It’s a boat, it’s a plane, it’s REGENT’s Seafarer | E2205

It’s a boat, it’s a plane, it’s REGENT’s Seafarer | E2205

Author: Jason Calacanis November 8, 2025 Duration: 1:15:13

Register for Founder University Japan’s Kickoff: https://luma.com/cm0x90mk


Today’s show:

*The key to avoiding long airport delays? Low-altitude sea planes! Why didn’t you think of that?

We’ve got an awesome line-up of TWiST 500 founders giving us an inside glimpse inside their startups on this Friday special edition.

FIRST: Billy Thalheimer of REGENT introduces us to their aircraft/boat hybrid The Seaglider, and walk us through how it all works, AND why they’re operating in BOTH the commercial and defense sectors from their Rhode Island HQ.

THEN, we’ve got Convexia co-founder Ayaan Parekh showcasing how they’re using a collective of specialist AI agents to exploit other pharma labs’ leftovers and turn them into new drugs and treatments for rare diseases.

FINALLY, Hunter Leath of Archil joins the show to tell us why efficient utilization of cloud data remains a surprisingly complex, and unsolved problem. His solution? Caching-as-a-Service! Find out how it all works, and why pre-caching is SO difficult to do, in this TWiST exclusive chat.

Timestamps:

  • (03:01) Billy Thalheimer of REGENT introduces us to the Seaglider
  • (05:06) Inside the EV aircraft/boat hybrid’s three modes of operation
  • (08:22) How REGENT uses low altitude flight to avoid airport-related hassles
  • (9:42) Sentry - New users get 3 months free of the Business plan (covers 150k errors). Go to ⁠http://sentry.io/twist⁠ and use code TWIST

  • (13:57) The converging tech that makes Seaglider possible
  • (18:20) How REGENT is operating in BOTH the commercial and defense sectors
  • (19:39) LinkedIn Ads - Start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. Launch your first campaign and get $250 FREE when you spend at least $250. Go to ⁠http://linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups⁠ to claim your credit.
  • (25:05) Why Rhode Island?!
  • (29:23) Pipedrive - Bring your entire sales process into one elegant space. Get started with a 30 day free trial at ⁠https://pipedrive.com/twist⁠
  • (31:04) Convexia co-founder Ayan Parekh joins Alex to discuss “the world’s first AI-maximalist pharmaceutical company”
  • (33:02) Using AI agents to revisit leftover bio IP and unused data
  • (33:22) Why so many drugs fail to reach market
  • (35:46) Applying different agents to different kinds of tasks
  • (44:26) The unique opportunities posed by rare diseases
  • (46:58) On the road toward vertical integration
  • (50:48) Hunter Leath of Archil tells us why utilizing cloud data effectively remains a complex, unsolved problem
  • (51:56) What is “Caching as a Service”?
  • (55:53) Why pre-caching is NOT obvious and “tremendously difficult to do”
  • (57:00) Why the major cloud players didn’t built this themselves
  • (01:00:37) Deliberately keeping the focus narrow… for now…

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X: https://x.com/lons


Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm


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X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis


Thank you to our partners:

Sentry - New users get 3 months free of the Business plan (covers 150k errors). Go to http://sentry.io/twist and use code TWIST

LinkedIn Ads - Start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. Launch your first campaign and get $250 FREE when you spend at least $250. Go to http://linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups to claim your credit.

Pipedrive - Bring your entire sales process into one elegant space. Get started with a 30 day free trial at https://pipedrive.com/twist


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Every week, Jason Calacanis dives headfirst into the swirling vortex of Silicon Valley and global tech with This Week in Startups. It’s a direct line to the conversations shaping our digital future, moving far beyond surface-level news. You’ll hear Jason’s unfiltered analysis on everything from market shifts and media trends to the underlying mechanics of building a business, all delivered with a blend of enthusiasm and seasoned skepticism. The core of this podcast, however, lies in the guests. Jason sits down with the very people driving change-founders who have scaled impossible heights, operators managing daily chaos, and investors who spot trends before they become obvious. These conversations are less like formal interviews and more like insider debriefs, pulling back the curtain on real strategies, painful failures, and unexpected successes. For anyone curious about how technology is built, funded, and ultimately changes the world, this series offers a front-row seat. It’s the context behind the headlines, providing a deeper understanding of the forces at play in startups and technology. Tune in for a consistently engaging and insightful look at the ecosystem, straight from someone who lives and breathes it.
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