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Jason Calacanis
Founder of LAUNCH, LAUNCH

All-In Liquidity: Podcast 'Bestie' + Host Jason Calacanis Overviews 2026 Summit

🎥 Jun 09, 2026 📺 New York Stock Exchange ⏱ 17m 👁 101 views
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About Jason Calacanis

Jason Calacanis, co-host of the All-In podcast and founder of LAUNCH, has been active on his podcast and at events discussing investment strategy, the technology industry, and political dynamics. In October 2024, he outlined his investing philosophy, emphasizing backing a team's vision over hype and dollar-cost averaging into companies one believes in. He described Elon Musk as having a gift for pursuing multiple visions concurrently and argued that criticism of valuation hand-wringing stems from an inability to tolerate ambiguity across multiple business lines. In mid-2026, Calacanis moderated the All-In Liquidity Summit in Napa Valley, describing it as an event for the "top 0.1%" of the podcast's audience, with 550 capital allocators representing $7 trillion in capital present. He stated that the event was part of a broader community-building effort and that his philosophy for events is that attendees return if they make a great contact, have a great experience, or learn something. Calacanis has also commented on the current tech boom, which he attributed to AI, noting that companies like xAI, OpenAI, and Anthropic are going public. He described seeing "a Cambrian explosion in startups" and said he personally invests in roughly 100 new companies per year through his fund LAUNCH and a program called Founder University. In a May 2026 appearance on the Bulwark Podcast, Calacanis discussed why some in Silicon Valley have been reluctant to criticize President Trump, arguing that access to the administration to shape policy is preferable to not having one's phone calls returned. He also described former President Trump's handling of Iran as "an unmitigated disaster" and said he believed it would "kill his presidency." Additionally, Calacanis has been publicly critical of Mark Zuckerberg, stating that the Meta CEO has "damaged the reputation of the industry" by repeatedly prioritizing self-interest over what Calacanis described as the right thing for humanity, including in matters of privacy and content moderation.

Source: AI-verified profile updated from Jason Calacanis's recent appearances. Browse all interviews →

Transcript (54 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
R
Reporter0:00
We're here at the All-in Liquidity Summit in Napa Valley, California, and I'm pleased to be joined by one of the besties. You know him as the moderator of the All-in podcast, Jason Calacanis. Jason, thanks for having us.
J
Jason Calacanis0:21
Amazing, and even more gradually, we're in the town of Yountville, which is a fabulous culinary destination. Earmarked and anchored by the amazing Thomas Keller, who has the French Laundry, three Michelin stars. Obviously, in New York, he has Per Se, another three Michelin stars, and he has Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery. This is an amazing town, and they did a great job of literally letting us buy out the entire town. 550 of the world's greatest capital allocators are here. That could be seed investors, high-net-worth individuals, all the way to hedge funds, and everything in between, venture, private equity, family offices. And 3,000 people applied to get those 500 or so seats, and 7 trillion dollars in capital here.
R
Reporter1:12
Wow.
J
Jason Calacanis1:13
And today, we just had an amazing moment where we had four different people pitch four different ideas to the audience, and the audience got to vote on them. And people were trading those stocks and cryptos in real time. And just such a wonderful event for capital allocators to be able to come and get a half day of programming, activities, meetings, culinary adventures.
R
Reporter1:36
Yes.
J
Jason Calacanis1:37
On the second day, today, Tuesday, we let everybody choose. They can do more meetings if they want. Some people just love the meetings. Or they can have deeper meetings on the golf course, paddle boarding, clay pigeon shooting, race car driving, you name it.
R
Reporter1:54
Maybe with some wine liquidity.
J
Jason Calacanis1:56
Yeah, there's some wine. There are wine tours. Last night I went to the French Laundry for the first time and my lord, they pair all 14 courses or so with a beverage. So, we were one bestie down today.
R
Reporter2:10
Oh, no.
J
Jason Calacanis2:11
I suspect it might have been the generosity of Thomas Keller.
R
Reporter2:14
What was your favorite one? Your favorite course?
J
Jason Calacanis2:17
Wow. Well, Thomas Keller's a genius and he knows how to prepare things elegantly, simply, with the greatest ingredients in the world. There is an oysters and pearls dish with literally oysters and caviar. Outstanding. There's poached baby lobster tail with butter. Extraordinary. But, I'm a meat guy. Okay. And they had a duck that was crispy on the outside, absolutely transcendent. And finally, everybody knows Kobe or Wagyu beef. But, true connoisseurs, and it doesn't really leave Japan that often, is Miyazaki. Miyazaki is like the San Diego beach town south of Tokyo. And I've actually been there once for a conference and a speaking gig. And they had an incredible highest grade Miyazaki, A555 plus plus plus beef. Incredible. And then dessert comes and they give you seven different desserts.
R
Reporter3:15
Okay.
J
Jason Calacanis3:16
It was bonkers. And my favorite dessert was a cappuccino and I said, 'Oh, I didn't order a coffee.' But, it looked like a cappuccino. He said, 'Oh, no, no, no. That's dessert.' It's literally a cappuccino ice cream with a semifreddo blah blah blah. And it looks like, you know, those plastic Japanese fake foods that they put in the windows? It looks almost fake and you take it and you sip it and you eat it. I love coffee ice cream.
R
Reporter3:40
I have to tell you, even as a guest here in our media hub, the hospitality has been absolutely incredible and we've so enjoyed partnering, of course, with All In on this and speaking to many of the speakers who have joined you on stage. Let's talk about some of those stage moments. What have been your biggest takeaways?
J
Jason Calacanis3:58
Well, you know, we're in a boom right now. And that boom is based on AI. And a lot of people who are here have invested in companies like xAI, OpenAI, Anthropic, infrastructure, Cerebras. And so we've all known this wave was coming. And now many of the companies going public, as you well know, we're going to have three huge ones in probably a 6-month period. Right after Cerebras was also a big one. So SpaceX and of course Anthropic filed.
R
Reporter4:27
OpenAI.
J
Jason Calacanis4:28
OpenAI. And then you know, there's the other market activity happening like Google is doing a capital raise of 80 billion to keep up with the raise. All of this has second-order, third-order effects. Fancy way of saying what happens to the money and the capital? All this money's being made, all this money's being raised and deployed. So what happens with all that capital? You've got people who've owned SpaceX shares for two decades. And OpenAI shares for 10 years, etc. All of that money's going to be recirculated. What is it going to be recirculated in? Well, if you happen to own some San Francisco Bay Area real estate, and I happen to I left San Francisco and the Bay Area years ago, but I have three properties there. And the wife handles these and she's incredible at picking them. We're like, if there was a time to sell. And so I literally I'm going to put my three California properties on the market. And I'm going to allow people to offer SpaceX, OpenAI, or Anthropic shares for the properties.
R
Reporter5:28
Wow.
J
Jason Calacanis5:29
Because people need homes. And what's the first thing you do when you make a hundred million or a billion is you upgrade the house.
R
Reporter5:35
Yeah.
J
Jason Calacanis5:36
So I'm going to be selling some San Francisco real estate, I think. I'm being a bit facetious, but it's true. But more importantly, you're going to have people who worked really hard in these companies for 10 years maybe have had very little liquidity if any, be able to then graduate from these companies and start the next generation companies, become LPs in venture funds, and angel invest in companies. That's the magic of the technology industry. I've been in it for 30 years. The generosity people have in our industry and the pay-it-forward nature, which is just built into the philosophy. You know, you look at Hollywood, you look at finance and Wall Street, the business you're in. You know, those can be insular at times. It's hard to break in. People always talk about breaking into Hollywood, breaking into the music business, breaking into finance and Wall Street. In technology, you just show up and you're in. And you say, 'Hey, I'm doing a startup.' or 'I need advice.' or 'I'm thinking about joining a startup.' And then you will be invited to 10 parties, people will talk to you, people will give you advice with no expectation of return. It's the most generous, open community in the world. Now, sometimes, things in technology cause other second and third-order effects in society. Tech industry has to be better about managing, I think, the reputation of our industry and we see that with AI. People are scared about job displacement, job loss. But putting all that aside, it's going to be an incredible super cycle of new companies. I am an early-stage investor. I invest in 100 new companies per year at my fund launch and at a program we do called Founder University around the world. And so, what I'm seeing on the ground is a Cambrian explosion in startups. More people, sometimes they're laid off from Meta or Microsoft as they downsize and automate. And those folks are like, 'You know what? I got laid off, I got a 24-month severance package, cashed out my RSUs. I'm good for three, four, five years. I think I'll start a company. Great for me.' That's the amazing thing about the American economy. And the entrepreneurial spirit here. That's why America keeps winning. Every time they say we're going to get beat by Japan, we're going to get beat by China, we're going to get beat by, you know, pick the country, pick the threat. It's a new one every 10, 20 years. The entrepreneurs in this country that pay-it-forward nature and innovation continues to drive our economy. If you look at the top 50 publicly traded companies, you know, it's going to be 40 of them are from America.
R
Reporter8:03
And you have a lot of bestie fans, I must say. You're talking about inclusion here, but obviously the podcast has been wildly successful. Has it been fun for you to connect with some of those fans on site?
J
Jason Calacanis8:14
Yeah, so you know, we do something called the All-In Summit that is for 3,000 people and we'll be doing our fifth this year in Los Angeles. And that's a bit more accessible and, you'll meet some of the, you know, the top 1% of the audience. Here, this is the top 0.1% of the audience. And so, we have created this very interesting events and community. Events business, but it's more like a community and folks come back to each one. And my philosophy of events is very straightforward. If you come to the event and one of three things happens, you're going to come back again. Just one. If you make a great contact, a new friend, or just a business contact. If you have a great experience, you enjoy the wine, the city. I mean, look at this. Like, if you enjoy the experience and if you learn something. And if you look at an event like this, you can't not enjoy Thomas Keller and Jan Fell and the extraordinary hospitality. This is the 0.1% of our audience, All-In's audience is extraordinary on average, but to, you know, be the one in a thousand audience members who comes to this, everybody here is incredibly interesting. Met a woman and her husband who came, big fans of the show. They said, 'I brought you a gift.' This is chocolate from France. I said, 'Oh my god, I love chocolate. How did you know?' I open it up, I look at it, the most extraordinary chocolate. I said, 'I got to tell you this is incredible. Tastes great. What a great unboxing experience.' I said, 'Is this your business?' And I said, 'Oh, how did you discover this chocolate?' And he said, 'Oh, we own it.' I said, 'Oh, you're in the chocolate business?' 'Oh, no, no, no. That's just like a little side quest.' The side quest here for this audience level are extraordinary. Their primary businesses are otherworldly. And so, you know, if you just hit one or two of those, people will come back. If you hit three, word spreads, and then you have the wait list. And that's actually if when you talk about the popularity of the podcast, which we didn't expect when we just did it in COVID cuz we missed each other. We just jumped on a Zoom and recorded it. The popularity of the podcast, I think surprised everybody. Like it's become a top 10 podcast. Like I think last week we're the eighth most listened to episode in the world. I get stopped in airports 10, 20 times. I was skiing in Japan in Niseko. Got a helmet on and goggles. And someone's like, 'Are you Jason Calacanis?' And yes, I am. 'Oh, I love the pod.' Like and then that happened three or four more times. So each day, you know, four or five people would recognize me on a ski slope in Japan.
R
Reporter10:47
Wow.
J
Jason Calacanis10:48
So there's something about podcasting when a couple of million people listen every week and you're in their ears it creates a deep bond. A very deep bond with people. And because we have a jovial nature, we break each other's chops a little bit like boys will do in the schoolyard or on the stupid Brooklyn we kind of have fun making fun of each other and pointing out our insecurities and just being jocular and silly. That has made people feel like they're our bestie, too. And that they're part of this. And it is true, they are. And so we're having a what they call a generational run. We're 5 years into it and it has been just a great joy.
R
Reporter11:28
It's been a lot of fun to watch. Congratulations, Jason. And the NYSE is so happy to be a part of this event in particular.
J
Jason Calacanis11:35
It's absolutely fantastic to have you guys as a partner. We have just a small handful of partners who are aligned in our mission, which is really to have the most important discussions with the people building the future, and that's what you do. You support that same group of people who are building the future, democratizing access to these incredible companies, and you know, the economic security, having a brighter future, capitalism is the engine. And everybody wants to have a better life and a better life for their kids, right? And the stock exchange plays such an important role in that. I've been enamored with the stock exchange since I was a kid. And I see it in my three daughters. We gave them each a little trading account, and they get $100 a week, $50 in allowance, and $50 that has to be invested. And so now we're having that. So anybody who's watching, you have Invest America, aka Trump accounts, great. But you should really consider, you know, putting some money aside and teaching them how the stock exchange works and how stocks work and how to understand earnings. Financial literacy is just so under appreciated, and we don't give our kids that as like a base part of their education earlier on. So I just encourage all parents to do that. It really is something fun you can do with your kids. And then you want your kids to have a stable future, a bright future, you have to be part of equities. You cannot have a future on planet Earth and specifically in America if you do not start accumulating equities because equities and these companies are accelerating faster, much faster than the average person's income and career, which is not because they don't have a great career or their income's not great. It's just these companies are so extraordinary. You have to own a little bit of them. So every year, 10, 20% of whatever you make, own some equities. Time in market, not timing the market.
R
Reporter13:33
Correct.
J
Jason Calacanis13:33
Just time in market.
R
Reporter13:35
That's what we hear.
J
Jason Calacanis13:36
That's what I It's not financial advice, but that's what you should do.
R
Reporter13:41
From the bestie himself. Jason, let's end with this. We are in beautiful Yountville. What else is in store today?
J
Jason Calacanis13:49
So, today on day two, day one, we have content in the morning, meetings in the afternoon. Business, business. And at night some poker, backgammon, incredible food. Today, content till noon, little bit of lunch. Then you can either do meetings if you are really driven, or you can go do an excursion. So, people are heading out to golf, clay pigeon shooting at a place called Wing & Barrel, which is like a private club for shooting clay pigeons. So much fun. Driving sports cars, you name it. We've got an itinerary. There's of course going on wine tours. There's a couple of those going on. So, what we find is people who go do something together and they learn a new thing together, that actually brings great joy to people's lives. You may This is how I, you know, this is a trick of how I landed my wife, who's a 10. And you know, I'm obviously a five or six on a good day. I would always take her to something unique and special in the world, and we started exploring the world together, whatever.
R
Reporter14:47
Making memories.
J
Jason Calacanis14:48
Making memories together, and specifically if you learn something new and fun, challenging. So, we'd, you know, learn to snowboard together and whatever it is. Creates a great connection, great bond. And so, that is for your friends, for your spouse, also for business. But people forget that, and so, you know, golf has always been there. Play a little poker, play a little backgammon. So, we have maybe 15 poker tables here. It is all in after court, of course. And we have like half the tables are people who've never played before. And they play for $1, $2. They buy in for $40, which given who's here and their bank rolls. But, they learn to play poker together. Half the people here know how to play poker, the other half don't. What a great thing to learn. Maybe you don't have never played backgammon. Just an incredibly elegant, beautiful You play backgammon?
R
Reporter15:32
I don't play backgammon, but I do teach on the agenda tonight.
J
Jason Calacanis15:35
Let's play tonight. It's an incredible game. Once you learn to play backgammon, you have so much fun playing it, then you're going to go on vacation and be like, 'I'm going to bring the backgammon board, and I'm going to sit by the pool, and have a couple of cocktails, or whatever you're into, and play a little backgammon outside.' Chef's kiss. So, go learn some backgammon. Did you make any friends?
R
Reporter15:56
I've made a lot of friends. We've had probably 20 people at this media hub, Jason. Of course.
J
Jason Calacanis16:01
And you're the exclusive media hub, so congratulations. And we'll see you at the summit, I believe, and next year. And yeah, it's just a great honor to have you guys involved in the community.
R
Reporter16:11
We're very happy to be here, and so thank you. Jason Calacanis, one of the best besties, a moderator here, of course.
J
Jason Calacanis16:17
Some say the world's greatest.
R
Reporter16:18
The world's greatest. You heard it here.
J
Jason Calacanis16:22
Some say. It's not for me to say.
R
Reporter16:23
Yes.
J
Jason Calacanis16:24
You know, it started as a joke, the world's greatest moderator thing. And now, I have like a speaker bureau and everything. And they're like, you know, they're doing this thing, New York Soccer Chain's doing something in Singapore or Hong Kong or Ernst & Young's doing something over here. They said they need the world's greatest moderator. I'm like,
R
Reporter16:42
It's Jason.
J
Jason Calacanis16:43
That's me. That's me. Let's go. And I get to travel the world now, and
R
Reporter16:46
That's amazing.
J
Jason Calacanis16:47
Just like you do.
R
Reporter16:48
Yep. And try cool new things.
J
Jason Calacanis16:50
Absolutely, yes.
R
Reporter16:51
Absolutely. Well, Jason, thanks again.
J
Jason Calacanis16:53
Pleasure.