Robot Lifeguards, TapCheck’s Payday Play & Thalamus’s Wild Market Share | E2115
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2025
⏱️ 77 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s show: Jason and Lon break down the biggest stories in tech and startups this week: OpenAI’s new models are powerful but glitchy, Meta’s internal docs hint that Zuck knows the Facebook friends graph is toast, and fintech startup TapCheck might actually be doing some good. Plus, robot lifeguards and humanoid races — the wildest videos of the week and what they mean. Then, Alex sits down with Jason Reminick, founder of Thalamus, the platform that helps match medical residents to hospitals (with 85% market share!). They talk about becoming a Public Benefit Corp and how Thalamus is tackling the doctor shortage in the U.S.
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Jason kicks off the show(1:43) OpenAI's new models and issues with Wikipedia as AI knowledge bases
(8:27) FTC antitrust case around Meta; breaking up big tech
(11:13) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST
(13:04) Tapcheck's impact on employee retention and minimum wage variations
(19:56) 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!(24:31) New company Revel's safety software
(27:14) Humanoid robot marathon in Beijing
(30:15) Brex. Get the business account trusted by 1 in 3 US startups at https://brex.com/banking-solutions
(35:46) New color discovery “Olo”
(40:30) Blue Sky is Falling: Robots, delivery, surveillance, and privacy concerns(55:20) Alex sits down with Jason Reminick of Thalamus
(56:01) Thalamus and the medical residency application process
(59:42) AI in residency applications and standardizing medical school grades
(1:03:30) Thalamus' market share and collaboration with medical associations
(1:10:08) Impact of budget cuts on rural hospitals and business model expansion
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Links from episode:
Check out Thalamus: https://www.thalamusgme.com/
Check out the Robot Lifeguard: https://oceanalpha.com/product-item/dolphin1/
Check out TapCheck: https://www.tapcheck.com/
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Follow: Jason Reminick
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-reminick-md-mba-ms-bb251645/
Thalamus on X: https://x.com/ThalamusGME/status/1757812695787581485*
Follow Lon:
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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:
(11:13) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST
(19:56) 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!
(30:15) Brex. Get the business account trusted by 1 in 3 US startups at https://brex.com/banking-solutions
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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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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
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| 0:00.0 | This is going to be the future of emergency rescue. |
| 0:03.4 | So here we're seeing the dolphin one. |
| 0:05.4 | This is going to be a brave new world where people are going to be drowning. |
| 0:10.7 | And these things are going to do such a better job because you can't drown one of these. |
| 0:15.4 | One of the big problems is rescuers getting drowned by the person they're trying to save. |
| 0:19.4 | When you're drowning, you panic and you just grab onto somebody. |
| 0:21.9 | Yeah. |
| 0:22.3 | So look at this. |
| 0:23.1 | They're sending a little flotation device with motors in it, and it zips super fast on the top of the water. |
| 0:29.4 | You go find the person. |
| 0:30.5 | There's a remote control. |
| 0:32.0 | The person just grabs onto it and gets taken in. |
| 0:34.8 | Imagine this thing was just on the side of that oil rig. |
| 0:37.8 | And if somebody splashed into the water... |
| 0:39.6 | You just sensed them and zipped out. |
| 0:41.6 | It just sensed that they had fallen in, men overboard. |
| 0:44.0 | Boom, it goes and gets them. |
| 0:45.5 | Same thing for, you know, on a cruise ship. |
| 0:47.8 | These things will be on the sides of cruise ships. |
| 0:50.6 | There'll be cameras waiting for somebody to fall in. |
| 0:53.8 | It will easily know the signature, |
| 0:56.0 | and then boom, go do it. |
... |
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