This Week In Startups - Audio

Frank is the Chairman & CEO of Snowflake, a company he joined and rapidly accelerated in 2019. Frank led Snowflake to the largest software IPO in history (his third massive IPO as CEO). Previously, he grew Data Domain from $0 in revenue in 2003 to a ~$776M IPO in 2007 and then grew ServiceNow to a $22B market cap. In this episode you will learn the principles Frank uses to achieve outlier outcomes. 1 - Attracting and cultivating performing talent. Getting the wrong people off the bus fast is critical. Frank prefers "drivers" to "passengers." 2 - Without risk-taking, the business will stagnate. Left to their own devices things slow to a "glacial pace." CEOs should push to find the true limits of the organization. 3 - Intellectual honesty is required. Copy-pasting strategy from previous roles is unacceptable. You need to develop deep conviction, while maintaining humility to course correct when you are wrong. 4 - Culture and reputation are defined by your actions. CEOs must maintain an incredibly high bar. Ge

First, Jason covers the how Signal messages led to the Oath Keeper sedition indictments (1:47) and how Google, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter are being subpoenaed by the House committee investigating Jan 6th, 2021 (15:32). Then Producer Rachel has an "OK Boomer" segment where she talks with Alex Masmej a French entrepreneur about his experience raising $20K from selling a personal token, $ALEX (27:10).

First Jason covers the recent college enrollment decline (1:23) and lays out his alternative (9:56). Then Zach Coelius joins for an Ask an Angel session, where they answer 12 audience questions about investing and startups (20:37). You will learn: - What is the definition of an outlier success in VC? - Are investors okay with founders that use no-code software like Bubble as an MVP? - How does a seasoned investor deal with a founder who is headed in the wrong direction? - Common pitch failures? - When should you go for top line versus bottom line? - Would VC funds do better with individuals instead of institutions? - What industries Zach and Jason would like to see disrupted - How much of an impact does bad reputation have on investing? - What makes a good Board Meeting? - As a VC, is it better to stay off the board from a liability standpoint? - What is too expensive at the seed stage?

First we talk about how the top streaming platforms projected to spend $140B on content in 2022 (2:18) and Elizabeth Warren’s bad take on grocery stores. Then Mac the VC joins the show as the first guest for Angel Season 6 (49:29) to share his story and how he invests.

First Jason and Molly discuss YC's new $500K deal for startups and what that means for founders and early stage investors (1:53). They also dig into car-sharing app Turo's S-1 (25:32). Then Redfin Co-founder and current Deep Sentinel CEO Dave Selinger joins to discuss how his company blends human monitors and AI-enabled cameras to deliver an unmatched security camera experience (38:25).

We cover the tech stock pullback (1:34), discuss the impact of the SEC exploring more restrictions and disclosures for late stage private companies (12:00) and share details about Apple’s mixed reality headset are leaking (37:07). We wrap with a new segment... over/under(45:11)!

Welcome to our new Sunday show. Each episode will have two segments, Sunday VC School and Climate startups. First, Jason and Molly discuss early-stage investing including, Jason's valuation vs. traction matrix (1:44) and developing a BS detector (23:03). Then Jason introduces Molly's new climate segment (27:15) and then Molly interviews New Energy Nexus CEO Danny Kennedy (33:38). They discuss what Danny looks for in clean energy investments(37:03) and more! Valuation vs. Traction Matrix: https://calacanis.com/2019/03/30/the-valuation-vs-traction-matrix

Jason and Molly cover how 15% of the world’s bitcoin mining network went down when Kazakhstan’s internet was shut off (3:11) and Chainalysis' scam report (12:32). Then they do a "We Live in the Future" segment about AI created actors (16:49) and “Memes of the Week” review of Marc Andreessen's tweets (25:32). Finally, Producer Rachel wraps with an "OK Boomer" interview with YouTube creator and software engineer Ben Awad (38:43).

First, Jason and Molly cover how the Twitter competitor GETTR got 700K+ downloads this week (2:25) and discuss the challenges of moderating a social media platform (15:54). Then, they quickly cover how the NYT is reportedly buying the Athletic for $550M (21:13). To wrap, we have an interview with Jiho Zirlin from Axie Infinity, the multi-billion dollar NFT game (32:15). They talk about how "play to earn" games actually work (40:11), balancing an in-game economy (53:33), renting Axies and how "guilds" work (58:05), digital land (1:03:42) and more!

In this all news show, Jason and Molly cover Toyota & Volkswagen committing a combined $170B to take on Tesla’s EV dominance (2:30), NFT platform OpenSea raising a $300M Series C at a $13.3B valuation (20:08), China’s tight grip on tech causing job loss and accelerating company closure (44:50), and how Ben Smith from the NYT is teaming up with Bloomberg Media’s CEO to launch a new media company (56:52).

Jason and Molly cover Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes guilty verdict (1:47), how even socialists have admitted that Amazon is the best place many people have ever worked (40:08). To wrap they dig into Biden’s new sanctions against China the implications from decoupling our economies (56:16).

Jason and Molly cover how QuickCommerce startup JOKR lost $159 per order in the US in August (1:54), the state of startup valuations (25:57), Jason's case of COVID & the state of testing (32:00), OpenSea freezing over $2M worth of stolen NFTs (52:28) and they wrap with quick recap of the latest chapter of Web 3 Twitter beef featuring AirBnB CEO Brian Chesky and Box Founder Aaron Levie (58:24).

Jason hosts "The 2021 TWISTY Awards" where we give out 10 awards for top podcast moments from this year including: the most surprisingly awesome guest (02:17), best chemistry (04:48), best live moment (23:43), most awkward moment (28:51), funniest moment (36:51), best guest (45:19) and more! At the end he has a short "after-party" discussion with producers (50:58). Thank you for listening, this is our last planned episode of 2021.

Jason is joined by This Week in Startups' new co-host Molly Wood for a news show. First they cover why Molly joined the TWiST team (1:24), then they dig into the Web3 wars erupting on Twitter (24:00) and break down Rivian's Q3 earnings (51:45). Producer's note: this is our only podcast this week

Praying for Exits, the top meme account in Venture Capital joins to discuss being a pseudonymous commentator (01:13), why VCs spend too much time brand building (12:37), entitlement in tech (23:47), assessing founders and companies qualitatively and quantitatively (35:46), crazy VC stories (52:10) plus so much more!

First Jason covers Melania Trump launching an NFT series (02:27) and Reddit just filing to go public(13:10). Then, Twitter's Tony Haile joins (24:14) to talk about selling his startup Scroll to Twitter, helping lead Twitter's product team (37:07), Twitter's roadmap and more.

First Jason covers the Mayo clinic's promising new signs for mRNA cancer treatment (02:02), Google's firm vaccine policy (07:41) and the Better.com CEO stepping away after last week's meltdown (16:39). Then, Jason brings on three founders he has invested in and chats with them about their company: SupporTrends co-founder Oliver Rowen on customer insights (25:23), Wearwell co-founder and CEO Erin Houston on sustainable fashion (37:11), and PaidBack co-founder Amber Masters on budgeting an paying off debt (50:15).

All news show! First Jason gives an Elizabeth Holmes trial update and reveals the key point the prosecution missed (2:12). Then he covers, Nike acquires an NFT company (14:17), $USDT becoming an official currency of a shadow government in Myanmar (31:55), how “The Hangover” director Todd Phillips made $150M on the trilogy (36:58) and the Japanese billionaire who delivered UberEats to the international space station (44:55).

First, Jason breaks down the math of why Peloton might be undervalued (3:23). Then, the founder and CEO Rad Power Bikes Mike Radenbaugh joins to discuss building a massive ebike company (15:36), the most innovative features, ebike regulation and cites. Then, *spoiler alert* Jason gives his top takeaways from the Succession season three finale recap (01:05:58) and Producer Nick pitches a storyline to work Jason into season four. At the end of the show Jason and Nick discuss the strategy and behind the scenes of producing All-in (01:32:20).

First, Jason plays "Guess the Fake Startup" (1:30). Then, Jason interviews four founders he invested in (12:50): David Park from Jenni.ai about computer copywriting assistants (18:08), Samuel Spitz from Wearloom on aggregating the resale marketplace shopping experience (28:11), Sudhama Bhatia from Track about his premium calendar client (40:35) and Marie Ng from Llama Life on building a time-based productivity tool (51:05). To wrap up the show, we have an "OK Boomer" segment where Producer Rachel talks with Gen Z marketer Erifili Gounari (01:13:25)