This Week in Startups

First Jason covers Roblox earnings, the platform's total usage is up 28% year over year (2:19)! In a new segment, "We Live in the Future," Jason shares Jetson One, a personal E-VTOL (11:16). Then, Ryan Engle of Golf+ joins to talk about the VR golf game his team developed for Oculus (23:08), Meta's lead in VR hardware (51:29) and more.

In this hot funding environment, both investors and founders benefit from startups having all the finance basics covered. In this episode, Kruze Consulting COO Scott Orn joins to explain how to prepare for diligence and avoid fraud. They discuss common blockers in diligence (10:19), the benefits of tight financials (23:31) and more!

First, Jason breaks down three recent earnings reports, Uber (1:57), Airbnb (21:10) and Peloton (26:00). Then, he introduces a new segment "Ok Boomer" where our producer Rachel reports on Gen Z tech & business culture. Today, she talks to Ziad Ahmed of JUV consulting about managing and working with Gen Z employees as they enter the workforce. (39:55)

We continue with episode five of the Startup Checklist, where Jason gives 10 points to build a great team. He covers hiring, compensating the early team (11:31), outsourcing, structuring the company, setting the cadence (39:48), finding advisors and more!

Jason reacts to Zillow's huge drop after the implosion of their iBuying business (4:33), and breaks down the Biden Administration's stablecoin report (23:35). Then, LeadIQ CEO Mei Siauw joins the show to talk growing a SaaS business with a distributed team, going from $500 to $10M+ in revenue, and more! (43:27)

First Jason briefly covers TikTok owner Bytedance's restriction on overtime working hours (2:14). Then Multicoin Capital partner Kyle Samani joins (11:07) to discuss how they evaluate products, why they prefer to invest in tokens over equity, the Solana blockchain (19:17), Helium (57:05), Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) and much more.

First, Jason covers the reported revenue impacts for FB, SNAP, TWTR & GOOG caused by Apple's App Tracking Transparency policies (1:57). Then, Aimee Yang CEO & Founder of BetterBrand™ joins (16:18) to discuss her first product the "Better Bagel." The conversation includes bringing the product to market, the opportunity to reshape food, raising from 776 and more!

Facebook changed its name to Meta. In the news segment, Jason shares 10 highlights from the keynote and reacts to the name change (1:57). Then DuckDuckGo founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg joins (36:22) to discuss his search engine's continued growth, surviving Google's monopoly (41:57), how they differentiate with privacy (48:30), and all the updates they've made since he was last on the show 10 years ago!

First, Jason reacts Conde Nast's union refusing to return to the office on November 1 and takes stock of the big tech WFH policy landscape (1:34). We continue the show with episode four of the Startup Checklist, where Jason covers "Building a Great Product" in points 31-40 (13:54).

First, Jason covers Sequoia's VC-redefining transition to an evergreen fund (1:54). He continues Q3 earnings coverage with Robinhood (13:38) and Twitter (21:10). Then, Ryan Breslow from Bolt joins to discuss transitioning to a 4-day work week, open-sourcing their company handbook and running a startup effectively (28:07).

First, Jason breaks down Facebook's Q3 earnings, including: growing revenue and profits, slowing user growth, AR investment and its new reporting structure (2:00). He also covers Facebook's potential rebrand as a metaverse-focused company and its declining usage amongst US teens and young adults. (11:35) Then, Italic's Jeremy Cai joins the show to discuss his innovative new e-commerce concept, ruffling feathers with incumbents, supply chain insights, and more! (25:58)

This Startup Basics is all about growth & retention. Tiffani Bova from Salesforce joins to talk about how startups should measure customer health, the pitfalls of high churn, the best kind of growth, how to earn trust by saying "no" & more.

Tech journalist Eric Newcomer joins to talk the Trump SPAC (8:26), WeWork SPAC (15:58), and the behind the scenes funding story of GitLab's IPO (25:41). Then, HNGRY's Matt Newberg joins to talk innovations in the quick commerce space, the growing impact of ghost kitchens, and more! (1:01:10)

First, Jason reacts to CNBC's Paul Tudor Jones interview, where PTJ warned about inflation and called Bitcoin (and crypto) a better hedge than gold (2:10). Then, Jason covers the new Bitcoin ETF and Hindenburg putting a bounty out for information on Tether (21:34). We wrap with episode three of the Startup Checklist, where Jason covers "Finding and Delighting Customers" in points 21-30 (34:41).

It was great to have Jeff back on the pod! But first, Producer Rachel gives some updates on TWIST Founder Meetups (01:54) and Jason talks a bit about Oculus (14:12). Then, Jeff Lawson from Twilio joins (24:42) to discuss their new mission to build the leading customer engagement platform, the launch of their new product Twilio Engage, lessons from scaling & their big acquisitions, San Francisco and more!