This Week in Startups

Founder University Pod Highlight! ⭐ Had a blast chatting with Festus Folan from SourceIt during our session on Thursday — perfect timing too, since their app just launched! 🚀 Festus started SourceIt after hearing one too many family members vent about how painful and old-school the material #procurement process is for #construction companies. Right now, most companies still have to call around to a bunch of suppliers, chase down inventory info, and wait for price quotes. SourceIt lets construction companies submit a single request and get competitive bids from multiple suppliers fast. And the team behind it? Solid: 👷♂️ Festus Folan— UIUC CS ♟️ Alex Yasumoto — UIUC CS + Econ 🏗️ George Garrity — 20+ years running his own construction company Excited to see where they go from here! Check out SourceIt 👉 https://lnkd.in/gNcKYqdd

Had such a fun time hosting a pod discussion with our Cohort 10 #founders at Founder University last Thursday! On Thursdays, we break the 200+ founders into small groups ("pods") to share #wins, swap advice, and dive into whatever’s top of mind. Some of the wins from my pod this week were too good not to share: 💡 Pitched to 20 VCs 📝 Sent out a client contract (80% chance of closing!) 🚀 Gaining 2,000 new users per week 🎤 Got invited to present at a conference ✅ Became a Delaware C-Corp 🤝 Lined up a prospective customer Love seeing all the progress and hustle — see y'all for the Monday session tonight!🫡 #praisetheprogress

Jason Calacanis recent podcast nailed it: AI phone assistants are about to disrupt traditional booking. Think companies with clunky online forms and expensive call centers – they're ripe for transformation. The reality? Voice AI is scaling, and fast. Yes, even Uber will likely lean into voice. We're building voice.cab, starting in taxis, to solve this. Within a year, any reservation-based service will be able to leverage our tech, cutting costs and streamlining bookings. This isn't future tech, it's the inevitable efficiency wave. #VoiceAI Proud member of Cohort 10 Founder University https://lnkd.in/ejDhJwCy

Here they are, your Founder Fridays #Sweet16! These are the companies facing off for a chance to pitch live 🗣️ COMMUNITY COMPANIES Osprey (Houston) vs Trova (Boston) Wispr Inc. (Austin) vs Enlightenment (Quincy) SELF-IMPROVEMENT COMPANIES Lifestack by DeMind Inc. (New York) vs Burble Inc (Philadelphia) Snipd (Zurich) vs MEDsimple (Florianópolis) AI FOR BUSINESS COMPANIES Pitchfire (Portsmouth) vs CREATANT, Inc (San Francisco) TACTUN (Yerevan) vs Arcana Ad (Los Angeles) WILD CARD COMPANIES Bravado Whiskey (Denver) vs MomSub (Chicago) Vidala Labs (Arlington) vs kippy.ai - AI Language Tutor

📢 Brand marketing leans heavily on mass outreach which lacks personalization. 📅 InviteJet helps #eCommerce brands engage customers where it matters—their #calendars. Instead of lost emails, brands send personalized, branded calendar invites for promotions, sales, and events. Cofounders Brian Watson & Paul Davis tested InviteJet on Paul’s e-commerce brand (Mosi Tea) and saw 400% YoY growth in 2023. Since joining the LAUNCH Accelerator’s 33rd cohort, they’ve helped 60+ brands send 8M+ invites—driving real revenue⚡ Read more 👉  https://lnkd.in/gMinF4u4 Request an introduction to the founders 👉 https://lnkd.in/gdPdJXZM

If you are in Austin for SXSW, you don't want to miss this! Jason Calacanis will be doing a LIVE Q&A TODAY from 4 to 6pm @ Speakeasy (412 Congress Ave. D, Austin, TX 78701). Would love to see you there! https://lnkd.in/gmYd7jWN

FOUNDER FRIDAYS PITCH MADNESS HAS BEGUN Remember to get your city's pitch to us by this Friday!!! Any early final four predictions???

Happy Monday, TWiST listeners! We are live at 12:00 CT with a fascinating guest: Roy Lee (Columbia Sophomore) hacked Big Tech’s interview process—He built an AI tool and used it to land offers at Amazon, Meta, and TikTok. Now, he’s facing a disciplinary hearing at Columbia... Did he cheat or just prove the whole system is becoming obsolete? Join us live: https://lnkd.in/gHHSFCCU

Great conversation with Jason Calacanis and Bill Gurley at SXSW. Covering everything from Jason’s origin story growing up in Brooklyn to investing in Calm and Thumbtack and some great ALL IN Bestie stories

We are going live in about an hour (12:00 CT!) with some BIG topics today: • Inside Coreweave’s IPO filing • Digg is back! • AVRide Uber Hyundai • AI Comes To Government: Scale AI edition • The AI voice demo that is blowing minds • and more! Join live: https://lnkd.in/ghSkbBpH