This Week in Startups

Why quantum has been "10 years away" for 30 years | E2316 Jul 24, 2026 45:02 This Week In Startups is made possible by: PayPal Open https://paypalopen.com DigitalOcean https://do.co/twist Rippling https://Rippling.ai/twist Today's show: *For three decades now, we've been told that breakthroughs in quantum computing are right around the corner. So why hasn't anything materialized? On TWiST in Tokyo, Jason sits down with Yaqumo CEO Kazuhiro Nakashoji and discusses what nee

Why this longevity startup raised in Japan, not Silicon Valley | TWiST Tokyo | E2315 Jul 22, 2026 01:12:25 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Sentry https://sentry.io/twist Agree https://agree.com Northwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Today's show: French ex-martial artist Bilal Kharouni is building his longevity startup from Okinawa, one of the world's "blue zones." (These are regions with the most people living long, healthy lives.) In this TWiST taping from

The AI Securing Your Workforce Before a Mistake Ever Becomes a Breach | E2314 Jul 20, 2026 42:01 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Vanta https://www.vanta.com/twist Superhuman https://superhuman.com YSecurity https://YSecurity.io/TWIST Today's show: *Cybersecurity has long focused on cleaning up a system AFTER a breach but Ent founder Brandon Dixon says that's backwards. He just raised a $100M seed round to put an AI agent on everyone's company laptops that catches the risky clicks

The dawn of surgery bots + buy a home for $250 (w/ Andromeda & Mogul) | E2313 Jul 17, 2026 46:54 The dawn of surgery bots + buy a home for $250 (w/ Andromeda & Mogul) | E2313 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist CLA https://claconnect.com/withyou MongoDB https://MongoDB.com/ai Today's show: *Andromeda Surgical is building the autonomy layer that could one day allow robots to perform surgery. Rather than building t

A Startup Is Trying to Buy PayPal… Craziest Deal of 2026! | E2312 Jul 15, 2026 01:14:04 This Week In Startups is made possible by: MongoDB - MongoDB.com/ai Rippling - Rippling.ai/twist Agree.com - agree.com Today's show: Hustle Fund's Eric Bahn and Chapter One's Jeff Morris Jr. join our venture capital roundtable directly following the news breaking that Stripe wants to buy PayPal. The possible transaction highlights how little interest today's leading startups have in going public

Jason turned $11 and one tweet into 1.1M views | E2311 Jul 13, 2026 01:29:51 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Quo https://quo.com/TWiST PayPal Open https://paypalopen.com Northwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Today's show: *Jason spent $11 building out PodMeme, an AI tool that tracks down the best segments from top podcasts about a specific topic, then stitches them together into a single stream. His post laying out how he did it

Danny Bernstein left Big Tech to fund farm-bots | E2310 Jul 10, 2026 01:00:54 This Week In Startups is made possible by: NetSuite https://NetSuite.ai/TWIST Squarespace https://squarespace.com/twist YSecurity https://YSecurity.io/TWIST Today's show: *America posted 400,000 farm jobs last year, and fewer than 1% got a single domestic applicant. Danny Bernstein of Reservoir believes it's time to start automating this backbreaking labor, like picking stone fruit in 110°F temp

Why Data Is the Next $1 Trillion Market Jul 8, 2026 01:06:01 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Digital Ocean - do.co/twist Agree.com - agree.com Every.io - every.io. Today's show: How many startups matter in tech? Fewer than you think. That's why venture capitalists are tripping over themselves to get onto their cap tables, no matter the cost. Why? Footwork's Nikhil Basu Trivedi argues that the Valley has never been more "power-law-pilled" than i

$100T is managed by "human duct tape" | E2308 Jul 6, 2026 58:02 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Vanta https://www.vanta.com/twist Sentry https://sentry.io/twist Today's show: *There are $100 trillion in global assets sitting on top of what Hanover Park co-founder/CEO Chris Hladczuk calls "human duct tape": armies of accountants in offices patching together work from various lega

Why the VC Hype Cycle Always Gets It Wrong | VC Roundtable | E2307 Jul 1, 2026 01:14:11 This Week In Startups is made possible by: CLA - www.claconnect.com/withyou Northwest Registered Agent - www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Agree.com - www.agree.com Today's show: Forget the triple-triple-double-double-double; the new bar for startups hoping to raise venture capital has reached the stratosphere, though our venture panel is worried that startups are focusing too much on today

Chamath on why young people need more agency, risk, and adventure Jun 29, 2026 01:12:06 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud https://Plaud.ai/twist Shopify https://shopify.com/twist LinkedIn Jobs https://LinkedIn.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Today's show: *It's another All Star Summer, as we welcome back some of our favorite guests from throughout "This Week in Startups" history. Chamath Palihapitiya's development platf

Why F1 Teams are Replacing Wind Tunnels with Smart Tape | E2305 Jun 27, 2026 01:30:27 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twistSentry - https://sentry.io/twistNorthwest Registered Agent-https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twistDigitalOcean - https://do.co/twist Today's show: F1 teams spend up to a third of their budgets on aerodynamics, often utilizing wind tunnels to simulate what happens on the track. But Lyall Davenport of SKN Systems created a

Why the Future of Video Games is Moving Back to the Dinner Table Jun 24, 2026 01:08:52 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Deel - deel.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent - northwestregisteredagent.com/twist LinkedIn - linkedIn.com/twist Today's show: Jason sits down with Brynn Putnam, CEO and founder of Board, to learn more about her company's tabletop gaming console. The pair talks about how to raise capital for yet-to-launch hardware projects, the screen-time debate, a

The hottest running app has nothing to do with speed | E2303 Jun 22, 2026 01:03:05 This Week In Startups is made possible by:Agree - https://agree.comQuo - https://quo.com/TWiSTSuperhuman - https://superhuman.comToday's show:In this double-header, Jason and Lon chat with Louis Phillips, founder of the gamified running app INTVL, which turns a quick job around the block into a worldwide turf war competition. Find out how he grew the app to over 1 million downloads without any pai

Why SpaceX Buying Cursor Changes Everything Jun 18, 2026 01:41:06 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Deel - deel.com/twist LinkedIn - linkedIn.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent - northwestregisteredagent.com/twistPlaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: Anthropic stabbed Cursor in the back. Then SpaceX swooped in with $60 billion. Today, TWiST connects the dots on the biggest deal in AI since the Microsoft-OpenAI partnership, and why it's a warn

The Startup Building the First Hotel on the Moon… Jun 15, 2026 01:40:55 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Every.io - visit every.io Sentry.io - sentry.io/twist Vanta - vanta.com/twist Today's show: The next SpaceX won't be building rockets; it'll build the first hotel on the Moon. Today on TWiST, GRU Space founder Skyler Chan brings a brick made from lunar soil into the studio and lays out a plan to manufacture on the Moon as early as next year. We get into

SpaceX IPO Day: What Wall St. and the media missed | E2300 Jun 13, 2026 01:19:57 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud https://Plaud.ai/twist Pilot https://pilot.com/twist Agree https://agree.com IM8 Health https://IM8health.com/twist After watching Elon build out his rocket (and AI) company over the past 20 years, Jason celebrates the SpaceX IPO on a new TWiST. He explains why some investments are evaluated based on earnings and current numbers, while other stocks

Why the most expensive Seed deals are the cheapest | E2299 Jun 10, 2026 01:08:24 This Week In Startups is made possible by: NetSuite - Netsuite.com/TWiST Deel - Deel.com/TWiST Squarespace - Squarespace.com/TWiST Two days before SpaceX launches the largest IPO in history at a flat $135/share, our VC roundtable drops a scorcher: The top 1% of seed deals might actually be underpriced. Plus: the "Sequoia scam" dual-tranche controversy, tokens-for-equity deals, and whether Claude

The AI Tutor That Makes Kids Actually Think | E2298 Jun 8, 2026 01:00:20 The AI Tutor That Makes Kids Actually Think | E2298 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist LinkedIn Jobs https://LinkedIn.com/twist Shopify https://shopify.com/twist Plaud https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: *Schools teach kids to memorize formulas. AI helps them skip thinking entirely. Brilliant founder Sue Khim joi

Anthropic wants to slow AI down and Bernie wants 50%: JCal Reacts | E2297 Jun 6, 2026 01:33:18 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Grasshopper Bank https://grasshopper.bank/twist Vanta https://www.vanta.com/twist Render https://render.com/twist Plaud https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: Anthropic wrote a blog post calling for a global AI slowdown. Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders wants the government to seize 50% of every major AI company's stock. Find out why JCal is reconsidering

The project SpaceX's first employee raised $500M for Jun 3, 2026 01:01:37 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent - NorthwestRegistereAagent.com/TWIST Every - Every.io Sentry - Sentry.io/TWIST Today's show: Want to get to space? Several launch companies can help you. SpaceX, Rocket Lab, the Russians, the list goes on. But what about once you make it upstairs, then what? Impulse Space CEO and CTO Tom Mueller is building the next stage of o

This Startup Fused Human Brain Cells with Silicon Chips | E2295 Jun 1, 2026 01:06:17 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Deel https://deel.com/twist Quo https://quo.com/TWiST LinkedIn Jobs https://LinkedIn.com/twist Today's show: Cortical Labs is the world's first company selling biological computers. Their CL1 fuses lab-grown human neurons (derived from stem cells, not actual folks) with silicon hardware to create Synthetic Biological Intelligence (SBI). Founder Dr. Hon

How to Raise a Seed Round in 2026: Ask Jason | E2294 May 29, 2026 57:56 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Grasshopper Bank https://grasshopper.bank/twistLinkedIn Jobs https://LinkedIn.com/twistNorthwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Today's show: Jason breaks down the real math behind raising a seed round. Here's the funnel: contact 150 firms, get 50 first meetings, convert 2o into second meetings, and close 2 term sheets. PLUS

The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery May 27, 2026 01:01:24 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Render - render.com/twist Deel - deel.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent - northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Today's show: The "Ryanair of drone delivery" just raised $50 million and plans to bring its technology from Europe to the United States. Manna founder Bobby Healy explains to TWiST how his Dublin-based company completed 300,000 deliveries while

From hypercars to cruise missiles: Lukas Czinger on the future of US defense | E2292 May 23, 2026 01:47:07 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Every.io https://every.io Shopify https://shopify.com/twist Render https://render.com/twist Plaud https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: Startups like Divergent Technologies are producing components and aircraft for the military through new systems that are better, faster, and cheaper than conventional methods. CEO and co-founder Lukas Czinger stops by T

Avi Patel on the startup that copied Kled and why he called out General Catalyst by name | E2291 May 20, 2026 01:34:23 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Grasshopper Bank - https://grasshopper.bank/twist LinkedIn - https://linkedIn.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twistPlaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Why raise $200 million if you are already profitable? That's the question Jason and Alex put to Mercury's founder and CEO, Immad Akhund, after the entrepreneur raised

Why does Gen Z hate AI? May 18, 2026 01:08:41 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Vanta - Vanta.com/TWIST Sentry - Sentry.io/TWIST Deel - Deel.com/TWIST Today's show: AI is the villain of the 2026 commencement cycle, with business luminaries — including Eric Schmidt — booed for discussing or praising the technology. As students graduate into a job market forcibly reshaped by AI, increasingly negative public polling on the potential imp

The Self-Driving Startup Nobody Saw Coming | E2289 May 15, 2026 01:12:49 This Week In Startups is made possible by: IM8 Health: IM8health.com/TWIST Squarespace: Squarespace.com/TWIST Render - Render.com/TWIST Self-driving just stopped being a science problem and became an engineering challenge instead. That's the through-line of today's double-header with the CEOs of two of the most important AV companies in the world — Wayve's Alex Kendall and Waabi's Raquel Urtasun

How Many Startups Will Survive OpenAI? | E2288 May 13, 2026 01:25:17 This Week In Startups is made possible by:Pilot -⁠ https://Pilot.com/TWIST⁠Grasshopper Bank -⁠ https://Grasshopper.bank/TWIST⁠Quo -⁠ https://Quo.com/TWiST⁠Plaud - ⁠https://Plaud.ai/twist⁠Anthropic just declared every unauthorized secondary sale of its stock "void" — naming Hiive, Forge, Sydecar, Upmarket, and others in a public hit list. Jason and Alex sit down with Jenny Fielding (Everywhere Vent

How the 1% Will Own Compute (and What It Means for You) May 13, 2026 01:08:24 The future of AI isn't a smarter chatbot. It's a model that watches your screen, listens to the room, and acts on what it sees. We dug into Thinking Machines' new interaction model, what it means for compute, and the layoff wave that's already here.This week's roundtable: Anastasios Angelopoulos (CEO of Arena, formerly LMArena), Nick Harris (CEO of Lightmatter, photonic computing chips), and Phili

Cerebras's IPO goes vertical, and the death of OpenClaw? | E2287 May 11, 2026 01:22:38 Today's show: Cerebras just jacked its IPO range to $150–$160 a share, OpenAI bought a consulting firm to seed its $4 billion private-equity joint venture, and a startup in Oakland is electrolyzing magnesium out of seawater for one-third the going price. Alex Wilhelm and Jason Calacanis go deep with AI21 co-CEO Ori Goshen on why model orchestration, not bigger LLMs, will decide who wins enterprise

5,000+ Tech Workers Laid Off This Week. It's Just The Beginning. | E2286 May 9, 2026 01:12:01 This Week In Startups is made possible by: IM8 Health - https://IM8health.com/TWIST Every - Every.io Sentry - https://Sentry.io/TWIST Banks don't want to hand over their data to AI labs. So David Moscatelli built a $250,000 box that runs AI on-prem. He already has 1,600 pre-orders. On today's episode of TWiST, Jason and Alex sit down with the Go Abacus founder and Yanez's Jose Caldera to unpack

The end of Venture Capital? (VC Roundtable) | E2285 May 6, 2026 01:23:38 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Grasshopper Bank - https://grasshopper.bank/twist PaperOS - https://paperos.com/twist LinkedIn Jobs - https://linkedIn.com/twistPlaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist The top 5 U.S. venture firms captured 73% of all LP commits in Q1, and three veteran VCs say the math may have officially broken. Aleph's Michael Eisenberg argues we may be witnessing the end of a 6

Naval's GP, Ankur Nagpal, Breaks Down The Viral "USVC" Fund | E2284 May 5, 2026 01:38:11 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Render - render.com/twist Vanta - vanta.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent - northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Have you wanted to invest in venture capital alongside your 401k contributions, but struggled to find a way to place a bet? Search no more, for the AngelList team has created USVC, a new fund that will accept investments of as little as $500

Can an AI Agent Legally Own a Company? Christian van der Henst's Wild Experiment| E2283 May 1, 2026 01:10:06 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Pilot - https://pilot.com/twist Shopify - https://shopify.com/twist Grasshopper Bank - https://grasshopper.bank/twist Today's show: An AI agent named Valerie is running a real vending machine in San Francisco — setting prices, ordering inventory, managing a bank account, and posting to Instagram. And it's not just a stunt. We're getting an early look at

Mastering AI Video Marketing w/ Magnific CEO Joaquín Cuenca Abela | AI Basics Apr 30, 2026 22:35 The TWiST AI Basics series is made possible by Google Cloud!Check out Google Cloud's new report, "Future of AI: Perspectives on generative media for startups," Featuring thoughts from today's guest, Joaquín Cuenca AbelaVisit: goo.gle/futureofgenmedia to check it out!Today's show:In today's edition of TWiST AI Basics, J-Cal is joined by Joaquin Cuenca Abela, co-founder and CEO of Magnific (formerly

The $10M+ Bet on a Beanie That Reads Your Brain | Sabi & the Future of BCI | E2282 Apr 29, 2026 55:44 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Render - https://Render.com/TWIST Northwest Registered Agent - https://NorthwestRegisteredAgent.com/TWIST LinkedIn Jobs - https://LinkedIn.com/TWIST Today's show: A beanie that reads your thoughts and turns them into text — no surgery required? Jason grills the Sabi co-founders on their noninvasive brain-computer interface, backed by Vinod Khosla, and cal

China Kills Meta / Manus Deal (Story Of The Year) | E2281 Apr 28, 2026 53:04 This Week In Startups is made possible by: IM8 Health - IM8health.com/twist Sentry - Sentry.io/twist Deel - Deel.com/twistPlaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist What's the technology story of the year? No, it's not Anthropic's Mythos model, nor any other AI model. Upcoming IPOs? Wrong again. Jason thinks it's China's government's decision to block Meta's acquisition of Manus. The multi-billion-dollar de

Naval's $500 VC fund, the Maduro Polymarket scandal, and NYT defends theft and murder | E2280 Apr 25, 2026 50:21 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 c

The Defense Tech Startup YC Kicked Out of a Meeting is Now Arming America | E2280 Apr 25, 2026 59:16 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 5

SpaceX and Cursor team up to topple Claude Code | E2279 Apr 22, 2026 01:13:30 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

Why Your Company Should Own Its AI Model | E2278 Apr 21, 2026 01:17:00 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-trai

3D-Printed Homes for $99K: ICON's Jason Ballard on the future of housing | E2277 Apr 18, 2026 01:47:06 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 t

This 22-Year-Old Built TikTok for Mobile Games, and It's Growing Fast | E2276 Apr 15, 2026 01:02:47 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-found

Bittensor's (alleged) $10M rug pull (feat. Mark Jeffrey) | E2275 Apr 14, 2026 01:18:39 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 Bi

Bittensor Drama! TAO down 15%! | E2274 Apr 11, 2026 01:21:55 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Pilot - https://pilot.com/TWIST Squarespace -https://squarespace.com/TWIST Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/TWIST Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twistCrowdHealth - ⁠https://JoinCrowdHealth.com/twist⁠ Today's show: TAO, the token associated with the Bittensor network, fell sharply last night after a major project declared it was

Anthropic's Mythos is a cyber-weapon, so you can't have it | E2273 Apr 9, 2026 01:16:49 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 i

3 AI Agents That Actually Replaced Human Jobs | E2272 Apr 7, 2026 01:19:10 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

AI Rebuilt Every YC W26 Startup. Should Founders Be Scared? | E2271 Apr 3, 2026 01:20:53 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Deel - deel.com/twist Grasshopper Bank - grasshopper.bank/twist Render - render.com/twist Plaud - Plaud.ai/twist An AI "holding company" rebuilt dozens of YC Winter '26 startups in one weekend. Now we're bringing the founder responsible into Jason's Courtroom to defend himself. PLUS a live demo of Boardy, the AI that acts like a virtual board member and

How 3 CEOs Use AI to Run $10B in Companies | This Week in AI Apr 2, 2026 30:11 This Week in AI, JCal sits down with three CEOs building the infrastructure, intelligence, and interfaces for the next era of AI: Jeremy Fraenkel (CEO, Fundamental), Victor Riparbelli (CEO, Synthesia), and Nick Harris (CEO, Lightmatter). We break down what's actually happening beneath the AI hype: the data modality LLMs completely missed, why copper is the real bottleneck in AI data centers, OpenA

Venture Roundtable: SpaceX IPO, AI's PR Crisis, and the Defense Tech Bubble | E2270 Apr 1, 2026 01:28:08 This Week In Startups is made possible by: PaperOS - https://PaperOS.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent- https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Every.io - https://Every.io Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: Silicon Valley just lined up its biggest liquidity event in years: SpaceX filed confidentially for an IPO that could target a $1.75 trillion valuation — potentially the largest

The 5-Step Framework for AI Agents That Improve While You Sleep | E2269 Mar 31, 2026 01:27:15 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Quo - https://quo.com/TWiST LinkedIn Jobs - https://LinkedIn.com/twist Iru - https://iru.com/twist Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: Google project manager Shubham Saboo is running 6 AI agents on a Mac Mini that handle all of his side business autonomously, from research, to social posts, to newsletters. He joins Jason and Lon to walk us thro

The $60 billion resource hiding in space, and the start trying to mine it (feat. Matt Gialich, Astroforge) | E2268 Mar 27, 2026 01:39:17 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Wispr Flow - https://wisprflow.ai/twist Circle - http://circle.so/twist Deel - http://deel.com/twist Today's show: AstroForge is building low-cost, replicable spacecraft to mine platinum group metals from near-Earth asteroids — a $60 billion annual market for materials that are running out on Earth. Founder and CEO Matt Gialich joins the show to talk a

This Bittensor Subnet Could Cut Drug Discovery Costs in HALF | E2267 Mar 26, 2026 01:12:54 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Luma AI - https://lumalabs.ai/twist Every.io - https://every.io Lemon.io - https://Lemon.io/twistPlaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: What do drug discovery, the creator economy, and AI vision models have in common? In the case of Metanova, Bitcast, and Score, the answer is Bittensor. Yes, each of the three companies leverages the Bittensor netwo

$2.5B Chip Heist, The Future of American AI, and Purpose-Built Robots | This Week in AI Ep 6 Mar 25, 2026 01:15:25 This Week in AI sneak peak! If you enjoy the episode find us on Spotify, Apple podcasts and YouTube by looking up "This Week in AI" or by going to thisweekinai.ai This week Jason sat down with Jake Loosararian and Chris Lattner on Episode 6 of This Week in AI. Jake is the CEO and co-founder of Gecko Robotics, a company deploying purpose-built robots and AI for mission-critical infrastructure insp

Compliance Startup Scandal... Is Delve Guilty? | E2266 Mar 24, 2026 01:26:45 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist LinkedIn Jobs - https://linkedIn.com/twist Sentry - https://sentry.io/twist Plaud - http://Plaud.ai/twist Ro.co - http://Ro.co/Twist Today's show: Hustle Fund general partner Elizabeth Yin joined Jason and Alex to discuss how rapid advances in AI have changed the venture capital gam

The Drone Company Everyone Thought Was Illegal (Now Worth $4B+) | E2265 Mar 20, 2026 01:38:39 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent - https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Circle - https://circle.so/twist Netsuite - https://www.netsuite.com/twist Today's show: Zipline founder Keller Cliffton started his company with a simple premise: build automated logistics that serve everyone equally. The only problem? It was literally illegal in the US. In th

How Robinhood became a $68B company w/ Vlad Tenev Mar 18, 2026 49:42 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Deel - https://deel.com/twist LinkedIn Jobs - https://LinkedIn.com/twist. Iru - https://iru.com/twist Today's show: We've got a treat for you today on TWiST! Jason is live from LAUNCH Fest in San Francisco, where he's joined by Robinhood founder Vlad Tenev. The era of AI is here. Robinhood found success in the midst of the last great technological shif

Are Brain-Computer Interfaces Actually Ready for Humans? Mar 16, 2026 01:13:46 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Caldera + Lab - https://CalderaLab.com/TWIST Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Lemon - https://Lemon.io/twist Today's show: Computers that read your mind? Jets that are all wings? Continuously tracking your body's vital signs to live longer? We've got all that and more on the show today. First, we sat down with the CE

One Genius Rule That Made This Coffee Brand Famous | EP 2262 Mar 14, 2026 01:30:28 Legendary British ad man Rory Sutherland invented a fake business on a podcast, a coffee shop appealing to the busy commuter called "Flat White or F**k Off." But it's one thing to have a post go big on TikTok or Instagram… but to turn that viral moment into an actual COMPANY is a very different challenge. On TWiST, Jason and Lon chat with Charlie Hurst, Tom Noble, and Will Sudlow, founders of the

The Global Expansion of Self-Driving Vehicles Mar 11, 2026 01:09:19 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Circle - http://circle.so/twist Sentry - http://Sentry.io Deel - http://deel.com/twist Plaud - http://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: It's self-driving time! We're going deep on one of the most exciting spaces developing in the world, autonomous vehicles! We've got 3 experts on the show to talk to us enlighten us, Ben Seidl of Autolane, Ming Maa of Moo

How agents will change banking forever | E2260 Mar 10, 2026 01:00:39 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent - ⁠⁠northwestregisteredagent.com/twist⁠⁠ Quo - ⁠⁠quo.com/TWiST⁠⁠ Gusto - ⁠⁠Gusto.com/twist⁠⁠ Plaud - http://Plaud.ai/twist Athena - https://www.athena.com/jcal Today's show: How long until AI models can improve AI models? Once possible, recursive self-improvement by AI technology could accelerate — forever. Thus far, humans (

Wisdom of the $TAO: the future is decentralized AI Mar 6, 2026 01:08:27 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Every Banking - https://Every.io https://Lemon.io - Lemon.io/twist Wispr Flow - https://wisprflow.ai/twist Plaud - https://plaud.ai/twistRo.co - https://Ro.co/Twist Today's show: *Sure, we all love open source models, but what about completely decentralized AI? Rather than leaving the big decision-making in the hands of a few elite CEOs, shouldn't user

Is Anthropic Making the Biggest Mistake in AI History | E2258 Mar 5, 2026 01:20:56 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud - Plaud.ai/twist LinkedIn Jobs - https://LinkedIn.com/twist. Deel - https://deel.com/twist Iru - https://iru.com/twist! Today's show: It's a packed TWiST Today! WITH US, we've got Erik Voorhees of VeniceAI and Logan Allin of Fin Capital on to talk agents, crypto, and… you guessed it, OPENCLAW! Where does agentic AI meet the financial system? How

How the OpenClaw foundation bullet-proofed its future (w/Dave Morin) | E2257 Mar 3, 2026 01:14:44 This Week In Startups is made possible by:Circle — http://circle.so/twistHubspot Creators — http://clickhubspot.com/twist2Uber AI Solutions — http://uber.com/ai-solutionsToday's show: *Dave Morin joined the show today to explain how the OpenClaw Foundation came into existence, and what its goals are. Fear not, Peter Steinberger retains directional control of the project. But if you want to sustain

The Biggest Private Funding Round in History | E2256 Feb 28, 2026 01:20:18 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Deel - http://deel.com/twist Wispr Flow - https://wisprflow.ai/twist Luma AI - https://lumalabs.ai/twist Today's show: *$110 billion buys you 15% of OpenAI. Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank placed their bets on ChatGPT, which now has 900 million weekly active users and 50 million paying subscribers. Find out why Jason is anticipating the wildest J-Curve sw

Behind the Scenes with an early OpenClaw contributor! | E2252 Feb 26, 2026 01:22:12 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lemon IO - https://Lemon.io/twist Every.io - https://every.io Sentry.io- https://sentry.io/twist Today's show: We're going behind the curtain today — it's a packed show! We found Tyler Yust, OpenClaw's third EVER contributor to share his insights from within foundation! We've got Deedy Das, of Menlo Ventures, on the show to discuss whether SaaS is coo

Kill Your Startup's Knowledge Chaos with OpenClaw (with Oliver Henry and Jeff Weisbein) | E2254 Feb 24, 2026 01:18:58 This Week In Startups is made possible by:Caldera Lab - [calderalab.com/twist](https://calderalab.com/twist)Iru - [iru.com](http://Iru.com/twist)LinkedIn Jobs - http://linkedin.com/twist*OpenClaw is incredible at automating tasks. But what if it could also fix your startup's internal communication problems? Give agents shared memory, and you may be able to break down information silos while ensuri

We Asked 3 Experts How to Get More Value out of OpenClaw | E2253 Feb 21, 2026 01:08:37 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Gusto - https://Gusto.com/twist Circle - https://circle.so/twist Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Today's show: *Getting OpenClaw set up and running without destroying your bank account is one thing. But now that you have your agent or swarm operational, how can you use them to get real work done? We have three build

When Will Openclaw go Mainstream? | E2252 Feb 19, 2026 01:02:27 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Gusto - Try Gusto today and get 3 months free at gust.com/twist Crusoe Cloud - Reserve your capacity for the latest GPU's at crusoe.ai/savings Uber AI Solutions - Book a demo today at http://uber.com/ai-solutions Today's show: It's a packed show! We've got YouTuber and Openclaw enthusiast Matthew Berman, Ryan Yaneli, founder of Nextvisit, and Jason Gra

Will OpenAI Tank OpenClaw? | E2251 Feb 17, 2026 01:26:34 Will OpenAI Tank OpenClaw? | E2251 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent - https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Lemon IO - https://lemon.io/twist LinkedIn Jobs - http://linkedin.com/HiringProOffer Today's show: *OpenAI hired OpenClaw creater Peter Steinberger. What does this mean for the future of the AI virtual assistant platform, and what can the Open

OpenClaw is Our Friend Now | E2250 Feb 14, 2026 01:06:29 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Sentry - http://sentry.io/twist Circle - http://Circle.so/twist Wispr Flow - https://wisprflow.ai/twist Today's show: What makes OpenClaw feel so much more ALIVE than other AI agents? On TWiST, we're welcoming three amazing builders who are truly connecting with their OpenClaw bots, not just using them for productivity but getting to know them and

Why J-Cal Invested to 200K in a former Employee | E2249 Feb 12, 2026 40:28 This Week In Startups is made possible by: NetSuite - https://www.netsuite.com/twist Luma AI - https://lumalabs.ai/twist Squarespace - https://squarespace.com/twist Today's show: On today's epsiode of TWiST, Jason gets pitched by two top founders, Presh Dineshkumar and Peter Cetale! Presh used to work for Jason at Launch! When he left, Jason invested $200K into Presh's new startup The Well

How These 3 Founders are building on Open Claw | E2248 Feb 12, 2026 45:05 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Hubspot - http://clickhubspot.com/twist2 Deel - http://deel.com/twist Iru - http://www.iru.com/ Today's show: Today on TWiST we're joined by 3 founders building on Open Claw, Presh Dineshkumar, Vishnu, and Sean Liu! First, long time friend of the pod, Presh Dineshkumar, shows us how he's using Open Claw to automate his work at The Wellness Company

Does Clawdbot (OpenClaw) Need Eyes? (feat. Alex Finn and Matt Van Horn) | E2247 Feb 10, 2026 01:07:59 This Week In Startups is made possible by: LinkedIn - http://linkedin.com/twist Every.io - http://every.io/ Northwest registered Agent - www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Today's show: Sean Liu gave his OpenClaw "eyes" by hooking the AI assistant up to his Meta Ray Bans. While Jason and Alex consider the implications… guest expert Alex Finn quickly loses interest… It's another All-Claw

We built OpenClaw Ultron to replace 20 people at our company | E2246 Feb 7, 2026 01:10:52 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Crusoe Cloud - https://crusoe.ai/savings Lemon IO - https://Lemon.io/twist Northwest Registered Agent - https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Thanks to our guests: Alex Cheema of ExoLabs http://exolabs.net Ryan Yanneli of NextVisit https://nextvisit.ai/ Today's show: It's the Age of Ultron at TWiST and LAUNCH. We've given our OpenClaw di

Savvy is HQ Trivia + Wordle (feat. Scott Rogowsky) | E2245 Feb 4, 2026 53:42 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Circle - http://Circle.so/twist Caldera Lab - http://calderalab.com/TWIST LinkedIn - http://linkedin.com/twist Today's show: There was a time, not long ago, when offices everywhere came to a standstill, and everyone became even more fixated on their phones than usual, each time HQ Trivia went live. The app-based game show was a massive viral hit… un

Where early-stage founders MUST focus to success | E2244 Feb 3, 2026 01:07:09 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Quadratic - http://quadratic.ai/twist Today's show: Don't get distracted! Here are the MOST CRUCIAL aspects of running a startup, where founders need to keep their full and uninterrupted focus. - Make sure you're saving up your cash - Why you need to just get started and build SOMETHING - Trust and reliability is EVERYTHING for new products - Why dis

SpaceX + xAI deal gets us one step closer to Musk Industries | E2243 Feb 3, 2026 01:02:12 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Uber - http://uber.com/twist Deel - http://deel.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent - https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Today's show: SpaceX is buying xAI, forming a mega-corp that plans to launch data centers into SPACE. Will Tesla also join up, fulfilling Elon's destiny to become real-life Tony Stark, with his own Musk Industries? Ja

How OpenClaw (Clawdbot) Is Rewriting the Way Our Team Works with Rahul Sood | E2242 Jan 31, 2026 01:28:27 This Week In Startups is made possible by: Deel - http://deel.com/twist LinkedIn Jobs - http://linkedin.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent - https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Today's show: On Today's action packed episode of This Week in Startups, our team is going full AI! Jason is joined by Oliver Korzen and Lukas Durand from the LAUNCH team, alongside Rahul Sood, founder/CEO

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