If you’re not working 9-9-6, are you working hard enough? | E2198
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 25 October 2025
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s show:
*Working from 9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week, might seem like TOO INTENSE a commitment for some, but Jason argues that elite performance — and the mega-compensation that goes along with it — sometimes requires personal sacrifice. While 72-hour weeks might lead to burnout for some, it really comes down to individual choice.
PLUS Jason and Alex deep dive the NBA gambling scandal and the sketchy reality behind high-stakes home games of poker. PLUS Presh Kumar takes us behind the scenes, to see how AI apps helped him develop and workshop the video for his new wellness startup, Tempo, and what’s with Anthropic buying chips from their AI rivals, Google? It’s a can’t miss This Week in Startups.
Timestamps:
(00:06:49) Jason and Alex are poker fans… what do they think about this insane NBA gambling scandal?
(10:00) LinkedIn Ads - Start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. Launch your first campaign and get $250 FREE when you spend at least $250. Go to http://LinkedIn.com/ThisWeekinStartups to claim your credit.
(20:00) Nexos.ai - Stop Shadow AI in its tracks with the unified platform for secure AI adoption and productivity. Try it with a free 14-day trial at https://nexos.ai/twist.
(00:25:09) Is working “9-9-6” a reasonable goal? A guarantee of success? Why Jason compares it to being an Olympian.
(30:00) Every.io - Running a startup is hard enough. Every takes care of incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes and more so that you focus on building, not back-office admin. Visit every.io.
(00:38:00) Our old buddy Presh walks us through the process of making his Tempo launch video
(00:42:28) Jason and Alex check out some of Ridley Scott’s famous storyboards
(00:48:03) Anthropic is buying TPUs from Google… Are these companies in LIKE with each other?
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Let's go to the gray area. Sure. You're, and I think there's an allegation around LeBron James here. |
| 0:08.6 | Not that LeBron James did anything, but LeBron James was going to be out of a game where he was |
| 0:12.2 | potentially injured. And these injury reports come out early in the day and they get updated as you go. |
| 0:17.3 | And people take them into account when they're betting on games, obviously, |
| 0:26.0 | the handicappers and the people who do it professionally. So what happened in one of these cases, |
| 0:31.1 | allegedly, is somebody told their friends, oh, I don't think LeBron's going to play tonight. |
| 0:35.7 | He's tweaked his ankle. They tell their friends, they put action on the games, |
| 0:39.5 | having that information an hour before the lines change. |
| 0:45.8 | Now, if they say, hey, LeBron's not playing tonight and he's LeBron and his prime, the odds in the game would change dramatically. |
| 0:49.0 | But if you get your bet in, you've got your bet locked in at that other bet. |
| 0:51.2 | So is that illegal? |
| 1:12.3 | Well, in this case, the injury status, Jason was sold by allegedly. His friend and former L.A. Lakers coach, Damon Jones. Jones was also an ex-Cleveland Cavs player. And, yeah, he essentially sold the information ahead of time. That's just so. If he did, in fact, sell it. Now, what if you were just talking to your boys and you're like, yeah, you know, |
| 1:29.6 | don't bother coming to the game, LeBron's not playing? Right. And then your friend does something stupid. Just like I might say to somebody, you know, oh, hey, yeah, I was, you know, I was at a party and somebody told me this company is going to buy this company. and, but, you know, and then they told their |
| 1:27.5 | friends and then that friend traded on it or that friend's friend traded on it. So this gets people |
| 1:32.0 | pinched all the time in insider trading. So there's a lot of gray area here now that people |
| 1:37.0 | have to get used to, which is, you know, if you're the trainer or you're a security guard at one |
| 1:42.7 | of these arenas and the security guard finds out |
| 1:46.0 | and they, you know, are at a poker game and yeah, I know, LeBron's not going to play tonight. |
| 1:50.3 | And then somebody gets their fantasy sports out and puts $100 or $1,000 on. |
| 1:54.5 | It's probably not going to get picked up. |
| 1:57.2 | So Brave New World. |
| 1:59.3 | There's a chance that none of this is cataclysmic. |
... |
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