Avi Patel on the startup that copied Kled and why he called out General Catalyst by name | E2291

Guest Links:

Mercury https://mercury.com

Mercury funding announcement https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260520511817/en/Mercury-Raises-$200-Million-Series-D-at-$5.2B-Valuation

Immad Akhund on X https://x.com/immad

Kled https://www.kled.ai/

Avi Patel on X https://x.com/avipat_/

Avi’s complaint https://x.com/avipat_/status/2055384102409253056

General Catalyst https://www.generalcatalyst.com/

Y Combinator https://www.ycombinator.com/

Delve https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/23/another-customer-of-troubled-startup-delve-suffered-a-big-security-incident/

Discussion links:

Anthropic’s attack on secondary trading https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/12/anthropic-warns-investors-against-secondary-platforms-offering-access-to-its-shares/

Vanta https://www.vanta.com/twist

The ‘Industry’ show https://www.hbo.com/industry

The New Yorker’s Sam Altman article https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may-control-our-future-can-he-be-trusted

New NYC hotel housekeeper contract https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/nyregion/nyc-hotel-housekeepers-pay.html

Sam Altman’s token offer for Y Combinator startups https://x.com/sama/status/2056933166875857290

Timestamps:

0:00 Welcome to This Week in Startups!

1:38 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!

2:51 Immad Akhund (Mercury) joins to discuss $200M raise

5:57 Mercury's origin story and path to $650M run rate

9:17 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

13:47 Stablecoins: where they work, why Mercury won't launch its own

19:37 LinkedIn - Thanks to our partners at LinkedIn! Post your job for free at https://linkedIn.com/twist then promote it to get access to LinkedIn Jobs' new AI assistant.

22:02 AI agents, and the future of money movement

26:54 Why Mercury raised less this round

29:35 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.

42:12 Avi Patel (Kled) joins to discuss copycat startups

56:30 Jason's verdict on YC's hacker culture & "appearance of impropriety"

1:17:03 Sam Altman's $2M-in-tokens-for-equity offer to YC founders

1:23:56 NYC hotel housekeepers cross $100K in time under new union contract

1:29:38 Minimum wage, immigration & the case for raising it slowly

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