Why New Yorkers hate AI Friends, Producer Claude gets an update, and the value of human writers in the Age of Slop | E2185
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 29 September 2025
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s show:
Friend’s new AI pendant just wants to be your new pal. So why do New Yorkers hate them?
On a brand-new TWiST, Jason and Alex consider the Friend AI pendant, which listens to everything you say all day and then sends you snarky texts about it.
WIRED says it’s unhelpful and will make your friends hate you. New Yorkers are so sick of their aggressive subway ads, they’re tagging them with graffiti. But what do Jason and Alex think of the wearable companion?
PLUS the value of bringing your last team with you to your new project… why partnerships often lead to purchases… Producer Claude got an upgrade… two fresh TWiST 500 companies… the rise and fall and further fall of Tai Lopez… AND Jason explains the rules of private jets.
Timestamps:
(0:00) Jason congratulations the Eagles while wondering what’s going on with Philly fans
(03:23) New Yorkers are not in love with these Friend AI pendants and their subway ads
(10:08) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST
(11:28) Show Continues…
(13:49) Are people actually using AI agents? Is it still too early?
(17:01) Startup Lesson: The value of bringing your last team with you
(19:27) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist
(20:43) Anthropic released the new Claude… can they catch back up with Grok?
(27:13) Why Circle’s community app is blowing up all of the sudden
(29:23) AWS Activate - AWS Activate helps startups bring their ideas to life. Apply to AWS Activate today to learn more. Visit https://www.aws.amazon.com/startups/credits
(30:48) How startups SHOULD measure growth and profitability. And why you need to show your work.
(36:42) Why human writers are about to be MORE valuable in the age of AI Slop.
(42:20) TWO new startups are joining the TWiST 500… Jason’s thoughts on Phia and Huxe
(46:23) Influencer and bookshelf haver Tai Lopez is under investigation by the SEC! A look back at a viral superstar…
(54:11) Jason explains the rules of flying in private jets
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Follow Alex:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
Thank you to our partners:
- Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST
- Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist
- AWS Activate - AWS Activate helps startups bring their ideas to life. Apply to AWS Activate today to learn more. Visit https://www.aws.amazon.com/startups/credits
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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Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com
Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | If you're a founder, this is the important lesson, if you raised venture capital before, |
| 0:05.0 | and your team is made up of the people who raised venture capital and failed before, |
| 0:09.5 | you're like level one in terms of fundable. |
| 0:12.6 | Then if you had an exit and you returned your, you know, if you returned people's money back, |
| 0:19.7 | plus a little bit, you're like level two. |
| 0:21.5 | If you had a great returning, you returned a lot of their money back. They had a great exit. Now you're like level three. And if you IPOed or you had like a billion dollar sale, now you're like level four. So if you just like look at those levels of founders, level zero is you're just new to the game. Okay, go to Y Combinator, launch accelerator, |
| 0:40.2 | antler, tech stars, etc. But once you've raised venture capital before, now you can go to venture |
| 0:46.7 | capitalists and say, hey, remember when I lost $4 million trying to do this crazy pendant company |
| 0:51.5 | and it didn't work? Well, now I've got a better idea. And here's what I |
| 0:55.5 | learned from my pendant company. And, you know, just putting the first two stories together. |
| 1:00.8 | That actually makes you more, more fundable. This week in startups is brought to you by |
| 1:09.5 | AWS Activate. |
| 1:11.9 | AWS Activate helps startups bring their ideas to life. |
| 1:15.6 | As you build and scale your business, |
| 1:17.4 | activate credits grow with you to support your changing needs. |
| 1:20.8 | Apply to AWS Activate today and receive up to $100,000 in credits. |
| 1:26.4 | Visit aWS.m.amazon.com slash startups slash credits. |
| 1:32.7 | Lemon.io. Hire pre-vetted remote developers and get 15% off your first four weeks of developer time |
| 1:39.7 | at lemon.io slash twist. And Squarespace. Turn your idea into a beautiful website. Go to |
| 1:48.1 | Squarespace.com slash twist for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use offer code |
| 1:53.5 | twist to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. All right, everybody, |
| 1:59.6 | welcome back to this week in startups. It's Monday. It is |
... |
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