Jason Calacanis has published over 5,000 episodes of This Week in Startups since 2009.
Five thousand. That's not a podcast, that's a firehose.
And I get why people drink from it. Jason, Alex Wilhelm and Lon Harris cover tech news faster than almost anyone, and the founder interviews go places polite shows won't.
But somewhere around my hundredth episode I noticed a pattern. Most of the airtime goes to funding rounds, AI drama and what some VC thinks about another VC.
I was at $15K a month at the time. None of that moved my revenue.
So here are 8 podcasts like This Week in Startups, ranked by one selfish filter: how much of each episode can a bootstrapped founder actually use.
How I ranked these
Quick word on method, because most "podcasts like X" lists are written by people who never listened to any of them.
I run a podcast myself and I've been through hundreds of hours of every show on this list. My scoring came down to three questions.
First: can you act on it? A tactic you can copy this week beats a hot take about a company worth $80 billion.
Second: do the numbers get named? Shows where guests share actual revenue, actual churn and actual pricing rank above shows that stay vague.
Third: does it respect your time? You're running a company. A tight 25 minutes twice a week fits your life better than 90 minutes daily.
That filter explains some rankings that would look weird on a pure popularity list.
1. Profitable Founder Podcast
Full disclosure: this one's mine.
I built Profitable Founder as the anti-firehose. One bootstrapped SaaS founder per episode, explaining exactly how they got their revenue. There is no news segment.
42 episodes in, the guest list is the opposite of TWiST's unicorn parade:
- Arnaud from Breakcold on reaching $25K/month with cold outreach he still writes himself
- Yasser from Chatbase on hitting $1M ARR in 117 days
- Marie from Gojiberry on getting to $3.5M/year
- Marc from Tally on the slow road to $5M/year with a free product
Jason interviews founders after they raise. I interview founders who never raised, while the tactics they used are still warm.
I also ask the numbers questions news shows skip. What's your churn. What did you charge on day one. How many demos before the first close.
If you're at $5K to $50K MRR, start with the Chatbase episode. Yasser's 117-day run to $1M ARR is the most tactical hour I've recorded.
2. All-In
The obvious pick, and it earns the spot.
Four investors (Chamath, Sacks, Friedberg and Jason himself) arguing about tech, markets and politics every week. 413 episodes, over a million YouTube subscribers, and enough group-chat energy that it became a literal conference.
If what you like about TWiST is Jason's unfiltered takes, All-In is that times four. The besties disagree with each other on air, which is rarer than it should be in tech media.
Fair warning: it drifts into politics a lot more than TWiST does. Some weeks the startup content is 10 minutes of a 90-minute show.
I broke down the full lineup of podcasts like All-In if this one's your favorite.
3. Equity by TechCrunch
TWiST minus Jason's opinions, basically.
Equity is TechCrunch's flagship startup show. 1,113 episodes as of late August 2026, new ones every Wednesday and Friday, hosted by the reporters who actually break the stories (Rebecca Bellan, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha and crew).
Episodes run 20 to 30 minutes, which is the whole appeal. TWiST gives you the news in an hour plus. Equity gives you the same funding rounds and shutdowns in the time it takes to make coffee.
It's my pick for "keep up with the industry without losing a morning."
One more thing in its favor: because the hosts are reporters, they name their sources and correct themselves when they get something wrong. That's rare in this category, and it makes the takes easier to trust.
4. My First Million
Sam Parr and Shaan Puri, twice a week, brainstorming businesses they'd start today.
They're past episode 856 now (the August 2026 one with Wade Foster from Zapier is a great entry point).
Here's why it ranks this high on a TWiST alternatives list: both shows love opportunity-spotting, but MFM does it with revenue math instead of valuation math. Sam and Shaan both sold companies. When they break down an idea, they estimate what it costs to start and what it earns, not what a Series A would price it at.
I steal at least one idea a month from this show. Full list of podcasts like My First Million here.
5. Pivot
Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway, every Tuesday and Friday.
Same news-reaction format as TWiST, completely different lens. Kara brings 30 years of tech journalism sources. Scott brings the markets angle and zero filter. They argue, then keep score of whose predictions actually landed.
4.2 stars across roughly 8,000 Apple ratings, and the comments section of tech Twitter every time they say something spicy.
Listen for the big-tech and regulation coverage TWiST touches lightly. Skip if founder tactics are all you want, because there are none here.
6. BG2
Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley, two of the most respected public and venture investors alive, going deep every other week.
Only around 44 episodes, and that scarcity is the point. While TWiST reacts to everything daily, BG2 picks one or two big questions (AI capex, open source models, market structure) and spends 90 minutes actually thinking.
The Jensen Huang episode on Nvidia's $100B OpenAI partnership and the Sam Altman sit-down are two of the best tech interviews of 2026, period.
This is the show I put on when I want to understand the game the big players are playing, even though I'm not in it.
7. The a16z Show
Andreessen Horowitz rebranded the old a16z Podcast as The a16z Show, with Erik Torenberg hosting.
Yes, it's a VC firm's content arm. But the access is unreal. The July 2026 episode with Travis Kalanick and Ben Horowitz, and the Steven Sinofsky one from late August, are conversations you simply can't get anywhere else.
Treat it like TWiST's interview segments with the news stripped out and the guest ceiling raised.
Just remember every episode is also marketing for a16z's portfolio worldview. Useful input, not gospel.
8. The Pitch
The wildcard on this list, and the one I recommend most to founders who say they hate podcasts.
Real founders pitching real investors for real checks, edited like a documentary.
Josh Muccio has been running it for 15 seasons, over 200 episodes and 30M+ downloads. Founders on the show have raised $26.3M across 74 startups, including $7.3M from listeners who invested alongside.
TWiST talks about deals after they happen. The Pitch puts you in the room while the deal happens, objections and all.
Even as a bootstrapper who's not raising, I listen for one reason: you hear exactly which questions investors ask, and those are the same questions your customers are silently asking about your product.
FAQ
What podcast is most similar to This Week in Startups?
All-In is the closest in spirit (Jason Calacanis is on both), and Equity by TechCrunch is the closest in format: startup news, twice a week, from people deep inside the industry. If what you actually want from TWiST is the founder interviews, Profitable Founder Podcast or The Pitch will fit better than another news show.
Is This Week in Startups still worth listening to?
Yes, if you want daily tech news with strong opinions. Jason, Alex Wilhelm and Lon Harris publish more than almost any show in the category, and the archive of 5,000+ episodes since 2009 is unmatched. The catch is volume: keeping up is a part-time job, and most episodes are news you'll forget in a week.
What's the best startup podcast for bootstrapped founders?
Skip the news shows entirely and go for founder interviews with numbers. That's the gap Profitable Founder Podcast fills: bootstrapped SaaS founders sharing real MRR, churn and pricing details. My full ranked list is in best podcast for SaaS founders.
What happened to the a16z Podcast?
Andreessen Horowitz rebranded it as The a16z Show in 2026, with Erik Torenberg as host. Same feed, bigger interview focus, and the guest list has stepped up since the change (Travis Kalanick, Ben Horowitz and Steven Sinofsky all appeared over the summer). If you subscribed to the old a16z Podcast, you already have it.
How often does This Week in Startups publish?
Multiple episodes per week, often daily on weekdays, split between news roundtables and founder or investor interviews. That pace is exactly why people look for alternatives: it's the most complete tech news feed in podcast form, and also the hardest to keep up with.
My honest advice: keep TWiST or Equity for news, add BG2 or All-In for the big-picture debates, then protect at least one slot for a show where founders your size share numbers you can copy.
That last one is why I hit record every week.
