AI Producers, Tesla Robotaxis & the Rise of the “Tiny Teams” Era | E2142

This Week in Startups

Jason Calacanis

Technology

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2025

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today’s show:

Tesla’s robotaxi launch, AI producers, job destruction, and smart toilets? In this episode of This Week in Startups, @Jason and @alex break down Tesla’s cautious rollout strategy, how AI is quietly replacing producers and employees, why second-movers like Tesla and Ramp often win, and how Throne Science is turning gut health into a billion-dollar market—with cameras in your toilet. Buckle up.

Timestamps:

(02:11) Introducing… PRODUCER CLAUDE!

(04:21) Tesla’s Robotaxis are out and about! But are they SAFE?!

(09:49) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST

(19:35) Netsuite - Download the ebook Navigating Global Trade: 3 Insights for Leaders for free at https://www.netsuite.com/twist

(24:07) Grabbing market share, and why there’s “no reason to rush”

(29:59) INBOUND - Use code TWIST10 for 10% o your General Admission ticket at [https://www.inbound.com/register](https://www.inbound.com/register.) (Valid thru 7/31)

(39:53) AI, Job Destruction, and what leaders aren’t saying out loud…

(48:43) Which startups are doing the most with the smallest teams?

(57:49) Mark Zuckerberg has entered FOUNDER MODE

(01:05:48) How Throne Science is improving everyone’s gut health

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X: https://x.com/lons

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

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X: https://twitter.com/Jason

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

Thank you to our partners:

(09:49) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST

(19:35) Netsuite - Download the ebook Navigating Global Trade: 3 Insights for Leaders for free at https://www.netsuite.com/twist

(29:59) INBOUND - Use code TWIST10 for 10% o your General Admission ticket at [https://www.inbound.com/register](https://www.inbound.com/register.) (Valid thru 7/31)

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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Transcript

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0:00.0	As an example, when a founder sends us an update, we have a tool that reads the updates,
0:05.1	looks for the important data in it, like, what's their burn?
0:08.1	What's their revenue?
0:09.2	What's their growth?
0:10.8	And then try to map those to fields in a database and write summaries.
0:15.2	Founders will write us, God bless them, 1,000, 2,000 words, of which we have to scan
0:20.5	that email and get the top five or six
0:24.1	data points. And if those data points aren't in it, the next phase of that tool will be to
0:29.1	reply to the founder and say, hey, this is the launch AI bot. Can you give us the last three months
0:34.7	of revenue, the last three months of expenses, and then the last three months of revenue, the last three months of expenses,
0:42.8	and then the last three months of burn, which is those two numbers subtracted from each other?
0:47.6	And can you tell us the head count? Because we don't have head count in here. And can you tell us the cash in the bank? So we need to get those numbers to anticipate fundraising. And we are going to have the bot in the next iteration, not just take the update they send us by email typically, or sometimes they'll send us a Notion page or a doc you send.
1:05.1	You know, we're going to do it that way.
1:07.1	So that is, I think, the big innovation here is that an outsider is going to do it. Be scared, folks.
1:15.0	If your job is easy to do, be scared. I'm inviting you to be scared. This week in startups is brought to you by Squarespace.
1:29.3	Turn your idea into a new website. Go to Squarespace.com slash Twist for free trial.
1:32.3	When you're ready to launch, use offer code Twist to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
1:37.3	NetSuite.
1:38.3	The business landscape is very chaotic right now.
1:41.3	That's why you need NetSuite by Oracle.
1:43.3	If your revenues are at least
1:44.6	in the seven figures, download the pre-Ebook, Navigating Global Trade, Three Insights for Leaders at
	...

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