This Week in Startups

This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
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Today’s show:
It’s a News and Off-Duty weekend roundup!
AngelList’s USVC fund is open to anyone with $500, but it’s getting pushback on social media. Do the critics have a point?
A Special Forces soldier made $409K betting on the military’s capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Is the world just a big casino now?
And a NYT podcast defends shoplifting and explores “social murder.” Find out why Jason says they crossed the line.
Plus: Why you should teach your kids about investment and more, Off-Duty streaming and book recommendations.
Related Links
USVC: https://usvc.com/
AngelList: https://www.angellist.com/
Naval Ravikant on X: https://x.com/naval
“Don’t Listen to the Peanut Gallery; USVC is a Watershed Moment” by Hari Raghavan: https://x.com/haridigresses/status/2047503944839016681
@Covered_Call USVC tweet: https://x.com/covered_call/status/2047020060900733306
Forge Global: https://forgeglobal.com/
Calm: https://www.calm.com/
Full DOJ indictment of Gannon Ken Van Dyke: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-soldier-charged-using-classified-information-profit-prediction-market-bets
NYT “The Opinions” podcast: “The Rich Don’t Play by the Rules. So Why Should I?” https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000010849055/the-rich-dont-play-by-the-rules-so-why-should-i.html
Hasn Piker on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/hasanabi
New Yorker: Jia Tolentino: https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/jia-tolentino
NYT: Nadja Spiegelman: https://www.nytimes.com/by/nadja-spiegelman
Jia Tolentino on X: https://x.com/jiatolentino
Garry Kasparov on X: https://x.com/kasparov63
Prof G Media: https://www.profgmedia.com/
Kids Investment Club: https://www.kidsinvestmentclub.com/
Time stamps:0:00 Intro
1:18 Naval's $500 VC Fund Explained
5:54 Should You Trust Critics With 2K Followers?
7:21 Learn By Betting — Jason's Philosophy
10:10 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
12:30 The Maduro Polymarket Scandal
13:28 Should the Military Bet on Missions?
19:55 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist
29:32 NYT Defends Theft & "Social Murder"
30:28 There Is No Moral Equivalence
33:41 The Nepo Baby Behind the Article
35:42 Prof G's "Resist & Unsubscribe" Movement
37:54 Walk The Walk — Hasan, Bernie & Performative Outrage
44:49 Teaching Kids About Money
48:21 The Rich Get Richer & The Poor Stay Poor
Off Duty Recommendations
“The Complete Maus” by Art Spiegelman: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Maus-Art-Spiegelman/dp/0679406417
“Thinking in Bets” by Annie Duke: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Bets-Making-Smarter-Decisions/dp/0735216355
“Queen of Chess” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pmJgtLKBXg
Greenlight app: https://greenlight.com/
Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.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
v
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

This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
Render - https://render.com/twist
Agree - https://agree.com
Ro - https://Ro.co/Twist
Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist

Today’s show:

The US military is running low on missiles, but now, Firehawk Aerospace is using 3D-printed solid rocket propellant to cut production costs in half and 5x U.S. output.
Plus: PhD researcher Maruchi Kim just built camera-equipped earbuds that perform on par with Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and could be the next wearable AI platform hiding in plain sight.
Guests
Will Edwards: https://x.com/williewockets
Firehawk Aerospace: https://firehawkdefense.com/
Maruchi Kim: https://x.com/maruchikim
VueBuds project: https://vuebuds.cs.washington.edu/
Related Links
This Week in AI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/
“Ghost Murmur: The Heartbeat-Tracking Tech That Has Experts Questioning the Laws of Physics”: https://www.military.com/feature/2026/04/18/ghost-murmur-heartbeat-tracking-tech-has-experts-questioning-laws-of-physics.html
Neurometric: https://www.neurometric.ai/
Meta Ray-Bans: https://www.meta.com/ai-glasses/
Hanwha Defense USA: https://www.hanwhadefenseusa.com/
Raytheon: https://www.rtx.com/
Pilatus PC-24 corporate jet: https://www.pilatus-aircraft.com/en/pc-24
PlaneSense: https://www.planesense.com/
Slopes app: https://slopesapp.com/
Speechify: https://speechify.com/
Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://www.eff.org/
Timestamps:
0:00 Are all these layoffs really AI's fault?
8:51 Why laid off people should start their own companies
9:27 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
13:18 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
15:25 Will Edwards of Firehawk joins the show
15:46 What are Solid Rocket Motors (SRMs)?
20:06 Render: Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to https://render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers.
23:10 Who are Firehawk's customers?
24:25 Reimagining and reinventing the US military
28:35 How do missiles fit into the military's operations?
29:34 Agree - Stop chasing invoices at https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life!
31:01 What's next on the roadmap for Firehawk?
31:49 How to make propellant (with easy to find ingredients)
33:13 A cheaper way to fly private
38:03 Ro.co: Ro's insurance checker will let you know if your coverage includes GLP-1s for FREE. Go to https://Ro.co/Twist for your free insurance check.
40:48 Maruchi Kim of Vuebuds joins the show!
44:35 Why are VueBuds better than meta glasses?
46:23 The biggest VueBud use cases
48:09 Jason wants to use VueBuds on the slopes
55:38 Jason's advice for angel investors: never underestimate anyone!
Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow Lon:
X: https://x.com/lons
Follow Alex:
X: https://x.com/alex
LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm
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

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

LinkedIn Jobs - linkedIn.com/twist
Grasshopper Bank - grasshopper.bank/twist
Notion - notion.com
Today’s show:
This week, SpaceX announced that it was partnering with AI coding startup Cursor on new AI models. xAI’s parent company is bringing compute, while Cursor brings developer market share and recent successes, training its own coding models.
The deal, while interesting, comes with a steep price tag. SpaceX will pay Cursor $10 billion for their shared work, with an option to buy the entire company for $60 billion later this year.
After poking our way through the deal, Chris Zacharia and Brian McRindle of Bitstarter joined Lon and Alex. Bitstarter is a ‘Kickstarter for Bittensor,’ helping founders get their subnet up and running without tripping over their shoelaces. The Bitstarter crew also broke some news on the show, telling TWIST that they have a new accelerator-ish program kicking off.
Next, Ning Ren from Trajectory RL joined the program to explain how Bittensor subnet 11 is using decentralized competitions to design and release better skills. Skills — markdown files with words — have become a critical building tool in the agentic era; how Trajectory will monetize is an open, interesting question.
Timestamps:

2:27 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
4:07 SpaceX/ xAI "partners" with Cursor!
9:35 Will the Cursor deal help pump a future SpaceX IPO?
9:57 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist.
12:14 How AI coding models like Cursor help xAI grow recursively.
17:24 Chris Zacharia and Brian McRindle of Bitstarter join the show.
20:23 Grasshopper Bank: Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account.
29:59 Notion - Notion brings all your notes, docs, and projects into one connected space that just works with AI built right in. Try Notion, with Notion Agent, at https://www.notion.com/twist
33:03 How Bittensor subnets monetize and how it compares to VC funds.
37:04 Is Bittensor hard-capped at 128 subnets?
42:37 Bittensor's biggest weakness.
46:10 Ning Ren of TrajectoryRL joins the show.
47:34 Skills now need entire agents just to write them!
48:26 Back up… What are skills?
1:07:38 Amazon and Anthropic's 5 BILLION deal
1:08:48 Google has 2 new chips!
1:09:50 Apple CEO, Tim is COOKED! John Ternus is in!
1:11:37 Alex is bullish on MacBook Neo!
Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow Lon:
X: https://x.com/lons
Follow Alex:
X: https://x.com/alex
LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm
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

This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Quo - https://quo.com/TWiST Vanta -
https://vanta.com/twist
Pilot - https://pilot.com/twist Plaud -
https://Plaud.ai/twist

Today’s show:

*Eragon CEO Josh Sirota believes that you should “own your intelligence.” He demos a live enterprise AI operating system connecting email, Slack, calendar, and financial data into a single agentic layer that’s pre-trained to understand any business inside and out.

PLUS we’ve got IONA Drones founder Etienne Louvet, a first look at Moonshot’s Kimi K2.6, and a brand new Off Duty with JCal and Lon.

FULL SHOW NOTES ON NOTION: https://thisweekinstartups-docket.notion.site/TWiST-2278-SHOW-NOTES-34872ca918e380bd9c71e684ce2db7c9?source=copy_link

Guests :
Eragon: https://eragon.ai
Josh Sirota on X: https://x.com/joshua_sirota
IONA: https://ionadrones.com/
Etienne Louvet on X: https://x.com/etienneldva
Relevant Links
Eragon Seed Round coverage: https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/18/this-startup-wants-to-make-enterprise-software-look-more-like-a-prompt/
Neurometric: https://www.neurometric.ai/
Ollama model: https://ollama.com/
Orange Slice: https://www.orangeslice.ai/
Corgi Insurance: https://www.corgi.insure/
Slash Financial: https://www.slash.com/
The Syndicate: https://thesyndicate.com/
FAA Part 108 Explained: https://pilotinstitute.com/part-108-explained/
Zipline: https://www.zipline.com/
Google Wing: https://wing.com/
Joby Aviation: https://www.jobyaviation.com/
Enterprise Ireland: https://www.enterprise-ireland.com/
Éire Composites: https://www.eirecomposites.com/
Kimi K2.6 blog post: https://www.kimi.com/blog/kimi-k2-6
Kimi K2 series on GitHub: https://github.com/moonshotai/Kimi-K2
NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 work station: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/gb300-nvl72/

Timestamps:
0:00 Josh from Eragon AI joins the show
2:01 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
5:07 Why founders should own and control their data sets
8:33 What is a "company world model?"
9:48 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) - Quo gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://quo.com/TWiST
11:32 Eragon demo
15:55 Giving agents their own bank accounts
19:07 Inside Eragon's first partnerships
20:14 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist
25:50 How does Eragon make money?
29:11 Pilot - Visit https://www.pilot.com/twist and get $1,200 off your first year.
39:33 Etienne Louvet of Iona Drones joins the show
42:37 What is FAA's Part 108?
47:13 How innovation in drones impacts the aviation industry
50:26 Working with Enterprise Ireland
58:28 Jason attended the Breakthrough Awards
1:04:10 Doug Liman's AI-powered "Bitcoin" movie
1:09:09 "Love Story" on FX and "Dust Bunny" on HBO Max
1:13:10 Jason's love of tinned fish
Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow Lon:
X: https://x.com/lons
Follow Alex:
X: https://x.com/alex
LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm
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

This Week In Startups is made possible by:IM8 Health - https://IM8health.com/twist Grasshopper Bank - https://grasshopper.bank/twist Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twistToday’s show:Is 3D printing the key to not just solving the housing crisis but bringing us all into a more beautiful and utopian future? ICON founder Jason Ballard thinks so. His company is already building homes for the unhoused and delivering barracks to Fort Bliss at half the cost and a fraction of the time. On TWiST, he tells us space construction is also on the agenda.Explore the potential for robot-powered concrete construction can help build cheap homes for the unhoused, modernize our military infrastructure, AND colonize the solar system in this exclusive interview.Then Seby Rubino of Resi Labs demos his real estate “Oracle,” which can guess the price of any home with 98% accuracy… for just fractions of a penny.PLUS Jason tells a story of the rare founder who got one over on him, and why he’s moving away from vengeance and anger and into love and acceptable.AND we’ve got more JCal and Lon recommendations in a brand-new Off Duty.Guests :Jason Ballard: https://x.com/JasonDBallardICON: https://www.iconbuild.com/ICON on X: https://x.com/ICON3DTechSeby Rubino: https://x.com/SebyverseResi Labs: https://portal.resilabs.ai/Timestamps:0:00 Intro + "balance the ledger" tease1:10 Jason Ballard (ICON) joins — 3D-printed homes + defense (ICON Prime)5:18 Housing basics: commutes, quality of life, "food/water/shelter"7:15 ICON Prime: military construction, survivability, speed, supply chain10:08 IM8 Health: Start feeling like your best self every day. Go to https://IM8health.com/twist and use the code TWiST to get a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, and 10% off your order.11:35 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!12:43 Fort Bliss barracks: 10 in 6 months, half the cost; blast/ballistics20:23 Beautiful + dignified housing: Community First Village; "where's the floor?"20:29 Grasshopper Bank: Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account.30:10 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist37:27 Audience Q&A: longevity/cracking; plumbing + electrical41:33 ICON Titan printer + channel partners; hiring pitch45:47 Sebi Rubino (Rezzy Labs) joins — BitTensor subnet 46 real estate pricing51:18 Tau/BitTensor explained: subnet competitions, "narrow intelligence"59:15 Rezzy demo: portal + pricing engine; customers + business model1:07:49 "Got shivved for 500k" story: acquisition, investors get zero1:20:36 Bounties: annotated.com + AI sidebar + headless CMS on BitTensor1:31:10 Off-duty: View Buds (camera earbuds) + use cases1:38:13 Off-duty: Anker charger/cable/battery "trio"1:41:12 Off-duty: The Audacity (AMC) quick review1:46:43 Wrap-up + secret TWiST group chat on XSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisCheck 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 McFarlandCheck out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis