How Many Startups Will Survive OpenAI? | E2288

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Pilot -⁠ https://Pilot.com/TWIST⁠ Grasshopper Bank -⁠ https://Grasshopper.bank/TWIST⁠ Quo -⁠ https://Quo.com/TWiST⁠ Plaud - ⁠https://Plaud.ai/twist Anthropic just declared every unauthorized secondary sale of its stock "void" — naming Hiive, Forge, Sydecar, Upmarket, and others in a public hit list. Jason and Alex sit down with Jenny Fielding (Everywhere Ventures), Dave McClure (Practical VC), and Sam Lessin (Slow Ventures) to unpack what the AI lab’s move to limit secondary trades means for SPV operators, brokers, and the founders trying to keep control of their cap tables. Plus: a real story of a founder who returned a $15M Series A six months after closing because Claude was going to eat his startup, SaaS moats, and just what does it mean to be rich? Guest Links: Sam Lessin https://www.linkedin.com/in/wlessin/ Slow Ventures https://slow.co/ Dave McClure https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemcclure/ Practical Venture Capital https://practicalvc.com/ Jenny Fielding https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennyfielding/ Everywhere VC https://www.everywhere.vc/ Discussion Links: Anthropic saying no to SPVs https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13704655-unauthorized-anthropic-stock-sales-and-investment-scams OpenAI saying no to SPVs https://openai.com/policies/unauthorized-openai-equity-transactions/ Cerebras raises IPO guidance https://www.cautiousoptimism.news/with-gas-prices-spiking-going-to-office-is-now-a-pay-cut/ Fervo Energy goes public https://www.renaissancecapital.com/IPO-Center/News/118998/Geothermal-energy-developer-Fervo-Energy-prices-upsized-IPO-at-$27-above-th Coverage of OpenAI secondary https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/02/openai-is-the-worlds-most-valuable-private-company-after-private-stock-sale/ USVC https://usvc.com/ Ryan Hoover's Weekend Fund IV https://x.com/rrhoover/status/2052405380655825140 Intercom rebrands to Fin https://www.intercom.com/blog/today-intercom-becomes-fin/ Other: Equitybee https://equitybee.com/ Dave McClure's podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/3WH5Br0CPTqSPcrK1FxC7J Sam Lessin's podcast https://moreorlesspod.com/ Launch Festival https://www.launchfestival.com/# Timestamps: 0:00 Guest introductions 0:48 Anthropic voids unauthorized SPV trades 8:41 Accredited investor reform & the SEC sophisticated investor test 8:58 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) - Quo 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 11:43 Naval's USVC closed-end fund as a workaround 16:41 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 17:48 Pro-rata rights battles: when Series A investors push seed investors out 19:36 Grasshopper Bank: Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account. 29:13…