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Jacqui Deegan
Educational Producer and Content Creator
Jacqui Deegan is a prominent figure in the startup and media landscape, currently serving as the Managing Director at LAUNCH. She has held this position since 2019, where she is involved in various initiatives, including the LAUNCH Accelerator and the LAUNCH Fund, which supports early-stage startups.
Previously, Deegan was the Executive Producer for "This Week in Startups," a role she held from 2014 to 2019. During her tenure, she contributed significantly to the show's production, helping to shape its content and reach within the startup community.
Her background includes extensive experience in television production, having worked with notable organizations such as WGBH and Universal Studios Hollywood. Deegan has a strong educational foundation, holding a Bachelor’s degree in Russian Studies and Political Science from Barnard College, as well as a Master’s degree in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Additionally, she has received training in conflict mediation, further enhancing her skill set in managing diverse teams and projects.1234
Highlights
Today on TWiST:
Meet @yoland_yan, co-founder/CEO of image/video generator @ComfyUI, who just raised a $30M round led by Craft Ventures!
With 4M users, 60k+ community-built nodes, and 150k daily downloads, does this become the next Adobe? 👀
Live at 12PM CT @Jason https://t.co/4enj8EG3SI

Anthropic and OpenAI slammed the this week on secondary transactions of their shares as both AI labs race to list. To help @jason and @alex unpack the market-moving news, investors @jefielding @davemcclure and @lessin joined our venture capital panel to make plain which Anthropic investing vehicles are legit, and which may be fake. The group also dug into software moats, large venture funds pressuring smaller firms, the future of LP capital, and the IPO market!
0:00 Guest introductions 1:30 Guest introductions 2:36 Anthropic voids unauthorized SPV trades 9:23 Accredited investor reform & the SEC sophisticated investor test 9:40 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) - Quo gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://t.co/jePdhTcCrO 12:25 Naval's USVC closed-end fund as a workaround 17:23 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://t.co/AhhYi7Bzen and use code TWIST for 10% off! 18:30 Pro-rata rights battles: when Series A investors push seed investors out 20:18 Grasshopper Bank: Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://t.co/83Lr7qiram and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account. 29:55 Pilot: Focus on your product, let Pilot handle your bookkeeping. Pilot provides the most reliable accounting, CFO, and tax services for startups and small businesses. Head to https://t.co/LEOcqgBt5I and get $1,200 off your first year. 31:05 Storing wealth in stories vs. cash flows 35:01 Cerebras and Fervo Energy IPOs — meaningful liquidity? 38:36 Will SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI IPOs redistribute capital or compound it? 46:40 The $15M Series A founder who returned the money because of Claude 50:43 Should founders pivot or return capital when the world changes? 57:25 OpenAI's $6.6B tender and Shruti Gandhi's viral SF cost-of-living tweet 1:01:07 Intercom rebrands to Fin: the AI-first late-stage pivot
🎥 Watch the full episode here 👇
