Episodes

Sept. 11, 2025

Insiders React: Apple's Huge AI Blunder + IPO Market Heats Up, White …

With Apple’s iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, AirPods Pro 3, and Apple Watch 11 now unveiled, what does this mean for the future of phones and wearable tech? And does the incredible AI of Google Pixel still blow Siri out of the wat...

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Sept. 8, 2025

Growing a Pre-Seed Startup? This Is The Core Knowledge You Need w/ As…

Pre-seed founders want explosive growth early on, but are you following the wrong playbook too soon? These days strategies, acronyms, and well-intended advice are everywhere, but today's guest argues that the path forward is ...

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Sept. 4, 2025

Insiders React: Google Antitrust: Is The Ruling Fair? + YC’s Latest R…

Google’s long-running antitrust case has reached its remedy stage, and the outcome was far lighter than many expected. No breakup, no ban on default search deals, just a few constraints on bundling apps and some required data...

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Sept. 1, 2025

First Principles: Listen to This Before You Apply to YC

It seems like startup accelerators are everywhere these days. But what are they? What’s the point of them? And most importantly, is it worth having your startup go through one? Based on their own experience with YC and startu...

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Aug. 28, 2025

Insiders React: Google Pixel 10 – Does It Finally Beat Apple at Its O…

Is Apple’s dominance in smartphones starting to crack? Google’s Pixel 10 launch brought AI-first features, polished hardware, and bold marketing, signaling a new era in the iPhone vs. Android rivalry. For years, the iPhone ha...

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Aug. 25, 2025

Startup Tech Stacks: Make Your Product Stand Out & Get Used w/ Joseph…

What makes a great tech infrastructure startup? And how do the best ones successfully navigate, and stand out from, the overcrowded market? In this episode, Yaniv is joined by Joseph Ruscio, General Partner at Heavybit and fo...

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Aug. 21, 2025

Insiders React: Meta to Shrink AI Division – Is This the Beginning of…

Is the AI hype cycle about to burst? For months, investors and founders have chased sky-high valuations, billion-dollar hires, and promises of superintelligence, but Meta's drastic plans to cut back its AI division seem to in...

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Aug. 18, 2025

YC Founder’s 13 Timeless Startup Principles: 'Ramen Profitable’ and M…

This new era of AI-driven startups has many founders still believing success is about having the perfect product roadmap. The truth, however, is far more counterintuitive. In this episode, Yaniv and Chris dive into timeless l...

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Aug. 14, 2025

Insiders React: GPT-5 Is ‘Fast Fashion’ For Software + Apple’s $600B …

Is AI threatening traditional subscription software models and accelerating competitive turnover? Sam Altman thinks so. In this episode, Chris and Ray discuss OpenAI’s GPT-5 release, and Altman's prediction that AI will enabl...

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Aug. 11, 2025

Capital for Founders: Insights From Yaniv’s New Startup Raise

Raising money for your startup isn’t just about pitching but navigating egos, timing, and a flood of contradictory feedback. Why do some founders win over early believers who open every door, while others get stuck in endless...

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Aug. 7, 2025

Insiders React: Cloudflare Catches Perplexity Red-Handed + Wikipedia …

In violation of long-standing internet norms like robots.txt, Cloudflare caught Perplexity AI scraping content from websites that had explicitly opted out. The situation begs the question: what happens when AI startups priori...

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Aug. 4, 2025

Grow Your Startup Fast and Effectively w/ Roblox's Former Tech Chief,…

In the startup world, speed is everything. But too many founders confuse busyness with velocity, mistaking frantic activity for real momentum. In this episode, Chris and Yaniv are joined by Keith Lucas, former product and en...

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July 31, 2025

Insiders React: Microsoft Launches GitHub Spark + US Govt Bans "Woke …

Is GitHub Spark the future of AI software building? Startups looking to use “vibe coding” often face janky tools and broken promises. Microsoft's latest IDE, however, has serious potential to be the industry breakthrough that...

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July 28, 2025

Listener Q&A – Should You Use AI to Build Your MVP? Plus: Building Yo…

AI is changing how we build startups, but how can founders leverage it without their product becoming slop? Too many early-stage entrepreneurs believe that faster prototyping automatically leads to better products. In reality...

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July 24, 2025

Insiders React: Uber's RoboTaxi Hedge + OpenAI's New Dual-Role LLM 'C…

Is Uber’s gamble on RoboTaxis a brilliant move, or the end of its asset-light magic? And what’s really going on inside OpenAI as it races to dominate AI? Many founders assume hypergrowth companies are perfectly coordinated ma...

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July 21, 2025

Two Simple Principles to Get Your Startup Noticed, and How to Apply T…

Getting noticed is harder than ever, but Rajiv Ayyangar (CEO, Product Hunt) says most startups fail for a surprisingly simple reason: lack of clarity and velocity. In this episode of The Startup Podcast, Rajiv explains what s...

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July 17, 2025

Insiders React: AI Chaos - Meta & Google Poach Talent from Apple & Op…

Is Apple losing its edge in the AI race? And what does it mean for startups when big tech strip-mines entire companies for talent? Many early entrepreneurs believe giant tech firms are unbeatable, but this episode reveals how...

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July 14, 2025

Unlock Hypergrowth: How Vibe Coding Can Fast-Track Your Startup Succe…

Can you really build and launch a startup without writing code, or even knowing how to? As AI tools promise lightning-fast product development, many founders still fall into old traps: over-validating, under-executing, or wai...

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July 10, 2025

Insiders React: Musk Launches “America Party” + YouTube Declares War …

Is Silicon Valley building the future or just trying to rule it? From Elon Musk’s new political party to retail investors buying fake OpenAI stock, the startup world is getting weirder, faster. In this episode, Chris Saad and...

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July 7, 2025

Top 7 Mistakes Founders Make in Raising Early Stage VC w/ Amir Shevat…

Are you sure your startup should be raising venture capital? Most founders assume VC is the goal—but for many, it's the wrong fuel entirely. In this episode, we bust that myth wide open. Join Yaniv Bernstein and Chris Saad as...

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July 3, 2025

Insiders React: Cloudflare Makes AI Pay + Figma Files For IPO, Gramma…

What happens when the internet starts charging AI to crawl its content? And can legacy tools like Figma or Grammarly survive the AI age, or will they be replaced by smarter, faster upstarts? In this episode, Yaniv Bernstein a...

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June 30, 2025

Master Your AI Prompts and Unlock ChatGPT's Full Potential w/ Jonatha…

Struggling to get good results from ChatGPT or other AI tools? You’re probably prompting it wrong, and you’re not alone. Many founders assume AI just knows what you mean. Without the right prompt structure, though, even the m...

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June 26, 2025

Insiders React: Anthropic's Huge AI Copyright Win + Speech to Text Be…

Is training AI on copyrighted content stealing, or just learning? A major U.S. court just weighed in, and the verdict could rewrite the rules for startups using generative AI. Too many founders assume "training data" is fair ...

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June 19, 2025

Insiders React: Sam Altman’s 'Gentle Singularity' + Workplace AI at a…

Is AI about to transform the world… gently? Sam Altman says yes, but are we being lulled into complacency while the real risks go unchallenged? Startups everywhere are rushing to embed AI into their workflows, but few underst...

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