Why J-Cal Invested to 200K in a former Employee | E2249
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 12 February 2026
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
NetSuite - https://www.netsuite.com/twist
Luma AI - https://lumalabs.ai/twist
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Today’s show:
On today’s epsiode of TWiST, Jason gets pitched by two top founders, Presh Dineshkumar and Peter Cetale!
Presh used to work for Jason at Launch! When he left, Jason invested $200K into Presh’s new startup The Wellness Company. Presh pitches Jason on what he has been building, and Jason gives Presh advice for improving the product!
Peter went through Andreesen Horowitz’s Speedrun accelerator program as CEO and co-founder of Sourcerer. Sourcerer uses AI agents to help US firms and distributors find the best prices for mass produced goods.
Check out how Jason digs in with these founders!
Timestamps:
(0:00) Presh was originally a TWiST fan who emailed Jason!
(1:59) Why Jason invested in Presh’s startup
(3:19) Checking out the Wellness Company’s hot new app, Tempo
(4:03) How Tempo monitors your health and offers proactive advice with consistency
(9:10) Why Jason recommends adding a group or family feature to make it stickier
(9:51) Netsuite - Get the free business guide Demystifying AI at https://www.netsuite.com/twist
(11:28) The end goal: bringing app advice and guidance into the real world
(13:34) Presh shares where his apps are finding the most engagement
(14:13) The key importance of Product Velocity and World-Class Design
(17:27) Luma AI - Stop guessing and start directing with Ray3 Modify from Luma AI, the AI-powered post-production tool. Explore it at: https://lumalabs.ai/twist
(18:38) Introducing Peter Cetale and Sourcerer!
(19:32) How Sourcerer uses AI to help distributors and manufacturers automate their sourcing
(22:48) How Sourcerer manages to actually bring costs down
(25:02) Lining up REAL customers, not Letters of Intent (aka Letters of Nothing)
(26:04) Peter’s experiences in a16z’s Speedrun accelerator
(28:08) Working with agents on BOTH the supply and demand side
(29:16) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://squarespace.com/twist
(30:32) How has Tariff Mania impacted Peter’s business?
(35:35) Why Peter thinks startups will keep getting leaner and compute will keep getting cheaper
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Thank you to our partners:
(9:51) Netsuite - Get the free business guide Demystifying AI at https://www.netsuite.com/twist
(17:27) Luma AI - Stop guessing and start directing with Ray3 Modify from Luma AI, the AI-powered post-production tool. Explore it at: https://lumalabs.ai/twist
(29:16) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://squarespace.com/twist
Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | And we met, started to work for me, crushed it for me for five, six years. Then he said, I want to do my own company boss. I said, okay, get the hell out of here. And I gave him $200,000 to leave. This is what it is. I can't fire people. I give him $200K to leave to start a company. And, you know, for background, why did I invest? Well, we thought precious smart. He's going to figure it out. He's great at building |
| 0:21.6 | product. He can, you know, build products on the cheap. He's not going to spend a lot of money, |
| 0:26.8 | but he's going to get product velocity. So we have a founder we trust who has product velocity, |
| 0:31.6 | who has great product chops, who has world-class design. That was enough for us to make the bet, |
| 0:37.2 | frankly. And we also had seen |
| 0:38.9 | tone bass, a musical app, Steasy, a dance app, a musician, another music app, but not classical, |
| 0:46.5 | like tone bass. And of course, Calm and FitBod. We had seen five different health apps do |
| 0:51.8 | really well. We thought, hey, this could work. |
| 1:01.7 | This week in startups is brought to you by Squarespace. |
| 1:04.8 | Turn your idea into a beautiful website. |
| 1:08.5 | Go to Squarespace.com slash twist for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use offer code twist to save 10% off |
| 1:12.7 | your first purchase of a website or domain. Luma AI. Stop guessing and start directing with Ray3 |
| 1:20.1 | modify from Luma AI, the AI powered post-production tool. Explore it at LumaLabs.coma slash twist. |
| 1:29.6 | And Netsweet. |
| 1:31.5 | The business landscape is very chaotic right now. |
| 1:34.6 | That's why you need Netsweet by Oracle. |
| 1:37.0 | Get the free business guide demystifying AI at netsuite.com slash twist. |
| 2:03.4 | All right, everybody, welcome back to this week in startups. Presh Dinesh Kumar worked for me for many years. How did I meet Presh? Presh was a fan of this very podcast, and he emailed me when he was in college. I think he was 18 years old. And he said, hey, I want to come work for you. I said, okay, that's nice. And then he said, |
| 2:13.9 | oh, no, no, no, serious. I'm serious. And he wouldn't stop emailing me. So I said, what are your skills? And then I looked and he was great at doing social media. I said, okay, kid, come to California. you work for me now. |
| 2:16.7 | Come to the Blade Runner 2049 screening, |
| 2:18.8 | and we met, started to work for me, |
| 2:20.9 | crushed it for me for five, six years. |
... |
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