Hi Friends,

Apologies for the delay in sending this - I took yesterday off for a quick birthday reset, so this update is landing a little later today — but I promise it’s a good one.

First off — thank you so much for all the birthday wishes! 🖤
It truly means the world to me to have such a supportive and engaged community.

A lot of you offered to take me out for my birthday (which is the sweetest!), but between being a single mom and a packed calendar, I can’t do 1:1 meetups right now.
BUT — I’ll be at all the in-person events below, so please come say hi. I’d love to see you there!

Here’s what’s coming up this week across Founders Bay + where I’ll be speaking, and the LinkedIn post about all the events:

Workshops:

Events I’m Speaking At (Come Say Hi):

Hiring:

You can now view ALL events here and sign up for a free Founder & VC account to message and discover 300+ VCs.

If we’re not already connected, I’d love to hear from you—please follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram. Let’s connect!

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👉 10th Mobility Innovators Forum (9:30AM-5PM)
📍 Sunnyvale
💬 A full-day forum featuring keynotes, panels, and startup pitches on the future of mobility. Discover emerging innovations in AI, affordability, and next-gen transportation.

👉 "Zo-Pen House" Zo Open House: Coffee & Donuts + Drop in Space (10AM-5PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A casual co-working and hangout space for AI and Web3 builders, founders, and investors. Bring your own treats, connect with sharp people, and recharge in a calm community hub.

👉 Stanford - NGS Workshop w/Platforma (additional short session) (10AM-11AM)
📍 Stanford
💬 Learn how to analyze multi-omic data and create publication-ready visualizations in one platform. Designed for anyone working with NGS data, no coding required.

👉 [FutureX] AI Agents w/ Redpoint Ventures (12PM-1PM)
📍 Stanford
💬 A focused session on how autonomous agents are reshaping software across industries. Hear what Redpoint sees as investable today and where the biggest opportunities lie.

👉 AI Infra Innovation Salon with AWS, Race Capital, Sixty Degree Capital and SafenAI (4:30PM-7:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A three-part expert panel exploring frontier insights in AI infrastructure. Meet researchers, founders, and investors shaping next-gen AI systems.

👉 AI Profit or Prophet? (5PM-9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A deep conversation on what’s real versus hype in the current AI wave. Explore which technologies and business models are built to last.

👉 AI agents + Platform Engineering: Can you ship securely at scale? (5PM-7:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A practical discussion on governance, golden paths, and secure platform engineering for AI workloads. Learn from engineers shipping production AI systems at scale.

👉 🧠 The AI Collective Tri-Valley | AI & Her (5PM-8PM)
📍 Pleasanton
💬 An intimate, women-led gathering celebrating founders and builders in AI. Hear authentic stories of vision, grit, and growth in an evolving industry.

👉 Silicon Valley AI Demo Day #2 (5PM-8PM)
📍 Menlo Park
💬 See workshops and a 10-startup pitch contest showcasing early-stage AI builders. Ideal for founders building tools and applications in the AI ecosystem.

👉 AI Infra Innovation Salon with AWS, Race Capital, DCG, Sixty Degree Capital and SafenAI (5PM-8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A deeper dive into AI infrastructure, from GPU optimization to agent deployment. Expect bold insights and high-quality networking.

👉 Bad Takes, Good Beans: A Night of AI x Hardware Experiments (5:30PM-8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A playful showcase of AI-powered hardware experiments, from espresso telemetry to “bad advice” printers. Come tinker, sip coffee, and try hands-on demos.

👉 Inside Oracle's Emergence as a Leading Cloud Infrastructure Provider (5:30PM-8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Hear OCI leaders break down Oracle’s cloud transformation and strategy. Gain insight into OCI’s role in AI and enterprise computing.

👉 Fireside Chat with Robert Nishihara (Anyscale co-founder) (5:30PM-7:30PM)
📍 Stanford
💬 A conversation with Anyscale’s co-founder on building Ray and scaling a startup from academia. Followed by dinner and networking for Stanford PhDs in tech.

👉 AI Nerd Meet Up (6PM-9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A private, founder-driven meetup for technical leaders building cutting-edge AI. Expect deep technical discussions and shared learnings in a small-group setting.

👉 The AI Generation: What Teens Teach Us About the Future of AI (7PM-9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Dr. Eliza Kosoy reveals how teens interact with and shape AI technologies. A fresh look at trust, learning, and emotional connection in the age of algorithms.

👉 90/30 Club (ML reading) #29: Nested Learning: The Illusion of Deep Learning Architectures (7PM-9:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A reading group exploring the risks and mitigation strategies around backdoor attacks in ML. Discuss new findings on security thresholds and training safeguards.

👉 Founders Bay Expert Office Hour: 1 Hour Block Legal Advice (7AM–9AM) [HOSTED BY ME]
📍 Online
💬 Get personalized legal guidance directly from Jessica North (Jorrie), Partner at Perkins Coie LLP. This session helps founders navigate formation, fundraising, agreements, and other essential startup legal matters.

👉 Robot Interoperability for Collaborative Applications (1PM–3PM)
📍 Half Moon Bay
💬 A deep-dive kickoff meeting on establishing a shared framework for next-generation robots to communicate intent, uncertainty, and more. Designed for teams building human-interactive or multi-robot systems, this hybrid session sets the vision and scope for future interoperability standards.

👉 AI By The Bay Conference (8AM–5PM)
📍 Oakland
💬 A multi-day gathering for experts in AI, machine learning, and data engineering. Expect hands-on workshops, insightful talks, and a hackathon building real production-ready AI agents.

👉 Production-ready AI Agents Hackathon @ AI By the Bay (9AM–6PM)
📍 Oakland
💬 A 2-day hackathon focused on creating production-ready AI agents for real business use cases. Teams will collaborate to build agents that deliver meaningful outcomes.

👉 🧠 The AI Collective Coffee & Connections | Marin County (10AM–12PM)
📍 San Rafael
💬 A relaxed gathering for founders, investors, and operators over coffee. Connect, collaborate, and recharge with an inspiring community.

👉 FourthWave Investor Salon (11AM–1PM)
📍 Online
💬 The 2025 FourthWave cohort presents fast-paced founder pitches spanning women’s health, clean water, education, and more. Investors and community members can discover scalable ventures and connect with the founders.

👉 From Pilot to Profit (12:30PM–2:15PM)
📍 Sunnyvale
💬 A roundtable on scaling technologies from pilot to production featuring discussions on AI agents, workforce readiness, and real-world deployment lessons. Learn patterns of what works, what stalls, and how teams align for successful rollouts.

👉 LiveKit DevDay (2PM–7PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A developer day focused on the future of voice AI with LiveKit product updates, demos, and open conversations. Meet the team, learn new capabilities, and connect with builders using LiveKit.

👉 Recent Developments in AI and Large Language Models across Asia (4:30PM–5:50PM)
📍 Stanford
💬 Dr. Tatsunori Hashimoto shares insights into emerging AI and LLM innovation across Asia and the geopolitical factors shaping it. The session will be moderated by Dr. Richard Dasher from Stanford.

👉 Fivetran Bay Area Meetup - November (5PM–8PM)
📍 Oakland
💬 Network with data engineers and AI practitioners in an evening of insights and connection. Learn how modern teams are leveraging data infrastructure for innovation.

👉 Vitalist Exchange: The Future of Health, AI, and Human Potential - Open Registration (5PM–7PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Explore a 16-floor tower being transformed into a self-governed vertical village for frontier tech and creative arts. Attend presentations from innovators across AI, biotech, neuroscience, robotics, and more.

👉 Enterprise Workshop: Real-time AI Voice Agents for Advanced Workflows (5PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A technical workshop for engineering leaders to learn, build, and deploy real-time enterprise voice agents. Walk away with working code and best practices for production workflows.

👉 SF MCP Server Builder Series - November (5PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A hands-on event for developers building Model Context Protocol servers. Learn best practices, see community demos, and connect with other MCP builders.

👉 AI Agent Builders San Francisco: Build an Agent System for Smarter Supply Chain Strategy (5:30PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A workshop on building a Dataiku-powered agent system for supplier risk analysis and supply chain strategy. Learn how to combine financial data, POs, and tariff insights into actionable intelligence.

👉 AI Builders SF: Building and Evaluating TypeScript Agents with Mastra and Arize (5:30PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A hands-on event at GitHub HQ where developers build their first Mastra agent in TypeScript. Learn how to trace, evaluate, and improve agent performance using Arize.

👉 Founders Bay AI Tech Pitch Battle (5:30PM–8PM) [HOSTED BY ME]
📍 Palo Alto
💬 Watch emerging AI founders pitch their startups to a panel of investors and tech leaders. Gain insights, network, and experience a showcase of groundbreaking innovation.

👉 Reimagining Healthcare Through AI x FemTech (5:30PM–8:30PM)
📍 Berkeley
💬 Explore how AI accelerates innovation in women’s health across diagnostics, research, and digital care. Learn how FemTech founders are bridging gaps in reproductive, maternal, and chronic health needs.

👉 Bay Area DSPy Meet Up (5:30PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 An evening of talks and discussion featuring speakers from GEPA, DSPy, and Bigspin. Connect with researchers and practitioners pushing the boundaries of programmatic AI.

👉 Scaling AI Monetization: Leadership Dinner in San Francisco (6PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 An invite-only dinner for technical leaders designing the future of AI monetization infrastructure. Expect candid conversations over food and drinks—no slides, no panels.

👉 🍻 Orkes QCon SF Happy Hour: Orchestration, Agents & Automation (6PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A happy hour for engineers building distributed systems, AI agents, and automated workflows. Meet the Conductor community and learn real-world orchestration strategies.

👉 Engineering Night #9 (6PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A high-energy gathering for engineers building AI in production. Expect deep conversations, tech insights, and a packed room of builders.

👉 The AI Hustle: Happy Hour for Startup Founders & VCs (6PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A meetup for AI founders to network, share insights, and explore fundraising strategies. Enjoy food, drinks, and connections with founders and VCs.

👉 HeyGen Happy Hour: Hands on Masterclass & Deep Dive (6PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 An evening of drinks, networking, and hands-on masterclasses at HeyGen HQ. Explore digital twins and see HeyGen’s AI video tools in action.

👉 [Vibe-coding] Building a practical website with Vercel and V0 (6:15PM–7:30PM)
📍 Stanford
💬 A hands-on session teaching you how to build a full production-ready marketing website using Vercel and V0. You’ll learn SEO-friendly structure, live database setup, and new AI-powered features.

👉 AI for Social Impact: Perspectives on How to Build, Invest In, and Deploy AI for Good (6:30PM–8:30PM)
📍 Oakland
💬 Leaders in AI for good share how they build and deploy ethical AI for real-world impact. Hear stories from founders, investors, and innovators working in social change.

👉 LIFT OFF | Demo Day (9AM–5PM)
📍 San Mateo
💬 Draper University’s latest cohort of deep tech, AI, robotics, defense, and healthcare founders showcases what they’ve built over the past five weeks. See demos, early traction, and innovations from founders preparing for their next round.

👉 The San Francisco Ruby Conference ♦️ (9AM–7PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Join 600 Rubyists for three days of talks, workshops, and hallway conversations with the leaders shaping Ruby and Rails. Meet founders, open-source maintainers, and engineers pushing the language forward.

👉 Founder Yacht Lunch (11AM–1PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Enjoy a private yacht lunch designed for founders seeking meaningful conversations and clarity. Connect with peers building the next wave of innovation.

👉 Prototype Days #3 (12PM–1:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A founder-first lunch where builders share raw ideas, demos, and work-in-progress for honest peer feedback. No pitch decks—just real conversations that help you iterate faster.

👉 Join us for Wells Fargo & Stanford HAI Startup Day (2:30PM–6PM)
📍 Menlo Park
💬 Explore the intersection of AI, financial innovation, and cross-industry collaboration through talks and panels. Connect with leaders from Wells Fargo, Stanford HAI, VCs, and emerging startups.

👉 Hackathon: build hallucination-free agents (4:30PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Build reliable, production-ready AI agents alongside engineers tackling one of AI’s toughest challenges. Expect hands-on debugging, experimentation, and fresh technical insights.

👉 Scrappy Founders Go Karting (4:30PM–8PM)
📍 South San Francisco
💬 Invite-only kart racing for 16 founders and investors who enjoy speed and good company. After the race, unwind over dinner and conversation.

👉 DeepTech Pitch and Networking Mixer w/ Venture University (5PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A focused evening spotlighting frontier DeepTech across AI/ML, robotics, quantum computing, biotech, and advanced materials. Meet founders, investors, and leaders driving the next scientific breakthroughs.

👉 NRF & Twill: The Horizon Forum (5PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A global AI-focused dinner forum uniting investors, founders, and executives across continents. Expect candid dialogue, powerful connections, and high-caliber conversations.

👉 AI x Analytics Mixer at SOMO (Invite Only) (5PM–7PM)
📍 Rohnert Park
💬 TriangleAI hosts a product launch and mixer for finance leaders, analysts, and operators exploring AI-powered analytics. Enjoy wine, giveaways, and a relaxed Sonoma setting.

👉 J.P. Morgan & Twill: The Ascent Series (5PM–7PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A curated gathering for AI founders, VCs, and executives to discuss ethical scaling and industry direction. Expect warm introductions, drinks, and actionable conversation.

👉 Teqfocus East Bay CXO Meetup (5PM–7PM)
📍 Dublin
💬 CXOs and tech leaders meet to discuss how AI is transforming GTM strategy, operational insights, and data-driven execution. Expect a peer-driven, candid exchange.

👉 The Back Room Briefing: Innovation w/ Microsoft Partners (5:15PM–7:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A private executive forum for top IT leaders focused on AI-driven innovation within the Microsoft ecosystem. Hear perspectives from partners advancing healthcare, security, and enterprise AI.

👉 #OffTheRecord: SaaS + AI (5:30PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A relaxed, high-signal gathering for SaaS and AI leaders to discuss growth, ideas, and what's next. Expect real conversations, drinks, and a founder-friendly vibe.

👉 [SF] AI After Hours w/ Encord @ GitHub HQ (5:30PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Meet developers and AI builders at GitHub HQ for lightning talks, discussion, and pizza-fueled networking. A casual space for technical conversations and community building.

👉 Cursor Women in AI – SF (6PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Celebrate Cursor’s first Women in AI event featuring demos, product updates, and community building. Connect with female leaders shaping AI innovation.

👉 Palo Alto Data Analytics Platforms Meetup (6PM–8PM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 Hear how PayPal built a global data lake in a quarter while balancing architectural decisions, compliance, and scale. Learn practical strategies for real-time insights, governance, and resilience.

👉 AI Design Night #2 (6PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A night of practical, hands-on insights for teams designing AI products today. Expect real-world examples, free bites, and conversations with product designers.

👉 AI Agent Founder Dinner w/ Nikunj Handa (6:30PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A private dinner bringing together top AI agent founders with OpenAI’s Nikunj Handa. Discuss where agents work, infrastructure needs, differentiation, and the future of reasoning-based systems.

👉 vibecode jam (6:30PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A casual creative coding session to build AI-powered interactive projects using tools like Gizmo and Claude Code. Share your work and exchange ideas with other creative technologists.

👉 Ignite After Dark: MCP Turns One (6:30PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Celebrate the first anniversary of MCP with developers and ecosystem pioneers. Enjoy rooftop food, drinks, and conversations about building real-world systems with MCP.

👉 Microsoft Ignite Cocktail Reception w/ NeuBird AI (6:30PM–9:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A private reception with IT and engineering leaders discussing real experiences deploying agentic AI. Expect tapas, cocktails, and a fireside chat with industry experts.

👉 🧠 AI Collective: Harness MySQL for Next-Gen AI Startups (6:30PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Learn how startups can architect MySQL-backed systems for rich, real-time AI interactions. Speakers will share practical patterns and real use cases to elevate your technical stack.

👉 AI Executive Dinner (7PM–9:30PM)
📍 Los Altos
💬 A private dinner for senior AI leaders to exchange insights and build deeper relationships. Expect an intimate, elegant setting designed for thoughtful conversation.

👉 AI Innovators Night @ Microsoft Ignite (7PM–10PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Enjoy drinks, food, and networking with innovators exploring real-world AI applications. A relaxed space to spark new ideas beyond the conference floor.

👉 MCP Night – Public (7PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Explore a 16-floor tower transforming into a vertical village for frontier technologies and creative arts. Meet the teams shaping AI, biotech, longevity, robotics, and more.

👉 STAK Ventures Oakland Tech Week Pitch & Panel Event (1:30PM–4:30PM)
📍 Oakland
💬 A high-energy gathering at the 1900 Broadway Tower, bringing founders, operators, and the Oakland tech community together. Expect curated networking, pitch sessions, and conversations that highlight the region’s growing innovation ecosystem.

👉 Road to $10B+ Decacorn: Inside the Fastest Growing AI Startups (5:30PM–7:30PM)
📍 Stanford
💬 Hear directly from engineering leaders at today’s fastest-growing AI rockets on how they hire, what skills matter most, and how to stand out in early-stage teams. A must-attend session for anyone aiming to grow a career inside a breakout AI startup.

👉 INTERSECT 2025 Conference (8AM–6PM)
📍 Stanford
💬 INTERSECT 2025 gathers global leaders, researchers, and practitioners to explore the intersection of sustainable energy, technology, and healthcare. The conference focuses on collaboration and emerging innovations shaping Indonesia’s economic and environmental future.

👉 CrewAI Signal 2025 (8:30AM–7:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Dive into real-world AI agent use cases through demos, workshops, and sessions with industry leaders. Learn how to apply CrewAI’s open-source and enterprise tools to transform your business operations.

👉 Morning Session: Hiring Remotely in Emerging Markets (9AM–11:30AM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 This session breaks down what truly challenges teams after the remote hiring contract is signed. Hear operators discuss payments, compliance, logistics, and the unseen systems required to scale global teams.

👉 Founders Bay Virtual Workshop: From Founders to Fortunes (11AM–12PM) [HOSTED BY YOU]
📍 Online
💬 Larry Udell shares real case studies and lessons on how founders turn ideas into enduring companies. Learn practical frameworks for scaling, avoiding common pitfalls, and making high-impact decisions.

👉 The Simulated World (3PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A salon-style gathering exploring the future of simulation, behavioral modeling, and domain-specific AI systems. Expect big ideas, intimate conversations, and insights into how products will think and adapt.

👉 Gen AI for Marketing & Content Creation (3:30PM–6PM)
📍 Redwood City
💬 Learn how generative AI is reshaping marketing through lightning demos and hands-on workshops. See real tools in action and discover how teams use AI to scale content production.

👉 QRI: Reverse Engineering DMT Phenomenology (4PM–10PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Explore QRI’s research on mapping psychedelic consciousness and modeling altered states. The event also outlines next steps toward experiments linking non-linear optics with DMT phenomenology.

👉 Build MCP Agents – with Docker, Groq & E2B (5PM–1AM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Build practical agents using E2B sandboxes and over 200+ Docker-based MCP integrations. Learn to connect real-world tools like GitHub, Browserbase, and ElevenLabs to create powerful agent workflows.

👉 Scale Smarter: AI Agents for Startups (5PM–7PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Explore how AI agents automate workflows, enhance GTM operations, and accelerate startup growth. Connect with builders and operators applying agents in real-world environments.

👉 AI Founders Showcase (5PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Meet founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders showcasing emerging AI ventures. Expect founder pitches, insightful discussions, and opportunities to form meaningful connections.

👉 MCP’s 1st Birthday Party (5PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Celebrate MCP’s first birthday with Stytch, DigitalOcean, Arcade, and Speakeasy. Enjoy a festive gathering with builders and friends of the MCP ecosystem.

👉 Fireworks AI: Developer Connect (5PM–8PM)
📍 Menlo Park
💬 Learn how RL can enhance product intelligence and model performance through a hands-on developer workshop. Build and optimize models using Eval Protocol and Fireworks AI tools.

👉 From Idea to Impact: Creating AI Agents with Gemini (5:30PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 See how Gemini-powered agents automate engineering workflows and reduce manual load. Hear from Checksum.ai and Google Cloud experts on emerging trends in agentic systems.

👉 AI/LLMs Research Colloquium: Startups & Academia (5:30PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A forum where researchers and founders examine current AI limitations and research bottlenecks. Discover how startups and universities can collaborate to accelerate innovation.

👉 Real-Time Data Lakes and AI (5:30PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Learn how real-time databases and open table formats like Iceberg are reshaping data lake architecture. Hear from experts across leading data and infrastructure companies and connect over food and drinks.

👉 BioPharma Frontier: ChemTech in the Age of AI (5:30PM–8PM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 Discover how AI, automation, and digital chemistry platforms are accelerating drug development and molecular design. Engage with scientists and founders driving the next wave of ChemTech innovation.

👉 Robots Everywhere – Light DAO Salon (6PM–9:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Join conscious entrepreneurs and investors for discussions on the rapid acceleration of robotics across home and industry. Connect with the Light DAO community and explore ideas shaping a regenerative future.

👉 The AI Collective Stanford: AI & Healthcare (6PM–8:30PM)
📍 Stanford
💬 Hear experts discuss how AI is transforming diagnostics, operations, and personalized medicine. The evening features short talks, a fireside chat, and networking.

👉 Vibe-Coding: Building Voice Agents w/ ElevenLabs (6:15PM–7:30PM)
📍 Stanford
💬 Explore ElevenLabs’ newest speech and music models through live demos and hands-on experimentation. Learn how natural turn-taking and emotional speech advances voice agent design.

👉 11th Monthly Wetware Meetup (6:30PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Tour a 16-floor vertical village housing frontier labs across AI, biotech, robotics, longevity, and the arts. Meet innovators building the future of human flourishing in a post-AI world.

👉 Creativity is an Ecosystem – Week #8 (7PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Artist Shm Almeda shares research on how society can build structures that sustain—not starve—creative workers. Explore how AI, algorithms, and modern platforms shape artistic livelihoods today.

👉 AI Memory 360 Tour - Silicon Valley (8AM–5PM)
📍 Mountain View
💬 This full-day event gives agent builders an end-to-end view of how AI memory is designed, governed, deployed, and measured. It’s built for engineers, product leads, and infra teams responsible for deploying agentic systems in production.

👉 De Anza Hackathon 4.0 (8AM–9PM)
📍 Cupertino
💬 DAHacks 4.0 is a two-day coding marathon where participants of all skill levels build creative, cutting-edge projects. Tracks are revealed onsite, and any innovative project can win top prizes.

👉 Founders Bay Virtual Workshop: Founder-Led Growth (11AM–12PM) [HOSTED BY ME]
📍 Online
💬 Learn how to craft a compelling founder brand on LinkedIn that builds visibility, trust, and real business results. Diandra Escobar shares actionable frameworks for storytelling, content, and audience growth that align your personal mission with your startup’s goals.

👉 Silicon Valley Investing Summit: AI, Enterprise, Healthtech (12:30PM–5PM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 This monthly summit invites startups across AI, enterprise tech, climate tech, and healthtech to pitch and connect with investors. A shorter program leads into the separately ticketed Backyard Capital networking dinner in Menlo Park.

👉 Agentic Enterprise: Breakthroughs for Change at Scale (3:30PM–6PM)
📍 Redwood City
💬 Join technical leaders shaping AI transformation and next-generation enterprise infrastructure for high-signal discussions. Expect sharp conversations, curated networking, and insights from teams executing large-scale AI systems.

👉 Founders & VC Thanksgiving Dinner @ Focus Innovation Studio (5PM–8PM) [HOSTED BY ME]
📍 San Francisco
💬 A warm Thanksgiving gathering for founders, investors, and innovators to connect, share stories, and build community. Enjoy a festive dinner celebrating collaboration, gratitude, and the shared journey of building.

👉 Breakpoint: War Stories of Agents Breaking in Prod (5:30PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Breakpoint brings engineers together for real talk about what happens when agents fail in production and how teams recover. Expect candid insights from top AI startups, platform teams, and hands-on builders scaling agent systems to millions of runs.

👉 Dinner with PropLytics @ Actioner Residency (7:30PM–9:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A private dinner with PropLytics inside one of SF’s most iconic hacker houses brings founders and innovators together for meaningful conversation. It’s an intimate evening designed for connection, inspiration, and thoughtful exchange.

👉 Scoop AI Hackathon Silicon Valley Bowl (8:30AM–5:30PM)
📍 Santa Clara
💬 The Silicon Valley Bowl mirrors the global Scoop Hackathon, giving teams a full day to create agentic AI projects. Participants can join solo or in teams, collaborate via community channels, and compete in a two-week extended build.

👉 HeidiBuild 2025: SF (9AM–5PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Developers, designers, and clinicians come together to solve real clinical problems and build impactful healthcare solutions. Participants receive guidance from Heidi’s engineers and present their work to a panel of clinicians and founders.

👉 THE DROIDS STRIKE BACK — Hackathon (9AM–9:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 This high-energy hackathon gathers 200+ selected builders to prototype frontier systems at the intersection of AI and hardware. Expect hands-on workshops, investor-judged showcases, and $5,000 in prizes.

👉 Sketch & Search Hackathon Kickoff – Google DeepMind x Qdrant x Freepik (10AM–11:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Learn how to build creative pipelines using Banana Nano, Gemini, Freepik’s generation tools, and Qdrant’s vector search. The kickoff launches a two-week virtual hackathon culminating in a demo day for top submissions.

👉 Level Up with AI: Tools, Demos, and Real Use Cases (10AM–1:30PM)
📍 Mountain View
💬 WOMEN x AI hosts an interactive workshop with hands-on labs exploring practical AI tools for productivity and decision-making. The event includes a panel, guided tool sessions, and demos from founders building next-gen AI products.

👉 Robot Block Party (10:30AM–5PM)
📍 Mountain View
💬 A full-day robotics celebration featuring Brazilian BBQ, humanoid robot battles, demos, and community showcases. Meet companies pushing the future of robotics while enjoying food, entertainment, and hands-on tech.

👉 “Silicon Valley Twelfth Night” Cast Appreciation Gathering & Book Salon (3PM–5PM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 Celebrate the innovative “Silicon Valley Twelfth Night” production with behind-the-scenes stories on the fusion of human and AI creativity. The gathering also hosts a book salon exploring how AI is reshaping population structures and creative labor.

👉 🌤 AI Valley Sunday Social (2:30PM–5PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Join the AI Valley community for a relaxed afternoon at Spark Social SF to unwind, connect, and meet fellow founders, engineers, designers, and creatives. There’s no agenda—just conversations, community energy, and optional food and drinks from the park’s food trucks.

👉 expanding tools & materials for drawing/storytelling/world-making (3PM–5PM)
📍 San Francisco
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Insights from Holly Roland & Nick Sarles, Founders of Rebel GTM

Go-to-Market (GTM) can make or break a startup—and most founders underestimate just how complex it truly is. At our recent Founders Bay Virtual Workshop, Holly Rowland and Nick Sarles, co-founders of Rebel GTM, broke down the biggest GTM pitfalls they see across early-stage companies and how founders can avoid them.

With decades of combined experience scaling startups from zero to acquisition or IPO, Holly and Nick shared a deeply practical playbook: one built not on theory, but on trenches-level lessons from building, fixing, and accelerating GTM systems for hundreds of companies.

Their message was clear: your product is only half the equation. Your company—your alignment, your process, your understanding of the buyer—is the real solution. And getting this wrong is a key reason many startups fail.

Below are the top insights founders should walk away with.

The old world of “build product → hand off to sales” is gone.
Modern GTM requires tight alignment between product, marketing, sales, and customer success—all working around the same buyer insights and messaging.

Today, the company is the solution, not just the technology.

Research shows the top reasons startups fail—no market need, wrong positioning, running out of cash—trace back to poor GTM strategy.
As Holly put it: “If you haven’t done the work to understand your buyer deeply, demand gen won’t save you.”

Before campaigns or hiring, founders must define:

1. Growth goals: revenue, pipeline, and sales efficiency
2. Brand goals: awareness, category credibility, market trust
3. Innovation goals: new capabilities, faster adoption, better onboarding

These must be specific, measurable, and shared across the entire organization.

Early-stage teams often try to sell to too many industries or personas at once.
Nick and Holly stressed that lack of segmentation kills momentum.

Choose one or two segments where you can win early and deeply.
Say no to everything else until you’ve established traction.

VCs also want to see clear focus—not scattered progress.

Winning a deal requires winning the entire stakeholder ecosystem:

Many founders convince the champion but lose the deal because they didn’t equip that champion to convince everyone else.

Your messaging must speak to all four personas.

Great messaging connects:

This becomes the foundation for your website, pitch deck, content, campaigns, and sales playbook.

As Holly noted: “If your messaging isn’t clear enough that your team can repeat it consistently, it’s not ready.”

Founders often expect fast results—but GTM momentum requires consistency.
Buyers may need 15+ touchpoints before they engage, and only 5% are in-market at any given time.

That means:

Demand gen is a long game—not a spiky one.

One of the most common founder mistakes: demoing too early.

“Buyers need to feel heard,” Holly emphasized. The fastest path to a lost deal is skipping discovery to show features that don’t solve the buyer’s real problem.

This is why Rebel GTM pushes founders to build prescriptive sales playbooks—so messaging and demos stay focused.

AI-based solutions challenge traditional SaaS pricing. Usage-based, per-unit, or compute-based models each have risks—for both vendor and customer.

Founders must balance:

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer anymore.

One of Nick’s strongest cautions: don’t hire too fast or hire the wrong persona.

Early-stage startups require people who thrive in ambiguity—not big-company operators. The wrong hire can set you back quarters.

He also emphasized staying founder-led longer than most think:

“The founder should be in most deals until at least $20–25M ARR. No one can teach the market better than the founder.”

This workshop surfaced the core truth most startups miss:

GTM is not a department—it’s a company-wide system.

Mastering it early helps you:

As Nick said, “Startups must go slow to go fast. That’s why sports cars have brakes.”

View the entire workshop video here: