A brighter future for self-driving cars

Top News

• Self-driving regulations could loosen: Companies working to scale self-driving fleets in the United States could get a regulatory boon in the coming year if reported Trump-admin policy moves come good. In the offing are new rules for steering wheel and pedal-free cars to make it easier to get them on the road. For Waymo, Tesla et al., that would be a welcome win. (Alex gave the idea two cheers.)

• The venture deficit: TWiST often touches on a theme we call Distribution Dire Straits, a snappy phrase that covers the painful lack of material exits in venture-land. The longer exits lag, the more fresh capital that gets invested into startups. As a result, investors get stretched between paper returns, and cash capital calls. PitchBook data puts a number to how far underwater venture calls-and-returns went in 2023: $34 billion.

• Perplexity gets into e-commerce: If you are a paid Perplexity user, the AI search product will now offer up “shopping recommendations” and allow users “to place an order without going to a retailer’s website,” TechCrunch reports. Google and Amazon have a big share in the product search niche, meaning that Perplexity is taking on as many titans as it can. At once.

TWiST500

Today we’re adding a very different sort of company to the TWiST500: A consumer social app.

Not our recent fare! But while robotics companies, space tech, and the like are fascinating examples of startups on the bleeding edge of what’s possible, there’s a lot more going on in startup-land.

Like Partiful winning Google’s best app of the year award. Partiful may not be on your radar. It hasn’t raised known venture capital since 2022, for example. But Google’s shoutout of the company’s app sent us hunting for growth signals apart from capital accretion. And boy, did we find one — observe Partiful’s Google Trends curve on a long time horizon. It’s gorgeous.

That implies a few things — that the company is growing, and that it is growing several years after it last raised. Efficient growth and a slice of the consumer — read: Gen Z — zeitgeist? That’s a hell of a combination.

While a few of the TWiST500 companies may feel like gimmies — we added OpenAI, after all — it’s also worth keeping in mind that the current crop of mega-social platforms were once upstarts themselves. — Alex

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This Week in Startups

E2046: Jason and Alex kick off this episode by covering Netflix's live event hiccups, sports streaming rights, and advertising vs. subscription models. They explore tech's intersection with regulation, including TikTok's challenges and Brendan Carr's FCC chairmanship. They wrap up by touching on Emil Michael's potential cabinet position and strategies for balancing the federal budget and reducing the national debt.

E2045: Altimeter’s Jamin Ball joins Alex to discuss the alignment of incentives between VCs and founders, the impact of venture capital allocation demand, and the power laws shaping startup outcomes. They explore disparities between public and private market valuations, the future of liquidity and exits, and the influence of AI on startup growth. The discussion wraps with Jamin’s outlook on promising startups and upcoming IPOs.

E2044: Jason and Alex open up the show with a quick look at “Emo,” a robot from Columbia University that can predict and mirror human smiles. They then dive into a discussion with Phil Deutch, CEO of NGP Energy Technology Partners III, on the booming solar sector, highlighting Western Australia's record-breaking solar output and the shift toward renewable energy storage. Lastly, they break down the legal drama around Polymarket, its implications for prediction markets, and YC's latest call for startups.

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LAUNCH Cloud Kitchens Incubator

Applications are open for Cohort 2 of the LAUNCH CloudKitchens Incubator (LiCK). We're looking for food entrepreneurs who wish to expand into the ghost kitchen space or tech founders with a team and a great idea. The application and more information can be found at https://ck.launch.co/.

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