This Week in Startups THE 2025 TWISTY AWARDS! Biggest Trends, Best Guests, Top Name Drops, and more | E2229
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Dec 30, 2025 The hosts celebrate the year's highlights with the TWISTY Awards. Jason shares memorable tales, including his doxxing saga and tips for flying privately. Discussions include the rise of AI, M&A trends, and humanoid robots. Notable guests like Doug Leone and Coffeezilla are featured, alongside Jason's trademark rants on contemporary issues. Lighter moments include Alex's dad jokes and a hilarious Trump impression. The year wraps up with iconic clips and sharp critiques, ensuring laughter and reflection as they bid farewell to 2025.
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Push For Less Restrictive M&A Policy
- Advocate for fewer M&A restrictions to revive venture exits and keep capital flowing.
- Allow M&A to proceed to enable risk capital returns and restart deal markets.
Keep Humans In The Software Loop
- Use AI to collapse engineering time but keep humans in testing loops to validate product-market fit.
- Prioritize user testing and product taste even as AI lowers development costs.
Teach Design By Doing, Not Managing
- Rahul Vora and Vlad Tenev explained scaling design by promoting top practitioners into leadership and doing design-in-meetings.
- They emphasized leaders must participate directly and teach by doing instead of only managing.