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.

It’s a boat, it’s a plane, it’s REGENT’s Seafarer | E2205

E2205 • Nov 7, 2025 • 75 mins

Today’s show: *The key to avoiding long airport delays? Low-altitude sea planes! Why didn’t you think of that? We’ve got an awesome line-up of TWiST 500 founders giving us an inside glimpse inside their startups on this Friday special edition. FIRST: Billy Thalheimer of REGENT introduces us to their aircraft/boat hybrid The Seaglider, and walk us through how it all works, AND why they’re operating in BOTH the commercial and defense sectors from their Rhode Island HQ. THEN, we’ve got Convexia co-founder Ayan Parekh showcasing how they’re using a collective of specialist AI agents to exploit other pharma labs’ leftovers and turn them into new drugs and treatments for rare diseases. FINALLY, Hunter Leath of Archil joins the show to tell us why efficient utilization of cloud data remains a surprisingly complex, and unsolved problem. His solution? Caching-as-a-Service! Find out how it all works, and why pre-caching is SO difficult to do, in this TWiST exclusive chat.

Key Points

Regent is innovating with electric seagliders that combine the best aspects of boats and planes, potentially revolutionizing coastal transportation with quick, eco-friendly commutes.
Convexia leverages AI agents to identify and repurpose shelved pharmaceutical IP, aiming to significantly increase the success rate and speed of bringing life-saving drugs to market.
Arkhill offers a high-performance caching solution that makes cloud data accessible as if it were local, providing substantial cost savings and latency improvements for data-intensive applications.

Speakers

Alex Wilhelm

Host • 36%

Billy Thalheimer

Guest • 23%

Ayan Parikh

Guest • 17%

Hunter Leith

Guest • 19%

Chapters

0:00	Introduction to seagliders and their operation
1:00	Sponsor: Pipedrive, LinkedIn ads, Sentry
1:52	Overview of the episode's three interviews
2:59	Introduction to Regent and their electric seagliders
3:15	Explanation of seaglider technology and benefits for commuting
6:45	Company timeline, regulatory aspects, and low-altitude flight
9:45	Technological advancements and key changes enabling seagliders
12:01	Managing maritime traffic, docking operations, and regional routes
18:12	Business model, market strategy, and cost/value proposition of Seagliders
22:20	Applications for Seagliders in various industries including defense
25:09	Rhode Island's maritime defense renaissance and support for companies
29:32	Sponsor: Pipedrive
30:33	Introduction to Convexia and AI agents in drug discovery
32:15	Metrics, access to unused IP, and state of AI in drug discovery
37:10	Advances in AI biomodels and digital twin simulations
40:09	Success rates and customer base in drug development
42:19	Long-term goals, regulatory tailwinds, and rare diseases market potential
46:40	Repurposing existing drugs and capital/fundraising challenges
50:34	Introduction to Arkil and caching system for cloud storage
51:24	Challenges, innovation, market reception, and future plans for cloud storage
1:01:41	Segmenting the market, AI use cases, and universal access layer for data
1:04:15	Customer sizes, industries, POSIX compatibility, and application flexibility
1:06:07	Potential acquisition by major cloud providers and storage economics
1:08:20	Pricing, cost structure, and future services
1:12:14	Recent funding, capital requirements, and hiring focus at Arqel

Transcript

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