This Week in Startups

Angel investor Jason Calacanis (Uber, Calm, Robinhood) interviews the world's greatest founders, operators, investors and innovators. Get an insider's look into venture capital, learn how to start and scale your own startup, and ride the cutting edge of technology in today's headlines and beyond.

0:35 Jason intros Capital Factory CEO & Founder Josh Baer 1:47 What is Capital Factory in its current iteration? How are they transitioning to remote? Loss of serendipity of random in-person connections 5:38 Josh takes Jason through the SXSW cancellation 10:29 Issues conceptualizing COVID's impact 15:35 Transitioning to rolling cohorts & optimizing their Slack community 21:36 Capital Factory's standard deal terms, why founders join, how returns are divvied up 27:30 Starting Capital Factory during the last economic downturn, how millennials will react to this crisis 30:45 Josh describes his 5 buckets of how companies are weathering the COVID storm 35:09 Remote work's effect on startup collaboration 41:01 COVID's effect on children, getting back to work 47:37 What investing mistakes has Josh made, and how has he learned from them? 56:00 What founder traits does Josh look for? 59:14 Moving to Austin, SXSW history

0:31 Jason intros today's news roundtable guests Ben Gilbert & David Rosenthal 6:54 Clubhouse raises Series A from a16z at a $100M valuation pre-launch 11:12 How do $2M in secondary shares play into Clubhouse's situation? 14:08 How Clubhouse achieved "VC-Market Fit" 18:49 Was this investment worth it considering massive former outliers in the consumer social space (Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat)? Or did a16z pay too high of a price? 26:08 Bull/bear cases for founders selling secondary shares pre-launch 33:29 What impact did raising $100M for Mahalo pre-launch have on Jason? 37:18 Joe Rogan to Spotify, guess the acquisition price & macro-impact on the podcast industry 46:09 How massive is this for Spotify's position in the podcast industry? Did Apple drop the ball? 51:28 Jason to Dara: Uber should buy Dominos 52:16 How much podcast market share will Spotify have in the coming years? Will this be viewed as the landmark deal? 57:03 Uber layoffs, potential GrubHub acquisition, does the food delivery business model work? 1:04:57 Why the on-demand food delivery industry has a product-market-price fit issue, should life-long bureaucrats impact capitalist policy? 1:12:03 Who emerges victorious from the food delivery dog fight? 1:15:28 How being too reliant on one revenue stream could kill many ad-based media publications 1:24:38 Facebook's GIPHY acquisition 1:25:55 Twitter thread by GIPHY crowdfunding investor who never received their return, why Syndicate/Crowdfunding leads need to stand up for their investors to downstream firms THREAD: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1262574661239312384.html 1:37:20 How GIPHY's weak relationship with their DAUs led to little negotiating leverage 1:39:05 Predictions for Clubhouse's eventual business model

0:43 Prashant: Would you have benefited from an AngelList equivalent for venture capital? In other words, if up and coming venture firms can find Potential LPs in every corner of the world, instead of just SF?

1:23 Kate: What do you look for in a stand-out startup, specifically? How can I attract investors interested in what I do that will find it rewarding to invest in me besides providing raw numbers and projections?

2:50 Emin: What FOMO tactics are you using while fundraising?

4:23 Cindy: Are you open to funding sextech? How do you approach the vice clause?

5:30 Kevin: How are other seed/early-stage firms investing right now? Does Hustle Fund’s approach vary greatly from the industry standard?

6:36 Susan: How do you think about investing in blockchain, AI, spatial computing XR & AR?

7:23 Matt: At what stage should a startup calculate CAC? We are early, so my co-founder and I physically visit customers to obtain them. Eventually, we will change to a cost-effective channel. Should we put a $ value on our time and begin calculating CAC or not bother at the moment?

9:25 Saul B: How do you think about investing in the biotech/education space? Would you invest in biotech companies tackling the lack of genetics education in K-12?

10:16 Vinay: We are a startup building the graduate program search engine. We are doing what you had done in beatthegmat.com Are you still investing in this business model?

11:16 Kevin: Favorite business models to invest in these days? Conversely, least favorite business models to invest in these days?

12:36 Simeon: What would be the minimum traction for a prop-tech that you would be looking for, before investing in a startup?

12:59 Ed: What kind of trends do you see in sports tech?

13:59 Andrew: I’m an LP in Hustle Fund. How can I be a better backer? Beyond money, what can investors like me do for funds we back?

15:21 Emin: What kind of startups do you want to see in the next 5 years?

18:27 Arjun: What is too early or too late stage for Hustle Fund? Asking because we’re told our MRR $15k is too early but others say not at all.

19:05 Henry: How has your selection criteria changed for founders as a result of COVID? Are there new verticals you are backing given the circumstances?

20:07 Aaron: During this downturn, we had time to re-evaluate our approach and uncovered an exciting new path forward (with a much larger TAM). It contributes to the flywheel but is very different from our core model. How can we effectively communicate that this is the best (albeit riskier) path forward?

21:56 Gustavo: How did corona change the dynamics of raising funds in-person vs remote meetings? And do you think we’ll fully revert to old practices once things normalize?

23:23 Emin: What is your north star vision for the future of Hustle Fund?

24:51 Jason: What's the best pitch you ever got that resulted in the quickest yes and a check from you personally? How did that investment go?

26:29 Farshad: What is the nature of raising a seed round with only an MVP app in a highly regulated industry? There’s the catch 22 problem where you need a small round in order to get approval and move forward. How do investors evaluate those investments and how should you approach it as a founder?

28:05 Marten: How do you see your roadmap for approaching globally thinking, European based pre-seed/ seed startups? Many non-diluting public grants are around in the EU/Nordics which are accessible with just a small amount of private funding.

30:19 Jing: Considering different industries move/evolve at different paces: When evaluating deals, how important is this for making your investment decision? (ex: social media moved faster than e-commerce, B2C user growth is faster than B2B2C)

31:33 Timothy: How do you typically work with founders you backed?

Range CEO & Co-Founder Dan Pupius answers questions from founders: meeting & collaborating with Evan Williams, divvying up time while building a remote team, product development advice, benefits of co-founders & more Join the TWiST Slack: https://launchevents.typeform.com/to/kLq5Bi Check out Range: https://www.range.co/ Questions: 0:50 Laura: Interested in learning more about what made you want to build a company that focused on remote work? Do you personally find it challenging not to be in the same physical space as your team/the companies you work for? 2:46 Knyck: What advice would you give around developing and sticking to a product development roadmap as a first-time founder? What's a good way to establish and calibrate sprint lengths when looking at various aspects of the build? 5:48 Henry: What are best practices around building a tight mission-driven culture when working remotely given people are not interacting face to face physically on a daily basis and focus may be impaired? 8:10 Kevin: Have you received any downstream investor interest since the start of mass quarantine across the US? Do investors see this as an opportunity? 8:57 Ciara: Can you share a little about where you want to be in 18-24 months with Range? How are you planning on scaling and what does your product roadmap look like? 10:51 Nick/Presh: How did you meet Evan Williams, what's the story of you leaving Google for Medium, and what are some amazing insights/lessons you learned from working with him? What makes him stand out as a founder? 13:41 James: Really like the use of daily check-ins and achievement tracking within Range to keep people on track. How can we encourage these actions in important areas outside of work, where people aren't directly incentivized/forced to do so (fitness, eating, learning)? 15:52 Charles: What do you look for in a co-founder and what advice would you give to founders looking for one? Do they even need to? Also, Marmite, love it or hate it? 18:23 Lizette: What should self-funded startups be thinking about right now and 24-36 months out? 20:45 Sean: Any tips on joining a (small) tech team as a new leader? Especially fully remote? 23:24 Amanda: How did Google change in the 7 years you were there in terms of culture and product roadmap? What was it like when you joined and when you left? 25:41 Ian: How has being an Industrial designer and software developer given you insights for Range and remote working? Are you a leader or a co-founder, can you be both. 28:58 Ian: What are people expecting from a question about "culture", what are they expecting others to give them. For me, If you don't know what culture you want, you simply don't know what you want or where you are going. 32:20 Sanford: How do you split up your day starting a remote company? Do you have days when you do certain work? 34:36 Jason: What do we lose by being remote and how do we get it back if we stay remote? 37:25 Nick: You said you met Evan Williams at The Grove, what's your go-to meal? (My favorite breakfast burrito in SF)

0:42 Jason intros SOSV's Sean O'Sullivan 4:19 How is operating in China during COVID? 5:22 Origin of SOSV, thoughts on in-person accelerators over remote accelerators, why hardware/life-science accelerators need in-person cohorts 9:02 Sean describes SOSV's typical deal terms, unique follow-on strategy & cohort size 14:27 What stage company are SOSV accelerators looking for? Does it vary by industry? 17:58 Sean describes SOSV portfolio company Memphis Meats & how they utilize bioreactors to create cell-based meats 23:06 When will we see plant/cell-based meat being cheaper than the real thing? 29:25 Will the issue of food-availability will be solved in our lifetime? 33:16 Will modern food science revolutionize taste & what is the holy-grail food that will be produced? 42:15 What is being done in the ingredients space? 48:58 How is running an accelerator in China different than running one in the US? 53:39 Embracing hardware, thoughts on Hardware-as-a-Service 1:00:44 Micro-terraforming

0:36 Jason shares thoughts on his portfolio activity, getting back to work, leadership & more 4:20 Jason intros Slice Founder Ilir Sela 7:14 How has Slice been helping local pizzerias and front-line workers during the pandemic? https://sliceouthunger.org/pandemicpizza 9:12 What are the economics of an average privately-owned local pizzeria? How are the majority fairing during COVID-19? 13:24 What is Ilir building at Slice? What is their "reverse-franchise model" that helps local pizzerias compete with Dominos & other large chains? 15:32 What is the user-experience on Slice? 18:49 Who is Slice's average customer & how are their pizzerias handling the virus in 3 segments 29:10 Raising a $40M+ Series C during COVID pandemic & leaning on long-term relationships 32:49 Viral GrubHub invoice response - valid or overblown? Unit economics of delivery apps & how Slice's fees compare to GrubHub, DoorDash, UberEats & more 40:12 Huge delivery fees creating the need for two different menus (with higher prices on third-party platforms), how Dominos digitizing their order volume created maximum efficiency & allowed them to keep the same prices for over a decade 45:28 What is Ilir planning on doing with Slice's excess office space, how will the pandemic effect in-person work going forward? 50:10 Which groups of employees perform better under isolation? How is Slice helping employees deal with working remotely? How is New York responding to the crisis, and what will reopening look like (hybrid offices)? 1:06:53 Do business leaders have a responsibility to go through the testing process to understand how to help employees get tested efficiently?

0:56 Jason intros Keith Rabois and checks in on his quarantine, Zoom's heightened exhaustion factor & more 5:46 What will the lasting impact of COVID be on Silicon Valley & the startup funding landscape? 8:18 How the early 2000's dot-com bust paved way for a generation of new founders & why the PayPal mafia of outsiders thrived in chaos & became the establishment 14:23 What has happened to intellectual debate during COVID-19? What are first principle thinkers and why are they important to problem-solving? 20:53 Is domain expertise overrated? 22:39 Keith's on his pinned tweet about his perceived recipe for startup success 26:50 In which verticals did Keith find outliers using his low-NPS/fragmented/vertical solution strategy? 32:15 History on US relationship with China, has Trump been right on China threat, should US try and bring manufacturing back from China? 44:41 China's involvement with whistleblowers, benefits of litigation knowledge as a VC, world's reaction to China mishandling COVID info 50:40 Has Biden been soft on China? How will that play into the 2020 election? 1:00:51 Why is the stock market bouncing back so quickly with record-setting unemployment numbers? Will there be another correction? 1:03:59 What is Keith seeing across his portfolio? M&A opportunity for companies like Lyft? 1:09:34 Keith shares thoughts on the right time to go public 1:13:50 Impact of 20% unemployment on startups over the next year, mental impact of lockdown & social isolation 1:20:40 Keith's most positive outlook going forward

StartX & Nexus Events Founder Cameron Teitelman answers questions from founders: how universities with no entrepreneurial culture can mimic Stanford, building flexible & sustainable culture during COVID, scaling Nexus Events rapidly & more! Join the TWiST Slack: https://launchevents.typeform.com/to/kLq5Bi Mentioned during the AMA: Cameron's new startup: https://mixer.nexusevents.io/login_mixer Cameron's most recent TWiST appearance: https://youtu.be/zsNqOLs-NVI Questions: 0:37 Cameron intros his AMA and describes his new company: Nexus Events https://mixer.nexusevents.io/login_mixer 1:31 Kevin: Are seed investors investing right now? What have StartX companies been seeing lately from early-stage investors? 2:55 James: How can universities with no entrepreneurial culture mimic the success of Stanford in creating an environment that encourages building and innovation? 4:29 James: How does the accelerator structure change for current students? What are some of the common pitfalls you have seen people make starting their company whilst finishing their degree? 7:18 Presh: Could you share more about your new startup? What are you building and why? 10:15 Ashley: How are you looking at accepting companies to StartX through the COVID lense? Which companies (in your portfolio or not) do you think are particularly well-positioned for the post COVID environment? 12:43 Jean: Regarding mentorship, in what areas do solo founders need the most help with? 14:41 Annette: Will Stanford affiliated applicants get priority over referral applicants? Would consumer startup applicants that are non-COVID related be considered during this time? 17:35 Henry: What are your thoughts in terms of building a flexible but sustainable culture? 19:26 Matt: Do you take a different approach with health tech portfolio companies and educate/manage/support them separately from the rest of the portfolio? 21:21 Laura: Given that companies don't give up equity, and there is no structured program, how do you cultivate high-level engagement with your founders/companies & mentors? 25:27 Luke: Can you talk about how the collaboration between StartX and the Stanford Hospital and Clinics works? How are the grants assessed and awarded? 26:14 Jacqui: Do you see the StartX Med COVID-19 Task Force as a new model to accelerate advances in biotech or to generate solutions for other critical global issues? 27:07 Heidi: How can other med schools around the country partner with you to develop satellite programs? 29:17 Dan: Do you have any war stories about running Nexus Events during COVID and what you've learned from it?