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Sam Altman's Masterplan or a Gift to Anthropic? Palantir & Shopify Crush Earnings

Rory O’Driscoll is a General Partner @ Scale where he has led investments in category leaders such as Bill.com (BILL), Box (BOX), DocuSign (DOCU), and WalkMe (WKME), among others. Jason Lemkin is one of the leading SaaS investors of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Algolia, Talkdesk, Owner, RevenueCat, Saleloft and more. ----------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode We Discuss: 00:00 Intro 00:54 Was GPT-5 the Biggest AI Letdown Yet? 16:12 Should Perplexity Really Try to Buy Chrome for $34.5B? 27:35 The $3B N8N Deal: Genius Bet or Bubble FOMO? 39:06 Why Datadog’s Best Quarter Ever Still Tanked the Stock 45:30 Palantir’s 50% Growth at Scale – Can It Last? Is Palantir Overpriced? 01:01:33 Shopify’s Ruthless Path to 91% Revenue Growth With 30% Fewer Staff 01:14:19 Are Seed and Series A Valuations Now at Dangerous Highs? 01:20:29 Can a Single Founder Build a Unicorn? 01:28:46 Kalshi Quick-Fire Round ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZ... Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Follow Harry Stebbings on X: / harrystebbings Follow Jason Lemkin on X: / jasonlk Follow Rory O’Driscoll on X: / rodriscoll Follow 20VC on Instagram: / 20vchq Follow 20VC on TikTok: / 20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/con... ----------------------------------------------- #20vc #harrystebbings #roryodriscoll #jasonlemkin #chatgpt5 #palantir #datadog #shopify #perplexity

Rory O’DriscollguestJason LemkinguestHarry Stebbingshost
Aug 14, 20251h 34mWatch on YouTube ↗

Episode Details

EPISODE INFO

Released
August 14, 2025
Duration
1h 34m
Channel
The Twenty Minute VC
Watch on YouTube
▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Rory O’Driscoll is a General Partner @ Scale where he has led investments in category leaders such as Bill.com (BILL), Box (BOX), DocuSign (DOCU), and WalkMe (WKME), among others. Jason Lemkin is one of the leading SaaS investors of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Algolia, Talkdesk, Owner, RevenueCat, Saleloft and more. ----------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode We Discuss: 00:00 Intro 00:54 Was GPT-5 the Biggest AI Letdown Yet? 16:12 Should Perplexity Really Try to Buy Chrome for $34.5B? 27:35 The $3B N8N Deal: Genius Bet or Bubble FOMO? 39:06 Why Datadog’s Best Quarter Ever Still Tanked the Stock 45:30 Palantir’s 50% Growth at Scale – Can It Last? Is Palantir Overpriced? 01:01:33 Shopify’s Ruthless Path to 91% Revenue Growth With 30% Fewer Staff 01:14:19 Are Seed and Series A Valuations Now at Dangerous Highs? 01:20:29 Can a Single Founder Build a Unicorn? 01:28:46 Kalshi Quick-Fire Round ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZ... Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Follow Harry Stebbings on X: / harrystebbings Follow Jason Lemkin on X: / jasonlk Follow Rory O’Driscoll on X: / rodriscoll Follow 20VC on Instagram: / 20vchq Follow 20VC on TikTok: / 20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/con... ----------------------------------------------- #20vc #harrystebbings #roryodriscoll #jasonlemkin #chatgpt5 #palantir #datadog #shopify #perplexity

SPEAKERS

  • Rory O’Driscoll

    guest

    Venture investor and panelist discussing AI, SaaS/public-market multiples, and fundraising dynamics.

  • Jason Lemkin

    guest

    Founder/CEO of SaaStr, operator-investor focused on SaaS metrics, scaling, and productivity.

  • Harry Stebbings

    host

    Founder and host of The Twenty Minute VC (20VC) who moderates interviews and panels on tech and venture capital.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Rory O’Driscoll and Jason Lemkin, Sam Altman's Masterplan or a Gift to Anthropic? Palantir & Shopify Crush Earnings explores gPT-5 fizzles, Chrome bid stuns, and lean SaaS wins big The panel frames GPT-5 as commercially important but emotionally underwhelming, signaling a shift from AGI hype toward incremental productization, price competition, and a code-focused token war with Anthropic.

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