This Week in Startups

StartX & Nexus Events Founder Cameron Teitelman answers questions from founders: how universities with no entrepreneurial culture can mimic Stanford, building flexible & sustainable culture during COVID, scaling Nexus Events rapidly & more! Join the TWiST Slack: https://launchevents.typeform.com/to/kLq5Bi Mentioned during the AMA: Cameron's new startup: https://mixer.nexusevents.io/login_mixer Cameron's most recent TWiST appearance: https://youtu.be/zsNqOLs-NVI Questions: 0:37 Cameron intros his AMA and describes his new company: Nexus Events https://mixer.nexusevents.io/login_mixer 1:31 Kevin: Are seed investors investing right now? What have StartX companies been seeing lately from early-stage investors? 2:55 James: How can universities with no entrepreneurial culture mimic the success of Stanford in creating an environment that encourages building and innovation? 4:29 James: How does the accelerator structure change for current students? What are some of the common pitfalls you have seen people make starting their company whilst finishing their degree? 7:18 Presh: Could you share more about your new startup? What are you building and why? 10:15 Ashley: How are you looking at accepting companies to StartX through the COVID lense? Which companies (in your portfolio or not) do you think are particularly well-positioned for the post COVID environment? 12:43 Jean: Regarding mentorship, in what areas do solo founders need the most help with? 14:41 Annette: Will Stanford affiliated applicants get priority over referral applicants? Would consumer startup applicants that are non-COVID related be considered during this time? 17:35 Henry: What are your thoughts in terms of building a flexible but sustainable culture? 19:26 Matt: Do you take a different approach with health tech portfolio companies and educate/manage/support them separately from the rest of the portfolio? 21:21 Laura: Given that companies don't give up equity, and there is no structured program, how do you cultivate high-level engagement with your founders/companies & mentors? 25:27 Luke: Can you talk about how the collaboration between StartX and the Stanford Hospital and Clinics works? How are the grants assessed and awarded? 26:14 Jacqui: Do you see the StartX Med COVID-19 Task Force as a new model to accelerate advances in biotech or to generate solutions for other critical global issues? 27:07 Heidi: How can other med schools around the country partner with you to develop satellite programs? 29:17 Dan: Do you have any war stories about running Nexus Events during COVID and what you’ve learned from it?

0:50 Jason opens the show with some thoughts on livelihood, getting back to work as a lose-lose situation and approaching the situation with kindness and empathy 5:47 Jason intros Hustle Fund's Elizabeth Yin and they discuss the process of raising Hustle Fund I and targeting first-time LPs 10:25 Why high net worth individuals would look to become venture LPs 14:26 What's the deal with Elizabeth & hippos? Where can you find Jason as his alter-ego "CyberSurfer" 15:49 What is Hustle Fund's portfolio strategy? 18:55 When do you know if you have a 100x outlier? Why roll prior angel investments into the fund? 24:15 Thinking of venture funds from a gambling perspective 28:24 What is Hustle Fund's approach to pro-rata as a smaller fund? 34:49 Founders ability to "game" investors increasing in last 5 years 37:47 How does Elizabeth decide to make the follow-on second bet in a company? 42:01 How does Elizabeth advise her startups to raise from downstream Seed/Series A investors, importance of positive unit economics 47:41 Challenges of fundraising in today's climate 50:34 Reasons for optimism/pessimism, lockdown creating a necessity for innovation 56:55 What will COVID's permanent ramifications be on startups?

All Turtles CEO Phil Libin answers questions from founders: should early-stage founders prioritize data or instincts, building global products, ML risks, thoughts on remote work Join the TWiST Slack: https://launchevents.typeform.com/to/kLq5Bi Mentioned during the AMA: Phil's First appearance on TWiST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSYdwNHCmJA Phil presents his state machine that answers all growth questions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjyhDOb_j1I All Turtles Product Taxonomy podcast: https://www.all-turtles.com/podcast/episode-50-product-taxonomy-how-we-classify-product-pitches/ Questions: 1:03 Knyck: In your state machine model, how early should companies prioritize looking into resurrection, lines 5&9, of inactive users into low and high-value users? 2:36 David: Thoughts on Notion? I’ve been an Evernote user since ’08 but Notion seems to be winning over some Evernote fans. 3:11 Tom: 1) As CEO, what brings you the most joy as a CEO, any examples? 2) As a Software Engineer, what was one of the most difficult things you had to overcome? 3) What’s one thing early founders don’t think is as important as it really is? (Besides culture) 9:54 Graham: During the early days (pre-product market fit), do you think that more metrics are always better for founders, or would you recommend focusing on those north star metrics that can keep founders focused on the most important business levers? 12:32 Craig: How have any setbacks or failures in the past changed the way you approached problems or roadblocks. What changes will you make after COVID? 17:04 Andrii: How would you compare Notion vs Roam research vs Evernote? What are some strong and weak features of each platform? 18:26 Jeff: Have you completed your goal yet of 1 pull up? 19:36 Sina: As you said: “Many companies focus on just one market and build up from there” but you guys invest in a global presence early on in the process and tried to have users from the Asia Pacific regions from the early days. How did you guys manage to do that? Was it only marketing campaigns or did you guys have strategic partners in that region? 23:31 Tatiana: Do you consider in this matter taking some mentoring as a real addressed help? If so, I would like to take this opportunity to apply for your mentoring, if possible. What will be the best way to contact you and introduce myself? 24:39 Luke: Which products being developed at All Turtles are you most excited about? 27:59 Presh: What’s your framework for deciding which products/problems you’d like to focus on/solve at All Turtles? 30:47 Catharine: Aside from changing how you eat, what are the other two things you’ve done that have transformed your life? 32:53 Jason: Can you talk about your massive weight loss and how that did/didn’t impact you as a founder/leader? Do you think you were perceived differently based on your weight as a founder/leader? 38:02 Alex: We’re building a real-time platform called answerable and we’re wondering at what critical tipping point a platform has enough data to really derive good insights? 40:49 Alex: What would you suggest for a very regulated company (SEC) where user testimonials + referrals are either straight up not allowed or require super fine inspection to avoid being sued? 42:12 Juan Juan: I remember your story when you were planning to close down Evernote then an Angel came to your rescue writing a check that gave you the runway to success. How did that happen and what were you feeling at that time? 44:04 Vitaly: How do you estimate tech risks while investing/building a ML product? 47:08 Tammy: Will remote work actually be permanent? 48:51 Vince: After scaling Evernote and then working as a VC, I’d assume you’d advise many companies not to go the VC funding route,

Hosted by Jason Calacanis & Michael Savino, Angel.University is a workshop for individuals interested in becoming professional angel investors. The curriculum is designed for angels who have done 0 to 100 angel investments and focuses on five key topics: sourcing deals, evaluating startups, negotiating deals, portfolio and bankroll management, and post-deal efforts. Register: https://www.angel.university/events

0:42 Jason intros MassChallenge CEO Siobhan Dullea 3:09 What is MassChallenge & how is it different from a typical accelerator? 5:48 How many startups do they accept across their different programs? 11:33 How does their prize money situation work? How are the winners selected? 19:05 How is MassChallenge sustainable as a non-profit 22:55 How is MassChallenge funded & how do they track portfolio success, what government & corporate sponsors looking for out of MC? 29:22 MC's top accelerator companies 32:24 What makes for a great application? 39:00 Why are East Coast investors obsessed with intellectual property? Why are they more conservative? 44:10 Thoughts on virtual accelerators? 47:20 Red flags when accepting companies? 50:08 What will change post-COVID-19?

0:01 Jason intros today's questions! 2:18 Kate asks what founders & investors often overlook while pitching/being pitched, and what they should focus more closely on 6:58 Daniel asks about Jason's next book 8:59 Avery asks for advice on performing customer research 14:27 Dan asks what common traits Jason sees in the best founders and tangible steps to gain these traits 19:55 Shahpar asks what kind of cold emails catch Jason's eyes 22:10 Amy asks for the top 5 books Jason would recommend to an aspiring founder 27:18 Andrew asks Jason how his deal flow has been impacted by COVID-19 30:27 Dharma asks about the importance of a startups name/domain name and any hacks getting a better domain name 34:54 Pedro asks how to improve customer retention when acquisition goes down 39:57 Ivan asks how Jason is "sizing up" founders without meeting them in person 42:10 Gerry asks whether to offer a freemium version of a product OR to offer the full product free for a limited window before looking to convert 46:51 Naiem asks whether to push new products searching for product-market fit OR focus on improving existing products

Subscribe: https://linktr.ee/transportationpodcast Featuring Sandy Munro (CEO of Munro & Associates), Jason Calacanis (Angel investor, LAUNCH, Inside.com) and Johan Moreno (Inside.com). Subscribe to Inside Transportation newsletter: inside.com/transportation Subscribe to Inside Electric Vehicles newsletter: inside.com/evs Follow Inside Transportation: https://twitter.com/TranspoPod

0:56 Jason intros the show & talks about the impact the TWiST Slack has had on him 4:47 Jason intros Dan Pupius of Range 6:13 What is Range and why is it asynchronous & who types of companies is it made for? 10:48 What is the core feature of Range? 15:19 Dan's time at Google, working on Google+ & Google Buzz 21:16 Competing against Facebook's product velocity 24:28 Why did Google+ fail? 29:22 How adoption patterns & network effects played into Google+ not taking off like Facebook 36:57 How to use team communication tools & not come off as overbearing, dealing with unmotivated employees & creating environments that increase motivation 45:02 Burning Man, CyberPunk & more 47:47 Dan shares best practices on building culture as a remote team 52:15 Importance of maintaining "psychological safety" to optimize performance, holding colleagues accountable during high-pressure situations 58:37 Dan's experience developing Holacracy at Medium with Evan Williams 1:06:18 How experience & milestones affect leadership 1:09:21 Potential of "hybrid" remote/in-person offices after going back to work

freeCodeCamp Founder Quincy Larson answers questions from his exclusive AMA only on This Week in Startups' Slack! If you’d like to participate in exclusive AMAs, jam sessions, and discuss all aspects of startup life with Jason and our community of 20,000+ founders, join us at: https://launchevents.typeform.com/to/kLq5Bi Watch Quincy on E1049: https://youtu.be/OgxTDl2Z9II Follow Quincy: https://twitter.com/ossia Check out freeCodeCamp: https://www.freecodecamp.org/ Thanks to Klaviyo, Fiverr and Mint Mobile for keeping this AMA ad free! Questions: 0:33 Emin asks: What is the best tactic to build an award-winning dev team? Hire junior developers and incubate them or hire more senior people? 4:29 Rob asks: What does FCC moving to a project-based curriculum look like for someone with a moderate programming background, and where should they start approaching the freeCodeCamp curriculum? 5:41 Ilya asks: What are your thoughts on remote work for developers post COVID. What are the biggest challenges companies are facing? And how can candidates stand out in a remote job interview? 7:55 Swyx asks: What are your thoughts on SEO/building a media empire out of FCC? What about keeping FCC.org nonprofit, but making FreeCodeCamp’s YouTube and Content presence for profit? 11:06 Farjad asks: What is your advice on contributing to open-source projects like FCC and when it is appropriate/how to begin? Do I have to become an expert first? How can a beginner contribute? 13:27 James asks: Many online courses and MOOCS have high drop off rates and struggle to retain users. Have you found this with freeCodeCamp and, if so, what measures have you found work best to keep people learning? 16:40 Brady asks: What are the plans for future courses? Will there be other languages or frameworks included? 20:40 Cpulido asks: I am new to coding. I have a vision of what I want to build but I am wondering if I am being too ambitious. How do I effectively learn and build at the same time? 23:24 Jean asks: In an age of low-code and no-code, what are your thoughts on total beginners exploring a new career path today? 28:01 Luke asks: Which other founders/leaders and companies in the free code/online learning space do you think are also doing great work for the community? 30:14 Charles asks: Is there a place for those that are passionate but don't think they could ever be a great coder? Are the skills learned at FCC transferable or useful for gaining employment in another part of the tech/startup industry? 31:55 Jacqui asks: I'm curious about your experience teaching in China. What ages and subjects did you teach, and what are some differences you've seen between the education systems in the US and China and how do those differences play out into careers? 36:47 Heidi asks: As a nonprofit (public charity), what do you find is the most difficult part of soliciting donations? Is it easier to get corporations to buy into what you’re building/doing or 1:1/community to give donations?

1:00 Jason intros Power of Accelerators Episode 2! 3:07 Jason intros StartX Founder Cameron Teitelman: What is StartX, how do they invest, when and how was it started? 6:54 How does StartX exist? Are they profitable? 8:43 Why would a growth stage founder join StartX? 13:28 What is the process for selecting founders/companies for StartX? What is unique about Stanford students? 16:28 Difference between arrogance and confidence, StartX's "No A**hole" rule, Cohort size 20:47 What does StartX look for in founders, what questions are asked in interviews & what preferences do they have regarding co-founders 27:04 How do VCs look at StartX? What are their demo days like? 31:54 Thoughts on YC's demo day & how to run a demo day process 41:16 Cameron on hacking his way into VC, new StartX funds, thesis on successful founders & peer-support groups 45:58 Stories about getting cut out of a deal 48:09 What StartX's portfolio signaling tells them about successful founders, importance of time management 51:59 Steve Blank's theory of customer development, top portfolio companies