AI Rebuilt Every YC W26 Startup. Should Founders Be Scared? | E2271
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 3 April 2026
⏱️ 81 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Deel - deel.com/twist
Grasshopper Bank - grasshopper.bank/twist
Render - render.com/twist
Plaud - Plaud.ai/twist
An AI “holding company” rebuilt dozens of YC Winter ‘26 startups in one weekend. Now we’re bringing the founder responsible into Jason’s Courtroom to defend himself.
PLUS a live demo of Boardy, the AI that acts like a virtual board member and makes crucial introductions. Find out why he gets to have so much agency, how creator Andrew D’Souza used him to raise his own $17 million round, and how this company ever plans to actually make money.
Plus Jason celebrates Apple’s 50th anniversary with a fiery rant about milking the ghost of Steve Jobs… Why OpenAI is acquiring a tech podcast… Jason’s favorite weighted vest for rucking… AND Lon’s Off Duty weekend streaming picks.
Guests
Marik Hazan: https://x.com/MarikHazan
Feltsense: https://feltsense.com/
Andrew D’Souza: https://x.com/andrewdsouza
Boardy: https://www.boardy.ai/
Timestamps:
0:00 Jason's direction for TWiST and thoughts on legacy media
5:14 Marik of Feltsense joins the show
6:10 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!
7:10 Marik's viral YC replicator stunt
9:45 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more.
20:39 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.
21:33 Feltsense founder goes on trial!
25:26 Jason dunks on Bank of America's app
27:59 TBPN acquired by OpenAI
29:28 The All In Podcast is worth $1B!
30:13 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.
33:02 Andrew D'Souza joins the show along with his agent, Boardy!
43:17 So how does Boardy make money?
48:32 Lon is becoming more and more "AI-pilled."
50:41 Tactical/ practical: "If we have data, let's look at data. If all we have are opinions, let's go with mine." -Jim Barskdale, former CEO of Netscape
1:01:00 Tactical/ practical: hire a PR firm to report on your competitors' wrongdoings.
1:02:58 Jason calls out Apple for being DISGRAZIAD!
1:15:09 Lon's TV pick of the week: "Something Very Bad is Going to Happen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMc_pWm7G7o
1:19:52 Become an Angel Investor at https://thesyndicate.com/
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Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow Lon:
Follow 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
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups
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Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | All right, Friday, April 3rd, 2026. It's Twist. |
| 0:03.4 | Lon Harris is here. I'm Jason Calacanus. We have a full docket. |
| 0:09.5 | This week in startups is brought to you by Render. Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one platform, render. |
| 0:18.0 | Go to render.com slash twist and apply for the render startup program to get |
| 0:23.0 | $500 to $100,000 in free credits depending on your stage and backers. Grasshopper Bank. Time is money. |
| 0:31.3 | Don't waste either. Go to grasshopper. Bank slash twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account. |
| 0:38.8 | Deal. Founders scale faster on deal. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone |
| 0:44.0 | anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit deal.com slash twist to learn more. |
| 0:52.0 | We're sitting here, April 3rd, summer's coming, the winter's over, it's springtime for J-Cal and Lahn. |
| 1:01.9 | Nobody is going to get the rest. |
| 1:03.1 | No, that's a little old for most of our viewers. |
| 1:05.9 | But if you're in your 40s or 50s, you're welcome. |
| 1:08.6 | You would get springtime for Lon. |
| 1:29.2 | In Germany. Yeah. It's the producer. It's from the producers. So Fridays we have a little bit of fun. We're going to do our startup news. We're going to, you know, really try to focus on, you know, the four pillars here on the show. In 2026, I always try to like set an agenda for the year. Tactical, practical. |
| 1:34.3 | That's what I love to do. Tactical things, very practical, so that you can take something from this week in startups and apply it to your business, get inspired, bring it to your team and say, |
| 1:38.4 | hey, here's something we can do that would make our business go better or make our customers |
| 1:43.9 | happy, whatever it happens to be, |
| 1:45.1 | grow our startup faster. |
| 1:46.6 | And then, of course, experts only. |
| 1:48.4 | If you look at what's happened in media, the go direct movement, as we talked about last episode, |
| 1:54.2 | hey, going direct is, you know, the best model. |
| 1:58.3 | So we want experts only on the show. |
... |
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