
Show Notes
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
PayPal: https://paypal.com/business
Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
Odoo: https://Odoo.com/twist
Today’s show:
Wall Street suspects new Apple CEO John Ternus may do something predecessor Tim Cook almost never did: writing a huge check.
So Jason and Lon are playing “fantasy draft” with Apple’s balance sheet, choosing five real companies to acquire over five “rounds.” Disney buys them a ton of IP and unlocks theme park synergies. Sony gets them a gaming console and massive anime distribution. Boston Dynamics buys them lots of robots, while Etched nets them cheaper inference. So many options!
Then, we chat with Stacy Salvi of The90. Her wearable pendant tells you exactly how much sun damage you’re accumulating, long before you start to burn.
Guest
The90: https://the90.com/
Stacy Salvi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacysalvi/
Relevant Links
John Ternus becomes Apple CEO: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/04/tim-cook-to-become-apple-executive-chairman-john-ternus-to-become-apple-ceo/
Analyst: Ternus could bring bigger acquisitions: https://9to5mac.com/?p=1065466
“Grok Has Money” meme origin: https://x.com/gmfarcaster/status/2026318035103965414
Sunlight linked with lower COVID-19 deaths: https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2021/sunlight-linked-with-lower-covid-19-deaths
Reid Hoffman: “If there aren’t any typos in this essay, we launched too late”: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/arent-any-typos-essay-we-launched-too-late-reid-hoffman/
Draft Picks
ElevenLabs: https://elevenlabs.io/
Disney: https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/
Sony Group: https://www.sony.com/en/
Crunchyroll: https://www.crunchyroll.com/
Boston Dynamics: https://bostondynamics.com/
Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/
DigitalOcean: https://www.digitalocean.com/
Etched: https://www.etched.com/
Rivian: https://rivian.com/
Lucid Motors: https://lucidmotors.com/
Superhuman: https://superhuman.com/
World Labs: https://www.worldlabs.ai/
PrismML: https://prismml.com/
Liquid AI: https://www.liquid.ai/
Kagi: https://kagi.com/
Sonos: https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop
Whoop: https://www.whoop.com/
Oura: https://ouraring.com/
Peloton: https://www.onepeloton.com/
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Will Ternus take "massively big swings"?
00:03:43 Round 1: ElevenLabs
00:04:46 Round 1: Disney
00:06:18 Round 2: Sony
00:08:22 Round 2: Boston Dynamics
00:09:23 Round 3: Perplexity
00:10:02 AD: PayPal is built for all business. Get started at https://paypal.com/business
00:11:52 Round 3: DigitalOcean
00:13:02 More picks: Etched
00:14:30 More picks: Lucid
00:15:58 More picks: Superhuman
00:16:48 More picks: Higgsfield and more
00:18:09 Fans make their selections
00:19:47 AD: Got a new business idea? @northwestagent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more, with no purchase required! Learn more at www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
00:25:37 Stacy Salvi of The90 joins
00:29:28 AD: Thanks to our partner, Odoo, the all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist
00:34:38 How the app calculates your Sunscore
00:42:12 Building a UV research dataset
00:45:09 Should The90 make a version for men?
Names & Links
Stacy Salvi - https://www.instagram.com/stacysalvi/
The90 - https://the90.com/
Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:
TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/
TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/
TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow Lon:
Follow Jason:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/
Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy M
More from This Week in Startups
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist Northwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/twist Rippling: https://rippling.ai/twist Today’s show: Jason can’t stop praising Nathan Fielder’s new A24 hybrid documentary about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, “You Can See Everything,” and he’s insisting that Lon check it out before the next podcast. Hear his spoiler-free review, how the film upended his expectations based on Fielder’s previous work, and why Lon also recommends Lance Oppenheim’s HBO Max series “Ren Faire.” Plus, we’re talking to Clone Robotics co-founder and CEO Dhanush Radhakrishnan about why he thinks robots should not just be humanoid but should look and move precisely like humans. We’re digging deep into how his hydraulic myofiber artificial muscle technology alters and even improves on the pulley-based systems being deployed by competitors, why he thinks the models that power domestic helper-bots will be commoditized, and how quickly he thinks he can put a robo-butler in every American home. Plus we’re comparing the potential impact of Anthropic’s new Public Benefit Fund vs. Elon Musk’s plan to give every baby a share of SpaceX, and re-considering simulation theory after Odyssey dropped an artificial fruit fly brain into an artificial landscape. Guest Dhanush Radhakrishnan on X: https://x.com/dhanushisrad Clone Robotics: https://clonerobotics.com/ Related Links “You Can See Everything” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvW_N5p1q44 “You Can See Everything” on Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/you_can_see_everything John Carreyrou’s Theranos investigation (Wall Street Journal): https://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-has-struggled-with-blood-tests-1444881901 “Ren Faire” HBO Max trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHZUVTrrexE “Nathan for You”: Smokers Allowed clip (Comedy Central): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HttB2fYAm-8 Anthropic: Investing in the Public Benefit: https://www.anthropic.com/news/public-benefit-fund Elon Musk SpaceX pledge: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2112089556615123114 Dell’s $6.25B Invest America commitment: https://www.onedell.com/investamerica/ Odyssey Fly Simulation X post: https://x.com/odysseyml/status/2111589148146749616 Chris Williamson: “The ElevenLabs Situation is Crazy”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxDNHLgWInU ElevenLabs’ Legendary Voices marketplace: https://elevenlabs.io/iconic-marketplace TWiST newsletter on Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com/ LAUNCH Careers page: https://careers.launch.co/ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:10 Plaud - If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 03:18 Jason's "You Can See Everything" reaction 14:37 Northwest Registered Agent - Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain 15:27 What films max out RT's critic and audience scores 20:08 Anthropic commits 5% equity to Public Benefit Fund 24:28 Would equity change how Americans feel about AI? 27:08 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist 38:38 Rippling - Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business. 39:48 Dhanush from Clone Robotics joins the show 42:43 How hydraulic muscle technology actually works 54:55 When can we have our robot butlers please? 56:55 Where will Clone get its robot brains? 1:12:17 Odyssey trapped a fake fly brain in a simulated environment 1:23:09 Did ElevenLabs steal a podcaster's voice? 1:30:13 Check us out on Substack! Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack: TWiST: https://twist
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
This Week In Startups is made possible by: