Atoms

17 statements across 2 episodes · 8 bullish · 0 bearish · 2 people on the record · first statement Jul 22, 2026 by Travis Kalanick · said 23 times in 2 episodes since 2026 · across every show →

Mentions by year

brought up most by Erik Torenberg (10), Travis Kalanick (8), Ben Horowitz (5)

tap a year for its mentions
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0122026episodes it came up in
007.511522026episodesmentions per episode
2026 23 mentions in 2 episodes 12 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Atoms, oldest first

Jul 22, 2026
Disclosure
Kalanick built Atoms in stealth to ignore media scrutiny
“Because remember, I wanted to build without worrying about what the New York Times was saying.”
Travis Kalanick Jul 22, 2026 ▶ 58:35 Building a Company in Stealth | Travis Kalanick with a16z
Jul 22, 2026 neutral
Disclosure
Kalanick: Atoms currently focuses strictly on food, mining, and transport
“Look I tell people I'm very focused right now because it's only food mining and transport.”
Travis Kalanick Jul 22, 2026 ▶ 1:05:18 Building a Company in Stealth | Travis Kalanick with a16z
Jul 22, 2026
Insight
Kalanick: Specialized robotics companies must own their own autonomy technology
“Because if you're going to be in the specialized robotics game, you have to have autonomy for yourself. You have to. Your robots are act, are moving and acting in the physical world, and you cannot depend of, on only one company that has an existence proof.”
Travis Kalanick Jul 22, 2026 ▶ 42:14 Building a Company in Stealth | Travis Kalanick with a16z
Jul 22, 2026 positive
Insight
Kalanick: Full-stack physical automation requires mobile robotics in every industry
“But like, actually what it means is every industry is moving things. There's some movement of things eventually. And you must have wheelbase as part of what they do if you want to automate Full stack.”
Travis Kalanick Jul 22, 2026 ▶ 1:19:59 Building a Company in Stealth | Travis Kalanick with a16z
Jul 22, 2026 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Kalanick: Efficient meal delivery will replace home kitchens like Uber replaced cars
“The meaningful thing about Adam's food is, can you make the preparation and delivery of a quality meal so efficient that it approaches the cost of going to the grocery store? If it does, You do to the kitchen what Uber did to the car.”
Travis Kalanick Jul 22, 2026 ▶ 0:44 Building a Company in Stealth | Travis Kalanick with a16z
Jul 22, 2026 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kalanick: Atoms uses TCP sawtooth algorithm to manage kitchen order demand
“In fact, we use TCP sawtooth, To basically manage how much demand to send to certain kitchens based on capacity and reliability, as an example.”
Travis Kalanick Jul 22, 2026 ▶ 36:29 Building a Company in Stealth | Travis Kalanick with a16z
Jul 22, 2026
Disclosure
Kalanick reveals he was Pronto's largest investor before acquiring it
“I was the biggest investor in Pronto. I'm like, let's go. So acquired Pronto, and now I'm in the mining business.”
Travis Kalanick Jul 22, 2026 ▶ 43:23 Building a Company in Stealth | Travis Kalanick with a16z
Jul 22, 2026 neutral
Disclosure
Kalanick: Atoms does not build humanoid robotics or military applications
“No, no, no, we're like the non-humanoid guys. I don't have a problem with them, but that's not what we do. You're like, oh, do you do like some military thing? You're like, no, that's not my thing either.”
Travis Kalanick Jul 22, 2026 ▶ 1:26:44 Building a Company in Stealth | Travis Kalanick with a16z
Jul 22, 2026
Insight
Kalanick: Companies should operate just inches away from legal boundaries
“I like to go to the line. We should be like a few inches off the line. That's a good thing to do.”
Travis Kalanick Jul 22, 2026 ▶ 1:29:40 Building a Company in Stealth | Travis Kalanick with a16z
Aug 13, 2026 bullish
Disclosure
Travis Kalanick: Atoms software is operating autonomous heavy mining machines
“And this is an autonomous mining machine operating on our stuff.”
Travis Kalanick Aug 13, 2026 ▶ 10:57 Travis Kalanick: How AI Will Transform the Physical World
Aug 13, 2026 positive
Disclosure
Kalanick: Atoms deploys robotics to automate food production
“So we have robotics that basically do the production of food.”
Travis Kalanick Aug 13, 2026 ▶ 8:03 Travis Kalanick: How AI Will Transform the Physical World
Aug 13, 2026 bullish
Disclosure
Kalanick: Atoms is one of the main companies building industrial AI systems
“Systems of software, sensors, robotics, and AI used to automate operations of entire industrial sectors. Ok, that's what we do. I don't know if anybody else does it. I mean, there are people doing it that they don't call it this. We're one of the main guys doi…”
Travis Kalanick Aug 13, 2026 ▶ 7:20 Travis Kalanick: How AI Will Transform the Physical World
Aug 13, 2026
Disclosure
Kalanick: I worked for eight years privately before launching Atoms
“A lot of folks, they say, hey, Travis is back, or, you know, I think it might have even been on your invite. But I've actually been working for eight years. I just haven't been talking about it.”
Travis Kalanick Aug 13, 2026 ▶ 21:43 Travis Kalanick: How AI Will Transform the Physical World
Aug 13, 2026 positive
Assertion Open · timeframe Aug 2026
Kalanick says former Uber CFO and engineering VP joined Atoms
“Gautam, who was the CFO over at Uber has joined Adams. That's a recent thing. Ganesh, who was A VP or SVP of engineering over at Uber has just joined Adams”
Travis Kalanick Aug 13, 2026 ▶ 40:23 Travis Kalanick: How AI Will Transform the Physical World
Aug 13, 2026 bullish
Disclosure
Horowitz says his investment in Atoms is his largest check ever
“Certainly the biggest check I ever run.”
Ben Horowitz Aug 13, 2026 ▶ 36:25 Travis Kalanick: How AI Will Transform the Physical World
Aug 13, 2026 positive
Insight
Kalanick: Avoiding confrontation forces teams to settle for mediocre ideas
“There's so many people that are not willing to fight for the best idea because they're going to upset somebody else. And if you don't fight for the best idea, then what idea are you fighting for? You're fighting for the mediocre idea, the politically expedient…”
Travis Kalanick Aug 13, 2026 ▶ 25:37 Travis Kalanick: How AI Will Transform the Physical World
Aug 13, 2026
Assertion Supported
Kalanick confirms Anthony Levandowski and Eric Meyhofer joined Atoms robotics
“Anthony Lewandowski, of course Eric Maihofer, who ran Uber's advanced technology group. He's running food robotics.”
Travis Kalanick Aug 13, 2026 ▶ 40:42 Travis Kalanick: How AI Will Transform the Physical World
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