This Week in Startups

Powerhouse News Roundtable! Joining Jason today for a roaring good time is Benedict Evans, Partner Andreessen Horowitz/top tech analyst & Molly Wood, Host/Senior Tech Correspondent, APM's Marketplace. You'll want to listen a couple times to keep up with this epic, jam-packed, crackling convo. Learn exactly what is going on in tech funding (what year are we in, anyway? hint: not 1999), what's behind Apple's latest attempts to get into the game (of news & music), Twitter's catch-22 and all its puzzles wrapped in an enigmatic business model, Microsoft's biggest opportunities, THE most burning virtual reality questions, among them: are investors ready?, what will reign supreme: games, education, or porn?, will Molly ever finish watching that first-person VR horror movie she was too scared to finish?, and will Benedict finally commit to a 1-10 rating for Mad Max? (I mean, how many times does Jason have to ask?) And MUCH MORE.

It's our second show for Drone Week & the launch of the "Inside Drones" podcast! Chris Anderson, former "Wired" Editor-in-Chief turned CEO/Founder of 3DRobotics (3DR) invites Jason to Berkeley, CA, to talk & fly the hottest drones. It's an amazing conversation where Chris explains his journey from "Wired" to becoming obsessed with drones after building one out of legos with his kids, to starting an open source drone community, to building 3DR -- the biggest drone maker in America. Jason and Chris dive into the history of how this incredible technology came to be, exactly how drones are bound (or not bound) by the laws of physics and/or government, and what we can expect (dream!) for the future. We see some of Chris's greatest hits, upcoming releases ... and watch Jason and Chris fly them on his roof deck! Join us!

It’s Drones Week and the official launch of This Week in Startups / Inside Drones podcast! Drones are becoming ready for primetime. They are safe, easy to fly, and are now able to do actual commerce in the world because regulations are becoming reasonable. Our first drones guest expert this week is Helen Greiner, Founder & CEO of CyPhyWorks (a drone robotics company), also Cofounder of iRobot and inventor of the Roomba vacuuming machine. Tune in as Jason and Helen have an exciting drone demo & discussion about what makes hexacopters far superior to quadcopters and helicopters, how CyPhyWorks was able to blow their Kickstarter campaign goal out of the water and raised more than $500,000 for their first hexacopter (which will retail for under $600!), how seeing R2-D2 in Star Wars for the first time is when Helen knew she wanted to build machines that were more than machines, why real-time social sharing is important with drone flying, how there has FINALLY been a proposed set of FAA commercial drone regulations that will make commerce possible, and how Helen wants her company to be the drones delivering packages to your home. Jason also gets a chance to live demo the CyPhyWorks LVL 1 drone! Join us!

At the LAUNCH Incubator 2, Jared Fleisler of Matrix Partners (previously Square, Slide) takes us through 3 important steps toward growth. First, how do you BUILD your product? Begin by identifying focus, market size, status quo, experience, and timing. Second, make sure you understand MESSAGING versus marketing. Craft your message - and test it! Gain your customers trust. And third, know your MARKET. And much more! Do NOT miss this jam-packed, inspiring, and highly tactical talk from one of the industry's greatest growth gurus.

On today's show is entrepreneur extraordinaire Jeff Dachis, former CEO/Founder of Razorfish & current CEO/Founder of OneDrop.today, an incredible management & social platform for people with diabetes that won Best Design at LAUNCH Festival 2015. Soon after Jeff learned that he had diabetes in 2013, he discovered the complete lack of tools available to manage it -- and decided to invent them. OneDrop, a Waze for diabetes, pulls together data that is normally siloed, and gives users all the information they need, in one place: tracking glucose levels, meals consumed, exercise & activity information, and much more. OneDrop also connects users, letting them share their data & support each other's endeavors. Jeff walks us through an awesome demo of his product, including sneak previews of features & new monitors coming soon. It's a rich conversation in which Jason and Jeff also discuss the need for more prevention-based healthcare solutions in our problem-based system, health care versus self care, disease management as a market, the differences between diabetes types 1 and 2 (and the future/hope for each...), what Jeff has learned on his entrepreneurial journey since web 1.0 (hint: talent is everything) -- and more. Join us!!

All "Ask Jason"/Shark Tank is back! Today’s show, hosted at the Samsung Global Innovation Center, features companies asking for Jason’s honest advice on their fledging startups, and entrepreneurs asking Jason their most burning questions. And the ideas sparkle & fly! We meet a music event startup, a virtual reality startup, a live video journalism app (reverse Periscope), an on-demand personal assistant app, an idea network, and more. Jason covers the importance of conducting user interviews, the importance of solving a singular problem really well, why the metaverse (a 3D version of the web) will not be productized, how working on virtual reality now feels like working on the internet right before broadband (a 5-10 year journey), why crowdsourcing live video for journalism is a GREAT idea, how it can be better to focus on getting one high-profile partnership than growing organically, the main criterion for Jason typically to invest (contrary to most investors!), execution > money, the huge advantage of working in a wide open space -- and so much more!

#TWiSTLive!! Virtual reality is an exciting & hotly debated space. Its potential is massive, but will it ever really "arrive"? In today's live show, recorded at Samsung Global Innovation Center, Jason answers this question with a resounding YES, as he demos the latest & greatest VR and hosts a riveting fireside chat with Amir Rubin, VR pioneer & CEO of Sixense, a premiere virtual reality platform. After a lively demo of Sixense's cutting-edge, award-winning products, Jason talks with Amir about his inspirations, the state of the field, and what's coming. We learn why VR is not just about gaming but about every industry (esp. healthcare, education), why motion sickness is no longer an issue, how technologies like 3D printing help VR immensely, how developers are building amazing applications on the Sixense platform, how every phone going forward will be VR ready, why VR is so effective in training for high-risk jobs like welders & pilots, why service providers will give VR headsets away for free, how VR is going to be a new way for creative people to monetize their skills, how movie studios can use VR for you to actually experience being the super hero, why the biggest challenge facing VR is educating consumers -- and much much more!

It's News Roundtable Friday! Joining Jason today is Jessica Lessin, Founder & Editor-in-Chief of The Information and Ari Levy, Senior Technology Reporter at CNBC. The three tackle the latest, greatest, juiciest stories of late in this epic episode. Nothing is left off the table. Secret's bank heist, how Google is like Game of Thrones, is Android poised for world domination?, the combustible combination of venture + journalism, and several of the greatest existential questions of our time: what is the future of advertising on mobile, what happens when you give nerds $20m, and when will Amazon start delivering weed?? And, oh, so much more.

From the 2015 LAUNCH Festival! An inspiring fireside chat with Marc Benioff, CEO/Founder of Salesforce and one of the great leaders of our time. Talking to Adam Lashinsky of Fortune, Marc focuses on the incredible importance of philanthropy and why companies need to give back to their communities and improve the state of the world. Marc shares his personal journey in philanthropy, starting when Colin Powell invited him to the 1997 America's Promise conference, to creating Salesforce & its 1-1-1 policy: dedicating 1% equity, 1% profit, and 1% employee time to giving back. Marc's key advice to entrepreneurs: the intentions you set for your companies right now are going to result is what your company becomes; clarity and vision are key, right from the start. Join us!

On the show today: a debut! Michael Robertson, inventor, entrepreneur, and CEO/founder of DAR.fm and MP3.com, is in the studio to launch his brand-new product. 6 Seconds is a free, mobile, powerful search engine that plays songs from any radio station, at any time, in any country around the globe. Michael walks us through his innovation, explaining its advantages over all existing music services (hint: unlimited number of skips & selection) and bold vision. Jason and Michael dive into a rich conversation dissecting the major listening platforms, both broadcast and interactive (look out Pandora, Spotify, and TIDAL), the cross-pollination of politics and technology, Google and the difference between monopoly and market share dominance, why one day smart kids will stop going to college, the inevitability of taxing robots, the unsolvable riddle of the minimum wage, the Walking Dead, drug wars, how creativity is torpedoed in the music biz, are we in a bubble or what? -- and much more.