Figma IPO, IMAX AI Festival, the Tea app spill, that one Sydney Sweeney jeans ad, and more! | E2157
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 29 July 2025
⏱️ 74 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s show:
SYDNEY SWEENEY’S AMERICAN EAGLE AD DIVIDES OUR PANEL!PLUS WHAT STARTUPS CAN LEARN FROM THE VIRAL ASTRONOMER RESPONSEJason, Alex, and Lon are looking at some of the biggest media stories of the day before returning to their favorite topic, tech. Tune in for deep dives on IMAX’s new AI film festival, Figma’s big IPO and much more!
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Jason and Alex kick off the show!
(3:45) Lon’s joining Alex and Lon to discuss the controversial Sydney Sweeney genes/jeans ad
(7:20) A look at the polarizing takes on this jeans ad.
(10:10) OpenPhone - Streamline and scale your customer communications with OpenPhone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at https://www.openphone.com/twist
(11:46) Hear the verdict from Jason, self—proclaimed Chairman of the Interwebs
(16:42) Alex points out the economic impact of the controversy
(20:26) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist
(21:25) Back to the show!
(26:35) Paltrow’s Astronomer ad, meme-processing and the ideal way to change the conversation
(30:04) Vouched - Trust for agents that’s built for builders like you. Check it out at http://vouched.id/twist
(31:28) Back to the show!
(36:48) Netflix and the growing controversy around AI’s role in filmmaking
(42:53) IMAX/Runway collaboration and Hollywood’s shifting attitude toward AI
(47:34) Everything that went wrong with the Tea App
(54:27) Why Jason thinks app stores should ban “anonymous” forms and message boards
(1:04:19) Figma upped its IPO price… what does it mean for the return of liquidity? And is this too high or fairly priced?
(1:07:53) Paul Graham says you shouldn’t drop out of college to work on a startup… Why Thiel Fellows disagree
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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:
(10:10) OpenPhone - Streamline and scale your customer communications with OpenPhone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at https://www.openphone.com/twist
(20:26) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist
(30:04) Vouched - Trust for agents that’s built for builders like you. Check it out at http://vouched.id/twist
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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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Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com
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Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is just terrible. |
| 0:01.1 | I mean, the people who built this app are going to have massive liability, massive liability, |
| 0:06.9 | because, gosh, I hate to even say this, but if this app succeeded in what it was doing, |
| 0:13.0 | then people would have written reviews about the people they thought were the most dangerous, |
| 0:18.5 | and now those most dangerous people, if there |
| 0:22.2 | are a fact are dangerous people in the world, know who wrote the review of them and had |
| 0:27.5 | previously dated them or gone on a date with them. Holy cow, that seems to me to be a recipe for |
| 0:33.3 | real pain and suffering in the future. |
| 0:36.9 | Such a colossal catastrophe. Now, the venture capital side of this is, as far as I can tell, T has not raised any external funding. So I don't think there's anyone that we can hang this on inside the industry, Jason. But there's 4.6 million people who were using this application before. And here's the crazy thing. I thought it was going to fall off the ratings or rankings because clearly it's not a well-run |
| 0:56.0 | company. |
| 0:56.6 | It was still ranked number two this morning right behind Chad ChpT on the American iOS App Store. |
| 1:01.1 | Wow. |
| 1:02.5 | This week in startups is brought to you by Open Phone. |
| 1:06.4 | Create business phone numbers for you and your team that work through an app on your |
| 1:10.5 | smartphone or desktop. |
| 1:12.2 | Twist listeners can get an extra 20% off any plan for your first six months at openphone.com |
| 1:18.4 | slash twist. Vanta. Compliance and security shouldn't be a deal breaker for startups to win new business. |
| 1:25.6 | Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a SOC2 report fast. |
| 1:29.5 | Get $1,000 off for a limited time at Vanta.com slash twist. |
| 1:35.0 | And Vouched. |
| 1:36.5 | Turn your AI infrastructure into production grade software with know your agent from Vouchd. |
| 1:42.2 | Check it out yourself at Vouchd. ID slash twist. Trust for agents |
... |
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