This Week in Startups Clips
Hosted by Jason Calacanis
Highlights from veteran angel investor Jason Calacanis's long-running interview show, focusing on founder pitches and startup tactics.
This is a clips channel for the main "This Week in Startups" podcast, serving short, digestible moments from longer interviews. The clips are typically centered on a specific founder's insight, a product demo, or Calacanis's direct advice on fundraising and strategy. It atomizes the content of a multi-hour show into single-serving lessons.
“Unlike full-length interview shows, this channel makes the content highly browsable by breaking it into topical, bite-sized clips. The show's character is defined by Calacanis's direct, often blunt, and experience-backed style, which is concentrated in these highlights.”
Who hosts this show
Jason Calacanis is an American internet entrepreneur, angel investor, author, and podcaster. He started as a reporter covering the internet in the 1990s before founding the "Silicon Alley Reporter." His first major exit was the sale of his blog network, Weblogs, Inc., to AOL in 2005. As an early-stage investor, he has backed over 350 companies, including notable successes like Uber, Robinhood, and Calm.
Credentials & credits
- Angel Investor
- Author, "Angel"
- Co-founder, Weblogs, Inc.
- Host, All-In Podcast
- Founder, LAUNCH
- B.A. Psychology, Fordham University
Other ventures
- This Week in Startups (full podcast)
- All-In Podcast
- The Syndicate (investment club)
- LAUNCH Festival
- Founder.University
What kind of podcast
- Format
- Clips
- Country
- United States
- Region
- usa
When new episodes drop
- 01The Next Last US Fighter-Jet Maker: HermeusJun 24, 2026 · 5 min
- 02This Screen Tracks Objects with ZERO Electronics. How?Jun 24, 2026 · 4 min
- 03You Need to Stop Over-Engineering Your Startup MVPJun 24, 2026 · 6 min
- 04How 5 People Made a 1 Million Download Running App.Jun 23, 2026 · 5 min
- 05Being Willing to Fail in Public Is Your Best MarketingJun 23, 2026 · 4 min
- 06This Running App Turns Your Neighborhood Into a Turf WarJun 23, 2026 · 4 min
- 07"Is It My Fault I Didn't Raise?" Jason's Brutal AnswerJun 18, 2026 · 6 min
- 08If you're not an AI company, you can't raise a Series AJun 18, 2026 · 5 min
Notable episodes
- 01You Need to Stop Over-Engineering Your Startup MVP
Features Mirror founder Brynn Putnam on the practicalities of hardware prototyping and fundraising, a core topic for the show's founder audience.
- 02The Next Last US Fighter-Jet Maker: Hermeus
A deep-dive into a non-traditional startup category (defense tech) and innovative business models around government contracts.
- 03This Screen Tracks Objects with ZERO Electronics. How?
A classic TWiST segment featuring a live product demo that elicits a strong, immediate investment reaction from the host.
What you'll be asked on this show
Calacanis often opens with his immediate, unfiltered gut reaction to a product, sometimes declaring he'll invest on the spot. He uses summarization to confirm his understanding before drilling down with practical, direct questions about the core technology, business model, and fundraising strategy. His questions are framed to extract actionable advice for his founder audience, such as asking for the 'minimum money required' for a prototype. He can be blunt and challenging, frequently using analogies to established tech giants like SpaceX and Tesla to frame a startup's ambition and strategy.
The format consists of extracted clips from a longer live-to-tape interview show, often featuring co-hosts like Alex Wilhelm. The clips are tightly edited to focus on a single topic, such as a founder's product pitch, a manufacturing challenge, a fundraising tactic, or a direct piece of advice from Calacanis.
Questions Jason Calacanis keeps coming back to
8 cataloguedIf you're going on this show as a guest, expect some version of each of these. Each note explains when Jason Calacanis reaches for it.
money
3- Q.01
“What's the minimum money required to get a functional prototype to show a VC?”
He asks this to establish a concrete financial benchmark for the founder-heavy audience.
- Q.02
“I'm assuming you did a [seed round] before the [Series A round]?”
A clarifying question to map out the specific sequence of a startup's funding history for the audience.
- Q.03
“Does your government contract act like an equity infusion, or is it totally different?”
Used to clarify the financial nature of non-traditional revenue for a deep-tech or defense startup.
craft
1- Q.01
“What is the underlying technology that makes this work?”
Typically asked right after a product demo to cut through the marketing and get to the core innovation.
process
3- Q.01
“Was manufacturing in [Location] cost-competitive because of [a specific factor]?”
This question probes the specific business logic behind a founder's strategic supply chain decision.
- Q.02
“Was the quality there? I've heard mixed things about [Region A] versus [Region B].”
A direct follow-up used to explore the common trade-offs founders face in manufacturing.
- Q.03
“What did it take to build this new product in terms of timeline?”
This is often used to compare a founder's first and second experience building a hardware company.
advice
1- Q.01
“Is showing an exciting prototype enough to get the money you need?”
He asks this to test the validity and effectiveness of a common fundraising tactic.
Signature segments
- · Founder Product Demos
- · On-air investment decisions
- · Blunt fundraising advice
Topics covered repeatedly
Who gets booked here
The show primarily books tech startup founders, ranging from early-stage entrepreneurs pitching a new product to seasoned operators who have successfully scaled and exited companies, like Brynn Putnam of Mirror.
- AJ Piplicaon The Next Last US Fighter-Jet Maker: Hermeus
- Brynn Putnamon You Need to Stop Over-Engineering Your Startup MVP
- Louis Phillipson How 5 People Made a 1 Million Download Running App.
Where to find this show
Audience & reach
Sponsors are typically B2B and fintech companies targeting startup founders and tech decision-makers. The ads, for services like Deel and LinkedIn Hiring, are read by the host and integrated directly into the show.
Subscriber and view counts are pulled live from YouTube and re-verified on a 30-day cycle. Listener estimates for the RSS feed aren't published here unless they're host-verified.
Pitch Jason Calacanis
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People also ask
- What is the host's real name?
- The host's real name is Jason Calacanis.
- Is This Week in Startups Clips still running?
- Yes, the YouTube channel posts new clips multiple times per week.
- What is the difference between this and the main This Week in Startups podcast?
- This channel features short (3-6 minute) highlights from the full, often multi-hour, episodes of the main podcast, This Week in Startups.
- What is the show's format?
- The show consists of curated clips from long-form interviews Jason Calacanis conducts with startup founders, investors, and tech operators.
- How can I pitch my startup to be on the show?
- The main This Week in Startups website has an application form for founders who want to be featured.
Built from the show's public RSS feed, YouTube, the host's own websites, and the cited sources below. Computed and AI-extracted fields are labelled. Facts only — no private info, no fabrication, no transcripts republished.
Sources & how this page was built
This page is AI-assisted, grounded in the public sources cited below, and host-verifiable. We publish facts only; we do not republish transcripts. If anything here is wrong, the host can claim and correct the page above.Model: gemini-2.5-pro · high confidence
- [01]Jason Calacanis - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- [02]About - This Week in Startupsthisweekinstartups.com
- [03]About - Jason Calacanis - All-In Podcastallinpodcast.co
- [04]The Syndicate | Angel Investing for Pre-Seed, Seed & Series A Startupsthesyndicate.com
- [05]Jason Calacanis Biography | Booking Info for Speaking Engagementsallamericanspeakers.com
- [06]Report: AOL buying Weblogs Inc. - CNETcnet.com
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