Naval's GP, Ankur Nagpal, Breaks Down The Viral “USVC” Fund | E2284
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2026
⏱️ 98 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Render - render.com/twist
Vanta - vanta.com/twist
Northwest Registered Agent - northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
Have you wanted to invest in venture capital alongside your 401k contributions, but struggled to find a way to place a bet? Search no more, for the AngelList team has created USVC, a new fund that will accept investments of as little as $500 from folks who lack accreditation. USVC’s Ankur Napgal swung by the show to chat about investment strategies, access, fees, and just how illiquid the venture-like vehicle will prove to be.
Jason and Alex were then joined by Jon Durbin, core contributor at Chutes, and Yash Goenka, co-founder and CEO of Humwork. Chutes is the most valuable Bittensor subnet, focused on aggregating GPUs to offer trustless AI compute. Humwork wants to help bring a human into your agentic workflow to unstick your agent when it runs into a hitch. The show closes with a news lightning round — enjoy!
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro + Plaud AI sponsor read (Jason demos the NotePin S)
2:06 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
3:50 Episode overview: USVC, Chutes, Humwork
7:41 USVC structure: $500 min, no accreditation, quarterly redemptions
10:28 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
11:39 Fee structure breakdown: 1% mgmt fee, ~2.5% net expense ratio
15:41 USVC portfolio: xAI, Anthropic, OpenAI, Crusoe, Vercel
16:17 Strategy: 1/3 emerging managers, 1/3 growth, 1/3 secondaries
19:00 $1B cap and path to expanding the fund
20:33 Vanta - Compliance and security shouldn't be a deal-breaker for startups to win new business. Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a SOC 2 reports fast. Get $1,000 off for a limited time at https://www.vanta.com/twist
28:00 What is sovereign compute? Permissionless GPU networks explained
30:10 Render - Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to https://render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers.
44:53 Usage history: 160B tokens/day peak, free-to-paid transition
46:41 GPU pricing: from $0.77/hr to $3.50/hr as shortage bites
49:13 DeepSeek censorship demo: Taiwan test on DeepSeek chat
57:27 Permissionless supply curves: Uber/Airbnb analogy for induced demand
59:20 Yash Goenka, co-founder of Humwork (YC S26)
1:00:49 Lightning Round: Ryan Cohen wants to buy eBay — Jason's hot take
1:12:36 Lightning Round: Cerebras IPO update ($27–36B valuation range)
1:14:05 Lightning Round: Spirit Airlines / JetBlue / M&A regulation debate
1:19:10 OFF-DUTY: Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord
1:32:57 Alex's OFF-DUTY: Captain of Industry
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It gives the average person the ability to own a company. |
| 0:03.0 | Unlike Angelist SPVs, where it's only accredited investors, this can be accessed by anybody, but it has some very different nuances. |
| 0:10.0 | What we have is a closed-end fund that is available to anyone with as little as $500. |
| 0:16.0 | So people should be able to invest in these companies that are changing the economy, maybe impacting their jobs. |
| 0:20.0 | It seems very equitable. |
| 0:21.3 | Like, I do think part of the negative AI sentiment is because so many people feel locked out |
| 0:26.1 | from actually having access to any of that sort of growth. |
| 0:29.8 | Today, we can invest in any crypto coin, have a polymarket bet for how long Trump shakes |
| 0:35.3 | someone's hand. |
| 0:36.3 | All of that is perfectly legal, but |
| 0:37.9 | investing in a startup has this accreditation wall. This week in startups is brought to you by Render. |
| 0:43.4 | Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform Render. Go to Render.com |
| 0:50.5 | slash twist and apply for the Render startup program to get $ to get 500 to $100,000 in free credits |
| 0:57.1 | depending on your stage and backers. |
| 0:59.4 | Vanta. |
| 1:00.0 | Compliance and security shouldn't be a deal breaker for startups to win new business. |
| 1:04.3 | Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a SOC2 report fast. |
| 1:07.8 | Get $1,000 off for a limited time at vanta.com slash twist. |
| 1:12.9 | And Northwest Registered Agent. |
| 1:15.1 | Get more when you start your business with Northwest. |
| 1:17.6 | In 10 clicks in 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity. |
| 1:23.8 | Learn more at Northwest Registeredagent.com slash twist. |
... |
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