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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:

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

LinkedIn Jobs - https://LinkedIn.com/twist

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 defends shoplifting and explores “social murder.” Find out why Jason says they crossed the line.

Plus: Why you should teach your kids about investment and more, Off-Duty streaming and book recommendations.

Related Links

USVC: https://usvc.com/

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

Naval Ravikant on X: https://x.com/naval

“Don’t Listen to the Peanut Gallery; USVC is a Watershed Moment” by Hari Raghavan: https://x.com/haridigresses/status/2047503944839016681

@Covered_Call USVC tweet: https://x.com/covered_call/status/2047020060900733306

Forge Global: https://forgeglobal.com/

Calm: https://www.calm.com/

Full DOJ indictment of Gannon Ken Van Dyke: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-soldier-charged-using-classified-information-profit-prediction-market-bets

NYT “The Opinions” podcast: “The Rich Don’t Play by the Rules. So Why Should I?” https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000010849055/the-rich-dont-play-by-the-rules-so-why-should-i.html

Hasn Piker on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/hasanabi

New Yorker: Jia Tolentino: https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/jia-tolentino

NYT: Nadja Spiegelman: https://www.nytimes.com/by/nadja-spiegelman

Jia Tolentino on X: https://x.com/jiatolentino

Garry Kasparov on X: https://x.com/kasparov63

Prof G Media: https://www.profgmedia.com/

Kids Investment Club: https://www.kidsinvestmentclub.com/

Time stamps:0:00 Intro

1:18 Naval's $500 VC Fund Explained

5:54 Should You Trust Critics With 2K Followers?

7:21 Learn By Betting — Jason's Philosophy

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

12:30 The Maduro Polymarket Scandal

13:28 Should the Military Bet on Missions?

19:55 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist

29:32 NYT Defends Theft & "Social Murder"

30:28 There Is No Moral Equivalence

33:41 The Nepo Baby Behind the Article

35:42 Prof G's "Resist & Unsubscribe" Movement

37:54 Walk The Walk — Hasan, Bernie & Performative Outrage

44:49 Teaching Kids About Money

48:21 The Rich Get Richer & The Poor Stay Poor

Off Duty Recommendations

“The Complete Maus” by Art Spiegelman: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Maus-Art-Spiegelman/dp/0679406417

“Thinking in Bets” by Annie Duke: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Bets-Making-Smarter-Decisions/dp/0735216355

“Queen of Chess” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pmJgtLKBXg

Greenlight app: https://greenlight.com/

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

v

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

Naval’s $500 VC fund, the Maduro Polymarket scandal, and NYT defends theft and murder | E2280

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

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

Render - https://render.com/twist 

Agree - https://agree.com 

Ro - https://Ro.co/Twist 

Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist

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 built camera-equipped earbuds that perform on par with Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and could be the next wearable AI platform hiding in plain sight.

Guests

Will Edwards: https://x.com/williewockets

Firehawk Aerospace: https://firehawkdefense.com/

Maruchi Kim: https://x.com/maruchikim

VueBuds project: https://vuebuds.cs.washington.edu/

Related Links

This Week in AI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

“Ghost Murmur: The Heartbeat-Tracking Tech That Has Experts Questioning the Laws of Physics”: https://www.military.com/feature/2026/04/18/ghost-murmur-heartbeat-tracking-tech-has-experts-questioning-laws-of-physics.html

Neurometric: https://www.neurometric.ai/

Meta Ray-Bans: https://www.meta.com/ai-glasses/

Hanwha Defense USA: https://www.hanwhadefenseusa.com/

Raytheon: https://www.rtx.com/

Pilatus PC-24 corporate jet: https://www.pilatus-aircraft.com/en/pc-24

PlaneSense: https://www.planesense.com/

Slopes app: https://slopesapp.com/

Speechify: https://speechify.com/

Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://www.eff.org/

Timestamps:

0:00 Are all these layoffs really AI's fault?

8:51 Why laid off people should start their own companies

9:27 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

13:18 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!

15:25 Will Edwards of Firehawk joins the show

15:46 What are Solid Rocket Motors (SRMs)?

20:06 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.

23:10 Who are Firehawk's customers?

24:25 Reimagining and reinventing the US military

28:35 How do missiles fit into the military's operations?

29:34 Agree - Stop chasing invoices at https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life!

31:01 What's next on the roadmap for Firehawk?

31:49 How to make propellant (with easy to find ingredients)

33:13 A cheaper way to fly private

38:03 Ro.co: Ro's insurance checker will let you know if your coverage includes GLP-1s for FREE. Go to https://Ro.co/Twist for your free insurance check.

40:48 Maruchi Kim of Vuebuds joins the show!

44:35 Why are VueBuds better than meta glasses?

46:23 The biggest VueBud use cases

48:09 Jason wants to use VueBuds on the slopes

55:38 Jason's advice for angel investors: never underestimate anyone!

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

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

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

Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

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

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

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

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

The Defense Tech Startup YC Kicked Out of a Meeting is Now Arming America | E2280

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 option to buy the entire company for $60 billion later this year.

After poking our way through the deal, Chris Zacharia and Brian McRindle of Bitstarter joined Lon and Alex. Bitstarter is a ‘Kickstarter for Bittensor,’ helping founders get their subnet up and running without tripping over their shoelaces. The Bitstarter crew also broke some news on the show, telling TWIST that they have a new accelerator-ish program kicking off.

Next, Ning Ren from Trajectory RL joined the program to explain how Bittensor subnet 11 is using decentralized competitions to design and release better skills. Skills — markdown files with words — have become a critical building tool in the agentic era; how Trajectory will monetize is an open, interesting question.

Timestamps:

2:27 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!

4:07 SpaceX/ xAI "partners" with Cursor!

9:35 Will the Cursor deal help pump a future SpaceX IPO?

9:57 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist.

12:14 How AI coding models like Cursor help xAI grow recursively.

17:24 Chris Zacharia and Brian McRindle of Bitstarter join the show.

20:23 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.

29:59 Notion - Notion brings all your notes, docs, and projects into one connected space that just works with AI built right in. Try Notion, with Notion Agent, at https://www.notion.com/twist

33:03 How Bittensor subnets monetize and how it compares to VC funds.

37:04 Is Bittensor hard-capped at 128 subnets?

42:37 Bittensor's biggest weakness.

46:10 Ning Ren of TrajectoryRL joins the show.

47:34 Skills now need entire agents just to write them!

48:26 Back up… What are skills?

1:07:38 Amazon and Anthropic's 5 BILLION deal

1:08:48 Google has 2 new chips!

1:09:50 Apple CEO, Tim is COOKED! John Ternus is in!

1:11:37 Alex is bullish on MacBook Neo!

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

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

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

Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

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

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

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

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

SpaceX and Cursor team up to topple Claude Code | E2279

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

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’ve got IONA Drones founder Etienne Louvet, a first look at Moonshot’s Kimi K2.6, and a brand new Off Duty with JCal and Lon.

FULL SHOW NOTES ON NOTION: https://thisweekinstartups-docket.notion.site/TWiST-2278-SHOW-NOTES-34872ca918e380bd9c71e684ce2db7c9?source=copy_link

Guests :

Eragon: https://eragon.ai

Josh Sirota on X: https://x.com/joshua_sirota

IONA: https://ionadrones.com/

Etienne Louvet on X: https://x.com/etienneldva

Relevant Links

Eragon Seed Round coverage: https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/18/this-startup-wants-to-make-enterprise-software-look-more-like-a-prompt/

Neurometric: https://www.neurometric.ai/

Ollama model: https://ollama.com/

Orange Slice: https://www.orangeslice.ai/

Corgi Insurance: https://www.corgi.insure/

Slash Financial: https://www.slash.com/

The Syndicate: https://thesyndicate.com/

FAA Part 108 Explained: https://pilotinstitute.com/part-108-explained/

Zipline: https://www.zipline.com/

Google Wing: https://wing.com/

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

Enterprise Ireland: https://www.enterprise-ireland.com/

Éire Composites: https://www.eirecomposites.com/

Kimi K2.6 blog post: https://www.kimi.com/blog/kimi-k2-6

Kimi K2 series on GitHub: https://github.com/moonshotai/Kimi-K2

NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 work station: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/gb300-nvl72/

Timestamps:

0:00 Josh from Eragon AI joins the show

2:01 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!

5:07 Why founders should own and control their data sets

8:33 What is a "company world model?"

9:48 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

11:32 Eragon demo

15:55 Giving agents their own bank accounts

19:07 Inside Eragon's first partnerships

20:14 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist

25:50 How does Eragon make money?

29:11 Pilot - Visit https://www.pilot.com/twist and get $1,200 off your first year.

39:33 Etienne Louvet of Iona Drones joins the show

42:37 What is FAA's Part 108?

47:13 How innovation in drones impacts the aviation industry

50:26 Working with Enterprise Ireland

58:28 Jason attended the Breakthrough Awards

1:04:10 Doug Liman's AI-powered "Bitcoin" movie

1:09:09 "Love Story" on FX and "Dust Bunny" on HBO Max

1:13:10 Jason's love of tinned fish

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

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

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

Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

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

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

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

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

Why Your Company Should Own Its AI Model | E2278

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 construction is also on the agenda.Explore the potential for robot-powered concrete construction can help build cheap homes for the unhoused, modernize our military infrastructure, AND colonize the solar system in this exclusive interview.Then Seby Rubino of Resi Labs demos his real estate “Oracle,” which can guess the price of any home with 98% accuracy… for just fractions of a penny.PLUS Jason tells a story of the rare founder who got one over on him, and why he’s moving away from vengeance and anger and into love and acceptable.AND we’ve got more JCal and Lon recommendations in a brand-new Off Duty.Guests :Jason Ballard: https://x.com/JasonDBallardICON: https://www.iconbuild.com/ICON on X: https://x.com/ICON3DTechSeby Rubino: https://x.com/SebyverseResi Labs: https://portal.resilabs.ai/Timestamps:0:00 Intro + "balance the ledger" tease1:10 Jason Ballard (ICON) joins — 3D-printed homes + defense (ICON Prime)5:18 Housing basics: commutes, quality of life, "food/water/shelter"7:15 ICON Prime: military construction, survivability, speed, supply chain10:08 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.11:35 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!12:43 Fort Bliss barracks: 10 in 6 months, half the cost; blast/ballistics20:23 Beautiful + dignified housing: Community First Village; "where's the floor?"20:29 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.30:10 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist37:27 Audience Q&A: longevity/cracking; plumbing + electrical41:33 ICON Titan printer + channel partners; hiring pitch45:47 Sebi Rubino (Rezzy Labs) joins — BitTensor subnet 46 real estate pricing51:18 Tau/BitTensor explained: subnet competitions, "narrow intelligence"59:15 Rezzy demo: portal + pricing engine; customers + business model1:07:49 "Got shivved for 500k" story: acquisition, investors get zero1:20:36 Bounties: annotated.com + AI sidebar + headless CMS on BitTensor1:31:10 Off-duty: View Buds (camera earbuds) + use cases1:38:13 Off-duty: Anker charger/cable/battery "trio"1:41:12 Off-duty: The Audacity (AMC) quick review1:46:43 Wrap-up + secret TWiST group chat on XSubscribe 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 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/@calacanis

3D-Printed Homes for $99K: ICON’s Jason Ballard on the future of housing | E2277

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

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 Jason immediately spies the potential. Power users are playing 25+ games per session already.

We’re digging into the co-founders future plans, including the potential for ads in your game feed, in this TWiST exclusive.

PLUS domestic helper bots are here. NEO from 1X Technologies can do the laundry, open the door for guests, and even read and understand Post-It Note messages.

Alex talks with CEO Bernt Børnich about building the safety-first 66-lb humanoid, why world models are so crucial for training robots in particular, and why homes are even tougher places for robots to navigate than factory floors.

Timestamps:0:59 Nanogram co-creators Albert and Boris join the show

3:42 Nanogram is TikTok for casual AI-generated games

4:27 Building Nanogram with Google Gemini

5:49 Draper and Associates: https://www.draper.vc

6:11 Integrating ads into the game feed

7:36 Roblox: https://www.roblox.com World of Warcraft: https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com

8:25 Building in New York

9:07 Jason is obsessed with the Staples Baddie https://www.tiktok.com/@blivxx

10:12 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist

20:36 Every.io - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io

21:40 1X CEO and founder Bernt Børnich joins the show https://x.com/BerntBornich

22:31 Designing robots to actually live around people

26:30 Teaching NEO about movement in the physical world

29:00 TechCrunch coverage: https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/13/neo-humanoid-maker-1x-releases-world-model-to-help-bots-learn-what-they-see/

29:58 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.

31:04 Moving beyond training data to true general intelligence

33:17 Ensuring NEO pursues the safest possible path

34:19 Why are world models so important?

41:51 1X World Model Challenge on GitHub: https://github.com/1x-technologies/1xgpt

45:14 Robots need to train on a lot of data… Where does it all come from?

50:14 Manufacturing NEO from raw materials in San Carlos

56:32 Robots building robots

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

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

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

Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

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

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

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

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

This 22-Year-Old Built TikTok for Mobile Games, and It’s Growing Fast | E2276

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

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 joined by Stillcore Capital Partner Mark Jeffrey to break down the Covenant AI and Templar controversy in real time. Then they’re joined by three prominent subnet founders: Ken Miyachi of BitMind (Subnet 34) and Will Squires of Steffen Cruz of MacroCosmos (which owns Subnets 1, 9, and 13). Together, they’re investigating how Bittensor incentives work, how real products are still emerging from the TAO ecosystem, and what governance fixes could arise to prevent the next (alleged) rug pull.

Timestamps:

0:00 Mark Jeffrey joins the show! https://x.com/markjeffrey

2:18 How Mark Jeffrey learned about Bittensor. https://bittensor.com/

6:17 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!

7:22 Mark Jeffrey's Bittensor investments. https://stillcorecapital.com/

9:25 Check out our discussion with Nova: https://youtu.be/gjRt4eUyiYc?si=HopdmmSarxECark1

10:16 Sentry - New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST

10:41 Check out Ridges! https://www.ridges.ai/

11:53 How trading alpha tokens works on Bittensor

12:44 Subnet drama: what happened? https://x.com/covenant_ai/status/2042380152831951300

16:01 Do subnet owners have too much power?

18:33 Check out our conversation with Sam Dare (2268): https://youtu.be/TN2RmNuX4-k?si=c58Byh7Fsw1ttnAY

19:10 How Sam Dare should've handled walking away (per Mark Jeffrey)

20:02 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.

23:29 Who should subnets be owned by?

24:02 Ken Miyachi from BitMind joins the show https://x.com/kenmiyachi

30:56 Netsuite - Get the free business guide Demystifying AI at https://www.netsuite.com/twist

31:06 Ken's $3M raise & investors (Arch, Canonical, Mechanism)

33:18 Token vs. equity: how to think about a subnet investment.

41:57 Will Squires and Stefan Kruse of MacroCosmos join the show https://x.com/willsquires https://x.com/sczsteffencruz

56:29 Stefan on the Covenant drama: "disappointing, but solvable"

1:02:11 Off-duty with J-Cal, Mark Jeffrey, and Lon Harris

1:02:48 Bieber vs. Carpenter: does Coachella owe you a spectacle? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp5O72WUqTk https://x.com/FashionXGirl_/status/2043251270509592936

1:15:20 Jason says Staples should pay the "Staples baddie" $1M/year https://www.tiktok.com/@blivxx

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

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X: https://twitter.com/Jason

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

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

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

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Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

Bittensor’s (alleged) $10M rug pull (feat. Mark Jeffrey) | E2275

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

Pilot - https://pilot.com/TWIST

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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.

Gareth Howells, a co-founder of Vidaio (Bittensor Subnet 85), joined Jason and Alex to share the community perspective regarding Covenant’s decision to leave Bittensor, a choice that was especially bitter given that its recently-released Covenant-72B model trained using the network’s decentralized capabilities was hailed at the time as a demonstration of the crypto-AI hybrid’s potential. (Covenant’s Sam Dare was a recent guest on TWiST.)

Howells walked us through Vidaio’s product (AI models for high-quality video work, like upscaling) 

Then it was time to bring new fan-favorite Ole Lehmann on. Ole took an Andrej Karpathy concept, and turned it into a skill that you can use in either OpenClaw or Claude Cowork. 

Guests

Ole Lehmann: https://x.com/itsolelehmann

The AI Solopreneur newsletter: https://aisolo.beehiiv.com/

Vidaio: https://vidaio.io/

Vidaio on X: https://x.com/vidaio_

Timestamps:

0:00 Drama in the Bittensor space! Was there a rugpull?

1:01 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!

1:47 Gareth Howells of subnet85 joins the show: https://x.com/GarethHowells

9:56 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

11:37 Gareth reacts to the Covenant situation… Did Sam sell tokens?

14:33 How VidAIo (subnet85) optimizes video as cheaply as possible. https://vidaio.io/

20:06 Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://squarespace.com/TWIST

21:12 Demo: Gareth shows upscaled footage of our very own Lon Harris

27:09 Who is actually doing the computing on Bittensor?

28:15 How Bittensor recruits tech talent from emerging markets

29:42 Pilot - Visit https://pilot.com/TWIST and get $1,200 off your first year.

30:58 Jason's explains the Bittensor network. https://docs.bittensor.com/

37:28 Jason addresses "pump and dump" allegations

40:46 Ole Lehmann joins the show https://x.com/itsolelehmann

45:31 Jason's $1,000 "bounty" for enhanced show notes

49:35 Check out Ole's newsletter at aisolo.beehiiv.com !

59:50 CrowdHealth - CrowdHealth lets you ditch the bureaucracy with a peer-to-peer funding platform for your healthcare. Get started for $99 per month for your first three months by using the code TWIST at https://JoinCrowdHealth.com/twist.

1:00:46 Off Duty with Alex and J-Cal!

1:04:46 Reacting to the Maul trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkVepshZhGc

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Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

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

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

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

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Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

Bittensor Drama! TAO down 15%! | E2274

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 most sensitive and critical software systems safe and intact. Once Mythos or a similarly powerful model hits the streets… it’s all over!

Plus, we’re checking out the real-time SaaSpocalypse monitor Death By Clawd, and chatting with its creator, Gyani, about how it feels to have your startup one-shotted by Anthropic’s latest model.

Guests

Rob May: https://x.com/robmay

Neurometric: https://www.neurometric.ai/

Neurometric SLM Marketplace: https://marketplace.neurometric.ai/

Death by Clawd: https://deathbyclawd.com/

Nick O’Neill: https://x.com/chooserich

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

LinkedIn Jobs - LinkedIn.com/twist

Grasshopper Bank - Grasshopper.bank/twist

Render - Render.com/twist

Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist

Today’s show:

Timestamps:

0:00 Anthropic's new, powerful 'Mythos' model

3:50 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!

5:26 Neurometric's Rob May joins the show

10:04 Sam Altman's talent exodus

10:50 Render - Go to https://render.com/twist to apply for the Render Startup Program. You'll get anywhere from $500 to $100,000 in free credits.

11:50 Has Anthropic Passed OpenAI?

15:44 When will Claude release Mythos? Polymarket: https://polymarket.com/event/claude-mythos-released-by

18:32 The AI race turns existential

19:16 Would Anthropic's model give the CIA the ability to hack a foreign government?

20:04 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.

21:19 Should AI be nationalized?

29:43 Subsidizing secret AI development.

30:15 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist

31:29 How much of the military's $1.5T will go to AI cybersecurity?

35:17 Nick O'Neill's "not sponsored" call-in.

38:24 What is an SLM?

42:01 Tactical/Practical: How can you tune SLMs

45:43 How Neurometric can afford 100M free tokens per month for its users?

49:04 What is "harness engineering"?

50:58 Tactical/ Practical: Every Reddit rant is a startup idea

1:00:25 Why Meta is the most un-innovative AI company in the world.

1:03:43 Gyani of Deathbclawd joins the show — Is your company COOKED?

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Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

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

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

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

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

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

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

Follow TWiST:

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Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

Anthropic’s Mythos is a cyber-weapon, so you can’t have it | E2273

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 Harris: https://x.com/lons

Guests

Ryan Carson: https://x.com/ryancarson

Clawchief: https://github.com/snarktank/clawchief

Alex Finn: https://x.com/AlexFinn

Creator Buddy: https://www.creatorbuddy.io/

Yazin Alirhayim: https://x.com/yazins

OpenOats / Sidecast: https://github.com/yazinsai/OpenOats

Further Reading

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande: https://www.amazon.com/Checklist-Manifesto-How-Things-Right/dp/0312430000

Marc Andreessen on AI job loss: https://x.com/pmarca/status/2040919227641856307

OpenAI acquires TBPN: https://openai.com/index/openai-acquires-tbpn/

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

Gusto - https://Gusto.com/twist 

Vanta - https://vanta.com/twist 

Shopify - https://shopify.com/twist 

Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist

Today’s show:

Timestamps:

0:00 Welcome back to TWiST

0:32 Jason's thinks Andor is as good as Empire Strikes Back…

2:30 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

3:26 Check out the checklist manifesto! https://www.amazon.com/Checklist-Manifesto-How-Things-Right/dp/0312430000

6:36 Our guests Ryan Carson, Alex Finn, and Yazin Alirhayim, and join the show

10:28 Gusto - Check out the online payroll and benefits experts with software built specifically for small businesses and startups. Try Gusto today and get three months FREE at https://Gusto.com/twist.

10:46 People are automating their coworkers and getting them fired…

18:32 Anthropic Bans OpenClaw

20:06 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist

24:06 How "caveman talk" makes AI works better

27:31 Alex thinks $2000/ month subscription plans are inevitable for AI.

29:31 Why is nobody using the leaked Anthropic Model?

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

32:37 Open models have been 6 months behind for the past few years

35:53 Why did OpenAI acquire TBPN?

42:01 Tactical/ Practical: The product itself is the most important thing

44:31 Demo or Die! Yazin is back to show off OpenOats

55:05 Ryan's "Claw Chief" https://github.com/snarktank/clawchief/blob/main/skills/executive-assistant/SKILL.md?plain=1

1:02:14 Alex's big announcement, "Henry intelligent machines"

1:12:33 Alex Finn DESTROYS Higgsfield's marketing strategy

1:15:35 Throwback to "Pay Per Post"

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

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Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

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

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

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

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

3 AI Agents That Actually Replaced Human Jobs | E2272

Another Friday variety show! First up, Jason and Molly break down the 16-year old hacking phenom who was allegedly behind the recent hacks at Microsoft, Nvidia and Okta, and might have just been caught (1:13). Then, the duo covers Molly's induction into LIBSYN's Podcasting Hall of Fame (6:46) and reminisces on the early days of podcasting including their first podcast together over 16 years ago (11:19). Finally, Producer Rachel is back with another edition of OK Boomer, this time with Miami Hack Week founder Ja’dan Johnson (20:19).

Teenage hacking phenom allegedly caught, Molly's Hall of Fame induction & OK Boomer | E1418

Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst

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