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This Week in Startups
Description

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.

Episodes
  • 2025 / 8 / 29
    KPop Demon Hunters breaks records, Grok speeds up, and an AI-powered browser deep dive | E2171

    Today’s show:*“KPop Demon Hunters” is one of the year’s biggest smashes… AFTER Sony sold it off to Netflix for cheap! Hear about what went wrong with one of the year’s worst deals…PLUS Grok is counting on...

  • 2025 / 8 / 28
    Market Update and Trends w/ Becki DeGraw | Wilson Sonsini Startup Legal Basics

    Today’s show:Wilson Sonsini Partner Becki DeGraw returns to Startup Legal Basics with Jason to break down what’s happening in today’s startup market. From excess dry powder on the VC side to companies...

  • 2025 / 8 / 27
    Google is Nano Banana, Apple AI plans & The Great H1B Visa Debate | E2170

    Today’s show:On a brand-new TWiST, Jason and Alex are asking why there are SO MANY note-taking AI apps?Plus another death has been linked to ChatGPT… is it too easy to get past chatbot guardrails? Why Donald...

  • 2025 / 8 / 26
    xAI’s App Store lawsuit, Intel shares vs. grocery stores, and Netskope’s IPO | E2169

    Today’s show:On an upbeat and optimistic new TWiST, Jason and Alex are debating why any new innovation or technology gets hit with a wave of bitter cynicism.PLUS Jason defends the government taking shares of...

  • 2025 / 8 / 22
    Do Kwon Guilty, Powell Pivot & OpenAI’s $12B Run Rate | E2168

    Today’s show:Terra’s collapse, Powell’s pivot, and OpenAI’s explosive growth all collide in this TWiST deep dive.Do Kwon has pled guilty after Terra/Luna’s $60B implosion, Fed Chair Powell hints at a...

  • 2025 / 8 / 20
    Is Chalk.ai the ‘Next Databricks’? + Tollbit’s Bot Paywall for AI Agents | E2167

    Today’s show:In this TWiST 500 double feature, Alex sits down with two breakout founders: Chalk’s Marc Freed-Finnegan & Tollbit’s Toshit Panigrahi!First, Chalk’s CEO Marc Freed-Finnegan is tackling one of...

  • 2025 / 8 / 19
    Scaling AI Photo Editing to 300M Users with Photoroom’s Matt Rouif | AI Basics with Google Cloud

    In this AI Basics episode, Jason sits down with Matt Rouif, Co-founder & CEO of Photoroom — the AI photo editing app with 300M+ downloads and 5B images processed annually.They break down:Why Photoroom...

  • 2025 / 8 / 18
    Decart makes AI faster, Lume teaches lamps to fold laundry | E2166

    Today’s show:We’re back with two insightful new TWiST founder interviews.First up: Dean Leitersdorf of Decart tells us about squeezing maximum productivity out of your GPUs. But it’s not all talk: he also...

  • 2025 / 8 / 15
    Meta’s “Sensual” AI Doc LEAKS, Opendoor’s dreams became memes +  OpenAI plans $1T data center spend | E2165

    It’s a Friday TWiST and Jason and Alex are FIRED UP about this internal Meta doc laying out appropriate vs. inappropriate AI behavior… You won’t BELIEVE with what Zuck approves for 8-year-old users.PLUS… AI...

  • 2025 / 8 / 14
    The End of the ZIRP Era, and why recruiting is SO PAINFUL | E2164

    Today’s show:We’re back with another all-star VC roundtable discussion.Joining Jason are Dave McClure of Practical VC, NVNG’s Grady Buchanan, and Tomasz Tunguz of Theory VC. Together, they’re having a deep...

  • 2025 / 8 / 12
    GPT Psychosis is spreading, the NYT is Super-Doxxing Zuck, and Trump is wetting his beak on Chinese chip exports | E2163

    Today’s show:On an all-new Monday TWiST, Lon joins Jason and Alex to talk about a whole bunch of stories at the intersection of tech, business, and pop culture.First up, is GPT Psychosis real? And if so, what...

  • 2025 / 8 / 8
    GPT-5 comes alive, Apple is struggling, and Ripple bought Rail | E2162

    Today’s show:Jason and Lon recorded a Thursday night special edition, so no Alex this time, but still lots to talk about.First up, Jason thinks it’s time for Tim Apple to exit the stage in lieu of a product...

  • 2025 / 8 / 7
    Communist coffee hits NYC, RIP Hulu, GPT-5 arrives and more | E2161

    Today’s show:It’s a brand-new PACKED episode of TWiST. Jason and Alex welcome guest Zach Dive of Adam.new, to tell us why he made a deepfake AI ad starring Jason and the All-In besties.PLUS a rundown of the...

  • 2025 / 8 / 5
    Lina Khan’s Figma victory lap, Meta’s Superintelligence Team, BYD mega car-carrier video & MORE | E2160

    Today’s show:Jason and Alex are running down the biggest tech, startup, and business stories of the day on a brand-new Monday TWIST.Which countries are leading the AI race, based on academic papers? Why Jason...

  • 2025 / 8 / 1
    TWiST 500 interviews with Cortical Labs, Turing, AND Mercor | E2159

    Today’s show:Alex is back with three more awesome interviews with founders on the bleeding edge of innovative tech.Dr. Hon Weng Chong walks us through the basics of biological computing and Cortical Labs’...

  • 2025 / 7 / 30
    All Star Investor Panel! Sophia Amoruso and Ryan Hoover | E2158

    Today’s show:It’s another All Star Investor Panel! Jason and Alex welcome TrustFund VC founder Sophia Amoruso AND WeekendFund investor/Product Hunt founder Ryan Hoover.Together they’re going DEEP on the...

  • 2025 / 7 / 29
    Figma IPO, IMAX AI Festival, the Tea app spill, that one Sydney Sweeney jeans ad, and more! | E2157

    Today’s show:SYDNEY SWEENEY’S AMERICAN EAGLE AD DIVIDES OUR PANEL!PLUS WHAT STARTUPS CAN LEARN FROM THE VIRAL ASTRONOMER RESPONSEJason, Alex, and Lon are looking at some of the biggest media stories of the...

  • 2025 / 7 / 25
    Behind the scenes at the ALL-IN AI SUMMIT w/ POTUS, JD Vance, Jensen Huang, Lisa Su, and more… | E2156

    Today’s show:Jason’s back and filling us in on his experiences in Washington DC, at the All-In AI Summit, including getting a Trump shoutout from stage, debating immigration with VP Vance, and calling out...

  • 2025 / 7 / 23
    AUTOMATING HEALTH CARE, THERMODYNAMIC COMPUTING, AND PRODUCT VELOCITY | E2155

    Today’s show:TWiST is back with a three more hugely insightful (and also fun!) founder interviews.First up, Trey Holterman from Tennr tells us why getting in to see a specialist is so time consuming, and how...

  • 2025 / 7 / 21
    Manufacturing in the US, Building in Open Source… and more | E2154

    Today’s show:TWiST is back with a trio of can’t miss interviews with some of our favorite TWiST 500 founders.First up, John Jeremy Harris of Harbinger Motors tells us about making his EV batteries right here...

  • 2025 / 7 / 18
    Inside Substack’s $100M Push to Fend Off Beehiiv | E2153

    Today’s show:WHY DOES @SUBSTACKINC NEED $100M IN NEW FUNDING?HOW DO THEY PLAN TO STAY AHEAD OF @BEEHIIV?Jason and Alex are debating the future of indie publishing on an all-new TWiST, considering the future...

  • 2025 / 7 / 17
    Thinking Machines’ RECORD seed round, VC Geoff Lewis, and MORE | E2152

    Today’s show:Jason and Alex tackle a full tech and business news docket on today’s show, including Jason’s big SF trip with Launch Accelerator’s 34th cohort, some peculiar social media posts from VC Geoff...

  • 2025 / 7 / 14
    Blitzhiring and the Complicated Case of Windsurf, OpenAI and Google | E2151

    Today’s show:On today’s show… Jason and Alex are considering the fallout of Windsurf’s OpenAI deal, the company’s latest agreements with both Google and Cognition AI, and how “blitzhiring” is actually playing...

  • 2025 / 7 / 12
    Grok 4 Beats OpenAI + The $300 AI Agent Era | E2150

    Today’s show: Grok 4 just leapfrogged OpenAI to become the top AI model—and it’s not just hype. In this episode, @Jason and @alex break down Grok’s AGI-level performance, the massive drop in LLM pricing, and...

  • 2025 / 7 / 10
    Orchestrating Smarter AI Systems with AI21 Labs’ Yoav Shoham | AI Basics with Google Cloud

    In this episode of AI Basics, Jason sits down with Yoav Shoham — Stanford professor emeritus and co-founder of AI21 Labs, creators of Jurassic-2, Wordtune, and the new orchestration system Maestro.They...

  • 2025 / 7 / 9
    Starlink + Tesla? $4T Nvidia? Perplexity Browser? Linda Yaccarino Steps Down? | E2149

    On a brand new TWiST, Jason and Alex ponder… What if every Tesla doubled as a Starlink-powered Wi-Fi hotspot? Plus, Nvidia’s historic $4T valuation, Perplexity’s fancy new AI browser that literally books...

  • 2025 / 7 / 9
    Cloud Seeding, Conspiracies & the Texas Floods | BONUS EPISODE!

    Today’s show:Cloud seeding startup Rainmaker faced a viral backlash after deadly floods in Texas—so @Jason hosted an emergency X Spaces with founder Augustus Doricko to unpack what really happened. Did...

  • 2025 / 7 / 7
    Exits Are Back, QSB Stock & The New America Party? | E2148

    Today’s show:Startup exits are heating up with $67.7B in Q2 activity, QSBS just got a major expansion, and Robinhood is pushing boundaries with tokenized SPVs. In this episode, @Jason and @alex break down...

  • 2025 / 7 / 2
    Startup Valuations, Biotech’s Crunch & AI’s Massive TAM | E2147

    Today’s show:It’s another blockbuster panel of insiders, as Alex sits down with Astasia Myers from Felicis, Matt Turck from First Mark Capital, and D.A. Wallach of Time BioVentures. AI is reshaping...

  • 2025 / 7 / 1
    The Grammarly–Superhuman Megadeal, plus TWiST 500 chats with LabelBox and Apptronik’s founders | E2146

    Today’s show:Grammarly is acquiring the beloved email app Superhuman! In today’s extremely timely episode, @alex sits down with Grammarly CEO Shishir Mehrotra and Superhuman founder Rahul Vohra to unpack why...

  • 2025 / 6 / 30
    Rebuilding Civilization from First Principles: Inside Balaji’s Network State Vision | E2145

    Today’s show: Jason sits down with Balaji Srinivasan in Singapore to explore how he's turning years of theory into reality with Network School—the first node of a broader vision for internet-native,...

  • 2025 / 6 / 27
    Travis’ Uber Comeback, AGI’s Stakes, Meta’s $100M AI Hires & Prediction Market Gold Rush | E2144

    Today’s show:EVs are igniting a global tariff war, and Xiaomi’s shockingly cheap, high-quality electric cars threaten to obliterate Western automakers, sparking fears of a manufacturing wipeout. In today’s...

  • 2025 / 6 / 26
    Multi-Agent AI, Open Protocols & Startup Acceleration with Saurabh Tiwary | AI Basics

    In this episode, Jason dives deep into the future of multi-agent systems with Saurabh Tiwary, VP & GM of Cloud AI at Google. They explore how teams of AI agents—not just single models—can collaborate to solve...

  • 2025 / 6 / 26
    VC Roundtable: Recruiting Secrets, Second-Time Founders & Product-Market Fit Myths | E2143

    Today’s show:In this powerhouse VC roundtable, @Jason sits down with Sequoia’s Doug Leone and Cyberstarts’ Gili Raanan to share brutally honest insights on startup recruiting, evaluating second-time founders,...

  • 2025 / 6 / 24
    AI Producers, Tesla Robotaxis & the Rise of the “Tiny Teams” Era | E2142

    Today’s show:Tesla’s robotaxi launch, AI producers, job destruction, and smart toilets? In this episode of This Week in Startups, @Jason and @alex break down Tesla’s cautious rollout strategy, how AI is...

  • 2025 / 6 / 21
    The Strip Mining Era of LLMs—And Why It’s About to End | E2141

    Today’s show:AI has been feasting on the open web—but is the free lunch over? In this explosive episode, @Jason and @alex call out OpenAI and others for “strip mining” the internet’s content without paying...

  • 2025 / 6 / 18
    From Drones to Dystopia: The Future of Jobs, Fires & Meta’s AI Land Grab | E2140

    Today’s show:In this episode, @Jason and @alex explore how AI is reshaping the economy—from Pano AI’s $44M raise to fight wildfires with drones, to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s memo foreshadowing white-collar job...

  • 2025 / 6 / 17
    Meta, Scale, and the Future of AI Labeling: Did Zuck Just Kill a Category? | E2139

    Today’s show:Meta just took a 49% stake in Scale AI, and the shockwaves are hitting the entire AI ecosystem. In this episode, @Jason and @alex unpack the deal’s implications: Google ($150M customer!) and...

  • 2025 / 6 / 13
    Stripe’s Crypto Wallet, M&A Momentum, and Robots Replacing Soul-Crushing Jobs | E2138

    Today’s show:In this episode of This Week in Startups, @Jason and @Alex break down Stripe’s big bet on crypto wallets with its latest acquisition of Privy, the return of major M&A activity from Meta,...

  • 2025 / 6 / 12
    TWIST VC Roundtable: Startup Valuations, Secondary Markets & the YC Revenue Illusion | E2137

    Today’s show: Alex moderates a TWIST VC Roundtable with Jason, Paige Doherty (Behind Genius), and Altimeter’s Megan Reynolds about the state of early-stage venture capital. They break down the rise of...

  • 2025 / 6 / 10
    YC Valuations, VC Slowdown, and Office Hours with CustomerIQ | E2136

    Today’s show: Jason and Alex dive into why Y Combinator startups are raising at sky-high valuations with relatively low ARR—what does that mean for investors and founders? VC funds are slowing down and...

  • 2025 / 6 / 7
    Circle’s IPO Soars, The Future of VC and Cursor’s Crazy Growth | E2135

    Today’s show: Jason and Alex dicuss stories shaping the tech and startup world: Circle’s explosive IPO and what it signals about crypto regulation and public market sentiment, the potential for tokenized...

  • 2025 / 6 / 4
    Anthropic Cuts Off Windsurf, Deel Rewrites the Narrative and Flock Safety’s Surveillance Tech | E2134

    Today’s show: Alex and Lon discuss Windsurf getting abruptly cut off from Anthropic just before a rumored $3B acquisition by OpenAI, sparking questions around platform risk and foundation-model politics; Deel...

  • 2025 / 6 / 2
    Grammarly’s $1B Round, Brain Computers, and NYT Licenses To Amazon | E2133

    Today’s show: Jason and Alex discuss the hottest tech and startup news: Grammarly secures a massive $1B investment from General Catalyst to fuel its AI ambitions and expand into deeper enterprise offerings; a...

  • 2025 / 5 / 30
    How AthenaHQ and Browser Use Are Building the Next Layer of the Internet | E2132

    Today’s show: Alex interviews two cutting-edge startups shaping the future of AI: AthenaHQ, pioneering “GEO” (Generative Engine Optimization) to help brands rank in AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT and...

  • 2025 / 5 / 28
    Google’s AI Design Tool, Salesforce’s $8B Comeback Deal, and M&A Momentum Builds | E2131

    In this episode, we cover three major stories shaping the startup and tech landscape. First, Google unveils Stitch, an AI-powered web design tool with one-click export to Figma—signaling a major disruption...

  • 2025 / 5 / 23
    Apple’s Tariff Trouble, Anthropic’s New Models, and Our Founder Friday Finale | E2130

    Today’s show: Trump takes aim at Apple with a potential 25% iPhone tariff, Anthropic releases two powerful new Claude models claiming top performance in coding tasks, and two founders go head-to-head in the...

  • 2025 / 5 / 22
    David Friedberg on AI-First Startups & the Future of Biology, Business & Creativity | AI Basics with Google Cloud

    In this episode, Jason chats with David Friedberg—CEO of Ohalo Genetics and co-host of the All-In Podcast—about how AI is transforming agriculture and startups. David introduces Ohalo’s "Boosted Breeding"...

  • 2025 / 5 / 21
    Jony Ive Joins OpenAI, Waymo Hits 10M Rides, and How to Launch a Marketplace from Scratch | E2129

    Today’s show: Jason and Alex dicsuss Jony Ive's $6.5B deal with OpenAI and what it means for the future of AI hardware, Tesla’s push into robotaxis vs. Waymo’s 10M paid rides, and Microsoft’s latest move...

  • 2025 / 5 / 20
    Drones, Design, and Digital Espionage | E2128

    Today’s show: Jason and Lon explore the wild edges of tech innovation and regulation — from a student-built acoustic weapon that takes down drones (without harming humans) to the legal gray areas of drone...