Trump, Memecoins, and What to Expect from the New Administration | E2074
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2025
⏱️ 72 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s show: Jason and Alex explore America's fascination with billionaires and self-made figures, touching on recent events in Washington, DC, and the tech industry's political influence. They discuss Gen X's rising political power, tech CEOs' prominence at inaugurations, and critique Democrats' tech policies. The conversation covers economic factors in elections, like inflation and abortion rights, COVID's origins, immigration policy, and foreign policy. AI regulation under Biden and Trump's economic strategies, including crypto regulations, are debated. They also discuss Trump's impact on M&A, antitrust laws, and the startup ecosystem, with insights on tech IPOs and tax policy.
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Jason and Alex kick off the show. (1:06) Diving into recent DC events and tech's political role (3:13) Gen X's rising political influence and tech CEOs' prominence at inauguration (7:00) Discussion on tech founders' importance and criticism of Democrats' tech stance (10:17) PrizePicks. TWiST listeners, download the app today and use code TWIST to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup! Go to: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/TWIST PrizePicks - Run your game. (11:35) Economic factors influencing elections: Inflation and abortion rights (17:15) COVID origins investigation and executive orders affecting tech (19:58) OpenPhone. TWiST listeners can get 20% off your first 6 months at https://openphone.com/twist
(21:25) Steve Bannon, JD Vance, and immigration policy discussions (23:20) US potential territory expansion and foreign policy (30:23) LinkedIn Jobs. TWiST listeners can post their first job for free at https://www.linkedin.com/twist (32:13) Trump's economic strategies, legacy, and US energy production (41:23) AI and drone technology: Regulation and countermeasures (51:05) Crypto's economic value, personal freedoms, and investment risks (1:01:27) Entrepreneur wellness, Trump's EV policies, and state vs. federal regulation (1:04:23) New admin’s influence on M&A, antitrust laws, and startup ecosystems (1:09:08) Upcoming tech IPOs, tax policy, and regulatory capture discussion
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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:
(10:17) PrizePicks. TWiST listeners, download the app today and use code TWIST to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup! Go to: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/TWIST PrizePicks - Run your game. (19:58) OpenPhone. TWiST listeners can get 20% off your first 6 months at https://openphone.com/twist (30:23) LinkedIn Jobs. TWiST listeners can post their first job for free at https://www.linkedin.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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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 | there was an opportunity to embrace founders and entrepreneurship and innovation. |
| 0:06.2 | And the Democrats shoot away, capitalist, billionaires, powerful people, self-made people, |
| 0:13.5 | and I think they made a critical era, which is Americans, they actually love billionaires. |
| 0:19.0 | They love successful, self-made people. It's the best of America. |
| 0:23.0 | And the attacks on tech for specific blocking and tackling things or policies, those are all |
| 0:28.7 | valid. But it was a tremendous strategic mistake to be anti-innovation. |
| 0:33.9 | This weekend startups is brought to you by prize picks. Run your game, the best place to get real money action while watching your favorite sports. |
| 0:41.0 | Download the app today and use code Twist to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. |
| 0:46.0 | Open Phone. |
| 0:46.9 | Create business phone numbers for you and your team that work through an app on your smartphone or desktop. |
| 0:51.4 | Twist listeners can get an extra 20% off any plan for your first six months |
| 0:55.0 | at openphone.com slash twist and LinkedIn jobs. A business is only as strong as its people and every |
| 1:01.0 | hire matters. Go to LinkedIn.com slash twist to post your first job for free. Terms and conditions apply. |
| 1:06.5 | Hey everybody. Welcome back to this week in startups. I am your host, Jason Kalaganis, with me, |
| 1:11.0 | my co-host, Alex Wilhelm, and I am in our nation's capital, Washington, D.C. I came out to |
| 1:16.3 | do a party for All In. We had a nice little cocktail party, became one of the hottest tickets |
| 1:21.5 | at the inauguration, apparently. I have been going to parties, and I did a live stream for All In just before I got on here during the inauguration and now the chips are starting to fall. |
| 1:30.7 | The part ins, I guess the executive orders will start at any minute, but we're going to get |
| 1:35.3 | started here. |
| 1:36.1 | And if you are not listening to us live, just so you know, if you're part of the replay gang |
| 1:40.0 | on the podcast, we do go live three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. We're trying to make it nice and tight from 1 p.m. East Coast, 12 p.m. Texas, 10 a.m. Pacific, but sometimes we change it up. |
| 1:50.0 | And if you want to follow the docket along with us, that's this week in startups.com slash |
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