/2025/06/30/texas-becomes-seventh-state-to-ban-lab-grown-meat/

TODAY: "Japan's Coca-Cola Plus has an unexpected ingredient": https://www.today.com/food/japan-s-coca-cola-plus-has-unexpected-ingredient-t121047

Timestamps:

0:00 Why founders should visit Japan

1:48 Intro of cultivated meat pioneer, Dr. Yuki Hanyu

3:19 Why don't consumers want lab-grown meat?

10:05 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io

10:26 DIY meat manuals at comic conventions

15:37 Flavors that don't exist in nature

19:35 The Wagyu Hot Dog

21:38 MongoDB - AI-assisted and agentic coding is helping you build faster than ever. Start building at https://MongoDB.com/ai

24:23 Why chicken nuggets are the hardest problem

28:28 Beachhead markets, waypoints, and surviving early

30:25 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!

35:57 Q&A: Commercializing an open source project

37:56 Q&A: Growing protein in space

40:07 Should this be called "meat"?

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

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

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Today's show:

*For three decades now, we've been told that breakthroughs in quantum computing are right around the corner. So why hasn't anything materialized?

On TWiST in Tokyo, Jason sits down with Yaqumo CEO Kazuhiro Nakashoji and discusses what needed to change (like better algorithms and hardware), and why we may finally be nearing quantum's big moment.

Find out why quantum machines are so error-prone, explore the unusual international quantum supply chain, and get a heads-up about the cryptography reckoning coming for your Bitcoin.

Guest

Kazuhiro Nakashoji on X: https://x.com/KNakashoji

Yaqumo Inc.: https://yaqumo.com/en/

Relevant Links

JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization): https://www.jetro.go.jp/en/

Institute for Molecular Science: https://www.ims.ac.jp/en/

Quantum Insider: Yaqumo Quantum Photonics Agreement: https://thequantuminsider.com/2026/06/04/yaqumo-nkt-photonics-and-hamamatsu-photonics-sign-quantum-photonics-agreement/

Quantonation investment announcement: https://quantumcomputingreport.com/quantonation-selects-neutral-atom-hardware-developer-yaqumo-for-first-japanese-investment/

NIST: What is Post-Quantum Cryptography? https://www.nist.gov/cybersecurity-and-privacy/what-post-quantum-cryptography

Timestamps: 0:00 Intro / Founder University Tokyo

2:20 Guest intro: Kazu of Yakumo

3:20 What is a qubit?

8:34 Why quantum computers are so fragile

8:45 PayPal - Built for payments, growth, and agentic. Paypal Open, built for all business. Visit https://paypalopen.com to get started

13:36 Spinning IP out of the university lab

18:42 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%.

28:01 Building the "Toyota of Quantum"

29:38 Rippling - Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.

31:25 AI for quantum, and quantum for AI

38:35 Harvest Now, Decrypt Later

41:41 Q&A: Yaqumo's business model

43:22 Q&A: Yaqumo's business model

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

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Today's show:

French ex-martial artist Bilal Kharouni is building his longevity startup from Okinawa, one of the world's "blue zones." (These are regions with the most people living long, healthy lives.) In this TWiST taping from Founder University in Tokyo, Jason investigates why a $200K raise in Japan can out-build a $2M raise in San Francisco, and why the best moat for biological AI isn't the model; it's the data no one else has.

Plus a tactical and practical discussion of product market fit, why Ekei killed a growing side business to maintain focus, Japan's fast-track for regenerative medicine, and hitting the upper limits for consumer longevity gadgets. Plus a live Q&A with Founder U attendees.

Guest

Bilal Kharouni on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bilal-kharouni/

Ekei Labs: https://www.ekeilabs.com/

Relevant Links

Okinawa Institute of Science and Tech (OIST): ****https://www.oist.jp/

Life Biosciences: https://www.lifebiosciences.com/

NewLimit: https://www.newlimit.com/

Centivax: https://www.centivax.com/

Medical Daily: "First Human Trial to Reverse Aging Gets FDA Clearance": https://www.medicaldaily.com/first-human-trial-reverse-aging-just-got-fda-clearance-what-epigenetic-reprogramming-actually-476076

Tim Friede snake venom article from Science: https://www.science.org/content/article/he-injected-himself-venom-decades-can-his-antibodies-help-snakebite-victims

Micro1: https://www.micro1.ai/

Whoop: https://www.whoop.com/

Station F Paris startup campus: https://stationf.co/

Japan Times: "PM Takaichi sleeps only 2-4 hours a night": https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/11/14/japan/politics/takaichi-sleep-overwork/

FDLI: "Japan's Regenerative Medicine Regulatory Pathways": https://www.fdli.org/2019/02/global-focus-japans-regenerative-medicine-regulatory-pathways-encouraging-innovation-and-patient-access/

FDA: "Right to Try": https://www.fda.gov/patients/learn-about-expanded-access-and-other-treatment-options/right-try

STAT News: "Are Blue Zones Real?": https://www.statnews.com/2026/05/04/are-blue-zones-real-new-scrutiny-longevity-hot-spots/

Timestamps: 0:00 Founder University is back in Japan!

4:05 What Ekei Labs does

5:13 Why Japan is a longevity hub

8:52 The AI biological moat

10:05 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

15:58 Right to try and the ethics of experimental therapies

22:30 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!

24:49 Japan's fast-track regenerative medicine law

26:03 Raising in Japan vs. the US

31:32 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

40:44 Why Ekei killed a profitable service to focus

47:11 Have Blue Zones been debunked?

48:56 How socialization may extend lifespan

51:07 Founder Q&A: Booked vs. forecast revenue

55:42 Amazon's "bar raiser" framework

1:03:31 Social robots and loneliness

1:04:29 Jason on health and hustle culture

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X: https://x.com/alex

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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

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Today's show:

*Cybersecurity has long focused on cleaning up a system AFTER a breach but Ent founder Brandon Dixon says that's backwards. He just raised a $100M seed round to put an AI agent on everyone's company laptops that catches the risky clicks, leaked files, or rogue agents BEFORE they wreck havoc.

PLUS Clawra creator David Im return swith his new project, Sume's Avatar, a multi-model orchestration layer that generates 60-second UGC videos from a single prompt… and gets it right on the first try, rather than falling back on trial and error.

Guests:

Brandon Dixon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonsdixon/

Ent: ****https://ent.ai/

David Im on X: https://x.com/davidim

Sume: https://www.sume.com/

Relevant Links:

WSJ: "Cyber Security Startup Ent Raises $100 Million in Seed Funding": https://www.wsj.com/pro/cybersecurity/cyber-startup-ent-raises-100-million-in-seed-funding-a3e9b6c6

Microsoft Security Copilot: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/business/ai-machine-learning/microsoft-security-copilot

Engadget: "Meta 'pausing' employee tracking program…": https://www.engadget.com/2199458/meta-is-pausing-employee-tracking-program-after-it-let-the-whole-company-see-sensitive-data/

Seedance 2.0: https://seedance2.ai/

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro: Why AI + cybersecurity is the hot combo right now

2:29 How INT stops breaches before they happen

4:56 AI is giving non-technical employees dangerous new powers

10:26 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 report fast. Get $1,000 off for a limited time at https://www.vanta.com/twist

13:54 Why on-device AI beats cloud-based security

20:08 Superhuman - Get AI that works where you work. Unlock your Superhuman potential at https://superhuman.com

25:18 INT's business model and go-to-market

30:26 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

34:18 David M. of Sumi Labs: one-shotting AI video

36:10 Live demo: Sumi's video orchestration API

40:05 Consistent faces, 60-second videos, and who's buying

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The dawn of surgery bots + buy a home for $250 (w/ Andromeda & Mogul) | E2313

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

Northwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

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Today's show:

*Andromeda Surgical is building the autonomy layer that could one day allow robots to perform surgery. Rather than building their own intricate, complex hardware, Andromeda uses off-the-shelf arms from a German manufacturer, and focuses on the software that will allow doctors to operate it from an iPad.

Plus Mogul co-founder and CEO Alex Blackwood shows Jason how his platform lets anyone buy fractional shares of rental homes for as little as $250, earning monthly dividends, appreciation, and tax benefits without the headache of being someone's landlord.

It's a founder double feature on a brand new TWiST.

Guests:

Nick Damiano on X: https://x.com/nickdamian0

Andromeda Surgical: https://www.andromedasurgical.com/

Alex Blackwood on X: https://x.com/blackwoodtweets

Mogul: https://www.mogul.club/

Relevant Links:

KUKA: https://www.kuka.com/

Intuitive Surgical (and Da Vinci 5): https://www.intuitive.com/en-us

Neuralink: https://neuralink.com/

Padsplit: https://www.padsplit.com/

AngelList: https://www.angellist.com/

The Syndicate: https://thesyndicate.com/

Timestamps:

0:00 The iPad controlled surgery bot

5:46 Building "Google Maps for the body"

10:10 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

14:28 What is a "sous surgeon"

20:46 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

24:30 The Neuralink connection

29:40 Understanding Mogul's business model

31:01 MongoDB - AI-assisted and agentic coding is helping you build faster than ever. Start building at https://MongoDB.com/ai

33:32 So who manages the homes?

36:50 Dividends vs. Appreciation

44:57 How Mogul picks markets

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

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

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This Week In Startups is made possible by:

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Today's show:

Hustle Fund's Eric Bahn and Chapter One's Jeff Morris Jr. join our venture capital roundtable directly following the news breaking that Stripe wants to buy PayPal. The possible transaction highlights how little interest today's leading startups have in going public any time soon. With host Alex Wilhelm, Bahn and Morris dug into when startups should burn the boats à la Fin, physical AI as the next frontier, the power of Silicon Valley groupthink, and how startups are approaching the first days of widespread, company-specific AI evals!

Guest links:

Eric Bahn https://x.com/ericbahn

Hustle Fund https://www.hustlefund.vc

Jeff Morris Jr. https://x.com/jmj

Chapter One https://chapterone.com

Show links:

Stripe wants to buy PayPal https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/stripe-advent-offer-buy-paypal-more-than-53-billion-sources-say-2026-07-15/

Flex https://www.flex.one/

Webflow https://webflow.com/

Oak https://www.oak.id/

Fin selling to Salesforce https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2026/06/15/salesforce-signs-definitive-agreement-to-acquire-fin/

Erebor https://erebor.bank/

"Competition is for losers" https://www.wsj.com/articles/peter-thiel-competition-is-for-losers-1410535536

Chapter One piece on the value of software https://jamesin.substack.com/p/some-areas-weve-been-investing-in

Timestamps:

0:00 Eric Bahn (Hustle Fund) & Jeff Morris Jr. (Chapter One) join the show!

1:35 Stripe's reported $53B offer for PayPal

6:29 Why founders don't want to go public

10:08 Agree.com - Stop chasing invoices and automate your entire contract-to-cash stack. Go to https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life!

15:16 When is it time to burn the boats?

20:12 MongoDB - AI-assisted and agentic coding is helping you build faster than ever. Start building at https://MongoDB.com/ai

21:16 Does VC need an AI revolution?

30:50 Rippling - Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.

32:36 Custom evals, open source models, and avoiding vendor lock-in

36:37 Physical AI and robotics as the next frontier

37:42 Oak's $60M seed and startup clusters chasing agent infrastructure

40:43 Escaping the Silicon Valley "think tank"

48:28 Consumer AI's missing wave

1:00:18 AI regulation and how to get it right

1:12:01 Where to find our guests and wrap-up!

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Today's show:

*Jason spent $11 building out PodMeme, an AI tool that tracks down the best segments from top podcasts about a specific topic, then stitches them together into a single stream. His post laying out how he did it, featuring a simple screenshot of the product, got all the way to 1.1M views in just a few days.

It's a simple fact: builders love to see what other people are building, and growing your new project "in public," sharing your journey on social media, is a great way to develop buzz around your product before it even exists.

Today's guest Thibault "Tibo" Louis-Lucas walks us through how he grew products like Tweet Hunter and Taplio on his social media account, using social media buzz and a focus on tools for creators to very quickly expand to over $1M ARR.

PLUS why Apple would only sue OpenAI if they knew they had them dead to rights… why Uber and Waymo are fighting over DC robotaxis… Jason's response to the public backlash against surveillance startup Flock Safety… and the guys remember iconic New Zealand actor Sam Neill.

Guest:

Tibo Louis-Lucas on X: https://x.com/tibo_maker

Revid.ai: https://www.revid.ai/

Tweet Hunter: https://tweethunter.io/

Taplio: https://taplio.com/

Relevant Links:

Lemlist: https://www.lemlist.com/

GRIN influencer marketing: https://grin.co/

TechCrunch: "Apple Sues OpenAI": https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/10/apple-sues-openai-over-alleged-trade-secret-theft/

We Must Act Now statement: https://www.wemustactnow.ai/

TechCrunch: "Uber's Robotaxi Lobbying Effort": https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/ubers-robotaxi-lobbying-effort-has-put-it-on-a-collision-course-with-waymo/

DC Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Authorization Amendment of 2026: https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/2003462

DoorDash: Meet Dot: https://about.doordash.com/en-us/dot

Flock Safety: https://www.flocksafety.com/

DeFlock: https://deflock.org/

Gigazine: Flock accuses Deflock of being a "terrorist org": https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20260209-flock-ceo-deflock/#gsc.tab=0

Unifi AI Security Systems: https://ui.com/physical-security

Jason's PodMeme post: https://x.com/Jason/status/2076231055443440105

Jason responds to Justine Bateman: https://x.com/Jason/status/2076326740050206959

NYT Sam Neill obituary: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/movies/sam-neill-dead.html

"Possession" trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLXW-oVbTxE

FanEdit: https://fanedit.org/forums/news-publisher/

"Manhunter" trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLqHlg2fAnE

HBO "The Man Will Burn" trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRhUYPtp6Ao

Timestamps:

0:00 There's no air conditioning in Paris 7:27 Tibo Maker's "ship 1 product a week" challenge 9:24 The power of building products in public 10:59 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) - Quo gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://quo.com/TWiST 12:04 Excitement for JCal's "PodMeme" set-up 15:40 Compounding an audience and enlisting influencers 19:13 Your follower count is not important any more 20:59 PayPal - Built for payments, growth, and agentic. Paypal Open, built for all business. Visit https://paypalopen.com to get started 22:28 How Tibo got banned on LinkedIn twice 28:48 Apple sues OpenAI 30:59 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 38:44 How OpenAI should have handled the New York Times 45:10 DC's new robotaxi bill 52:06 Managing the AV and delivery-bot transition 53:23 Economists warn of AI job displacement 1:07:00 How Jason would fix Flock's messaging 1:17:26 Remembering Sam Neill 1:23:05 Lon's Dream AI edit 1:26:35 HBO's Burning Man docuseries

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

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

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

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This Week In Startups is made possible by:

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Squarespace https://squarespace.com/twist

YSecurity https://YSecurity.io/TWIST

Today's show:

*America posted 400,000 farm jobs last year, and fewer than 1% got a single domestic applicant. Danny Bernstein of Reservoir believes it's time to start automating this backbreaking labor, like picking stone fruit in 110°F temperatures. So he built the world's first on-farm robotics incubator on 40 acres of California farmland. Here's why he argues that automating farms isn't just a new opportunity, it's a national security issue.

PLUS Jason responded to Gal Shir's viral "AI beat me at design" tweet, got into a kerfuffle with Figma CEO Dylan Field, and wound up making a brand new J-Trade. AND we're talking about the Dept. of Education's new "do no harm" policy, the Brown University AI cheating chart that's blowing up social media, and Lon has fresh streaming recommendations in an all-new Off Duty.

Guest:

Danny Bernstein on X: https://x.com/bernsteind

Reservoir Farms: https://reservoir.co/

Reservoir VC: https://reservoir.vc/

Relevant Links:

Bonsai Robotics: https://bonsairobotics.ai/

Root AI acquired by AppHarvest: https://www.therobotreport.com/root-ai-acquired-by-appharvest-for-60m/

John Deere: https://www.deere.com/en-us/

Western Growers Association: https://www.wga.com/

Tanimura & Antle: https://www.taproduce.com/

Naturipe Berry Growers: https://www.naturipefarms.com/

Driscoll's: https://www.driscolls.com/

Taylor Farms: https://www.taylorfarms.com/

The Wonderful Company: https://www.wonderful.com/

Capital Factory: https://www.capitalfactory.com/

Gal Shir "quitting design" post: https://x.com/galshirart/status/2074854464729629060

Dylan Field response to Gal Shir: https://x.com/zoink/status/2075290218660298807

JCal response to Field and "J-Trade": https://x.com/Jason/status/2075481565115654305

Figma: https://www.figma.com/

Dept. of Education: "Do No Harm" policy announcement: https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-issues-final-rule-hold-all-colleges-and-universities-accountable-low-earning-programs

NPR coverage on Dept. of Education earnings test: https://www.npr.org/2026/06/30/nx-s1-5835631/turner-camhi-do-no-harm-college-loans

Paul Graham "cheating chart" post: https://x.com/paulg/status/2075031014628311236

Off Duty Recommendations:

"Lioness" on Paramount+: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNRQ0PR4a8U

"Mayor of Kingstown" on Paramount+: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkQzvwxOp0s

"Human Vapor" on Netflix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xe6dRKVAb8

"Sugar" on Apple TV+: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twvPGxuEOEA

"Wind River" (now on Netflix): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZgN0dpFoaE

"Not Fade Away" by Peter Barton & Laurence Shames: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Fade-Away-Short-Lived/dp/1579546889

Timestamps:

0:00 Jason's ongoing World Tour

1:43 Danny Bernstein joins live from Reservoir Farms

3:38 What is "specialty crop agriculture"

5:15 Why strawberries are the "white whale" of AgTech

6:55 The labor crisis in farming

9:20 Why AgTech never scaled

9:51 NetSuite - For the first time, you can try NetSuite Next for free. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, go to https://NetSuite.ai/TWIST

10:51 Inside Reservoir's business model

17:44 Agriculture as national security

20:09 Squarespace - Turn your idea into a beautiful website! Go to https://www.squarespace.com/twist for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

22:15 Did AI beat a designer at design?

30:56 YSecurity - The on-demand security team for startups. Need enterprise-grade security without hiring a $400k CISO? YSecurity gives you 40+ expert engineers, matched to exactly what you need, by the hour, with your first six hours completely free. Go to https://YSecurity.io/TWIST

37:23 The "do no harm" college earnings test

43:27 Brown University students cheated on their midterms

52:22 Lon's streaming recommendations

59:46 Jason's new snake grabber

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

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

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