This Week in Startups

Recent Episodes

1. 90% of AI prototypes never reach production (w/ Temporal's Samar Abbas) | AI Basics

   Sep 15, 2026

   Samar Abbas, CEO and co-founder of Temporal, discusses why 90% of AI prototypes fail to reach production and the critical role of durable execution platforms. Abbas explains how agents need a "harness"—infrastructure that maintains state, ensures reliability, and provides visibility—to move from proof-of-concept to production environments. The conversation covers why AI applications break in real-world deployment, how Temporal's platform guarantees durability across failures, and the security and coordination challenges enterprises face when scaling agentic AI workflows.

2. Ask Jason: AI Extinction, Grok's Rogue Meme Coin & Weed Farms as Data Centers | E2337

   Sep 14, 2026

   Jason Calacanis hosts an all-live-calls "Ask Jason" episode addressing listener questions on AI extinction risks, AI-to-AI interactions and liability (the Grok meme coin incident), building independent AI ecosystems, founder productivity with AI tools, and converting cannabis facilities into data centers. Calacanis discusses safeguards in AI systems, the difference between hype and real threats, and opportunities in distributed compute infrastructure.

3. The Pentagon Wants Equity in AI Startups | E2336

   Sep 11, 2026

   Jason Calacanis discusses the Pentagon's reported $5 billion loan to AI infrastructure startup Fluidstack and concerns about government equity ownership competing with venture capital. Returning guest Tibo Louis-Lucas demonstrates how he operates seven companies with fewer than 10 people by leveraging AI agents and affordable subscriptions. The episode also features off-duty commentary on Apple's new iPhone Duo foldable, DC Universe streaming shows, and Dark Matter on Apple TV+, plus personal reflections on the 25th anniversary of 9/11.

4. Becki DeGraw on founder vesting, advisor equity & the 4-term-sheet play

   Sep 10, 2026

   Becki DeGraw, partner at Wilson Sonsini, explains founder and advisor equity structures, vesting schedules, and negotiation strategies for early-stage founders. The episode covers why vesting matters even for bootstrapped companies, how to counter VC pushback on vesting terms, the power of securing multiple term sheets, and best practices for advisor equity agreements with clear performance milestones.

5. Did OpenAI Steal the Navier-Stokes Solution? | E2335

   Sep 9, 2026

   Jason Calacanis hosts a weekly VC roundtable discussion with three active venture investors: Yohei Nakajima (General Partner, Untapped Capital), Ben Lerer (Co-founder, Lerer Hippeau), and Rebecca Lynn (Co-founder, Canvas Prime). The episode covers multiple topics including recent departures from Anthropic and OpenAI over AI safety concerns, the public debate around existential AI risk, and portfolio highlights including E2B, Daptic, Augmodo, and Savvy Wealth. The panel debates whether recent AI safety messaging from frontier labs represents genuine concern or effective PR strategy, discusses the impact of AI on job displacement and worker productivity, and explores emerging investment opportunities in AI-adjacent categories.

6. Dr. Mark Hyman on Function Health & GLP-1 microdosing | E2334

   Sep 4, 2026

   Dr. Mark Hyman, founder and CEO of Function Health, discusses the broken state of American healthcare and how his company is democratizing access to preventive, data-driven medicine. The episode covers Function's comprehensive biomarker testing (160+ markers for $365/year), whole-body MRI scanning, AI-powered health insights, and the company's 100 million biomarkers of data revealing that 65% of Americans have undetected insulin resistance and 93% have metabolic dysfunction. Dr. Hyman also addresses the overmedication of mental health conditions, the promise of psychedelic-assisted therapy for treatment-resistant depression and PTSD, and the importance of lifestyle interventions over pharmaceuticals.

7. Becki DeGraw on spinouts, IP licensing & clean exits | Wilson Sonsini Startup Legal Basics

   Sep 3, 2026

   Becki DeGraw, partner at Wilson Sonsini, discusses spinout structures and best practices for founders leaving to start new companies. The episode covers equity split frameworks (80/20 rule), IP ownership and licensing arrangements, non-compete considerations, and common mistakes founders make with cap tables. DeGraw emphasizes the importance of proper legal documentation before execution and explains how Series A investors evaluate spinout legitimacy during diligence.

8. VC experts on why Physical AI funding is heating up | E2333

   Sep 2, 2026

   Two VC partners discuss the surge in Physical AI funding, which reached $500M in the first half of 2026, up 80% from 2025. The conversation covers Pentagon deployment of ChatGPT Mil and Grok for military use, EU regulatory designations of ChatGPT as a search engine, and investment opportunities in deep tech, space infrastructure, and on-premises AI models. The guests highlight the shift from avoiding government and hardware investments to recognizing these as major opportunities.

9. Are AI Agents forming "civilizations" or is this just a psy op? | 2332

   Aug 31, 2026

   John Yu, founder of Bitsec (Subnet 60 on Bittensor), discusses how AI-powered security agents detect vulnerabilities in code bases far more effectively than existing tools like Fable 5. Built on the decentralized Bittensor network with incentivized miners competing daily for $10,000 rewards, Bitsec found over 160 vulnerabilities in a client codebase compared to Fable's 60, and discovered a critical infinite mint bug in Z-Cash that had gone undetected for years.

10. Breaking down Nvidia's Hugging Face and Poolside bets | E2331

    Aug 28, 2026

    Craig Piggott, founder and CEO of Halter, discusses his livestock management technology platform that uses solar-powered AI-driven GPS collars to enable virtual fencing for cattle. The collar uses audio and vibration cues to train cattle to respond to virtual boundaries, allowing ranchers to more efficiently utilize their land and run up to twice as many cattle on the same acreage. Halter has deployed 1.5 million collars across New Zealand, Australia, the US, and Canada, operating on a subscription model starting at $9 per cow per month.