Why a Do-Nothing Congress could be great for markets | E2359 - This Week in Startups

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

Today’s show:

Democrats took the House and Senate, and overnight trading suggested a huge market drop. But in the morning, the markets went another way, and D.A. Wallach thinks he knows why. A Congress that can’t get anything done can’t do anything BAD, like start a war or a tariff fight. The only thing markets hate than gridlock is uncertainty.

On the first post-midterm This Week in VC roundtable, Jason is joined by Wallach (Time BioVentures), Elana Gold (Two Roads Capital), and Tomasz Tunguz (Theory Ventures).

Together, they work out what a split government could mean for tech and venture. Data centers are now a political target for both parties. 2027 might be the last major window for big M&A. Plus, D.A. worries that an intergenerational war could be brewing, between the people who own AI’s upside, and the young workers who fear getting replaced.

Plus thoughts on Cava’s 22% layoffs, Sequoia shutting down its Scouts and Arc program, the SPV “boiler room,” and more.

Guests

D.A. Wallach on X: https://x.com/dawallach

Time BioVentures: https://www.timebioventures.com/

Elana Gold on X: https://x.com/ItsElanaGold

Two Roads Capital: https://tworoads.vc/

Tomasz Tunguz on X: https://x.com/ttunguz

Theory Ventures: https://theoryvc.com/

Relevant Links:

NBC exit poll: 56% say AI and data centers were a crucial or major factor (DCD): https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/nbc-exit-poll-56-say-ai-data-centers-were-a-crucial-or-major-factor-in-congressional-vote-decision/

How AI backlash shaped the 2026 midterms (TIME): https://time.com/article/2026/11/04/midterm-elections-results-ai-industry-data-centers/

Musk on chips outrunning electricity in 2026, with Elon's reply: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2117649850644705591

Panthalassa raises $140M for wave-powered AI compute at sea (Tom's Hardware): https://tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/palantir-co-founder-peter-thiel-backs-usd140m-wave-powered-ai-data-center-startup-panthalassa-aims-to-run-offshore-compute-nodes-using-ocean-energy

Marvell to buy Lumentum in a $115B deal (The Next Web): https://thenextweb.com/news/marvell-lumentum-acquisition-115bn-all-stock

San Francisco mourns bodega cat killed by a Waymo (CBS SF): https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/sf-mission-district-mourns-store-cat-killed-by-waymo

Meta launches $115M program to train workers for data center jobs (Axios): https://www.axios.com/2026/06/08/meta-data-center-workforce-academy-job-guarantee

Keep track of the value you're getting from AI (TWiST): https://twistartups.substack.com/p/keep-track-of-the-value-youre-getting-da4

Meta's Muse hits 10.9M downloads (Yahoo Finance): https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/metas-muse-ai-agent-hits-109-million-downloads-as-chatgpt-slides-25-153532560.html

Curbie (Revere Robotics): https://www.revererobotics.com/

Canva lays off over 1,200 people amid slowing growth (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/04/canva-lays-off-over-1200-people-amid-slowing-growth/

Ollama raises $65M as it nears 9M developers (Startup Fortune): https://startupfortune.com/ollama-raises-65-million-as-it-grows-to-nearly-9-million-developers/

Sequoia hits rewind, undoing 20 years of expansion (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/04/sequoia-hits-rewind-undoing-20-years-of-expansion/

"The Sequoia of Tomorrow" (Sequoia): https://x.com/sequoia/status/2117961312143855764

Travis Kalanick's Atoms raises $1.7B (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/22/travis-kalanicks-robotics-company-raises-1-7b-led-by-a16z/

Vast: https://www.vastspace.com

SEC accredited investor exam could expand private-market access (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/01/sec-accredited-investor-exam-private-markets.html

General Compute raises a $100M Series A (DCD): https://datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/neocloud-general-compute-raises-100m-in-series-a-funding-round

Hyperliquid CEO Jeff Yan on democratizing pre-IPO access (Motley Fool): https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/10/19/hyperliquid-ceo-jeff-yan-says-perpetual-futures-ma/

Kalshi Perps: https://kalshi.com/perps

Aalo Atomics: https://www.aalo.com

Exowatt: https://www.exowatt.com

Timestamps:

0:00 The Blue Wave: Dems take Congress

0:10 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

6:42 What a split gov’t means for defense tech

9:21 Is 2027 the last big window for tech M&A?

11:04 Every.io: For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io.

13:44 Are anti-robotaxi laws coming?

18:51 The need for positive AI stories

24:12 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist

25:59 How AI can make voters smarter

31:22 Self-driving and the future of car insurance

40:17 G2i has been recruiting software engineers for over a decade. Go to https://g2i.co/twist to find out how G2i vets engineers, and can help you hire them in days, not weeks.

45:00 Jason’s $12K Mac Studio

50:12 Sequoia retires its Scouts and Arc programs

58:21 Jason’s barbell: Zipline, Atoms, and Vast

1:01:19 When VC firms go public

1:08:42 Scrap the accredited investor rule

1:14:26 Hyperliquid and permissionless synthetic markets

1:17:17 Kalshi perps and Anthropic price discovery

Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:

TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/

TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/

Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp