Podcast Notes Playlist: Startup

• Persuasion, discipline, and drive is a WICKED combination
• “I love founders. I love these people; I love entrepreneurs… Boy do they solve a lot of problems and make humanity better, and the state of humanity has NEVER been better.”
  • Even the most impoverished people today are better off than middle class/wealthy people were ~100 years ago
• Jason’s podcast player of choice: Overcast
  • “Spotify and Overcast are the two best”
• Jason’s favorite podcasts:
  • Against the Rules with Michael Lewis
  • “If you’re on the left, you should listen to Ben Shapiro; if you’re on the right, you should listen to Rachel Maddow’s podcast“
  • Jason was a huge fan of Missing Richard Simmons and is bummed at its cancellation
  • CAFE Insider
  • The Kevin Rose Show 
  • The Moment with Brain Koppelman 
  • The Naval Podcast 
  • Making Sense with Sam Harris 
  • Recode Media with Peter Kafka
  • Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter
  • The Tim Ferriss Show
  • Under the Skin with Russel Brand

In this episode, Skye interviews entrepreneur and angel investor Jason Calacanis. Jason, who is Skye's boss, also hosts two podcasts, This Week in Startups and Angel. Before this interview was recorded, Jason told Skye she could ask him anything — and she took him up on that. The pair discuss: 

• Jason's rollercoaster childhood;
• What drove him to get out of Brooklyn;
• The wild ups and downs of his entrepreneurial career;
• How he got into podcasting;
• Why a network TV show featuring Jason was axed;
• Why Skye thinks Jason is just a teensy bit Trumpian;
• His favorite podasts.

Watch Jason practice Taekwondo as a wee young man here. 

And get in touch:

Host Skye Pillsbury on Twitter @skyepillsbury

Guest Jason Calacanis on Twitter @Jason

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• “I think VR will be to crypto what the iPhone was to the internet”
  • Virtual reality and virtual currency is an obvious marriage
• Combining telepresent Beam robots and Boston Dynamics robots will allow for a new type of remote work
  • Any type of physical labor would be able to be completed remotely
• The internet is going to catalyze a gigantic wave of mass migrations into towns/cities/republics, each with its own set of specific preferences
• “Cloud formations” is the term Balaji uses for a group of people who meet online and join forces in the real-world
  • In the future, we’ll have cloud cities and cloud countries
• Governments run by engineers will embrace crypto

Balaji Srinivasan has quite the CV: CEO and co-founder of Earn.com, CTO at

"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder and NYTimes bestselling author

Today we chat with Sam Parr, founder of “The Hustle” one of the fastest growing media companies here in America. They have talented writers who create amazing newsletters and compelling content on the most important business news and trends. It covers some really interesting topics outside of what you would normally find in a business-focused media company.

I met Sam in 2015 when I was invited to speak at their convention, Hustle Con. Actually, I'm going to be speaking again on December 2nd and 3rd of this year at Hustle Con here in the Bay Area.

Sam and I touched on a handful of interesting topics. He's not the conventional founder that raises VC funding in the Bay Area — He's done it completely differently and this conversation is just as unique as Sam has built his business.

We chat about him giving up alcohol 6 years ago, getting started in the hotdog stand business, and the way he built The Hustle with very little money. We also talked about him hitting moments with The Hustle that made him want to quit (despite its growth trajectory) and before hitting a new stride in the last 12 months. All of that and more on today’s episode with Sam.

You can email James questions directly at [email protected] or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC.