Can an AI Agent Legally Own a Company? Christian van der Henst's Wild Experiment| E2283

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Pilot - https://pilot.com/twist Shopify - https://shopify.com/twist Grasshopper Bank - https://grasshopper.bank/twist Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Today’s show: An AI agent named Valerie is running a real vending machine in San Francisco — setting prices, ordering inventory, managing a bank account, and posting to Instagram. And it's not just a stunt. We’re getting an early look at the future of one-agent companies. There’s still work to do to help agents ease into the economy, potentially opening up new startup opportunities. Jason Calacanis and Alex Wilhelm cover a stacked docket: Christian van der Henst demos the Valerie AI vending machine powered by OpenClaw; Robert Myers, CEO of Manifold Labs, breaks down Targon, a confidential GPU compute marketplace running on Bittensor Subnet 4; Jason calls Bitcoin "played out;" Alex is impressed by Anthropic's stunning $900 billion upcoming valuation; and the guys discuss Big Tech's accelerating CapEx spend, Chinese AI models in Congress crosshairs, and the NBA Playoffs. Timestamps: 0:00 Intro & sponsor reads (Pilot, Shopify, Grasshopper Bank) 1:06 Christian van der Henst: Valerie the AI vending machine demo 2:23 How OpenClaw powers Valerie: Dynamic pricing, inventory, bank account 4:28 Legal structure: Giving an AI agent business ownership via trust 7:23 Where agents can and can't operate today 8:46 How agentic business ownership works legally 9:31 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. 9:46 Jason's SFO café, and SF regulations vs. AI-run businesses 11:48 AI café in Stockholm running on agents 17:42 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! 19:05 Robert Myers, Manifold Labs: Targon & Bittensor Subnet 4 interview 20:21 What is Bittensor? An "incubator with 128 subnets" 20:39 Shopify: Turn those What If's into sales with the ecommerce platform powering millions of businesses. Sign up for your $1-per-month trial today at https://shopify.com/twist 21:43 From Sybil to Targon: Manifold's journey to confidential compute 25:21 Pricing, utilization caps, and why GPUs are sold out 26:38 Who's using Targon? Customers, use cases, and the mom-and-pop data center argument 29:27 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. 34:36 Bounties update: podcast companion (May 8) and Annotated.com (May 18) 35:07 Jason explains the annotated.com vision — 15 years in the making 39:11 Polymarket: Will Anthropic flip Bitcoin by Dec 31? 40:29 Jason's Bitcoin bear case: "It's played out. No incremental buyers." 44:09 Alex's supporting points: Stablecoins are replacing BTC's killer use case 46:05 MicroStrategy / Strategy updates 47:48 Big Tech earnings: Google Cloud +63%, AWS best quarter in 15 quarters 52:37 AI compute demand vs. the fiber overbuild analogy 55:55 Congress pressuring startups over Chinese AI models (DeepSeek, Moonshot) 57:11 A16z on the geopolitical risk of Chinese AI models 1:00:08 Reflection AI — America's open source AI champion (or lack thereof) 1:01:26 Off Duty: Knicks blow out Atlanta Hawks 140–89, Jason goes road-tripping 1:03:06 Tip: See your team play in another city's arena 1:04:15 Sixers vs. Celtics preview; NBA Playoffs Polymarket odds 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

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