This Week in Startups
Episodes
Are AI Agents forming "civilizations" or is this just a psy op? | 2332
This episode critiques Dorkesh Patel’s viral article on AI “agent civilizations” as performative PR hype designed to drive OpenAI adoption, warning…
Breaking down Nvidia's Hugging Face and Poolside bets | E2331
The episode opens with analysis of a joint open letter by AI leaders warning of imminent cyber threats, suggesting it is PR damage control following OpenAI’s agent hacking Hugging Face.
You Can't Fire a VC From Your Board: Here's Why | Wilson Sonsini Startup Legal Basics
In this Startup Basics episode, host Jacob and lawyer Becky DeGraw discuss board composition, explaining when founders should establish a board and how investor seats are allocated.
China wants you to cheer for the robots taking your job | E2329
Jason Calacanis and Lonny Grafman discuss China’s World Robot Olympics, praising its PR strategy for humanizing AI compared to US skepticism.
Open source is going to win it all: Harvey proves it | E2328
Jason Calacanis and Lon Harris discuss the shift toward open-source AI, citing Harvey’s move to build proprietary models to protect client data from frontier providers like OpenAI.
Taste is the new programming language (w/ Astrocade CEO Amir Sadeghian) | AI Basics
Jason interviews Amir Sadagian, CEO of Astrocade, about his AI platform that lets users create and share interactive games via natural language prompts.
Neurosymbolic AI outperforms chatbots and product search | E2327
This episode features Zach from Ontology, who demonstrates a neurosymbolic AI model that enables precise, real-time aesthetic search for e-commerce…
Bittensor creator Const on Affine, dTAO, "mining reasoning," and more | E2326
Jason Calacanis interviews Jacob Steves, founder of Bittensor, on how the platform applies Bitcoin’s permissionless mining model to artificial intelligence.
What we'll learn from Anthropic's $2-$3T IPO | E2325
Jason Calacanis and Lon Harris critique the saturation of AI note-takers and Zoom’s feature bloat before analyzing Anthropic’s projected $3 trillion IPO and its $6 billion acquisition of Descartes AI.
These robots could cut delivery costs by 80% | Next Unicorns
Kevin Gibbon, CEO of Cytronic, discusses using robotics to slash e-commerce fulfillment costs by 80% for small sellers through micro-fulfillment centers.
Zuck's AI manifesto is a data center PR masterclass | E2323
This Week in Startups analyzes Mark Zuckerberg’s 6,500-word AI manifesto, interpreting it as a strategic PR campaign to secure public support for new…
How AI splits startups into winners and losers | E2322
The hosts analyze recent earnings from Figma, Twilio, and Airbnb, discussing how AI adoption and stock-based compensation impact valuations.
Airtable's 80% off value crash: VCs explain why it's still a win | E2321
This Week in Startups features a VC roundtable with Nico Banastas, Rick Heitzman, and Aditya Argawal discussing the "SaaSpocalypse" and Bending Spoons' acquisition of Airtable.
How Bespoke faked AI until it actually worked (w/ Akemi Tsunagawa) | E2320
Host Arunachalam Ramamurthy interviews Akimi Soagula, founder of Bespoke, about her three ventures addressing Japan’s labor shortages and tourism boom.
Why AI has no taste and how to fix it (w/ Thais Castello Branco) | E2319
Hosts Lon and Jason interview Thais Castelo-Branco of Taste Labs, discussing how AI lacks subjective taste and how her company uses human experts to improve model outputs.
Banning Chinese robots isn't regulatory capture | E2318
While other cultivated meat companies are collapsing, this one turned a profit | E2317
Host Cho discusses Japan’s startup ecosystem and Kaizen culture before interviewing Dr.