Upcoming Founder & VC Events Happening This Week

Upcoming Events & Finding Your Unfair Advantage & The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds

Author

Mariane Bekker
May 05, 2024

Women Founders Pitch Night by Founders Bay

Wednesday May 8, 6pm - 9pm

​Hosted by Mariane Bekker, we are featuring 10 extraordinary startups, all women-led, who will take the stage to showcase their groundbreaking companies.

Founders Bay Workshop: Prioritizing Your Mental Health and Wellbeing While Building Your Startup

Wednesday May 15, 3pm - 4pm

​Join us for a 60-minute virtual workshop on Prioritizing Your Mental Health and Wellbeing During Your Startup.

​Rather than adding more to your daily routine, we'll focus on six things to stop doing to enhance your mental health while navigating the unique challenges of women-led startups.

Networking events are a great way to meet fellow founders and investors. Here are events happening in San Francisco this week for founders.

🗓️ Monday, May 6

👉 AI B2B Investors & Networking (4:00 PM - 6:00 PM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 We are Open Future Forum. We are leaders, investors, founders, and engineers based in the Bay Area CA.
​Featured VC: Andrew Karsh
​General Partner at Bay Bridge Ventures

👉 SF Tech: CEO Mixer (6:00 PM - 8:30 PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 ​​​We're uniting Founders in SF for peer collaborations.
Join us and a group of early stage founders for an evening of conversations and connections.

🗓️ Tuesday, May 7

👉 AI Fintech Investors & Networking (4:00 PM - 6:00 PM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 ​Come and Meet Featured investors

👉 SF VC & PE Happy Hour (6:00 PM - 8:00 PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Join us and a group of investors across both private and public markets for an evening of conversations and connections. ​​Whether you're looking to fundraise, deploy capital, or share dealflow, you'll be in a collaborative community.

👉 Modern Data Infrastructure featuring Airbyte and Dagster (6:00 PM - 8:00 PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 This meetup is for engineers passionate about building scalable and reliable infrastructure. Whether you're a developer, a product manager, or simply a data enthusiast, come to network and hear insights from the teams behind Airbyte and Dagster Labs.

🗓️ Wednesday, May 8

👉 AI Workdays at WeWork in SF (9:00 AM - 5:00 PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 For the month of May, we’re opening our doors to AI businesses to try out WeWork at 2 Embarcadero in San Francisco, and in other hubs in New York and London. Come experience all that WeWork has to offer, meet other AI companies, and get lunch on us each day!

👉 GEN AI Investors & Networking (4:00 PM - 6:00 PM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 We are the Open Future Forum. We are leaders, investors, founders, and engineers based in the Bay Area CA.
Details: Networking, Drinks, and AI and ChatGPT conversations.

👉 onRun + WeWork (5:00 PM - 6:00 PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Join us for a simple group run winding through some landmarks of FiDi, San Francisco! We finish the day with happy hours at WeWork, networking about our projects, startups, running, professional needs, or anything in life.

👉 Angel Strike Capital - May Pitch Event! (5:00 PM - 7:00 PM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 Join us this month in Palo Alto for our May Pitch extravaganza! Limited slots are available, please apply today. For those looking to pitch, please fill out the registration questions as fully as possible. This event is for founders and funders only, please. Even if you're not pitching, please come out to support and connect with like-minded founders and funders in a relaxed setting.

👉 Building AI Agents + MLOps Community Colab - Demo Day (5:30 PM - 8:30 PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Join Us at the Building AI Agents's next "Demo Day" Meetup in San Francisco in collaboration with MLOps.community!

👉 Security Startup Happy Hour (RSA) (5:30 PM - 7:30 PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Let's chat Cyber Security! C/side, BCV, and Scribble VC invite you to a happy hour. We'll share why c/side was founded (and funded), and why this next year will be incredibly interesting for the cyber security space.

👉 Wing AI – Fireside Chat with Clem Delangue (5:30 PM - 7:30 PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 ​Join fellow founders and builders in AI for an exclusive evening with Clem Delangue, cofounder and CEO of Hugging Face. The mission is to network and to learn.

👉 Rooftop Tech Talks ~ w/ Cloudflare & Jam.dev (6:00 PM - 8:00 PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 ​Cloudflare and Jam are hosting a Tech Talks + happy hour in SF! Get together with 100+ engineers and builders at the Cloudflare rooftop for lightning talks about engineering at scale - no demos or sales pitches, just technical talks.

👉 SF Tech Community Happy Hour (6:00 PM - 8:30 PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 We're uniting the tech ecosystem in Silicon Valley. Our typical attendee profile is a mix of Tech enthusiasts from startups and BigTech, including founders, investors, developers, operators, and tech leaders, but all are welcome too.

👉 Women Founders Pitch Night by Founders Bay (6:00 PM - 9:00 PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Join us for an unforgettable evening as Founders Bay presents Women Founders Pitch Night! ​Hosted by Mariane Bekker, we are featuring 10 extraordinary startups, all women-led, who will take the stage to showcase their groundbreaking companies.

👉 Fortress the Future: A Cybersecurity Summit for Connected Industries (6:30 PM - 8:30 PM)
📍 San Carlos
💬 Cybersecurity threats are evolving faster than ever, impacting critical industries such as Healthcare, Maritime, Smart Cities and Advanced Manufacturing. This exclusive event brings together VCs, industry leaders, and cybersecurity innovators to explore the cutting-edge solutions safeguarding our future.

🗓️ Thursday, May 9

👉 Morning Tech Brew (8:00 AM - 10:30 AM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Join us for this Morning Tech Brew coffee hour, where we invite builders to come together, share their journeys, and learn from one another's experiences.

👉 Founders Ride (9:00 AM - 12:00 PM)
📍 San Jose
💬 Come enjoy bay area cycling with fellow founders and entrepreneurs! Join us for social road bike rides rolling from San Jose!

👉 Present to Family Offices/CVC’s/VC’s/angels at Perkins Coie SF during RSA (1:00 PM - 6:00 PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Pitch Global invites startups to pitch to respected Silicon Valley Investing Family Offices, CVCs, VCs, and Angel investors, and get an opportunity to have a 1:1 meeting.

👉 Founders At Work: Montara Therapeutics (4:00 PM - 6:00 PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Creating innovative therapies for diseases of the CNS, with a focus on precision medicine and genetically validated targets to enhance drug safety and efficacy.

👉 Digitalizing Italian Businesses - Networking aperitivo with 50 Italian managers (5:45 PM - 7:45 PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Hosted by INNOVIT - Italian Innovation and Culture Hub in San Francisco, this gathering will unite 50 managers selected by Federmanager with prominent Italian professionals entrenched in Silicon Valley's dynamic tech environment.

👉 Parlay House SF: Panel | Show Me the Money (6:00 PM - 8:00 PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Join us as they offer their wise financial advice, answer your questions, and guide us toward feeling optimistic and in control when it comes to managing our money.

👉 Speed (Gen AI) Networking (6:00 PM - 8:00 PM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 Have you ever joined a meetup group but not had the chance to talk to everybody? We will change that with "speed networking", this you will be able to talk to everybody!

👉 Bay Area Founder's Mixer - AI, SaaS & More (6:30 PM - 8:30 PM)
📍 Mountain View
💬 We're excited to meet SaaS and AI founders - as well as all other founders - to exchange notes on what it takes to build startups, foster a good employee culture and make the journey from startup to scale up! If you are an operator or investor, feel free to sign up and pending capacity we'll do our best to include you.

🗓️ Friday, May 10

👉 AI CYBERSECURITY Investor Networking (4:30 AM - 7:00 PM)
📍 Palo Alto
💬 We are Open Future Forum. We are leaders, investors, founders, and engineers based in the Bay Area CA. Details: Networking, Drinks, and AI and ChatGPT conversations. Come and Meet Featured investors

👉 Silicon Valley Bootstrappers Breakfast (9:00 AM - 10:30 AM)
📍 San Jose
💬 Come join entrepreneurs who eat problems for breakfast®. At a Bootstrappers Breakfast® we have serious conversations about growing a business based on internal cashflow and organic profit: this is for founders who are actively bootstrapping a startup.

👉 AI in Fintech Forum (9:00 AM - 5:00 PM)
📍 Stanford
💬 The Stanford Advanced Financial Technologies Laboratory (AFTLab), which accelerates research, education, and thought leadership at the intersection of finance and technology, is back hosting its annual AI in FinTech Forum in-person on Friday, May 10, 2024, at Stanford University.

🗓️ Saturday, May 11

👉 Meta Llama 3 Hackathon (9:00 AM - 5:00 PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 We’re excited to welcome you to the official Meta Llama 3 Hackathon, hosted by Meta in collaboration with Cerebral Valley and SHACK15!

👉 Founders Running Club :: Easy 5–10K Run + Talks in SF (9:30 AM - 11:30 AM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 We'll run 5 — 10km at your conversational pace and talk. We'll have a few pace groups if needed. You can run at your own pace as well, especially if there is someone who runs with you at the same pace with approximately the same effort. After the run, we meet for non-alcoholic beer/coffee somewhere nearby.

👉 Female Founders & Funders at Berkeley Summit (10:30 AM - 5:00 PM)
📍 Berkeley
💬 Female Founders & Funders at Berkeley Summit

👉 AI Innovators & Exit Strategies (2:30 PM - 5:00 PM)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Join us for an extraordinary event with Ajay Gupta, Surbhi Rathore, and Jill Sherman. These visionary leaders will share insights and experiences, inspiring us to explore the realms of finance, technology, and entrepreneurship. Don't miss out on May 11th as we redefine possibilities and ignite creativity!

What’s your unfair advantage as a founder?

On Wednesday, I had the incredible honor of participating in a panel discussion hosted by the US Government Patent and Trademark Office. As I shared insights and experiences with fellow industry experts, one question stood out: What's the most crucial advice for founders?

After careful consideration, it became clear to me: finding your unfair advantage. This element truly sets you apart in the competitive tech landscape — a unique quality or asset that gives you an edge in building your startup.

In a world where others may be tackling the same problem or chasing similar ideas, your unfair advantage becomes your secret weapon, distinguishing you from the pack. The key ingredient propels you forward, enabling you to carve out your niche and thrive amidst the competition.

So, what exactly would be an unfair advantage?

1. Unique Expertise: Your years of experience or specialized knowledge in a particular industry could be your unfair advantage. Whether it's your understanding of market intricacies, technical prowess, or innovative approach to problem-solving, your expertise can give you a distinct advantage in delivering value to your target audience.

2. Access to Key Resources: Do you have access to resources that others don't? This could include proprietary technology, exclusive data sets, strategic partnerships, or even prime physical locations. Leveraging these resources can provide you with a significant head start and create barriers to entry for competitors.

3. Strong Personal Brand: Your personal brand can be a powerful asset in the entrepreneurial landscape. Whether you're known for your authenticity, charisma, or thought leadership, a strong personal brand can attract a loyal audience or community who resonates with your vision and values.

4. Network of Connections: Building and nurturing a robust network of connections can be invaluable in the world of business. Your network—comprising mentors, industry influencers, potential customers, and collaborators—can offer support, guidance, and opportunities that may not be available to others.

5. Passionate Audience or Community: Sometimes, your unfair advantage lies in the audience or community you've cultivated around your brand or product. Whether it's a loyal customer base, engaged social media following, or supportive user community, having an enthusiastic audience can provide you with valuable feedback, word-of-mouth marketing, and a strong foundation for growth.

6. Early Market Entry: Being the first mover in a new or emerging market can provide a significant advantage. It allows you to establish brand recognition, capture market share, and set industry standards before competitors enter the scene.

7. Intellectual Property Portfolio: Patents, trademarks, and copyrights can serve as valuable assets that protect your innovations and give you a competitive advantage. A robust intellectual property portfolio can deter competitors and provide opportunities for licensing or partnerships.

In conclusion, your unfair advantage is the secret ingredient that sets you apart on your entrepreneurial journey. Whether it's your unique expertise, access to resources, personal brand, network of connections, or passionate audience, identifying and leveraging your advantage can be the key to unlocking doors and achieving success.

So, fellow entrepreneurs, I encourage you to reflect on what makes you uniquely positioned to succeed and embrace your unfair advantage with confidence. Your journey may be filled with challenges, but armed with your distinct edge, the possibilities are limitless.

The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds

Funding this week surpassed any other week this year and perhaps last week. This week, more than a dozen nine-figure rounds were raised by U.S.-based startups!

  1. CoreWeave

    • Sector: Artificial Intelligence

    • Funding: $1.1B

    • Details: CoreWeave, an AI cloud infrastructure startup, secured a monumental $1.1 billion round led by Coatue, elevating its valuation to $19 billion. This round marks a significant increase from its previous valuations and brings its total funding to approximately $4.6 billion.

  2. Pine Gate Renewables

    • Sector: Energy

    • Funding: $650M

    • Details: Pine Gate Renewables, a solar and energy storage developer, received a substantial $650 million investment from Generate Capital, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, and HESTA. The funding will support the creation of three gigawatts of clean energy infrastructure across the United States.

  3. PsiQuantum

    • Sector: Quantum Computing

    • Funding: $620M

    • Details: PsiQuantum, a quantum computing startup, secured a significant financial package of $620 million from the Australian Commonwealth and Queensland Governments. The funding will facilitate the construction of a quantum computer near Brisbane Airport. PsiQuantum's funding comprises a mix of equity, grants, and loans, totaling over $1.3 billion since its inception in 2016.

  4. Motional

    • Sector: Autonomous Vehicles

    • Funding: $475M

    • Details: Motional, a self-driving startup based in Boston, received a substantial investment of $475 million from Hyundai. Additionally, Hyundai acquired an 11% equity stake in Motional from joint venture partner Aptiv for $448 million. The funding highlights Hyundai's commitment to advancing autonomous vehicle technology.

  5. Blackrock Neurotech

    • Sector: Neuroscience

    • Funding: $200M

    • Details: Blackrock Neurotech, a brain-to-computer interface startup, received a $200 million investment from stablecoin issuer Tether, resulting in Tether acquiring a majority stake in the company. The investment values Blackrock Neurotech at approximately $350 million and underscores growing interest in brain-computer interface technology.

  6. (tied) BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics

    • Sector: Biotech

    • Funding: $200M

    • Details: BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics, a subsidiary of BridgeBio Pharma, launched as an independent company with $200 million in funding. The Palo Alto-based spinout aims to expand its oncology portfolio and was co-led in financing by Cormorant Asset Management and Omega Funds.

  7. Island

    • Sector: Cybersecurity

    • Funding: $175M

    • Details: Island, a Dallas-based enterprise browser developer, secured a $175 million Series D round at a valuation of $3 billion. Led by Coatue and Sequoia Capital, the funding represents a doubling of Island's valuation within a year and brings its total investments to $487 million.

  8. Altruist

    • Sector: Fintech

    • Funding: $169M

    • Details: Altruist, a Los Angeles-based wealth management platform, raised $169 million in a Series E round led by Iconiq Growth. With a valuation exceeding $1.5 billion, Altruist has raised over $450 million since its establishment in 2018.

  9. Corelight

    • Sector: Cybersecurity

    • Funding: $150M

    • Details: Corelight, a San Francisco-based open-network detection and response startup, secured a $150 million Series E investment led by Accel. With additional strategic investment from Cisco Investments and the CrowdStrike Falcon Fund, Corelight has raised nearly $310 million since its inception in 2013.

  10. Transcarent

    • Sector: Healthcare

    • Funding: $126M

    • Details: Transcarent, a San Francisco-based personalized healthcare platform, closed a $126 million Series D round led by General Catalyst and 7wire Ventures. With a valuation of $2.2 billion, Transcarent has raised approximately $450 million since its establishment in 2020.

CEO, Founders Bay

Hi! I'm Mariane Bekker, a tech executive with over a decade of experience building high-performing engineering teams at leading startups such as New Relic and Mindbody. I've led engineering through 5 acquisitions and 1 IPO. 

I recently founded Founders Bay, a venture studio for early-stage founders with a mission of empowering women founders to grow their startups. Learn more: www.foundersbay.com

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