By far, the most listened to Podcast in my library is “This Week in Startups“. Every week Jason Calacanis interviews successful entrepreneurs, gives advice, talks lessons learned from failed startups and thanks the show’s sponsors. 
Matt Mickiewicz
This week, Jason interviewed Matt Mickiewicz who previously launched Sitepoint, 99designs and Flippa. Matt started developing websites at the ripe old age of fifteen back in the mid 1990s.
During the show, Matt helped Jason evaluate entrepreneur ideas during the “Ask Jason” segment. This part of the show is my absolute favorite, since we get to hear from fellow entrepreneurs and we get to hear off-the-cuff advice from seasoned entrepreneurs.
This week the Ask Jason segment was morphed into a Shark Tank like entrepreneur pitch segment. Each of the contestants pitched their startup for two minutes and then Jason and Matt discussed the idea, gave feedback on the pitch and then discussed potentially investing in the startup. Since this was a new segment, I’m not sure if the two contestants were quite ready to pitch, or perhaps their pitches weren’t polished yet, but I certainly learned more about pitching an idea.
Did I Mention Mahalo?
As the show progressed, I began to wish that I was playing a drinking game. I noticed that Jason had mentioned his own startup, Mahalo, several times. So, I started the podcast over and began counting the number of times I heard Jason say “Mahalo”.
Jason is famously known for not using PR companies. He believes that you can do the work yourself. After listening to the entire show, I can tell you that my liver is thankful that I didn’t take a chug every time Jason said “Mahalo”. In the 2 hour and 25 minute show, Jason said “Mahalo” 41 times. On average, that’s once about every 3.5 minutes or 17.5 MPH (Mahalos per Hour).
(mentions by each 20 minute block of the show)
Final Score
I give this episode, a solid 4 out 5. If Jason took more questions and we got more “Insights from Tyler”, it would have been a 4.5.
Update:
During the next TWiST expisode, Episode #14, Jason mentioned Mahalo only four times during the 1 hour show. At 4 MPH, no one playing the Mahalo drinking game this time even caught a buzz…
September 5th, 2009 at 11:16 am
John:
Interesting observation about the “Mahalo” mentions. I didn’t pick up on it, you are correct that he doesn’t usually pimp his work. Although, it is possible I have missed it all along.
Scott Simko
September 6th, 2009 at 7:49 am
Scott,
First of all, I think that you do an excellent job recapping the show every week. Your weekly recap is thorough and a must read.
To be fair, many of Jason’s Mahalo mentions were related to giving away swag. I think that This Week in Startups should have its own swag. That way, Jason could give away non-Mahalo merchandise and most of the Mahalo mentions would be related to start-up scenarios.
Last. I’m not a Mahalo hater. I’ve answered a few questions and posted a question on Mahalo. I like and believe in the crowdsourced model
September 9th, 2009 at 3:34 am
thanks for posting the review, John I enjoyed reading it and like Scott didn’t pick up on the Mahalo mentions.