This Week in Startups

0:52 Jason intros Ford X's Sunny Madra 4:39 How Sunny got his start in Accelerators working on Tinder with Hatch Labs at IAC 11:47 What is Ford X's thesis on mobility and how do they decide whether to buy or build a company? 16:18 How does Ford X evaluate new ideas & how do they source talent? Sunny speaks about his personal investment in Cabana 22:56 Going from idea to product at a large corporat...

0:38 Jason talks about the now fully-virtual LAUNCH Accelerator and intros Cendana Capital's Michael Kim 2:47 What is a fund of funds & why do they exist? History of raising Cendana's first fund 6:06 Portfolio construction of fund of funds 10:19 Why ownership percentage is paramount, ideal ownership % for Seed funds, what makes a great Seed fund manager 17:04 How do fund of funds make money? 18:51...

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 manif...

0:32 Jason speaks on current events and intros Science CEO Mike Jones, how they met after selling their companies to AOL 6:02 What is Science and how has it evolved since being started in 2011? Why did they pivot away from the startup studio model? 12:43 What are the economics of a venture-studio? 15:25 Defining the 3 scenarios of a "lifestyle-business" 18:41 Founders sharpening their skills throu...

0:01 Jason teases today's questions 2:09 Luai: Is Uber still a hyper-growth company? 5:25 Weston: Advice on getting in front of/selling to startups/enterprises outside of our immediate VC network? 8:13 Martin: Do you have any resources, insights, or methods about how to get to the right price for a consumer subscription service? 12:58 Topher: What is a good shipping cadence for new code? How often...

Angel. University Online is a 3-hour course for individuals interested in becoming professional angel investors. Hosted by Jason Calacanis & Mike Savino, the course focuses on five key topics: sourcing deals, evaluating startups, negotiating deals, portfolio and bankroll management, and post-deal efforts. Register: https://www.angel.university/events

Jason on CNBC: https://youtu.be/V6oqvDnuAgI 0:01 Jason intros today's questions 1:51 Aaron: Thoughts on Black Lives Matter? 9:06 Joe: How can startups play a role in bringing manufacturing back to the US? 14:46 Alex: Any tips on pre-selling a SaaS product? 17:38 Arthur: How should I prepare to be a great Syndicate member in the future? In a perfect world, what does the Syndicate become? 21:13 Matt...

0:20 Jason intros Alchemist's Ravi Belani 3:41 Why is Alchemist named after Paulo Coelho book? What is the biggest benefit of Accelerators? 5:47 Ravi's background at DFJ, sourcing the Justin.tv investment 15:02 Why Ravi left DFJ to start Alchemist 21:52 How many companies have gone through Alchemist and what is their standard deal? 28:21 Why accelerators take more risk than VC firms 35:07 The best...

1:02 Jason welcomes Alexis Ohanian to the show and asks about the Reddit sale & re-joining for the turnaround 3:39 Why was Reddit "the last website standing" from all of the Web 2.0 sales in the early 2000s? 6:05 History of Reddit Gold, future of micropayments & what will Reddit's Blockchain venture entail? 14:59 Future of creators being able to monetize using micropayments, policing speech on Red...

NEA's Ben Narasin takes questions from founders: most important content in a pitch deck, COVID's impact on dealmaking, traits he looks for in founders & more! Join the TWiST Slack: https://launchevents.typeform.com/to/kLq5Bi Follow Ben: https://twitter.com/bnarasin 1:13 Paul: Has the current crisis changed your investment thesis? If so, how? 2:40 Ash/Christopher: How to overcome the money raised v...

1:03 Jason intros Garry Tan and checks in on how his quarantine has been going 4:39 How does Garry look at Initialized's portfolio companies? What are his 3 groups of companies dealing with COVID? 8:04 How will VCs react to the crisis? Why does Initialized specifically focus on Seed-stage companies? 11:13 How does Initialized contact downstream investors about their companies, and how has that cha...

0:43 Jason intros TechStars CEO David Brown 4:47 TechStars leading the virtual accelerator trend 10:21 Will TechStars go with a hybrid model going forward and what key points should remote accelerators focus on? 15:27 How did TechStars settle on the number of 10 companies per cohort? 17:28 What has TechStars seen across their portfolio since COVID started? 21:21 Sustained changes vs. temporary cha...

Slice CEO Ilir Sela answers questions from founders: tips on selling into scattered markets (like Mom & Pop shops), COVID's impact on the restaurant industry, scaling Slice's $43M Series C & more! Join the TWiST Slack: https://launchevents.typeform.com/to/kLq5Bi Check out Slice: https://slicelife.com/ Follow Ilir: https://twitter.com/IlirSela 1:05 Knyck: You mentioned Slice being a platform to pro...

0:51 Jason intros Zach Coelius & Sam Parr 2:28 Barstool Sports vs. Call Her Daddy 6:49 Penn National Gaming stock soaring, Dave Portnoy winning this controversy 13:17 SoftBank reports $17.7B annual loss, worst figures in 39-year history 17:19 Does SoftBank's involvement typically include a loss of focus for the founder? 21:43 TikTok's parent co. Bytedance trades at a $140B valuation, poaches Disne...

Angel investor Jason Calacanis (Uber, Calm, Robinhood) interviews the world's greatest founders, operators, investors and innovators. Get an insider's look into venture capital, learn how to start and scale your own startup, and ride the cutting edge of technology in today's headlines and beyond.

0:35 Jason intros Capital Factory CEO & Founder Josh Baer 1:47 What is Capital Factory in its current iteration? How are they transitioning to remote? Loss of serendipity of random in-person connections 5:38 Josh takes Jason through the SXSW cancellation 10:29 Issues conceptualizing COVID's impact 15:35 Transitioning to rolling cohorts & optimizing their Slack community 21:36 Capital Factory's sta...

0:31 Jason intros today's news roundtable guests Ben Gilbert & David Rosenthal 6:54 Clubhouse raises Series A from a16z at a $100M valuation pre-launch 11:12 How do $2M in secondary shares play into Clubhouse's situation? 14:08 How Clubhouse achieved "VC-Market Fit" 18:49 Was this investment worth it considering massive former outliers in the consumer social space (Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat)? Or...

Hustle Fund Co-Founder & General Partner Elizabeth Yin answers 50 questions from founders!

Range CEO & Co-Founder Dan Pupius answers questions from founders: meeting & collaborating with Evan Williams, divvying up time while building a remote team, product development advice, benefits of co-founders & more Join the TWiST Slack: https://launchevents.typeform.com/to/kLq5Bi Check out Range: https://www.range.co/ Questions: 0:50 Laura: Interested in learning more about what made you want to...

0:42 Jason intros SOSV's Sean O'Sullivan 4:19 How is operating in China during COVID? 5:22 Origin of SOSV, thoughts on in-person accelerators over remote accelerators, why hardware/life-science accelerators need in-person cohorts 9:02 Sean describes SOSV's typical deal terms, unique follow-on strategy & cohort size 14:27 What stage company are SOSV accelerators looking for? Does it vary by industr...

0:36 Jason shares thoughts on his portfolio activity, getting back to work, leadership & more 4:20 Jason intros Slice Founder Ilir Sela 7:14 How has Slice been helping local pizzerias and front-line workers during the pandemic? https://sliceouthunger.org/pandemicpizza 9:12 What are the economics of an average privately-owned local pizzeria? How are the majority fairing during COVID-19? 13:24 What...

0:56 Jason intros Keith Rabois and checks in on his quarantine, Zoom's heightened exhaustion factor & more 5:46 What will the lasting impact of COVID be on Silicon Valley & the startup funding landscape? 8:18 How the early 2000's dot-com bust paved way for a generation of new founders & why the PayPal mafia of outsiders thrived in chaos & became the establishment 14:23 What has happened to intelle...

StartX & Nexus Events Founder Cameron Teitelman answers questions from founders: how universities with no entrepreneurial culture can mimic Stanford, building flexible & sustainable culture during COVID, scaling Nexus Events rapidly & more! Join the TWiST Slack: https://launchevents.typeform.com/to/kLq5Bi Mentioned during the AMA: Cameron's new startup: https://mixer.nexusevents.io/login_mixer Cam...

0:50 Jason opens the show with some thoughts on livelihood, getting back to work as a lose-lose situation and approaching the situation with kindness and empathy 5:47 Jason intros Hustle Fund's Elizabeth Yin and they discuss the process of raising Hustle Fund I and targeting first-time LPs 10:25 Why high net worth individuals would look to become venture LPs 14:26 What's the deal with Elizabeth &...

All Turtles CEO Phil Libin answers questions from founders: should early-stage founders prioritize data or instincts, building global products, ML risks, thoughts on remote work Join the TWiST Slack: https://launchevents.typeform.com/to/kLq5Bi Mentioned during the AMA: Phil's First appearance on TWiST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSYdwNHCmJA Phil presents his state machine that answers all gro...