Reddit communities revolt + Brad Gerstner on state of private and public markets in 2023 | E1761
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 13 June 2023
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This Week in Startups is presented by:
LinkedIn Jobs. A business is only as strong as its people, and every hire matters. Go to LinkedIn.com/TWIST to post your first job for free. Terms and conditions apply.
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 report fast. TWiST listeners can get $1,000 off for a limited time at vanta.com/twist.
iConnections is a platform to connect and meet with elite capital allocators through their online platform and bespoke events. The first 25 VC funds to sign up for iConnections Miami 2024 event in January of next year will receive a 20% discount! Head to iConnections.io/twist to sign up today!
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Today’s show:
First up, Jason does a full breakdown of what’s going on at Reddit, and why this is happening now (1:21). Then, Brad Gerstner joins to break down the state of the markets in 2023 (18:28), his “Time to Get Fit” letter to Meta (30:06), and more!
Brad’s fireside chat was recorded live at LAUNCH Angel Summit in Napa.
Follow Brad: https://twitter.com/altcap
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Time stamps:
(0:00) Jason tees up today’s segments!
(1:21) Breaking down the Reddit situation: Why 2000’s-era web companies relied on third-party apps built on their API
(3:10) Origin and current state of the Reddit revolt, CEO Steve Huffman’s AMA and comments
(10:27) Jason’s hot takes on how to solve the third-party app API pricing issue, Reddit’s IPO price, and more
(17:00) LinkedIn Jobs - Post your first job for free at https://linkedin.com/twist
(18:28) Brad Gerstner joins live from Angel Summit! Importance on non-consensus conviction, first-party research, how Brad first invested in Facebook
(29:00) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://vanta.com/twist
(30:06) Brad breaks down the greatness in Zuckerberg and Meta’s reaction to his “Time to Get Fit” letter
(34:08) Current state of the markets
(38:05) iConnections - Get 20% off iConnections Miami 2024 event at http://iconnections.io/twist
(39:48) Predicting what the AI innovation cycle will look like when compared to past cycles: pc, internet, mobile, cloud; why now is the most important time for AI investing
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Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
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Follow Jason:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | All right, everybody, first up on the show before my spectacular fireside chat with the fifth |
| 0:06.2 | bestie, Brad Gersner, I want to talk about this Reddit situation. As you may have heard, |
| 0:12.4 | Reddit, the most famous and successful forum for community site ever created in the history |
| 0:18.4 | of the internet. Let that sink in is currently dealing with a strike, a strike by the members and |
| 0:24.9 | the community managers of their own website. This week in startups is brought to you by |
| 0:31.0 | LinkedIn Jobs. A business is only as strong as its people and every higher matters. |
| 0:37.3 | Post your first job for free at LinkedIn.com slash twist. Vanta compliance and security |
| 0:44.5 | shouldn't be a deal breaker for startups to win new business. Vanta makes it easy for companies |
| 0:49.5 | to get a sock to report fast. Twist listeners can get $1,000 off for a limited time, |
| 0:55.2 | at vanta.com slash twist. And iConnections is a platform to connect and meet with elite |
| 1:02.4 | capital allocators through their online platform and bespoke events. The first 25 VC funds |
| 1:09.5 | to sign up for iConnections Miami 2024 event in January of next year will receive a 20% |
| 1:16.0 | discount. Head to iConnections.io slash twist to sign up today. Why are they striking? Well, |
| 1:23.2 | the Reddit moderators or for short mods are on strike because third party developers |
| 1:30.4 | are revolting after Reddit said they were going to charge for its API. Now, for background, |
| 1:36.7 | what this means is there are apps in the app store when you type in Reddit and you'll see there's |
| 1:41.2 | a half dozen apps, maybe a dozen. In the early days of the internet, there was a culture of APIs |
| 1:47.8 | where people could build around other services. So if you had access to Google's API, you could |
| 1:55.5 | use their search results or Yahoo had one and it really started at Yahoo. They had something |
| 1:59.9 | called search monkey and they inspired people to build apps and use their data. Reddit did something |
| 2:06.5 | similar and so did Twitter. Twitter said, Hey, here's the API. Have added. Why did they do that? |
| 2:12.4 | Well, they were constrained in the 2004 to 2010 era when a lot of these sites were launched. |
... |
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