Apple’s Tariff Trouble, Anthropic’s New Models, and Our Founder Friday Finale | E2130

This Week in Startups

Jason Calacanis

Technology

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 23 May 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today’s show: Trump takes aim at Apple with a potential 25% iPhone tariff, Anthropic releases two powerful new Claude models claiming top performance in coding tasks, and two founders go head-to-head in the final round of Founder Fridays. In this packed episode, Jason, Alex, and Lon unpack what Trump’s latest trade threat really means, why Anthropic’s AI progress could reshape the dev landscape, and which startup—an AI ad network or industrial automation platform—comes out on top. A fast-paced look at the volatility, breakthroughs, and ambition defining today’s startup ecosystem.

Timestamps:

(0:00) Episode Teaser(3:41) MORE tariffs, this time on Apple… is this just a message to Tim Cook?(7:08) Potential impact of tariffs on Apple(10:09) Northwest Registered Agent. Form your entire business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Get more privacy, more options, and more done—visit northwestregisteredagent.com/twist today!(14:14) Anthropic’s new models are topping the LLM charts but are they REALLY self-aware(20:07) LinkedIn Ads - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups(24:35) Who should buy OnlyFans? Jason, Alex, and Lon each have ideas(30:03) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist(35:10) Gut health is important but do we need SMART toilets?(40:34) Which TWiST 500 companies are blowing up on secondary markets?(47:27) The Founder Friday city competition FINAL ROUND: see which startup wins!

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

Links from episode:

Throne One: https://www.thronescience.com/product?

Arcana: https://arcana.ad/

TACTUN: https://tactun.com/

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

Thank you to our partners:

(10:09) Northwest Registered Agent. Form your entire business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Get more privacy, more options, and more done—visit northwestregisteredagent.com/twist today!

(20:07) LinkedIn Ads - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups

(30:03) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist

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

Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	We have been talking about secondary markets coming back. I know this because people will email me and say, hey, would you like to add to your thumbtack, your com, etc. position? Would you like to sell some of those positions? So I am seeing increased activities from this very weird gray market or it's kind of like boiler rooms of people who want to charge
0:24.3	you five or 10% to buy secondary in SpaceX whatever is hot, andrel, stripe, or, you know,
0:32.2	and then charge you five percent for selling it. So it's a little bit of underground, a boiler
0:36.5	room, a back channel. Yeah, because there are people in it who are above board and, you know, are known. And then there are people who are not. So I get a little nervous sometimes when I get these weird emails if I'm being fished or whatever. Oh, wow. So it's like a little wolf of Wall Street. Like they're kind of bending the rules a little.
0:55.0	This weekend startups is brought to you by Northwest Registered Agent. Starting your business
1:00.0	should be simple. With Northwest Registered Agent, you can form your entire business identity in just 10
1:04.4	clicks and 10 minutes. From LLCs to trademarks, domains to custom websites, they've got you covered.
1:09.4	Get more privacy, more options, and more done.
1:11.4	Visit northwest registered agent.com slash twist today.
1:14.9	LinkedIn ads.
1:16.2	For redeem a $100 LinkedIn ad credit and launch your first campaign,
1:19.3	go to LinkedIn.com slash this week in startups.
1:22.7	And, lemon.io, hire pre-vetted remote developers.
1:26.7	Get 15% off your first four weeks of developer time at lemon.com.
1:31.6	All right, everybody, welcome back to This Week in Startups. I'm your host today. Wow, a trio. Lon Harris is with us, our editorial director here at This Week in Startups and Alex Wilhelm. He's Alex on X Twitter. And he's at L-O-N-S on X Twitter. We've got a
1:48.0	full docket. Things have been building up. And gosh, I, you know, I don't know where to start
1:54.3	here, but let me just do this. What is your top story in terms of like important business story and then your top story
2:03.6	in just fascinating one. Because I think they tend to fall in one or the other. I want to know
2:08.5	your most fascinating story on the docket. You can see the docket right now this week in
2:12.3	startups.com slash docket. Most fascinating, most important business. Those are the two choices. Alex, what's your
2:20.9	most important business topic on the docket? I think the most important business topic on the docket
2:25.6	and in the world today is the threat of iPhone-specific tariffs on Apple. I think that is
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 6 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jason Calacanis, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Jason Calacanis and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.