Lina Khan’s Figma victory lap, Meta’s Superintelligence Team, BYD mega car-carrier video & MORE | E2160
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 5 August 2025
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s show:
Jason and Alex are running down the biggest tech, startup, and business stories of the day on a brand-new Monday TWIST.Which countries are leading the AI race, based on academic papers? Why Jason thinks covert agencies are spying on Meta’s superintelligence team. Lina Khan’s taking a victory lap on the Figma IPO but what did she REALLY accomplish during her Biden administration tenure? PLUS, why we’re bringing Founder University to the MENA region.
All that and MORE on a packed episode! Find out why we’re the #1 podcast for startups and founders.
Timestamps:
(0:00) Why Jason is attending more TV poker tournaments
(4:02) Did you know Founder University is headed to MENA? Calling all Riyadh founders.
(10:01) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST
(11:27) Show Continues…
(19:52) Oracle - Try OCI and save up to 50% on your cloud bill at https://www.oracle.com/twist
(21:01) Why Jason doesn’t think Lina Khan deserves her Figma IPO victory lap.
(23:17) Jason thinks Figma is overpriced: how quickly could a rival build a competitor?
(27:53) For an investor, there’s a huge difference between a home run and a GRAND SLAM.
(30:42) Monarch Money - Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at www.monarchmoney.com/TWIST
(31:55) Show Continues…
(40:59) Why Jason thinks covert agencies are spying on Meta’s global Superintelligence Team…
(50:43) Which countries are leading the AI race in terms of research? Producer Claude helps with the answer.
(57:12) Fact-checking the viral BYD TikTok: can their self-driving cars really drive themselves off the ship?
(59:52) Jason and Alex check out some of their dream cars
Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
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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:
10:01) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST
(19:52) Oracle - Try OCI and save up to 50% on your cloud bill at https://www.oracle.com/twist
(30:42) Monarch Money - Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at www.monarchmoney.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
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
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| 0:00.0 | The goal of consumers getting more for less has been achieved so greatly by these companies |
| 0:06.8 | that to go and invest in a competitor, sometimes this doesn't make sense. |
| 0:11.7 | Gmail being free is a really hard price for the industry to compete with. |
| 0:17.1 | The browsers being free is an incredibly hard price. |
| 0:20.7 | That's where the software eventually |
| 0:22.5 | winds up. A gigabyte, a terabyte, you know, just massive amounts of free storage for photos. |
| 0:29.4 | We have gotten to the point where the market has made everything free and cheap for consumers, |
| 0:37.8 | with the exception of the industries |
| 0:40.3 | where our government is running them |
| 0:42.3 | and regulating, over-regulating them, |
| 0:44.3 | housing, healthcare, and education. |
| 0:47.3 | If we really want to point the gun |
| 0:50.3 | of regulations somewhere, |
| 0:53.3 | for the love of God, crack the monopolies that these colleges |
| 0:56.6 | have with accreditation, crack the monopoly on health care and insurance and pharma, and |
| 1:02.7 | crack the crazy regulations that and these companies buying tons of homes and on housing. |
| 1:11.3 | That's where we need it. |
| 1:12.3 | You don't need it in our industry. |
| 1:15.1 | This week in startups is brought to you by Squarespace. |
| 1:19.2 | Turn your idea into a beautiful website. |
| 1:21.8 | Go to squarespace.com slash twist for a free trial. |
| 1:24.7 | When you're ready to launch, use offer code Twist to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. |
... |
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