Amazon's transformation, Peloton's mistakes, VC market downturn & more with Ben Gilbert | E1582
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 11 October 2022
⏱️ 78 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Acquired's Ben Gilbert fills in for Molly Wood and joins Jason to discuss Amazon's transformation (3:57), AI edge cases (22:02), Peloton's mistakes (32:05), used car prices (59:59), and the current VC market downturn. (1:09:18)
(0:00) Jason tees up today's topics!
(3:57) Acquired's Ben Gilbert joins Jason to break down the news! First up: Amazon sunsets its "Scout" project, and its transformation from a Day 1 to a Day 2 company
(10:45) Embroker - Use code TWIST to get an extra 10% off insurance at https://Embroker.com/twist
(11:53) Coco's delivery robots, history of the delivery robot space, where Coco robots can work, the maturation of smartphone components
(22:02) AI edge cases: capturing the likeness of a celebrity/notable person
(27:33) Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub - Apply in 5 minutes, no funding required, sign up at http://aka.ms/thisweekinstartups
(29:03) Escaping the Uncanny Valley
(32:05) Peloton cuts 500 more jobs; CEO's comments make employees panic
(37:28) Zapier - Try for free today at https://zapier.com/TWIST
(38:59) Peloton's two major corporate strategy mistakes, Apple's mass market luxury innovation
(59:59) Used car prices are down significantly
(1:09:18) VC market downturn coming off a record 2021; was 2021 an aberration?
Check out Acquired: https://www.acquired.fm
FOLLOW Ben: https://twitter.com/gilbert
FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, everybody. Welcome back. It's going to be an amazing week for this week in startups. I want |
| 0:05.5 | you to get locked in for a big week. Molly is out today. She's securing the bag. She's got a great |
| 0:10.4 | paid speaking gig. I need to get some of those going. So I had my man Ben Gilbert from acquired |
| 0:16.0 | joined the show. We cover a ton of topics in detail. We talk about his theory that Amazon is |
| 0:21.7 | moving from a day one company to a day two company. And we look at some of the projects that they |
| 0:28.0 | are shutting down at Amazon. And will they ever have a third pillar plus peloton? You're not going |
| 0:33.4 | to believe this. They're doing a fourth round of cuts. Will they be able to survive? Will they |
| 0:37.8 | become a standalone business? What do we think of their new downstream down market strategy? |
| 0:42.4 | We're going to go into detail there. And the use car market is showing signs of completely |
| 0:46.4 | collapsing. What does that say for the economy and for EVs as well? Kathy Wood from Arc Chimes in |
| 0:53.4 | on this topic. And before we forget about it, I want to tell you about our new podcast. Yes, |
| 0:58.4 | this is the third podcast from the creator of this week in startups and all in me. |
| 1:04.4 | And this new startup podcast is called Founder University. You've heard me talk about Founder |
| 1:09.2 | University before. This is our 12 week course where we teach people to start companies. And we have |
| 1:14.4 | a two year course as well. A two day course we do in person. Those courses have led us to believe |
| 1:20.5 | that we can really help Founders with a 10 minute. I'll kid you not just a 10 minute episode |
| 1:28.0 | of a tactical talk. So we're going to do one of these a week on Founder University every week. |
| 1:32.9 | We're going to give you a 10 minute tactical talk. The first one is on how to retarget your |
| 1:37.2 | users. So probably a third of the founders who are here. My voice right now are retargeting |
| 1:41.9 | the users. But the other two thirds are not retargeting their users. And they need to watch this 10 |
| 1:46.0 | minute video just to catch up. These are tactical tight 10 minute talks. No promotion, no marketing, |
| 1:51.8 | no BS. Just here's how you get something done inside your company. You're going to watch, |
... |
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