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Upcoming Founder & VC Events Happening This Week + Top Accelerators Accepting Applications in SF

Upcoming Founder & VC Events Happening This Week + Top Accelerators Accepting Applications in SF

Author

Mariane Bekker
March 25, 2024

Events

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

🗓 Monday (Mar 25)

📍 Palo Alto

💬 Come and Meet Featured investors Featured VC: Dave Anderson Founding General Partner at Beat Ventures

📍 Concord

💬 Thinking of forming a startup and have no idea how to do it? Experienced in the Bay Area startup ecosystem but not sure about building a startup in Concord or the Diablo Valley? Join us for an evening of drinks and networking. Make connections, and learn from and share information with others.

📍 Palo Alto

💬 A networking event hosted by HKS in Tech and the HKS San Francisco Alumni Network

🗓 Tuesday (Mar 26)

📍 Sunnyvale

💬 ​The monthly Chinese Tech Network event has returned to Plug and Play Tech Center in Silicon Valley! This month, we will explore AI's impact on product design, customer service, and the global market for entrepreneurs.

📍 San Francisco

💬 Join us for an evening of insightful discussions and networking opportunities at our Moonshot Mixer event!

📍 San Francisco

💬 ​Mercury is teaming up with us to host a happy hour event in SF. Join us and some womxn of Mercury as we enjoy drinks + snacks and make new connections!

📍 San Francisco

💬 ​Join us on March 26th to meet fellow founders (appreneurs) of consumer subscription businesses, investors, and industry experts at a fireside chat and demo night!

📍 San Francisco

💬 Join us for a cozy evening in San Francisco, where it's all about kicking back with fellow founders. Think of it as an exclusive gathering among friends, where we share the real, unfiltered stories behind our startups—successes, bumps, and all. 😊

📍 San Francisco

💬 ​​​We're (David & Christina) uniting tech enthusiasts in Silicon Valley for the startup ecosystem growth.​​​🤝 Who's coming? 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.

🗓 Wednesday (Mar 27)

📍 San Francisco

💬 ​Start your day with a FREE workday at WeWork, if you like, and then 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.

📍 San Jose

💬 Join us and witness the excitement of Web3 innovation! Scheduled for Wednesday, March 27th, 2024, promising an unmissable Web3 Pitch experience.

📍 San Francisco

💬 ​SF Tech: CEO Mixer, presented by Christina & David. Where Tech CEOs gather. To register for this no-host event, please purchase your ticket.​​​​🤝 Who's coming? The typical attendee profile is a mix of tech CEOs and Founders.

📍 San Francisco

💬 We are organizing a Startup Pitch and Networking Event in San Francisco. Venue — The Marker Hotel

📍 San Francisco

💬 ​We're bringing together some of the most thoughtful and kind people we know in SF!

📍 Cupertino

💬 This seminar will cover various issues relating to starting and capitalizing a new venture. Topics include: (i) selection of business entity: tax, finance, and other considerations, (ii) equity structure and compensation of founders and employees, including equity structure options, and (iii) financing issues, including a description of the traditional source of capital and what they are and how to best position the company for raising capital.

🗓 Thursday (Mar 28)

📍 San Francisco

💬 ​South Park Commons is delighted to host Jessica Lessin, founder and CEO of The Information, as part of our -1 to Now series! Please join us to hear the story of how The Information has grown into one of the largest subscription communities in the world.

📍 San Francisco

💬 ​Join RevAmp for an evening of collaborative conversations that have one goal in mind - optimizing revenue growth and operational efficiency.

📍 San Francisco

💬 ​-Organized by Jeremiah Owyang (TwitterX, Linkedin). -Ten AI Startups on demo floor, networking, food & bev. -Who should apply to attend? AI Founders & VC Investors. -Location will be revealed to approved guests on event day. -Gov ID required for entry.

📍 Plug and Play Tech Center, Sunnyvale

💬 Engage with a panel of venture capitalists discussing the latest trends and insights in AI investing, focusing on the dynamic Silicon Valley tech landscape.

📍 San Francisco

💬 ​​This isn't your typical Meetup/Networking Event; our goal is to make space for meaningful connections, learn from each other and move each other forward.

📍 San Mateo

💬 A distinguished panel of venture capitalists will discuss what's hot and what's not in the Silicon Valley venture capital and tech startup ecosystem.

📍 San Carlos

💬 All climate fixers, domains, orgs

📍 San Francisco

💬 Welcome to the San Francisco AI Block Party! Get ready for a night of fun, music, and good vibes in the heart of San Francisco.

📍 San Francisco

💬 As seen in Entrepreneur Magazine. We’re SF's premier tech networking event with one of the largest membership groups in Southern California and growing every month! Don't miss this opportunity to meet your next big business connection!

📍 San Francisco

💬 ​An evening in a warm, cozy tea shop to come together and muse about the next inflection point in longevity biology. What is the next critical step on the journey to extending healthy human lifespan?

🗓 Friday (Mar 29)

📍 Pleasanton

📍 San Francisco

💬 Get ready to mark your calendars because one of the most anticipated events of the year is almost here! That's right, the legendary Protsiuk Startup parties are back and better than ever, bringing together the brightest minds in the startup world for an unforgettable night of networking, fun, and celebration.

🗓 Saturday (Mar 30)

📍 Sunnyvale

💬 Join us at AI Summit 2024 to celebrate diversity, connect with the community, and shape the future together!

📍 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.

Top Accelerators in San Francisco Currently Accepting Applications

Accelerators programs serve as invaluable resources for founders looking to propel their ventures to new heights. Here’s a curated list of top accelerators currently accepting applications, each offering unique opportunities for growth and success:

💡 Terms: $125k for 7% plus $375k uncapped MFN SAFE

🗓️ Start Date: Summer 2024

💡 Terms: $20k upfront and up to 120k for 6%

🗓️ Start Date: Summer 2024

💡 Terms: 2.5% equity take plus a $500k uncapped MFN SAFE

🗓️ Start Date: April 10

💡 Terms: $250k-$2M at different equity terms

🗓️ Start Date: Summer 2024

💡 Terms: $150k for 6% plus $37.5k program fee

💡 Terms: $500K total; $250K for 9% + $250K ARC

🗓️ Start Date: April 2024

💡 Terms: up to $150k for between 5–10%

💡 Terms: $100k for 6%

🗓️ Start Date: Sprint/Summer 2024

💡 Terms: $400k for 7% + $600k in the next round

🗓️ Start Date: May 13 2024

💡 Terms: Average of $25k for 5% investment

🗓️ Start Date: August 2024

💡 Terms: 250k on an uncapped SAFE

🗓️ Start Date: June 2rd 2024

💡 Terms: $50k-$150k investment up front, up to $500k later on, equity unclear

💡 Terms: Investment warrant for 4.5% of your stock.

The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Wonder Delivers Largest Round Of Week

The week was slightly slower for huge rounds compared to previous ones, but half of the funding deals broke the $100 million mark. However, it still was not all that bad for big rounds, especially considering the huge $700 million raised by a food delivery company.

  1. Wonder:
    Amount Raised: $700 million
    Industry: Food delivery
    What Happened: Marc Lore’s food delivery startup Wonder is back on this list again after making it last November and in June 2022. Wonder raised a whopping $700 million in its latest round. Investors in the deal — which was reportedly raised as a simple agreement for future equity, which has no valuation set — included NEA, GV, Accel and Bain Capital Ventures, among others. Lore himself reportedly invested $100 million. The company aims to open 100 more locations over the next two years. It currently has 11 locations in the New York City area that offer takeout and delivery from several restaurants cooked in a single kitchen. The New York-based firm has been pretty busy of late. In September, Wonder acquired meal-kit company Blue Apron for $103 million. Founded in 2018, Wonder has raised nearly $1.8 billion, per Crunchbase.

  2. Mirador Therapeutics:
    Amount Raised: $400 million
    Industry: Biotech
    What Happened: More big biotech raises this week. The biggest was for San Diego-based Mirador, which launched with a $400 million Series A funding led by Arch Venture Partners. The company was founded by CEO Mark McKenna and executives from Prometheus Biosciences, which was acquired by Merck in 2023. With breakthroughs in genetics and machine learning, the company is focused on precision medicine for chronic inflammation and fibrotic disease.

  3. Capstan Therapeutics:
    Amount Raised: $175 million
    Industry: Biotech
    What Happened: Capstan Therapeutics raised a $175 million Series B led by RA Capital Management. The San Diego-based biotechnology company focuses on vivo reprogramming of cells through RNA delivery to combat autoimmune disorders. Founded in 2021, the company says it has raised $340 million.

  4. Engrail Therapeutics:
    Amount Raised: $157 million
    Industry: Biotech
    What Happened: Anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder are serious diseases in which therapies can be somewhat limited. Engrail Therapeutics locked up a fresh $157 million Series B co-led by new investors F-Prime Capital, Forbion and Norwest Venture Partners to help expand offerings to combat those problems. The San Diego-based biotech startup focuses on neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental diseases and will use the fresh cash to advance its pipeline through clinical development. Since being founded in 2019, Engrail has raised over $220 million, per the company.

  5. Clasp Therapeutics:
    Amount Raised: $150 million
    Industry: Biotech
    What Happened: Clasp Therapeutics is the next biotech to raise huge. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup is developing T cell engagers tailored to each patient’s immune system to target tumors. The company launched this week with a $150 million financing led by Catalio Capital Management, Third Rock Ventures and Novo Holdings.

  6. Foundry:
    Amount Raised: $80 million
    Industry: Cloud
    What Happened: While AI may be dominating business, the amount of compute available and its cost are still a hindrance to many. Foundry locked up $80 million — at a reported $350 million valuation — and came out of stealth this week to help with that. The Palo Alto, California-based startup unveiled its public cloud purpose-built for ML workloads. The company says its mission is to “ensure humanity maximizes the utility of the computing power we already have, and will produce.” The newly announced round was co-led by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

  7. BigID:
    Amount Raised: $60 million
    Industry: Cybersecurity
    What Happened: New York-based data privacy startup BigID raised a $60 million round led by Riverwood Capital. Founded in 2016, BigID has raised $320 million, per the company.

  8. Figure Markets:
    Amount Raised: $60 million
    Industry: Fintech
    What Happened: San Francisco-based Figure Markets, a platform where investors can trade a wide range of blockchain-native assets, raised a more than $60 million Series A led by Jump Crypto, Pantera Capital and Lightspeed Faction. It was the company’s first announced round.

  9. Succinct:
    Amount Raised: $55 million
    Industry: Web3
    What Happened: San Francisco-based Succinct raised $55 million across a seed and Series A funding led by crypto investor Paradigm. Founded in 2022, the company builds open-source infrastructure for blockchain applications.

  10. Hippocratic AI:
    Amount Raised: $53 million
    Industry: Healthcare
    What Happened: Palo Alto, California-based AI healthcare agent developer Hippocratic AI raised a $53 million Series A co-led by PremjiInvest and General Catalyst. Founded in 2022, the company has raised $118 million, per Crunchbase.

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'm passionate about promoting diversity and inclusion in the tech industry and helping founders succeed. That's why I founded Upward Ventures, an agency specializing in incubating AI startups from 0 to 1.