TWiST News 11/8 12pm CT

Signal and Apple Intelligence Concerns

• This week in startups is a show that airs on YouTube, with episodes released on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 12:00 pm Texas time, which is 10:00 am Pacific Time and 1:00 pm New York East Coast time, and the audience can subscribe to the channel and hit the bell for notifications (1m49s).
• Alex Wilhelm has a newsletter called "Cautious Optimism" that covers the tech industry and provides a daily email with research and insights, which can be a nice complement to the show (55s).
• The show's hosts, Jason and Alex, have a big docket of topics to discuss, including Apple intelligence and signal, Reddit and Toast earnings, Amazon's potential investment in Anthropic, the future of AI regulation, and the potential impact of the new administration on TikTok (2m8s).
• Signal is a messaging platform that offers point-to-point encryption and disappearing messages, making it a popular choice for people who want to protect their privacy (2m43s).
• There are concerns that Apple intelligence may be reading messages on Signal groups, especially for users who use AirPods, which has raised questions about the security and privacy of the platform (3m24s).
• The hosts plan to discuss these topics in more detail, starting with the Signal discussion, and may also touch on other topics such as Trump and the election, but will focus on tech news (2m37s).
• Apple has a feature that allows users to receive and respond to messages with a nod, and this feature has been extended to Signal messages, raising concerns about Apple listening to messages on an operating system basis (4m29s).
• Many people claim that this feature was turned on by default, and there is a setting to control it, but the exact location of the setting is unclear (4m54s).
• The setting is related to Apple Intelligence and Siri, and it allows Siri to learn from how users interact with the Signal app to make suggestions across apps (7m51s).
• To access the setting, users need to go to the app screen, then to the settings, and look for Apple Intelligence and Siri, which is located deep within the settings (7m27s).
• The setting allows users to control whether Siri can learn from their behavior in the Signal app and make suggestions based on that behavior (8m9s).
• The suggestions can include showing suggestions on the home screen, suggesting apps, and sending suggestion notifications (8m26s).
• Users can turn off this feature by going to the Apple Intelligence and Siri setting and disabling the "Allow Siri to learn from how you use Signal" option (8m6s).
• Apple has introduced a feature that allows the app to appear in Search and widgets, using suggestions and shortcuts based on how users interact with the app, which has raised concerns about data privacy and the potential for Apple to study user behavior (8m31s).
• The media coverage of this feature has been significant, with many people discussing it in group chats, Reddit threads, and cybersecurity forums, despite Apple releasing a security paper to address concerns (8m54s).
• The feature is part of Apple's intelligence, which learns from users as they interact with their devices, and some people are concerned that this data may be processed off-device, despite Apple's claims that most processing occurs on the device itself (9m18s).
• Apple has released a paper outlining its approach to AI and data privacy, which includes the use of on-device learning and a private cloud compute setup, but some people remain skeptical about the company's ability to protect user data (10m46s).
• The debate centers around the question of whether users trust Apple and its approach to AI, with some people expressing concerns about the potential for data to be used for targeted advertising or other purposes (11m52s).
• Comparisons have been made to other companies, such as Google, which has a reputation for using data for marketing purposes, and Open AI, which is seen as having a cutthroat reputation, but some people believe that Apple's approach is more trustworthy (11m57s).
• There is a delineation between advertising-focused companies like Google and Meta, and companies like Apple that prioritize user privacy, which makes sense, but may not be enough to make users feel good about their data being used (12m34s).
• Apple has made a push to be the "Privacy first" provider for mobile operating systems and hardware, but this may not be enough to alleviate concerns about data usage (12m39s).
• One approach to dealing with this issue is to turn off Apple intelligence for messaging apps, but allow it for other services like Google Maps where it may provide convenience (12m55s).
• Using end-to-end encrypted messaging apps like Signal may not be compatible with allowing technology companies access to user data, even if it's a company like Apple (13m13s).
• The hacker community may be inclined to turn off Apple intelligence due to concerns about transparency and data processing (13m31s).
• There is a lack of transparency about how Apple processes user data, with some commentators suggesting that it's unclear what data is being sent to the cloud and what is being processed locally (13m50s).
• The increasing presence of AI in operating systems and desktops may lead to a situation where users feel like they're being constantly monitored, with AI studying their behavior and sending data to the cloud (14m30s).
• Users may want to consider the implications of turning on AI-powered features, and whether they're comfortable with the potential trade-offs between convenience and privacy (15m7s).

Apple Intelligence vs. Perplexity: Search Trends and Privacy

• Allowing users to set up their own private cloud compute systems, where they can control and approve queries, may be a more appealing option for those concerned about data privacy (15m29s).
• It's unclear how much of a concern data privacy is for the average person, versus those in the technology world, with some data suggesting that searches for related topics are not particularly common (15m57s).
• Apple Intelligence and Perplexity, a smaller AI search engine startup, have similar total search volumes in the US, indicating that the average consumer is not actively searching for Apple Intelligence (16m5s).
• A Google Trends chart shows a spike in interest for Apple Intelligence during the keynote, followed by a decline, while interest in Perplexity has been slowly increasing (17m15s).
• The chart also shows that both Apple Intelligence and Perplexity have no traction compared to other consumer products, and it would be interesting to compare them to Chat GPT (17m34s).
• Despite having the hardware and a large megaphone in the press, Apple's search volume for Apple Intelligence is comparable to that of Perplexity, a startup with a much smaller scale (17m58s).
• If Apple is serious about AI, it will need to resolve the tension between its technologists, who value privacy, and the need to advance AI technology (18m11s).
• A comparison of Google Trends charts over 12 months shows that Chat GPT has massive interest over time, while Apple Intelligence and Perplexity are just a small blip (18m59s).
• The chart also shows a seasonal pattern, with interest in Chat GPT decreasing during the summer months when students are on break and increasing when they return to school (19m12s).
• Looking at the chart over a 5-year period shows the inception of Chat GPT and its growing interest over time, with the current interest being at an all-time high (19m19s).
• Google Trends can be used to understand technology trends, with a massive spike in searches indicating a growing interest in a particular product or service (20m6s).
• The search volume for Bitcoin has decreased over time, with a big rally in the 2020s, and is now relatively stable, indicating that it has become a standard product (20m16s).
• Airbnb's search volume has also decreased over time, with a spike in the early years after its launch, and is now relatively stable, indicating that most people are already familiar with the product (20m47s).
• Uber's search volume has remained relatively steady over the past five years, indicating that it has become a standard product that people are no longer actively searching for (21m9s).
• The search volume for a product or service on Google Trends can indicate the level of interest and adoption, with people typically searching for things they've heard about from friends and want to try (21m32s).
• ChatGPT's enormous search share indicates that it is still reaching a lot of new people who are doing early research, which is a sign of its growing popularity (22m9s).

OpenAI's Acquisition of Chat.com and Mac Mini Discussion

• Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has bought the domain chat.com, which now resolves to ChatGPT, after a suggestion was made to buy the domain and build a separate brand for AI efforts (22m40s).
• The purchase of chat.com was likely a structured setup, with the possibility that the seller, Dharmesh Shah, the co-founder of HubSpot, is trying to get equity in the company rather than a cash payment (23m9s).
• The Mac Mini is considered the fastest Mac available, with a starting price of $599, making it the cheapest way to get into Mac OS, and it can be paired with any monitor (24m44s).
• The Mac Mini's design features a brushed aluminum look and a compact size of 5 inches by 5 inches by 2 inches, with a satisfying unboxing experience that includes a designed sound effect when opening the box (24m21s).
• The Mac Mini can be paired with a Dell monitor, which is considered a better value than Apple's monitors, with a 50-inch Dell monitor available for the same price as a 27-inch Apple monitor (24m55s).
• Apple needs to release more entry-level computing products to attract more users and gain a significant share of the desktop market from Windows (25m23s).
• The Apple Unboxing Setup experience is designed to be satisfying, with features such as a specific sound effect when opening the box and a film on top of the device that makes a sound when removed (24m14s).

Toast's Multi-Part Business Model and Growth

• Toast is a Boston-based company that offers a suite of software products, including payments, fintech offerings like loans, and hardware, making it a multi-part business that is performing well (26m41s).
• Toast's business model is considered cool and multi-art, with a range of products and services that are crushing the market (27m1s).
• Toast has $19 million in services and subscriptions, up from $131 million in Q3 of 2023, and is expected to reach a billion-dollar run rate (27m9s).
• Toast is a SaaS product that offers point-of-sale solutions for restaurants, allowing customers to scan menus, order, and manage tabs (27m32s).
• The company also offers menu management as a vertical, managing online menus for restaurants (28m32s).
• Toast's system also manages HR and IT, including splitting of tips, which is an important feature for employees in the service industry (30m0s).
• The company's growth and features have led to an interesting discussion about the challenges faced by SaaS companies, including headwinds and the decision to build adjacent products or improve the current product (30m8s).
• Founders must decide whether to build the next adjacency or make the current product better, and the answer is often "yes" to both, with a focus on product velocity and quality (30m26s).
• Jason, a well-known venture capitalist, shared a story about his daughter's experience working at an ice cream stand, where tips fell after switching from cash to cards, contradicting the expectation that tips would increase with card payments (29m23s).
• The discussion highlights the importance of product velocity, with investors looking at how quickly products get shipped and the quality of those products (30m37s).
• Toast, a company with a $21 billion valuation, has a revenue of around $750 million per year from its subscription side, but its fintech side, which includes payments, generates over $1 billion in revenue in Q3 alone, with the company taking a percentage of the payments it facilitates through its terminal (30m53s).
• The fintech side of the business is the majority revenue driver but has lower margins than software revenue, and the company also has $50 million in hardware sales this quarter (31m19s).
• When combining the three numbers, the valuation makes more sense, with the company making around $6 billion a year, and it's likely profitable or close to it, with a growth rate that makes its profitability less of a concern (31m56s).
• Toast's business is growing very quickly, adding 7,000 restaurants last quarter, and expanding into new areas such as menus, capital programs, and payroll handling for restaurants (32m30s).
• The company is also expanding into adjacent verticals like hotels, with a 24% increase in gross payment volume and solid revenue growth (32m52s).
• Toast is an example of a company that relentlessly adds features that delight customers and lock them in, making it hard for customers to switch to a different system (33m14s).
• The company's strategy of adding multiple features and verticals is similar to Slack's approach, which makes it difficult for customers to rip out the system due to its integration with other features and services (33m26s).
• The key takeaways from Toast's success are the importance of nailing the core product and having multiple teams attack other verticals to add features and lock in customers (34m10s).
• Companies can make their products more defensible by adding features from their competitors, making it a one-stop-shop for customers, as seen in Zoom's addition of transcripts and chat rooms, and Toast's management of orders from DoorDash and Uber Eats (34m22s).
• Product velocity is key to a startup's success, allowing companies to release new products at a regular cadence, which venture capitals favor, as demonstrated by Squarespace's continuous addition of features such as e-commerce and SEO metrics (34m47s).
• Platform companies tend to perform better than vertical companies, but having a strong beachhead where a company can excel is crucial, as seen in Toast's success (35m42s).
• Having hooks into customers can help retain them and drive more business, as seen in Toast's branded apps feature, which boosts return orders and increases payment volume (35m57s).

Reddit's Growth and Success

• Reddit, a 20-year-old company, has figured out a way to achieve significant user growth, making it an interesting case study, and there are plans to have a fireside chat with Steve Huffman and Alexis from Reddit to discuss the company's 20th anniversary (36m31s).
• Success can solve interpersonal conflicts, as seen in the case of Steve Huffman and Alexis, who are reportedly on good terms despite past conflicts (37m39s).
• Reddit's competitor, Digg, launched six months before Reddit in December 2004, but Reddit has seen immense user growth over the years (37m53s).
• Reddit has reached a mass scale with 47% growth in daily active users, reaching nearly 1 million users, and a market cap of $23 billion with a stock price of $133 (38m11s).
• The company's growth is attributed to its ability to provide human-powered search results, with users appending "Reddit" to their search queries to get around Google's algorithm and find more relevant results (39m41s).
• Reddit's success can be attributed to its focus on its core feature, community, and its ability to maintain a consistent user experience despite adding new features (40m16s).
• The company learned from its mistakes, such as the failed release of version 4.0, which changed the user experience and led to a decline in user engagement (40m27s).
• Reddit's growth is rare, with the company doubling in size every 7.2 months, and its ability to maintain double-digit percentage growth per month is a testament to its success (40m52s).
• The company has also navigated challenges, such as addressing dark and violent content, and has found a balance between allowing anonymous posting and maintaining a safe community (41m25s).
• Reddit's success is also seen as a counter to the rise of AI, with users seeking human-powered search results and community-driven content (39m30s).

Pseudonyms, Anonymity, and Online Incentives

• The discussion revolves around the concept of pseudonyms and their implications on freedom of speech, particularly in the context of social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit, with the latter having a lower expectation of informational fidelity due to its pseudo-anonymous nature (41m57s).
• Pseudonyms allow users to build up reputation and create a history of posts, which can be beneficial, but also raise concerns about the potential for users to anonymously make money and create a cynical approach to online interactions (42m44s).
• The importance of moderators in individual subreddits is highlighted, with the example of the progressive metal subreddit, where a few dedicated fans set the rules and moderate the community, demonstrating a federated approach to moderation that has worked relatively well (43m7s).
• The potential for financial incentives to create problems with pseudonyms is discussed, including the possibility of users building up reputation and selling it to the highest bidder, or promoting products or services without disclosing their affiliation (44m25s).
• The issue of anonymous accounts on platforms like X and Reddit is raised, with concerns about the potential for users to build up reputation and then use it to promote products or services without transparency, and the need for users to be aware of these dynamics when interacting online (45m0s).
• There's a concern that incentives have become perverse, similar to how Alex Jones operated by going after conspiracy theorists, and this is now happening on platforms where users can be anonymous and get paid for their posts (45m33s).
• The show "In Search of…" hosted by Leonard Nimoy is mentioned as a great example of a conspiracy theory show that explored mysteries like aliens and the Loch Ness Monster (46m12s).
• The concept of "karma whoring" on Reddit is discussed, where users are looked down upon for reposting or stealing content from other subreddits to gain karma, and it's suggested that a similar reputation system could be implemented on X or Twitter (47m17s).
• Community notes on X are seen as a great way to build a reputation, and attaching these notes to a user's profile page is a brilliant idea, similar to how Reddit's karma system works (47m45s).
• The ability to be anonymous and get paid for posts on X can lead to users posting more extreme content to get more engagement, similar to how news outlets use spicy headlines to attract viewers (48m15s).
• The dynamic of being invited to appear on news shows like Fox News or MSNBC is discussed, where having a spicy opinion can lead to more invitations, and the importance of being independent and critical in these appearances is highlighted (48m49s).
• The concern is that people who are not 100% in support of a particular party or ideology, but rather have a moderate view, are often not represented, and the fear is that misinformation can spread when people make things up and become "fictional authors" (49m17s).
• The issue of misinformation is also present on platforms like Wikipedia, where people can edit pages and manipulate information, and it's often difficult to know what to trust (49m44s).
• The example of Alex Jones is given, who eventually created the fabrication that the parents of the Sandy Hook victims were actors, highlighting the dangers of misinformation and the need for protections to be put in place (50m53s).
• On the other hand, platforms like X, which share revenue with creators, have some safeguards in place, such as requiring users to provide identification and bank account information, which can help to prevent anonymous accounts from spreading misinformation (51m9s).
• The idea is proposed that if someone makes over a certain amount of money or has a certain number of followers on a platform, they should be required to use their real name and own their words, while also acknowledging the potential repercussions and the importance of anonymity in certain situations (51m29s).
• The importance of being aware of manipulation and taking sides is emphasized, and the value of having a personal blog or platform where one can express their thoughts without filters or platforms is highlighted (51m50s).

Reddit's AI Translation Feature and Global Expansion

• Reddit has made some changes, including the use of AI translations to translate the platform into other languages, which has seen positive results and is part of their effort to grow their international user base (52m20s).
• Reddit is implementing automatic translations for over 35 new languages in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, allowing users to read posts in their native language, with the goal of increasing user growth and engagement (52m56s).
• The translation feature works on a case-by-case basis, allowing users to translate individual posts, but not reprinting the entire index in another language, which would be expensive and complex (54m5s).
• The feature raises interesting questions about SEO and how Google would index translations, and how conversations would work across languages, with the potential for a single thread to include posts in multiple languages (54m30s).
• The idea of automatic translation and cross-language conversations is reminiscent of Douglas Adams' science fiction concept of the "Babble fish," a device that allows people to understand all languages (55m41s).
• The implementation of this feature on Reddit could make the world feel smaller, enabling people to communicate and converse across languages and cultures (55m27s).
• The feature has the potential to be a game-changer for founders and companies, allowing them to reach a wider audience and facilitate global conversations (56m19s).
• Reddit's growth and user experience are being discussed, with a focus on its "beachhead market" and the conversations and tools available to community leaders who moderate online discussions (56m28s).
• Despite Discord's presence, Reddit seems to be thriving, with many subreddits having associated Discord channels and internal chat systems, indicating different use cases for the two platforms (57m7s).
• The moderation of Discord channels tends to be stricter due to their real-time nature, whereas Reddit's forum-style postings allow for more freewheeling discussions (57m44s).
• Reddit's growth rate is currently outpacing Discord's, and the platform is not considered to be worried about the competition (58m5s).
• A potential concern for Reddit is its reliance on Google for search functionality, and the possibility of building its own search engine to cut ties with Google (58m11s).
• If Reddit were to build a search engine, it could potentially compete with other companies like Open AI, and its valuation could increase significantly (58m26s).

Reddit's Revenue, Data Partnerships, and AI Integration

• Implementing a paywall on the site could be a delicate matter, as it would affect Google traffic and require careful consideration (58m55s).
• The integration of AI features on Reddit is also being discussed, with a desired feature being the ability for the platform to summarize threads, similar to what Superhuman and Speechify offer (59m12s).
• Reddit's revenue has broken $1 billion, with Q3 revenue reaching $348 million, indicating the platform's financial growth (1h0m1s).
• Reddit has surpassed a billion-dollar run rate, with $315 million of that being advertising revenue, and $33 million coming from data partnerships, which is 10% of their total revenue (1h0m10s).
• The company has a deal with Open AI, allowing them to use Reddit's data, which raises questions about how Reddit will handle the use of their data by other companies (1h2m4s).
• Chat GPT, a product of Open AI, has started citing Reddit as a source in some of its responses, but the attribution is not always clear or easily accessible (1h3m1s).
• When asked to provide sources, Chat GPT can provide links to related Reddit discussions, but these links do not always work correctly (1h3m37s).
• The issue of attribution and citation is important, as it affects how companies like Reddit handle the use of their data, and how they ensure that they receive proper credit for their content (1h1m46s).
• The integration between Chat GPT and Reddit is improving, with the AI model becoming better at citing Reddit as a source and providing links to relevant discussions (1h2m28s).
• However, there are still issues with the accuracy of these links, and the model sometimes provides incorrect or unrelated links (1h4m0s).

OpenAI's Development Approach and Search Functionality

• Open AI is building in public, which means they release their products even if they're not fully functional, and this approach is being observed and learned from by others, including Sam Altman, who previously worked at Reddit (1h5m2s).
• A recent search comparison between Open AI, Perplexity, and Google showed that Open AI's search functionality failed to answer a question that the other two were able to, with the error message "unable to display this message due to an error" (1h5m21s).
• The search query that caused the error was "how to help a Kentucky baby," and the issue was likely due to a bug in the system rather than an attempt to censor the information (1h5m58s).
• Open AI's approach to releasing products and testing them in public is seen as a positive aspect of their philosophy, as it allows for faster development and testing, but it also means that users need to be cautious and do their own research when using these tools (1h6m29s).
• The use of large language models (LLMs) is entering a "YOLO" (you only live once) kind of environment, where they are being released and tested quickly, and users need to be aware of this and take the responses with a grain of salt (1h6m36s).

Amazon's Potential Investment in Anthropic and AI Regulation

• Amazon is considering investing in Anthropics, an Open AI competitor, but wants them to train on their own chips rather than Nvidia's, which suggests that Anthropics may not be doing as well as they had hoped (1h7m22s).
• The current Administration's stance on AI regulation is uncertain, with competing views from technology advisers and other officials, making it difficult to predict the outcome (1h7m49s).
• Michael Katos, a member of Trump's technology transition team, is pro-tech, while JD Vance has expressed skepticism towards major tech companies, and Elon Musk has supported California's AI bill (1h8m7s).
• The Administration is likely to be the party of less regulation, aiming to remove existing regulations and not add new ones, with the goal of getting out of the way of business (1h8m48s).
• The discussion around immigration is an illustrative example of the next four years, with differing views from officials such as Steve Bannon, Trump, and JD Vance on how to approach the issue (1h9m29s).
• The plan to deport 15 million people is unlikely to be carried out, with a more likely approach being to target violent gangs and individuals committing crimes, rather than dragging families out of their homes (1h10m1s).
• The cost of deporting large numbers of people would be tens of thousands of dollars per group, and hundreds of thousands of dollars per person to house and adjudicate, making it an impractical solution (1h11m10s).
• Meta will likely change its policies to allow conservative voices on its platform after being pressured, as seen in the past when YouTube changed its policy on election speculation and no longer suspends accounts for claiming the 2020 election was stolen (1h11m26s).
• There is unlikely to be any AI regulation from the Trump administration, with the Biden executive order possibly being repealed or ignored due to its perceived weakness (1h12m17s).
• The Trump administration's stance on AI regulation is uncertain due to competing voices within the camp, and it will be interesting to see which groups win out (1h12m52s).
• The history of past events, such as the border shutdown, suggests that Americans may support stricter policies, and this could influence the Trump administration's decisions (1h13m2s).
• The Trump administration's stance on TikTok is uncertain, despite the president's previous anti-China position and opposition to the app, due to a large donation from Jeffrey Yas, who has a big ownership position in the company (1h13m36s).
• A bipartisan bill in the House and Senate aims to ban TikTok, and it will be interesting to see if the Trump administration takes action to save the app or lets the ban stand (1h13m55s).
• The influence of big money interests on American foreign policy is a concern, as seen in the potential impact of Jeffrey Yas's donation on the Trump administration's stance on TikTok (1h14m26s).
• The Biden administration's decision not to ban TikTok during its term may have been influenced by big money interests and the potential impact on the election (1h14m36s).

TikTok's Future and Potential IPO

• A conspiracy theory suggests that Jeff Yas secretly wants pressure on TikTok to go public so he can liquidate his position as a shareholder without the valuation being crushed (1h15m30s).
• The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has not left the board of TikTok and has not let it divest, indicating that it may be an intelligence asset (1h16m11s).
• If TikTok were to go public, it could become a $500 billion company, making it one of the hottest IPOs, comparable to SpaceX (1h16m29s).
• TikTok is a consumer brand with global potential, making it more attractive than companies like Stripe, which is a finance backend company (1h17m5s).

Scorecard for Trump's Tech Promises

• A scorecard is proposed to track promises made by the Trump campaign related to tech, including high-skilled immigration, TikTok divestment, and rural broadband (1h17m44s).
• Other promises to be tracked include no taxing of tips and overtime, as well as startup funding and financing for black Americans and first-time homeowners (1h18m3s).
• The purpose of the scorecard is to hold the new administration accountable to its promises related to business and finance, and is not a partisan exercise (1h18m37s).
• The scorecard will track the number of days it takes for these promises to be fulfilled, if at all (1h18m13s).

Eliminating Taxes on Tips and Trump's Popularity

• A proposition to eliminate taxes on tips would be very expensive at the federal budget level, and it's uncertain if it will be implemented, especially since it doesn't benefit a constituency that donates a lot of money (1h18m59s).
• If the proposition is implemented, it would greatly benefit people who use platforms like Toast and the P, as they would be able to pay their employees a higher net wage, with the example given being a barista making $20 an hour with $5 in tips, resulting in a net wage of $19 instead of $16 (1h19m12s).
• The people who would benefit most from this proposition are Republicans or Trump voters, who make up a large percentage of the country, estimated to be around 55-60% (1h20m20s).
• The estimate of 60% is based on the number of people who voted for Trump, as well as GOP members who didn't vote for him, and people who are conservative or Republican but didn't vote for Trump (1h20m39s).
• Trump's approval numbers will be an important indicator of his popularity, and it will be interesting to see how they change over the next four years (1h21m10s).
• The average American will likely judge Trump's success based on issues such as closing the border, reducing inflation, and ending the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East (1h22m32s).
• A successful term for Trump would likely involve addressing these issues, particularly those related to the economy and foreign policy (1h22m52s).

Evaluating a Candidate's Performance

• The three key factors to judge a candidate's performance are the border, wars, and economic issues, specifically inflation, GDP growth, and unemployment rate (1h22m59s).
• Inflation is considered the most important economic indicator, followed by job data and then GDP growth (1h23m18s).
• There are three buckets to evaluate a candidate: the candidate's personality, their platform, and how they ran their campaign (1h23m49s).
• The personality of the candidates, such as Waltz versus Trump and Vance, is one aspect to consider (1h24m21s).
• The platforms of the candidates, including the issues they ran on, are separate from how they ran their campaigns (1h24m13s).
• Tactical decisions, such as doing podcasts or rallies, are also a factor in evaluating a candidate's campaign (1h24m33s).
• Trump's victory is difficult to analyze due to his unconventional approach to politics, which doesn't seem to follow normal political physics (1h25m20s).
• The candidate's personality and characteristics play a significant role in their success, and some believe that Commo was the wrong choice for the party (1h25m54s).
• A "bake-off" or speedrun primary might have yielded a different candidate, with some suggesting that there were better options, such as Shapiro, Dean Philips, or Gavin Newsom (1h26m0s).

Inflation's Impact and McDonald's Affordability

• The impact of inflation on everyday items, such as the price of a cheeseburger and fries at McDonald's, is a significant concern, with prices increasing by 134%, 200%, and 87% for certain items between 2019 and 2024 (1h26m28s).
• A post from the r/povertyfinance community on Reddit stated that if the price of McDonald's doubles, the number of people who go to McDonald's will not decrease significantly, as many people rely on it as an affordable option (1h27m12s).
• According to Chad GPT, 87% of American households visited McDonald's at least once between June 30th, 2023, and June 30th, 2024 (1h27m41s).
• The quality of McDonald's fries and their Filet-O-Fish sandwich were praised, but their burgers were criticized as being inferior to those from other restaurants like In-N-Out, Five Guys, and Shake Shack (1h27m59s).
• The high cost of living, including rising gas prices and inflation, can have a significant emotional impact on people who are living paycheck to paycheck (1h28m59s).
• Gas prices can be a major concern for people with limited budgets, as a significant increase in gas prices can force them to make difficult financial decisions (1h28m56s).
• The experience of paying over $5 a gallon for gasoline was shared, and the emotional impact of such high prices on people's daily lives was discussed (1h29m15s).
• A personal anecdote was shared about trying to fill up a gas tank with a credit card, only to find that the gas station had a $100 limit, highlighting the challenges of dealing with high gas prices (1h29m40s).
• The experience of living paycheck to paycheck and having to make difficult financial decisions, such as putting only $10 worth of gas in the tank, was also shared (1h30m30s).

Show Feedback and Future Topics

• The episode received positive feedback, with many comments from viewers, although no questions were seen.
• Jason wants to see liquidity for founders and limited partners (LPs) so they can invest in the next generation of companies.
• There are plans to discuss startup deals and have the CEO of Command Bar, which was recently sold to Amplitude, on the show to share lessons learned and insights on mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
• The topic of M&A and the return of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) is expected to be discussed on Monday, including the resurgence of some SPACs that initially struggled but are now staging massive rallies.
• The case of Root Insurance will be discussed in relation to SPACs, but details will be saved for Monday's discussion.
• The show will return on Monday, and viewers are encouraged to subscribe to the channel on YouTube or their podcast app.