TWiST ICYMI: AI demos, live investments, ChatGPT vs. WGA, how the UAE built a startup hub from scratch
We hope all of our US listeners had a wonderful long weekend!
The TWiST team is very excited about the start of summer, and hope you all are too! :-)
Here are the highlights from last week:
Monday (E1747) - Sunny Madra demos MusicLM, AssemblyAI’s LeMur, and Wondercraft AI
Tuesday (E1748) - Jason gets pitched by two founders and invests $25K live on air!
Wednesday (E1749) - Galileo CEO Arnaud Benard demos his startup’s text-to-UI AI tool
Thursday (E1750) - Lon Harris joins to break down generative AI’s impact on the Hollywood writers’ strike
Friday (E1751) - Brad Gerstner and Mubadala’s Ibrahim Ajami join to discuss how the UAE has turned itself into a burgeoning startup hub in a relatively short amount of time
Producer’s Picks:
Jon:
With Lon Harris making a highly anticipated return, E1750 takes the crown as my favorite episode from last week!
Lon and Jason dive into the intricate challenges plaguing the film industry today, particularly regarding the ongoing WGA strike (6:18).
It was a really insightful discussion about the industry's transition from full-time to freelance work and the significant impact of streaming’s rise.
One thing that stood out to me was the duo’s diverging take on the application of ChatGPT in screenwriting and its impact on writers.
Lon believes that although it can be used for idea generation, generative AI software is not yet ready to produce fully fleshed-out stories with the level of detail that professional writers can achieve (25:30).
Tune into E1750 for some inside baseball on the convergence of Hollywood and tech!
Brian:
I have to go with E1748, where Jason saw two awesome pitches from Founder University founders.
The live aspect of these episodes (both the pitching AND the investment decisions) make it really unique and exciting!
Both founders also came well-prepared with tight pitches and insightful questions for Jason during the Q&A section.
And their businesses were really interesting!:
coffeeclozers.com is a platform for new real estate investors to find cashflow-positive properties
neighborbrite.com provides group pricing for neighbors on home improvement projects
I love these episodes because the founders we have on are really early, really energetic, and really hungry for success.
Don’t miss E1748!
Nick:
My top episode was E1751, where Jason interviewed Altimeter’s Brad Gerstner and Mubadala’s Ibrahim Ajami about the rise of the UAE as a startup hub.
The most interesting part of the episode came when the trio described HOW the UAE turned itself into a destination for founders and capital allocators.
The UAE’s opportunity started due to US LPs being "tapped out," ESPECIALLY for newer fund managers (aka institutional LPs were over-indexed into VC).
The UAE on the other hand is actively TARGETING new fund managers instead of ignoring them!
And, the government's goals are aligned with domestic LPs, so they have long-term strategic planning with a commitment to tech!
This created a virtuous cycle that has turned the UAE into a burgeoning tech hub:
-- Lots of younger/newer VCs are in UAE raising capital from local LPs…
-- This PLUS tax advantages and golden visas lead to FOUNDERS flocking to the UAE seeking capital…
-- Which jumpstarts an entire tech ecosystem from scratch!
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