Discord’s Power Move, Slate’s Modular EVs & the “Act for Private Gain” | E2117
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 25 April 2025
⏱️ 86 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s show: Jason, Alex, and Lon break down today’s top tech and startup stories — from Slate Auto’s customizable $25K EV truck to Discord’s major leadership shakeup ahead of a potential IPO. They also cover Uber’s self-driving push with Volkswagen, Perplexity AI’s aggressive growth moves, and why value-driven products are winning in a tough economy. Plus, Alex sits down with Tailscale CEO Avery Pennarun to unpack how they grew from 5K to 10K customers — and why fixing internet networking could spark the next huge wave of innovation.
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Jason, Lon and Alex kick off the show!
(3:26) Introduction and features of Bezos-backed EV truck company, Slate
(7:55) Market impact and value proposition of Slate's EV trucks
(9:48) LinkedIn Ads - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups
(14:04) EV features and market potential discussion
(17:42) Discord CEO steps down and IPO prospects
(20:19) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist
(24:00) Uber and Volkswagen's self-driving car partnership
(28:39) Superpower - The best founders know: better health = better business. Visit http://superpower.com/twist to skip the waitlist.
(30:00) Pace of self-driving car adoption and regulation
(37:20) Butterfly Effect secures Benchmark investment
(38:37) Perplexity and Motorola Razr partnership
(43:12) Jason's experience with Light Phone
(45:39) New York Times and Ziff Davis lawsuits against OpenAI
(50:09) Nonprofit structures and OpenAI's mission issues
(54:01) Founder Friday: Pitchfire and TACTUN's two-year plans
(1:02:28) Introduction to Tailscale and Avery Pennarun
(1:10:17) Tailscale's enterprise adoption
(1:21:13) Current Internet networking issues*
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Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
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Links from episode:
Check out Tailscale: https://tailscale.com/
Check out Slate vehicles: https://www.slate.auto/en
Check out Not For Private Gain:https://notforprivategain.org/
Check out the Light Phone: https://www.thelightphone.com/
Check out Oregon lawmakers article: ****https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2025/04/oregon-lawmakers-to-decide-whether-big-tech-should-pay-to-support-local-journalism.html
Check out Manus: https://manus.im/
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Follow Lon:
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Follow Alex:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm
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Follow Jason:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
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Thank you to our partners:
(9:48) LinkedIn Ads - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups(20:19) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist(28:39) Superpower - The best founders know: better health = better business. Visit http://superpower.com/twist to skip the waitlist.
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Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
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Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
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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
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Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I came in here to a hostile environment. It was a road game. I bought court side seats for me and my friends, |
| 0:06.6 | Ben Stiller, Timothy Shalame, and my brother, Josh, and we all went to the game. |
| 0:12.0 | What a squad. I kid you not. I'm actually friends with Ben Stiller. I'm not with Timothy Shalome. |
| 0:16.4 | And so I was like DMing him after the second game. We're in the playoffs now. And I said, hey, are you going to the game? |
| 0:22.1 | Because courtside seats in Detroit are basically like $17. |
| 0:26.3 | So I was like, Ben, hey, let's go to the game. |
| 0:28.4 | And I got these courtside seats. |
| 0:29.6 | And he was like, oh, yeah, I want to go. |
| 0:31.4 | And, you know, they tried to block everybody from buying tickets here. So when you go on Ticketmaster, they said you had to have, like, your IP address and your |
| 0:40.1 | billing address of your credit card has to be in Detroit and the surrounding area. |
| 0:45.1 | Of course, they're like, you can't, like, do this. |
| 0:48.2 | And I said, oh, I can't. |
| 0:50.8 | I said, I have a Hulk. |
| 0:53.4 | You know, when they say that in the Avengers, we have a Hulk. You know when they say that in the Avengers? |
| 0:56.0 | We have a Hulk. |
| 0:56.9 | That's Loki's big line. |
| 0:58.3 | We have a Hulk? |
| 0:59.7 | You know what I have? |
| 1:00.3 | I have a Heidi. |
| 1:01.8 | She's not taking no for an answer. |
| 1:05.0 | You tell Heidi, yeah, no, we can't do that for Jake Al. |
| 1:08.0 | You know what Heidi does? |
... |
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