Jason turned $11 and one tweet into 1.1M views | E2311

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Quo https://quo.com/TWiST PayPal Open http://paypalopen.com Northwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/... Today’s show: Jason spent $11 building out PodMeme, an AI tool that tracks down the best segments from top podcasts about a specific topic, then stitches them together into a single stream. His post laying out how he did it, featuring a simple screenshot of the product, reached 1.1M views in just a few days. It’s a simple fact: builders love to see what other people are building, and growing your new project “in public,” sharing your journey on social media, is a great way to develop buzz around your product before it even exists. Today’s guest, Thibault “Tibo” Louis-Lucas, walks us through how he grew products like Tweet Hunter and Taplio on his social media account, using social media buzz and a focus on tools for creators to very quickly expand to over $1M ARR. PLUS why Apple would only sue OpenAI if they knew they had them dead to rights… why Uber and Waymo are fighting over DC robotaxis… Jason’s response to the public backlash against surveillance startup Flock Safety… and the guys remember iconic New Zealand actor Sam Neill. Guest: Tibo Louis-Lucas on X: https://x.com/tibo_maker Revid.ai: https://www.revid.ai/ Tweet Hunter: https://tweethunter.io/ Taplio: https://taplio.com/ Relevant Links: Lemlist: https://www.lemlist.com/ GRIN influencer marketing: https://grin.co/ TechCrunch: “Apple Sues OpenAI”: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/10/app... We Must Act Now statement: https://www.wemustactnow.ai/ TechCrunch: “Uber’s Robotaxi Lobbying Effort”: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/ube... DC Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Authorization Amendment of 2026: https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetai... DoorDash: Meet Dot: https://about.doordash.com/en-us/dot Flock Safety: https://www.flocksafety.com/ DeFlock: https://deflock.org/ Gigazine: Flock accuses Deflock of being a “terrorist org”: https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/2026... Unifi AI Security Systems: https://ui.com/physical-security Jason’s PodMeme post: https://x.com/Jason/status/2076231055... Jason responds to Justine Bateman: https://x.com/Jason/status/2076326740... NYT Sam Neill obituary: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/mo... “Possession” trailer:    • Possession (1981) - Official Trailer   FanEdit: https://fanedit.org/forums/news-publi... “Manhunter” trailer:    • Manhunter (1986) ORIGINAL TRAILER [FHD]   HBO “The Man Will Burn” trailer:    • The Man Will Burn | Official Trailer | HBO   Timestamps: 0:00 There's no air conditioning in Paris 6:49 Tibo Maker's "ship 1 product a week" challenge 8:46 The power of building products in public 10:21 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) - Quo gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://quo.com/TWiST 11:26 Excitement for JCal's "PodMeme" set-up 15:02 Compounding an audience and enlisting influencers 18:35 Your follower count is not important any more 20:21 PayPal - Built for payments, growth, and agentic. Paypal Open, built for all business. Visit http://paypalopen.com to get started 21:50 How Tibo got banned on LinkedIn twice 28:10 Apple sues OpenAI 30:21 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 https://northwestregisteredagent.com/... 38:06 How OpenAI should have handled the New York Times 44:32 DC's new robotaxi bill 51:28 Managing the AV and delivery-bot transition 52:45 Economists warn of AI job displacement 1:06:22 How Jason would fix Flock's messaging 1:16:48 Remembering Sam Neill 1:22:27 Lon's Dream AI edit 1:25:57 HBO's Burning Man docuseries 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 Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠  / alexwilhelm   Follow Jason: X:   / jason   LinkedIn:   / jasoncalacanis   Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ 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:   / twistartups   YouTube:    / thisweekin   Instagram:   / thisweekinstartups   TikTok:   / thisweekinstartups   Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com