Inside Substack’s $100M Push to Fend Off Beehiiv | E2153
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 18 July 2025
⏱️ 73 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s show:
WHY DOES @SUBSTACKINC NEED $100M IN NEW FUNDING?HOW DO THEY PLAN TO STAY AHEAD OF @BEEHIIV?Jason and Alex are debating the future of indie publishing on an all-new TWiST, considering the future of these rival platforms, plus Patreon and more.PLUS they’re digging into Lovable’s latest raise and what it says about the current economics of vibecoding, surveying the automated driving landscape in light of Uber’s new agreement Lucid and Euro, explaining Jason’s “meme processing” theory of internet humor, AND looking ahead to Christopher Nolan’s IMAX epic “The Odyssey.”Join us for the longest-running and most in-depth podcast on Earth for startup founders.
Timestamps:
(0:00) Intro - Everyone is getting hyped for Nolan’s “The Odyssey”
(03:49) “Meme Processing,” the Astronomer saga, and giving people a little grace
(10:07) INBOUND - Use code TWIST10 for 10% off your General Admission ticket at https://www.inbound.com/register (Valid thru 7/31)
(18:49) Substack vs. Patreon vs. Beehive: Who ya got?!
(19:43) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist
(29:39) Public - Take your investing to the next level with Public. Build a multi-asset portfolio and earn 4.1% APY on your cash—with no fees or minimums. Start now at public.com/twist.
(37:58) Lovable, vibecoding, and how much AGI might one day be worth
(01:00:36) Uber’s Lucid/Nuro deal: Alex did the math
(01:08:03) Is autonomous driving about to change EVERYTHING? Jason says… YES.
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
Thank you to our partners:
(10:07) INBOUND - Use code TWIST10 for 10% off your General Admission ticket at https://www.inbound.com/register (Valid thru 7/31)
(19:43) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist
(29:39) Public - Take your investing to the next level with Public. Build a multi-asset portfolio and earn 4.1% APY on your cash—with no fees or minimums. Start now at public.com/twist.
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
Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I love the term graduation problem. |
| 0:01.9 | So this is the graduation problem that you do a great job, your customers leave. |
| 0:08.1 | E-Harmony, number one graduation problem. |
| 0:10.3 | We're going to make this one of our themes here, the graduation problem. |
| 0:12.5 | E-Harmony was, you know, really a challenged business because they were so good with their science of relationships, |
| 0:21.9 | of finding a husband, that your 40 or 50 bucks a month, they were charging a lot at the peak, |
| 0:27.0 | would go away because if they did their job correctly. Do your job correctly? You lose the customer. |
| 0:32.4 | You know, and job boards have this issue. And, you know, you're basically like, when do you get the person back? |
| 0:39.2 | When they get divorced? |
| 0:40.8 | Okay, yeah, that could be 10 years and 50% of the time it doesn't happen. |
| 0:45.4 | This week in startups is brought to you by Inbound. |
| 0:49.2 | Connect with visionary leaders like Dario Amode and Amy Poehler at Inbound, 2025, September 3rd through 5th in San Francisco, the epicenter of tech innovation, and transform your business strategy for the AI era. |
| 1:03.1 | Use code Twist 10 for 10% off your general admission ticket at Inbound.com slash register. |
| 1:10.4 | Valid through July 31st. |
| 1:12.4 | Lemon.io. |
| 1:13.8 | Higher pre-vetted remote developers, get 15% off your first four weeks of developer time |
| 1:19.2 | at lemon.io slash twist. |
| 1:22.4 | And public. |
| 1:23.9 | You take investing seriously. |
| 1:25.9 | Public does too. |
| 1:27.4 | Build a multi-asset portfolio and earn an industry-leading 4.1% APY on your cash with no fees or minimums. Learn more at public.com slash twist. |
| 1:39.3 | All right, everybody, welcome back to this week and start us. I'm Jason Callicanis, our editorial director, Lon Harris here, |
... |
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