This Week in Startups

Hosted by Jason Calacanis & Michael Savino, Angel. University is a workshop for individuals interested in becoming professional angel investors. The curriculum is designed for angels who have done 0 to 100 angel investments and focuses on five key topics: sourcing deals, evaluating startups, negotiating deals, portfolio and bankroll management, and post-deal efforts. Register: https://www.angel.un...

0:42 Jason intros MassChallenge CEO Siobhan Dullea 3:09 What is MassChallenge & how is it different from a typical accelerator? 5:48 How many startups do they accept across their different programs? 11:33 How does their prize money situation work? How are the winners selected? 19:05 How is MassChallenge sustainable as a non-profit 22:55 How is MassChallenge funded & how do they track portfolio suc...

0:01 Jason intros today's questions! 2:18 Kate asks what founders & investors often overlook while pitching/being pitched, and what they should focus more closely on 6:58 Daniel asks about Jason's next book 8:59 Avery asks for advice on performing customer research 14:27 Dan asks what common traits Jason sees in the best founders and tangible steps to gain these traits 19:55 Shahpar asks what kind...

Subscribe: https://linktr.ee/transportationpodcast Featuring Sandy Munro (CEO of Munro & Associates), Jason Calacanis (Angel investor, LAUNCH, Inside.com) and Johan Moreno (Inside.com). Subscribe to Inside Transportation newsletter: inside.com/transportation Subscribe to Inside Electric Vehicles newsletter: inside.com/evs Follow Inside Transportation: https://twitter.com/TranspoPod

0:56 Jason intros the show & talks about the impact the TWiST Slack has had on him 4:47 Jason intros Dan Pupius of Range 6:13 What is Range and why is it asynchronous & who types of companies is it made for? 10:48 What is the core feature of Range? 15:19 Dan's time at Google, working on Google+ & Google Buzz 21:16 Competing against Facebook's product velocity 24:28 Why did Google+ fail? 29:22 How...

freeCodeCamp Founder Quincy Larson answers questions from his exclusive AMA only on This Week in Startups' Slack! If you'd like to participate in exclusive AMAs, jam sessions, and discuss all aspects of startup life with Jason and our community of 20,000+ founders, join us at: https://launchevents.typeform.com/to/kLq5Bi Watch Quincy on E1049: https://youtu.be/OgxTDl2Z9II Follow Quincy: https://twi...

1:00 Jason intros Power of Accelerators Episode 2! 3:07 Jason intros StartX Founder Cameron Teitelman: What is StartX, how do they invest, when and how was it started? 6:54 How does StartX exist? Are they profitable? 8:43 Why would a growth stage founder join StartX? 13:28 What is the process for selecting founders/companies for StartX? What is unique about Stanford students? 16:28 Difference betw...

0:42 Jason intros PlayVS CEO & Founder Delane Parnell 2:59 What is PlayVS, how do they make money & how fast are they growing? 5:37 Attracting investors, leveraging an exclusive contract to scale across US high schools & average hours spent on the platform by players 13:26 Delane shares his backstory, from flipping shoes to owning cell phone stores in high school to getting tickets to the LAUNCH F...

2:42 — Electric vehicle startups receive PPP loansAs thousands of small business owners struggle to pay rent and keep their employees on staff, two high-profile electric vehicle startups have applied and received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA).

0:50 Jason thanks the front-line workers & intros freeCodeCamp's Quincy Larson 7:45 Why & how did Quincy start freeCodeCamp? What is freeCodeCamp? 12:16 Jason & Quincy discuss starting & running large online communities, benefits of Discord & Slack 15:36 Can you jump right in on freeCodeCamp.org? What types of certifications do they offer? 17:38 COVID-19's impact on user growth & why Quincy is emu...

1:00 Jason thanks all frontline workers and intros Dreamit Ventures' Steve Barsh 3:33 How did Dreamit start, what is the goal and how is their program structured? 9:43 How often does Dreamit follow-on with their portfolio companies, how do they think about pricing, valuation & leading rounds? 15:15 Steve goes over some of Dreamit's top portfolio companies: SeatGeek, LevelUp & Houseparty and explai...

0:01 Jason intros today's #AskJason and talks about the This Week in Startups Slack! 4:04 Ethan asks where and how Jason gets his news for general industry knowledge 6:43 Sean asks Jason how to acquire talent during a crisis 9:54 Vik asks Jason about building strong corporate culture while working remotely 15:44 David asks about SF mayor London Breed capping fees for delivery companies 19:32 Craig...

0:37 Jason intro Alex Wilhelm & Sam Lessin & checks in on how their quarantines are going 5:59 Are they all working more during quarantine then they were beforehand? 9:58 Will we see a birthrate drop due to the crisis? 15:45 Having & raising children in the digital age/COVID crisis 18:24 How are Apple & Google helping with tracking COVID-19, and when do their efforts become a privacy risk? 27:29 F...

0:51 Jason intro 15Five's David Hassell & checks in on how his company is doing 4:23 What does a great leader need to do in a crisis? 8:26 How to share information with your team about potential layoffs 10:27 What is 15Five? What have they set out to accomplish? 15:22 Tips on transitioning an in-person team to fully remote 22:24 Defining trust in terms of business & how 15Five keeps their employee...

0:01 Jason & Chamath catch us up on their quarantines 1:20 Chamath intros David Sacks 4:40 David explains what their poker group chat has been like since COVID-19 started, and how Jason, Chamath & himself fall on the optimistic/pessimistic spectrum 6:58 How have the past few months defined David's view on the world, and what is his reaction to the US government's response? 12:22 Did the US health...

0:01 Jason previews today's Ask Jason & drops some hints about the Super Secret TWiST Slack room 2:29 Aaron asks how investors view no-code startups 6:33 Andrii asks if an economic crisis is a good time to start a company 9:52 Jesse asks if he should start trying to raise a round of funding now, or wait until this crisis passes 14:48 Juan asks how he can leverage his first committed angel investor...

0:01 Jason thanks the sponsors, guests, listeners & the team for Angel Season 4! 4:38 Jason intros Menlo Ventures' Shawn Carolan 7:26 Thoughts on the market's reaction to COVID-19, when will it get back to normal? 11:51 What advice is Shawn giving to his portfolio founders? 19:07 How has the job of a VC changed with the influx of hundreds of new funds, and what impact has the large amount of dry p...

0:54 Jason intros Roy Bahat & Zach Coelius, and they discuss their current quarantine situations 6:04 What is the timeline looking like for going back to work? What needs to happen before we can get back to normal? 14:51 Has government & media failed the public? How is tech (both big tech & startups) helping during the crisis? 28:33 How should startups approach taking PPP, EIDL & other SMB loans?...

0:55 Jason intros Balaji Srinivasan and tees up his incident with Recode's piece: "No handshakes, please": The tech industry is terrified of the coronavirus 4:28 Balaji shares his experience with the story and his issues with corporate journalism 15:16 Balaji explains why he reacted the way he did to Shirin Ghaffary's request for an interview 19:52 History of techlash: 1995-2020, when things turne...

0:51 Jason gives some thoughts on quarantine & intros GGV's Jeff Richards 5:11 What will this crisis look like on the other side? Benefits of having a levelheaded approach 11:38 What has Jeff seen from his seasoned portfolio founders who went through the 2008 crisis? 16:21 What advice does Jeff give to first-time founders in his portfolio? 22:22 Investor panic & differences in opinion between inde...

0:52 Jason intros Eric Ries and they discuss how things have been since shelter-in-place started 8:33 What good will come out of this? Will UBI proponents like Andrew Yang be proven right? 10:12 Eric's advice to today's founders after living through the 2008 recession & the dot-com bust 15:53 Eric describes the obligations of leaders during a crisis of this magnitude, what the test-and-trace metho...

1:00 Jason intros Figma's Dylan Field & Dylan explains why WebGL was crucial to Figma's creation 7:09 Why ChromeOS is flourishing in schools 11:28 Who are Figma's competitors & how do they compare 14:12 How does multiplayer mode work on Figma? 17:29 What does Figma charge, Dylan's thoughts on charging for SaaS: bottom-up or top-down? 30:26 Is SaaS burnout real? Active-user pricing vs. Passive-user...

0:52 Jason intros Greylock's Sarah Guo 3:37 How did Sarah wind up at Greylock? 5:45 Sarah explains Greylock's "Zero to One" thesis & typical term commitment of a VC 11:53 How does Sarah measure her personal performance and her portfolio's performance? What are her biggest strengths as an investor? 16:12 How does she sharpen her decision-making skills? 17:53 Ranking her investment criteria: People,...

0:45 Jason intros Vincent Woo, who wrote "Lambda School's Misleading Promises" for New York Magazine 2:21 What drew Vincent to this story? What wrongdoings did he discover? 6:02 Vincent describes Lambda's ISAs and how they were sold 14:24 How Vincent approached Austen Allred as an investigative reporter & clip from Vincent's interview with Austen 16:19 What is Lambda's school actual placement rate...

1:04 Jason intros Alex Wilhelm & Sarah Cannon 5:00 COVID-19: Where are we now? 10:12 Have would Obama have handled this situation? What are the proper next steps? 15:29 Sarah lays out her economic stimulus plan 20:29 How much has the political landscape changed over the last few months? 22:08 How would a stimulus plan work in practice? 24:36 What will change about the gig economy and healthcare co...