Amir Cyrus
8.3K posts
Today on TWIST: General Partner at @naval's USVC, @ankurnagpal joins @jason and @alex to chat through the investment vehicles’ structure, fees, and where it intends to invest. Spoiler: It is backing major AI labs. Next, @jon_durbin joined the show to discuss Chutes, a decentralized computing project built on Bittensor Subnet 64. Then, @humworkai’s @theyashgoenka stopped by to explain why agents need humans. The show wraps with a new lightning round and a little Off Duty as a treat! 0:00 Intro + Plaud AI sponsor read (Jason demos the NotePin S) 2:06 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 3:50 Episode overview: USVC, Chutes, Humwork 4:55 Ankur Nagpal on USVC — What is a closed-end fund? 7:41 USVC structure: $500 min, no accreditation, quarterly redemptions 10:28 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 11:39 Fee structure breakdown: 1% mgmt fee, ~2.5% net expense ratio 14:11 Incentive alignment 15:41 USVC portfolio: xAI, Anthropic, OpenAI, Crusoe, Vercel 16:17 Strategy: 1/3 emerging managers, 1/3 growth, 1/3 secondaries 19:00 $1B cap and path to expanding the fund 20:33 Vanta - Compliance and security shouldn't be a deal-breaker for startups to win new business. Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a SOC 2 reports fast. Get $1,000 off for a limited time at vanta.com/twist 21:00 How everyday investors should think about VC allocation 27:00 Jon Durbin, core contributor at Chutes (Bittensor Subnet 64) 28:00 What is sovereign compute? Permissionless GPU networks explained 30:10 Render - Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers. 35:34 Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) 36:23 How Chutes uses end-to-end encryption and open-source attestation 44:53 Usage history: 160B tokens/day peak, free-to-paid transition 46:41 GPU pricing: from $0.77/hr to $3.50/hr as shortage bites 49:13 DeepSeek censorship demo: Taiwan test on DeepSeek chat 49:39 Chutes token economics: TAO, subnet emissions, burn mechanism 57:27 Permissionless supply curves: Uber/Airbnb analogy for induced demand 59:20 Yash Goenka, co-founder of Humwork (YC S26) 1:00:49 Lightning Round: Ryan Cohen wants to buy eBay — Jason's hot take 1:08:18 Lightning Round: Amazon launches third-party fulfillment (takes on FedEx/UPS) 1:12:36 Lightning Round: Cerebras IPO update ($27–36B valuation range) 1:14:05 Lightning Round: Spirit Airlines / JetBlue / M&A regulation debate 1:19:10 OFF-DUTY: Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord 1:22:17 AI-generated Star Wars fan films via Seedance 1:27:15 Annotated.com $5,000 bounty challenge 1:32:57 Alex's OFF-DUTY: Captain of Industry 🎥 Watch the full episode here 👇
Acarbose is an alpha-glucosidase inhibitor prescription medicine that slows carbohydrate digestion. It increases median lifespan in mice around ~20% in males and smaller (~4–5%) in females New paper suggests its effects may not be by controlling sugar but by raising NAD! 🧵
Florida Man doesn’t ask for permission. He just straps on a jet-propelled hoverboard, hooks up his dog to a jet ski, and goes for a Sunday cruise like it’s completely normal. This is why the rest of the country will never understand us. Peak Florida. Never change.
🇦🇪🇮🇷 BREAKING: UAE air defenses are responding to a second missile threat tonight Iran already fired 4 loitering munitions at the UAE earlier today. 3 intercepted, one into the sea. Now another wave. The firing at a cargo vessel north of Dubai probably was the trigger
🇮🇷🇺🇸 Iran warns it has additional military scenarios prepared beyond firing at U.S. vessels and will act on them if necessary. - Tehran says no movement through the Strait of Hormuz will occur without authorization from Iran's armed forces - Iran warns all vessels to "learn from the experience of the 40-day war" and not pay the price for what it calls American recklessness Source: Tasnim News
