This Week in Startups

Today’s guest is Roger Dickey, Founder of Gigster, an on-demand software development platform that just raised $10m in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. Roger showcases to Jason how Gigster works, using a sample “Uber for Pizza” project to illustrate how quickly a quote is offered and why it’s so important to qualify the customer. We learn about “the central brain of Gigster” (the AI that puts together the quote so quickly), what it will take to make Gigster a billion-dollar business, the fastest path from an idea to a finished product, why startups should outsource their development and why technical teams can get too attached to their prototypes. Roger also reflects on his time at Zynga (where he founded Mafia Wars and served as a GM), why the company isn’t doing as well as it used to (hint: a tough mobile shift...), and the differences between dominating social gaming on Facebook and dominating in on mobile. ALSO! A bonus segment from LAUNCH Scale, featuring Sue Khim, Founder of Brilliant.org, sharing her growth tactics: specifically, how focusing on triggers, not users, got Brilliant into the "2 comma club."

LAUNCH Scale 2015 featured 50+ speakers sharing their best growth strategies. And today’s episode features two of these amazing talks. First is Marco Zappacosta, Founder of the unicorn Thumbtack, who talks about his epic success and explains how he built his billion-dollar marketplace. Next is Sonny Mayugba, Founder of Requested, who gave the highest-rated talk of the conference with his presentation on how to grow your startup using street teams.

Babak Hodjat is Co-founder and Chief Scientist of Sentient, the most-funded artificial intelligence startup in the world, which emerged from stealth in 2014 after raising more than $100m Series C (the largest round ever by an AI startup). Though already going strong in financial trading (with 1.5+ CTUs globally), last week they launched Sentient Aware for E-commerce, which is already being used by the Canadian shoes.com and which Babak demonstrates for us. Babak is also the main inventor of the tech behind Siri, and he and Jason discuss the actual intelligence level of Siri, along with many other fascinating aspects of AI, including the ethics behind it, where it falls on the “worry” scale between simple memory chips and nuclear weapons, its potential impact on warfare, gambling, and self-driving cars, and the inevitable 20-year sushi bet! AI is capable of improving ourselves (in the case of health), knowing what we want before it even exists (in the case of e-commerce), but will it be capable of destroying humanity?

Jason sits down with the "Godfather of Saas," Jason Lemkin, to discuss everything from the SaaS (software as a service) industry to angel investing criteria, from Lemkin's current venture Saastr, to what the field has in store. We learn about the history of SaaS, why we owe a huge debt to Salesforce, and why so few enterprise customers “try before they buy.” The two Jasons further discuss Microsoft’s foray into SaaS, why “lockin” is a myth, the successes of -- and differences -- between Slack and HipChat, Lemkin’s SaaS investments (including Talkdesk, Algolia), why founders don’t make great VCs, Lemkin’s criteria for an investment (hint: the founder has to be better than him) and Lemkin’s advice on lifetime value to budding SaaS startups. Finally, the Jasons posit what would happen if Google or Microsoft came out with a free Slack competitor (protip: do not get arrogant about your engineers), the hurdles in monetizing a free product, why an acquisition might cost nothing for a big tech company, the mistake many companies made in 2008 and 2009, why choosing the celebrity investor isn’t always the best idea, the sheer volume of startups today -- and much more.

Today Jason explores the world of synthetic biology with Matthew Markus, Co-founder and CEO of Pembient, a startup creating synthetic rhinoceros horns to disrupt the $750m illegal rhino trade and stop the poaching and farming of this increasingly endangered animal. Matthew explains why the horns are so valued in East Asia (medicinal and luxury uses), how this overwhelming demand threatens the current rhino population, and his solution to end this problem. We see how Matthew’s startup actually creates and 3D prints the horn and how close biologically the synthetic are to actual horns (very close, and working to get closer every day). Jason and Matthew also discuss the synbio industry, the technology involved, some of the great things happening with food and synthetic biology (imagine steak created in a lab with no beef in it), and the future of synthetic biology and how these scientific advances could apply to humans, society, and bioterrorism.

From LAUNCH Mobile Wearables & IoT: Jason and Sundeep Madra (VP Strategy and Corporate Development at Pivotal) talk to Jed York, CEO of the San Francisco 49ers, who built the most connected stadium in the world. Jed, Jason, and Sunny discuss the stadium’s high-end Wi-Fi infrastructure, interactive mobile app, augmented reality museum, and the future of sports. Next, Jason and Peter Rojas (co-founder Engadget and Gizmodo) explore the Future of Wellness with Spire, 6SensorLabs and Fisher Wallace Laboratories. 6SensorLabs’ mobile device Nima tests foods for gluten; Spire helps users remain calm by tracking breathing; Fisher Wallace Laboratories is the first to have a device that's FDA approved to treat depression, anxiety, and insomnia.

It’s the Futures of the Smartwatch, Transportation, and On-Demand from LAUNCH Mobile, Wearables & IoT! First, Eric Migicovsky, founder and CEO of Pebble, shows us his latest in timeround and talks with Jason and Peter Rojas (co-founder of Engadget and Gizmodo) about how apps are becoming more integrated into smartwatches and where the technology is headed. Second, Jason, Peter, and Janice Fraser (Director, Innovation Practice at Pivotal) explore the Future of Transportation with Skully, a motorcycle helmet with a heads-up display that provides information like speed, upcoming traffic, weather, and maps to keep the driver's eyes on the road, and Automatic, a device that connects to the car, allowing users to access all of the car's data and become better drivers. Third, they look at the Future of On Demand and apps as a service with with Luxe (valet parking), Scout (personal travel concierge), and Wrapify (make money while you drive). LAUNCH Mobile, Wearables & Iot was presented by our friends at Pivotal.

Amir Efrati of The Information and Eric Newcomer of Bloomberg join Jason today to break down the latest tech news. Twitter's new heart and its meaning; Prop F failure, Airbnb dominance, and San Francisco's housing crisis; Google's solution to its fragmentation; Android antics; smartwatches and why the Apple Watch hasn't taken off with consumers; Square's IPO and the dangers of filing for an IPO too late; why journalists are obsessed with unicorn companies; how self-driving cars will impact companies like Uber, how long we have to wait until mass adoption, how Uber will handle growing in China and India; Jason's 2019 mayoral campaign -- and much more.

Miles Beckett, creator of the first web series "lonelygirl15," joins Jason today to discuss his latest adventure. Returning to his M.D. roots, Miles founded Silversheet, a verification platform for doctors and nurses and a certification platform for surgery centers. A fascinating conversation about the rise of technology (and optimism) in healthcare, the importance of network effect and its role in Silversheet's development, future field developments including telemedicine and occupational outlook for professionals, why med schools are losing money, current system challenges (hint: if you have kids, don't go to Urgent Care ... go to the ER!) -- branding, how "lonelygirl15" came about, the history of YouTube, and much more.

At LAUNCH Scale 2015, Jason sits down with Roelof Botha, Parter at Sequoia and David Rusenko, Founder/CEO of Weebly; and with Leah Busque, Founder/CEO of TaskRabbit.