This Week in Startups

Bill Gurley, Brad Gerstner, & Jason Calacanis on the state of tech markets, hosted by David Weisburd | E1875

Jan 6, 2024

01:28:56

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Bill Gurley, Brad Gerstner, and Jason Calacanis discuss the impact of market downturns on startups, AI boom, chatbots' potential, and performance predictions for tech giants in 2024.

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Quick takeaways

Public markets provide a cheap source of capital and have proven to be a hub for innovation

The market reset has led to more reasonable pricing, increased availability of technical talent, and a favorable environment for starting a company

Caution is urged in the AI landscape due to potential overvaluation and hype, but staying engaged and understanding end-use cases is crucial for success

Deep dives

Public markets and the open window for IPOs

The speaker emphasizes that the public markets, such as Amazon, Google, and Salesforce, have proven that innovation can happen in the public markets. They argue that the idea that you can't innovate in public markets is false, and that going public provides a cheap source of capital. They anticipate that the IPO markets will open up in 2024 and 2025 due to a backlog caused by a lack of IPOs in the previous years.

Timing Investment Decisions

01:58

Unconventional thoughts on going public and direct listings

01:20

Efficient International Operations and AI in Early Stage Startups

01:38

Challenges of Building Infrastructure for Transactional Voice Recognition

01:42

Introduction

2min

The State of Tech Markets: Startup Deaths and Future Trends

10min

Reimagining Business Phone Numbers with Open Phone

2min

Investor Perspectives and Valuation Cuts

12min

Product Development, DevSquad, and IPOs

2min

Private Clubs and Billion-Dollar Valuations

9min

The Importance of a Visually Appealing Website

7min

Challenges of Finding Key Talent for Early-Stage Founders

22min

The Potential of AI in Existing Products

7min

10.

Building an Infrastructure for Transactional Activities in the Digital World

17min

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Today’s show:

Bill Gurley, Brad Gerstner, and Jason Calacanis join David Weisburd to discuss the market downturn's impact on startups, including shutdowns and shifting investment strategies (1:29). They also debate the AI boom (54:50), chatbots' future potential and hype (1:01:11), and which tech giants may perform best or worst in 2024 (1:20:32).

Timestamps:

(0:00) David Weisburd hosts Bill Gurley, Brad Gerstner, & Jason Calacanis to discuss the state of tech markets

(1:29) Startup shutdowns in 2023 vs dotcom crash

(3:52) Perspective on current market from Bill Gurley

(7:52) Brad's outlook on startup shutdowns continuing in 2024

(11:48) OpenPhone - Get 20% off your first six months at https://openphone.com/twist

(13:16) Different investor perspectives based on investment stage

(16:47) Altimeter's recent investing activity

(25:32) DevSquad - Get an entire product team for the cost of one US developer plus 10% off at http://devsquad.com/twist

(26:30) Reflecting on past IPOs and paths to building businesses for growth

(36:40) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://Squarespace.com/twist

(38:07) State of Series B/C deals in 2023 vs 2021 peak