HuggingFace Buys Pollen Robotics, DHH & Bezos Founder Advice & a JCal Origin Story | E2111

This Week in Startups

Jason Calacanis

Technology

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today’s show: In this episode, Jason, Alex, and Lon dive into Blue Origin’s all-female celeb spaceflight (yes, Katy Perry sang on reentry), Hugging Face’s unexpected move into robotics, and Jack Dorsey’s wild take that we should “delete all IP law.” Plus, they break down Figure AI’s eye-popping $39B valuation, the risks of SPVs, and what founders and investors can learn from the SPAC boom. As Jason puts it: “You just have to assume an 80% failure rate.”

Timestamps:

(0:00) Jason kicks off the show!

(1:34) Blue Origin all-female crew launch and space tourism

(7:17) Emerging technologies and tech adoption trends

(10:07) Northwest Registered Agent. Form your entire business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Get more privacy, more options, and more done—visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist today!

(12:38) Hugging Face acquires Pollen Robotics; Open AI and robotics debate

(19:42) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST

(20:42) Significance of Hugging Face in generative AI; Jack Dorsey's IP law stance

(25:01) U.S. high-tech job market; revisiting IP law discussions

(30:03) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist

(31:03) IP law and American innovation(32:22) Challenges in startup exits and secondary trading platforms

(37:09) Figure AI's valuation controversy

(46:37) Startup insights and investing perspectives

(50:39) Jeff Bezos on risk assessment

(57:03) Jason’s personal journey and reflections

(1:02:06) Developing a samurai mindset; societal systems abstraction

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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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Transcript

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0:00.0	Out of these specs, there will be a FedEx, an Amazon. There'll be some great company that comes out of this.
0:07.1	You just have to assume an 80% failure rate. Now, when I say 80% failure rate, I mean a zero.
0:12.7	Yeah. Lose all your money. Right. Space tourism. When I saw that one come up, I was like,
0:16.5	that's a hell Mary. If you're betting on that, you should expect this to be one in 250.
0:21.6	Now, if you're betting on Joby, I would take it from one in 250 down to one in 50. And that's
0:28.0	just what I do for a living is to make these assessments. It's taken me a lot of pain and
0:33.6	suffering to get that skill. Right. Yeah. Man, there are so many companies. A lot of lessons learned along the way.
0:38.9	There are so many companies, Lon, that I thought we're going to do so much better.
0:43.5	That went to zero.
0:44.5	And there are so many that beat my estimations unbelievably that I would have put behind those
0:51.5	other companies, man.
0:52.3	There's so much randomness in this.
0:53.9	And the randomness is really the founding team.
0:56.7	This Weekend Startups is brought to you by Northwest Registered Agent.
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	...

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