Tonight, 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 last 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 vital developments in a smaller setting, earlier than everybody else figures out they’re vital.
Certainly one of our favourite moments was when, in 2019, Sam Altman informed a StrictlyVC crowd that OpenAI’s monetization technique was principally “build AGI, then ask it how to make money.” 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 attainable. Now he’s tackling semiconductor manufacturing’s greatest 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 following era in America utilizing particle accelerator tech. It’s as nerdy because it sounds but additionally exceedingly vital 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 things 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 may effectively 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 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 units with their ideas. And that’s simply the tip of the iceberg, as Hodak views it. Actually, he thinks 2035 goes to look wildly completely different from immediately, 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 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, they usually’ll clarify why.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco
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October 13-15, 2026
Playground International is internet hosting, together with normal companion Pat Gelsinger, the previous CEO of Intel. There can be drinks, scrumptious meals, and merriment; seating is proscribed, so if you wish to get candid insights straight from these VC and tech heavy hitters, 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.
