IPO Shakeups, NVIDIA’s Big Bets & Must-Know Founder Hacks | E2085
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 15 February 2025
⏱️ 80 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s show: IPO shakeups, big AI moves, and essential founder hacks—this episode covers it all. Jason breaks down Robinhood’s 6X stock surge and his strategy for $HOOD, plus the latest on tech IPOs as Turo pulls out and SailPoint surges. We dive into AI’s open-source battle, with X.ai chasing a $10B raise and DeepSeek challenging Hugging Face. And for founders, Jason shares the startup golden rule you should break for success—plus, a brand-new startup idea he’s willing to fund right now.
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Jason and Alex kick off the show.(1:51) The ‘new’ news cycle(2:17) Calming down during chaotic times(4:29) IPO updates: Turo and SailPoint, private equity, public markets, and M&A(9:37) Rental car business & sharing economy job creation
(9:53) Squarespace. Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST(12:21) Robinhood's financial performance & fintech resurgence(18:08) NVIDIA's investment in WeRide & self-driving technology(20:02) Paddle. Go to https://www.paddle.com/twist to get started with your exclusive listener fee-free period.
(21:28) Cooking, convenience, DoorDash, Uber, CloudKitchens & startup opportunities(25:45) Smart IoT devices & revisiting the mobile convenience stores idea(29:59) Lemon.io . Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist(33:12) XAI's potential funding & AI's impact on consumer behavior(40:49) Revisiting failed startup ideas & founder hacks(47:18) Customer advisory councils: size, incentives, and roles(52:09) Humanoid robots & market competition in the next decade(58:51) OpenAI model selection & user experience(1:00:56) Founder University pitches compilation(1:13:56) Audience question: Addressing criticism on Trump and Elon Musk(1:17:26) Discussion on Palantir, bias, state of journalism, and investigative reporting
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Follow Alex:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm
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Follow Jason:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
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Thank you to our partners:
(9:53) Squarespace. Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST(20:02) Paddle. Go to https://www.paddle.com/twist to get started with your exclusive listener fee-free period.
(29:59) Lemon.io . Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist*
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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Follow TWiST:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com
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Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Well, what are the most frequently used staples? What if we put them into a truck? |
| 0:05.6 | What if you park those trucks and the trucks can move? Yes. So you can have a truck with a dude |
| 0:11.5 | or a gal or a person. There we go. Gals, guys, everybody in between, don't cancel me. But what if |
| 0:19.6 | this truck existed and was optimized? |
| 0:23.0 | You open up an app, and I've got to tell Dara about this idea. |
| 0:27.0 | Imagine you open the Uber app and the convenience stores were not convenience stores. |
| 0:31.2 | They were convenience trucks. |
| 0:33.3 | They had a refrigerator, section, got everything else. |
| 0:35.1 | And now I don't know if this is feasible. |
| 0:36.4 | Somebody should definitely do it. |
| 0:37.4 | If somebody wanted to make this as a business, |
| 0:38.9 | I would be interested in a crazy logistics and tech person duo who want to do this. |
| 0:43.4 | I put you in the incubator, give you a hundred, 25K, let's model it. |
| 0:46.9 | This week in startups is brought to you by Squarespace. |
| 0:50.0 | Turn your idea into a new website. |
| 0:51.6 | Go to Squarespace.com slash Twist for a free trial. |
| 0:58.8 | When you're ready to launch, use offer code Twist to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. |
| 1:03.8 | Paddle. Self-serve software is global by default, but selling to every country is complicated. |
| 1:08.3 | Paddle's merchant of record manages payments, sales tax, chargebacks, and refunds so you don't have to. |
| 1:14.5 | Wherever you want to take your business, go there with Paddle. Go to paddle.com slash twist to get started with your exclusive listener fee-free period. And lemon.com. Get access to Lemonhire, a platform with more than 80,000 pre-vetted |
| 1:20.2 | engineers that you can interview within 48 hours. Get $2,000 off your first hire at lemon.io |
| 1:25.1 | slash hire today. All right, everybody, welcome back to this weekend startups. |
... |
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