This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis covers startups, tech, markets, media, and all the hottest topics in business and technology. He also interviews the world’s greatest founders, operators, investors, and innovators.
Naval's GP, Ankur Nagpal, Breaks Down The Viral “USVC” Fund | E2284
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Have you wanted to invest in venture capital alongside your 401k contributions, but struggled to find a way to place a bet? Search no more, for the AngelList team has created USVC, a new fund that will accept investments of as little as $500 from folks who lack accreditation. USVC’s Ankur Napgal swung by the show to chat about investment st...
Can an AI Agent Legally Own a Company? Christian van der Henst's Wild Experiment| E2283
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Pilot - https://pilot.com/twist
Shopify - https://shopify.com/twist
Grasshopper Bank - https://grasshopper.bank/twist
Today’s show:
An AI agent named Valerie is running a real vending machine in San Francisco — setting prices, ordering inventory, managing a bank account, and posting to Instagram. And it's not just a stunt. We’re getting an early look at the future of one-agent companies. There’s still work to do to help agents ease into the economy...
Mastering AI Video Marketing w/ Magnific CEO Joaquín Cuenca Abela | AI Basics
The TWiST AI Basics series is made possible by Google Cloud!Check out Google Cloud’s new report, “Future of AI: Perspectives on generative media for startups,” Featuring thoughts from today’s guest, Joaquín Cuenca AbelaVisit: goo.gle/futureofgenmedia to check it out!Today’s show:In today’s edition of TWiST AI Basics, J-Cal is joined by Joaquin Cuenca Abela, co-founder and CEO of Magnific (formerly known as Freepik). We’re discussing how generative AI is transforming the creative landscape for startups.In watching today’s show you’ll have-consider your expectations of what AI video can actually do for you...
The $10M+ Bet on a Beanie That Reads Your Brain | Sabi & the Future of BCI | E2282
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Today’s show:
A beanie that reads your thoughts and turns them into text — no surgery required? Jason grills the Sabi co-founders on their noninvasive brain-computer interface, backed by Vinod Khosla, and calls a cap on the whole thing (until he doesn't).
This episode of This Week in Startups covers a lot of ground: Jason's tactical tip of the...
To the left of this of thumbnail i want to add a chinese flag to the left destroying the meta logo. because the title is China Kills Meta / Manus Deal (Story Of The Year) | E2281
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Deel - Deel.com/twistPlaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist
What’s the technology story of the year? No, it’s not Anthropic’s Mythos model, nor any other AI model. Upcoming IPOs? Wrong again. Jason thinks it’s China’s government’s decision to block Meta's acquisition of Manus. The multi-billion-dollar deal was heralded as evidence that AI companies founded in China could sidestep onerous gove...
Naval’s $500 VC fund, the Maduro Polymarket scandal, and NYT defends theft and murder | E2280
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Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
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Today’s show:
It’s a News and Off-Duty weekend roundup!
AngelList’s USVC fund is open to anyone with $500, but it’s getting pushback on social media. Do the critics have a point?
A Special Forces soldier made $409K betting on the military’s capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Is the world just a big casino now?
And a NYT podcast de...
The Defense Tech Startup YC Kicked Out of a Meeting is Now Arming America | E2280
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Today’s show:
The US military is running low on missiles, but now, Firehawk Aerospace is using 3D-printed solid rocket propellant to cut production costs in half and 5x U.S. output.
Plus: PhD researcher Maruchi Kim just bu...
SpaceX and Cursor team up to topple Claude Code | E2279
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
LinkedIn Jobs - linkedIn.com/twist
Grasshopper Bank - grasshopper.bank/twist
Notion - notion.com
Today’s show:
This week, SpaceX announced that it was partnering with AI coding startup Cursor on new AI models. xAI’s parent company is bringing compute, while Cursor brings developer market share and recent successes, training its own coding models.
The deal, while interesting, comes with a steep price tag. SpaceX will pay Cursor $10 billion for their shared work, with an opti...
Why Your Company Should Own Its AI Model | E2278
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Quo - https://quo.com/TWiST Vanta -
https://vanta.com/twist
Pilot - https://pilot.com/twist Plaud -
https://Plaud.ai/twist
Today’s show:
*Eragon CEO Josh Sirota believes that you should “own your intelligence.” He demos a live enterprise AI operating system connecting email, Slack, calendar, and financial data into a single agentic layer that’s pre-trained to understand any business inside and out.
PLUS we’...
3D-Printed Homes for $99K: ICON’s Jason Ballard on the future of housing | E2277
This Week In Startups is made possible by:IM8 Health - https://IM8health.com/twist Grasshopper Bank - https://grasshopper.bank/twist Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twistToday’s show:Is 3D printing the key to not just solving the housing crisis but bringing us all into a more beautiful and utopian future? ICON founder Jason Ballard thinks so. His company is already building homes for the unhoused and delivering barracks to Fort Bliss at half the cost and a fraction of the time. On TWiST, he tells us space co...
This 22-Year-Old Built TikTok for Mobile Games, and It’s Growing Fast | E2276
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LinkedIn Jobs - LinkedIn.com/twist Every.io - every.io Render - render.com/twist
Today’s show:
*Imagine scrolling through mobile games the way your flip through your TikTok feed. What if you could build your own game in 90 seconds and share it with the world? That’s what over 100,000 users are enjoying right now on Nanogram.
On TWiST, we meet the co-founders: 22-year-old CEO Albert Brotherton and 24-year-old CTO Boris Radilov. They demo the app for us on the air, and...
Bittensor’s (alleged) $10M rug pull (feat. Mark Jeffrey) | E2275
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Sentry - https://sentry.io/twist
Deel - https://deel.com/twist Netsuite -
https://netsuite.com/twist
Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist
Today’s show:
*TAO just had its worst week since launch. One of Bittensor’s most prominent subnet operators allegedly dumped $10 million in tokens and walked away. We’re digging into what we know, how this could change the Bittensor community… and why dedicated builders still believe in this ecosystem.
Jason and Lon are...
Bittensor Drama! TAO down 15%! | E2274
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Today’s show:
TAO, the token associated with the Bittensor network, fell sharply last night after a major project declared it was taking its business elsewhere. Covenant AI had used Bittensor subnets 3, 39, and 89 before its abrupt and controversial decision to depart for other digital shores.
Gare...
Anthropic’s Mythos is a cyber-weapon, so you can’t have it | E2273
Anthropic just built a model so dangerous, they’re not even going to release it (for now). On TWiST, Jason, Alex, and Neurometric CEO Rob May discuss whether or not this is just another frontier model or a potential weapon of mass internet destruction.
Claude Mythos Preview is already in the hands of over 40 Anthropic partners — including Nvidia, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google — as part of its “Project Glasswing” security council.
Together, they’ll test how quickly and easily the model can thwart today’s most elite cybersecurity protocols, and try to develop fresh protocols to keep our mo...
3 AI Agents That Actually Replaced Human Jobs | E2272
Anthropic just pulled the plug on Claude subscriptions for OpenClaw and every third party agentic tool. So Jason and Lon welcome back three of our top TWiST OpenClaw experts to break down what it means, how much it’s going to cost now, and whether this is truly the end of the subsidized AI era.
And they all brought demos! We’re checking out ClawChief from Ryan Carson, Alex Finn’s agent Henry, and Yazin Alirhayim’s Sidecast protocol, inspired by a special request from JCal!
Hosts
Jason Calacanis: http://x.com/jason
Lon...
AI Rebuilt Every YC W26 Startup. Should Founders Be Scared? | E2271
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Deel - deel.com/twist
Grasshopper Bank - grasshopper.bank/twist
Render - render.com/twist
Plaud - Plaud.ai/twist
An AI “holding company” rebuilt dozens of YC Winter ‘26 startups in one weekend. Now we’re bringing the founder responsible into Jason’s Courtroom to defend himself.
PLUS a live demo of Boardy, the AI that acts like a virtual board member and makes crucial introductions. Find out why he gets to have so mu...
How 3 CEOs Use AI to Run $10B in Companies | This Week in AI
This Week in AI, JCal sits down with three CEOs building the infrastructure, intelligence, and interfaces for the next era of AI: Jeremy Fraenkel (CEO, Fundamental), Victor Riparbelli (CEO, Synthesia), and Nick Harris (CEO, Lightmatter). We break down what's actually happening beneath the AI hype: the data modality LLMs completely missed, why copper is the real bottleneck in AI data centers, OpenAI shutting down Sora, the build vs. buy debate for AI tools, and how close we really are to AGI.
AI's Biggest Blind Spot, Tabular Data: LLMs transformed text, images, and code, but 70-80% of enterprise data...Venture Roundtable: SpaceX IPO, AI's PR Crisis, and the Defense Tech Bubble | E2270
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PaperOS - https://PaperOS.com/twist
Northwest Registered Agent- https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
Every.io - https://Every.io
Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist
Today’s show:
Silicon Valley just lined up its biggest liquidity event in years: SpaceX filed confidentially for an IPO that could target a $1.75 trillion valuation — potentially the largest public offering in history. Meanwhile, a new Quinnipiac poll shows that 62% of Americans aren't excited about AI, and 70% think it will destroy their jobs. The disc...
The 5-Step Framework for AI Agents That Improve While You Sleep | E2269
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Quo - https://quo.com/TWiST
LinkedIn Jobs - https://LinkedIn.com/twist
Iru - https://iru.com/twist
Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist
Today’s show:
Google project manager Shubham Saboo is running 6 AI agents on a Mac Mini that handle all of his side business autonomously, from research, to social posts, to newsletters.
He joins Jason and Lon to walk us through his 5-step framework for designing an...
The $60 billion resource hiding in space, and the start trying to mine it (feat. Matt Gialich, Astroforge) | E2268
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Wispr Flow - https://wisprflow.ai/twist
Circle - http://circle.so/twist
Deel - http://deel.com/twist
Today’s show:
AstroForge is building low-cost, replicable spacecraft to mine platinum group metals from near-Earth asteroids — a $60 billion annual market for materials that are running out on Earth. Founder and CEO Matt Gialich joins the show to talk about the company's ambitious mission, what went wrong on their first two flights, and why...
This Bittensor Subnet Could Cut Drug Discovery Costs in HALF | E2267
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Luma AI - https://lumalabs.ai/twist
Every.io - https://every.io
Lemon.io - https://Lemon.io/twistPlaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist
Today’s show:
What do drug discovery, the creator economy, and AI vision models have in common? In the case of Metanova, Bitcast, and Score, the answer is Bittensor. Yes, each of the three companies leverages the Bittensor network to get more work done, more quickly, in a completely decentralized fashion.
Metanova uses its sub...
$2.5B Chip Heist, The Future of American AI, and Purpose-Built Robots | This Week in AI Ep 6
This week Jason sat down with Jake Loosararian and Chris Lattner on Episode 6 of This Week in AI. Jake is the CEO and co-founder of Gecko Robotics, a company deploying purpose-built robots and AI for mission-critical infrastructure inspection across energy, defense, and manufacturing. Chris is the CEO and co-founder of Modular, building a universal software layer that lets developers run AI models across Nvidia, AMD, and Apple silicon without being locked into any single hardware vendor.
We explore the GPU shortage, why China's chip smuggling reveals the stakes of the AI cold war, how...
Compliance Startup Scandal... Is Delve Guilty? | E2266
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Ro.co - http://Ro.co/Twist
Today’s show:
Hustle Fund general partner Elizabeth Yin joined Jason and Alex to discuss how rapid advances in AI have changed the venture capital game, and how the same AI updates are changing how founders build. Founders ma...
The Drone Company Everyone Thought Was Illegal (Now Worth $4B+) | E2265
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Today’s show:
Zipline founder Keller Cliffton started his company with a simple premise: build automated logistics that serve everyone equally. The only problem? It was literally illegal in the US.
In this live recording from LaunchFest in San Francisco, Keller shares how Zipline went from a...
How Robinhood became a $68B company w/ Vlad Tenev
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Today’s show:
We’ve got a treat for you today on TWiST! Jason is live from LAUNCH Fest in San Francisco, where he’s joined by Robinhood founder Vlad Tenev.
The era of AI is here. Robinhood found success in the midst of the last great technological shift. What lessons did Vl...
Are Brain-Computer Interfaces Actually Ready for Humans?
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Today’s show:
Computers that read your mind? Jets that are all wings? Continuously tracking your body’s vital signs to live longer? We’ve got all that and more on the show today.
First, we sat down with the CEO of Paradromics, Matt Angle, to dig into the progress that his brain-computer interface startup has made...
One Genius Rule That Made This Coffee Brand Famous | EP 2262
Legendary British ad man Rory Sutherland invented a fake business on a podcast, a coffee shop appealing to the busy commuter called “Flat White or F**k Off.”
But it’s one thing to have a post go big on TikTok or Instagram… but to turn that viral moment into an actual COMPANY is a very different challenge.
On TWiST, Jason and Lon chat with Charlie Hurst, Tom Noble, and Will Sudlow, founders of the online brand “Flat White or F**k Off,” about how they took a funny little slogan and turned it into a string of...
The Global Expansion of Self-Driving Vehicles
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Circle - http://circle.so/twist
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Today’s show:
It’s self-driving time! We’re going deep on one of the most exciting spaces developing in the world, autonomous vehicles! We’ve got 3 experts on the show to talk to us enlighten us, Ben Seidl of...
How agents will change banking forever | E2260
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Today’s show:
How long until AI models can improve AI models? Once possible, recursive self-improvement by AI technology could accelerate — forever. Thus far, humans (and their coding agents) are still driving AI progress. But a recent project by AI developer extraordinare Andrej Karpathy, called ‘autoresearcher’, is turning heads as it shows tha...
How agents will change banking forever | E2260
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Northwest Registered Agent - northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
Quo - quo.com/TWiST
Gusto - Gusto.com/twist
Plaud - http://Plaud.ai/twist
Athena - https://www.athena.com/jcal
Today’s show:
How long until AI models can improve AI models? Once possible, recursive self-improvement by AI technology could accelerate — forever. Thus far, humans (and their coding agents) are still driving AI progress. But a recent project by AI developer extraordinare Andrej Karpathy, called ‘autoresearcher’, is turning heads as...
Wisdom of the $TAO: the future is decentralized AI
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Every Banking - https://Every.io
https://Lemon.io - Lemon.io/twist
Wispr Flow - https://wisprflow.ai/twist
Plaud - https://plaud.ai/twistRo.co - https://Ro.co/Twist
Today’s show:
*Sure, we all love open source models, but what about completely decentralized AI? Rather than leaving the big decision-making in the hands of a few elite CEOs, shouldn’t users have a say — and potentially even a stake — in how this incredible technology develops...
Is Anthropic Making the Biggest Mistake in AI History | E2258
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Today’s show:
It’s a packed TWiST Today! WITH US, we’ve got Erik Voorhees of VeniceAI and Logan Allin of Fin Capital on to talk agents, crypto, and… you guessed it, OPENCLAW!
Where does agentic AI meet the financial system? How will agents transact? And what does privacy look like in a world with omnipresent AI?
Stick...
How the OpenClaw foundation bullet-proofed its future (w/Dave Morin) | E2257
This Week In Startups is made possible by:Circle — http://circle.so/twistHubspot Creators — http://clickhubspot.com/twist2Uber AI Solutions — http://uber.com/ai-solutionsToday’s show: *Dave Morin joined the show today to explain how the OpenClaw Foundation came into existence, and what its goals are. Fear not, Peter Steinberger retains directional control of the project. But if you want to sustain an open-source project over time, you need a corporate entity, well-heeled sponsors, maintainers and more. Morin is helping make sure that OpenClaw can stay true to itself well into the future.TWIST also put the day’s most cri...
The Biggest Private Funding Round in History | E2256
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Deel - http://deel.com/twist
Wispr Flow - https://wisprflow.ai/twist
Luma AI - https://lumalabs.ai/twist
Today’s show:
*$110 billion buys you 15% of OpenAI. Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank placed their bets on ChatGPT, which now has 900 million weekly active users and 50 million paying subscribers. Find out why Jason is anticipating the wildest J-Curve swing of all time, and believes we’ve ALREADY hit AGI… it’s just not implemented yet.
Plus a visit from our rovi...
Behind the Scenes with an early OpenClaw contributor! | E2252
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Lemon IO - https://Lemon.io/twist
Every.io - https://every.io
Sentry.io- https://sentry.io/twist
Today’s show:
We’re going behind the curtain today — it’s a packed show!
We found Tyler Yust, OpenClaw’s third EVER contributor to share his insights from within foundation! We’ve got Deedy Das, of Menlo Ventures, on the show to discuss whether SaaS is cooked! Next we met the creator of an OpenClaw instance tha...
Kill Your Startup’s Knowledge Chaos with OpenClaw (with Oliver Henry and Jeff Weisbein) | E2254
This Week In Startups is made possible by:Caldera Lab - [calderalab.com/twist](https://calderalab.com/twist)Iru - [iru.com](http://Iru.com)LinkedIn Jobs - http://linkedin.com/twist*OpenClaw is incredible at automating tasks. But what if it could also fix your startup’s internal communication problems? Give agents shared memory, and you may be able to break down information silos while ensuring that teammates have the same context.@oliverhenry and @jeffweisbein demo what they’ve actually built with OpenClaw, including marketing automations, agentic loops, and bug fixing tools. Then we dig into what agentic infr...
We Asked 3 Experts How to Get More Value out of OpenClaw | E2253
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Gusto - https://Gusto.com/twist
Circle - https://circle.so/twist
Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
Today’s show:
*Getting OpenClaw set up and running without destroying your bank account is one thing.
But now that you have your agent or swarm operational, how can you use them to get real work done?
We have three builders who are going to show you how to maximize your OpenClaw output!
GUESTS:
...
When Will Openclaw go Mainstream? | E2252
This Week In Startups is made possible by:Gusto - Try Gusto today and get 3 months free at http://uber.com/ai-solutionsCrusoe Cloud - Reserve your capacity for the latest GPU’s at http://uber.com/ai-solutionsUber AI Solutions - Book a demo today at http://uber.com/ai-solutions*Today’s show: It’s a packed show! We’ve got YouTuber and Openclaw enthusiast Matthew Berman, Ryan Yaneli, founder of Nextvisit, and Jason Grad, founder of Massive! We’re all in on Openclaw, but we have no doubts there’s still room in the market for a GIANT Openclaw consumer app...
Will OpenAI Tank OpenClaw? | E2251
Will OpenAI Tank OpenClaw? | E2251
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Northwest Registered Agent - https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
Lemon IO - https://lemon.io/twist
LinkedIn Jobs - http://linkedin.com/HiringProOffer
Today’s show:
*OpenAI hired OpenClaw creater Peter Steinberger. What does this mean for the future of the AI virtual assistant platform, and what can the OpenClaw community do TODAY to help protect their favorite free, open-source resource?
Jason and Alex consider the future of OpenClaw alongside guest ex...
OpenClaw is Our Friend Now | E2250
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Sentry - http://sentry.io/twist
Circle - http://Circle.so/twist
Wispr Flow - https://wisprflow.ai/twist
Today’s show:
What makes OpenClaw feel so much more ALIVE than other AI agents?
On TWiST, we’re welcoming three amazing builders who are truly connecting with their OpenClaw bots, not just using them for productivity but getting to know them and t...
