Is OpenAI Really Worth $300B? ElevenLabs’ Series C & YC’s Funding Focus | E2079
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 February 2025
⏱️ 73 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s show: The AI revolution is about to hit your household—Jason and Alex break down how general-purpose robots, AI-powered chicken coops, and voice clones are redefining daily life and work. They dig into OpenAI’s sky-high valuation, the surprising rise of DeepSeek’s R1 model, and why the AI cost curve is dropping at an insane pace. Plus, the latest on AI hardware, antitrust battles, and why the “No Buy 2025” trend could change how we think about consumer tech.
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Jason and Alex kick off the show. (3:10) Episode topics overview and fan participation (5:48) Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses discussion (9:27) Paddle. Go to https://www.paddle.com/twist to get started with your exclusive listener fee-free period. (11:05) 11 Labs' Series C funding and voice cloning technology (18:09) Automation's impact on jobs and ethical considerations (20:05) Northwest Registered Agent. For just $39 plus state fees, Northwest will handle your complete business identity. Visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist today.
(21:22) Market trends towards sustainability and AI in smart chicken coops (27:04) Y Combinator's AI startup focus and investment considerations (29:47) Scalable Path. Get 20% off your first month at https://www.scalablepath.com/twist (31:42) AI in compliance, auditing, and personal staff replacement (35:06) AI development tools, hardware investments, and data trust issues (39:29) AI company valuations, OpenAI's revenue, and AI commoditization (51:04) AI ethics, SoftBank's strategy, and audience questions on AI hardware (59:27) Government AI funding, DOJ suit, and tech industry commoditization (1:09:21) AI advancements, consumer electronics costs, and computing hardware trends (1:12:08) Closing thoughts on technology's impact on life and teaser for next week
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
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Thank you to our partners: (9:27) Paddle. Go to https://www.paddle.com/twist to get started with your exclusive listener fee-free period. (20:05) Northwest Registered Agent. For just $39 plus state fees, Northwest will handle your complete business identity. Visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist today. (29:47) Scalable Path. Get 20% off your first month at https://www.scalablepath.com/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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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're literally going to have an optimist robot, you know, a middle class, upper middle class household, somebody who could afford a Tesla, you know, 10 years ago, like $100,000, $100,000, a month robot, general purpose robot, getting those eggs, using the AI on that coop to know that the foxes are there, chase the foxes, grab the eggs, make scrambled |
| 0:21.2 | eggs, make you a frittata to your specification. Wait for it. It's coming. Bring it. This weekend |
| 0:27.2 | startups is brought to you by Paddle. Self-serve software is global by default, but selling to every |
| 0:32.7 | country is complicated. Paddle's merchant of record manages payments, sales tax, chargebacks, and refunds so you don't have to. 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. Northwest Registered Agent. Starting your business should be simple. With Northwest Registered Agent, you can form your entire business identity in just 10 clicks in 10 minutes. From LLCs to trademarks, domains to custom websites, they've got you covered. |
| 0:57.5 | Get more privacy, more options, and more done. |
| 0:59.7 | Visit northwest registered agent.com slash twist today. |
| 1:02.7 | And scalable path. |
| 1:04.5 | Since 2010, Scalable Path is connected businesses with top-tier remote developers deeply vetted and ready to deliver. |
| 1:10.1 | From JavaScript to |
| 1:10.9 | machine learning, they've helped over 300 companies tackle big projects and scale faster. |
| 1:15.0 | Visit scalable path.com slash twist for 20% off your first month. |
| 1:18.8 | All right, everybody, welcome back to this week in startups. Alex Wilhelm, Jason Calacanis here. |
| 1:23.6 | Three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or about an hour in 15 to an hour and 30 on the live stream. |
| 1:30.1 | And then we added that down to the best 50 to 60 minutes for the podcast for the replay crew. |
| 1:34.5 | If you want to watch us live, just search for this weekend start on YouTube. |
| 1:38.0 | And then you can follow me, x.com slash jason, x.com slash Alex. |
| 1:42.6 | We go live on my X account. |
| 1:43.9 | We also go live on LinkedIn, which has a very |
| 1:45.5 | cool live product as well. Today is Friday, January 31st. Can you believe it? But I am super |
| 1:51.5 | excited because I'm not as sick as I've been the last. Literally it would be two weeks as of |
| 1:56.7 | Monday when I got hit at the, yeah. I mean, you got hit January 20th, literally at the day of the |
| 2:02.0 | inauguration. I got hit with this influenza A and then some kind of deep lung thing, but I'm out |
... |
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