NEWS: Ackman's SPARC, Unity CEO steps down amidst dev revolt, AI operating costs skyrocket | E1827
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 12 October 2023
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This Week in Startups is brought to you by…
Catalog. Stop wasting time and money with expensive design firms and unreliable freelancers! Get fast, 3-day turnarounds for a flat monthly fee with Catalog! Get $1200 off right now at https://trycatalog.com/twist
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Roots. Invest in the only real estate investment trust that creates wealth for you and its residents at https://investwithroots.com/TWIST
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Today’s show:
Jason is back to break down the news: Bill Ackman's SPARC (1:32), Unity CEO steps down due to developer revolt over pricing changes (15:33), the AI operating cost problem (32:17), the latest on SBF's trial (45:32), and more!
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Time stamps:
(0:00) Jason kicks off the show
(1:32) Bill Ackman's SPARC
(14:02) Catalog - Get $1200 off right now at https://trycatalog.com/twist
(15:33) Unity CEO steps down over developer revolt, importance of getting pricing right
(24:44) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://lemon.io/twist
(26:05) Lyft looks to get rid of surge pricing
(32:17) Big tech firms are losing money on AI tools due to high operating costs
(37:10) Roots - Head to https://investwithroots.com/TWIST to sign up and start investing today
(38:43) Google's Project Green Light: AI is helping cities like Seattle reduce carbon emissions from cars by optimizing traffic lights
(45:32) SBF Trial Update
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LINKS:
https://venturebeat.com/games/john-riccitiello-steps-down-as-ceo-of-unity-after-pricing-battle
https://unity.com/pricing#plans-individualsand-teams
https://www.axios.com/2023/09/13/unity-runtime-fee-policy-marc-whitten
https://twitter.com/InnerslothDevs/status/1701731398498013575
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This feels like a rug pull whenever you make a massive change in terms of pricing and |
| 0:04.4 | how you price and this is why it's important to get pricing correct early in your start |
| 0:08.6 | up. |
| 0:09.3 | If you change pricing, people can feel like you you're rug pulled them and to go from |
| 0:13.5 | flat repricing to, you know, a percentage of revenue, you're basically like becoming |
| 0:18.8 | like the app store. |
| 0:19.8 | So now you're a tax. |
| 0:21.1 | Imagine if Airbnb charged $500 a year to put your apartment or your cottage on Airbnb. |
| 0:27.7 | And then they said, okay, you know what, forget about $500 a year. |
| 0:30.2 | We just want, you know, 10% of every sale and we're like, wait a second. |
| 0:34.2 | I'm doing $100,000. |
| 0:35.2 | That's $10,000. |
| 0:36.2 | That's 20 times more. |
| 0:37.2 | I can afford that. |
| 0:38.2 | Whereas if they do it from the start, you'd be like, okay, that's the price. |
| 0:41.2 | They bring me extra customers, etc. |
| 0:43.0 | This week in startups is brought to you by catalog. |
| 0:47.4 | Stop wasting time and money with expensive design firms and unreliable freelancers. |
| 0:53.2 | Get fast three day turnarounds for a flat monthly fee with catalog. |
| 0:58.4 | Get $1,200 off right now at trycatalog.com slash twist lemon.io. |
| 1:06.5 | Need to speed up your product development without draining your budget? |
| 1:09.9 | Higher vetted engineers from Europe at lemon.io. |
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