Tomorrow night, at PlayGround World in Palo Alto, some very good people who find themselves constructing belongings you don’t perceive but will clarify what’s coming. That is the ultimate StrictlyVC occasion of 2025, and actually, the lineup is ridiculous.
The sequence has traveled across the globe beneath the auspices of TechCrunch. Steve Case rented a theater in Washington, D.C.; we talked to Greece’s prime minister in Athens; and Kirsten Inexperienced hosted us on the Presidio in San Francisco. The idea is all the time the identical, although: convey collectively people who find themselves engaged on genuinely essential developments in a smaller setting, earlier than everybody else figures out they’re essential.
One in every of our favourite moments was when, in 2019, Sam Altman instructed a StrictlyVC crowd that OpenAI’s monetization technique was mainly “construct AGI, then ask it become profitable.” Everybody laughed. He wasn’t joking.
This time, we’ve bought Nicholas Kelez, a particle accelerator physicist who spent 20 years on the Division of Power constructing issues that shouldn’t be attainable. Now he’s tackling semiconductor manufacturing’s greatest drawback: Each superior chip depends upon $400 million machines that use lasers, just one Dutch firm is aware of make. (Extra galling to some: People invented the know-how, then offered it to Europe.) Kelez is constructing the following technology in America utilizing particle accelerator tech. It’s as nerdy because it sounds but in addition exceedingly essential on this second. There may be additionally rising competitors chasing after the same prize.
Then there’s Mina Fahmi, who’s made a hoop that captures your whispered ideas and turns them into textual content. Earlier than you roll your eyes, know that he and co-founder Kirak Hong spent years at Meta engaged on these things after their firm was acquired. The Stream Ring isn’t attempting to be your pal — it’s attempting to increase your mind. Backed by Toni Schneider, an operator who scaled WordPress in its earlier days, Sandbar simply emerged from stealth and may properly be onto one thing. (Schneider is a companion at True Ventures, whose different {hardware} bets have included Peloton, Ring, and Fitbit; he’s additionally coming to Palo Alto subsequent week.)
We now have Max Hodak — Science Corp founder, Time journal cover subject, and, earlier, Neuralink co-founder (together with Elon Musk) — who has already restored imaginative and prescient to dozens of blind folks with retinal implants. Now he’s engaged on “biohybrid” brain-computer interfaces the place chips seeded with stem cells develop into your mind tissue so paralyzed folks can management gadgets with their ideas. And that’s simply the tip of the iceberg, as Hodak views it. In reality, he thinks 2035 goes to look wildly completely different from right this moment, and he’s joyful to share how.
Lastly, we’re thrilled to welcome Chi-Hua Chien of Goodwater Capital and Elizabeth Weil of Scribble Ventures, two VCs who’ve backed Twitter, Spotify, TikTok, Slack, SpaceX, Figma, and Coinbase earlier than they had been family names. Chien runs Goodwater Capital; Weil based Scribble Ventures after stints at Andreessen Horowitz and Twitter, made 100+ angel investments, and has a primary fund exhibiting 4x returns. (Her community is so good that it’s annoying.) Each assume Silicon Valley is totally misreading the second whereas everybody pours capital into enterprise AI, and so they’ll clarify why.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco
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October 13-15, 2026
PlayGround World is internet hosting, together with basic companion Pat Gelsinger, the previous CEO of Intel. There will likely be drinks, scrumptious meals, and merriment; seating is restricted, so if you wish to get candid insights immediately from these VC and tech heavyhitters, and make significant connections, then register to your seat earlier than it’s gone. StrictlyVC occasions have restricted seating.
If you wish to companion with the sequence in 2026, get in contact right here.
