This Week in Startups

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Today’s show:

Anthropic and OpenAI released cheaper models on the same day with Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6, and these VCs would still bet on open source. Jason brings on Dave McClure of Practical Venture Capital, Jeff Clavier of Uncork Capital, and Jenny Fielding of Everywhere Ventures to discuss the argument for open-weight models over the frontier labs.

Learn why median seed valuations have more than tripled since 2017. Why does Dave say it's a buyer's market for secondaries right now? PLUS, does Meta's Muse leave any room for Instinct, and why are fintech and healthcare suddenly out of favor?

Guests:

Dave McClure on X: https://x.com/davemcclure?lang=en Practical Venture Capital: https://practicalvc.com/

Jeff Clavier on X: https://x.com/jeff Uncorked Capital: https://uncorkcapital.com/

Jenny Fiedling on X: https://x.com/jefielding Everywhere Ventures: https://www.everywhere.vc/

Relevant Links:

Instinct reportedly seeking $1B at a $10B valuation (report via The Information) → https://cryptobriefing.com/ai-assistant-startup-instinct-targets-10b-valuation-in-new-funding-talks-report/

Meta's Muse, the agent the panel sees as Instinct's biggest threat, now on Mac → https://aiweekly.co/alerts/meta-ships-muse-for-mac-agent-now-acts-in-native-macos-apps

Trump calls Jensen Huang onstage at the All-In Summit → https://thenextweb.com/news/trump-phoned-jensen-huang-onstage-at-the-all-in-summit-to-call-ai-fear-a-hoax

AI-assisted intel error nearly triggered a US intercept of a Chinese ship (CNN via gCaptain) → https://gcaptain.com/ai-error-nearly-triggered-u-s-intercept-of-chinese-ship-cnn-reports/

Bernie Sanders' 50% AI sovereign wealth fund bill + Altman meeting (Fortune) → https://fortune.com/2026/06/18/bernie-sanders-ai-fund-bill-sam-altman-1000-payments/

Stanley Druckenmiller's AI-written WSJ op-ed (Axios) → https://axios.com/2026/08/26/stanley-druckenmiller-ai-writing-wsj-op-ed

Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Sol/Luna launch the same day with price cuts (SiliconANGLE) → https://siliconangle.com/2026/09/22/anthropic-releases-claude-opus-5-5-and-openai-counters-with-two-cheaper-gpt-6-models/

Zipline: LAUNCH's "miss," later backed through the syndicate → https://www.flyzipline.com/

Micro1 → https://www.micro1.ai/

Founder University → **https://www.founder.university/** [VERIFY]

The Syndicate: angel invest alongside LAUNCH (apply, waitlist) → **https://thesyndicate.com/**

Timestamps:

0:00 What seed rounds looked like then: Fitbit's $2M seed

3:15 Jenny's Techstars NYC years and the two-unicorn mug

7:51 All-In Summit: Trump calls Jensen Huang onstage. Staged or not?

8:56 P(doom) roundtable + Dave's AI sovereign wealth fund prediction

10:08 Northwest Registered Agent - Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain

13:35 The AI intel error that nearly triggered a US-China incident

17:44 "McClure's Law": a human with AI is the real risk

19:59 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist

21:37 Stripe + OpenRouter: an anti-fraud play, not a routing play?

23:07 Seed valuations: median $8M (2017) to $28M today

23:58 Instinct: $2.5B to a reported $10B in weeks

29:49 Rippling - Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.

44:01 Opus 5.5 vs. GPT-6 Sol: the same-day price war

46:51 Gun to your head: open-weight models or frontier labs?

51:00 Secondaries: the top 30 names vs. everyone else

52:30 Why fintech and healthcare are unloved (and Jason's Robinhood bet)

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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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Today’s show:

Elon revives the Hyperloop, promising a 30-minute commute between Austin and San Antonio. It's the kind of project that could reshape how Texans think about getting between two major cities entirely. Then, Jason and Lon explain why this pitch is different from the other Boring Company tunnels.

Learn why President Trump wants to rename artificial intelligence itself and launch an "AI Force." It's a move that could reshape how the government talks about AI policy going forward. PLUS, a new startup's model refuses to write a single word of text, and it is 5 to 18 times faster with better accuracy. It's a completely different approach to how AI agents make decisions, and it might be a preview of where the industry heads next.

Relevant Links:

"Elon Musk's latest Boring Company pitch involves a Hyperloop between Austin and San Antonio" → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/20/elon-musks-latest-boring-company-pitch-involves-a-hyperloop-between-austin-and-san-antonio/

The Boring Company → https://www.boringcompany.com/

Elon Musk's original 2013 Hyperloop white paper → https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/blog_images/hyperloop-alpha.pdf

Trump's Truth Social post proposing "Superior/Extreme/Supreme Intelligence" and announcing an AI Force and AI czar → https://www.unite.ai/trump-proposes-renaming-artificial-intelligence-announces-ai-force/

TechCrunch: "Trump says it's time to rebrand AI with a new name — and he's also creating an AI Force" → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/19/trump-suggests-rebranding-ai-with-a-new-name-says-hes-also-creating-an-ai-force/

Vercel AI Open vs Closed Source Volume Chart → https://vercel.com/ai-gateway/leaderboards/models

TypeSafe AI — makers of Jev, the "System One Model" → https://typesafe.ai/

TypeSafe AI blog: "Introducing System One Models & Jev" → https://typesafe.ai/blog/introducing-system-one-models-and-jev

GeekWire: "Amazon blocks Meta's Muse AI assistant in new standoff over agentic shopping" → https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-blocks-metas-muse-ai-assistant-in-new-standoff-over-agentic-shopping/

Meta's Muse — the AI agent Amazon blocked from shopping on its site → https://www.meta.ai/

"Meta's Dina Powell McCormick: The Case for Data Centers, Backlash, AI Job Boom & Meta's Future" (All-In Podcast, YouTube) — the clip discussed on the show → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp2IbgJ5Z-8

Robocurve's RoboHarm report — the robot-safety benchmark discussed on air → https://robocurve.org/roboharm/

RoboHarm on GitHub (tasks, protocol, and tooling) → https://github.com/robocurve/roboharm

Timestamps:

0:00 Elon Musk revives the Hyperloop: a 30-minute Austin–San Antonio tunnel

1:03 A brief history of Hyperloop and the white paper

9:34 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist

20:32 DigitalOcean - Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today — and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%.

21:40 News: Trump proposes an "AI Force," an AI czar, and renaming AI itself

22:49 "Get back to work, nerds"

30:22 Lightfield - Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you — it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app

31:56 TypeSafe's Jev, a "System One" model built to decide, not chat

39:49 Amazon blocks Meta's Muse AI agent

49:57 Dina Powell McCormick's tense All-In Summit exchange with Jason

1:02:38 Off-Duty: Robocurve's RoboHarm benchmark

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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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This Week In Startups is made possible by:

Superhuman: http://superhuman.com/ Paypal: http://paypal.launch.co Odoo: http://Odoo.com/twist Plaud: http://Plaud.ai/twist Harmonic: http://harmonic.ai/

Today’s show:

Hugging Face built a $399 open-source robot duck as a side quest, and sold 16,000 units off a single tweet. Co-founder Thomas Wolf joins Jason and Lon to explain Microduck happened, why storage is the company's real business, and what it felt like to get hacked by OpenAI's agents.

Jason takes apart Gavin Newsom's new AI "kill switch" executive order: if these models are so dangerous, why not start with the same KYC every bank already requires? PLUS, Snap’s new AI-integrated glasses could be a game-changer.

Guests:

Thomas Wolf on X: https://x.com/Thom_Wolf Hugging Face: https://huggingface.co/

Relevant Links:

Hugging Face — https://huggingface.co/

Microduck — https://pollen-robotics.com/microduck/

Pollen Robotics — https://pollen-robotics.com/

OpenAI: the Hugging Face incident and the road ahead — https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/

Governor Newsom's executive order — https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/californias-newsom-issues-executive-order-to-weigh-ai-oversight-including-kill-switch-3a98040f

Anthropic Wet Lab — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/18/anthropic-quietly-sets-up-biology-lab-as-it-ramps-ai-drug-program-report.html

Lucid and Bolt to deploy 25,000 autonomous EVs across Europe — https://electrek.co/2026/09/17/lucid-bolt-25000-autonomous-evs-europe/

Snap opens pre-orders for Specs at $2,195 — https://www.specs.com/

Ray-Ban Meta Display — the $799 comparison https://www.meta.com/ai-glasses/

Clavicular at All-In Summit — https://x.com/clavicular/status/2099994778616348811?s=20

Physical: 100 (the Korean original) → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical:_100

Bad Therapy — https://www.abigailshrier.com/

Full Show Notes and Transcript from Pluad: https://web.plaud.ai/s/pub_194de893-8c55-4d77-81db-a6b278159a44::o9QfImqCq5VS0F_dqm4J93eTeyb-GsIeXCLwqASnvYAmt5f59OLQz5-VN1epnq6DBLoZWFales_7IbgC

Timestamps:

0:00 Guest: Thomas Wolf, co-founder & chief science officer, Hugging Face

4:17 Two years to build Microduck

8:43 How Hugging Face actually makes money: storage, not tokens

10:16 Superhuman - Superhuman Go is an AI chat that's always there when you need it, already aware of what you're doing, and doesn't ask you to start from zero. Sign up to get the best in AI at https://superhuman.com

17:18 Vibe-coding robotics: "train this new behavior for me"

20:00 PayPal - Pay zero processing fees on your first $100K in eligible PayPal payment volume. Learn more at https://paypal.launch.co

23:20 Thomas Wolf's P-doom and the airplane-safety analogy

25:18 The Nvidia acquisition and what changes for open models

29:57 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist

38:39 Inside the Hugging Face breach: stolen credentials and basic mistakes

43:33 News: Newsom's executive order and the frontier-model "kill switch"

45:04 Jason's counter-proposal: liability, insurance, and KYC for AI

1:00:08 News: Lucid and Bolt to put 25,000 robotaxis on European roads

1:10:01 News: Snap opens pre-orders for $2,195 Specs AR glasses

1:21:43 Off-Duty: Clavicular, the All-In Summit

1:31:01 Off-Duty: Physical 100 goes to Italy and Mexico

Subscribe to TWiST on Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com/

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Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis

Follow TWiST:

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Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

Superhuman:⁠ http://superhuman.com/⁠ Paypal:⁠ http://paypal.launch.co⁠ Odoo:⁠ http://Odoo.com/twist⁠ Plaud:⁠ http://Plaud.ai/twist⁠ Harmonic:⁠ http://harmonic.ai/⁠

Today’s show:

Hugging Face built a $399 open-source robot duck as a side quest, and sold 16,000 units off a single tweet. Co-founder Thomas Wolf joins Jason and Lon to explain Microduck happened, why storage is the company's real business, and what it felt like to get hacked by OpenAI's agents.

Jason takes apart Gavin Newsom's new AI "kill switch" executive order: if these models are so dangerous, why not start with the same KYC every bank already requires? PLUS, Snap’s new AI-integrated glasses could be a game-changer.

Guests:

Thomas Wolf on X:⁠ https://x.com/Thom_Wolf⁠ Hugging Face:⁠ https://huggingface.co/⁠

Relevant Links:

Hugging Face —⁠ https://huggingface.co/⁠

Microduck —⁠ https://pollen-robotics.com/microduck/⁠

Pollen Robotics —⁠ https://pollen-robotics.com/⁠

OpenAI: the Hugging Face incident and the road ahead —⁠ https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/⁠

Governor Newsom's executive order —⁠ https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/californias-newsom-issues-executive-order-to-weigh-ai-oversight-including-kill-switch-3a98040f⁠

Anthropic Wet Lab —⁠ https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/18/anthropic-quietly-sets-up-biology-lab-as-it-ramps-ai-drug-program-report.html⁠

Lucid and Bolt to deploy 25,000 autonomous EVs across Europe —⁠ https://electrek.co/2026/09/17/lucid-bolt-25000-autonomous-evs-europe/⁠

Snap opens pre-orders for Specs at $2,195 —⁠ https://www.specs.com/⁠

Ray-Ban Meta Display — the $799 comparison⁠ https://www.meta.com/ai-glasses/⁠

Clavicular at All-In Summit —⁠ https://x.com/clavicular/status/2099994778616348811?s=20⁠

Physical: 100 (the Korean original) →⁠ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical:_100⁠

Bad Therapy —⁠ https://www.abigailshrier.com/⁠

Full Show Notes and Transcript from Pluad:⁠ https://web.plaud.ai/s/pub_194de893-8c55-4d77-81db-a6b278159a44::o9QfImqCq5VS0F_dqm4J93eTeyb-GsIeXCLwqASnvYAmt5f59OLQz5-VN1epnq6DBLoZWFales_7IbgC⁠

Timestamps:

0:00 Guest: Thomas Wolf, co-founder & chief science officer, Hugging Face

4:17 Two years to build Microduck

8:43 How Hugging Face actually makes money: storage, not tokens

10:16 Superhuman - Superhuman Go is an AI chat that's always there when you need it, already aware of what you're doing, and doesn't ask you to start from zero. Sign up to get the best in AI at https://superhuman.com

17:18 Vibe-coding robotics: "train this new behavior for me"

20:00 PayPal - Pay zero processing fees on your first $100K in eligible PayPal payment volume. Learn more at https://paypal.launch.co

23:20 Thomas Wolf's P-doom and the airplane-safety analogy

25:18 The Nvidia acquisition and what changes for open models

29:57 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist

38:39 Inside the Hugging Face breach: stolen credentials and basic mistakes

43:33 News: Newsom's executive order and the frontier-model "kill switch"

45:04 Jason's counter-proposal: liability, insurance, and KYC for AI

1:00:08 News: Lucid and Bolt to put 25,000 robotaxis on European roads

1:10:01 News: Snap opens pre-orders for $2,195 Specs AR glasses

1:21:43 Off-Duty: Clavicular, the All-In Summit

1:31:01 Off-Duty: Physical 100 goes to Italy and Mexico

Subscribe to TWiST on Substack:⁠ https://twistartups.substack.com/⁠

Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple:⁠ https://rb.gy/v19fcp⁠

Follow Lon:

X:⁠ https://x.com/lons⁠

Follow Jason:

X:⁠ https://twitter.com/Jason⁠

LinkedIn:⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis⁠

Check out all our partner offers:⁠ https://partners.launch.co/⁠

Great TWIST interviews:⁠ Will Guidara,⁠⁠ Eoghan McCabe⁠,⁠ Steve Huffman⁠,⁠ Brian Chesky⁠,⁠ Bob Moesta,⁠⁠ Aaron Levie⁠,⁠ Sophia Amoruso⁠,⁠ Reid Hoffman⁠,⁠ Frank Slootman⁠,⁠ Billy McFarland⁠

Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters:⁠ https://substack.com/@calacanis⁠

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

The TWiST AI Basics series is made possible by Google for Startups!
Build context-aware AI workflows using DeepMind models and orchestration tools with Google for Startups' new Startup technical guide on generative media. Get the guide here: https://goo.gle/technical_guide

Today's show:
The demo works, the vibes are immaculate, but then the app falls apart the second real users touch it. On today's AI Basics, Temporal co-founder and CEO Samar Abbas says the problem isn't with the model at all. You're missing a harness, the layer that keeps an AI agent's work durable, secure, and recoverable if/when something breaks.
Temporal's durable execution platform is used by major companies from OpenAI to Stripe to Netflix, and helps to make their long-running software reliable and interruption-free.
On AI Basics, he explains why so many AI-coded prototypes die in the imagineering stage, before ever hitting production. Plus he walks Jason through Temporal's live dashboard, to show how it gives developers full visibility into what their agents are doing at every step.
Guest and Relevant Links:
Samar Abbas on X: https://x.com/SamarAtTemporal
Temporal: https://temporal.io/
Temporal raises $550M at a $12.55B valuation: https://temporal.io/blog/temporal-raises-usd550m-series-e-at-usd12-55b-valuation-ai
GeekWire: Samar Abbas on the "massive platform shift" in AI: https://www.geekwire.com/2026/temporal-ceo-samar-abbas-on-the-massive-platform-shift-in-ai-fueling-the-startups-5b-valuation/
Temporal expands Google Cloud partnership: https://temporal.io/blog/temporal-expands-google-cloud-partnership-with-pay-as-you-go-pricing
Timestamps:
0:00 Why every startup needs an AI harness
2:12 Why 90% of AI prototypes never reach production
4:16 What happens when an agent crashes mid-task
7:00 A look at Temporal's dashboard
13:02 OK but what is a "harness" exactly?
15:30 When to graduate an agent from laptop to production
17:44 Organizing agents into teams

Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

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X: https://twitter.com/Jason
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

Thank you to our partner!
Build context-aware AI workflows using DeepMind models and orchestration tools with Google for Startups' new Startup technical guide on generative media. Get the guide here:
https://goo.gle/technical_guide
Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

Check out our suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@thisweekininc

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