Is Chalk.ai the ‘Next Databricks’? + Tollbit’s Bot Paywall for AI Agents | E2167
Today’s show:In this TWiST 500 double feature, Alex sits down with two breakout founders: Chalk’s Marc Freed-Finnegan & Tollbit’s Toshit Panigrahi!First, Chalk’s CEO Marc Freed-Finnegan is tackling one of AI’s biggest bottlenecks—data freshness. Instead of relying on stale batch jobs, Chalk delivers real-time pipelines for inference compute, automatically transpiling Python into C++/Rust so it can run blazing fast in production. Investors are calling it the ‘next Databricks’—and after hearing this convo, you’ll see why.Then, Tollbit’s CEO Toshit Panigrahi returns after raising a $24M Series A and signing up 1,400+ publishers. With RAG traffic exploding and robots.txt losing its teeth, their ‘bot paywall’ could reshape how AI agents pay for the content they consume. Are we heading for a Spotify moment for data licensing?A must-watch if you care about the economics of AI, from data pipelines to publisher monetization.Timestamps:(0:00) Intro + sponsors(1:03) Alex tees up two Twist 500 interviews: Chalk & Tolbert(2:47) Why AI is shifting from training compute to inference compute(4:41) Data freshness & real-time inference explained(10:43) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST(12:00) How Chalk transpiles Python into C++/Rust for speed(18:52) Chalk’s business model, margins & $500M valuation(20:11) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist(21:24) Show Continues…(28:02) Tollbit returns: $24M Series A & the rise of RAG bot traffic(30:37) .TECH: Say it without saying it. Head to get.tech/twist or your favorite registrar to get a clean, sharp .tech domain today.(31:41) Show Continues…(36:53) Robots.txt losing relevance & the case for bot paywalls(39:19)Publishers, AI agents & the future economics of the webSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisThank you to our partners:(10:43) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST(20:11) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist(30:37) .TECH: Say it without saying it. Head to get.tech/twist or your favorite registrar to get a clean, sharp .tech domain today.Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.comSubscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916
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