Hi Friends,

Here are some events happening this week:

BECOME A FOUNDERS BAY MEMBER AND ACCESS ALL THE ABOVE FOR FREE

Not a Founders Bay Member yet? You’re missing out on:

✓ Private Whatsapp Founder & VC Channel
✓ Free Access to All Our Workshops and Recordings
✓ Monthly Investor Breakfasts and Dinners
✓ Weekly Expert Office Hours including with Mariane Bekker, Kristopher Floyd, Legal and CTO

👉 Join Founders Bay today and unlock all-access.

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

Tuesday, August 5 - 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

​Building a startup often means making big technical decisions with limited resources—so what if you could get expert input from a seasoned CTO? In this special session of Founders Bay Expert Office Hours, Mike Biglan, CEO and Founder of Twenty Ideas, brings over 20 years of product development and technical leadership experience to help early-stage founders make smart, scalable tech choices.

Wednesday, August 6 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

​The relationship we have to our business can bring up a lot of the same patterns as our romantic relationships - and how we handle it all determines our success. Dr. Jessica is both a tech founder herself and a relationship coach. Here, we will look at the unconscious patterns that play out in your relationships. Stop sabotaging your success and use a simple, time-tested framework to reveal your relational blind spots and walk yourself back to a centered, grounded, wise self.

Thursday, August 7 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

​With 30 years of experience performing and speaking on stage—plus a background in corporate training and leadership development—Clarisse helps founders move through nerves and deliver pitches that actually land.

Thursday, August 7 - 5:30 PM - 9:00 PM​

​Join us for an in-person event, in collaboration with ALMA, where we’ll break down the key visa pathways available to global talent in tech. Whether you’re a founder looking to secure your own visa or build a team with sponsored talent, this event is designed to help you make informed decisions.

Friday, August 8 - 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM​

​​We’re hosting an exclusive breakfast at FOCUS Innovation Studio, co-hosted by Mariane Bekker and Kristopher Floyd from Founders Bay.

​​This event is designed for top investors founders to explore how AI can drive B2B innovation and growth. Over a curated breakfast, engage in meaningful discussions, gain actionable insights, and network with fellow founders & executives shaping the future of B2B AI.

Wednesday, August 13 - 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Hosted by Mariane Bekker and Kristopher Floyd | Sponsored by Intercom

​Get ready for an unforgettable night of vision, innovation, and connection at Founders Bay AI Pitch Night — a gathering of the brightest minds building the future of artificial intelligence. Held at Intercom’s beautiful SF headquarters, this event brings together early-stage AI founders, top VCs, operators, and the wider builder community for an ev

Friday, August 7 - 2PM - 6PM

​Join us as investors pitch their funds at our "Reverse Pitch" and our Accelerator Companies present their companies at our Demo Day & Program Graduation Party!

Wednesday, August 20 - 5:00 PM - 10:00 PM

​We're kicking off the Step San Francisco with a fun and relaxed opening party hosted by Founders Bay. Join fellow founders, investors, and tech leaders for an evening of good conversation, music, and energy as we celebrate the start of an exciting week. 🎶💬

August 20 until August 21 - 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Join us for cutting-edge talks, networking, and exclusive savings.

We’re excited to announce our partnership with Step San Francisco 2025 - where the world’s most ambitious founders, investors, and tech leaders come together in the heart of Silicon Valley.

This is your invitation to join us on 20-21 August for a two-day high-energy tech festival spotlighting the latest in AI, deep tech, GenAI, and global scaling. Expect inspiring talks, hands-on sessions, and unbeatable networking opportunities.

We’re thrilled to offer you an exclusive 20% discount on tickets! Just use the code FOUNDERSBAY at checkout.

Funding Breakthrough Lab is a 10-week pre-accelerator designed for early-stage founders to master fundraising. Practice with VCs. Learn from diverse industry experts, receive group mentoring, and join a mastermind group. Rated us as the #1 pre-accelerator by their alumni.

Apply by August 10th using coupon code FOUNDERSSPECIAL for an additional $200 off.

Cohort Dates August 23-October 6 → https://github.com/titanicsend/LXStudio-TE/pull/690

Sept 12–14, 2025

I’m so excited to invite you to Developer Camp 2025, officially supported by Founders Bay— where we're helping shape the future of AI with purpose.

Join our very own Kristopher Floyd as he judges alongside legendary VC Bill Tai (early investor in Canva and Zoom), Dave Andre (Google X science chief), Amanda Terry (ACTAI/Web3 trailblazer) and more tech leaders. 

In just 48 hours, you'll design impactful AI solutions, collaborate with top builders, and pitch your ideas to investors. I’ll see you there!

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 - Relational Success for Founders, Founders Bay Virtual Workshop - Spotlight Readiness: Pitch with Presence & Poise, Founders Bay Virtual Workshop - Early People Practices That Scale: Low-Cost, High-Impact HR

Subscribe To VIP Access, get all the workshops above for free and get free tickets to: Founders Bay Expert Office Hours: Ask a CTO – Tech Guidance for Founders, Founders Bay Breakfast: B2B AI Strategies @ Focus Innovation Studio, Founders Bay AI Pitch Night @ Intercom, Founders Bay Step San Francisco Opening Party

👉 Web3 & AI Pitch Competition & VC networking by Ga^3in Ventures x Fibonacci Capital at The Science of Blockchain Conference 2025, Berkeley (12PM–2PM)
📍 Berkeley
💬 A global pitch event where Web3 founders showcase cutting-edge innovations to top-tier VCs and investors. Co-hosted by Ga^3in Ventures, Fibonacci Capital, and QuillAudits, the gathering fuels networking, funding, and security in the crypto ecosystem.

👉 Open AGI Symposium (3PM–7PM)
📍 Berkeley
💬 A deep-dive technical workshop exploring open-source AGI tools in software development. Hear from leading researchers on artifact AI, practical demos, and Q&A on shaping the developer future.

👉 Web3 & AI Investor Soirée by Ga^3in Ventures at The Science of Blockchain Conference 2025, Berkeley (4PM–7PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 An exclusive investor dinner gathering elite Web3 and AI investors, VCs, and founders for high-level conversation. Designed for strategic networking during the Science of Blockchain Conference.

👉 Summit: The Agentic AI & Workforce of Tomorrow (5PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A high-energy summit for high-potential and high-traction founders shaping the future of work with agentic AI. Attendance is limited to verified leaders and builders in top-tier startups and tech firms.

👉 Infrastructure Intelligence: Crypto, Data, and AI Agents (5PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A three-part session hosted by Theory Ventures & Allium covering AI agents, stablecoin payment rails, and blockchain data applications. Join top minds from OpenAI, Halliday, and Allium for insights into AI-native infrastructure.

👉 Founders Bay Expert Office Hours: Ask a CTO – Tech Guidance for Founders (10AM–11AM) [HOSTED BY ME]
📍 Online
💬 A rare chance to ask technical questions directly to a seasoned CTO with 20+ years in product and engineering. Perfect for early-stage and non-technical founders making critical tech decisions.

👉 Robo Con @SBC (11AM–5PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Where robotics, AI, and Web3 collide—expect talks, live demos, and even telepresence robots. A cross-disciplinary showcase of frontier tech shaping the agent economy.

👉 Frontier Tech and Tacos @ SBC (11:30AM–2:30PM)
📍 Berkeley
💬 A private salon for Berkeley-affiliated founders, researchers, and investors exploring AI, robotics, and capital markets. Features keynotes, tacos, and real talk on financial infrastructure innovation.

👉 AI Agents That Trade (4:30PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Explore the future of automated trading with zero human input—onchain, permissioned, and AI-driven. Hosted by Lit Protocol, it’s a peek into trading at the AI inflection point.

👉 AI in Enterprise: Reinventing Non-Tech Giants (5PM–8PM)
📍 Sunnyvale
💬 A gathering for enterprise leaders and startup founders bridging old-world industries with AI. Hosted by Qlay, Plug and Play, and Open Network Lab, with trend-driven talks.

👉 Ensuring Accurate AI Agent Paths through Tracing and Evaluation (5:30PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Dive into observability and debugging tools for AI agents in complex, real-world environments. Hosted by Arize AI, AWS, and CrewAI, this is for builders deploying production-grade agents.

👉 SF v0 meetup! (5:30PM–7:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A casual v0 community meetup at Vercel HQ with the team, users, snacks, and swag. Great for giving feedback and meeting fellow early adopters.

👉 MCP Demo Night: Dev Tools at the Edge of AI (5:30PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A high-energy demo night featuring dev tools for AI, APIs, and modular infrastructure from top teams at Databricks, Sentry, and more. Hosted by incident.io, Oso, and Sentry—with food, merch, and open Q&A.

👉 SF Founders Shuck & Sip with MongoDB & Brex (6PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A waterfront gathering for early-stage founders to enjoy oysters, drinks, and great conversation with MongoDB Ventures and Brex. Curated and invite-only—no +1s allowed.

👉 AI Dev Tools Night w/ Netlify, Mintlify, WorkOS, Google (6PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A showcase of cutting-edge AI developer tools from builders at Netlify, Mintlify, and beyond. Come learn what powers the most innovative dev workflows in AI today.

👉 🧠 The AI Collective SF 🧠 SF Newcomer Night (6PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A night for interns, newcomers, and student founders to meet, demo, and network in a relaxed, inspiring setting. Run by The AI Collective—expect fun vibes, new connections, and summer energy.

👉 DevRel x AI: A Bay Area Evening with TheGP (6PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A curated dinner gathering for Developer Relations pros navigating AI’s impact on community, product, and education. Hosted by The General Partnership for open, thoughtful discussion.

👉 AI Agents Fireside Chat, Demo & Mixer ft. Anthropic & ByteDance Engineering Leaders and LDV Partners (6PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 An exclusive fireside chat and mixer with AI leaders from Anthropic, ByteDance, and LDV Partners. Explore agent-to-agent transactions, future payment rails, and network with top founders and investors.

👉 Founders Bay Virtual Workshop - Relational Success for Founders (11AM–12PM) [HOSTED BY ME]
📍 Online
💬 Learn how your unconscious relationship patterns affect your leadership and startup success. Dr. Jessica shares proven tools to improve trust, communication, and alignment across cofounders, teams, and investors.

👉 The Future of AI: AI Native vs. AI Enabled (4:30PM–7:30PM)
📍 Menlo Park
💬 A panel of VCs and founders explores what defines AI-native companies versus those simply using AI tools. Get insights into investment trends and the future direction of AI-powered business models.

👉 Stateful Agents Meetup: Deep Research (5:30PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Build AI agents that remember, learn, and evolve using Letta's no-code platform. Includes live demos, lightning talks, and hands-on workshops with the Letta developer community.

👉 South Bay Systems: ChatGPT Ain’t Got $%@& On Me! (5:30PM–9PM)
📍 Mountain View
💬 Explore cutting-edge techniques in automated database tuning using LLMs for holistic optimization. This session dives deep into AI’s potential to outperform traditional tuning tools.

👉 Bots & Beverages & Demos (6PM–8:30PM)
📍 Mountain View
💬 A hardware-focused networking and demo night featuring robotics innovators and investors. Hosted by Circuit Launch and Silicon Valley Robotics, it's the place to meet builders in the physical tech space.

👉 Poker Night: All-in on Build Mode (6PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A casual poker night for founders and engineers to unwind and talk product over cards and snacks. Open to all skill levels—come for the fun, stay for the roadmap banter.

👉 SF Blockchain University Mixer (6PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A student-only blockchain mixer during SBC featuring club leaders, builders, and researchers. Free apps and real connections for the next wave of Web3 talent.

👉 Augmented intelligence: Empowering creative humans with smarter machines (10AM–11AM)
📍 Online
💬 Learn how AI can boost productivity without replacing the human touch. This session explores how creativity, judgment, and innovation remain essential alongside smarter machines.

👉 Founders Bay Virtual Workshop - Spotlight Readiness: Pitch with Presence & Poise (11AM–12PM) [HOSTED BY ME]
📍 Online
💬 Learn how to deliver your pitch with confidence, clarity, and stage presence. You'll leave with practical tools to calm nerves, align purpose, and command attention.

👉 Reverse Investor Pitches & Accelerator Demo Day / Graduation Party (2PM–6PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 YSK Partners, Founders Space, and Aiify.io present a Reverse Investor Pitch & Accelerator Demo Day / Graduation Party.

👉 Embodied AI Physical AI: Manufacturing, Hardware, Construction, and Real Estate (4PM–6:30PM)
📍 San Jose
💬 A warm-up event to the Silicon Valley AI Forum focused on how embodied AI is reshaping physical industries. Meet hardware innovators and robotics leaders pioneering AI beyond software.

👉 Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs: AI in Real Estate and Manufacturing (4PM–6:30PM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 Explore how AI is transforming real estate, mortgage, and construction industries. This session connects developers, investors, and builders driving applied AI innovation.

👉 Build a coding agent that fixes bugs using Agno, xpander.ai, and Amazon Bedrock (5PM–8:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Build a Slack-native AI agent that identifies and proposes fixes to bugs using cutting-edge frameworks. Learn how to deploy it in production with xpander.ai and Amazon Bedrock.

👉 Dream Big, Human｜A Panel about Future Full-stack AI Companies 🤖 (5PM–8PM)
📍 Menlo Park
💬 A candid panel on building AI companies from infra to interface, featuring top investors and early-stage founders. Hosted by Beta University and Alumni Ventures, expect deep insights and real talk.

👉 MCP Night 2.0 by WorkOS (5:30PM–10PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 WorkOS returns with a community night focused on AI and modular cloud platforms. Expect demos, networking, and thought-provoking conversations in a vibrant venue.

👉 Post-training Social (6PM–8PM)
📍 Mountain View
💬 A relaxed AI paper reading and discussion night hosted by Collinear AI. Connect with researchers and engineers unpacking the latest in post-training and LLM development.

👉 SF Private AI x B2B Founders Dinner ft. Head of Okta Ventures & YZi Labs (6PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A private, invite-only dinner for AI and B2B founders with $10M–$100M+ in ARR or funding. Expect curated conversations, market insights, and fine dining in an exclusive setting.

👉 San Francisco Bootstrappers Breakfast Startups at CityGroup Center (In Person) (7AM–8:30AM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A casual in-person meetup for founders building startups without outside funding. Share progress, get advice, and connect over breakfast with fellow bootstrappers.

👉 Founders Bay Breakfast: B2B AI Strategies @ Focus Innovation Studio (10AM–12PM) [HOSTED BY ME]
📍 San Francisco
💬 An exclusive breakfast for founders and investors to explore high-leverage B2B AI strategies. Expect candid discussions, connections, and curated insights on scaling with AI.

👉 AIConnect: Global AI Networking & Career Fair – San Francisco (5PM–7PM)
📍 Online
💬 Join a global community of AI professionals at this virtual networking and career fair. Whether you're job hunting or hiring, it's the place to connect and collaborate.

👉 Founders Unplugged (6PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A laid-back mixer bridging founders in AI and biotech at a private home in the Mission. No decks—just food, drinks, and real conversations among future-shapers.

👉 AI Dev Tool Demo Night @ AWS Gen AI Loft (#2nd Edition) (6PM–9PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Discover the latest AI developer tools and APIs at this interactive demo and networking night. Hosted by Sampleapp.ai and Alchemist Accelerator, it's where builders meet builders.

👉 LangChain Presents: College Night (6PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Designed for students and new grads, this event dives into LangChain tech and startup life. Includes founder talks, live demos, recruiting tips, and pizza-fueled networking.

👉 AI Coding Agents Hackathon (9AM–7:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Join a full-day hackathon at the YC office to build next-gen AI coding agents that can code, adapt, and deploy software on command. Choose from tracks like games, web/mobile, or reactive agents and compete for cash prizes.

👉 Lindy's AI Agent Hackathon with E2B + Anthropic (9:30AM–6PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Build no-code AI agents, assistants, and workflows at Lindy's first official hackathon. Collaborate with builders and explore the frontier of agent-based automation.

👉 Agentic Products That Delight, Scale, and Drive Real Revenue (3PM–5:30PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Learn from product leaders behind top AI tools on how to scale, engage users, and hit $50M+ ARR. Join 200+ founders and builders exploring what makes AI products truly succeed.

👉 AI Founders Play Pickleball (10AM–1PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Join AI founders and investors for a morning of casual pickleball and brunch. All skill levels welcome—come unwind and recharge before the week begins.

👉 the intersection of art & technology #12 (7PM–8PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 A curated evening of short demos at the crossroads of art and tech—no companies, just personal creative projects. Stay after for drinks and meet others exploring new media.

At our latest Founders Bay Virtual Workshop, founders and sales leaders rolled up their sleeves to master one of the most overlooked growth levers: sales reporting that actually informs decisions. Led by Laura Garrison, Managing Partner at Darwinian Ventures, the session offered a tactical deep dive into building, interpreting, and using reports to unlock performance—and potential.

Laura’s mantra? Don’t just track sales—translate them into action.

💡 Key Takeaways:

🔹 Numbers Are Not the Goal—Insights Are
Too many teams drown in data without direction. Laura emphasized focusing on metrics that lead to action. “Reporting isn’t about looking busy—it’s about seeing clearly.”

🔹 5 Metrics That Actually Move the Needle
Laura outlined the most telling indicators of sales health:

Each metric tells a story—and points to specific levers you can adjust.

🔹 Turn Reports into Strategy
Laura walked through how to build sales dashboards that don’t just summarize performance, but drive your next move—whether that’s adjusting quotas, reallocating resources, or tightening qualification criteria.

🔹 Know What Stage to Fix
“Low revenue doesn’t always mean bad closing,” Laura said. The issue could be earlier: in lead quality, pipeline flow, or even rep ramp time. Your reports should tell you where the problem is, not just that one exists.

🔹 Visuals That Lead to Better Decisions
Charts should clarify, not confuse. Laura recommended heatmaps for rep performance, waterfall charts for pipeline movement, and scorecards for weekly sales meetings.

🔹 Build a Reporting Cadence That Matches Your Sales Cycle
Monthly reports are too slow for fast-moving teams. Laura suggests:

🔹 From Gut Feel to Data-Driven
This workshop helped founders shift from anecdotal decision-making to systems thinking. “You can’t scale what you can’t measure,” Laura reminded attendees.

💬 “Sales reporting isn’t just about knowing what happened. It’s about knowing what to do next.” – Laura Garrison

Attendees left with real-world tools and frameworks to turn reporting into a growth engine. Whether you’re building your first dashboard or revamping your sales ops, this session provided the clarity needed to lead with confidence.

Stay tuned for our next Founders Bay session on data storytelling and sales team coaching!

View the entire workshop video here: