Insiders React: Cloudflare Makes AI Pay ...

What happens when the internet starts charging AI to crawl its content?

And can legacy tools like Figma or Grammarly survive the AI age, or will they be replaced by smarter, faster upstarts?

In this episode, Yaniv Bernstein and Chris Saad break down some of the most important shifts in tech and business right now. From Cloudflare’s launch of AI pay-per-crawl to Grammarly’s bold acquisitions and Figma’s high-stakes IPO, this is an unfiltered look at how the AI boom is reshaping product strategy, startup success, and even the global order. Plus, they react to legendary VC Vinod Khosla’s explosive predictions about automation, abundance, and the role of China in AI soft power.

In this episode, you will:

• Discover why Cloudflare’s 402 status code could transform AI data scraping and web monetization
• Understand Grammarly’s plan to stay relevant with the acquisitions of Superhuman and Coda
• Explore how Figma’s IPO could signal the return of the public tech market—and why it’s risky
• Evaluate the threat of vibe coding tools to traditional design workflows
• Hear Vinod Khosla’s take on why 80% of jobs could be automated within 5 years
• Unpack how China might use free AI tools to gain soft power and global influence
• Learn why a high-risk, high-reward mindset defines the best founders and VCs in Silicon Valley

Whether you’re building your first startup or thinking about your AI strategy, this episode offers critical insights from people who’ve seen these cycles before and know where the puck is heading.

The Pact

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Key links

Get your question in for our next Q&A episode: https://forms.gle/NZzgNWVLiFmwvFA2A

The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/

Learn more about Chris and Yaniv

Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/

Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/

Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/

Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur

Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/