Fact-Checking Mark Rober, and the Fall of TechCrunch | E2101

Today's show: Jason, Alex, and Lon break down a subreddit question: A founder builds 100% of the product, is promised equity—and now he's being pushed out. We break down exactly what he should do next. Plus, YouTuber Mark Rober's viral Tesla test gets fact-checked by a small creator, and the results don't look great for Mark. Finally, TechCrunch gets quietly sold to Regent in what looks like a fire sale. Is this the end of an era for tech media? Timestamps: (0:00) Episode Teaser(1:25) Jason's memories of Tony Hsieh (4:09) High stakes poker stories with Tony Hsieh (7:28) Reflecting on joy and fun in life (9:45) Atlassian - Head to ⁠https://www.⁠⁠atlassian.com/startups/twist to see if you qualify for 50 free seats for 12 months.(11:46) Founder question from Reddit (20:12) Fidelity Private Shares℠ - Visit ⁠https://fidelityprivateshares.com⁠! Mention our podcast and receive 20% off your first-year paid subscription. (21:52) Subreddit question: Stealth vs. building in public(27:33) Update: Mark Rober's Looney Tunes wall experiment (31:21) Lemon.io - Get $2000 off your first hire at http://lemon.io/hire (37:50) Lessons from the Mark Rober experiment (40:24) The future of tech journalism and subscription models (47:34) Jason's idea for a gadget museum (50:12) Updates on CoreWeave and Klarna IPOs (51:43) Bipartisan bill to amend Section 230 (56:29) Algorithms and their impact on Section 230 (59:00) Global perspectives on online speech and anonymity (1:00:00) Podcast closing and call for social media engagement 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 Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Thank you to our partners: (9:45) Atlassian - Head to ⁠https://www.⁠⁠atlassian.com/startups/twist to see if you qualify for 50 free seats for 12 months. (20:12) Fidelity Private Shares℠ - Visit ⁠https://fidelityprivateshares.com⁠! Mention our podcast and receive 20% off your first-year paid subscription. (31:21) Lemon.io - Get $2000 off your first hire at http://lemon.io/hire 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: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916