Venture returns, recovering startups, and VC conflicts | E1995
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 20 August 2024
⏱️ 88 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This Week in Startups is brought to you by…
Coda. Coda empowers your startup by bringing words, tables, and teams together. Strategize, plan, and track goals effectively with all your valuable data in one place. Go to https://www.Coda.io/twist to get started for FREE and get 6 free months of the Team plan.
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 https://www.vanta.com/twist
Fundrise provides access to diversified portfolios of private real estate to all investors with their industry leading, easy to use platform. Sign up today at https://fundrise.com/TWIST
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Todays show:
Alex Wilhelm joins Jason to discuss venture capital fund performance (15:02), potential big tech breakups (41:14), SF Standard piece analysis on Ben and Felicia Horowitz (47:04), startup shutdowns (1:11:28), and more!
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Jason and Alex kick off the show
(5:31) Discussion on productivity and browsers with ChatGPT-4
(10:21) Coda - Empower your startup with Coda’s Team plan for free—get 6 months at https://www.Coda.io/twist
(11:54) Debate on regulations in the U.S.
(15:02) Deep dive into venture capital fund performance, IRR, and DPI
(25:37) Strategy of David Clark's fund of funds
(27:16) Realities of investing in venture capital
(30:02) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist
(30:53) Venture capital performance impact on LPs and future fundraising
(34:23) Consequences for new and small venture firms
(39:24) Fundrise - Sign up today at https://fundrise.com/TWIST
(41:14) Analysis of antitrust issues and potential big tech breakups
(45:29) Search engine market competition strategies
(46:19) Venture capital market stress and its effects on VC behavior
(47:04) SF Standard piece analysis on Ben and Felicia Horowitz
(59:12) Venture capital rivalries and media narratives
(1:03:03) Discussion on US deficit, economic policies, and election outcomes
(1:11:28) Startup shutdowns, failure rates, and positive venture capital data
(1:17:02) Reflections on resilience during tough economic times
(1:20:08) Audience questions
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Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com/
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
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Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
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Mentioned on the show:
https://x.com/daveclark85/status/1825448801672327229
https://sfstandard.com/2024/08/16/felicia-ben-horowitz-party-switch
https://carta.com/blog/vc-fund-performance-q1-2024
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Follow Alex:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm/
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Follow Jason:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
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Thank you to our partners:
(10:21) Coda - Empower your startup with Coda’s Team plan for free—get 6 months at https://www.Coda.io/twist
(30:02) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist
(39:24) Fundrise - Sign up today at https://fundrise.com/TWIST
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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
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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 | To deal with the amount of chaos that you showed in these threats today, Alex, |
| 0:04.8 | has been in some ways the toughest two years of my professional career. |
| 0:08.4 | Now I lead a charmed career. |
| 0:09.9 | I've had two rough patches, this is the third. |
| 0:13.7 | Those rough patches were the Docomera, |
| 0:16.5 | the Great Recession and now. |
| 0:18.0 | And those three, each one of those has been tough on me, |
| 0:21.4 | but when you get to your third one, it's like that meme where |
| 0:24.8 | James Frank goes in a news and he looks over and he goes first time. |
| 0:28.0 | Yeah. |
| 0:29.0 | It's like, I've been through this before. |
| 0:31.0 | It's literally like first time, like's I know it's going to be |
| 0:34.3 | in the foxhole but I know we're going to win the war and then the question is like do I have |
| 0:39.6 | a bum shoulder and knees that I can't fight the war anymore. I'm 53. I feel great. I love doing |
| 0:46.1 | this job. I love hanging out with founders. You had a great opportunity to bring |
| 0:51.5 | six of our companies to Sequoia last week, super jazz me up. |
| 0:54.9 | Yeah, and you know every time I spend time doing a podcast or doing founders, |
| 1:00.2 | my energy and my battery gets filled and I'm stoked again. |
| 1:04.0 | This week in startups is brought to you by Kota. |
| 1:08.0 | Kota empowers your startup by bringing words, tables and teams together. |
| 1:12.0 | Strategize, plan, and teams together. |
| 1:12.6 | Strategize, plan, and track goals effectively with all your valuable data in one place. |
... |
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