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This Week in Startups

Jason Calacanisthisweekinstartups.com
Jason Calacanis covers startups, tech, markets, media, and all the hottest topics in business and technology. He also interviews the world’s greatest founders, operators, investors, and innovators.
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Episodes

E1086: Supporting founder mental health at Freestyle Capital with Josh Felser, Caren Maio & Mani Kulasooriya

Josh's Medium post on founder mental health: https://medium.com/@joshmedia/for-the-love-of-founders-d50b405f42a3 Hoffman Institute: https://www.hoffmaninstitute.org/ Meru Health: https://www.meruhealth.com/ Check out Freestyle Capital: https://freestyle.vc/ Check out Funnel Leasing: https://funnelleasing.com/ Check out Codify: https://codify.ai/ Follow Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis

Jul 21, 20201 hr 27 min

Founders: Pitch Thousands of Angel Investors over Zoom at Remote Demo Day!

Submit your application at https://remotedemoday.com/ Jason Calacanis & TheSyndicate.com will select seven startups to pitch thousands of angel investors on July 28th. We held our first Remote Demo Day in June, where 5 of the 7 companies that pitched received over $200K in commitments from Jason's Syndicate.

Jul 10, 20204 min

Learn how to be an Angel Investor from Jason Calacanis at Angel.University Online!

Register: https://www.angel.university/online In this workshop, I share my lessons from deploying over 70 million dollars of capital in over 200 startups, including Uber, Robinhood, Calm, Wealthfront, and others. You'll learn how to source and negotiate deals, evaluate startups, and manage your portfolio. If you're an accredited investor, visit https://www.angel.university/online to learn more and register today.

Jun 30, 20203 min

All-In E4: Politicizing the pandemic, Police reform, Biden’s ideal VP, Twitter vs. Facebook on free speech & more with David Sacks & David Friedberg

Follow @chamath: https://twitter.com/chamath Follow @jason: https://twitter.com/Jason https://linktr.ee/calacanis 0:01 Jason checks in on Chamath, Sacks & Friedberg, opening up their social circles, outdoor activities & more 9:31 Issues with politicizing matters of public health, deaths decreasing while new cases spike, masks, lockdowns & more 20:56 Viral videos, doxxing bad behavior & cancel culture 25:39 Reforming law enforcement, separating police from the military, changing p...

Jun 21, 202045 min

E1077: “Alchemy” Author Rory Sutherland on the Darwinian approach to business, analyzing outliers, why eccentric CEOs have a psychological advantage with customers & more!

1:00 Jason intros "Alchemy" author Rory Sutherland 3:45 Architecture is the cheapest way to buy art 6:01 How Rory is dealing with quarantine, why he prefers working from home, and will businesses be more efficient post-COVID? 14:12 What is Rory's job, why you should strive to create your own job title, treating the free market as Galapagos Island, using the Darwinian approach to business & analyzing outliers 19:47 Why some business successes are due to psychological discoveries: Red Bull, Dy...

Jun 19, 20202 hr 20 min

E1076: The Power of Accelerators E9 Sunny Madra, Head of Ford X on innovating mobility for a post-COVID world, going from idea to product at a large corporation & more

0:52 Jason intros Ford X's Sunny Madra 4:39 How Sunny got his start in Accelerators working on Tinder with Hatch Labs at IAC 11:47 What is Ford X's thesis on mobility and how do they decide whether to buy or build a company? 16:18 How does Ford X evaluate new ideas & how do they source talent? Sunny speaks about his personal investment in Cabana 22:56 Going from idea to product at a large corporation like Ford 29:29 Assessing risk-taking in early-stage ventures at a major company 35:02 How C...

Jun 18, 20201 hr 3 min

E1075: Cendana Capital’s Michael Kim on investing in Seed funds as a serial LP, Robinhood as an acquisition target, greatest Seed funds of all time & more

0:38 Jason talks about the now fully-virtual LAUNCH Accelerator and intros Cendana Capital's Michael Kim 2:47 What is a fund of funds & why do they exist? History of raising Cendana's first fund 6:06 Portfolio construction of fund of funds 10:19 Why ownership percentage is paramount, ideal ownership % for Seed funds, what makes a great Seed fund manager 17:04 How do fund of funds make money? 18:51 Hedging bets by selling secondary shares to generate liquid cash for LPs 24:33 Michael on Call ...

Jun 16, 20201 hr 14 min

E1074 News: How VC can do better for underrepresented founders, Zoom shuts down Chinese pro-democracy accounts, Wall Street Bets, Reddit appoints YC CEO Michael Seibel to BoD & more with Lolita Taub & Tom Uebel

0:01 Jason intros Tom Uebel & Lolita Taub 5:17 George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protests impacting Venture Capital, Angela Benton's tweets about her bad experience with Cowboy Ventures, how can VC move forward and be better towards underestimated founders? 17:37 Lolita & Jason reflect on some imperfect investor moments towards founders 23:55 How investor bias towards underrepresented founders manifests itself 28:23 Tom on focusing on diversity in hiring at the earliest stage of a companie...

Jun 12, 20201 hr 29 min

E1073: The Power of Accelerators E8 Mike Jones, CEO of Science shares insights on what makes a great Direct-to-Consumer Founder, investing early in Dollar Shave Club, economics of a venture-studio & more!

0:32 Jason speaks on current events and intros Science CEO Mike Jones, how they met after selling their companies to AOL 6:02 What is Science and how has it evolved since being started in 2011? Why did they pivot away from the startup studio model? 12:43 What are the economics of a venture-studio? 15:25 Defining the 3 scenarios of a "lifestyle-business" 18:41 Founders sharpening their skills through hardship, how Mike experienced that at MySpace 25:48 Investing in Dollar Shave Club, insights on ...

Jun 10, 20201 hr 13 min

E1072 Ask Jason: Growing as a leader, managing more experienced employees as a young CEO, Consumer SaaS pricing tips, bull markets post-COVID & more

0:01 Jason teases today's questions 2:09 Luai: Is Uber still a hyper-growth company? 5:25 Weston: Advice on getting in front of/selling to startups/enterprises outside of our immediate VC network? 8:13 Martin: Do you have any resources, insights, or methods about how to get to the right price for a consumer subscription service? 12:58 Topher: What is a good shipping cadence for new code? How often should I be pushing code to production and releasing new updated versions of my app? 15:42 Delane: ...

Jun 09, 202043 min

Announcement: Learn how to become a professional angel investor at Angel.University Online

Angel.University Online is a 3-hour course for individuals interested in becoming professional angel investors. Hosted by Jason Calacanis & Mike Savino, the course focuses on five key topics: sourcing deals, evaluating startups, negotiating deals, portfolio and bankroll management, and post-deal efforts. Register: https://www.angel.university/events

Jun 09, 20202 min

E1071 Ask Jason: Black Lives Matter, Post-COVID tech hubs, Founder/VC disputes, bringing manufacturing back to the US, pre-selling SaaS products & more

Jason on CNBC: https://youtu.be/V6oqvDnuAgI 0:01 Jason intros today's questions 1:51 Aaron: Thoughts on Black Lives Matter? 9:06 Joe: How can startups play a role in bringing manufacturing back to the US? 14:46 Alex: Any tips on pre-selling a SaaS product? 17:38 Arthur: How should I prepare to be a great Syndicate member in the future? In a perfect world, what does the Syndicate become? 21:13 Matthew: You often talk about founders needing to be in SV in order to be close to the action. Post-COVI...

Jun 05, 202041 min

E1070: The Power of Accelerators E7 Ravi Belani, Managing Director of Alchemist Accelerator on why the best entrepreneurs love the process, risk-taking, sourcing & investing in Justin.tv at DFJ & more

0:20 Jason intros Alchemist's Ravi Belani 3:41 Why is Alchemist named after Paulo Coelho book? What is the biggest benefit of Accelerators? 5:47 Ravi's background at DFJ, sourcing the Justin.tv investment 15:02 Why Ravi left DFJ to start Alchemist 21:52 How many companies have gone through Alchemist and what is their standard deal? 28:21 Why accelerators take more risk than VC firms 35:07 The best entrepreneurs love the process 38:35 How are Alchemist's programs structured? Did they have trouble...

Jun 03, 20201 hr 5 min

E1069: Alexis Ohanian on Reddit’s crypto origins, turning VC into a team sport at Initialized, improving as an investor, fatherhood & more

1:02 Jason welcomes Alexis Ohanian to the show and asks about the Reddit sale & re-joining for the turnaround 3:39 Why was Reddit "the last website standing" from all of the Web 2.0 sales in the early 2000s? 6:05 History of Reddit Gold, future of micropayments & what will Reddit's Blockchain venture entail? 14:59 Future of creators being able to monetize using micropayments, policing speech on Reddit 19:45 Fatherhood, being a Girl Dad, balancing personal life & work life 29:12 What i...

Jun 03, 20201 hr 7 min

E1068 AMA: NEA’s Ben Narasin takes questions from founders: most important content in a pitch deck, COVID’s impact on dealmaking, traits he looks for in founders & more!

NEA's Ben Narasin takes questions from founders: most important content in a pitch deck, COVID's impact on dealmaking, traits he looks for in founders & more! Join the TWiST Slack: https://launchevents.typeform.com/to/kLq5Bi Follow Ben: https://twitter.com/bnarasin 1:13 Paul: Has the current crisis changed your investment thesis? If so, how? 2:40 Ash/Christopher: How to overcome the money raised vs revenue generated in enterprise SaaS that requires heavy product work to reach product-market ...

May 30, 202049 min
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