Jan 9, 2026 · 57m · more-or-less
Founders Beware: Illiquid Valuations vs. Real‑World Taxes · More or Less Podcast
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In this episode of More or Less, hosts Jessica Lessin, Brit Morin, Dave Morin, and Sam Lessin analyze 2026 tech trends, examining the impact of AI code generation on software moats, California's controversial wealth tax proposal on startup founders, and society's growing shift toward physical embodiment.
Statements from this episode (28)
Dave Morin: Only one to five CES gadgets launch each year
“It's like one to five gadgets. From CES every year. See the light of day.”
Brit Morin: Lego launched Smart Brick with Bluetooth mesh networking
“Lego launched the smart brick, which is super rad. It uses like Bluetooth technology to actually build a mesh network and understand other Legos around it. It can light up, it can make noises.”
Jessica Lessin: US permitted Nvidia H200 China sales with government cut
“The H 200, Trump allowed it to be sold to China, but there's this big question of will Chinese companies buy it? He, of course, is gonna, the US government is gonna take a percentage of the sales.”
Lessin: China Instructed Tech Industry Not to Buy Nvidia H200 Chips
“Overnight breaking from the information China has said to its tech industry, no H 200. You may not buy H 200.”
Brit Morin: Apparel brand Quince reached $2 billion in 2025 revenue
“Well, Quince did two billion in revenue this year.”
Jessica Lessin predicts Elon Musk will become a trillionaire
“Elon Musk is going to be a trillionaire.”
Sam Lessin: In 2026, narratives matter more than reality
“Since we've now embraced, since all that matters in 2026 is narratives, not reality, and the narrative is he's a trillionaire.”
Dave Morin: "Billionaire" is no longer the right term for ultra-wealthy
“I mean, that's why billionaire isn't the right word to use to describe this universe anymore. Right. Cause there's also a lot of hundred billionaires, which a hundred billion is extremely larger than a billion.”
Jessica Lessin predicts unprecedented tech wealth and liquidity in 2026 and 2027
“I mean, I think that one of the risks, and this isn't to like hype the AI bubble, but one of the risks is that we don't fight quite fully grok the order of magnitude of wealth and liquidity that 2026 slash seven are going to bring.”
Sam Lessin: Anthropic Is Now a $350 Billion Company
“Anthropik's now a three hundred fifty billion dollar company.”
Brit Morin: Groq Raised Previous Round at Around $6 Billion
“Well, the last round they raised, which was a few months ago, was at, like, six.”
Lessin: Thiel, Page, and Sacks Opened Austin Offices Over CA Wealth Tax
“Anyway, this is why we saw Peter Thiel, Larry Page, David Sachs open Austin offices in the last 10 days or thereabouts.”
Lessin: Polymarket Odds on California Wealth Tax Passing Jumped Significantly
“The polymarket odds of it passing have jumped significantly.”
Sam Lessin: If California wealth tax passes, Gavin Newsom cannot be President
“Even like, I think Gavin Newsom understands that it's a, it's also, by the way, terrible for his political career, because if this passes, he will never be president, which is clearly what he wants.”
Lessin: The US Needs AI Growth to Solve Its Debt Problem
“We need AI to have any prayer of hitting, you know, the GDP we need to hit, to deal with the debt problem, which I think is like kind of the biggest narrative going on.”
Sam Lessin: Software is no longer a differentiator, just consumable media
“If you're a founder, software is no longer any sort of differentiator. Software is just like consumable. Like, it's just like, it's like a piece of media. Like, it's not like you can't build a software company.”
Lessin: Claude Code makes the commoditization of software the final boss
“Claude Code makes it the final boss.”
Dave Morin: 37signals instantly vibe coded a viral feature into Basecamp
“I think that was a really important thing that happened this week that 37 signals saw this thing happen on the internet and instantly vibe coded it into their larger scale SaaS app.”
Dave Morin predicts embodied real-world experiences and smaller trust networks will matter more
“Smaller trust networks, like embodied real world experiences, like are going to matter even more as this plays out.”
Sam Lessin predicts most will choose AI companions over real relationships
“Imagine in the near future, you can have an AI driven girlfriend, right? Boyfriend, companion, whatever. That is exactly what you want, but digital. Always available, says that it does all the things you want, like is like a perfect companion in every possible…”
Sam Lessin: Apps for in-person hangouts always fail due to friction
“This is why everyone's always trying to make, like, apps to hang out in real life and they never work, because the friction's too high.”
Brit Morin predicts AI companions will ultimately leave people sad and lonely
“So like we might have these AI companions and think we're happy in the short term. In the long term, we're like so upset and sad and lonely.”
Brit Morin: 85% of Grok Images Are Nude or Sex-Related
“Grok, no, Grok, the AI platform, not the one that offline was part of, who just raised more money, by the way. 85% of the images that it's producing right now are nude or sex related.”
Dave Morin: AI will radically amplify both curiosity and addictive tendencies
“AI is like an enormous amplifier, right? Like it's going to radically amplify, you know, curious people are more curious. If you want to build more, you can build more. Addictive personalities are going to spiral. Like all the things are going to happen, right…”
Sam Lessin: Society is downstream of technology, not vice versa
“I'd argue that society is downstream of technology. Like we live in a, like there's a physics to technology and what we can do and how we can interact. Society is just, it comes from that. It doesn't dictate to that.”
Brit Morin: Gemini and Anthropic will match OpenAI's health data integration
“Gemini's gonna do this. Anthropoc's gonna do this.”
Brit Morin: First AI to ingest personal health data wins superior moat
“However, whoever wins the like ingestion of all the data, though, first is going to have such a superior advantage unless you're Sam lesson and you think you can just export from one model to another, which I tried and it was very difficult.”