This Week In Startups is made possible by: Agree - https://agree.com Quo - https://quo.com/TWiST Superhuman - https://superhuman.com Today’s show: In this double-header, Jason and Lon chat with Louis Phillips, founder of the gamified running app INTVL, which turns a quick job around the block into a worldwide turf war competition. Find out how he grew the app to over 1 million downloads without any paid ads, just making videos from his home office. PLUS Alex sits down with Alice Zhang, CEO of Verge Labs, which pivoted from making drugs to building the AI infrastructure that helps pharma companies develop their own treatments. Find out how they accumulated one of the world’s largest proprietary brain datasets and why brain tissue is the “LiDAR of neuroscience.” Guests: INTVL: https://www.intvl.com.au/ INTVL on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intvl.app Louis Phillips on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louisphillips12 Verge Labs: https://vergelabs.com/ Alice Zhang on X: https://x.com/AliceXinliZhang Relevant Links Meta’s Ad Library: https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/ Strava: https://www.strava.com/ Pokémon Go: https://pokemongo.com/ Fitbod: https://fitbod.me/ Tonebase: https://www.tonebase.co/ Calm: https://www.calm.com/ Hamilton Island official site: https://www.hamiltonisland.com.au/ “Mr. Inbetween” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EooRG3QhQOY Article: “Verge Genomics Rebrands as Verge Labs”: https://trial.medpath.com/news/verge-genomics-rebrands-as-verge-labs-following-als-drug-trial-failure-pivots-to-ai-driven-target-discovery Eli Lilly: https://www.lilly.com/ Chai Discovery: https://www.chaidiscovery.com/ Noetik: https://www.noetik.ai/ Tempus: https://www.tempus.com/ Timestamps: 0:00 Louis on building in Melbourne, Australia 7:16 Why INTVL ignores how fast you run 9:31 Agree - Stop chasing invoices at https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life! 15:24 Using gamification for good 18:42 Powering INTVL's impressive growth 19:27 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 25:48 The future of TWiST Australia 26:46 Will AI ever cure cancer? 27:26 Inside Verge's rebrand 30:03 Superhuman - Get AI that works where you work. Unlock your Superhuman potential at https://superhuman.com 31:33 Brain tissue as "ground truth" 35:33 Why brain tissue is so valuable as data 43:24 Verge's Eli Lilly partnership 51:06 "You're going to tell me when I'm going to die" 55:43 How AI could impact drug prices 57:51 Clinical trial FAILS and how to move on 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: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/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: 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