This Week In Startups is made possible by: Pilot - https://Pilot.com/TWIST Grasshopper Bank - https://Grasshopper.bank/TWIST Quo - https://Quo.com/TWiST Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Anthropic just declared every unauthorized secondary sale of its stock "void" — naming Hiive, Forge, Sydecar, Upmarket, and others in a public hit list. Jason and Alex sit down with Jenny Fielding (Everywhere Ventures), Dave McClure (Practical VC), and Sam Lessin (Slow Ventures) to unpack what the AI lab’s move to limit secondary trades means for SPV operators, brokers, and the founders trying to keep control of their cap tables. Plus: a real story of a founder who returned a $15M Series A six months after closing because Claude was going to eat his startup, SaaS moats, and just what does it mean to be rich? Guest Links: Sam Lessin https://www.linkedin.com/in/wlessin/ Slow Ventures https://slow.co/ Dave McClure https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemcclure/ Practical Venture Capital https://practicalvc.com/ Jenny Fielding https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennyfielding/ Everywhere VC https://www.everywhere.vc/ Discussion Links: Anthropic saying no to SPVs https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13704655-unauthorized-anthropic-stock-sales-and-investment-scams OpenAI saying no to SPVs https://openai.com/policies/unauthorized-openai-equity-transactions/ Cerebras raises IPO guidance https://www.cautiousoptimism.news/with-gas-prices-spiking-going-to-office-is-now-a-pay-cut/ Fervo Energy goes public https://www.renaissancecapital.com/IPO-Center/News/118998/Geothermal-energy-developer-Fervo-Energy-prices-upsized-IPO-at-$27-above-th Coverage of OpenAI secondary https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/02/openai-is-the-worlds-most-valuable-private-company-after-private-stock-sale/ USVC https://usvc.com/ Ryan Hoover's Weekend Fund IV https://x.com/rrhoover/status/2052405380655825140 Intercom rebrands to Fin https://www.intercom.com/blog/today-intercom-becomes-fin/ Other: Equitybee https://equitybee.com/ Dave McClure's podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/3WH5Br0CPTqSPcrK1FxC7J Sam Lessin's podcast https://moreorlesspod.com/ Launch Festival https://www.launchfestival.com/# Timestamps: 0:00 Guest introductions 0:48 Anthropic voids unauthorized SPV trades 8:41 Accredited investor reform & the SEC sophisticated investor test 8:58 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 11:43 Naval's USVC closed-end fund as a workaround 16:41 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 17:48 Pro-rata rights battles: when Series A investors push seed investors out 19:36 Grasshopper Bank: Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account. 29:13 Pilot: Focus on your product, let Pilot handle your bookkeeping. Pilot provides the most reliable accounting, CFO, and tax services for startups and small businesses. Head to https://pilot.com/twist and get $1,200 off your first year. 30:23 Storing wealth in stories vs. cash flows 34:19 Cerebras and Fervo Energy IPOs — meaningful liquidity? 37:54 Will SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI IPOs redistribute capital or compound it? 45:58 The $15M Series A founder who returned the money because of Claude 50:01 Should founders pivot or return capital when the world changes? 56:43 OpenAI's $6.6B tender and Shruti Gandhi's viral SF cost-of-living tweet 1:00:25 Intercom rebrands to Fin: the AI-first late-stage pivot 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