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

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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

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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

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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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After watching Elon build out his rocket (and AI) company over the past 20 years, Jason celebrates the SpaceX IPO on a new TWiST. He explains why some investments are evaluated based on earnings and current numbers, while other stocks are bets on expensive visions for the future, and why SpaceX why likely pay off across multiple time horizons.

PLUS Polsia solo founder Ben Cera is back with guidance for founders on creating a “Purple Cow”: a unique experience that makes their brand memorable.

Guest:

Ben Cera on X: https://x.com/Bencera

Polsia: https://polsia.com/

Polsia on X: https://x.com/polsia

Ben on TWiST E2256 (Feb 2026): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCce8e02Isw

Relevant Links:

SpaceX: https://www.spacex.com/

SPCX on Yahoo Finance: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SPCX/

Starlink: https://www.starlink.com/

Planet Labs: https://www.planet.com/

Palantir: https://www.palantir.com/

Valor Equity Partners: https://www.valorep.com/

Seth Godin’s “Purple Cow” on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Purple-Cow-New-Transform-Remarkable/dp/1591843170

Uber Ice Cream stunt article: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ubers-brilliant-marketing-stunt-hail-195946535.html

Hillsborough Flintstones House article: https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/The-Flintstone-House-is-now-for-rent-on-Airbnb-10420107.php

“19 Hours Inside the Airbnb X-Mansion” article: https://www.theringer.com/2024/05/29/pop-culture/x-mansion-airbnb-x-men-icons-experience

Was The Pepsi Challenge based on LIES? https://www.historyoasis.com/post/the-pepsi-challenge

CloudKitchens: https://cloudkitchens.com/

Cluely: https://cluely.com/

Timestamps:

0:00 SpaceX IPO details

2:12 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

7:21 The voting vs. weighing investment framework

9:41 Pilot: Focus on your product, let Pilot handle your bookkeeping. Pilot provides the most reliable accounting, CFO, and tax services for startups and small businesses. Head to https://pilot.com/twist and get $1,200 off your first year.

19:53 Agree - Stop chasing invoices at https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life!

22:25 The media's SpaceX criticisms and "hot takes"

23:54 Ben Cera of Polsia is back

26:53 Why Jason says no to a free tier

29:10 IM8 Health: Start feeling like your best self every day. Go to https://IM8health.com/twist and use the code TWiST to get a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, and 10% off your order.

34:27 The wisdom of Seth Godin's "Purple Cow"

50:37 The "Pepsi Challenge" model

1:05:45 Lon got a dog, Jason got routers

1:10:37 The YouTuber to movie theater pipeline

1:15:20 Jason's new favorite travel bag

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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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Two days before SpaceX launches the largest IPO in history at a flat $135/share, our VC roundtable drops a scorcher: The top 1% of seed deals might actually be underpriced. Plus: the "Sequoia scam" dual-tranche controversy, tokens-for-equity deals, and whether Claude Fable 5 is a true step function.

Tomasz Tunguz (Theory Ventures), Michael Downing (Castalia Capital), and Paige Doherty (Behind Genius Ventures) join Alex to go deep on Seed investing, startup economics, AI spend, and the impact of smarter AI on the founder journey.

Guest Links:

Tomasz Tunguz: https://x.com/ttunguz

Theory Ventures: https://theoryvc.com/

Michael Downing: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldowning/

Castalia Capital: https://castalia.capital/

Paige Doherty: https://x.com/paigefinnn

Behind Genius Ventures: https://www.behindgeniusventures.com

Show Links:

Anthropic’s IPO announcement: https://www.anthropic.com/news/confidential-draft-s1-sec

OpenAI’s IPO announcement: https://openai.com/index/openai-submits-confidential-s-1/

Bending Spoons F-1 filing: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2004711/000110465926071170/tm2613674-7_f1.htm

SpaceX IPO filing: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1181412/000162828026040364/spaceexplorationtechnologib.htm

Brendan Foody’s post on Sequoia: https://x.com/BrendanFoody/status/2063470286515683759

Claude Fable 5: https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-fable-5-mythos-5

OpenRouter data on Chinese models: https://openrouter.ai/rankings?view=day

Saronic: https://www.saronic.com/

MotherDuck: https://motherduck.com/

Nox Metals: https://noxmetals.co/

Timestamps:

0:00 Tomasz Tunguz, Michael Downing & Paige Doherty join

2:07 The SpaceX IPO and the IPO window

4:22 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

6:30 The new bar: 10x growth (not 3x) to raise a great Series A

8:46 Net-new AI budgets

9:46 Squarespace: Turn your idea into a beautiful website! Go to https://www.squarespace.com/twist for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

11:09 How some founders are outgrowing venture capital

11:44 The power pendulum swings back to founders

12:46 SpaceX vs. OpenAI vs. Anthropic: Which IPO is most enticing?

19:53 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more.

26:07 Tokens-for-equity, GPU-hours-for-equity & the financialization of compute

28:35 Founders airing VC dirty laundry (napping VCs included)

29:56 Netsuite - The business landscape is very chaotic right now. That's why you need NetSuite, by Oracle. Get the free business guide Demystifying AI at https://Netsuite.com/TWiST

36:38 Claude Fable 5 first impressions: pricing, benchmarks & orchestration

45:42 Where value accrues: application layer vs. models vs. private data

1:00:06 Nationalization of AI labs: Bernie Sanders, Sam Altman & Trump agree?!

1:01:25 Portfolio spotlights: Saronic, MotherDuck, and Nox Metals

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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

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

The AI Tutor That Makes Kids Actually Think | E2298

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Today’s show:

*Schools teach kids to memorize formulas. AI helps them skip thinking entirely. Brilliant founder Sue Khim joins TWiST to tell us how her new AI tutor, Koji, uses the Socratic Method to help students solve complex problems on their own. Find out why she says “People aren’t anti-AI. They’re anti-being replaced and anti-slop.”

PLUS Jason’s take on the VC horror stories going around X… and his own anecdote about the tenacity and passion of legendary investor John Doerr.

Guest:

Sue Khim on X: https://x.com/suekhim

Brilliant: https://brilliant.org/

Viral Koji launch video: https://x.com/suekhim/status/2060378988606878147

Relevant Links:

Viral Greg Isenberg post about VCs: https://x.com/gregisenberg/status/2061794787825479818

Travis Kalanick’s story: https://x.com/travisk/status/2062224472426365045

Matthew Prince’s stories: https://x.com/eastdakota/status/2062860530360959273

John Doerr on X: https://x.com/johndoerr

Roelof Botha on X: https://x.com/roelofbotha

Michael Moritz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelmoritz/

Mohr Davidow Ventures: https://mdv.com/

Jason’s book “Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups”: https://www.amazon.com/Angel-Invest-Technology-Startups-Timeless-Investor/dp/0062560700

Timestamps:

0:00 Sue Khim's Alltuition origin story

1:41 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

4:10 Brilliant: from launch to product market pull

10:46 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

15:08 Pricing against tutors, not apps

19:25 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist

21:22 Koji demo

24:11 Keeping Brilliant local while expanding

30:22 Shopify - Turn those What Ifs into sales with the e-commerce platform powering millions of businesses. Sign up for your $1-per-month trial today at https://shopify.com/twist

40:10 Every founder has a VC horror story

44:33 John Doerr went the extra mile to hear JCal's pitch

52:55 The LAUNCH investment strategy

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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:

Anthropic wrote a blog post calling for a global AI slowdown. Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders wants the government to seize 50% of every major AI company’s stock. Find out why JCal is reconsidering universal basic (or even high!) income policies, and why he thinks the 2028 presidential election will likely come down to AI policies.

PLUS a live ComfyUI demo from founder Yoland Yan. Find out why the free-to-use open-source node-based platform has become a crucial part of millions of designers’ and VFX experts’ workflows, and how their tool has been used to create everything from “The Wizard of Oz” at the Vegas Sphere to those viral Coca-Cola holiday ads.

Guest

Yoland Yan: http://x.com/yoland_yan

ComfyUI: https://comfy.org/

AI Models and Tools

Ideogram 4.0: https://ideogram.ai/models/4.0/

Stable Diffusion: https://stability.ai/

LTX Video: https://github.com/Lightricks/LTX-Video

LoRa: https://huggingface.co/docs/diffusers/training/lora

Google Veo: https://deepmind.google/models/veo/

Relevant Links:

Anthropic: “When AI Builds Itself”: https://www.anthropic.com/institute/recursive-self-improvement

Bernie Sanders: “The Public Should Own Half of the Big AI Companies”: https://www.sanders.senate.gov/op-eds/the-public-should-own-half-of-the-big-a-i-companies/

Bloomberg: “Sam Altman-Backed Group Completes Largest US Study on Basic Income”: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-22/ubi-study-backed-by-openai-s-sam-altman-bolsters-support-for-basic-income

Timestamps:

0:00 Guest 1: Yoland Yan, ComfyUI — live demo intro

2:06 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

4:34 Guest 1: Yoland Yan, ComfyUI — live demo intro

9:47 Grasshopper Bank - Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account.

20:05 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist

22:24 What is Outpainting?

30:01 Render - Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to https://render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers.

32:13 Jason's insider sales team advice

38:42 LA mayoral race: Bass vs. Pratt

42:25 Anthropic wants AI to slow down?

48:45 Will Sen. Sanders' argument resonate with the public?

59:39 Why 2028 will be the AI jobs election

1:05:32 Brian Chesky's new AI lab

1:15:21 Jason's "Mandalorian and Grogu" review

1:18:53 YouTubers take over the box office

1:24:16 Dean Potter vs. Alex Honnold

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Today’s show:

Want to get to space? Several launch companies can help you. SpaceX, Rocket Lab, the Russians, the list goes on. But what about once you make it upstairs, then what? Impulse Space CEO and CTO Tom Mueller is building the next stage of our orbital economy. With its Mira and Helios spacecraft, we’ll soon be able to take mass from lower orbits to higher orbits, or even to the Moon, with ease.

Meanwhile, venture capitalists are enamored with the idea of humanoid robots — robots share our shape, our work environment, and even our tools. But startups like Dusty Robotics are taking a different tack; instead of building human-shaped robots, Dusty has built a small, wheeled 'bot that can mark out building sites quickly and accurately. And it’s doing more revenue than all humanoid robotics companies combined, I reckon. Dusty’s CEO, Dr. Tessa Lau, joins Alex to go deep on purpose-built robots in today’s build-crazy market.

Timestamps:

0:00 Blue Origin, and why fixing things in orbit is hard

2:19 What Mira is and what it does

4:35 Why was the commercial demand for Mira softer than expected

5:20 Space Force demand and the GEO-capable Mira

7:08 Helios: a "rocket on top of a rocket."

10:10 Sentry - Your team should be focused on shipping features — not chasing down bugs. New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST

11:35 How Helios beats Falcon Heavy on price ($25M)

13:35 Reusability, in-orbit refueling, and propellant depots

15:38 Landers, the Moon base, and "Mega Helios."

18:52 NSSL and the politics of flying government payloads

20:16 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io

20:51 Why the Moon matters: megastructures and data centers in space

25:09 The space talent market and the SpaceX "mafia."

30:16 Northwest Registered Agent: Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

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Thank you to our partners:

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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:

Cortical Labs is the world’s first company selling biological computers. Their CL1 fuses lab-grown human neurons (derived from stem cells, not actual folks) with silicon hardware to create Synthetic Biological Intelligence (SBI).

Founder Dr. Hon Weng Chong walks us through how the system works and why neurons are more efficient than GPUs at reinforcement learning. (Also… is this computer alive?)

PLUS Pyka co-founder and CEO Michael Norcia explains the various uses for his autonomous aircraft, from crop-spraying drones in Brazil to a a hybrid-electric defense UAV for the military.

Guests:

Cortical Labs: ****https://corticallabs.com/

Dr. Hon Weng Chong on X: https://x.com/dr1337

Pyka: https://www.flypyka.com/

Pyka on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flypyka/?hl=en

Further Reading:

2022 Pong paper in Neuron: https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(22)00806-6

2017 Paper: “Attention is All You Need”; https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762

The “Barista Test” for Artificial Intelligence: Chris Rourk: https://medium.com/predict/the-turing-test-is-so-last-century-the-barista-test-for-artificial-general-intelligence-faf91034fa8c

Notable Links:

Playing “DOOM” on CL1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRV8fSw6HaE

DayOne Data Center: https://dayonedc.com/

NeurIPS 2026 Conference: https://neurips.cc/

Neuralink: https://neuralink.com/

CliniCloud Digital Stethoscope and Thermometer: https://www.design-industry.com.au/clinicloud

Air Force Research Laboratory (AFWERX): https://afwerx.com/

Joby Aviation: https://www.jobyaviation.com/

Prime Movers Lab: https://www.primemoverslab.com/

Timestamps:

0:00 What is "biological computing"?

2:49 Cortical's new $30 million raise

4:15 The world's first biological data center

9:48 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more.

10:51 Biological computers have a learning advantage

19:43 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) - Quo gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://quo.com/TWiST

29:15 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist

38:46 From paper airplanes to Group 4 UAVs

52:20 Introducing the DropShip defense drone

58:28 How regulations block US drones

1:00:40 Why Pyka builds everything in-house

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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:

Jason breaks down the real math behind raising a seed round. Here’s the funnel: contact 150 firms, get 50 first meetings, convert 2o into second meetings, and close 2 term sheets.

PLUS Jason responds to viewer questions about why hardware is no longer a dirty word for investors, how to differentiate your startup from frontier-model companies like OpenAI, even when they’re in your niche. Plus a pitch for “Founder Community College,” and anecdotes from Lon’s European odyssey.

Thanks for the Questions:

Richard Corral: CEO of Quanto: https://quanto.co/

ØnProtons on X: https://x.com/0nProtons

SergeDawg on X: https://x.com/sergedawg

Mahika Golani

Peridot: https://www.tryperidot.com/

Shawn Sully on X: https://x.com/aroogle

Programs and Accelerators Mentioned:

Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/

Techstars: https://www.techstars.com/

Antler: https://www.antler.co/

PearX: https://pear.vc/pearx/

Sequoia ARC: https://www.sequoiacap.com/arc/

Kauffman Fellows: https://www.kauffmanfellows.org/

Companies and Startups Referenced:

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

Knightscope: https://knightscope.com/

Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/

Cafe X: https://www.cafexapp.com/

Media Referenced:

New Yorker Sam Altman profile: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may-control-our-future-can-he-be-trusted

Off-Duty Recommendations

Terra Kaffe Demi compact automatic espresso machine: https://www.terrakaffe.com/products/tk-demi

Osteria Pastella (Florence, Italy): https://www.osteriapastella.it/

Timestamps:

0:00 Inside the TWiST private group chat

3:25 How to react when an investor says your "too early."

6:50 The ultimate seed round funnel

8:48 Jason's new Associate in Training program

10:09 Grasshopper Bank - Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account.

18:28 How have the metrics for early-stage companies changed?

20:20 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist

22:34 TWiST Bounties update

23:43 Competing against frontier labs

30:03 What signals real investor-founder alignment?

30:14 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

36:07 A crash course in Bay Area startup culture

40:15 Automatons-as-a-Service (AaaS)

42:29 Who in Silicon Valley does Jason really not like?

49:59 Museum Etiquette with Lon Harris

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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 "Ryanair of drone delivery" just raised $50 million and plans to bring its technology from Europe to the United States. Manna founder Bobby Healy explains to TWiST how his Dublin-based company completed 300,000 deliveries while some rivals are still publishing blog posts, and why low-cost airline economics will decide who wins the autonomous skies.

Sticking to the drone theme, TWiST welcomed Theseus co-founder Ian Laffey, who called in from Kyiv to tell us about his company’s drone guidance system. It runs off a simple camera and Google Maps. The technology could rewrite the modern, GPS-jammed battlefield, and bring more firepower to smaller nations fending off larger foes.

Guest Links:

Manna https://www.manna.aero

Bobby Healy https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhealy/

Manna funding announcement https://www.manna.aero/blog/series-b

Theseus https://www.theseus.us/

Ian Laffey https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilaffey2/

Most recent Theseus funding announcement https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/17/defense-tech-theseus-landed-y-combinator-the-us-special-forces-and-4-3m-from-a-tweet/

The tweet that kickstarted Theseus: https://x.com/ilaffey2/status/1759353732075294766

Timestamps:

0:00 Bobby Healy of Manna joins TWiST

1:41 How a Manna base works: drones migrate around the city like Waymos

7:18 Battle-hardened in Irish weather: 97% uptime in wind and rain

8:52 Margin-positive economics & the path to $0.20 per delivery

9:25 Northwest Registered Agent: Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

12:32 $50M Series B vs competitors raising $600–800M

19:51 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more.

22:53 The peer-to-peer drone future and hyper-local commerce

25:46 Growing from 170 to 570 people and moving manufacturing to Oklahoma

28:43 Ian Laffey of Theseus joins TWIST

29:57 Render: Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to https://render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers.

30:58 Inside Ukraine's drone industry: front-line iteration and free-market speed

33:55 How GPS gets jammed across the spectrum

35:10 Theseus's approach: cameras + satellite maps + ML

37:04 The product: Raspberry Pi, SD card, camera — pretending to be GPS

49:02 Ukraine: 6–8M drones a year. The US: 300K over two years.

51:17 Are US drone primes actually reconstituting the supply chain?

58:22 Y Combinator as a defense tech accelerator

59:40 "Pick an issue and start working as hard as you can towards it"

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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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