This Week in Startups

Jason Calacanis covers startups, tech, markets, media, and all the hottest topics in business and technology. He also interviews the world’s greatest founders, operators, investors, and innovators.

Anti-Work Uprising, Copyright Wars & the StreamFog Solution | E2124

E2124 • May 12, 2025 • 91 mins

Today’s show: Jason, Lon & Alex are back with a spicy Monday episode of This Week in Startups. Jason goes off on unions vs capitalism, we dig into why fewer seed startups are making it to Series A, and look at OpenAI’s quiet copyright land grab. Plus: YC says Google should be broken up (then kind of walks it back), Perplexity’s wild $14B valuation, and Saudi Arabia wants its own national AI. We wrap with an Office Hours chat with Kevin Bondzio from Streamfog on the future of AR ads in livestreaming.

Key Points

Jason Calacanis discusses the importance of setting clear expectations and offering proper compensation to employees, especially when their job roles evolve to include on-call responsibilities.
The episode explores the declining rate of startups graduating from seed to Series A funding, attributing this trend to increased benchmarks and a saturated market of startups vying for limited Series A investment.
Kevin Bonzio introduces Streamfork, a tool that integrates augmented reality ads into livestreams, aiming to make advertisements less disruptive and more engaging for viewers, and receives feedback on focusing his business strategy and exploring affiliate marketing opportunities.

Speakers

Jason Calacanis

Host • 68%

Lon Harris

Guest • 15%

Alex Wilhelm

Host • 12%

Kevin Bonzio

Guest • 4%

Partners

Chapters

2:38	Why Jason’s obsessed with Reddit’s anti-work community
10:30	Coda - Get started for free at https://coda.io/twist
12:21	Seed Stage Graduation rates
20:43	LinkedIn Jobs - Post your first job for free at https://www.linkedin.com/twist
26:11	What’s going on with Tech M&A?
30:04	Northwest Registered Agent. Form your entire business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Get more privacy, more options, and more done—visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
33:50	What’s going on with the Copyright Office?
37:24	Licensing and competitive advantage in the AI era
48:28	AI and the future of subscription-based content
56:42	StreamFog wants to change the way creators advertise
1:14:13	Perplexity’s mega-valuation gets even mega-er
1:19:13	How Saudi Arabia just became an AI startup
1:22:05	Y Combinator pokes it’s nose in the Google antitrust case

Transcript

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