AI Rebuilt Every YC W26 Startup. Should Founders Be Scared? E2271

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Deel - deel.com/twist Grasshopper Bank - grasshopper.bank/twist Render - render.com/twist Plaud - Plaud.ai/twist An AI “holding company” rebuilt dozens of YC Winter ‘26 startups in one weekend. Now we’re bringing the founder responsible into Jason’s Courtroom to defend himself. PLUS a live demo of Boardy, the AI that acts like a virtual board member and makes crucial introductions. Find out why he gets to have so much agency, how creator Andrew D’Souza used him to raise his own $17 million round, and how this company ever plans to actually make money. Plus Jason celebrates Apple’s 50th anniversary with a fiery rant about milking the ghost of Steve Jobs… Why OpenAI is acquiring a tech podcast… Jason’s favorite weighted vest for rucking… AND Lon’s Off Duty weekend streaming picks. Guests Marik Hazan: ⁠ ⁠ Feltsense: ⁠ ⁠ Andrew D’Souza: ⁠ ⁠ Boardy: ⁠ ⁠ Timestamps: 0:00 Jason's direction for TWiST and thoughts on legacy media 5:14 Marik of Feltsense joins the show 6:10 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at and use code TWIST for 10% off! 7:10 Marik's viral YC replicator stunt 9:45 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit to learn more. 20:39 Grasshopper bank - Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account. 21:33 Feltsense founder goes on trial! 25:26 Jason dunks on Bank of America's app 27:59 TBPN acquired by OpenAI 29:28 The All In Podcast is worth $1B! 30:13 Render - Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers. 33:02 Andrew D'Souza joins the show along with his agent, Boardy! 43:17 So how does Boardy make money? 48:32 Lon is becoming more and more "AI-pilled." 50:41 Tactical/ practical: "If we have data, let's look at data. If all we have are opinions, let's go with mine." -Jim Barskdale, former CEO of Netscape 1:01:00 Tactical/ practical: hire a PR firm to report on your competitors' wrongdoings. 1:02:58 Jason calls out Apple for being DISGRAZIAD! 1:15:09 Lon's TV pick of the week: "Something Very Bad is Going to Happen 1:19:52 Become an Angel Investor at

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AI Rebuilt Every YC W26 Startup. Should Founders Be Scared? E2271 is an episode from This Week in Startups by Jason Calacanis.

This episode is 01:20:52 long.

This episode was published on Apr 3, 2026.

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