This Week in Startups

Register here to join Founder University Japan's kickoff! 👉🏻 https://luma.com/cm0x90mkToday's show: On TWiST, Alex is chatting with Neubird CEO Gou Rao about the intricate complexity of IT Ops, and the vast amount of layers and components that have to be delivered very quickly to your phone in order to stream a simple video clip. Neubird has developed Hawkeye, an AI "engineer" that uses "context...

Register here for Founder University Japan's Kickoff 👉🏻  https://luma.com/cm0x90mk Today's show: The team from Familify had released a well-reviewed storytelling app for kids and parents… but it just wasn't growing! Then they noticed that Bible stories and faith-based content was particularly popular. So they decided released a brand new app, Theo, just for these sorts of lessons and stories. An...

Register here to join Founder University Japan's kickoff:  https://luma.com/cm0x90mk Today's show: Google and Meta had their cases dismissed (or received a slap on the wrist)… Despite all the backlash and cynicism, AI companies continue making bank and releasing hot new products… What does it all mean? For Jason Calacanis, the signs are pointing to a "major M&A moment," with huge opportunities for...

Today's show: The race for more compute gets all the headlines, but Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch tells us the REAL danger is running out of data! On TWiST, Jason and Alex are chatting with the head of France's largest foundation AI company, Mistral AI, about how enterprises can get more out of their AI pilots, whether the West is lacking leadership on open-source, why Mistral AI isn't pursuing eve...

AI Model Showdown: Grok 4.1 vs. Gemini 3 | E2211 Register for Founder University Japan's Kickoff! https://luma.com/cm0x90mk Today's show: *Will the arrival of two hotly-anticipated, intensely powerful AI models snap the Doomer cycle? On a new TWiST, Jason and Alex consider the current AI landscape, one where cynicism about insider mega-deals, fear of job displacement, and concerns about bubble bur...

*Are we finally reaching Peak eVTOL? Jason and Alex on Joby's big Abu Dhabi moves and Archer's purchase of LA's Hawthorne Airport. On a PACKED Monday TWiST, Jason is BACK from MENA and Tokyo. Hear tales from his whirlwind trips launching new Founder University satellite programs… and find out why construction and fintech are BOOMING across the Middle East. PLUS Ramp raised $300M… here's why Alex c...

👉 Register here to join Founder University Japan's kickoff:  https://luma.com/cm0x90mk Today's show: Nox's new app RPLY reminds you to text your friends back, getting you to iMessage inbox zero. On today's TWiST, we've got Molly Cantillon of Nox, telling us how she plans to make lackadaisical texters (like our co-host Alex) more effective, even if it means breaking into Apple's walled garden. Hea...

👉 Register here to join the kickoff:  https://luma.com/cm0x90mk Today's show: Just getting our stuff into orbit isn't enough… Orbital Operations wants to help companies take things HIGHER. In today's TWiST 500 interview, Alex chats with Ben Schleuniger, whose startup Orbital Operations is solving the complexity of space logistics. The advent of reusable rockets has made it easier and cheaper than...

Register for Founder University Japan's Kickoff! https://luma.com/cm0x90mk Today's show: Find out why AI is perfectly suited to legal tasks… despite being too fast for "billable hours" On today's TWiST, Alex takes a deep dive into LLM Law with Harvey AI co-founder/president Gabe Pereyra. It turns out, much like software development, doing legal work relies on learning specialized language and sift...

👉 Register here for Founder University Japan's Kickoff!  https://luma.com/cm0x90mk Today's show: *Three of our favorite TWiST 500 startups — Ledger, 1Password, AND Mercury — are circling IPOs. Find out why the cybersecurity space remains so hot… AND why Jason says you really need to have multiple banks. PLUS Marc Andreessen called The Pope an AI Doomer on X, then thought better of it. We're track...

Register for Founder University Japan's Kickoff: https://luma.com/cm0x90mk Today's show: *The key to avoiding long airport delays? Low-altitude sea planes! Why didn't you think of that? We've got an awesome line-up of TWiST 500 founders giving us an inside glimpse inside their startups on this Friday special edition. FIRST: Billy Thalheimer of REGENT introduces us to their aircraft/boat hybrid The...

Register for Founder University Japan's kickoff! https://luma.com/cm0x90mk Today's show: *On TWiST, Jason welcomes an all-star VC panel — Deedy Das of Menlo Partners and Jay Eum of GFT Ventures — for a deep dive into the shocking scale of early-stage AI raises, a transitional moment for investors, the growing importance of the "prosumer" market, ChatGPT's insane smile curves, and much much more. I...

👉 Register here to join the Founder University Japan kickoff!  https://luma.com/cm0x90mk Today's show: *Starcloud has started sending AI chips into orbit. So is this where the datacenters the power AI will one day live? And does wifi work in the vacuum of space? We're asking the TOUGH questions. PLUS Jason and Alex are doing a deep dive on all this week's OpenAI news. Will they ever be able to pa...

What will be OpenAI's IPO price? Place ya bets! | EXXX *Polymarket's sharps are already placing bets on when ChatGPT maker OpenAI will go public… and Jason and Alex want in on this action. They're placing side wagers on how the House that Sam Altman built will be valued once it finally goes public. PLUS find out why Amazon is Jason's stock pick for the next five years… Why startups are starting to...

Today's show: *Why rebrand an app with 40 million daily active users? On TWiST, Grammarly CEO Shishir Mehrotra swings by to explain why he's renaming his company after the mail app he just purchased, Superhuman. Plus he's giving us a first look at the startup's new AI assistant, Superhuman Go, digging into their new agent-centered strategy, looking ahead at the potential for AI job displacement, a...

Today's show: Jason's been skeptical on Apple lately, but he's BLOWN AWAY by his new iPhone Air. Hear why JCal thinks Cupertino's latest release is "completely inspiring," and why he's sure it's the next step on the road to Apple Glasses. We're chatting with LAUNCH founder Zach Handshoe of spacial video startup SpatialGen about designing products for Cupertino AND the intense pressure of performin...

Today's show: Australia has accused Microsoft of employing a dark pattern… Hear why Jason says these kinds of sneaky tactics aren't usually worth it. It's a brand-new Monday TWiST and it's PACKED with news. In addition to Australia's allegations against MSFT, we're looking at Chinese drone fails and wondering how live experiences will change in the age of AI. PLUS has Tesla finally "solved" FSD af...

Today's show: *Working from 9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week, might seem like TOO INTENSE a commitment for some, but Jason argues that elite performance — and the mega-compensation that goes along with it — sometimes requires personal sacrifice. While 72-hour weeks might lead to burnout for some, it really comes down to individual choice. PLUS Jason and Alex deep dive the NBA gambling scandal and the s...

Today's show: *Amazon's dropping a LOT of employees for AI and robots… are Jason's darkest predictions coming true? Legendary investor Elad Gil joins Jason and Alex for the full show today! Together, they're digging into the Amazon news, looking back at Jason's predictions from just last month, and theorizing about just how many people will lose their jobs to computers, and what we're going to do...

Are AI tools in the classroom just time-savers, or can they have genuine educational value? In a must-watch TWiST 500 interview, Alex chats with Magic School founder (and former principal) Adeel Khan about how AI tools can make teachers more effective, and keep students inspired, without just doing all the work for them. He talks about turning an AI chatbot into a true assistant teacher, that keep...

Today's show: *Is the AI bubble going to POP? And if so, how much of our economy is it going to take down with it? On a new TWiST, Jason, Alex, and Lon debate the size and scale of the AI bubble, whether poppage is imminent, and just who we can blame for the last few economic crises. (HINT: Not the tech industry!)PLUS why Jason STILL thinks the current AI cycle will be the biggest in tech history,...

Deel's growth overshadows SpyGate, Claude learned new skills, and the great "momentum is moat" debate | EXXX Today's show: *Deel's growing fast enough that investors are overlooking the espionage allegations and jumping on board anyway. (LAUNCH now owns a lil taste of Deel, so Jason is on board!) PLUS is the Mag 7 about to become the Mag 70… Why legendary investor Roelof Botha thinks VC is not an...

Today's show: *On a very special TWiST, Jason's joined by "one of the greatest investors in in the history of VC," Steve Jurvetson of Future Ventures. Together, they look back at some of Steve's earliest investments and learnings, the promise and ultimate failure of nanotech, breaking down the AI hype cycle, the primacy of neural networks, the return of nuclear power, why "AI safety" might be illu...

Today's show: *Eric Glyman of Ramp joins us to share the fintech unicorn's growth secrets AND their Lab full of research data. On TWiST, Jason and Alex chat with Eric about Ramp's counter-intuitive mission — helping startups spend LESS money — PLUS they take a deep dive into the company's treasure trove of startup trend data. Why is there a huge spike in unemployed recent college trends? Is "stati...

Figure's 03 Chore-bot, Jake Paul Sora takeover, ChatGPT app integrations, and more | E2191 Today's show: Figure's butler-bot could be cleaning up after you soon than you think! On a Friday TWiST, Jason and Lon are checking out the Figure 03 demo reel, checking out the humanoid robot that could soon be hanging out in your house, doing your chores. Lon's a bit skeptical that full-sized Westworld dro...