Hi Friends,

🚨 24 Hours of Golden Access 🚨

We’re just 5 days away from Gigaparty 3 — where 2,000+ founders, VCs, engineers, and family offices will gather for the world’s first VR-controlled humanoid fight 🤖🥊.

For the next 24 hours only (until 6PM tomorrow) we’re unlocking our biggest giveaway yet:

🎟️ Every ticket purchased in the next 24 hours gets you:

This is your chance to level up your Gigaparty experience while locking in the lowest ticket price before we sell out.

⏰ Ends tomorrow at 6PM PT. Winners announced right after.

Let’s make history this Friday at Temple SF. 🚀

— Mariane

Here are some events happening this week and the LinkedIn post about all the events.:

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

Want us to sponsor an event or partner together? Contact us here

Friday, September 26 - 6:00 PM - 2:00 AM

​🔥 The WORLD'S FIRST VR-Controlled Humanoid Robot Fight 🤖🥊

For the first time ever, two humans step into VR rigs to control real combat robots in a live arena. Twitch founder Justin Kan will face off against UFC fighter Hyder Amil.

​VC Firms Attending: Hustle Fund, Actai Ventures, Fusion Fund, Menlo Ventures, Nirman Ventures, Pachamama Ventures, Race Capital, LATITUDE Ventures, E12 Ventures, Audacious Ventures, AISprouts VC, Jolly VC, Eudelman Ventures, Smart Venture Media, GFT Ventures, Frontiers Capital, EnterpriseChai, KFC Ventures, Depth Ventures, Cathay Innovation, Paris-Roubaix Group (Single Family Office), I.D.I.T. (Single Family Office), Allison Huynh Family Office, Matt Oguz Family Office (Iris & Venture Science), Lobster Capital , First Spark Ventures (Family Office)¹

🎟️ Every ticket purchased in the next 24 hours gets you:

$20 OFF with code GOLDEN20 (tickets drop to $35!)

Automatic entry to win:

September 22–23, 2025

The 28th Global Family Office Investment Summit takes place on November 19–20, 2025 in Miami at the Trump International Beach Resort, Sunny Isles.

This exclusive gathering unites leading family offices, investors, and innovators to explore cutting-edge investment trends, breakthrough technologies, and the future of wealth management.

Ready to be part of it?

Contact [email protected]

Thursday, September 23 - 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

​​Founders Bay Expert Office Hours: 2-Hour Block Legal Advice is a chance for startup founders to get direct legal guidance from an experienced professional. Led by Jessica North (Jorrie), Partner at Perkins Coie LLP, this session is perfect for founders seeking clarity on legal matters. Jessica specializes in advising emerging companies, venture capital funds, and private equity investors, making her a valuable resource for startups at any stage.

Wednesday, September 24 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

​In today’s AI-driven world, the challenge isn’t just building powerful chatbots—it’s building trustworthy ones. This interactive workshop shows you how to create a secure, recruiting-focused chatbot on Google Cloud that engages candidates while safeguarding sensitive HR data.

Thursday, September 25 - 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

​Join us for the Founders Bay Virtual Workshop featuring a candid investor Q&A with Mohak Saxena of Race Capital. Mohak brings a wealth of experience investing in early-stage startups and partnering with founders to help them scale. This session is designed to give founders a rare inside look at how top investors evaluate opportunities, what they’re seeing in the market, and how you can position your company for success.

Friday, September 26 - 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

​The Founders Bay Virtual Workshop will focus on why having a strong financial system is key to business success in 2026. It will help business owners and startup founders understand how tracking money, planning budgets, and managing cash flow can make or break a company. The session will show how good financial systems can help you grow faster and avoid big problems.

Thursday, October 2 - 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM

​This private breakfast brings together top B2B founders, investors, and enterprise leaders for a curated morning of meaningful conversations, actionable insights, and a chef-prepared meal. We’ll dive into how AI is reshaping enterprise productivity, reimagining GTM motions, and what investors see as the next wave of scalable opportunities.

Monday, October 6 - 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Get ready for a night where the future takes the stage! Founders Bay Deep Tech & AI Pitch Night is your front-row ticket to the boldest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, robotics, and frontier tech. Watch visionary founders battle the clock as they pitch game-changing ideas to a panel of expert judges and a crowd hungry for innovation.

We’re looking for a judge for this event—reply to this email if you’re interested!

Tuesday, October 7 - 4:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Join us for an evening of learning and connection as we explore the future of robotics. A panel of experts will share their views on how robots are changing the way we work, live, and solve problems. From factories to healthcare to everyday life, robotics is shaping the world around us.

We’re looking for a speaker for this event—just reply to this email if you’re interested!

Thursday, October 9 - 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Join top founders, VCs, and operators for a high-energy happy hour 🍸 during SF Tech Week—an evening designed for real conversations, new connections, and unexpected collaboration. Whether you're raising your first round 🚀 or scouting your next investment, this is your chance to skip the pitch decks and connect face-to-face with the people shaping what’s next. With the venue's iconic ambiance and a curated crowd of builders and backers, this is where authentic relationships take root in the heart of San Francisco. 🌉

Friday, October 10 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 PM

FOUNDERSBAY30 (30% off)

Join us for a transformative day exploring the frontiers of human health and lifespan extension. Featuring visionary keynote speakers including Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Dr. Niko Dimitriadis, and world-champion surfer and resilience expert Bianca Valenti—alongside top scientists, entrepreneurs, and wellness leaders shaping the future of longevity.

Are you a female founder building something bold? Apply to pitch at the Berkeley Female Founders & Funders Summit on October 24th at Berkeley Haas.

This is your chance to get in front of the VCs actually betting on women — including investors from PayPal Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Forerunner, and top angels who’ve backed breakout female-led companies.

If you're building the future, we want to see it.
Apply now — limited spots available!
[Link to Apply]

Don’t miss out on these exciting new offerings! Upgrade your membership today and take your involvement to the next level.

Subscribe To Growth Access and get free tickets to: Founders Bay Virtual Workshop - Building Trustworthy AI: A Privacy-Safe AI Chatbot with Google Cloud, Founders Bay Virtual Workshop - Investor Q&A with Mohak Saxena of Race Capital, Founders Bay Virtual Workshop: Why a Financial System Will Make or Break Your Business in 2026, Founders Bay Virtual Workshop: Win Your Startup Negotiations, Founders Bay Virtual Workshop: Why Startups Fail - Lessons I Learned the Hard Way

Subscribe To VIP Access, get all the workshops above for free and get free tickets to: GIGAPARTY 3: Robot Kombat! WORLD'S FIRST VR-CONTROLLED ROBOT FIGHT - Twitch Founder Justin Kan vs UFC Fighter Hyder Amil | Tech Summit + AfterParty, Founders Bay Expert Office Hours: 2 Hour Block Legal Advice, Founders B2B AI Breakfast @ Cole Frieman & Mallon LLP, Founders Bay Deep Tech & AI Pitch Night - #SFTechWeek, The Future of Robotics: Panel & Happy Hour - #SFTechWeek, Founders & VC Happy Hour - #SFTechWeek

👉 AI Agent Builders & Users Mixer (4PM-6PM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 Connect with founders, users, and VCs in the AI agent ecosystem. Expect networking, peer insights, and real conversations about AI agents.

👉 Neuron Meetup - San Francisco edition (4PM-6:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A meetup for AI and DePIN enthusiasts to spark conversations shaping the future. Discover decentralized systems and get a first look at Neuron’s AI Node Builder.

👉 SF Awesome AI Dev Tools - September (5PM-8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Explore the latest AI developer tools being built. Meet innovators shaping the future of AI dev infrastructure.

👉 AI Talks at Qlay with Experts from AWS, Lyft and Genspark AI (5:30PM-8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A monthly series where industry leaders share AI insights. Hear from enterprise experts and startup founders at the intersection of AI and business.

👉 The Trust Layer of AI “From Black Box to Transparent Systems: How Web3 Enables Verifiable AI (5:30PM-8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Explore how Web3 and cryptographic proofs can bring trust and transparency to AI. Expect panels, lightning talks, and networking with AI + crypto builders.

👉 AI Demo Night with Lava, Finix, Finch, OCHO, and Harlem Capital (5:30PM-8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Founders share hard-won lessons on building, pricing, and scaling AI products. Includes fireside chats and VC insights for early-stage builders.

👉 Founders Bay Expert Office Hours: 2 Hour Block Legal Advice (10AM-12PM) [HOSTED BY ME]
📍 Online
💬 Get direct legal guidance from Perkins Coie Partner Jessica North. Perfect for founders navigating fundraising, equity, and compliance.

👉 AI Meets Reliability w/ Rootly AI, NVIDIA, Baseten, OpenAI, Replit, Glean, Weights & Biases, & More! (5PM-8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Learn how AI-driven automation is reshaping reliability engineering. Includes panels, live demos, and networking with top SRE leaders.

👉 Lightning Hackathon ⚡ (5PM-9:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A fast-paced hackathon where you’ll build something in just two hours. Combine hands-on coding, AI, and creativity.

👉 From Vectors to Agentic Memory: Architecting for Supercharged AI Development (5PM-8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Network with AI app developers and hear insights from AWS & PingCAP. Learn how to build scalable GenAI solutions with Amazon Bedrock & TiDB.

👉 AI Deep Dives: Hugging Face, SGN and SambaNova (5:30PM-8:30PM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 Learn how SambaNova powers AI across sectors like healthcare and finance. Hear from experts on scalable AI infrastructure and applications.

👉 The AI Hustle: Happy Hour for Startup Founders & VCs (6PM-8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A casual happy hour for AI founders and investors. Expect networking, peer discussions, and insights into fundraising strategies.

👉 AI CTO Diner in SF (6PM-8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 An intimate 10-person dinner for AI CTOs. Share lessons, swap strategies, and connect with peers building AI in production.

👉 Unicorner Presents: SF Seed+ Founders Dinner (6PM-8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A curated dinner for 20 seed to Series A founders on unicorn trajectories. Connect with peers and ecosystem partners like Fidelity and Intercom.

👉 Founders Bay Virtual Workshop - Building Trustworthy AI: A Privacy-Safe AI Chatbot with Google Cloud (11AM-12PM) [HOSTED BY ME]
📍 Online
💬 Learn how to build a privacy-first recruiting chatbot with Google Cloud and Vertex AI. Discover anonymization, secure workflows, and hands-on setup with free credits.

👉 Twill Presents Threads: Scaling AI from Concept to Production for Operators and Investors (5PM-8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A gathering of tech execs and AI innovators to discuss scaling AI into production. Network with Fortune 500 leaders and enjoy food, drinks, and bold ideas.

👉 Unicorner Presents: Superpower Founder Fireside (5PM-7:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Fireside chat with Max Marchione, founder of Superpower health tracking platform. Connect with founders and investors over insights, stories, and networking.

👉 [SF] AI After Hours w/ Encord @ GitHub HQ (5:30PM-8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Developer-focused evening at GitHub HQ with lightning talks and pizza. Meet peers, share insights, and explore the latest in AI.

👉 AI Agent Builders San Francisco: Build an Agent System for Smarter Supply Chain Strategy (5:30PM-8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Hands-on workshop building AI agents for supplier risk assessment and sourcing strategy. Learn with Dataiku to enhance operational resilience in supply chains.

👉 Inscope and Tabs Finance Leaders Dinner (5:30PM-8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A curated dinner for Bay Area finance leaders to discuss AI’s impact on finance. Small group format encourages candid peer exchanges and shared insights.

👉 AI Tinkerers SF: AI Demo Jam 🏄 (5:30PM-7:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A builders-first demo night with live showcases of frontier AI infra tools. Expect hands-on demos, lightning talks, and community connections.

👉 DX and Databases for Startups that Scale with PlanetScale & Convex (5:30PM-8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Learn how modern databases and developer experience drive startup growth. Talks from PlanetScale and Convex plus networking over food and drinks.

👉 Female Founders + Investors Meetup @ Palo Alto (3AM-5:30AM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 A meetup designed for female founders, investors, and allies to connect. Expect candid conversations, authentic networking, and shared learning.

👉 From Recruiter to AI-Powered Recruiter (5AM-7:30AM)
📍 Mountain View
💬 Learn how to build an AI assistant agent and apply GPT-5 for recruiting. A practical session for recruiters to boost productivity and communication.

👉 Statsig's Annual Conference: Sigsum (9AM-5PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Full-day conference on experimentation, AI, and product growth. Includes keynotes, breakout sessions, and collaborative workshops.

👉 Founders Bay Virtual Workshop - Investor Q&A with Mohak Saxena of Race Capital (10AM-11AM) [HOSTED BY ME]
📍 Online
💬 A candid Q&A with investor Mohak Saxena on venture capital trends. Learn how Race Capital evaluates startups and what founders should focus on.

👉 Flower AI Day: Open-Source Decentralized Superintelligence (1PM-8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A landmark event for open-source AI featuring top engineers and scientists. Expect keynotes, groundbreaking demos, and expert-led panels.

👉 Accelerate Enterprise AI: Exclusive insights featuring Supermicro and NVIDIA (4:30PM-8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Invite-only gathering with Supermicro and NVIDIA on AI infrastructure. Explore compute systems, GPUs, and real-world deployment strategies.

👉 AI Tech Leaders' Club - Enterprise AI & Operational Efficiency (5:30PM-9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Quarterly gathering of AI leaders with fireside chats and group discussions. Connect with peers from top companies on AI’s next evolution.

👉 SVGENAI: SWEng with AI tools + Snowflake Cortex AISQL (5:30PM-8PM)
📍 Fremont
💬 A community meetup focused on AI tools, networking, and career growth. Learn practical applications of Snowflake Cortex AISQL.

👉 Ray Meetup: Multimodal Data + AI (5:30PM-8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Dive into scaling multimodal AI across text, image, audio, and video. Hear how Ray and Anyscale support high-throughput pipelines in production.

👉 An evening with Manus AI ft. founder Tao + special announcement (5:30PM-8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Rooftop fireside chat with Manus founder Tao on scaling to $90M ARR. Enjoy curated dining, conversations, and a special unveiling.

👉 SF Voice AI Builders Meetup (6PM-9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Showcase your voice AI projects and connect with fellow builders. Includes community demos, networking, and expert discussions.

👉 Building AI agents for fintech and crypto startups (6PM-8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Small-group workshop on deploying AI agents for fintech and crypto. Covers prompting, guardrails, evals, and MCP integrations.

👉 Voice & Vision: AI Avenue Watch Party (6PM-9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Watch party at Cloudflare office featuring AI Voice and Vision episodes. Meet cast members, join Q&As, and network over cocktails.

👉 Retro AI Arcade Night: Build the Game, Train the Player (6PM-8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Build retro-style games and train AI agents to play them. A hands-on evening of coding, creativity, and friendly competition.

👉 2025 Annual Event - Small Business BIG IMPACT (9:30PM-1AM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Celebrate the achievements of Renaissance Entrepreneurs with food and raffles. Connect, network, and honor the entrepreneurial spirit.

👉 Coding with AI Hackathon (9AM-8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A one-day hackathon exploring multi-agent systems, voice coding, and autonomous developer workflows. Meet other engineers and founders while prototyping frontier AI-powered tools.

👉 Decentralized AI Hackathon at Stanford powered by Flower (9:30AM-8PM)
📍 Stanford
💬 A hands-on hackathon at Stanford focused on decentralized AI with the Flower community. Expect building, lightning talks, and demos from researchers and developers.

👉 Founders Bay Virtual Workshop: Why a Financial System Will Make or Break Your Business in 2026 (3PM-4PM) [HOSTED BY ME]
📍 Online
💬 Learn how financial systems help startups grow, avoid pitfalls, and stay resilient. David Grinberg shares practical tips and common mistakes to avoid.

👉 The Future of Space and AI @ Google HQ (3:30PM-5:30PM)
📍 Mountain View
💬 Explore how AI is reshaping space exploration, from Mars rovers to exoplanet discovery. This kickoff event leads into the NASA Space Apps Hackathon.

👉 GIGAPARTY 3: Robot Kombat! WORLD'S FIRST VR-CONTROLLED ROBOT FIGHT - Twitch Founder Justin Kan vs UFC Fighter Hyder Amil | Tech Summit + AfterParty (6PM-2AM) [HOSTED BY ME]
📍 San Francisco
💬 Temple SF transforms into a five-floor tech and culture summit with live robot combat. Features food, networking, cyberpunk vibes, and the first-ever VR robot fight.

👉 ✨Fullstack Agents Hackathon (Feat LlamaIndex, CopilotKit, Composio & Microsoft) (9AM-7PM)
📍 Mountain View
💬 Build a full-stack AI agent in one day using LlamaIndex, CopilotKit, and Composio. Hosted at Microsoft SV Center with support from B Capital.

👉 AI Open-Air Weekend Mixer: Startups × Investors (10AM-12PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A casual open-air networking event bringing together AI founders and investors. Meet at Bay Front Park, then head to Spark Social for food and connections.

👉 TEDxMilpitas 2025 (2PM-6PM)
📍 Milpitas
💬 A day of talks on technology, arts, sustainability, and education. Speakers share bold ideas from AI breakthroughs to clean energy solutions.

As startups and scale-ups grow, so do the risks of confusion and miscommunication. What starts as a few missed updates can quickly snowball into costly disruptions, higher turnover, and failed strategies.

At our recent Founders Bay Virtual Workshop, we tackled this challenge head-on with Scott Hanning, an internal communications counselor who has led successful campaigns for companies like Meta, LinkedIn, Tesla, and Expedia.

Scott shared proven tools and real-world lessons for making communication simple, clear, and effective—even during times of rapid growth or uncertainty.

💡 Key Takeaways

🔹 Internal Comms = Your Secret Weapon
When done well, internal communication keeps employees connected to company goals, builds trust, and ensures teams stay aligned.

🔹 Clarity Beats Noise
Clear, simple messages cut through distractions and reduce confusion. Ask: What do I want employees to think, feel, or do after this message?

🔹 Right Message, Right Channel
From weekly founder emails to Slack updates and video clips, choose the best channel for the message—don’t overload your people.

🔹 Build Trust with Authenticity
Transparent, honest communication fosters engagement and prevents disengagement or mistrust.

🔹 Communication Improves Business Outcomes
Organizations with effective internal comms see lower turnover, higher engagement, and more resilience during change.

✅ Why It Matters for Founders & Leaders

Scott emphasized that internal comms isn’t just theory—it’s a practical lever founders can pull to improve culture, trust, and execution immediately.

👉 Want to go deeper? Visit scotthanning.com for resources and guidance on building communications that scale with your business.

View the entire workshop video here: