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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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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:

*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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Today's show:

How many startups matter in tech? Fewer than you think. That's why venture capitalists are tripping over themselves to get onto their cap tables, no matter the cost. Why? Footwork's Nikhil Basu Trivedi argues that the Valley has never been more "power-law-pilled" than it is today. Basu Trivedi joined Cendana Capital's Michael Kim and TWiST's Alex Wilhelm to go deep on secondary markets, the state of startup M&A, why the SaaSpocalypse may be temporary, and what could trigger a retrenchment of the AI trade. It's Wednesday, so it's time for our venture capital roundtable to go deep on how VCs are investing today, and where on the horizon they have their eyes fixed!

Guest links:

Nikhil Basu Trivedi https://x.com/nbt

Footwork https://www.footwork.vc/

Michael Kim https://x.com/MKRocks

Cendana Capital https://www.cendanacapital.com/

Show links:

The USVC-Anduril blowup https://x.com/ankurnagpal/status/2072701195714531398

Kline Hill Cendana Partners https://www.secondariesinvestor.com/kline-hill-and-cendana-raise-400m-for-second-vc-secondaries-fund/

GPTZero's exit https://gptzero.me/news/preserving-whats-human/

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

Vercel buys Better Auth https://vercel.com/blog/vercel-acquires-better-auth

Figma buys Bud https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/07/figma-acquires-team-behind-a-vibe-coding-app/

Protoge https://withprotege.ai/

Windborne https://windbornesystems.com/

Etched https://www.etched.com/

Lovable's reported raise https://sifted.eu/articles/lovable-300m-13-2bn-valuation

Josh Browder https://x.com/Joshuabrowder

Timestamps:

0:00 Introduction: Nikhil Basu Trivedi (Footwork) & Michael Kim (Cendana Capital)

1:59 The Anduril vs. USVC secondary market blowup

4:08 Why Silicon Valley is 'power-law-pilled'

8:23 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

9:37 Information asymmetry in the secondary markets

9:45 Every.io — For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io

15:02 Is SPV fraud smoke or fire?

16:32 Superhuman acquires GPTZero

19:54 Agree.com - Stop chasing invoices and automate your entire contract-to-cash stack. Go to https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life!

21:10 The M&A wave

27:19 The SaaSpocalypse debate

29:59 DigitalOcean - Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today — and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%.

30:44 Data's moment in the energy → compute → data loop

35:01 Where will AI value accrue?

40:04 What could cause an AI correction?

42:17 Why some companies are "too big to miss"

46:23 China's possible open-weight model ban

53:28 Young founders: Etched, Thiel Fellows, Z Fellows, Neo

55:33 Portfolio spotlight: WindBorne's weather balloons and data moat

58:47 Michael's favorite fund manager: Josh Browder

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Today's show:

*There are $100 trillion in global assets sitting on top of what Hanover Park co-founder/CEO Chris Hladczuk calls "human duct tape": armies of accountants in offices patching together work from various legacy tools (QuickBooks, Excel) that are holding funds' own data hostage. Can all of this be replaced with AI? Find out how their startup went from overseeing $1B to $20B in assets in just 15 months.

PLUS, we flash back to March 2020, when Jason and Figma co-founder/CEO Dylan Field broke down the design tool's initial go-to-market strategy, made some WILDLY inaccurate COVID predictions, and considered anxiety about "SaaS burnout" years before the category went full apocalyptic.

Guests:

Chris Hladczuk on X: https://x.com/chrishlad

Hanover Park: https://www.hanoverpark.com/

Dylan Field: https://x.com/zoink

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

Relevant Links:

Turner Novak on X: https://x.com/TurnerNovak

Banana Capital: https://www.bananacapital.vc/

Emergence Capital: https://www.emcap.com/

Lux Capital: https://www.luxcapital.com/

Susa Ventures: https://susaventures.com/

Bill.com: https://www.bill.com/

METR: https://metr.org/

Granola AI note taker: https://www.granola.ai/

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

Foo Camp on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/foocamp

TechCrunch Mahalo coverage: https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/27/inside-mobile-news-launch/

Timestamps:

0:00 Hanover Park & the fund admin problem

3:32 Why funds outsource instead of building

5:44 Why fund accounting is so complex

10:38 The "one-click migration" goal

10:48 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

13:51 Context vs. intelligence gaps

16:11 No PMs, No Designers

20:46 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist

23:18 This is a $100T opportunity

25:36 Flashback w/ Dylan Field of Figma

29:15 Sentry - Your team should be focused on shipping features — not chasing down bugs. New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST

31:22 Pre-AI enterprise security worries

36:30 SaaS overload and SaaS burnout

37:30 The evolution of Figma pricing

42:38 The rise and fall of Mahalo dot com

51:38 The work-from-home revolution begins

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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:

Forget the triple-triple-double-double-double; the new bar for startups hoping to raise venture capital has reached the stratosphere, though our venture panel is worried that startups are focusing too much on today's problems that may not become companies tomorrow. During a lively VC roundtable, Cowboy's Aileen Lee, Floodgate's Mike Maples, and Lerer Hippeau's Ben Lerer joined Alex to dig into exiting pre-AI startups, rising valuations, token spend, why they are keeping their funds small, and whether the government just tripped OpenAI and Anthropic!

Guest Links:

Aileen Lee https://x.com/aileenlee

Cowboy VC https://cowboy.vc

Mike Maples https://x.com/m2jr

Floodgate https://www.floodgate.com

Bene Lerer https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjlerer

Lere Hippeau https://www.lererhippeau.com

Timestamps:

0:00 Aileen Lee, Mike Maples, and Ben Lerer join the show

5:13 Venture liquidity returns: what SpaceX/Stripe distributions mean for LPs

9:13 Bending Spoons prices IPO at $29/share, roughly $18.4B valuation

10:31 Agree.com - Stop chasing invoices and automate your entire contract-to-cash stack. Go to https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life!

12:09 "Companies get bought, not sold" — Ben on taking first offers seriously

17:41 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

19:34 Mutiny's burn-the-boats AI pivot with Jaleh Rezaei

20:19 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

22:15 Mike's KeepSafe story: the "rule of 70" and profit-first companies

25:12 The new growth bar: 5x, 4x replaces triple-triple-double-double

28:55 Fund size is your strategy: why Floodgate and Lerer Hippeau stay small

30:11 CLA - Innovation takes balance. CLA's CPAs, consultants, and wealth advisors can help you get from startup to where you want to end up. Get started now at https://www.claconnect.com/withyou

37:39 The $100M Series A: Starcloud, General Intuition, Scale Cognition, Scout AI

40:35 King-making rounds and why mega-seeds destroy optionality

54:11 Open-weight models: the GLM-5.2 moment and going model-agnostic

55:30 Why fine-tuning open models is a treadmill, with Cursor/Kimi as an example

1:03:28 Grading the Trump administration on Mythos and Fable

1:06:33 Rising anti-AI sentiment, the wealth gap, and lessons from social media

1:11:43 Raising kids in the post-intelligence era

1:12:35 Where to find the panel and what each firm is investing in

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Today's show:

*It's another All Star Summer, as we welcome back some of our favorite guests from throughout "This Week in Startups" history.

Chamath Palihapitiya's development platform 8090 just raised $135 million, and he's using it to go after a $4 trillion market: the software maintenance, migration, and middleware spending that's currently "pure waste" for enterprises.

Find out why the All-In Podcast bestie says every company should use AI to build custom software the way that Google, Facebook, and Meta already do, then go inside Software Factory, the "system on a chip" organizational model, and why Chamath believes AI will allow every human on Earth to start their own company.

Guest:

Chamath on X: https://x.com/chamath

8090: https://www.8090.ai/

Learn With Me on Substack: https://chamath.substack.com/p/learn-with-me

Drink With Me: https://www.drinkwithme.com/age-verify.html

All-In Podcast: https://allin.com/

Social Capital: https://www.socialcapital.com/

Relevant Links:

8090 Series A announcement: https://x.com/chamath/status/2071571183665881515

Salesforce Ventures: https://salesforceventures.com/

Craft Ventures: https://www.craftventures.com/

The Production Board: https://www.tpb.co/

WNDR: https://www.wndr.vc/

LAUNCH: https://www.launch.co

Coatue Management: https://www.coatue.com/

Jack Dorsey: "From Hierarchy to Intelligence": https://block.xyz/inside/from-hierarchy-to-intelligence

Thomas Keller's The French Laundry: https://thomaskeller.com/tfl/

Timestamps:

0:00 It's TWiST All-Star Summer!

0:44 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

3:21 Chamath's origin story

7:54 Tom Sawyer entrepreneurship

11:29 Shopify - Turn those What If's into sales with the ecommerce platform powering millions of businesses. Sign up for your $1-per-month trial today at https://shopify.com/twist

16:25 The $5 trillion software market

21:06 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist

25:00 Building "a co-founder for every human"

31:51 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

35:00 How product development lost its way

45:00 Regulated industries are the beachhead

50:00 Raising the $135M Series A

55:00 8090's "System on a Chip" model

1:04:44 What to tell your kids about AI

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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:

F1 teams spend up to a third of their budgets on aerodynamics, often utilizing wind tunnels to simulate what happens on the track.

But Lyall Davenport of SKN Systems created a sensor-embedded tape that sticks directly to race cars as they drive around the real world, generating 420M data points per hour. And it comes in at roughly 95% less cost than running a full simulator.

Hear about how Lyall's background in racing helped him develop the concept, plans to expand from motorsports to drones and defense, and his experiences going through Jason's various programs.

PLUS OpenAI's new models are so good, you can't use them. Why Apple's Vision Pro chief defected to OpenAI (and why their laptops and devices are getting more expensive). A look at the world's most annoying data center in Sterling, Virginia. And Jason remembers iconic and influential tech journalist Om Malik.

Guest:

Lyall Davenport: https://x.com/Lyalldavenport

SKN Systems: https://www.skn.systems/

Timestamps:

0:00 How SKN uses tape to generate aerodynamic data

4:04 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

6:17 How SKN uses tape to generate aerodynamic data

9:55 Sentry - Your team should be focused on shipping features — not chasing down bugs. New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST

17:20 F1 teams are worth HOW MUCH?

19:42 Northwest Registered Agent: Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

20:35 Future markets beyond motorsports

30:03 DigitalOcean - Want to see what building on a true AI-native platform looks like? Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today — and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%.

32:45 GPT-5.6 is banned for now

43:46 Vision Pro chief makes for the exit

51:24 Apple raises their prices

56:05 The data center you're allowed to hate

1:06:04 Zuck's new prediction market app

1:08:42 RIP Om Malik (1966-2026)

1:19:50 Streaming and camera recommendations

1:28:06 All about eFoiling

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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:

Jason sits down with Brynn Putnam, CEO and founder of Board, to learn more about her company's tabletop gaming console. The pair talks about how to raise capital for yet-to-launch hardware projects, the screen-time debate, and how Board is approaching building or buying IP for its family-friendly games. Next, Alex got Heremus's AJ Piplica on the horn to chat hypersonic, autonomous jets. The startup's technology bridges the gap between rockets and airplanes, and may represent the future of warfare, yes, but also fast freight!

Guest Links:

Brynn Putnam https://x.com/BrynnPutnam

Board https://board.fun/

Board Series A announcement https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/02/board-the-new-game-startup-from-mirror-founder-brynn-putnam-raises-20m-has-already-sold-thousands/

Mirror https://www.lululemonstudio.com/

AJ Piplica https://x.com/AJ_Piplica

Heremus https://www.hermeus.com/

Heremus Series C announcement https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hermeus-reaches-1-billion-valuation-with-350-million-raise-to-build-todays-fastest-aircraft-for-the-american-warfighter-302735273.html

Timestamps:

0:00 Board's Brynn Putnam joins the show

2:54 Board's proprietary AI software stack

6:43 Why Board manufactures in Mexico (not China)

9:21 LinkedIn: Thanks to our partners at LinkedIn! Post your job for free at https://linkedIn.com/twist then promote it to get access to LinkedIn Jobs' new AI assistant.

9:42 How to raise a Seed round for hardware without a finished product

15:26 Brynn's daughter and the mermaid example

17:09 Can Board limit screen time fears?

18:47 Northwest Registered Agent: Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

22:54 Selling the first 10,000 units

28:38 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more.

29:42 Why Board is steering away from simple ports toward native IP experiences

35:32 Hermeus's AJ Piplica joins the show

35:32 What is Dark Horse?

43:48 Commercial applications: Cargo, organs, flowers, and trans-Atlantic in 90 minutes

47:47 Commercial applications: Cargo, organs, flowers, and trans-Atlantic in 90 minutes

57:00 Dark Horse range and the "reusable first stage" analogy

58:42 Dark Horse range and the "reusable first stage" analogy

1:02:42 $350M Series C led by Khosla; total funding now exceeds $500M

1:03:39 The SpaceX model: get customers to fund your R&D

1:07:47 Closing: the American Dynamism pitch

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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

Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis

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This Week In Startups is made possible by:Agree - https://agree.comQuo - https://quo.com/TWiSTSuperhuman - https://superhuman.comToday's show:In this double-header, Jason and Lon chat with Louis Phillips, founder of the gamified running app INTVL, which turns a quick job around the block into a worldwide turf war competition. Find out how he grew the app to over 1 million downloads without any paid ads, just making videos from his home office.PLUS Alex sits down with Alice Zhang, CEO of Verge Labs, which pivoted from making drugs to building the AI infrastructure that helps pharma companies develop their own treatments. Find out how they accumulated one of the world's largest proprietary brain datasets and why brain tissue is the "LiDAR of neuroscience."Guests:INTVL: https://www.intvl.com.au/INTVL on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intvl.appLouis Phillips on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louisphillips12Verge Labs: https://vergelabs.com/Alice Zhang on X: https://x.com/AliceXinliZhangRelevant LinksMeta's Ad Library: https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/Strava: https://www.strava.com/Pokémon Go: https://pokemongo.com/Fitbod: https://fitbod.me/Tonebase: https://www.tonebase.co/Calm: https://www.calm.com/Hamilton Island official site: https://www.hamiltonisland.com.au/"Mr. Inbetween" trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EooRG3QhQOYArticle: "Verge Genomics Rebrands as Verge Labs": https://trial.medpath.com/news/verge-genomics-rebrands-as-verge-labs-following-als-drug-trial-failure-pivots-to-ai-driven-target-discoveryEli Lilly: https://www.lilly.com/Chai Discovery: https://www.chaidiscovery.com/Noetik: https://www.noetik.ai/Tempus: https://www.tempus.com/Timestamps:0:00 Louis on building in Melbourne, Australia

7:44 Why INTVL ignores how fast you run

9:59 Agree - Stop chasing invoices at https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life!

15:52 Using gamification for good

19:10 Powering INTVL's impressive growth

19:55 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) - Quo gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://quo.com/TWiST

26:16 The future of TWiST Australia

27:14 Will AI ever cure cancer?

27:54 Inside Verge's rebrand

30:31 Superhuman - Get AI that works where you work. Unlock your Superhuman potential at https://superhuman.com

32:01 Brain tissue as "ground truth"

36:01 Why brain tissue is so valuable as data

43:52 Verge's Eli Lilly partnership

51:34 "You're going to tell me when I'm going to die"

56:11 How AI could impact drug prices

58:19 Clinical trial FAILS and how to move onSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisCheck out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

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Today's show:

Anthropic stabbed Cursor in the back. Then SpaceX swooped in with $60 billion. Today, TWiST connects the dots on the biggest deal in AI since the Microsoft-OpenAI partnership, and why it's a warning sign for every startup building on top of a frontier model. Jason is joined by Bling Capital's Ben Ling, Banana Capital's Turner Novak, and co-host Alex to go deep on the future of coding models, the current golden age of venture liquidity, OpenAI's financials, and the 'Four Ds' of venture investing. The show closes with a tribute to Josh Baer, the founder of Capital Factory.

Guest Links:

Ben Ling https://x.com/bling0?lang=en

Bling Capital https://www.blingcap.com/

Turner Novak https://x.com/TurnerNovak

Banana Capital https://www.bananacapital.vc/

Show Links:

Hanover Park https://www.hanoverpark.com/

SpaceX buys Cursor https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/16/spacex-spcx-cursor-acquisition-ipo.html

Cursor Composer 2.5 https://cursor.com/blog/composer-2-5

OpenAI financials source https://www.wheresyoured.at/exclusive-openai-financials/

AMD's new deskside data center https://www.amd.com/en/products/processors/desktops/ryzen/ryzen-ai-halo.html

Perplexity Model Council https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-model-council

Timestamps:

0:00 Guest introductions

1:15 Guest introductions

2:43 SpaceX acquires Cursor for $60B

6:13 The golden era of M&A

9:13 Northwest Registered Agent: Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

12:04 Cursor's negative gross margins & the compute problem

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

15:04 Rolling your own model: When does it make sense?

19:35 LinkedIn: Thanks to our partners at LinkedIn! Post your job for free at https://linkedIn.com/twist then promote it to get access to LinkedIn Jobs' new AI assistant.

22:53 The "headless product" thesis

28:31 Deel: Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more.

34:22 OpenAI financials leaked: $13B revenue, $38.5B net loss

40:13 Where does AI value accumulate?

45:34 Portfolio Spotlight: Hanover Park

48:37 Seed stage graduation rates have fallen from 50% to 25%

54:59 The four Ds of venture: Deal flow, Decisions, Doubling down, Distributions

1:06:36 How to find 'undiscovered gems'

1:30:59 Snap Specs AR glasses: $2,195, and a bit chunky

1:39:29 Tribute to Joshua Baer, Capital Factory's founder

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

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Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Alex:

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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:

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Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

Every.io - visit every.io

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Today's show:

The next SpaceX won't be building rockets; it'll build the first hotel on the Moon. Today on TWiST, GRU Space founder Skyler Chan brings a brick made from lunar soil into the studio and lays out a plan to manufacture on the Moon as early as next year. We get into the science, the business model, and the regulatory land-grab ahead!

Then, the US government forces Anthropic to pull Fable 5 and Mythos 5. Jason and Lon unpack what it means when a single AI model can vanish overnight, and the US government's emergency order.

Stick around for the winner (or winners?!) of the $5,000 AI podcast-companion bounty!

Timestamps:

0:00 Knicks playoff run, San Antonio & Texas BBQ (Black's vs. Terry Black's)

8:23 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

9:52 Guest intro: Skyler Chan, GRU Space — and the lunar-soil brick

10:29 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io

12:14 Why the next SpaceX builds habitats, not rockets

15:18 NASA's $20B moon-base signal & the TRL contracting path

16:13 Business model: from construction contractor to owning lunar land

18:06 Building the hotel robotically + $1M refundable deposits

20:00 Sentry - Your team should be focused on shipping features — not chasing down bugs. New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST

31:09 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist

39:28 News: US government blocks Anthropic's Fable 5 & Mythos 5

41:34 The politics: Hegseth, Sacks, Jassy & the "conspiracy" angle

1:09:39 Why no single model dependency is safe (multi-model harnesses)

1:18:47 Bounty results: MySidecast wins $3,000

1:19:07 Honorable mentions: Couchverse (Lemon Slice) & Convalenz

1:29:44 Next bounty: the Annotated app

🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned:

Guest & company

Skyler Chan: Founder, GRU Space → https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/galactic-resource-utilization-space-inc-gru-space

GRU Space (Galactic Resource Utilization): YC startup building lunar-regolith bricks and a robotic Moon hotel → https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/galactic-resource-utilization-space-inc-gru-space

GRU Space lunar hotel bookings → https://payloadspace.com/gru-space-opens-bookings-for-planned-lunar-hotel/

🎙️ About the Guest:

Skyler Chan is the founder of GRU Space (Galactic Resource Utilization), a Y Combinator–backed startup developing a payload factory that manufactures bricks from lunar regolith to build the first robotic hotel on the Moon.

Follow GRU Space → https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/galactic-resource-utilization-space-inc-gru-space

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

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

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

Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

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

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

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

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

Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis

Follow TWiST:

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

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Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com