Robinhood Venture Fund, Polymarket adds earnings, and LAUNCH Accelerator 35 is here! | E2178
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 15 September 2025
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s show:
There are new LAUNCH Accelerator and Founder U cohorts this week, and Jason’s running down some of his favorite new startups.
PLUS Alphabet is the latest member of the $3T club, why Eric Schmidt was SO RIGHT about remote work, Robinhood is opening up private companies to more investors, Polymarket adds earnings reports, how Jason wagered on The Emmys this year, and MORE!
Timestamps:
(0:00) It’s kickoff day for LAUNCH Accelerator 35 AND Founder University!
(02:32) Let’s talk about some new companies. Jason runs down the LA35 line-up and why he’s excited about these awesome startups.
(10:33) OpenPhone - Streamline and scale your customer communications with OpenPhone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at https://www.openphone.com/twist
(11:57) Show Continues…
(19:50) Squarespace - Turn your idea into a beautiful website! Go to http://www.squarespace.com/twist for a free trial. When you’re ready to launch, use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
(21:05) Show Continues…
(27:43) Lemon.io - Hire pre-vetted remote developers and get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist
(28:58) Looking back at Jason’s solar energy rematch vs. Energy Sec. Chris Wright.
(31:23) Why Jason thinks solar power (+nuclear) is the future.
(41:03) Why Alphabet is the latest member of the $3 trillion market cap club.
(46:40) Jason says Eric Schmidt was right about work from home culture
(48:51) How Robinhood is giving everyday investors access to private companies
(51:44) Polymarket introduces prediction markets for corporate earnings.
(53:58) Why Jason loves prediction markets… and how he gambled on the Emmys this year.
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Thank you to our partners:
OpenPhone - Streamline and scale your customer communications with OpenPhone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at https://www.openphone.com/twist
Squarespace - Turn your idea into a beautiful website! Go to http://www.squarespace.com/twist for a free trial. When you’re ready to launch, use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
Lemon.io - Hire pre-vetted remote developers and get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist
Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
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Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com
Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | People are voting with their dollars to install solar that is not even subsidized. |
| 0:06.5 | Why, it's cheaper to install solar than it is to install clean coal. |
| 0:11.0 | So the idea that we're going to burn more coal rather than put in solar, rather than invest in nuclear, just seems illogical. |
| 0:19.6 | And so all due respect to the secretary, |
| 0:22.4 | I believe there's a little bit of politics in this and that Elon and the Chinese have it right. |
| 0:34.4 | This week in startups is brought to you by Lemon.io. |
| 0:38.3 | Hire pre-vetted remote developers and get 15% off your first four weeks of developer time at lemon. |
| 0:45.3 | .io slash twist. |
| 0:48.3 | Squarespace, turn your idea into a beautiful website. |
| 0:52.3 | Go to Squarespace.com slash twist for a free trial, and when you're ready to launch, |
| 0:56.8 | use offer code twist to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. |
| 1:02.3 | And open phone. |
| 1:04.4 | Create business phone numbers for you and your team that work through an app on your smartphone or desktop. |
| 1:10.0 | Twist listeners can get an extra 20% |
| 1:11.8 | off any plan for your first six months at openphone.com slash twist. Hey everybody, welcome back |
| 1:18.5 | to this week in startups. He is Alex Wilhelm. I am Jason Kalakanis. This is the show where |
| 1:26.5 | we talk about startups, the broader tech ecosystem, finance, and of course, everything having to do with starting a company and being a founder. I do basically two things in this world. I invest in startups. And I appear on podcast three days a week here on this week in startups, |
| 1:45.3 | Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Thursdays I tape all in and comes out on Friday. And then |
| 1:49.9 | we run two, uh, free programs for investment, founder university, which we're kicking off |
| 1:56.0 | today here in Austin. I got a hundred people outside the studio, uh, listening to amazing |
| 2:00.1 | talks. And,, and that's our |
| 2:02.0 | pre-accelerator. Then we have the launch accelerator on its 35th cohort. That's where we put, |
... |
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