One Genius Rule That Made This Coffee Brand Famous | EP 2262
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 14 March 2026
⏱️ 90 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Legendary British ad man Rory Sutherland invented a fake business on a podcast, a coffee shop appealing to the busy commuter called “Flat White or F**k Off.”
But it’s one thing to have a post go big on TikTok or Instagram… but to turn that viral moment into an actual COMPANY is a very different challenge.
On TWiST, Jason and Lon chat with Charlie Hurst, Tom Noble, and Will Sudlow, founders of the online brand “Flat White or F**k Off,” about how they took a funny little slogan and turned it into a string of popular social media accounts, a line of merch, a pop-up café, and let’s face it, an entire lifestyle.
PLUS we’ve got Mog and Dubs from Subnet 75 — Hippius! Hear how they’re using the blockchain for decentralized storage, and providing server space much cheaper than their famous hyperscaler rivals.
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist
LinkedIn Jobs - https://LinkedIn.com/twist.
Wispr Flow - https://wisprflow.ai/twist
Northwest Registered Agent - https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Intro
00:01:28 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!
00:03:22 What is "decentralized cloud storage"?
00:05:42 How Hippius came together
00:09:57 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist.
00:11:38 Incentivizing miners
00:14:25 How many people are contributing?
00:18:42 But where does the value accrue?
00:20:18 Wispr Flow - Stop typing. Dictate with Wispr Flow and send clean, final-draft writing in seconds. Visit https://wisprflow.ai/twist to get started for free today.
00:29:55 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://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
00:35:53 The best places to eat in Dubai
00:38:06 The inspo behind "Flat White or F Off"
00:42:16 From social media to IRL business
00:53:06 The secrets of experiential marketing
00:57:28 Hospitality's "Rule of 3s"
00:59:33 Inside the Flat White London pop-up
01:13:11 Lon and Jason's Oscar picks
01:26:06 Lon went "Inside the Manosphere"
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:
X: https://x.com/lons
Follow Alex:
X: https://x.com/alex
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm
Follow Jason:
X: https://twitter.com/Jason
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/
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
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | All right, everybody, welcome back to this week and startup with me, Lon Harris. I'm Jason Calacanus. |
| 0:04.2 | We have a full docket on Fridays. Yeah, we like to expand a little bit. Our horizons talk to maybe some |
| 0:11.9 | businesses that aren't strictly software-based inside your computer, maybe talk to some entrepreneurs. |
| 0:17.5 | And we have a really cool one that Rory Sutherland inspired called |
| 0:22.8 | Flatwhite or... We should say F off, I think. F off. Flatwhite or F off? I'm going to say F off |
| 0:30.4 | so we don't get YouTube. We don't get booted off of YouTube. Yeah. |
| 0:36.2 | This week in startups is brought to you by northwest registered agent get more when you start |
| 0:41.5 | your business with northwest in 10 clicks in 10 minutes you can form your company and walk away with a |
| 0:47.1 | real business identity learn more at northwest registeragent.com slash twist. Whisperflow. |
| 0:54.5 | Stop typing. |
| 0:55.4 | Dictate with Whisperflow and send clean final draft writing in seconds. |
| 0:59.9 | Visit whisperflow. |
| 1:00.9 | A.I. slash twist to get started for free today. |
| 1:04.3 | That's WISPRFlow.A.I.S.T. |
| 1:07.8 | And LinkedIn jobs. |
| 1:09.4 | Higher right the first time. Post your job and get $100 off |
| 1:13.1 | towards your job post at LinkedIn.com slash twist. Before we get started here, we want to make sure |
| 1:22.0 | we don't lose any of these gems. We have a lot of things we'll talk about during the show and we |
| 1:25.9 | tape the show live and we like to banter a little bit before the show. We'll have a little banter in between that. We cut out of the final podcast while we're queuing things up. If you don't want to lose any of those nuggets, any of those action items, any of your inspiration or ideas, get a plod pin. And then you just press the button, boom, it vibrates. |
| 1:46.0 | You get a nice haptic. It starts recording. Red light. Everybody knows that you're recording. |
| 1:49.6 | You may have heard me before. Hey, I'm into privacy. So I say, hey, may I record our meeting? Or, hey, |
| 1:57.3 | is anybody else using a meeting recorder? It's now kind of table stakes. When you go into a meeting, you expect it to be recorded for AI. Right. So, hey, is anybody else using a meeting recorder? It's now kind of table stakes when you go into a meeting. |
... |
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 2026.