Palantir's Fellowship, Coco Robots & Startup Office Hours | E2110

Key Concepts

• AI Face Filters
• Palunteer Fellowship
• Alternative Education Models
• Work Ethic in Venture Capital
• DIG Revival
• Squarespace AI Website Builder
• Troll Deterrence
• Robotic Delivery (Coco, Serve Robotics)
• Defensibility in Robotics
• Fleet Response (Remote Monitoring)
• LinkedIn Jobs for Hiring
• First Customer Acquisition Strategies
• Lean Startup Methodology
• High Intent vs. Low Intent Customers
• Out-of-Home (OOH) Advertising
• BRX (AI Tool for Developers)
• Product-Led Growth (PLG)
• Canva Analogy
• InviteJet (Calendar Marketing)
• Term Sheet Backout
• Backdoor References
• Churn Rate
• Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
• Twilio/SendGrid Analogy
• Consumption-Based Pricing
• VIP Programs
• Affiliate Marketing
• API Integration
• Adjacent Features

Investor Scam & Safety

• AI Face Filters: An investor used an AI filter during a Zoom meeting to impersonate someone else, highlighting the need for thorough research.
• Amsterdam Meeting: The investor requested a face-to-face meeting in Amsterdam, which raised suspicion.
• Kidney Safety: Jason joked about the importance of still having both kidneys, emphasizing the potential danger of the situation.

Palunteer Fellowship & Alternative Education

• College is Broken: Palunteer believes college admissions are flawed and meritocracy is no longer a pursuit of educational institutions.
• Fellowship Program: Palunteer is launching a fall fellowship based solely on merit and academic excellence.
• SAT/ACT Requirements: Applicants must have an SAT score of 1460 or an ACT score of 33 or higher.
• Internship & Full-Time Role: Selected applicants receive an internship offer, and upon completion, may be offered a full-time role.
• Cost Savings: Skipping college can save students from accumulating $250k-$400k in debt.
• Work Ethic: Jason mentioned his venture firm's RAP program, which focuses on developing a strong work ethic in finance.
• Prisoner's Dilemma: Lon pointed out the "prisoner's dilemma" aspect, where the industry needs to convert to this way of thinking for it to be successful.
• Founder University: Founder University now has high school kids applying and coming to the program.
• Permission Slip: Jason joked about needing a permission slip for a 15-year-old to work at Founder University.

DIG Revival

• Groundbreakers Program: DIG is launching a new program called the Groundbreakers program.
• $5 Sign-Up Fee: Users are required to pay $5 to join, which helps keep trolls out.
• Momentum: The program has gained significant momentum, with 17,000 people signing up and paying.
• Classic DIG Button: The return of the classic DIG button is a key feature.
• Revenue Potential: If DIG reaches 50,000 paid signups at $5/month, it would generate $3 million/year in revenue.

Squarespace AI Website Builder

• All-in-One Platform: Squarespace is an all-in-one platform for building professional websites.
• AI Tool (Blueprint): Squarespace offers an AI tool called Blueprint that creates customized websites in minutes.
• Customization: Users can choose from award-winning templates and use drag-and-drop tools for customization.
• Call to Action: Visit squarespace.com/twist for a free trial and use code "twist" for 10% off your first purchase.

Robotic Delivery

• Coco & DoorDash Partnership: DoorDash is teaming up with Coco to use their delivery bots in LA and Chicago.
• Infills: The robots are being used in infill areas between dense cities and suburbs.
• Safety: The robots travel at a maximum speed of 10 mph and stop when pedestrians are nearby.
• Electric Bikes: Electric bikes in New York City are dangerous due to the limiters being removed.
• Defensibility: There is not much defensibility to this, the defensibility is having a 100 million 200 million people on your app.
• Mass Production: These robots will be mass-produced in China, Vietnam, and India.
• Regulation: Regulation is the main reason these robots are not more widely available.
• Fleet Response: Coco uses remote monitors called "pilots" who can take over control of the robots if needed.
• Data Collection: The robots collect real-world data that is valuable to companies like Nvidia and Tesla.
• Future Use: These robots could potentially be used for surveillance and data collection.
• Majority of Deliveries: Robotic delivery is expected to be the majority of deliveries by 2030.

LinkedIn Jobs for Hiring

• Committed Partner: LinkedIn Jobs is a committed partner for businesses looking to hire.
• Free Job Posting: Users can post their jobs for free on LinkedIn, which has 1 billion members.
• Organization: LinkedIn helps keep promising candidates organized in one place.
• Effectiveness: 72% of small businesses using LinkedIn said it helped them find the best candidates.
• Call to Action: Post your job for free at linkedin.com/twist.

First Customer Acquisition Strategies

• Customer Interviews: Conduct customer interviews before building a product.
• Listening Labs: Present a product to customers and ask them to try it.
• Surveying: Survey early and often to gather feedback.
• Landing Pages: Create landing pages to test product ideas.
• Networking: Network and make introductions through friends of friends.
• Cold Outreach: Find potential customers and reach out to them directly.
• Reddit: Engage in relevant subreddits to find customers.
• High Intent vs. Low Intent Customers: Understand the difference between high intent and low intent customers.
• Lean Startup: Create a hypothesis, run an experiment, and iterate on the product.
• Neighborbrite Example: Neighborbrite found 500 customers by posting on a Reddit thread about landscaping.

Out-of-Home (OOH) Advertising

• Brand Building: OOH advertising is a great way to build a brand.
• Adqu: Adqu makes OOH advertising easy, measurable, and fast.
• Hypertargeting: Adqu allows you to hypertarget your campaign in minutes.
• Real-Time Insights: Adqu provides real-time insights to measure performance and optimize spend.
• Call to Action: Visit adqu.com/twist and ADQ is waving their fee on your first campaign.

BRX (AI Tool for Developers)

• Orchestration & Runtime Environment: BRX is an orchestration and runtime environment for building autonomous software.
• Self-Healing & Autonomous: BRX enables users to generate self-healing and autonomous products.
• Target Customers: BRX targets software developers working on AI operations and agentic processes.
• Real-World Example: A customer is using BRX to build a system that generates audio and video files from stories.
• Control & Precision: BRX emphasizes control and precision in AI operations.
• LLM Selection: BRX allows users to choose from various LLMs, including Google Gemini, OpenAI, and Anthropic.
• PLG Motion: BRX is trying to get this into market with a PLG motion.
• Canva Analogy: BRX is in the Canva zone, aiming to be a design tool for non-designers.
• Landing Page: Create a landing page that's different than your corporate page.
• My Agent: Scooped up the domain my agent.ai so I think branding everything underneath that and allowing for people to just build my agent and build their projects might be a really strong lever.
• Product Hunt: If you make something really good I'll hunt it for you and let's see if we can we can hunt something.

InviteJet (Calendar Marketing)

• Calendar Marketing Tools: InviteJet builds calendar marketing tools that allow brands to place ads and marketing material inside prospect calendars.
• Polarizing Concept: The concept of calendar marketing can be polarizing.
• Term Sheet Backout: InviteJet had a lead back out of a term sheet.
• Backdoor References: It's important to do backdoor references and talk to other founders who have accepted money from the firm.
• Churn Rate: InviteJet has a churn rate of 3-5% per month.
• Ideal Customer Profile: The ideal customer profile is an e-commerce brand with 6-9 figures in revenue.
• Twilio/SendGrid Analogy: InviteJet aims to be the Twilio or SendGrid of invites.
• Consumption-Based Pricing: InviteJet uses a consumption-based pricing model.
• VIP Programs: Consider charging to be part of a VIP program to get the calendar invites.
• Affiliate Marketing: Integrate with affiliate systems to generate revenue.
• API Integration: The API is going to be a great long-term thing for you to do.
• Transactional Side: Shift the model to include the transactional side of things.
• Growth: If you can just grow the the number uh the revenue number 10% month over month you'll be right now but 50% is our number right now and yeah we we hope to keep it there it will be less lumpy when it's bigger numbers and you know that you figure out your pricing.

Conclusion

The podcast episode covered a wide range of topics, from investor scams and alternative education models to robotic delivery and customer acquisition strategies. Key takeaways include the importance of thorough research when dealing with investors, the potential of alternative education models like the Palunteer Fellowship, and the growing trend of robotic delivery. The episode also provided valuable insights into customer acquisition, product-led growth, and pricing strategies for startups.