Twitter's takeover defense, Meta's AR project with The Verge's Alex Heath + Wordcab's Aleks Smechov + OK Boomer: Rachel Cantor | E1436

This Week in Startups

Jason Calacanis

Technology

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2022

⏱️ 121 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Friday variety show! First, The Verge’s Alex Heath joins to talk about two big stories he recently broke (2:32): Facebook’s plans for AR glasses and Twitter’s internal reaction to Elon’s takeover bid. Molly sits down with LAUNCH Accelerator founder Aleks Smechov whose company Wordcab specifically focuses on speech-to-text AI summaries (1:04:54). We wrap with an edition of OK Boomer where Producer Rachel talks to writer and marketer Rachel Cantor (1:18:51)!

(00:00) Molly tees up today’s variety show
(02:32) Alex Heath from The Verge joins to discuss the news he broke on Facebook/Meta’s further push into AR/VR
(10:40) Coda - The All-in-one doc for teams, get a $1,000 credit at https://coda.io/twist
(11:59) Mark Zuckerberg’s ego in the AR/VR race, CTRL-labs acquisition a cool move or a fool move?
(22:17) Gun.io - Get $250 off your first developer hire at https://Gun.io/twist!
(23:33) Magic Leap & where is Microsoft in AR/VR?
(33:24) Microsoft for Startups Hub - Apply in 5 minutes, no funding required, sign up at http://aka.ms/thisweekinstartups
(34:41) Will Google get more involved with AR/VR?
(38:04) Twitter's all-hands and future prospects
(1:04:54) Introducing Molly’s interview w/Wordcab’s founder & CEO Aleks Smechov
(1:07:10) Molly’s interview w/Wordcab founder & CEO Aleks Smechov
(1:18:51) Toss to OKB w/Rachel & Rachel Cantor of Tydo

FOLLOW Alex: https://twitter.com/alexeheath

FOLLOW Rachel: https://twitter.com/rachelcantor_

FOLLOW Aleks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandr-smechov/

Check out Wordcab: https://wordcab.com/

FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis
FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everybody. We have another Friday variety show for you today. A lot is going on. First up,
0:07.1	we have the Verge's Alex Heath to join us talking about two big stories that he recently broke.
0:12.1	We talk about Facebook's AR Glasses plans and their war with Apple. The whole AR Glasses
0:18.1	situation is getting real personal. We also covered Twitter's internal reaction to Elon's takeover bid,
0:24.7	another story broken by Alex Heath, which includes some backstreet boys. And actually, even since we
0:30.3	talked to him, there have been more developments on the story. Twitter confirmed that it is going
0:36.1	to implement what's known as a poison pill. Basically, if any single shareholder or entity
0:41.9	acquires more than 15% of Twitter's outstanding common stock, it will essentially trigger a threshold
0:50.0	in which Twitter can potentially flood the zone with shares bringing down the overall price.
0:55.3	It doesn't necessarily preclude Twitter from courting other buyers, but it does suggest that they are
1:01.4	not having it. CEO Prague, Agrawal, saying, I'm not having this Elon takeover bid. And then I sit
1:09.9	down with another awesome launch accelerator founder. This is all about speech to text AI. And then
1:16.7	we told you Friday Variety Show has got to get you all the way through the weekend.
1:19.9	Another awesome edition of Ok Boomer from Producer Rachel. It's going to be a great show.
1:24.4	Stick with us.
1:47.0	The simplest way for anyone to hire world-class developers, expertly vetted for you by senior
1:52.6	engineers. Get $250 off your first hire at gun.io slash twist. And Microsoft for Startups founders hub.
2:02.9	For the challenges you face as a startup founder, Microsoft for Startups founders hub is here to help.
2:09.1	The platform provides founders with free resources like Azure Credits, development tools like GitHub,
2:15.2	mentorship resources, productivity software, training, and so much more.
2:20.8	The program is open to all and takes five minutes to apply with no funding required.
2:26.3	Learn more and sign up at aka.ms slash this week in Startups.
	...

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