This Week in Startups - Video

Sean Rad founded Tinder with the idea that a dating app could be straightforward, without being creepy. With beautiful interface, simply swiping right or left to indicate your interest (or not) in someone, based on a Facebook photo and friends in common, the app has taken off. Particularly with women, defying conventional wisdom about what works and doesn't in straight dating sites. What might you find right next to Tinder on the home screen of the average 20 something's phone? Ride-sharing service Lyft. With its quirky culture of pink mustaches and fist bumps, the company vets drivers and scored a recent win when it was acknowledged along with Uber by the California Public Utility Commission. Lyft cofounder and CEO John Zimmer sat down with Jason at LAUNCH Mobile & Wearables in San Francisco. Don't miss these interviews with two of today's hottest startups.

Flipboard was one of the first iPad apps that made clear exactly how powerful the experience could be. Blending the best of RSS content with beautiful print-style layout, the app has only gotten better. Now Flipboard's 85m users can create their own magazines tailored to specific interests. When cofounder and CEO Mike McCue sat down with Jason at LAUNCH Mobile, they dug into how the app has become publisher and platform, changing how we think about and interact with content. Then, a conversation with Tom Conrad, longtime CTO of Pandora. The publicly-traded company has long held sway in the mobile space, transforming how we think about radio by identifying exactly what makes a genre or mood, through its music genome project. Then, putting that tailored-just-for-you radio station into the pockets of its 175m users. Don't miss these great conversations that point to the future of media in the mobile space

Aaron Levie has a small streak of gray hair now, but the 28 year-old talks fast, like time is slipping by too quickly. His company Box has big plans to continue using the cloud to transform enterprise communication. Not to mention how we all conduct our personal business. When he caught up with Jason at LAUNCH Mobile, their conversation ranged from @levie's quirky tweets to the future of the cloud.

Steve Jurvetson is one of the hottest VCs in the country. As managing director of DFJ, he serves on the boards of Tesla Motors, Synthetic Genomics and SpaceX. In 2012, Deloitte named him Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist of the Year. His eye for investments has been honed over a long working history in the Valley. Jurvetson’s work history includes R&D engineering at Hewlett-Packard, product marketing at Apple, and he was the founding VC investor at Hotmail. He owns the first Tesla Model S. When he sat down with Jason, their conversation ranged widely: from the dark days of Tesla in 2008, to the future of machine learning, to why he's never sold a share of any company in his portfolio. This is a can't-miss interview.

Chamath Palihapitiya is a venture capitalist, owner of the Golden State Warriors, former Facebook exec, and is extremely outspoken on the future of tech. When he sat down with Jason at LAUNCH Mobile, he called Apple's focus on hardware a "hamster wheel" and "crack" -- once on the wheel/crack, the customer always wants more. He sees Google's focus on huge projects with big potential social impact as the way forward, not least by getting Android OS in the hands of billions of customers worldwide. Plus, why Silicon Valley is the center of power in America and the government shutdown, like the government, is essentially irrelevant. Don't miss this spirited conversation!

How much money are you spending on the cloud? At first glance, you might not ordinarily lump Amazon Web Services, Dropbox, Box, analytics trackers and more into one bucket on your balance sheet. Enter Cloudability, which not only tracks a whole range of cloud-based services in a simple digest, but shows you where you're wasting money for your business. Where for instance, are you spending that's not really leading to sales? Mat Ellis started Cloudability as a freelance project between gigs, as a weekly email: here's what you on spent on the cloud, and how it was allocated. Now you can use the dashboard to dig deep into daily fluctuations. Mat says customers report spending 20% less in the first month, once they get a true idea of where they're money is really going. And then they spend smarter. Jason talked to Mat at TechStars Foundercon and called him "the Ricky Gervais of startups."

A small provision of the JOBS Act means big money for startups. Companies can now advertise when they're looking for investors. Angellist, a platform that connects companies with angel investors now allows backers through its syndicates program. Accredited investors can get a hold in on the deals of people they admire, and startups get more capital. For Launch of the Week, a look at video-collaboration app Jumpcam; Indiegogo tiny translator Sigmo, and Evernote's new online market for physical goods (including socks). Plus, the FAA may soon allow gadgets during takeoff and landing, Blackberry going private, and all the buzz ahead of Twitter's IPO. Farhad Manjoo of the Wall Street Journal and Gina Bianchini of Mightybell join us for This Week in Startups' Friday news roundtable.

What's the next Barbie? If you ask Paul Berberian, he'll say a small round ball, about the same size and weight of pool ball. Inside, a robot, gyroscope, and a couple of motors. Jason sat down with Paul at Tech Stars Foundercon to talk about his company Orbotix, and its programmable robotic ball, called Sphero. The 1.0 release sold about 100,000. Now in 2.0, Sphero is airtight, watertight and can travel at 7 feet per second, all controlled by a smart phone. This is an incredibly cool and smart toy. Paul predicts Orbotix will sell millions of units, setting Sphero up to be a powerful brand like Mattel's Barbie or Hot Wheels. Plus, why VCs are scared to invest in hardware.

Apple's latest mobile software is out, just ahead of the iPhone 5c and 5s, and it's getting mixed reviews. Fast, with more features, it also has veteran iPhone users hunting for standard features. And while the flat, bright color scheme may win design awards, not everyone is convinced of its beauty and power. Meanwhile, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has another Tony Stark move up his sleeve: autopilot, a feature that would allow cars to drive themselves 90% of the time. And for Launch of the Week, Plaid wants to make it easier for developers to use financial data to build amazing apps; typically demure Sequoia Capital unveiled its content site, Grove; and after less than a week on Kickstarter, Occipital's 3D sensor that clips onto an iPad has raised nearly $600k. Plus, crowdfunding a bounty to crack Apple's TouchID and Uber and Lyft are legit in California.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced a plan for a car with autopilot, capable driving itself 90% of the time. Google has led the way, driving fully autonomous cars over 300,000 miles and lobbying to get them street legal in California, Nevada and Florida (for testing). Jason reviews driver-assistance technology already in place and and in the pipeline. Predictions: in the next couple of decades, very few people will own cars, and those that do will share them. Driverless Uber vehicles will shuttle people around cities. If you own a car, it will drop you at your destination then go park itself. Meet George Jetson.

Dwolla got its start from a simple idea: that credit card fees are too expensive for merchants and consumers. CEO and cofounder Ben Milne took his frustration really far, building an entirely new payment network to get around credit cards and PayPal. Rather than charge a percentage, Dwolla is free for transactions under $10 and just 25 cents for anything over that amount. Over a billion dollars has changed hands through Dwolla in 2013 alone, and the company has the backing of top investors including Union Square Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. Plus, why it's keeping its headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa.

Twitter filed its IPO paperwork, confidentially. Jason predicts its market cap will be $16 billion on the day it goes public. Meantime, Apple released the iPhone 5s + 5c. Not cheap enough for China, but certainly stirred up the blogosphere with some colorful plastic cases and classic Apple flash. For Launch of the Week: Disrupt's Startup Battlefield winner Layer, call and messaging stack for app developers; finalist Soil IQ which takes water and temperature measurements in farms; Kickstarter success Haptix, a 3D camera that turns any flat surface into multitouch, to control nearby screens. Ben Parr of DominateFund and tech journalist Jessica Lessin join us for This Week in Startups' weekly news roundtable.

Entrepreneur and angel investor Jason Calacanis predicts that while the iPhone 5s + 5c will be hits, Apple is two years behind with the high/low end model strategy. The company could boost its smartphone market share by 10%. However, it should have used its cash reserves to add new products, including different screen sizes. Samsung has made big inroads in the meantime with slick and affordable hardware, and increasing the reputation and massive use of Google's Android software.

If you're watching or listening to this show, chances are you're podcast obsessed. Just like Pandora made it easy to curate your personal radio stations, Swell (http://swell.am) scours the web for the best podcasts, brings them together into one beautifully designed package (iOS only for now), and learns from your preferences. CEO and cofounder GD (Ram) Ramkumar joins us in advance of his appearance at LAUNCH Mobile & Wearables (http://mobile.launch.co). Plus: Shark Tank with Dale Partridge of Sevenly (http://sevenly.org), and Hassan Wardani of just-launched Thrillseeker Adventures (http://thrillseekeradventures.com). And Jason answers your questions about getting noticed from outside Silicon Valley, and the value of an MBA. Never miss an episode! Subscribe in iTunes: Audio (http://bit.ly/TwiStA) (http://bit.ly/TwiStA) || Video (http://bit.ly/TwiStV) (http://bit.ly/TwiStV) ============= Thanks to our great partners -- show your love for the show by thanking them on Twitter! http://clicktotweet.com/SzVhD (http://clicktotweet.com/SzVhD) Audible (http://audible.com), with over 150,000 audio book titles. Go to audible.com/twist (http://audible.com/twist) to get your free audiobook. Jason's pick of the week: Salinger (http://www.amazon.com/Salinger/dp/B00DDYP3RA) by David Shields and Shane Salerno. And to Turnstone (http://myturnstone.com/), with beautiful, affordable furniture for startups and small businesses. Get 10% off your first order at myturnstone.com/twist (http://myturnstone.com/twist). Then send a picture of you grinding it out at your Turnstone desk to turnstone@launch.co (mailto:turnstone@launch.co) to enter our contest. You could win a free lunch with Jason and free buoy from Turnstone! http://myturnstone.com/buoy (http://myturnstone.com/buoy). Contest ends September 25. ============= Follow on Twitter: @jason (http://twitter.com/jason)@TWIstartups (http://twitter.com/TWIstartups) (http://twitter.com/jason)Ram: @gramkumar (http://twitter.com/gramkumar) LAUNCH: Launch Ticker: http://launch.co  (http://launch.co ) Launch Events (Mobile, Hackathon, Festival): http://events.launch.co (http://events.launch.co) Special thanks to the members of the TWiST Backchannel Program!

Samsung got into the smart watch ring this week, announcing the Galaxy Gear, which will be available in early October. That announcement was expected, but Qualcomm also launched its smart watch, called Toq (rhymes with "walk"). For the Launch of the Week: we look at brand new iPhone app Oyster, called "Netflix for books" by Forbes; Path's new $15 a year premium version; and Mailpile, an open source, encrypted email service beating its goal on Indiegogo. Molly Wood of CNET and Dave Mathews of mobile software development startup NewAer join us for the This Week in Startups weekly news roundtable.