Battery Power for Texans with Zach Dell, plus Tim Apple is LEAVING?, Polymarket to the US, and a Tesla fan update | E2190
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 9 October 2025
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s show:
*Zach Dell of Base Power joins us at the top of today’s show to talk about building batteries in Austin, that $1 billion investment, and why an “all of the above” energy strategy is the only way forward.
PLUS Jason and Alex’s thoughts on that Tesla non-upside down car announcement, growing resentments toward AI datacenters, Chinese robots actually going on sale, Tim Cook’s potential Apple exit, xAI’s Nvidia agreement and MUCH MORE.
Timestamps:
(00:02:10) A MAJOR GUEST! Zach Dell of Base Power joins us from the top of the show.
(00:03:31) The basics of Base Power’s business model: the best electron is the cheapest electron
(00:08:38) Zach teases Base’s new, time-saving approach to battery installation
(00:10:32) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist
(00:18:12) How Base’s grid can help drive down overall energy prices
(00:21:17) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST
(00:30:12) Sentry - New users get 3 months free of the Business plan (covers 150k errors). Go to http://sentry.io/twist and use code TWIST
(00:36:20) Tesla did not announce an upside fan car… Oh well…
(00:44:27) Buy your Chinese robot TODAY on Walmart dot com? Or not!
(00:48:12) Is Tim Apple EXITING Apple? Who’s next?
(00:59:22) ANOTHER mega-deal? Now xAI is circling a Nvidia investment…
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- Sentry - New users get 3 months free of the Business plan (covers 150k errors). Go to http://sentry.io/twist and use code TWIST
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | These things are a different breed than your app, TikTok, you know, stealing your location or something like that. |
| 0:06.7 | They can actually go do things in the real world. |
| 0:09.0 | And here it is. |
| 0:10.1 | Security researchers say G1 humanoid robots are secretly sending information to China. |
| 0:15.7 | And yeah, what if these things go rogue is, I guess, the key. |
| 0:19.6 | It's now off Walmart.com. |
| 0:21.6 | They, they yanked it. |
| 0:26.6 | This weekend startups is brought to you by Century. |
| 0:31.1 | Your team should be focused on shipping features, not chasing down bugs. |
| 0:35.3 | New users get three months free of the business plan which covers 150,000 errors. |
| 0:40.3 | Go to century.io slash twist and use the code twist. |
| 0:44.3 | Squarespace. Turn your idea into a beautiful website. |
| 0:48.3 | Go to Squarespace.com slash twist for a free trial. |
| 0:51.3 | When you're ready to launch, use offer code twist to save 10% off |
| 0:55.8 | your first purchase of a website or domain. And Vanta. Compliance and security shouldn't be a deal breaker |
| 1:02.7 | for startups to win new business. Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a SOC2 report fast. |
| 1:09.2 | Get $1,000 off for a limited time at Vanta.com slash twist. All right, everybody, welcome back to this week in startups. I'm your host, Jason Calcanus, with me. My amazing co-host, Alex Wallam. How are you, sir? I'm fantastic. The kids are sick, but I am in good spirits. Let's do a show. All right, Yeah. The fact that you haven't gotten sick is great. |
| 1:29.2 | Let's introduce our guest today. I've got a major guest here, major guest with a major |
| 1:33.0 | announcement. Yes. So today on the show we had Mr. Zach Dell of Base power. Base power is a |
| 1:39.2 | startup that leases batteries to consumers, puts them in their homes, and then kind of balances out |
| 1:43.6 | the grid, offering low-cost energy to consumers and more grid stability to all of us in America. The company's in the news today, Jason, because it just raised a billion dollars. Zach, welcome to the program. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. That went fast, Zach. We were just here last year, and you guys were, I don't know, had a couple of dozen |
| 2:01.8 | customers, I think. You were very nascent and then, wow, what happened in the last year that led to |
... |
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