Why You’ll Choose an AI Doctor (feat. Fred Almeida and Max Weiss) | E2239
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 24 January 2026
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Hubspot - clickhubspot.com/twist2
Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
Today’s show:
One day soon, you might consult an AI general practitioner about your health, and then the computer will recommend human specialists to take up your case.
On TWiST Tokyo, Jason chats with Fred Almeida — founder and CEO of American Medical Intelligence Inc. — and Maxwell Weiss, a partner at Pacific Bays Capital.
Together, they discuss the future of medicine, and the opportunities for individuals to take greater control over their health and preventative care strategies.
PLUS a look at how Japan has stayed at the forefront of technology despite NOT being a manufacturing hub, why so many Americans are willing to take a pay cut to move to Japan for work, and the concept of “genten shugi,” and how it prevents some Japanese people from communicating with English speakers, despite understanding the language.
THEN we hear pitches from some of our favorite Founder University x Japan companies, and Fred, Jason, and Max pick their favorites!
Timestamps:
(00:00) Introducing today’s big guests: founder Fred Almeida and investor Max Weiss!
(5:43) Why Fred thinks one day soon, an AI will be your general practitioner
(8:26) The power of getting self-directed medical diagnostics
(13:27) Max says Japan has moved into Decade 2 in its venture capital journey
(14:37) Sentry - New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST
(16:05) Max and Jason had wagyu barbecue the other night
(17:10) Japan doesn’t OFFICIALLY have a standing army…
(21:37) Why the line between talking startups and politics is blurring
(23:05) Hubspot - Check out the guide “Advanced ChatGPT Prompt Engineering: From Basic to Expert in 7 Days.” Download it for free at clickhubspot.com/twist2.
(24:59) Japan doesn’t make a lot of things, but it produces the underlying tech behind a lot of things
(25:52) Understanding Genten Shugi: Why some in Japan still have an “English allergy”
(29:42) Why some Americans will take a pay cut to come work in Japan
(33:28) 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 www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
(34:10) PITCH #1: Cascade(36:10) PITCH #2: Altsource Global(38:10) PITCH #3: GoalMochi(40:25) Jason, Max, and Fred give feedback on our first three pitches(42:45) Would GoalMochi ever consider adding personas for added expertise, like say a nutritionist?(44:30) How does Cascade plan to compete against the massive ad networks of companies like Google and Meta?(46:05) PITCH #4: RandomChat(48:10) PITCH #5: Eir(50:05) More feedback for our final two pitches of the day(52:44) Fred wants to know how Eir’s product will integrate with other systems(54:19) Why Gigi made herself available to chat in her app(57:50) Why Jason thinks RandomChat should add anonymous personas
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:
Follow Jason:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
Thank you to our partners:
(14:37) Sentry - New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST
(23:05) Hubspot - Check out the guide “Advanced ChatGPT Prompt Engineering: From Basic to Expert in 7 Days.” Download it for free at clickhubspot.com/twist2.
(33:28) 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 www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Is part of your thesis about healthcare that AI will have a profound impact on people doing |
| 0:07.7 | self-directed care? |
| 0:08.7 | Yeah, entirely. |
| 0:09.7 | I actually think that the future of where this is going to go is that the AI will become |
| 0:14.6 | your doctor in a few more years. |
| 0:16.6 | Your primary care doctor. |
| 0:17.6 | It'll be your primary care doctor. |
| 0:18.9 | And then you'll just go to diagnostic tool sets, which is part of the roll-up. We actually are buying clinics to do diagnostics, |
| 0:26.0 | but at a higher level, if you think about it, it's almost really changing how a diagnostic |
| 0:29.9 | clinic will ever work. Explain in layman's terms what diagnostic clinic means. |
| 0:36.0 | What are the top five things they do? |
| 0:42.2 | This week in startups is brought to you by Northwest Registered Agent. |
| 0:44.4 | Get more when you start your business with Northwest. |
| 0:49.7 | In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity. |
| 0:53.3 | Learn more at Northwest Registeredagent.com slash twist. |
| 0:54.1 | HubSpot. |
| 0:59.5 | Check out the guide, advanced chat GPT prompt engineering from basics to expert in seven days. |
| 1:03.9 | Download it for free at click HubSpot.com slash twist to Century. |
| 1:08.1 | New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to century.com slash twist and use code twist. |
| 1:13.3 | Welcome back to this week in startups. I'm your host, Jason Kalakhanis. I am just wrapping up |
| 1:19.1 | an amazing week here in Tokyo where we launched Founder University. Founding University is a pre-accelerator. |
| 1:25.5 | You would go to Founder University in year zero of your startup. You got two or three co-founders. You've built a project. Maybe you incorporated. Maybe you haven't even bothered incorporating yet. You're in year zero. That's what Founder University is for. It's a 12-week program. We do it in Tokyo. We do it in Saudi Arabia, in Riyadh, and we do it in America. We have thousands of people apply, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jason Calacanis, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jason Calacanis and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.