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👉 Training the Workforce of the Future — One Humanoid Robot at a Time (9:30AM–1:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Explore how Robots For Humanity and Binbash are transforming industrial workforces through teleoperated humanoid robots powered by AWS and NVIDIA AI. Experience live demos of Unitree G1 robots, digital twin training, and simulation-driven learning in action.

👉 SF Awesome AI Dev Tools - November (5PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A showcase of the latest AI developer tools transforming workflows for builders and startups. Hear from creators of platforms like Macroscope and CopilotKit, see live demos, and connect with developers shaping the future of AI engineering. Stay for networking, snacks, and spontaneous collaborations.

👉 Bridging Data and AI: The Agentic Future of Data Infrastructure (5:30PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Join Data for AI Meetup to explore how AI agents and metadata-driven architectures are redefining data systems at scale. Learn from experts at Pinterest, Uber, and beyond as they share strategies for building next-gen data infrastructure.

👉 AI Talks && Trivia (6PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Hear four fast-paced lightning talks from AI innovators, then test your knowledge with a fun round of software engineering trivia. Compete with fellow techies for prizes and bragging rights.

👉 Py AI Meetup (5PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Dive into lightning talks from leaders like Pydantic’s Samuel Colvin and teams from Reducto, Modal, and SentinelOne. Learn about cutting-edge Python infrastructure, AI workflow orchestration, and quality MCP design.

👉 Built on Bedrock Demo Night (5PM–7:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Discover how local startups are using Amazon Bedrock to power next-generation Agentic AI applications. Watch live demos that reveal how GenAI is reshaping industries and workflows.

👉 Build Night Stanford (5PM–10PM)
📍 Stanford
💬 A hands-on creative night for founders, designers, and builders. Explore design workshops, product demos, and speed networking with an emphasis on progress over perfection.

👉 CTO Elite Exchange - Bay Area [Invite Only] (5:30PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 An exclusive roundtable for engineering leaders tackling AI billing and scalability challenges. Discuss usage-based monetization, cost attribution, and architecture strategies.

👉 SF Experimentation Meetup (6PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Learn how leading companies run experiments that drive real growth and innovation. This session explores the science behind great product experimentation.

👉 Strategies for Leveling Up Your Technical Writing Skills (6:30PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Discover how AI is transforming documentation, content creation, and writing workflows. Learn tools and strategies to evolve your writing in the age of automation.

👉 From Music To Machines - Fireside Chat with AI Visionaries (6:30PM–9PM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 Explore how AI is revolutionizing creativity, from composing music to shaping immersive digital experiences. Join Dr. Maya Ackerman (WaveAI) and Kapil Jain (Embody) for insights at the intersection of art, music, and machine intelligence.

👉 AI Web3 University Tour @ Stanford (2:30AM–4:30AM)
📍 Stanford
💬 Explore the convergence of AI and Web3 through campus discussions with top industry experts. Learn about emerging tech, regulation, and career opportunities in this growing ecosystem.

👉 Sidebar Spark: One-Day Summit for Senior Leaders & Executives (9AM–6PM)
📍 San Mateo
💬 A one-day immersive summit for senior leaders focused on scaling teams, navigating change, and driving innovation. Participate in workshops and candid discussions with peers facing similar challenges.

👉 Founders Bay: VC & Founder Breakfast (10AM–1PM) [HOSTED BY ME]
📍 San Francisco
💬 A morning of meaningful conversations between founders and investors shaping the AI landscape. Enjoy great food, coffee, and insights on funding, scaling, and innovation in 2025. Build real connections and spark ideas that drive collaboration and growth.

👉 Intel Capital CISO Summit (1PM–5:30PM)
📍 Menlo Park
💬 A deep-dive discussion with CISOs and cybersecurity leaders hosted by Intel Capital. Explore enterprise AI adoption, machine identity management, and digital footprint risks.

👉 Agents in Action: Hands-on Workshop with Google Cloud, Meta & Arize AI (3PM–7PM)
📍 Sunnyvale
💬 A technical deep-dive into agentic AI, featuring live demos from Google Cloud, Meta, and Arize AI. Learn hands-on with ADK, Llama models, and Arize AX tools.

👉 Built by Wildcats: A Northwestern Founder Demo Day (3PM–6PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Celebrate exceptional Northwestern founders showcasing AI, healthtech, and automation startups. This thesis-driven demo day emphasizes founder quality and long-term vision.

👉 🌿 Climate Biotech Forum – Presented by Biotech@Berkeley + Homeworld Collective (3PM–6:30PM)
📍 Berkeley
💬 Dive into the intersection of climate and biotechnology with Berkeley’s top researchers and founders. Hear from leaders shaping the next wave of sustainable innovation.

👉 The “Black Box” Behind Translation & AI (3PM–4:30PM)
📍 San Jose
💬 A creative, hands-on workshop exploring how LLMs and AI translation shape linguistic inclusivity. Participants will experiment with real translation systems in a live coding environment.

👉 The Supply Chain Workflow AI Revolution (4PM–7PM)
📍 Menlo Park
💬 Explore how AI is revolutionizing supply chain systems in this event by Snowflake and NewBuild VC. Hear insights from top industry experts and startup founders.

👉 -1 to Surge AI with Edwin Chen (4:30PM–6PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Join Edwin Chen, CEO of Surge AI, as he discusses how human intelligence powers AI alignment and safety. Learn how Surge became a billion-dollar data lab fueling frontier models.

👉 Fall Meet Up with vLLM, Meta & AMD (4:30PM–8:30PM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 A collaborative evening with vLLM, Meta, and AMD exploring AI acceleration and model performance. Engage in hands-on demos, networking, and tech talks with top engineers.

👉 🚀 AI Enterprise Playbook: Connect, Learn, and Lead! (4:45PM–8:15PM)
📍 San Jose
💬 Learn how enterprises are achieving measurable success with AI transformation. This session shares real-world strategies for scaling and integrating AI across business units.

👉 Conversational AI Agents and New AI Regulation (5PM–8PM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 Explore the latest in Conversational AI with founders, investors, and deep-tech researchers. Gain perspective on evolving regulations shaping voice and messaging systems.

👉 K-PAI #13 – The AI Silicon Race: Korea-US Innovation Leadership (5PM–8PM)
📍 San Jose
💬 Join top Korean and U.S. AI hardware leaders for a night of insights, networking, and presentations. Discover how innovation in silicon design is reshaping global AI competitiveness.

👉 AI Workshops at Cloudflare (5PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Get hands-on with AI and developer tooling in this interactive Cloudflare workshop. Collaborate with peers while building and experimenting live on GitHub.

👉 Sierra SF Officewarming (5PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Celebrate Sierra’s HQ expansion with an evening of networking, snacks, and drinks. Meet the team redefining customer experience with AI.

👉 AI Founders Forum hosted by USVP, Recall Capital & Stifel Bank (5PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 An invite-only dinner for AI startup founders to exchange insights and lessons from the front lines. No pitches, just honest conversations about building, scaling, and surviving.

👉 Founder's Therapy: Sales, Marketing & Sanity Checks (5PM–7:30PM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 A candid, supportive session for founders balancing sales, marketing, and growth. Learn how to align teams, optimize CRM systems, and scale sustainably.

👉 First Block Live — Reinventing Law with AI: Inside Harvey’s $5B Valuation (5:30PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Join Harvey AI co-founder Gabe Pereyra and Notion’s Akshay Kothari for a fireside chat. Explore how AI is transforming the legal industry and redefining productivity.

👉 AI For Developers #30 (5:30PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Explore the latest in AI dev tools, ML, NLP, and computer vision at this monthly meetup. Hear how companies are helping developers ship smarter and faster.

👉 Daytona AI Builders - SF, November 2025 @AWS Builder Loft (5:30PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Discover how Daytona Sandboxes powers AI-driven cloud code orchestration. See live demos showcasing distributed development workflows using natural language prompts.

👉 Voice AI Meetup: The Voice Agent Stack (5:30PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Join AssemblyAI and voice tech builders for an evening of deep technical discussion. Learn about the architectures behind modern voice agents.

👉 AGI Builders Meetup SF w/ Auth0 (5:30PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A monthly community event for AI developers and founders shaping AGI’s future. Enjoy lightning talks, live demos, and casual networking.

👉 The Art of San Francisco - Opening Night (5:30PM–9:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Experience the launch of The Art of San Francisco, an immersive exhibit celebrating art, tech, and community. Featuring over 30 Bay Area artists including Grimes and the Misalignment AI Museum.

👉 Consumer AI Growth Hack (6PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Discover how AI startups like Wanderboat and BeFreed are scaling consumer engagement fast. Learn proven tactics for growth in AI-powered products.

👉 Rebuilding Civic Power in the Age of Algorithms (6PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Explore how technology can strengthen democracy in a digital-first world. Join Sway’s Kayla Huang to discuss AI’s role in civic engagement and collective action.

👉 Rethinking Agent Memory & Cracking Identity | SF | AI Show and Tell (6PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A community showcase of talks, snacks, and live demos exploring AI agent memory and identity. Meet local builders pushing the limits of intelligent systems.

👉 The Fintech Summit (9AM–4PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Join top founders, investors, and fintech leaders for a one-day deep dive into the collision of AI and financial innovation. Explore real use cases from AI-powered underwriting to GPT-driven financial advice.

👉 AI Founder Coffee: Personalization & Product (9AM–11AM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A casual founder-only coffee meetup for builders creating AI products with personalization at the core. No agenda — just authentic discussions about real challenges and lessons from users.

👉 ManusAI x AAU Design Sprint (9AM–4PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A day of creativity and collaboration where design meets AI, hosted by ManusAI and the Design Collective. Work hands-on through design sprints to solve real-world challenges.

👉 Amplitude San Francisco AI Wizard Bar (9:30AM–1PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Learn directly from Amplitude experts on applying AI to product analytics and activation. Engage in hands-on demos and personalized guidance.

👉 Open Lakehouse + AI Mini Summit | Mountain View (12PM–4:30PM)
📍 Mountain View
💬 A half-day summit uniting the open source and data engineering community. Explore cutting-edge AI and lakehouse architectures shaping the next wave of interoperability.

👉 Demand & Expand CMO AI Summit | SF (1PM–6PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A half-day event for marketing leaders driving AI transformation. Learn how CMOs are building intelligent teams and balancing authenticity with automation.

👉 AI Training For Business Owners: From Curiosity to First Win (1PM–3PM)
📍 Oakland
💬 A practical session for small business owners ready to explore real-world AI use cases. Learn to separate hype from impact and apply AI for cost savings and customer success.

👉 YC B2B Picnic by Imagine AI (F25) and JP Morgan (1PM–3PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A casual picnic for YC founders, B2B operators, and investors hosted by Imagine AI and JP Morgan. Expect great food, relaxed conversations, and zero forced networking.

👉 Responsible Investment in Data & AI - Stanford Summit (1:30PM–6:30PM)
📍 Stanford
💬 Hosted by Stanford PACS and Cyber Policy Center, this summit explores ethical AI and responsible data investment. Hear from leaders driving sustainable innovation and regulation.

👉 Psychometrics Hack Day @ The Love Symposium (3PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Explore the intersection of psychometrics, data, and human behavior at this hands-on hack day. Analyze real personality datasets, share findings, and test predictive models.

👉 Founders & Funders AMA 2025 – Bay Area (3PM–5PM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 A curated gathering where founders and investors discuss what it really takes to build transformative companies. Gain insight from experienced funders and share lessons from the trenches.

👉 MBC BioLabs ClimateTech & AgTech Innovation Forum (3:30PM–7:30PM)
📍 San Carlos
💬 Celebrate breakthrough climate and agtech startups at MBC BioLabs’ fourth Innovation Forum. Hear from founders and investors driving sustainable technologies.

👉 Early Stage BIO & HEALTH - Founders & VCs Meetup (4PM–6PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A private meetup uniting biotech founders and investors from IndieBio and DraperU Ventures. Discover how biology is driving next-gen innovation and funding opportunities.

👉 AI Agents SF #8: MCP Ecosystem (5PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A gathering of AI agent developers, engineers, and researchers exploring the MCP ecosystem. Learn from live demos, talks, and community discussions.

👉 Cache Me Outside: A Low Latency & High Spirits Happy Hour (5PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A fun happy hour for AI engineers and infra leaders who love fast inference and good cocktails. Connect over food, drinks, and tech banter with a Bay view.

👉 Apache Spark™ Happy Hour (5PM–6:30PM)
📍 Mountain View
💬 Join Spark contributors and maintainers for a casual networking event after the Open Lakehouse Summit. Share ideas, meet fellow engineers, and celebrate the Spark community.

👉 AI Infra Meetup with Meta, Uber, Alluxio & SkyPilot (5PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Hear from Meta, Uber, and Alluxio engineers at this hybrid AI infrastructure meetup. Discuss the latest in scaling, optimization, and model deployment.

👉 MCP After Hours: AI Developer Tools Showcase (5:30PM–7:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Celebrate one year of the Model Context Protocol with live demos and expert panels. Learn how MCP is transforming AI integration across industries.

👉 AI Pricing and Monetization Salon (5:30PM–7:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A small-group salon for AI founders tackling pricing strategy and monetization. Hear insights from experts at Stripe, Anthropic, and Vercel.

👉 Web3 x AI: Community Happy Hour & Pitch Night (5:30PM–7:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A lively night for Web3 and AI innovators to pitch, connect, and collaborate. Enjoy food, drinks, and lightning demos from emerging builders.

👉 ElevenLabs | Networking Night in San Francisco (5:30PM–7:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Meet the team behind ElevenLabs’ groundbreaking voice AI in an intimate networking night. Get insider stories on their tech, growth, and enterprise adoption.

👉 MCP Demo Night — Nov 13th (5:30PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Experience lightning talks and demos from builders innovating with the Model Context Protocol. Hosted by WorkOS, this casual event mixes tech, pizza, and community.

👉 Agentically Speaking: An Evening with the Cloudflare Agents Team (6PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Learn best practices for building AI agents directly from the Cloudflare Agents team. Enjoy live demos, expert panels, and exclusive insights into their SDK.

👉 The AI Foundry Series – San Ramon Chapter (6PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Ramon
💬 A regional AI pitch night connecting startups, investors, and local leaders. Discover emerging East Bay founders presenting responsible AI innovations. Hosted at the new BR Foundry in Bishop Ranch.

👉 No Code AI Agent Build Night for Sales @ Lindy HQ (6:30PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Build no-code AI sales agents with the Lindy team in this hands-on workshop. Learn how founders automate workflows and accelerate sales using Lindy.

👉 Redefining Business: AI Summit 2025 @ Berkeley Haas (9AM–5PM)
📍 Berkeley
💬 Join top thinkers, founders, and investors at Berkeley Haas for a full-day summit on how AI is redefining industries and driving global innovation. Expect powerful keynotes, hands-on panels, and fireside chats.

👉 Applied Agents Hackathon (9AM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Build the next generation of applied AI agents with Anthropic, ElevenLabs, Runway, and Windsurf. Compete for $70K in prizes while turning ideas into intelligent tools.

👉 Founders Bay Virtual Workshop: Befriend Change (11AM–12PM) [HOSTED BY ME]
📍 Online
💬 Learn how to turn uncertainty into strategic advantage with executive coach Weronika Sobolak, ex-Meta leader. Discover resilience frameworks, decision-making tools, and mindset shifts for founders. An empowering session on thriving amid complexity and change.

👉 CCO Lunch Roundtable Planning 2026: AI, Strategy & Structure (12PM–2:30PM)
📍 Menlo Park
💬 A private lunch roundtable for customer leaders rethinking how AI transforms customer success and renewals. Guided by executives from GitLab and Simpplr.

👉 The Global Leaders Forum: AI & Strategic Partnerships (12PM–6:45PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A red-carpet global forum connecting diplomats, executives, and innovators at Autodesk Gallery. Explore how AI and strategic partnerships drive growth, equity, and innovation.

👉 Musa Labs 💡 VC Master Class: From Idea to MVP Launch (12PM–3PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A hands-on workshop to help founders go from zero to MVP using AI-assisted coding and Vibe Coding principles. Learn to build, launch, and fund your startup — all without external tech teams.

👉 Algorithmic AI Agent Optimization Workshop (1PM–5PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Explore agent optimization and feedback-loop systems with Comet’s Lead AI Engineer, Vincent Koc. Learn about the Opik Optimizer SDK and cutting-edge self-improving agents.

👉 AI Product Salon: Protecting Your Identity, Money & Privacy in an AI World (5PM–7PM)
📍 Pleasanton
💬 Join cybersecurity leader Jocelyn King for a candid, practical discussion on AI-era safety. Learn to protect your data, identity, and finances from emerging threats.

👉 Gemini Meetup (5PM–7PM)
📍 Mountain View
💬 Gather for an evening of AI community, live demos, and networking around Google Gemini. Expect surprise “magic moments” and future project previews.

👉 Down Home Chicken Pie Event (6PM–8PM)
📍 Walnut Creek
💬 Meet fellow AI professionals at a warm, community-style dinner at Chicken Pie Shop. Share stories, projects, and future goals with Bay Area WDAI members.

👉 First-Ever Mind-Controlled (6PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisc
💬 ​On November 14th, witness the world’s first-ever mind-controlled drone race, powered by Black Swan’s groundbreaking brain-computer interface.

👉 DevFest San Francisco x Fremont 2025 (Aviation Hackathon) (9AM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Ultimate gathering of developers, creators, and tech-enthusiasts. We’re bringing together visionary minds with hands-on experiences, creative challenges, and plenty of fun to fuel your next big idea.

👉 🌍 The DEIJ Hackathon: Build for Inclusion & Justice (9AM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A day-long hackathon dedicated to building tech that champions diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. Collaborate with designers, coders, and founders on inclusive solutions.

👉 Daytona HackSprint - SF, November 2025 (9AM–6PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A seamless, high-energy hack sprint designed to turn bold AI ideas into prototypes. Collaborate with innovators to push creative and technical boundaries.

👉 Global AI Pitch Summit 2025 (9AM–7PM)
📍 Santa Clara
💬 The world’s largest AI pitch summit bringing 10,000+ innovators and 1,000 startups under one roof. Meet global investors, researchers, and visionaries shaping the AI era.

👉 SVLC Annual Summit 2025 (9AM–5PM)
📍 San Jose
💬 Silicon Valley’s most visionary leaders unite under the theme “Unleash Your Superpower with AI.” Expect inspiring keynotes and practical workshops on innovation and leadership.

👉 Self-Evolving Agents Hack (9:30AM–7:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Prototype AI copilots, research agents, and real-time data explorers in a single day. Collaborate with teams building self-improving intelligent software.

👉 Scrappy Founders Go Hiking (10AM–2PM)
📍 Los Gatos
💬 Join a vetted group of 12 founders and investors for a scenic morning hike. Network, brainstorm, and unwind in nature. Fresh air meets fresh ideas in this relaxed founder meetup.

👉 America’s Next Top Modeler - Context Engineering Hackathon (10AM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Build context-aware agents with guidance from ML veteran Hamel Husain. Tackle challenges blending structured and unstructured data. A full day of collaboration, coding, and model innovation.

👉 Stanford Turks in AI Forum (10AM–5PM)
📍 Stanford
💬 A landmark gathering uniting Turkish researchers, founders, and investors in AI. Celebrate success stories and strengthen global collaboration. Features top speakers from OpenAI, DeepMind, and Stanford.

👉 GDG Stanford Hackathon: Build with Google Gemini (10AM–6PM)
📍 Stanford
💬 Create cutting-edge projects using Google Gemini tools and APIs. Compete for VC pitch meetings and mentorship opportunities. A fast-paced event for student innovators and AI tinkerers.

👉 OpenAI’s CPO & Lightspeed’s Cofounder Meet Berkeley/Stanford Founders (12PM–5PM)
📍 Berkeley
💬 An invite-only gathering for select founders to meet top investors and advisors. Get hands-on feedback, demo your product, and join a founders’ dinner.

👉 SVB Presents: Musa Labs Hackathon SF (12PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Collaborate with innovators to build high-impact AI applications. Teams compete to design products tackling real-world challenges. A fast, focused hackathon bridging creativity and business impact.

👉 Speedwins Hackathon w/ Pump, Lovable & Wordware (2PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A 5-hour sprint bringing 100 top hackers together to build real AI products fast. Partner with Pump, Wordware, and Lovable to create, ship, and showcase.

👉 Why Most AI Startups Don’t Scale: The 15 GTM Mistakes Nobody Talks About (Global AI Pitch Side Event) (11:30AM–1PM)
📍 Santa Clara
💬 Discover the 15 hidden GTM pitfalls that keep AI startups from scaling — with real data and leadership lessons from Silicon Valley. Learn how to diagnose systemic growth problems and fix pipeline challenges.

👉 Global AI Pitch Summit 2025 Side Event: AI Visual Feast – AI Video Creation Workshop (1:30PM–3:30PM)
📍 Santa Clara
💬 Explore the fusion of art, film, and AI in this creative workshop during the Global AI Pitch Summit. Learn how generative video and 3D tools are transforming entertainment.

👉 the intersection of art & technology #13 (7PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A creative showcase of short demos and talks blending art and technology. Each presenter shares a 5-minute personal project — no startups, just creativity.

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Insights from Aleks Gollu, Founder & CEO of 11Sight

Starting a company is one of the most exhilarating—and complex—paths a founder can take. At our recent Founders Bay Virtual Workshop, Aleks Gollu, Founder & CEO of 11Sight, shared practical wisdom on what makes (and breaks) founding teams. Drawing on decades of experience building three startups and teaching entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley and Northeastern, Aleks unpacked the timeless principles—and new realities—that shape early-stage success.

From team dynamics and equity pitfalls to communication and trust, the discussion revealed how the human side of startups can be as decisive as the technology itself.

🔹 Start with a Problem-Solution Space, Not Just a Problem
Many founders are told to “start with the problem,” but Aleks cautioned that the first problem you identify is rarely the right one. Instead, explore a problem-solution space—a flexible process that allows discovery, iteration, and market alignment. “You’ll refine your true problem only through talking to customers and adapting fast,” he explained.

🔹 Build Diverse, Merit-Based Teams
Successful startups balance engineering, business, marketing, and operations talent. Aleks emphasized hiring for merit while ensuring diversity of background, experience, and perspective. “Innovation thrives when your team sees the world differently—but you must anchor that diversity in fairness,” he said, introducing his signature ‘copier test’: if everyone saw each other’s pay and shares, would it feel fair?

🔹 Communication Is Everything
Co-founder conflict often stems from miscommunication, not misalignment. “Attack the problem, not each other,” Aleks urged. He encouraged founders to understand how teammates think—some think out loud, others silently—so that disagreements remain productive rather than personal.

🔹 Equity Requires Clarity and Trust
Equity splits are among the most sensitive—and misunderstood—topics for founders. Aleks advised using a 20/80 rule: 20 percent of founder equity reflects past contributions, while 80 percent accounts for future work and risk. Vesting schedules help ensure fairness, but trust is the ultimate safeguard. “If your team can only stay together because of legal contracts, it’s already over,” he said.

🔹 Define Shared Goals and Risk Tolerance
Every founding team must align not only on vision, but also on risk appetite. A founder with a family and limited runway will think differently than one with a safety net. “If your life circumstances—and risk tolerance—don’t match, friction will follow,” Aleks noted. Aligning on values early prevents painful misalignment later.

🔹 Evolve Your Culture as You Grow
As teams mature, what once kept them close (like Friday beers) may no longer work. Founders must stay attuned to morale and find new ways to keep communication flowing. “You’ll be fighting battles with the team you have—not the team you wish you had,” Aleks said.

As Aleks concluded, “Startups are not just about building products—they’re about building people who can build together. If your team shares trust, purpose, and fairness, you’ve already solved half the startup challenge.”

👉 Want to learn more?
Connect with Aleks Gollu on LinkedIn and explore 11Sight, a voice-AI platform redefining how businesses connect with customers.

View the entire workshop video here: