Every day, Jason Calacanis and Molly Wood cover startups, technology, markets, media, crypto, and the all the hottest topics in business and tech. They also interview the world’s greatest founders, operators, investors and innovators.
https://thisweekinstartups.com
Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 52 days 15 hours 42 minutes
E1043: News Roundtable! Bloomberg Beta’s Roy Bahat & Coelius Capital’s Zach Coelius on how tech is helping during the crisis, how startups should approach SMB loans, when VC funding will bounce back, Notion’s $50M raise, Zoom’s security issues, Luckin cof
0:54 Jason intros Roy Bahat & Zach Coelius, and they discuss their current quarantine situations
6:04 What is the timeline looking like for going back to work? What needs to happen before we can get back to normal?
14:51 Has government & media failed the public? How is tech (both big tech & startups) helping during the crisis?
28:33 How should startups approach taking PPP, EIDL & other SMB loans? Should startups begin working more closely with the government?
37:14 When...
E1042: Balaji Srinivasan (@balajis) shares insights on Recode incident, need for decentralized citizen journalism, techlash through the years, potential COVID-19 endgames: bull, bear & base case scenarios
0:55 Jason intros Balaji Srinivasan and tees up his incident with Recode's piece: “No handshakes, please”: The tech industry is terrified of the coronavirus
4:28 Balaji shares his experience with the story and his issues with corporate journalism
15:16 Balaji explains why he reacted the way he did to Shirin Ghaffary's request for an interview
19:52 History of techlash: 1995-2020, when things turned from positivity to overwhelming negativity
26:26 Balaji brings up a...
E40: “Angel” Podcast: Jeff Richards, Managing Partner at GGV Capital shares lessons for founders & investors from 2008 recession & Dot-com bust, criteria for taking on venture debt, valuing companies in a down market & more
0:51 Jason gives some thoughts on quarantine & intros GGV's Jeff Richards
5:11 What will this crisis look like on the other side? Benefits of having a levelheaded approach
11:38 What has Jeff seen from his seasoned portfolio founders who went through the 2008 crisis?
16:21 What advice does Jeff give to first-time founders in his portfolio?
22:22 Investor panic & differences in opinion between independent & investor board members
25:50 What could inexperienced board...
E1041: The Lean Startup’s Eric Ries gives tactical advice for founders during an economic downturn: obligations of leadership, extending runway, handling layoffs with grace, finding new revenue opportunities, capitalizing on silver-linings & more!
0:52 Jason intros Eric Ries and they discuss how things have been since shelter-in-place started
8:33 What good will come out of this? Will UBI proponents like Andrew Yang be proven right?
10:12 Eric's advice to today's founders after living through the 2008 recession & the dot-com bust
15:53 Eric describes the obligations of leaders during a crisis of this magnitude, what the test-and-trace method is and how it's effective
25:02 Do authoritarian countries have an...
E1040: Figma CEO & Co-Founder Dylan Field shares insights on crucial moments in Figma’s creation, overcoming SaaS burnout, active vs. passive user-pricing, getting Greylock & Sequoia to invest after they initially passed & more!
1:00 Jason intros Figma’s Dylan Field & Dylan explains why WebGL was crucial to Figma’s creation
7:09 Why ChromeOS is flourishing in schools
11:28 Who are Figma’s competitors & how do they compare
14:12 How does multiplayer mode work on Figma?
17:29 What does Figma charge, Dylan’s thoughts on charging for SaaS: bottom-up or top-down?
30:26 Is SaaS burnout real? Active-user pricing vs...
E39: “Angel” Podcast: Sarah Guo, General Partner at Greylock Partners shares insights on Greylock’s “Zero to One” investment thesis, sharpening her decision-making skills, ranking team, market & product as investment criteria & the changing landscape of V
0:52 Jason intros Greylock's Sarah Guo
3:37 How did Sarah wind up at Greylock?
5:45 Sarah explains Greylock's "Zero to One" thesis & typical term commitment of a VC
11:53 How does Sarah measure her personal performance and her portfolio's performance? What are her biggest strengths as an investor?
16:12 How does she sharpen her decision-making skills?
17:53 Ranking her investment criteria: People, Markets & Product
20:26 Balancing intensity & life outside of...
E1039: Independent Journalist Vincent Woo reflects on his piece, “Lambda School’s Misleading Promises”, shares insights on what drew him to the story, where Lambda School went wrong, how they can be better & more
0:45 Jason intros Vincent Woo, who wrote "Lambda School's Misleading Promises" for New York Magazine
2:21 What drew Vincent to this story? What wrongdoings did he discover?
6:02 Vincent describes Lambda's ISAs and how they were sold
14:24 How Vincent approached Austen Allred as an investigative reporter & clip from Vincent's interview with Austen
16:19 What is Lambda's school actual placement rate? How does it compare with other coding bootcamps?
20:06 Getting...
E1038: News Roundtable! Index Ventures’ Sarah Cannon & TechCrunch’s Alex Wilhelm on COVID-19’s impact so far: lessons learned, Sarah’s stimulus plan, endgame scenarios & more
1:04 Jason intros Alex Wilhelm & Sarah Cannon
5:00 COVID-19: Where are we now?
10:12 Have would Obama have handled this situation? What are the proper next steps?
15:29 Sarah lays out her economic stimulus plan
20:29 How much has the political landscape changed over the last few months?
22:08 How would a stimulus plan work in practice?
24:36 What will change about the gig economy and healthcare coverage?
28:35 Will the average American citizen's...
E38: “Angel” Podcast: David Cowan, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners shares insights on owning up to his anti-portfolio, understanding sunk cost, top traits for becoming a VC & best Founders & CEOs he’s ever worked with
0:53 Jason intros Bessemer's David Cowan
1:54 David explains how he got his start in Venture capital in 1992
4:22 What does Bessemer look for in a potential investor today? How has VC hiring and demographics have changed over time?
8:10 David gives an anecdote about understanding "sunk cost"
14:12 David explains how and why Bessemer started owning their anti-portfolio
16:03 Stories on passing on Facebook, Tesla, Google, PayPal, Napster & Youtube
19:13 What...
E1037: LAUNCH Accelerator Class 16 Founders of BasicBlock (payment solution for truckers), DaoCloud (lead-gen for health & wellness practitioners) & Lately (AI-powered social media writing software) reflect on their journeys through the program
0:38 Jason explains the LAUNCH Accelerator
5:39 BasicBlock CEO Taylor Monks details his journey through the LAUNCH Accelerator
14:58 BasicBlock CEO Taylor Monks' biggest takeaways from the Accelerator
27:35 DaoCloud CEO Max Coleman describes his journey into the LAUNCH Accelerator
37:34 How did Max grow throughout the Accelerator?
48:36 Lately CEO Kate Bradley-Chernis describes her experience at the l LAUNCH Accelerator
55:08 What were Kate's biggest...