Economic Chaos, More Pitch Madness & the Shopify AI Manifesto | E2108
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 2025
⏱️ 87 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s show: Jason and Alex unpack a wild week in tech and the markets — including a fake tweet that moved $4 trillion and Trump’s latest tariff talk. Lon jumps in for another round of Founder Fridays Pitch Madness, where four early-stage startups compete for a spot in the Elite Eight. Plus, Alex chats with Sunny Khamkar, CEO of MenuData, about how AI is revolutionizing the food industry. They also dive into how founders should rethink their runway, what Shopify’s bold AI memo means for the future, and whether VCs are placing earlier bets to chase that $1M ARR milestone. Don’t miss the founder pitches and a fresh take on AI-powered food trend tracking!
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Jason kicks off the show!
(2:11) Market chaos, tariffs, and their effects
(5:59) Economic uncertainty: Advice for founders
(8:00) Tariffs' potential impact on tech sectors
(9:58) Fidelity Private Shares℠ - Visit https://www.fidelityprivateshares.com ! Mention our podcast and receive 20% off your first-year paid subscription.
(13:27) SignalFire's billion-dollar fund
(17:32) Achieving significant startup revenue and its importance
(20:20) Coda - Empower your startup with Coda’s Team Plan for free—get 6 months at https://www.Coda.io/twist
(21:54) Krea's $87 million raise and subscription model analysis
(27:33) Big tech's influence on niche subscription services
(30:02) Gusto - Get three months free when you run your first payroll at http://gusto.com/twist
(31:09) AI advancements: Midjourney v7 and voice activation
(36:43) Shopify's AI Manifesto
(41:00) Founder Friday bracket updates
(57:16) Founder Q&A: Lessons for first-time founders
(1:05:00) MenuData's CEO Sunny Khamkar interview
(1:16:10) MenuData's pricing, customer base, and growth plans
(1:23:38) AI's vertical impact and Menu Data's strategy
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Links from the show:
Check out MenuData: https://www.menudata.ai/
Check out Krea: https://www.krea.ai/
Check out Tobi Lutke’s ”AI Manifesto” https://x.com/tobi/status/1909251946235437514
Check out Pitchfire: https://www.pitchfire.com/
Check out CREATANT: https://www.creatant.com/
Check out Vidala Labs: https://vidalalabs.com/
Check out Kippy: https://kippy.ai/
Follow Sunny Khamkar:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunny-khamkar-84b905a
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Follow Alex:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm
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Follow Lon:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lonharris
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Follow Jason:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
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Thank you to our partners:
(9:58) Fidelity Private Shares℠ - Visit https://www.fidelityprivateshares.com ! Mention our podcast and receive 20% off your first-year paid subscription.
(20:20) Coda - Empower your startup with Coda’s Team Plan for free—get 6 months at https://www.Coda.io/twist
(30:02) Gusto - Get three months free when you run your first payroll at http://gusto.com/twist
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Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
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Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
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Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If this was, we're starting to get from 4D chess to like 70 chess, but this is the world we live in. |
| 0:06.2 | We live in conspiracy land. |
| 0:07.9 | It's clown world. |
| 0:09.5 | What if somebody said, what would happen if we put a 90-day pause on? |
| 0:13.6 | I wonder what the markets would do. |
| 0:15.5 | And then we roll it back. |
| 0:17.0 | And it's like, sure enough, if you say 90 day pause, everybody then falls back into the |
| 0:22.8 | camp of these tariffs are negotiating tactic. They're not going to happen for the long term. |
| 0:28.0 | I will tell founders, now is a good time. Founders need to have plan B and plan C ready to go at all |
| 0:34.2 | times. And then there's what we call cockroachach Strategy. This is like Plan C or D. |
| 0:39.3 | Cockroach strategy is everybody's laid off. |
| 0:41.9 | We still have the IP. |
| 0:42.8 | The website's up and running. |
| 0:43.9 | And there's somebody getting paid $5,000 a month to maintain the entity. |
| 0:49.1 | And we'll see if the market comes back and we'll be able to fight another day. |
| 0:53.7 | If you're in cockroach mode, you're pretty much shutting down with the optionality of maybe being able to restart things. |
| 0:59.9 | But it's kind of like being in a coma for a startup. |
| 1:02.2 | And I do see people do that. |
| 1:03.5 | And I rarely see people come out of a coma. |
| 1:05.3 | But once in a while, you do. |
| 1:07.3 | This weekend startups is brought to you by Fidelity Private Shares. If you want the all-in-one equity |
| 1:12.3 | management platform, FidelityPrivate Shares has you covered. Visit FidelityPrivate shares.com. |
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