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Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst 

Jason Calacanis

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.

This Week in Startups

This Week In Startups is made possible by:
 

 
 DigitalOcean — Want to see what building on a true AI-native platform looks like? Head to do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today — and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%.
 
Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started for today at Odoo.com/twist
 
Upwork helps businesses find highly skilled freelance professionals for specialized work. Post your job for free at upwork.com
 
 
 

 Today's show:
 
The Pentagon is reportedly in talks to lend AI cloud startup Fluidstack $5. billion, and Jason thinks the real story isn't the loan itself. It's the US government owning equity in private AI companies, and competing directly with venture capital.
 
Plus returning friend of the pod Tibo Louis-Lucas shows us how he runs seven companies with fewer than 10 people by stacking AI agents. Can a few $200/month AI subscriptions really do the work of an entire marketing team? Tibo seems to think so.
 
Plus it's Off-Duty Friday, so Jason and Lon are reviewing some current streaming favorites, and commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11 with some personal stories.
 
Check out the full summary and transcript of today's episode from Plaud: https://web.plaud.ai/s/pub_213fdb2e-a65e-4901-b5fc-57a4f1e357a1::ZvclWNOK-PPr-9atxIDVG2tpGYUJxiklGAzVbHd9aJRBMSd6ef8l4hG7j_mUAyNTYTXS_Ha1XlEm8fYC
 

 
 Guests:
 
Tibo Louis-Lucas on X: https://x.com/tibo_maker
 
Squad: https://squad.so/
 

 
 Relevant Links:
 
Fluidstack: https://www.fluidstack.io
 
Google-Fluidstack warrants deal details: https://cointelegraph.com/news/google-acquires-5-4-stake-in-bitcoin-mining-company-cipher-mining-in-ai-deal
 
Center for Public Integrity: Solyndra timeline: https://publicintegrity.org/politics/missed-warning-signs-a-solyndra-timeline/
 
The Hill: Energy Dept. loses $139M in Fisker auto loan default: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/191258-energy-dept-loses-139-million-in-auto-loan-gone-bad/
 
Apple iPhone Duo: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/09/apple-unveils-iphone-duo/
 
Apple Mac Studio: https://www.apple.com/mac-studio/
 
Sonos: https://www.sonos.com/
 
Amazon Fire TV: https://www.amazon.com/b?node=8521791011
 
UniFi: https://www.ui.com/
 
Lanterns trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UIBOsuUwc4
 
Dark Matter Season 2 trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhB6_1UbR7s
 
"Robin" biography by Dave Itzkoff: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1627794247
 
What Dreams May Come trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmZ-FuBThuQ
 
Huffington Post on the Robin Williams-Disney feud: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/robin-williams-disney-feud-aladdin-picasso_uk_6a7cc304e4b079a0b2ec2233
 
Keith Roma: the 344th firefighter lost, remembered: https://www.firerescue1.com/9-11/articles/the-firefighter-everyone-forgot-about-on-911-142cs6WyLmn2FDib/
 

 
 Timestamps:
 

 0:00 Remembering 9/11, 25 Years Later
 
9:10 Are we about to nationalize the AI industry?
 
9:53 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%.
 
20:30 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist
 
21:45 Apple's foldable iPhone Duo
 
29:43 Upwork - Upwork helps businesses find highly skilled freelance professionals for specialized work. Post your job for free at https://upwork.com
 
38:04 Tibo Louis-Lucas returns to TWiST
 
41:47 The affiliate update email that runs on autopilot
 
46:40 Why you should "stack" multiple AI subscriptions
 
52:57 Squad's ideal customer is a solo founder
 
54:11 Jason digs Hal Jordan on "Lanterns"
 
1:00:19 Lon reviews Apple's "Dark Matter"
 
1:03:39 Remembering Robin Williams
 

 
 
 Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
 
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
 
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
 
 
 
Follow Lon:
 
X: https://x.com/lons
 
 
 
Follow Jason:
 
X: https://twitter.com/Jason
 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
 

 

 
Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/
 
 
 
Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
 
 
 
Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
 
 
 
Follow TWiST:
 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups
 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin
 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups
 
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
 
Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

The Pentagon Wants Equity in AI Startups | E2336

This Week In Startups is made possible by:
 

 Wilson Sonsini: https://www.wsgr.com/en/
 
 
 
Today's show:
 
One of YouTube's three co-founders left for grad school and walked away with a fraction of what his partners made on the Google sale. Becki DeGraw of Wilson Sonsini joins Jason for Startup Legal Basics to explain the vesting schedule behind that gap, and why you want one even if you never take a dollar of venture money.
 
Learn how VCs actually respond when a founder says "I've already put in four years," and the exact language Jason gives founders to turn one term sheet into three. PLUS, why is an inactive advisor still vesting your equity, and who wrote those performance milestones?
 

 Guests:
 
Becki DeGraw on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-degraw-639bbb62/
 
Wilson Sonsini: https://www.wsgr.com/en/
 

 Relevant Links:
 
Becki DeGraw — partner in WSGR's San Francisco office — https://www.wsgr.com/en/people/becki-degraw.html
 
TechCrunch broke the YouTube story— https://techcrunch.com/2006/10/09/google-has-acquired-youtube/
 
Sequoia Capital — https://www.sequoiacap.com/
 
Roelof Botha — led Sequoia's YouTube investment and later ran the firm globally → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roelof_Botha
 
ESOP / employee stock option pool — https://thisweekinstartups.com/basics
 
Founder & advisor equity documents — https://www.wsgr.com/en/services/practice-areas/corporate/emerging-companies.html
 

 
 Timestamps:
 
 
 0:06 Becki DeGraw on why founder equity is "near and dear" to every founder
 
1:53 Founder vesting explained
 
3:49 Why you want vesting even if you never take VC money
 
6:05 "Why do I have to vest again?"
 
7:32 Leverage is a function of how many offers you have
 
10:36 The exact script for landing a second term sheet
 
14:37 Don't let an AI write your three-page vesting schedule
 
18:19 Character in Silicon Valley: it's a small world after all
 
19:49 Take the emotion out of it
 

 

 
Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
 
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
 
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
 
 
 
Follow Lon:
 
X: https://x.com/lons
 
 
 
Follow Jason:
 
X: https://twitter.com/Jason
 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
 
 
 
Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/
 
 
 
Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
 
 
 
Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
 
 
 
Follow TWiST:
 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups
 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin
 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups
 
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
 
Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

Becki DeGraw on founder vesting, advisor equity & the 4-term-sheet play

This Week In Startups is made possible by:
 
Northwest Registered Agent - https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
 
NetSuite - https://www.netsuite.ai/twist
 
Vanta - http://www.vanta.com/twist
 

 Check out a full transcript and summary of today's show, created by Plaud: https://web.plaud.ai/s/pub_c2b45bfe-abad-43ce-b7ef-41118f55f738::Vo2MH6PuXBzTCaxKRDjHH0zu8FbzgDpQL5OnfBfMzLP22CQRxciqE74Mq4YDD-LwYXGZCazgIeglPuwC
 
 
Today's show:
 
An Anthropic researcher quit this week, saying both leading labs are gambling with everyone's lives. His coworker chimed in and predicts there is a greater than 10% chance that AI will end humanity IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS. Jason and Lon take it to Yohei Nakajima of Untapped Capital, Ben Lerer of Lerer Hippeau, and Rebecca Lynn of Canvas Prime, who cannot decide whether it is the greatest PR strategy in history or some kind of mass psychosis.
 
Learn why Jason says founders should never hand a frontier lab their proprietary data, whether or not they're offered free credits. PLUS, who really solved Navier-Stokes, and what does the OpenAI–Buckmaster fight mean for anyone doing real work inside ChatGPT or Claude?
 
Guests:
 
Yohei Nakajima on X: https://x.com/yoheinakajima
 
Untapped Capital: https://untapped.vc/
 
Ben Lerer on X: https://x.com/BenjLerer
 
Lerer Hippeau: https://www.lererhippeau.com/
 
Rebecca Lynn on X: https://x.com/VCRebecca
 
Canvas Prime: https://www.canvas.vc/
 
Relevant Links:
 
Jacob Coxon quits Anthropic - "gambling with our lives" https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/09/gambling-with-our-lives-anthropic-researcher-quits-warns-against-self-improving-ai/
 
Evan Hubinger, Anthropic's Alignment Science lead, on X: >10% odds within a decade — https://x.com/EvanHub/status/2097497037956891126
 
Future of Life Institute — the 2015 Puerto Rico AI safety conference Jason asks Lon to pull up → https://futureoflife.org/
 
Meta debuts Muse (Axios) —https://www.axios.com/2026/09/08/meta-debuts-muse-personal-ai-agent
 
Harmonic — https://harmonic.ai/
 
China blocks Meta's Manus acquisition (CNBC) —https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/27/meta-manus-china-blocks-acquisition-ai-startup.html
 
OpenAI fought dirty— https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/08/openai-fought-dirty-on-career-making-math-problem-says-nyu-mathematician/
 
Savvy Wealth — https://www.wealthmanagement.com/ria-news/savvy-wealth-raises-100m-valuation-hits-600m
 
Augmodo — https://www.augmodo.com/
 
E2B — https://e2b.dev/
 
Daptic — https://www.daptic.com/
 
Timestamps:
 

 0:00 Jacob Coxon quits Anthropic: "crunch time" and "endgame"
 
4:53 Evan Hubinger: >10% odds AI kills all humans in a decade
 
11:22 Northwest Registered Agent - Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
 
12:23 "You have succeeded in scaring the bejesus out of Americans"
 
14:59 Jobs, the wealth divide, and which industries get wiped out first
 
20:07 NetSuite - For the first time ever, you can try NetSuite Next for free. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, go to https://NetSuite.ai/TWIST
 
21:09 Savvy Wealth's $100M round
 
26:52 The Kalanick story and why Jason built a syndicate backstop
 
29:04 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist
 
32:05 Meta ships Muse
 
32:56 Can Meta be trusted
 
35:29 Threads Metrics
 
49:27 Robinhood's free-share referral
 
51:16 NYU's Tristan Buckmaster accuses OpenAI of fighting dirty on Navier-Stokes
 
57:43 Jason: "It's a trap"
 
59:03 Harvey goes open-weight, Go.AI on-prem, Covenant Labs
 
1:12:22 High performing portfolio companies
 

 

 
Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
 
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
 
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
 
Follow Lon:
 
X: https://x.com/lons
 
Follow Jason:
 
X: https://twitter.com/Jason
 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
 
 
 
Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/
 
 
 
Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
 
 
 
Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
 
 
 
Follow TWiST:
 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups
 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin
 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups
 
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
 
Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

Did OpenAI Steal the Navier-Stokes Solution? | E2335

This Week In Startups is made possible by:
 
Odoo - http://Odoo.com/twist
 
Northwest Registered Agent - https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
 
Rippling - http://Rippling.ai/twist
 

 
 
 Today's show:
 
Your doctor almost certainly isn't testing your insulin. Dr. Mark Hyman sits down with Jason to explain the broken system that Function is fixing, and what 100 million biomarkers say about how sick America actually is.
 
Learn why insulin beats blood sugar as an early warning for TKTKTK. Why might "normal" lab ranges be unreliable? PLUS, how does an expert like Dr. Hyman feel about GLP-1s and psychedelics?
 
Guests:
 
Dr. Mark Hyman on X: https://x.com/drmarkhyman
 
Function: https://www.functionhealth.com/
 

 
 Relevant Links:
 
 • 

The Dr. Hyman Show — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dr-hyman-show/id1382804627
 • 
 • 

Function pricing — https://www.functionhealth.com/pricing
 • 
 • 

Ezra — the full-body MRI company Function acquired https://ezra.com/
 • 
 • 

Galleri (GRAIL) — the multi-cancer early detection blood test — https://www.galleri.com/
 • 
 • 

Tufts / JACC study — the source of the "93% of Americans have metabolic dysfunction" — https://now.tufts.edu/2022/07/05/only-7-american-adults-have-good-cardiometabolic-health
 • 
 • 

American College of Cardiology — https://www.acc.org/
 • 
 • 

Dr. Jorge Plutzky — https://www.health.harvard.edu/authors/jorge-plutzky-md
 • 
 • 

OpenEvidence — https://www.openevidence.com/
 • 
 • 

Stanford Metabolic Psychiatry Clinic — https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2022/11/metabolic-psychiatry.html
 • 
 • 

Stanford Medicine on the ibogaine findings → https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2024/01/ibogaine-ptsd.html
 • 
 • 

Texas SB 2308 — the $50M state investment in ibogaine trials — https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/31/texas-ibogaine-research-clinical-trials-psychedelics/
 • 
 
Timestamps:
 
0:00 What Function actually is
 
6:43 Healthspan vs. sick care
 
10:16 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist
 
11:32 A $300 vitamin D test vs. a $10 one
 
18:08 Should a 25-year-old get a whole-body MRI?
 
20:42 Northwest Registered Agent - Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
 
24:23 Why medicine is still running on paper
 
25:41 The study where the chatbot beat the doctors
 
27:02 micro1, doctors in the loop, and why AI still needs guardrails
 
28:50 Wearables, records, and the CD-ROM problem
 
30:07 Rippling - Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.
 
32:51 The wearable that caught Jason's Covid
 
34:31 Alcohol, sugar, and why almost nobody tests your insulin
 
40:00 GLP-1s: Jason's 213-to-168 story
 
42:22 Microdosing GLP-1s, muscle loss, and "skinny fat"
 
48:48 Overdiagnosing mental illness: SSRIs, Adderall, and a lost decade
 
50:17 The biology underneath depression and anxiety
 
54:32 Psychedelics: ketamine, ibogaine, and the second revolution in psychiatry
 
 
 

 
 Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
 
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
 
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
 
Follow Lon:
 
X: https://x.com/lons
 
Follow Jason:
 
X: https://twitter.com/Jason
 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
 
Thank you to our partners:
 
Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/
 
Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
 
Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
 
Follow TWiST:
 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups
 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin
 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups
 
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
 
Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

Dr. Mark Hyman on Function Health & GLP-1 microdosing | E2334

VC experts on why Physical AI funding is heating up | E2333
 
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
 
partner 1 - link
 
partner 2 - link
 
partner 3 - link
 
 
 
Today's show:
 
Are we one step closer to data centers in space? Katelin Holloway of Seven Seven Six and Paige Doherty of Behind Genius Ventures break it down what it would take.
 
Plus investor interest is surging in Physical AI companies. Paige explains why she backs applications of physical AI over general-purpose robotics, and how her thesis on multimodal AI led to the largest check she's ever written.
 
We then dive into the Pentagon's rollout of ChatGPT Mil and Grok for Government. And Katelin gives us her insight into how VCs are investing in Europe and the regulations behind the scenes.
 
Guests:
 
Katelin Holloway on X: https://x.com/katelin_cruse
 
Seven Seven Six: https://sevensevensix.com/
 
Paige Doherty on X: https://x.com/paigefinnn
 
Behind Genius Ventures: https://www.behindgeniusventures.com/
 
Full Transcript and Summary, powered by Plaud
 
 https://web.plaud.ai/s/pub_772dbc9f-cd78-4de7-911e-8d3ee2883fbb::AF3ncHtIZkSyKKL-K-XUZBAUBEdoQQBEGCQSsja3gXsll8Dm6-Xbrrlhk7g8U-xwIW9kHyYwaB0dBuoC
 
Related Links:
 
Department of War adds ChatGPT Mil and Grok for Government: https://fortune.com/2026/09/01/pentagon-chatgpt-grok-government-military-ai-members-pete-hegseth-defense-department/
 
OpenAI for Government: https://openai.com/global-affairs/introducing-openai-for-government/
 
Starshield — SpaceX's government/defense arm: https://www.spacex.com/starshield/
 
UN work on LAWS (Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems): https://disarmament.unoda.org/the-convention-on-certain-conventional-weapons/background-on-laws-in-the-ccw/
 
European Commission designates ChatGPT a VLOSE: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-designates-chatgpt-reddit-roblox-under-digital-services-act
 
Commission press release: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_1772
 
Euronews on why a chatbot that searches the live web counts as a search engine: https://www.euronews.com/next/2026/08/31/eu-places-chatgpt-reddit-and-roblox-under-strictest-digital-safety-rules
 
Entrepreneur First: https://www.joinef.com/posts/introducing-the-bridge/
 
Henrick Johansson, the European VC persona: https://x.com/compliantvc
 
Starcloud — orbital data centers: https://www.starcloud.com/
 
Starcloud raises $250M at a $2.3B: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260821884035/en/Starcloud-Raises-$250-Million-at-$2.3-Billion-Valuation-to-Scale-AI-with-Orbital-Data-Centers
 
"From Sputnik to Starship: Estimating the experience curve of space launch technology" https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/5/7/pgag217/8732400
 
Cambridge Bennett Schoo: https://www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/blog/is-space-trade-the-next-global-transport-revolution/
 
Crunchbase News: physical AI startups raised $47.4B across 521 deals in H1 2026: https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/physical-ai-funding-startups-robotics-aerospace-h1-2026/
 
Crunchbase News on record defense-tech funding: https://news.crunchbase.com/defense-tech/startup-venture-funding-all-time-record-ai-anduril/
 
Jensen Huang's prediction: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/executive-insights/
 
Zipline: https://www.flyzipline.com/
 
Nox Metals: https://www.noxmetals.com/
 
CNBC: Anthropic changes its data retention policy: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/01/anthropic-data-retention.html
 
Bloomberg on the plan to let enterprises hold the 30-day window: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-20/anthropic-plans-to-change-data-retention-policy-for-advanced-ai
 
Plaud — sponsor; the wearable AI note-taker → **https://plaud.ai/twist** (code TWIST for 10% off)
 
Harmonic: https://harmonic.ai/
 
Timestamps:
 
0:00 Why making it to Fund IV is when it gets real
 
9:24 Pentagon rolls out ChatGPT Mil and Grok for Government
 
10:49 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
 
11:53 Paige on defense tech and three years at Northrop Grumman
 
13:40 Katelin: The bottleneck used to be winning the contract, now it's surviving one
 
16:13 Autonomous weapons, robot dogs, and the Boston Dynamics conversation in Paris
 
19:07 Lightfield - Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you — it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app
 
22:03 EU designates ChatGPT a "very large online search engine" under the DSA
 
24:54 Katelin's contrarian take: Europe is undercapitalized
 
29:56 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist
 
31:07 Starcloud raises $250M at a $2.3B valuation
 
53:06 Competing with Elon: the single point of failure for the whole space economy
 
57:49 Physical AI raised ~$47B in the first half of 2026
 
1:03:42 Jason's Zipline regret and the death of "hardware is hard"
 
1:07:07 Is "unc" a compliment? A Gen X / millennial / Gen Z / Gen Alpha
 
1:09:39 Anthropic reverses its data retention policy after enterprise pushback
 
1:12:18 Katelin on data custody: "That's not a procurement question"
 
1:15:31 Back to on-prem: Go.AI, the Go1, and vertical LLMs
 

 

 
Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
 
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
 
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
 
 
 
Follow Lon:
 
X: https://x.com/lons
 
 
 
Follow Jason:
 
X: https://twitter.com/Jason
 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
 
 
 
Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/
 
 
 
Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
 
 
 
Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
 
 
 
Follow TWiST:
 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups
 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin
 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups
 
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
 
Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

VC experts on why Physical AI funding is heating up | E2333

This Week In Startups is made possible by:
 

 
Northwest Registered Agent
 https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
 
CLA
 https://claconnect.com/withyou
 
Rippling
 https://Rippling.ai/twist
 

 

 
Today's show:
 

 Hugging Face's $399 Microduck and the art of companies taking on side quests. Then, we get into Dwarkesh Patel's "The Rise and Fall of Agent Civilizations," which blew up online this weekend. Jason calls the "secret AI civilization" framing deliberate PR, and thinks it's inflammatory enough that someone might attack a data center over it.
 
Then, Anders Forslund of Heart Aerospace shows off the X1, a battery-powered electric airliner designed for regional flights that can fly for 30 minutes on just $5 of juice. PLUS, we've got John Yu of Bitsec explaining how his subnet project outperformed Fable 5 in website vulnerability checks.
 

 Guests:
 

 
Anders Forslund on X: https://x.com/AndersForslund1?s=2
 
Heart Aerospace: https://www.heartaerospace.com/
 
John Yu on X: https://x.com/yubrew
 
Bitsec: https://sentios.io/ & https://sentios.io/
 

 Relevant Links:
 

 MicroDuck: https://pollen-robotics.com/microduck/
 
Dwarkesh Patel, "The Rise and Fall of Agent Civilizations," https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/openai-huggingface
 
Dwarkesh's launch thread on X: https://x.com/dwarkesh_sp/status/2093833419377815719
 
METR's independent investigation of the OpenAI/Hugging Face incident: https://metr.org/blog/2026-08-26-openai-hugging-face-incident-investigation/
 
X1 first flight announcement — https://www.heartaerospace.com/newsroom/heart-aerospace-completes-first-flight-of-world-s-largest-electric-aircraft
 
JSX (JetSuiteX) — https://www.jsx.com/
 
Pilatus PC-12 —https://www.pilatus-aircraft.com/en/fly/pc-12
 
Surf Air — https://www.surfair.com/
 
Zcash → https://z.cash/
 
Timestamps:
 
0:00 Is Hugging Face's Microduck the greatest side quest ever?
 
5:31 Jason puts Clem Delangue and Jensen Huang in charge of AI PR
 
11:20 Northwest Registered Agent - Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
 
18:55 Top story: Dwarkesh Patel's "The Rise and Fall of Agent Civilizations"
 
19:22 Why agents act like people: they were trained on us
 
19:30 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
 
21:49 "I know good PR when I see it"
 
23:11 The prompt Jason says OpenAI should have written instead
 
26:44 The data center backlash and the politicians who will flip
 
30:07 Rippling - Don't settle for AI that's all talk. Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist to get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.
 
33:19 Guest: Anders Forslund, Heart Aerospace, and the X1's first flight
 
39:40 Turboprops vs. jets and the regional routes America lost
 
42:33 JSX, Santa Monica Airport, and 5,000 underused airports
 
44:54 Why Boeing won't build this: the innovator's dilemma
 
53:14 Guest: John Yu, Bitsec — Bittensor Subnet 60
 
55:01 How the subnet works: miners, validators, $10K a day
 
57:17 Bitsec vs. a frontier model: 160+ vulnerabilities to 60
 
59:37 Was the agent civilization story a pre-IPO PR play?
 
1:05:10 Sentios.io and continuous coverage
 

 

 
Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
 
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
 
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
 
 
 
Follow Lon:
 
X: https://x.com/lons
 
 
 
Follow Jason:
 
X: https://twitter.com/Jason
 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
 

 
 

 
Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/
 
 
 
Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
 
 
 
Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
 
 
 
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Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

Are AI Agents forming "civilizations" or is this just a psy op? | 2332

This Week In Startups is made possible by:
 
DigitalOcean
 https://do.co/twist
 
Every.io
 https://every.io
 
PayPal
 https://paypal.launch.co
 

 

 
Today's show:
 
*Nvidia agreed to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, just days after quietly licensing Poolside's coding model for $6 billion+. On TWiST, Jason lays out why this is actually the biggest AI story of the year. Nvidia plans to offer enterprises unmetered, unlimited on-prem compute, pulling them away from reliance on Anthropic and OpenAI's frontier models and products.
 
PLUS we're chatting with Halter founder & CEO Craig Piggott about how his company helps farmers optimize their land use via solar-powered AI-driven cattle collars. AND Hop Aero CEO and co-founder Matija Milenovic shows us Rook, his autonomous hypersonic cargo rocket that can launch from a shipping container and deliver cargo up to 450 miles away in about 15 minutes. Finally, Jason and Lon explain why you never post Slop on the timeline.
 

 
 Guests:
 

 Craig Piggott on X: https://x.com/craig_piggott
 
Halter: https://www.halterhq.com/
 
Matija Milenovic on X: https://x.com/mat_milenovic
 
Hop Aero: https://hopaero.com/
 

 
 Relevant Links:
 

 OpenAI Open Letter: https://openai.com/collective-cyberdefense/
 
OpenAI Hugging Face report: https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/
 
OpenAI Jalapeño report: https://openai.com/index/jalapeno-first-results/
 
Dario Amodei-Gavin Baker tweet thread: https://x.com/DarioAmodei/status/2088758816376807762
 
TechCrunch: Nvidia-Hugging Face deal: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/26/nvidia-closes-in-on-hugging-face-acquisition/
 
TechCrunch coverage of Halter: https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/04/unpacking-peter-thiels-big-bet-on-solar-powered-cow-collars/
 
Dealroom: Sir Peter Back on Rocket Lab: https://app.dealroom.co/news/note/sir-peter-beck-on-rocket-lab-s-no-money-so-we-have-to-think-playbook-from-a-60k-new-zealand-start-up-to-an-end-to-end-space-company
 
WSJ: Druckenmiller op-ed: "Let the Bond Market Speak": https://www.wsj.com/opinion/let-the-bond-market-speak-81529d74
 
NOTUS: Druckenmiller's WSJ op-ed was written with AI: https://www.notus.org/media/stanley-druckenmillers-wsj-op-ed-bessent-ai
 
WaPo: Wall Street Journal defends Druckenmiller op-ed: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/08/25/wall-street-journal-says-ai-generated-op-ed-didnt-breach-its-standards/
 
Photon Matrix Laser Mosquito Killer: https://photonmatrixlab.com/
 
"The Wizard of the Kremlin" trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7ctYp3zQVA
 
"King & Conqueror" trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anS9xQEPTsU
 
"Lanterns" trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UIBOsuUwc4
 
"Rebel Ridge" trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF3gZicntIw
 
Alpaka Bravo Sling Max 2 bag: https://alpakagear.com/products/bravo-sling-max-v2
 
No Agenda podcast: https://www.noagendashow.net/
 
THR: John C. Dvorak obit: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/john-dvorak-dead-tech-journalist-no-agenda-inside-track-1236657317/
 

 
 Timestamps:
 
0:00 The 100+ company open letter on cyberdefense
 
9:48 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%.
 
16:46 Why some models are "unsafe at any latency"
 
19:44 Craig Piggott of Halter joins the show
 
21:03 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io
 
26:09 How do you add cows to Starlink?
 
31:26 PayPal - Pay zero processing fees on your first $100K in eligible PayPal payment volume. Learn more at https://paypal.launch.co
 
47:52 Founder-led hyper-local sales motion
 
53:15 Remember John C. Dvorak
 
58:27 Matija Milenovic of Hop Aero joins
 
59:53 Sending out autonomous swarms in the Indo-Pacific
 
1:11:26 Nvidia's mega-Hugging Face deal
 
1:16:32 Nvidia's "unmetered" play against Anthropic and OpenAI
 
1:29:47 How letting AI write for you is like lip syncing
 
1:33:44 Laser-guided mosquito defense system
 
1:36:32 Lon's streaming picks
 
 
 
Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
 
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
 
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
 
 
 
Follow Lon:
 
X: https://x.com/lons
 
 
 
Follow Jason:
 
X: https://twitter.com/Jason
 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
 
 
 
Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/
 
 
 
Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
 
 
 
Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
 
 
 
Follow TWiST:
 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups
 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin
 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups
 
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
 
Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

Breaking down Nvidia's Hugging Face and Poolside bets | E2331

This Week In Startups is made possible by:
 
Lightfield
 https://lightfield.app
 
Northwest Registered Agent
 https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
 
Rippling
 https://Rippling.ai/twist
 
 
 
Today's show:
 
*Bill Gates dropped a 6,000 word warning: AI will be "the greatest equalizer ever invented, or the worst sort of injustice." The Microsoft icon has an AI agenda for the US: new national institutions, AI use taxes, and jobs legally reserved for humans only.
 
Our VC roundtable guests — Sheel Mohnot (Better Tomorrow Ventures), Dave McClure (Practical Venture Capital), and Hussein Kanji — push back hard. Is taxing profits a better fix for AI taking jobs than taxing the tokens themselves?
 
PLUS: Meta's $17B kids safety settlement… does it go far enough? Why does Stripe want OpenRouter? A peek at the VC's actual portfolio mark-ups. AND begun, the AI agent wars have. Our panel chooses between OpenClaw, Instinct, and Grok Bot.
 
Guests
 
Sheel Mohnot on X: https://x.com/pitdesi
 
Better Tomorrow Ventures: https://www.btv.vc/
 
Dave McClure on X: https://x.com/davemcclure
 
Practical Venture Capital: https://practicalvc.com/
 
Hussein Kanji on X: https://x.com/hkanji
 
Hoxton Ventures: https://hoxtonventures.com/
 
Relevant Links
 
GatesNotes: "The turbulent AI era is here": https://www.gatesnotes.com/a-turbulent-ai-era-and-critical-choices-to-make
 
NPR: Meta settlement coverage: https://www.npr.org/2026/08/26/nx-s1-5944781/meta-settlement-child-safety-lawsuit
 
TechCrunch: Stripe agrees to buy OpenRouter: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/16/stripe-will-reportedly-acquire-ai-gateway-startup-openrouter-for-7b/
 
Skild AI S1 Demo: https://www.skild.ai/blogs/s1
 
Instinct AI agent (waitlist): https://instinct.co/
 
TechCrunch: Instinct coverage: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/24/instincts-powerful-ai-assistant-is-raising-privacy-and-security-concerns/
 
CNBC: OpenAI CFO says IPO is coming in 2027: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/19/open-ai-ipo-timing-2027-friar.html
 
Basis: https://www.getbasis.ai/
 
TaxGPT: https://www.taxgpt.com/
 
Cusp AI: https://cusp.ai/
 
Abacus: https://goabacus.co/
 
Micro1: https://www.micro1.ai/
 
Mottu: https://mottu.com.br/
 
EquityBee: https://equitybee.com/
 
Kiva: https://www.kiva.org/
 
Timestamps:
 
0:00 It's Hussein's first time on the VC Roundtable!
 
2:09 Gates says "turbulent era" for AI is here
 
8:56 Microloans, Kiva, and "universal basic income"
 
9:23 Thanks to our partner, Lightfield, the AI-native CRM that updates itself, so you never have to! Try it for free at https://lightfield.app
 
13:00 Why sole proprietorships may be AI's biggest beneficiary
 
20:29 Got a new business idea? Northwest helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more, with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
 
21:00 Should the gov't take a stake in AI labs?
 
30:24 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist to get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.
 
32:44 Meta's $17.1B settlement
 
45:14 Is anything still fundable outside of AI?
 
46:29 Stripe and SpaceX deals
 
55:54 Skild AI's pancake flipping demo
 
59:49 Sheel's Hottest Takes
 
1:04:37 Dave's Charts
 
1:09:07 Who loses money when there are no IPOs?
 
1:16:49 The Agent Wars heat up
 
1:24:56 Everyone's favorite investments
 
 
 
Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
 
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
 
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
 
 
 
Follow Lon:
 
X: https://x.com/lons
 
 
 
Follow Jason:
 
X: https://twitter.com/Jason
 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
 
 
 
Thank you to our partners:
 
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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
 
 
 
Follow TWiST:
 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups
 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin
 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups
 
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
 
Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

Bill Gates foresees massive AI job loss: these VCs disagree | E2330

This Week In Startups is made possible by:
 
Odoo
 https://Odoo.com/twist
 
Quo
 https://quo.com/TWiST
 
Conservation Fund
 https://conservationfund.org
 
how old a movie has to be for me to be able to show a part of it on youtube
 
Generally 10 seconds or less of a film clip can fall under fair use for commentary or criticism — which is how most podcasts and talk shows use clips without issue. But there's no hard legal rule based on age.
 
What actually matters more than age is fair use, which considers:
 
 • 

Purpose — commentary, criticism, education = stronger fair use case
 • 
 • 

Amount used — shorter = safer; a 5-10 second clip for reaction/discussion is generally fine
 • 
 • 

Effect on market — your clip shouldn't replace the original
 • 
 
In practice for YouTube specifically:
 
 • 

Most major studios have Content ID systems that will flag clips regardless of movie age — even 100-year-old films if the rights holder has registered them
 • 
 • 

Public domain is the real safe zone — films from 1927 or earlier are generally in the public domain in the US. Some films from the 1928-1963 range are also public domain if copyright wasn't renewed
 • 
 • 

Disney, Warner Bros., Universal etc. actively enforce even very old films
 • 
 
For a show like TWiST showing a short reaction clip — 5-10 seconds with clear commentary context is the industry standard and rarely gets actioned. But age alone won't protect you.
 

 
 

 
Today's show:
 
*A humanoid robot ran the 100m in 9.39, breaking the human Usain Bolt's world record, while an entire stadium cheered. Jason thinks Beijing's World Humanoid Robot Games aren't a science fair, or a fun exhibition, but the best AI PR campaign on Earth. While Americans debate the data centers that train the robot brains, China is already turning them into a spectacle and world-class entertainment.
 
Find out what Jason thinks America can do to catch up… and why he believes there will be 1 billion Optimus robots deployed by the year 2036.
 
PLUS on an all-news TWiST, hot takes on the potential $13B Hugging Face sale (to a mystery buyer), why founders should always "buy the threat," analyzing Sam Altman's "I'm listening and I hear you" face, and are kill drones already in operation around the world? We're digging in to how close the real world is to mirroring the "Terminator" films.
 
Relevant Links
 
CBS coverage of World Humanoid Robot Games: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-robot-usain-bolt-sprint-run-record-faster/
 
Bloomberg coverage of World Humanoid Robot Games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lsrUAdcPPE
 
X-Humanoid: https://www.x-humanoid.com/
 
Tesla Optimus on X: https://x.com/Tesla_Optimus
 
Trailer for Spielberg's "A.I. Artificial Intelligence": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_19pRsZRiz4
 
Bloomberg: Hugging Face exploring sale: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-23/hugging-face-gauging-interest-for-potential-sale-business-insider-says
 
Fortune: Stripe acquires OpenRouter: https://fortune.com/2026/08/16/stripe-7-billion-deal-ai-firm-openrouter-acquisition/
 
InfoWorld: OpenAI acqui-hires OPenClaw founder: https://www.infoworld.com/article/4132731/openai-hires-openclaw-founder-as-ai-agent-race-intensifies-2.html
 
David Senra podcast w/ Sam Altman: https://www.davidsenra.com/episode/sam-altman
 
Harvey Tenet Research Preview: https://www.harvey.ai/blog/post-training-update-harvey-tenet
 
David Sacks comments on Harvey's Tenet (from X): https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/2090790063047168473
 
CNBC: Iran linked to UK cyberattack: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/23/small-uk-power-plant-shut-down-after-iran-linked-cyberattack-report.html
 
NYT: A drone killed 3 Ukrainians: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/world/europe/russia-drones-autonomous-ai-kill-ukraine-war.html
 
Forbes: Eric Schmidt secretly testing AI drones: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahemerson/2024/06/06/eric-schmidt-is-secretly-testing-ai-military-drones-in-a-wealthy-silicon-valley-suburb/
 
Restream: https://restream.io/
 
Kimbal Musk's Nova Sky Stories: https://novaskystories.com/
 
IKEA: Plug-in Solar Panels: https://www.ikea.com/be/en/energy-services/plug-in-solar/
 
Deadline: "Mandalorian and Grogu" box office: https://deadline.com/2026/08/star-wars-mandalorian-grogu-disney-release-date-1237040464/
 
THR: Dave Filoni leading Lucasfilm: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/star-wars-mandalorian-grogu-box-office-franchise-low-1236604973/
 
Star Wars: Starfighter first look: https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-starfighter-ryan-gosling
 
Star Wars Theory: "Vader" fan series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey68aMOV9gc
 
Timestamps:
 
0:00 Jason got a fresh Optimus demo
 
1:35 Robots are breaking human sports records
 
3:39 America's messaging problem vs. China's elite PR machine
 
11:07 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist
 
12:08 Jason got a fresh Optimus demo
 
19:21 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) - Quo gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free and get 20% off your first 6 months at https://quo.com/TWiST
 
28:09 Who's going to buy Hugging Face and why?
 
28:56 Conservation Fund - Find out more about how the Conservation Fund is protecting land, wildlife, and our shared access to the great outdoors while also providing economic opportunities. Visit https://conservationfund.org
 
31:35 How OpenAI killed OpenClaw
 
39:08 Sam Altman wants to make a platform, not a product
 
41:19 The "Castles and Keeps" metaphor for sovereign AI
 
49:27 UBI isn't happening but we could raise the minimum wage
 
58:47 Embracing redundancy and self-reliance
 
1:10:53 Is Star Wars at a historic low point (and Lon's Worst Take)
 

 

 
Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
 
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
 
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
 
 
 
Follow Lon:
 
X: https://x.com/lons
 
 
 
Follow Jason:
 
X: https://twitter.com/Jason
 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
 

 Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/
 
 
 
Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
 
 
 
Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
 
 
 
Follow TWiST:
 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups
 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin
 
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Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

China wants you to cheer for the robots taking your job | E2329

This Week In Startups is made possible by:
 
Superhuman
 https://Superhuman.com
 
Sentry
 https://sentry.io/twist
 
Lightfield
 https://lightfield.app
 

 

 
Today's show:
 
Jason's been saying it for years now (and we've got an All In clip from 2023 to prove it). Open source will win the AI race. This week gives us a major evidence point, as $11B legal AI company Harvey released its own in-house model, trained on an open-weight Kimi K3 base. Harvey made a proprietary specialized solution without having to risk sharing its precious expert-compiled data with the major frontier labs.
 
PLUS we're checking out the FREE AI dictation app Willow with co-founder Allan Guo, and finding out how he plans to compete with giants like Wispr Flow and Apple. AND we've got the Stanford student who built an automated golf cart and gave luminaries like Jensen Huang and Sam Altman rides around campus.
 
Guests
 
Allan Guo on X: https://x.com/_allanguo
 
Willow: https://willowvoice.com/
 
Ethan Goodhart: https://x.com/EthanGoodhart
 
Sign up for the Wind TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/zZqmhhwf
 
Relevant Links
 
CNBC: OpenAI "will be a public company in 2027": https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/19/open-ai-ipo-timing-2027-friar.html
 
OpenAI Zero Data Retention Pledge: https://openai.com/index/our-commitment-to-zero-data-retention
 
TWIST (June 2026): Jason comments on OpenAI and training data: https://youtu.be/o3eow1nTrcI?si=orungk7OmplOuyio&t=742
 
All In podcast (Feb 2023): Jason comments on open source vs. frontier models: https://youtu.be/PVgBWV2bvLs?si=j6y7sHS0wx9q09oa&t=5173
 
Harvey: https://www.harvey.ai/
 
Harvey Tenet Research Preview: https://www.harvey.ai/blog/post-training-update-harvey-tenet
 
Fireworks AI: https://fireworks.ai/
 
Wispr Flow: https://wisprflow.ai/
 
Pipedrive: https://www.pipedrive.com/
 
Nvidia Jetson Thor: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/autonomous-machines/embedded-systems/jetson-thor/
 
OpenAI shares Wind golf cart clip: https://www.tiktok.com/@openai/video/7645336713472134431
 
Starlink Mini: https://starlink.com/mini-product-us?srsltid=AfmBOorzM7arxhdzYAdDpH6RGD4LLg9WV_BFnEoLuYieuHuGSCjQTE1Y
 
Toro mowers: https://www.toro.com/
 
404 Media: https://www.404media.co/
 
Punchbowl News: https://punchbowl.news/
 
Semafor: https://www.semafor.com/
 
Skift: https://skift.com/
 
Newcomer: https://www.newcomer.co/
 
Deirdre Bosa on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@deebosa
 
Electrek: Genesis GV90 review: https://electrek.co/2026/08/20/genesis-gv90-luxury-coach-doors-images/
 
Toyota Alphard gallery: https://global.toyota/en/mobility/toyota-brand/gallery/alphard.html
 
The Clash "London Calling" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfK-WX2pa8c
 
Timestamps:
 
0:00 What is Jason's Grok Bot up to?
 
5:17 Systems over goals
 
9:43 Superhuman - Superhuman Go is an AI chat that's always there when you need it, already aware of what you're doing, and doesn't ask you to start from zero. Sign up to get the best in AI at https://Superhuman.com
 
13:08 OpenAI will go public soon
 
14:19 Top line ARR matters way less than churn
 
20:43 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
 
29:55 Lightfield - Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you — it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app
 
30:52 Harvey launches Tenet
 
34:32 "Open source is going to win it all"
 
35:58 Allan Guo of Willow joins
 
39:18 Managing a single source of truth across a team
 
47:00 Lon and Jason love the Toyota Alphard
 
51:00 Stanford student and AV expert Ethan Goodhart joins
 
1:00:09 How Ethan got Jensen Huang to go for a ride
 
1:00:37 Punk Rock 101
 
1:06:24 Phoebe Gates' secret Harvard class
 

 
 Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
 
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
 
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
 
 
 
Follow Lon:
 
X: https://x.com/lons
 
 
 
Follow Jason:
 
X: https://twitter.com/Jason
 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
 
 
 
Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/
 
 
 
Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
 
 
 
Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
 
 
 
Follow TWiST:
 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups
 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin
 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups
 
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
 
Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

Open source is going to win it all: Harvey proves it | E2328

0:01 Jason intros Tom Uebel & Lolita Taub
 5:17 George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protests impacting Venture Capital, Angela Benton's tweets about her bad experience with Cowboy Ventures, how can VC move forward and be better towards underestimated founders?
 17:37 Lolita & Jason reflect on some imperfect investor moments towards founders
 23:55 How investor bias towards underrepresented founders manifests itself
 28:23 Tom on focusing on diversity in hiring at the earliest stage of a companies life, how people with raw talent miss out on opportunities due to pattern-matching
 39:23 Zoom's shuts down a Chinese pro-democracy account, importance of Data privacy at Command E, Jason's thoughts on Zoom only giving end-to-end encryption to paid accounts
 52:36 Wall Street Bets, Meme stocks and a new generation of Robinhood traders
 56:59 Reddit appoints YC CEO Michael Seibel to its board after Alexis Ohanian steps down, former interim CEO Ellen Pao has words for current CEO Steve Huffman
 1:03:07 Issues of free speech & why relying solely on government organizations may be the wrong decision
 1:05:45 Juneteenth observation, potential reparation ideas
 1:10:27 Assessing COVID-19 recent death numbers & risk of getting back to work
 1:23:03 Lolita shares her founder-investor matching tool
 1:25:30 Tom demos Command E

E1074 News: How VC can do better for underrepresented founders, Zoom shuts down Chinese pro-democracy accounts, Wall Street Bets, Reddit appoints YC CEO Michael Seibel to BoD & more with Lolita Taub & Tom Uebel

E1074 News: How VC can do better for underrepresented founders, Zoom shuts down Chinese pro-democracy accounts, Wall Street Bets, Reddit appoints YC CEO Michael Seibel to BoD & more with Lolita Taub & Tom Uebel

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