Jason’s Tesla Optimus prediction, Anthropic’s latest mega-raise and more | E2172
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 3 September 2025
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s show:
Find out why it’s important to “get curious,” and more deep founder insights on a new TWiST.
Jason and Alex are back with a look at Robot vs. Human violence spilling out into the streets, Elon Musk’s vision for humanoid robots, and a reconsideration of Apple’s open-source AI models. Is the hardware giant not getting enough credit for its smaller-scale innovations?
Plus Grok has another hit model, AND a chat with Scale Social founder Runbin Dong about the importance of knowing your worth.
Timestamps:
(0:00) Robot vs. Human violence in the streets! Is anti-clanker behavior inevitable?
(05:13) Producer Claude’s company Anthropic is growing FAST, raising BIG money
(09:21) More on why Jason is convinced Tesla’s Optimus robots are the future
(10:35) Monarch Money - Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at www.monarchmoney.com/TWIST
(11:50) Show Continues…
(20:00) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST
(21:19) Show Continues…
(23:31) Ask Jason: Should you get a ticket for messing with an autonomous vehicle?
(27:04) Is Apple not getting enough credit for its open-source AI models?
(30:30) AWS Activate - AWS Activate helps startups bring their ideas to life. Apply to AWS Activate today to learn more. Visit aws.amazon.com/startups/credits
(31:55) Show Continues…
(38:08) Grok has another hit AI model… how can anyone even keep track of this?!
(40:27) Runbin Dong of Scale Social stops by from ICELAND
(42:54) How Runbin’s job delivering homemade dumplings inspired his startup
(47:05) Why founders need to know their WORTH when pricing their products
(59:21) Jason’s advice for companies that are creating their own category
Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow Lon:
Follow Alex:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm
Follow Jason:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
Thank you to our partners:
(10:35) Monarch Money - Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at www.monarchmoney.com/TWIST
(20:00) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST(30:30) AWS Activate - AWS Activate helps startups bring their ideas to life. Apply to AWS Activate today to learn more. Visit aws.amazon.com/startups/credits
Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
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
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 did a tweet today. I believe Optimus is going to be the greatest product ever created by humanity, |
| 0:09.0 | including the wheel in this, obviously. It is going to be the most successful product in history, |
| 0:17.3 | and people will forget that Tesla ever made cars. |
| 0:28.2 | This week in startups is brought to you by AWS Activate. |
| 0:32.0 | AWS Activate helps startups bring their ideas to life. |
| 0:34.1 | As you build and scale your business, |
| 0:37.3 | activate credits grow with you to support your changing needs. Apply to AWS |
| 0:38.8 | activate today and receive up to $100,000 in credits. Visit AWS.com slash startups slash credits. |
| 0:50.0 | Squarespace. Turn your idea into a beautiful website. Go to Squarespace.com slash twist for a free trial. |
| 0:57.4 | When you're ready to launch, use offer code twist to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. |
| 1:04.1 | And Monarch Money. Get control of your overall finances with Monarch Money. Visit monarchmoney.com slash twist for half off on your |
| 1:13.5 | first year. All right, everybody. Welcome back to this week in startups. It's your boy, Jason Kalakanis, |
| 1:18.6 | and my co-host here, Alex Willem. How are you, Serge? Have a good weekend. Oh, fantastic. Tons of time |
| 1:23.5 | with the kids. Last ice cream stop of the summer, and we bought Ada a little balanced bike. |
| 1:28.8 | So it was honestly amazing. |
| 1:30.7 | Jason, before we get started, though, I have a request from everyone who's a Twist fan, Twist |
| 1:34.7 | listener, even the occasional Twist Enjoyer. |
| 1:37.4 | If you go to GetPerspective.a.ai slash share slash twist, there is a little survey that our dear friend Lon put together, and we would love to hear from you about how the show is going, what we can do better, and we are collecting all of this feedback so we can make the best possible podcast for y'all. |
| 1:54.0 | That's get perspective. |
| 1:55.0 | .aI slash share slash twist. |
| 1:58.0 | Okay. |
| 1:59.0 | Another way to do this would be to do this week in startups |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jason Calacanis, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jason Calacanis and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.