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This Week in Startups follows the arguments, decisions and personalities shaping technology businesses. Numbered discussions sit beside shorter clips about fundraising, hiring and investment, with AI…
This Week in Startups follows the arguments, decisions and personalities shaping technology businesses. Numbered discussions sit beside shorter clips about fundraising, hiring and investment, with AI forming a substantial part of the episode selection. The channel brings practical founder concerns into the same conversation as company strategy and industry news. Speculation is also visible in the topics, including proposed acquisitions and predictions about how AI could affect legal responsibility.
A conversation involving Justin Kan and Brian Chesky looks at rejection in the stories of Twitch and Airbnb. That founder-oriented perspective appears elsewhere in advice about raising money and the difficulties around team interviews. These subjects deal with moments when a young company depends on persuading other people: securing support, finding colleagues or continuing after an unwelcome response.
The AI discussions take the conversation towards open-source development, agents and the consequences of autonomous systems. An appearance by a Hugging Face co-founder connects those themes to the wider technology ecosystem. Other episodes debate what Apple might buy or which kinds of AI businesses venture investors would back, making room for contrasting views about company direction.
Founders and viewers who follow technology investment can use the channel to hear how those questions are framed and contested. Longer conversations provide room for a company story or an industry argument, while shorter segments isolate a particular piece of advice or prediction. The appeal is the overlap between running a startup and interpreting the environment around it: how a founder's immediate choices relate to the products, funding decisions and competitive bets being discussed elsewhere in the industry.
Latest episode
What VCs Really Think About Personal AI Agents | E2347
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
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Quo…
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
Plaud: http://Plaud.ai/twist
Odoo: http://Odoo.com/twist
Northwest Registered Agent: http://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
Quo: https://www.quo.com/perks/twist
Today’s show:
A personal AI agent that’s still invite-only just hit a $10 billion valuation. Guest host Deedy Das of Menlo Ventures is joined by Kanu Gulati of Khosla Ventures, Chris Farmer of SignalFire, and Sheel Mohnot of Better Tomorrow Ventures to debate whether Instinct can beat Meta’s Muse, what they actually use their own agents for, and what breaks when everyone’s agent makes the same move.
Plus we’re also talking about OpenAI’s math breakthroughs, the Factory vs. Cognition fight, and whether SaaS is still worth funding. Catch the whole debate on this week’s VC roundtable.
Guests:
Deedy Das on X: https://x.com/deedydas
Menlo Ventures: https://menlovc.com
Kanu Gulati on X: https://x.com/KanuGulati
Khosla Ventures: https://www.khoslaventures.com
Chris Farmer on X: https://x.com/chriswfarmer
SignalFire: https://www.signalfire.com
Sheel Mohnot on X: https://x.com/pitdesi
Better Tomorrow Ventures: https://www.btv.vc
Relevant Links:
OpenAI’s 722 math manuscripts from an unreleased internal model → https://github.com/openai/math
OpenAI’s earlier Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize result → https://openai.com/index/navier-stokes-solution/
Pramaana Labs, the Khosla-backed startup turning tax rules into provable logic → https://pramaanalabs.ai
Logos Research, the Imperial College spinout verifying AI-written financial code → https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/articles/2026/logos-research-plans-to-make-ai-reasoning-trustworthy-in-high-stakes-environments/
EvenUp, SignalFire’s AI company for personal injury law → https://www.evenuplaw.com/
WindBorne Systems, the Khosla-backed weather balloon company Kanu mentioned → https://windbornesystems.com
Gokul Rajaram’s X Post: https://x.com/gokulr/status/2107851356019290569?s=20
micro1, the AI training data company Chris and LAUNCH backs → https://www.micro1.ai
Vercel’s data on companies shifting to open-weight models → https://vercel.com/i/open-weight-models
Instinct raises $1B at a $10B valuation (SiliconANGLE) → https://siliconangle.com/2026/09/28/everyday-personal-ai-assistant-startup-instinct-raises-1b-at-10b-valuation/
Meta introduces Muse, its personal AI agent → https://about.fb.com/news/2026/09/introducing-muse-personal-ai-agent/
Wajo, maker of the Fo agent Kanu uses → https://wajo.ai
Factory’s CEO accuses his board adviser of spying for Cognition (TechCrunch) → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/factory-ceo-just-accused-his-vc-board-advisor-of-spying-for-cognition/
xAI rents its Colossus 1 data center to Anthropic (Data Center Dynamics) → https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/musk-spacex-xai-is-actively-seeking-more-ai-compute-customers-following-anthropic-deal/
Bending Spoons agrees to buy Miro, weeks after Airtable → https://investors.bendingspoons.com/newsroom/bending-spoons-agrees-to-acquire-miro
The FCC’s new rule on foreign-made robots → https://www.fcc.gov/covered-list-faqs-robots-inverters
Timestamps:
0:00 VC roundtable with guest host Deedy Das
1:23 If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
2:11 OpenAI's math results and what's left to invest in
5:10 Formalizing taxes and code so AI can prove its work
6:37 Why science breakthroughs still need the real world
9:44 Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist
10:54 Can startups compete with the labs on compute?
13:02 Private data and vertical AI as the moat
18:54 Would you invest in AI training data companies?
20:34 Northwest Registered Agent: Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! - Learn more at www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
26:29 What a great founder looks like in the AI era
29:13 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://quo.com/TWiST
34:35 Is Instinct worth $10 billion?
41:31 Can Muse reach a billion daily users?
44:49 Favorite personal agent use cases
49:06 What happens when everyone's agent makes the same call
53:17 Factory vs. Cognition and VCs backing rivals
1:03:49 Is SaaS still worth venture money?
1:09:49 Where the panel gets its information
1:14:45 What a seed fund means in 2026
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TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/
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