The Self-Driving Unicorn You Need to Meet & MicroStrategy's Bitcoin Bet | E2052
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 27 November 2024
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Todays show:
Jason and Alex welcomed Alex Kendall to the show. He's the founder and CEO of Wayve, an AI company working on self-driving. You might recall that Wayve raised $1 billion earlier this year, but TWIST wanted to know how the company intends to commercialize -- and how soon. From there, it was back to the bitcoin mines. Figuratively, as the hosts dug into MicroStrategies' bitcoin buying bet. Precisely why it is trading at such a NAV premium remains occluded to the show, but we did chase down its debt terms. Next week: More TWiST500!
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Jason and Alex kick off the show
(2:32) Introduction of guest Alex Kendall Co-Founder & CEO of Wayve (3:00) Alex Kendall on Wayve's autonomous driving approach and AI technology (8:29) LiDAR vs. camera-first solutions debate
(10:19) Cloud Devs - Visit https://www.clouddevs.com/twist for an unbeatable offer on hiring elite Latam talent today.
(12:23) Economic viability and strategy of autonomous vehicles (17:49) Timeline for Wave's technology deployment and future market scenarios
(19:58) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist
(22:34) Autonomy subscription models and AI driving behavior challenges
(30:01) Kyte - Download the Kyte app today and use code JASON to save 10% on your first rental.
(33:00) AI driving culture and Twist 500 update (37:05) MicroStrategy's Bitcoin strategy and market concerns (41:33) Bitcoin convertible debt analysis (49:03) Deciphering complex business models and historical examples (51:24) Evaluating new financial terms and investor advice (52:29) Final thoughts and invitation to Michael Saylor
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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
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Mentioned on the show:
Check out Wayve: https://wayve.ai/ Check out MicroStrategy: https://www.microstrategy.com/ TWiST Episode #1251 with Do Kwon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLZL8iPKsHQ
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Follow Alex Kendall:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexgkendall/
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Follow Alex:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm
Follow Jason:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
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Thank you to our partners:
(10:19) Cloud Devs - Visit https://www.clouddevs.com/twist for an unbeatable offer on hiring elite Latam talent today.
(19:58) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist
(30:01) Kyte - Download the Kyte app today and use code JASON to save 10% on your first rental.
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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
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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
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Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Whenever people make up new terms for revenue or expenses, any of this stuff, it's going to be a pink flag or a red flag. |
| 0:08.2 | Pink flag is what I waive on the way to a red flag. Red flag means stop, don't participate in this. |
| 0:14.9 | Pink flag is, do we ask some questions? If you're a micro strategy holder, my best advice to you, if it was a family |
| 0:21.6 | member, I said, hey, I put $100,000 into this, I double my money. My best advice to a family |
| 0:26.2 | member, and this is not financial advice for anybody else. It would be for my brother. Sure, |
| 0:29.6 | my mom. I'd say, sell it. You doubled your money. Sell it. And then go buy Bitcoin directly |
| 0:35.3 | if you love Bitcoin, because now you're going to get four Bitcoin for every one that you bought last month if you in fact doubled your money. |
| 0:41.2 | And it's, you know, this whole thing, not your keys, not your coins. |
| 0:44.3 | You probably want to own it yourself, have your own coins, or maybe be in something that's |
| 0:47.7 | super trustworthy. |
| 0:48.4 | I'll have Michael Saylor here on This Week in Startups. |
| 0:50.6 | Happy to have him on. |
| 0:51.7 | He can explain it. It's not personal with Michael Seller. |
| 0:54.5 | Just so we're clear. This week in startups is brought to you by CloudDevs. Building the best |
| 1:00.2 | remote team is tough, but you don't have to do it alone. Visit clouddeves.com slash twist |
| 1:05.6 | for an unbeatable offer on hiring elite Latam talent today. Vanta. Compliance and security shouldn't be a deal breaker |
| 1:13.1 | for startups to win new business. Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a SOC2 report fast. |
| 1:18.9 | Twist listeners can get $1,000 off for limited time at Vanta.com slash twist. And Kite, looking to get |
| 1:26.3 | out of the city, rent a car with Kite. Kite delivers rental cars to your |
| 1:30.1 | door, no counter, no lines, no hassle. Download the Kite app today and use code Jason to save 10% on your |
| 1:36.6 | first rental. Hey, everybody, welcome back to this weekend startups. I'm Jason Kalkanis. He's Alex Wilhelm. |
| 1:41.9 | You know him from his tech crunch days. You know me as an angel |
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