We built OpenClaw Ultron to replace 20 people at our company | E2246

This Week in Startups

Jason Calacanis

Technology

4.2 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2026

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

Crusoe Cloud - https://crusoe.ai/savings

Lemon IO - https://Lemon.io/twist

Northwest Registered Agent - https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

Thanks to our guests:

Alex Cheema of ExoLabs http://exolabs.net

Ryan Yanneli of NextVisit https://nextvisit.ai/

Today’s show:

It’s the Age of Ultron at TWiST and LAUNCH. We’ve given our OpenClaw digital Replicants the keys to all of our systems and we’re seeing how much of our jobs they can really do when left to their own devices.

Producer Oliver stops by the show to give us a peek behind the curtain, at the new control panel and dashboard OpenClaw built FOR ITSELF (with a bit of human assistance).

PLUS we’re joined by Alex Cheema of ExoLabs. His company helps everyday consumers run powerful frontier LLMs on their own devices, essential to protect your data and personalize your AI experience.

ALSO congratulations to Ryan Yanneli from NextVisit on winning our Gamma Pitch Deck Competition! He walks away with $25K from LAUNCH and our friends at Gamma.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introducing Alex Cheema to the show

(3:17) Why it is so important to run AI on local hardware

(6:58) Using OpenClaw Producer to automate TWiST

(8:59) How to Train your AI

(11:58) What is a Chron Job? (Hint: chron means chronological)

(13:24) Crusoe Cloud: Crusoe is the AI factory company. Reliable infrastructure and expert support. Visit https://crusoe.ai/savings to reserve your capacity for the latest GPUs today.

(17:53) OpenClaw managing the LAUNCH/TWiST team

(19:54) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist

(20:58) Turning AI into Ultron, self optimization

(27:21) The Future: frontier models: running on your Iphone!

(28:37) Prompt injections: how people can hack your OpenClaw

(30:25) Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

(31:31) OpenClaw invites guests that join the show

(40:29) Oliver shows off OpenClaw mission control dashboard

(46:30) Stacking Apple Silicon vs. Running Kimi-K

(50:18) How Exo Labs works — stringing together Mac Silicon

(54:29) Ryan from Nextvisit wins Gamma Pitch Competition

(59:10) Industry Season 4 reflects tech regulation

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

Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm/

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis/

Thank you to our partners:

(13:24) Crusoe Cloud: Crusoe is the AI factory company. Reliable infrastructure and expert support. Visit https://crusoe.ai/savings to reserve your capacity for the latest GPUs today.

(19:54) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist

Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Kind of the big point of this show is to show how we have created our open call Ultron to replace 20 employees at our company.
0:07.6	So obviously that's the end goal. I still want to have a job. I'm sure the lawn wants to have a job.
0:12.5	There'll be more for you to do. We want to launch. We have here's the thing. If you think about your job, you've been doing a bit of production here, of the production
0:21.3	hours, hours you spend on production, at this point in week two, how many of those do you think
0:26.8	you'll wind up handing off in 30 days, let's say, if you just keep grinding on this for another
0:31.3	four weeks? In 30 days, what percentage of the work you're doing in total hours? So if you work
0:37.2	50 hours a week, how many of those hours would be done, you know,
0:40.0	conservatively by this new Ultron?
0:42.4	I would say around 60% of my time if I'm doing 30 hours a week on production.
0:51.1	This week in startups is brought to you by Northwest Registered Agent. Get more when you start
0:57.0	your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real
1:03.3	business identity. Learn more at Northwest Registeredagent.com slash twist. Lemon.io.
1:11.6	Building a great team is essential to any business.
1:14.5	Lemon is a marketplace of vetted, experienced engineers ready to take your company to the next level.
1:20.6	Get 15% off your first four weeks of developer time at lemon.io slash twist.
1:27.3	And Crusoe Cloud. Crus slash twist and crusoe cloud.
1:29.2	Crusoe is the AI factory company, reliable infrastructure and expert support.
1:34.5	Visit cruso.a.ai slash savings to reserve your capacity for the latest GPUs today.
1:42.9	All right, everybody. Welcome back to Twist.
1:45.0	It's Friday, February 6, 2026.
1:47.8	And today, we're going to share how we built OpenClaw Ultron.
1:53.6	This is a new project inside of our firm launch and this week in startups where we
	...

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