Why J-Cal Invested to 200K in a former Employee | E2249
This Week in Startups
Founder Signals: Product Velocity & Design
Jason outlines investment signals: competence, product velocity, world-class design, and missionary founders.
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Today’s show:
On today’s epsiode of TWiST, Jason gets pitched by two top founders, Presh Dineshkumar and Peter Cetale!
Presh used to work for Jason at Launch! When he left, Jason invested $200K into Presh’s new startup The Wellness Company. Presh pitches Jason on what he has been building, and Jason gives Presh advice for improving the product!
Peter went through Andreesen Horowitz’s Speedrun accelerator program as CEO and co-founder of Sourcerer. Sourcerer uses AI agents to help US firms and distributors find the best prices for mass produced goods.
Check out how Jason digs in with these founders!
Timestamps:
(0:00) Presh was originally a TWiST fan who emailed Jason!
(1:59) Why Jason invested in Presh’s startup
(3:19) Checking out the Wellness Company’s hot new app, Tempo
(4:03) How Tempo monitors your health and offers proactive advice with consistency
(9:10) Why Jason recommends adding a group or family feature to make it stickier
(9:51) Netsuite - Get the free business guide Demystifying AI at https://www.netsuite.com/twist
(11:28) The end goal: bringing app advice and guidance into the real world
(13:34) Presh shares where his apps are finding the most engagement
(14:13) The key importance of Product Velocity and World-Class Design
(17:27) Luma AI - Stop guessing and start directing with Ray3 Modify from Luma AI, the AI-powered post-production tool. Explore it at: https://lumalabs.ai/twist
(18:38) Introducing Peter Cetale and Sourcerer!
(19:32) How Sourcerer uses AI to help distributors and manufacturers automate their sourcing
(22:48) How Sourcerer manages to actually bring costs down
(25:02) Lining up REAL customers, not Letters of Intent (aka Letters of Nothing)
(26:04) Peter’s experiences in a16z’s Speedrun accelerator
(28:08) Working with agents on BOTH the supply and demand side
(29:16) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://squarespace.com/twist
(30:32) How has Tariff Mania impacted Peter’s business?
(35:35) Why Peter thinks startups will keep getting leaner and compute will keep getting cheaper
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Thank you to our partners:
(9:51) Netsuite - Get the free business guide Demystifying AI at https://www.netsuite.com/twist
(17:27) Luma AI - Stop guessing and start directing with Ray3 Modify from Luma AI, the AI-powered post-production tool. Explore it at: https://lumalabs.ai/twist
(29:16) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://squarespace.com/twist
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