WeRide IPO, Polymarket + Perplexity, the Trump Bump and more! | E1992
This Week in Startups
The Influence of Celebrity on Media Coverage
This chapter explores how celebrity figures like Trump and Taylor Swift shape media coverage and capture public attention. It examines the challenges faced by traditional media in maintaining relevance amidst sensationalism and highlights the emergence of independent media as a response to financial pressures.
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Todays show:
Alex Wilhelm joins Jason to discuss the evolution of startup costs and media aggregation (3:17), media's addiction to Trump coverage (13:46), Polymarket and Perplexity partnership (40:08), and more!
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Jason and Alex kick off the show
(3:17) Evolution of startup costs and media aggregation (7:47) Jason and Alex discuss Trump and Elon conversation (10:09) Google Cloud - Accelerate your startup journey with the Google for Startups Cloud Program. Apply at https://startups.google.com/twist (13:46) Media's addiction to Trump coverage
(20:04) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist (21:18) Trump's media strategies and speech analysis
(30:04) AssemblyAI - Get 100 free hours to start building at https://www.assemblyai.com/twist (31:17) Societal resistance to tech and the rise of self-driving cars (37:14) Self-driving technology's impact on Uber and Lyft (40:08) Polymarket and Perplexity partnership (47:34) Hacking capitalism and the FIRE movement (54:12) Perplexity's AI competition and the value of proprietary data (1:00:45) Reddit's traffic and monetization (1:07:35) European venture capital and the rise of unicorns (1:13:00) Work culture: Europe vs. US (1:16:11) Investing in AI startups and consulting opportunities
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Mentioned on the show:
- Trump/X conversation transcript: https://turboscribe.ai/transcript/share/4422534834081521519/HWE18owsC2u8E5u2HpZNikyBdermlV2YSwGlTEPKJJw/donald-trump-and-elon-musk-full-transcript-august-12-2024-https-x-com-i-spaces-1nakepnklwoxl
- Jason’s argument concerning the Trump Bump: https://x.com/Jason/status/1823381839647756392
- WeRide IPO filing: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1867729/000119312524197868/d343706df1a.htm
- Alex’s notes on WeRide: https://www.cautiousoptimism.news/p/inside-werides-ipo-filing-and-the
- Perplexity + Polymarket deal: https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/12/prediction-market-polymarket-partners-with-perplexity-to-show-news-summaries/
- Polymarket Dune data: https://dune.com/rchen8/polymarket
- Balderton raises $1.3B: https://sifted.eu/articles/balderton-1-3bn-fundraise-news
- PitchBook data concerning recent European VC activity: https://pitchbook.com/news/reports/q2-2024-european-venture-report
Follow Alex:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm/
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Follow Jason:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
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Thank you to our partners:
(10:09) Google Cloud - Accelerate your startup journey with the Google for Startups Cloud Program. Apply at https://startups.google.com/twist
(20:04) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist
(30:04) AssemblyAI - Get 100 free hours to start building at https://www.assemblyai.com/twist
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