Episode Summary
Executive Summary: Recorded March 20, 2020, this TWIST episode examines the early COVID-19 crisis through a startup/business lens, arguing for aggressive federal action: nationwide shutdowns, mass testing, cash transfers, paid sick leave, and small-business relief. The guests contrast the pandemic with the 2008 recession, debate the media’s role, and forecast major changes in work, healthcare, supply chains, and startup financing.
Main Topics: COVID-19 as a human and economic emergency (Priority: 5/5): The hosts repeatedly frame the pandemic as first a health disaster and then an economic one, emphasizing uncertainty, fear, and the need for decisive action to limit deaths and downstream social harm. Federal response: quarantine, testing, and leadership (Priority: 5/5): Sarah argues the U.S. underreacted and should adopt a national quarantine, while Alex criticizes the president’s leadership and the patchwork state-by-state response. Stimulus and automatic cash support (Priority: 5/5): A major segment focuses on how to quickly get money to individuals and small businesses through the IRS, paid leave, cash transfers, and no-interest loans to bridge the shutdown period. Future of healthcare and UBI-style policy (Priority: 4/5): The discussion links the crisis to broader reform, including universal healthcare ideas, the fragility of tying benefits to employment, and the normalization of direct government payments. Media, Twitter, and information quality (Priority: 4/5): The guests debate Fox News, Recode, and Twitter, arguing that social media enables both misinformation and real-time problem-solving while traditional media can be biased or sensationalist. Startup and SaaS resilience during shutdowns (Priority: 4/5): The latter half shifts to venture capital and startup operations: runway management, investor behavior, overcapitalized companies, and which SaaS categories may suffer or benefit from remote work. Behavioral change, hygiene, and reopening the economy (Priority: 3/5): Jason proposes that disciplined hygiene, distancing, masks, and testing could allow reopening sooner, but guests doubt Americans will sustain the needed compliance without strong incentives and coordination.
Key Arguments: The U.S. response was too slow, especially on testing, and federal leadership should have been more aggressive from the start. A nationwide quarantine would reduce spread and ultimately save lives and economic pain, even if it is costly in the short term. Stimulus should be immediate and broad: direct cash to people, paid sick leave, and support for small businesses through tax relief and no-interest loans. The pandemic exposes how broken it is to tie healthcare and benefits to employment, strengthening the case for systemic reform and possibly a public-option/Medicare-for-all style approach. Twitter plays a useful role in surfacing facts, connecting experts, and pressuring institutions, but media narratives can be distorted by ideology or clicks. Startups with sufficient cash can survive, but seed-stage and hardware businesses are especially vulnerable; some SaaS spending will be cut as companies trim nonessential tools. If testing becomes abundant, society could potentially reopen with temperature checks, proof of testing, masks, and hygiene protocols, though compliance in the U.S. is uncertain. The crisis may permanently alter attitudes toward government, preparedness, supply chains, and the necessity of domestic manufacturing for critical goods.
Data Points: U.S. confirmed COVID-19 cases: Over 17,000 - Discussed as the current U.S. case count at the time of recording. Worldwide cases: About 250,000 - Approximate global total mentioned during the opening stats review. Worldwide recoveries: 90,000 - Global recovery figure cited in the discussion. Worldwide deaths: Just over 10,000 - Global death toll cited early in the episode. Italy death toll: Almost 6,000 - Italy had surpassed China in deaths, with roughly 500 deaths per day mentioned. Goldman Sachs Q2 U.S. GDP forecast: -24% quarter-on-quarter growth - Alex cites this as evidence of coming economic catastrophe. Stimulus check size referenced: $2,000 - The hosts discuss sending every tax filer a direct payment of this amount. Stimulus budget estimate: About $200 billion - Calculated for roughly 100 million people receiving $2,000 each. U.S. cash transfer recipients: About 100 million - The episode estimates the number of taxpayers who could be reached through the IRS. Uber cash on hand: $10 billion in unrestricted cash - Used as an example of a company with enough liquidity to survive the downturn. WeWork tender offer: $3 billion - SoftBank-related tender offer discussed as likely to fail amid crisis conditions. SoftBank additional planned investment: $5 billion - Mentioned as a separate investment still planned for WeWork. Zendesk startup offer: 6 free months - Zendesk for Startups promotion cited in the ad read. Front discount: 20% off first year with code TWIST - Sponsor offer mentioned in the ad read. Silicon Valley Bank startup stat: 69% - SVB ad cites the share of U.S. venture-backed IPO companies in 2019 that worked with SVB.
Pivotal Quotes: "We should absolutely be putting together an extremely strong stimulus package, but you want the medicine to fit the disease." — Sarah Cannon: Explaining why COVID-19 policy should differ from the 2008 financial-crisis response. "We need to freeze rent for everybody, ban evictions, shut the country down for two, three, four weeks, and make a national sacrifice to pull this off." — Alex Wilhelm: Arguing for aggressive shutdown and tenant protection measures to reduce harm. "I think this crisis will restore people's faith in the government and in other people." — Sarah Cannon: Describing the long-term social upside she sees from the pandemic response and collective action.
Implications: Listeners are left with a call for aggressive public-health measures, rapid cash relief, and more resilient startup planning. The episode suggests COVID-19 will accelerate debates over UBI, healthcare reform, remote work, and supply-chain independence.
From the Transcript
What we need to do is freeze rent for everybody, ban evictions, shut the country down for two, three, four weeks, and make a national sacrifice to pull this off. But we're not going to do that because to editorialize a little bit, I believe the president is worried about the stock market and re-election more than he is about the health and safety of the nation and its people. And so we're in a place where we have the exact wrong person at the wrong time. We have an illiterate narcissist when we need to have a literate person of empathy. So it's concerning to me. And I don't want to turn this into an anti-Trump show because people will complain. In my tweets, and I don't need that. But certainly, even if you're a Trump fan, this is not probably his finest moment, even for you. So I'm disappointed and excited about maybe some national change in maybe 12 months or so. All right, when we get back from this quick break, I want to talk about what stimulus we think should be deployed to deal with the fact that we're going to lose at least a month to three months of serious economic activity. And, Sarah, I think you have some thoughts on this when we get back on this week of survey.
Moderately close tabs on this, so I'm not going to say that I know everything that's going on. But there have been some movements by some companies, Uber, especially, I think, to talk about paying some people if they have this infection to stay home for two weeks as a way to protect both their user base and their drivers. But a couple weeks of pay for a fraction of the Uber driving population isn't enough. I think that what we've seen as a nation in this moment is that the tying of benefits to employment is fundamentally broken and has never been a system that's worked. And I think we're now seeing kind of As a people, at once, how poorly it does work. So, I think this should be a moment to call for kind of national reform of how we handle healthcare and other services. It happens to be at the same time we're talking about Medicare for all. Maybe those two could come together. But people say Medicare for all or healthcare for all. Is there a difference between those two things, or is it just a so if you're a Bernie Sanders fan, please? And I get this wrong, please don't tweet me. Yeah, please. Bernie Browse.
Forget that. And I think the prevalence of technology has actually led to kind of atomizing our societies, right? People spend more time by themselves at home, connected through devices and not face to face. We're obviously not connected face to face. But I think moments like this remind you why you need collective measures, right? Why you need the reserves to come out and test people, and why you need healthcare institutions and the CDC to be funded because it might have to be ready in 24 hours to scale tests around. The country. So I think that is the silver letting on the government side. And on appreciation of the government, and then preparedness seems like something that we seem to have forgotten. I mean, if you want to talk about being anti-fragile in the Siemens book or just, you know, having some basic redundancy, which is a different thing than anti-fragile, anti-fragile is systems that.
About This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis covers startups, tech, markets, media, and all the hottest topics in business and technology. He also interviews the world’s greatest founders, operators, investors, and innovators.