This Week in Startups
00:51:58 · Jason Calacanis, Lon Harris
[00:51:58] S0: Just buy... Do you know what a great deal iPads are? Oh my god. They're close to free. I love a good iPad with keyboard. Yeah. You don't Delicious now. [00:52:06] S2: You don't need to be getting your laptop screen. That's silly. Know. Disgusting. [00:52:10] S0: I know. Disgratzia. You're gonna be eating... We're gonna have velvet tacos. You're gonna be touching your screen. [00:52:15] S2: It's no good with velvet tacos. Is no good with it. [00:52:17] S0: You gotta see Lon when he gets those velvet tacos when he's not on the Ozempic. When I move closer to the city, I'm gonna be in the office a lot more. We just gotta do a taco run. [00:52:39] S2: Oh, yeah. [00:52:39] S0: We'll... But we would do two tacos. We were reasonable. Right? Did I ever go three? [00:52:43] S2: No. I don't think we ever did three. Three three at Velvet Taco was too much. You would do... Right. You gotta do the two tacos, then you share a queso. I think that's You [00:52:50] S0: share a queso. You're good. Alright. Well, we're... Are we off duty? Is there something off duty you wanna talk about here? I finished house of... By way, I finished house of dragons. Excellent. [00:52:58] S2: Finally finished. Excellent. This season was pretty good. It started a little slow, but satisfying way. I I got into it. [00:53:05] S0: I'm very sad when dragons die. Yeah. I'm very sad when dragons die. [00:53:09] S2: They're like they're like dogs. They have little emotional connection to them. Well, I did [00:53:13] S0: That's just like... It reminds me of my bulldogs. That's exactly it.
00:53:13 · Jason Calacanis, Lon Harris
[00:53:13] S0: That's just like... It reminds me of my bulldogs. That's exactly it. [00:53:15] S2: Yeah. I did I did wanna talk to you about, just to get a little political, but in in more of a fun way. So one of the big memes that's going around post election or ideas that's photoground is that Okay. Woke is gonna come back, and all of the tech CEOs are going to get back in line and resume their [00:53:35] S0: They are. [00:53:35] S2: Their previous woke, ways of talking. And, here's a here's a funny one that I got of Zuckerberg. This is gonna be what Zuck looks like now. That's great. Like I like that. [00:53:47] S0: Rich. I saw somebody did a great video, like, we're all... We were always blue or something. [00:53:51] S2: So this one is a Reid Jackson's predicting Chamath. Tomorrow's gonna be like, there are only two priorities, inequality and climate change. He's gonna be back there. So I wanted to pick your pick your rate. Is it... Is that gonna happen? Do you think... Was this this jump over to Trump and to the right? Is that, like, a sincere... Like, the the... These guys have embraced that philosophy and that worldview, or do you think, oh, now that democrats are back in power, we're gonna see a lot of the tech CEOs and leadership come back to the fold and become democrats again?
00:53:51 · Lon Harris, Jason Calacanis
[00:53:51] S2: So this one is a Reid Jackson's predicting Chamath. Tomorrow's gonna be like, there are only two priorities, inequality and climate change. He's gonna be back there. So I wanted to pick your pick your rate. Is it... Is that gonna happen? Do you think... Was this this jump over to Trump and to the right? Is that, like, a sincere... Like, the the... These guys have embraced that philosophy and that worldview, or do you think, oh, now that democrats are back in power, we're gonna see a lot of the tech CEOs and leadership come back to the fold and become democrats again? [00:54:21] S0: I I think everybody will... I don't know if they'll become democrats. I think if the democrats are smart, they'll invite them, to participate, come to DC, etcetera, and, they should take the invitation. And if we have a Democrat win the White House, they will certainly... The Democrat should absolutely, steal Trump's playbook. This was the best one. [00:54:50] S2: Yeah. This is another good one. [00:54:53] S0: Before we begin, we acknowledge the indigenous people That's NVIDIA. Whose ancestral lands I was doing your bit. Center occupied. [00:55:00] S2: It's it's a Your good lived experience is our most valuable data. You recognize that good intentions That won't [00:55:09] S0: be erase. Right? With the mustache. Who's [00:55:12] S2: that? To redistribute. Is [00:55:13] S0: that Powell? [00:55:13] S2: Andreessen? That's Andreessen. [00:55:14] S0: And we want to lead that work. That's Bezos. [00:55:17] S2: There's a Andreessen.
00:55:17 · Lon Harris, Jason Calacanis
[00:55:17] S2: There's a Andreessen. [00:55:18] S0: Look at Elijah with that thick mustache and [00:55:20] S2: a pop song. [00:55:22] S0: Here we go. They made a pop song. There's Darius. So there's Darius. Karp. Karp. Yeah. Sometimes after the polls closed, values never changed. Just updated This is so great. Always blue. Mhmm. Look how much a founder cares. And look at the real the real hipsters are like, that's not true. [00:55:57] S2: This is gonna this is gonna happen in the culture, but these guys have a really hard road, I think, ahead if they wanna do that because everybody remembers what happened. [00:56:07] S0: I I think you could make a very simple, argument like I did. Hey. Listen. I... I've had my problems with Trump. I said it early on when he... Listen. He's the president. I support the president. I I support whoever's the president of The United States. I'm American, and I hope for the best for them. And then I call balls and strikes along the way. You know, if AOC wins, I'll support her as well. I don't know if I'll vote [00:56:30] S2: for her. I don't wanna vote for a socialist. [00:56:32] S0: I'm like I don't [00:56:32] S2: I don't think taxes to be 60%. Think it's gonna be. I'm an AOC fan. I would vote for her if she ran, but I don't I don't think [00:56:40] S0: Really?
00:56:40 · Jason Calacanis, Lon Harris
[00:56:40] S0: Really? [00:56:40] S2: I think it's too soon. I think she's gonna wanna hold off and and accomplish more at the congressional level first before before the run. Think a guy like Ossoff or something makes a lot more sense for two years from now. But we'll we'll see. I mean, maybe I will eat these words, but I don't know. I don't I don't know. [00:56:55] S0: I... Here's what I'll tell you. If the... If taxes become 60%, I'm gonna, retire. I'm just gonna skate. I'd Fuck it. I made enough money. I'm done. I mean, can you imagine working and you make a $100, and they're like, you got 40 left? [00:57:09] S2: It wouldn't be it wouldn't be that for the $100, people. We're we're talking $2.50 and up, like, a year. I mean, I I feel [00:57:15] S0: like still, if I make 300 k and I take home a 120 and I'm giving I... [00:57:19] S2: I've [00:57:19] S0: heard a lot of 180 to the government. [00:57:22] S2: I I think it'll going to be more like... I think it was Tim Dillon who said this on the all in election night special. [00:57:29] S0: A livestream on Tuesday. [00:57:30] S2: Think he was right. And I think I've heard a lot. It's going to be about switching the focus from income to assets and equity. We're gonna figure out ways to tax holdings instead of income because that's what... Income is hitting the people who [00:57:46] S0: are working [00:57:47] S2: day to day, and the rich people are getting away out of that. [00:57:51] S0: I don't think there's that big of a delta right now between capital gains and income at the highest levels.
00:57:51 · Jason Calacanis, Lon Harris
[00:57:51] S0: I don't think there's that big of a delta right now between capital gains and income at the highest levels. [00:58:03] S2: I mean, because that's the perception. The perception is that through accounting [00:58:07] S0: trade Well, because you don't sell and you get loans. That's the issue. [00:58:09] S2: That you could borrow against your stock or your holdings and you're not earning, you know, like salary and that's not the basis of your wealth. And so you can sort of get around. That's the perception. And when people hear that like, oh, this person is being taxed at the same rate as, like, a teacher, like, that's what's stoking a lot of that outrage, I think. [00:58:30] S0: Yeah. Really easy solution. You take out a margin loan that is above a certain dollar amount. I don't know. Pick 10,000,000. [00:58:38] S2: Yeah. [00:58:38] S0: You pay the taxes on... You pay your capital gains taxes at that moment. If it's under 10,000,000, okay, everybody gets up to 10,000,000, kinda like your inheritance act. There's some level of gifting. There's a certain amount. Just say any margin loads above 10. I have less than 10, so that's a good number for me. Pittsburgh's perfect. [00:58:56] S2: Why not? There you go. [00:58:57] S0: Perfect number. [00:58:58] S2: I thought that 9,000,994 your amount is the right number. Yeah.