Tomorrow night, at PlayGround World 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 closing StrictlyVC occasion of 2025, and really, the lineup is ridiculous.
The collection has traveled across the globe underneath 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 all our favourite moments was when, in 2019, Sam Altman instructed a StrictlyVC crowd that OpenAI’s monetization technique was principally “construct AGI, then ask it how one can become profitable.” Everybody laughed. He wasn’t joking.
This time, we’ve received Nicholas Kelez, a particle accelerator physicist who spent 20 years on the Division of Vitality constructing issues that shouldn’t be attainable. Now he’s tackling semiconductor manufacturing’s largest downside: Each superior chip depends upon $400 million machines that use lasers, just one Dutch firm is aware of how one can make. (Extra galling to some: People invented the know-how, then bought it to Europe.) Kelez is constructing the subsequent 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 identical 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 items after their firm was acquired. The Stream Ring isn’t making an attempt to be your pal — it’s making an attempt to increase your mind. Backed by Toni Schneider, an operator who scaled WordPress in its earlier days, Sandbar simply emerged from stealth and would possibly 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’ve Max Hodak — Science Corp founder, Time journal cowl topic, 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 truth, he thinks 2035 goes to look wildly completely different from at this time, and he’s comfortable 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 have 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 displaying 4x returns. (Her community is so good that it’s annoying.) Each suppose Silicon Valley is totally misreading the second whereas everybody pours capital into enterprise AI, they usually’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 instantly from these VC and tech heavyhitters, and make significant connections, then register in your seat earlier than it’s gone. StrictlyVC occasions have restricted seating.
If you wish to companion with the collection in 2026, get in contact right here.
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