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Hi Friends,
Writing this from our beautiful You.com office in San Francisco's Financial District. It's been an exciting few weeks, and I wanted to share a few things we're working on.
🚀 We're launching a new startup program!
To support the next generation of AI builders, we're offering up to $1,000 in You.com API credits for eligible startups. If you're building something exciting, we'd love to help.
Apply here: You.com Startup Grant
We're giving priority consideration to female-founded startups and YC companies, but all early-stage startups are encouraged to apply.
🎉 Join us during Databricks Summit week!
We're hosting a series of events for founders, investors, and AI leaders:
☕ AI Founder & VC Panel + Breakfast
🍽️ AI C-Suite Dinner @ Burma Love
🎮 AI Happy Hour at Thriller Social SF (Arcade + Open Bar)
Hope to see many of you next week!
Mariane
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This Week's Journal
What Is Home?
I wrote this article on the plane ride back to SF with tears in my eyes.
I've spent most of my life searching for home.
As a little girl, I thought home was a place — a beautiful house where I would finally feel safe, seen, and like I belonged.
So I kept searching.
I searched from a hospital bed during the war in Lebanon.
I searched while living in a tiny apartment in Canada with three other refugee families after we arrived with almost nothing.
I searched through every new city, every new beginning, every new chapter.
I thought I had finally found it when I got married.
When that chapter ended, I convinced myself it had to be somewhere else.
Maybe another house.
Maybe another city.
Maybe another life.
This week I traveled from California to San Diego and then to New York Tech Week.
For eight days, I barely stopped moving.
And somewhere between airports, meetings, dinners, and events, I found myself asking the same question I've been asking my entire life:
Where is home?
Then I closed my eyes.
I didn't see a house.
I didn't see a country.
I didn't see an address.
I saw Liam sprinting toward me with his tiny arms wide open.
I saw Leo curled up beside me while we watched our favorite shows.
I saw myself sitting on Amanda's couch, praying together until our tears turned into peace.
I saw Jeni, Sako, Ed, Vincent, and Huan around a fire, laughing until we couldn't breathe.
I saw the hundreds of people I've met through this community who have shown up with encouragement, friendship, and love when they had nothing to gain.
And suddenly, after spending decades searching...
I realized I had been looking in all the wrong places.
Home is not a house.
It's not a city.
It's not where you were born.
It's not where you live.
Home is the people who choose you when they don't have to.
The people who cheer for you when no one is watching.
The people who love you before your title and after your failures.
The people who make you feel like you belong without asking you to become someone else.
For years, I thought I was trying to build a home.
The truth is, I've been building one all along.
It's made of friendships.
It's made of family.
It's made of laughter, prayers, late-night conversations, and tiny hugs that make the whole world disappear.
Liam and Leo, the loves of my life, I'm sorry Mommy has been gone for eight days.
I'm coming home.
- Mariane Bekker
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In-person events in San Francisco — VIP members attend for free
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 | | AI B2B Founder & VC Dinner @ ERIA | | SF · Thu, Jun 11 · 5PM-9PM PT | | FREE | | View event → |
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|  | | AI Founder/VC Panel + Breakfast | | SF · Tue, Jun 16 · 10AM-1PM PT | | FREE | | View event → |
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|  | | Off the Floor: a Private Dinner for Data + AI Leaders W/ You.com | | SF · Tue, Jun 16 · 6:30PM-9PM PT | | FREE | | View event → |
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|  | | AI Happy Hour — Databricks Summit Side Event | | SF · Wed, Jun 17 · 5PM-8PM PT | | FREE | | View event → |
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|  | | YC Founders on the Bay | | SF · Fri, Jun 19 · 6:30PM-9:30PM PT | | FREE | | View event → |
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|  | | Founder/VC Panel + Dinner @ Focus Innovation Studio | | SF · Tue, Jun 23 · 5PM-8PM PT | | FREE | | View event → |
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|  | | Super{set} & Founders Bay Host: the Changing Role of Software Engineering | | SF · Thu, Jun 25 · 5PM-7:30PM PT | | FREE | | View event → |
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 | | VIP Founder Meetup: Fundraising, Hiring & Branding Conversations | | Virtual · Tue, Jun 16 · 3PM-4PM PT | | FREE | | View event → |
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|  | | Hermes Agent for Professionals — Session 2. Live Use Cases & Real Workflows | | Virtual · Thu, Jun 18 · 11AM-12PM PT | | FREE | | View event → |
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|  | | Founders Bay Expert Office Hours: Startup Advice With Mariane Bekker | | Virtual · Wed, Jun 24 · 3PM-5PM PT | | FREE for VIP | | View event → |
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In-person events in Los Angeles — featured this week
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| Future of AI Summit |
| Friday, May 15, 2026 · 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM PT |
| Millennium Biltmore Hotel · Los Angeles |
| FREE |
| RSVP → |
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More This Week
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The Top 100 AI VCs Directory
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| ✓ 100 active AI funds |
✓ Partner emails |
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Recent posts from the Founders Bay blog — playbooks for early-stage AI founders.
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TECH FEST 2026
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Founders Bay Expert Office Hours: Startup Advice with Mariane Bekker
Wed, Jun 24 · Paid event FREE for VIP
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Step SF 2026: The AI & Tech Startup Festival
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From Profile to Influence — Master LinkedIn Branding
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$9 · Free for VIP members
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