On Wednesday night at PlayGround International in Palo Alto, some very good people who find themselves constructing stuff 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 bounced across the globe underneath the auspices of TechCrunch. Steve Case rented a theater in 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: get people who find themselves engaged on genuinely vital developments in a room earlier than everybody else figures out they’re vital.
Our favourite second? In 2019, Sam Altman informed a StrictlyVC crowd that OpenAI’s monetization technique was mainly “construct AGI, then ask it find out how to generate income.” Everybody laughed. He wasn’t joking.
This time we’ve obtained Nicholas Kelez, a particle accelerator physicist who spent 20 years on the Division of Power constructing issues that shouldn’t be potential. Now he’s tackling semiconductor manufacturing’s largest downside: each superior chip is determined by $400 million machines that use lasers just one Dutch firm is aware of find out how to make. (Extra galling to some: People invented the know-how, then bought it to Europe.) Kelez is constructing the subsequent era in America utilizing particle accelerator tech. It’s as nerdy because it sounds however extra vital than you may think.
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 cofounder Kirak Hong spent years at Meta engaged on these items after their firm was acquired. The Stream Ring isn’t making an attempt to be your buddy, by the best way — it’s making an attempt to increase your mind. Backed by Toni Schneider, an operator who scaled WordPress to a billion guests, Sandbar simply emerged from stealth and would possibly properly be onto one thing. (Schneider is a associate at True Ventures, whose different {hardware} bets have included Peloton, Ring, and Fitbit; he’s additionally coming to Palo Alto subsequent week.)
We have now Max Hodak — Science Corp founder, Time journal cowl topic, and, earlier, Neuralink cofounder — 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 actual fact, he thinks 2035 goes to look wildly totally different from as we speak, and he’s pleased to share how.
Lastly, we’re thrilled to welcome Chi-Hua Chien and Elizabeth Weil, two VCs who’ve backed Twitter, Spotify, TikTok, Slack, SpaceX, Figma, and Coinbase earlier than they had been family names. Chien runs Goodwater Capital and thinks Silicon Valley is totally misreading the AI second whereas everybody piles into enterprise AI. 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 it’s annoying. Each assume the perfect shopper tech alternatives are those everybody’s ignoring, they usually’ll clarify why.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco
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October 13-15, 2026
PlayGround International is internet hosting, together with basic associate Pat Gelsinger, the previous CEO of Intel. There will likely be drinks, scrumptious meals, and merriment; seating is proscribed, so if you wish to come, act quick.
If you wish to associate with the sequence in 2026, get in contact.
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