Avoiding buzzwords and marketing-speak (feat. Thomas McInerney) | E2236
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2026
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Lemon.io - https://lemon.io/twist
Deel - http://deel.com/twist
LinkedIn Jobs - http://linkedIn.com/twist
Today’s show:
Some pitches sound just like ads… and it’s a huge red flag for investors.
On our latest edition of TWiST Tokyo, Jason welcomes legendary angel investor (and long-time friend of the pod) Thomas McInerney. His list of investments reads like a Who’s Who of the tech elite, including Notion, SpaceX, Uber, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity….
At Founder University x Tokyo, they discuss how the angel investing landscape has shifted, why it’s so important for founders to stay humble, the reasons that investors need to stay not just optimistic but aggressively so, and what angels can add to companies beyond just writing checks.
Plus we revisit some classic TWiST clips featuring Thomas from over 10 years ago AND take a look at three of our favorite pitches from our Japanese founders.
Timestamps:
(00:00) FLASHBACK: Clips from Tom’s classic TWiST appearances
(02:54) Why Jason and Tom love hanging and building in Tokyo.
(05:30) How has the angel investing landscape changed over the last decade plus?
(09:38) “Being an investor is a commodity… You have to provide more than just money.”
(12:17) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist
(13:34) How Thomas evaluates very early stage startups
(14:56) Why Thomas invested in nuclear tech when it was hugely unpopular
(17:31) Why it’s so important for new founders to be both humble and smart
(18:50) The relevance and accuracy of Marc Andreessen’s “Idea Maze” metaphor
(20:40) Deel - Founders ship faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes and get back to building. Visit http://deel.com/twist to learn more.
(21:41) How Elon Musk brings oversized, visionary ideas to life
(26:11) Why founders using buzzwords is a huge red flag
(27:13) The little “poker tells” Thomas and Jason look for in a founder
(28:26) “If there’s any doubt, there’s no doubt.”
(30:47) LinkedIn Jobs - post your job for free at http://linkedIn.com/twist then promote it to get access to LinkedIn Jobs’ new AI assistant.
(32:04) PRO TIP: Don’t run out of money!
(38:10) The importance of being an aggressive optimist for investors
(43:27) The human brain cannot comprehend 1000x growth
(45:33) PITCH #1: Sakenomist is the cross-border commerce platform, starting with sake exporters (Hiroshi Takeuchi)
(51:47) PITCH #2: HomiiWorld, the IRL social app which helps you meet new people anywhere in the world
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Follow Lon:
X: https://x.com/lons
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X: https://x.com/alex
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm/
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Follow Jason:
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis/
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Thank you to our partners:
(12:17) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://lemon.io/twist
(20:40) Deel - Founders ship faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes and get back to building. Visit http://deel.com/twist to learn more.
(30:47) LinkedIn Jobs - post your job for free at http://linkedIn.com/twist then promote it to get access to LinkedIn Jobs’ new AI assistant.
Great TWIST interviews:
Will Guidara
https://youtu.be/pvJa2pzuXWQ
Eoghan McCabe
https://youtu.be/9dHN4YFkgv4
Steve Huffman
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reddit-ceo-steve-huffman-on-mod-revolt-building-a/id315114957?i=1000617333424
Brian Chesky
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/airbnb-ceo-brian-chesky-on-early-rejection-customer/id315114957?i=1000611761112
Bob Moesta
https://youtu.be/y2UMzSqX94Q
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | So I look for technical founders with domain expertise, generally pretty young. |
| 0:05.7 | They have a point of view about something that they know, that they understand. |
| 0:09.9 | And normally it's a bit different. |
| 0:11.8 | Red flags. |
| 0:12.8 | Top two or three that it's not the right investment for Thomas. |
| 0:16.1 | Buzzwords, you know, SaaS enable, da-da-da. |
| 0:18.7 | When people start using buzzwords, I get, you know, very turned off. I want it in simple English, you know, SaaS-enabled, da-da-da, when people start using buzzwords, I get, you know, very |
| 0:21.2 | turned off. I want it in simple English. Because? You're taking too much from the outside world, |
| 0:28.4 | and those trends are sort of like, you know, fashion. They change daily. And so I think being |
| 0:34.7 | able to reduce your idea into like a real simple concept that's not using a lot of buzzwords is good. |
| 0:40.3 | Let's talk about other red flags. Too high of evaluation. |
| 0:45.0 | Evaluation in the sense that you just, not to be greedy about equity, but rather to be focused on getting the right people on board. |
| 0:55.8 | This week in startups is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. |
| 1:00.7 | Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash twist, then promote it to get access to LinkedIn Jobs's |
| 1:07.9 | new AI assistant. Deal. Foundership faster on deal. Set up payroll for any |
| 1:13.5 | country in minutes and get back to building. Visit deal.com slash twist to learn more. Lemon.com. |
| 1:19.0 | Get 15% off your first four weeks of developer time at lemon.i.o slash twist. |
| 1:27.0 | All right, everybody, welcome back to this week in startups. |
| 1:29.8 | I'm your host, Jason Kalakhanis, and we are here in Japan for our Founder University. |
| 1:35.1 | As I explained on the last episode, when I'm on the road like this, launching Founder University, |
| 1:40.1 | and we now have it on three continents in three cities, the United States, |
| 1:43.7 | occurring in San Francisco and Austin. |
... |
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