Discord’s Power Move, Slate’s Modular EVs & the “Act for Private Gain” | E2117

Today’s show: Jason, Alex, and Lon break down today’s top tech and startup stories — from Slate Auto’s customizable $25K EV truck to Discord’s major leadership shakeup ahead of a potential IPO. They also cover Uber’s self-driving push with Volkswagen, Perplexity AI’s aggressive growth moves, and why value-driven products are winning in a tough economy. Plus, Alex sits down with Tailscale CEO Avery Pennarun to unpack how they grew from 5K to 10K customers — and why fixing internet networking could spark the next huge wave of innovation. * Timestamps: (0:00) Jason, Lon and Alex kick off the show! (3:26) Introduction and features of Bezos-backed EV truck company, Slate (7:55) Market impact and value proposition of Slate's EV trucks (9:48) LinkedIn Ads - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups (14:04) EV features and market potential discussion (17:42) Discord CEO steps down and IPO prospects (20:19) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist (24:00) Uber and Volkswagen's self-driving car partnership (28:39) Superpower - The best founders know: better health = better business. Visit http://superpower.com/twist to skip the waitlist. (30:00) Pace of self-driving car adoption and regulation (37:20) Butterfly Effect secures Benchmark investment (38:37) Perplexity and Motorola Razr partnership (43:12) Jason's experience with Light Phone (45:39) New York Times and Ziff Davis lawsuits against OpenAI (50:09) Nonprofit structures and OpenAI's mission issues (54:01) Founder Friday: Pitchfire and TACTUN's two-year plans (1:02:28) Introduction to Tailscale and Avery Pennarun (1:10:17) Tailscale's enterprise adoption (1:21:13) Current Internet networking issues* Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp * Links from episode: Check out Tailscale: https://tailscale.com/ Check out Slate vehicles: https://www.slate.auto/en Check out Not For Private Gain: https://notforprivategain.org/ Check out the Light Phone: https://www.thelightphone.com/ Check out Oregon lawmakers article: **** https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2025/04/oregon-lawmakers-to-decide-whether-big-tech-should-pay-to-support-local-journalism.html Check out Manus: https://manus.im/ * Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons * Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm * Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis * Thank you to our partners: (9:48) LinkedIn Ads - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups (20:19) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist (28:39) Superpower - The best founders know: better health = better business. Visit http://superpower.com/twist to skip the waitlist. * Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe , Steve Huffman , Brian Chesky , Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie , Sophia Amoruso , Reid Hoffman , Frank Slootman , Billy McFarland * Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis * Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com * Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916