Curated AI events in NYC and SF.
For Students, Developers, and Funded Founders
I run two calibrated tracks: Students / Developers and Funded Founders. We host high-quality hackathons, founder dinners, and premium PMF conversations in NYC and SF.
Design Principles
Built like a real team: curation, context, and execution discipline.
Room Quality First
Attendee quality beats vanity metrics. The right room creates compounding outcomes.
Context by Track
Students/developers and funded founders get separate, purpose-built experiences.
Operator-Led Formats
Events are run with production-level planning, not community chaos.
Real Follow-Through
Dinners, intros, and post-event workflows are built to move relationships forward.
Ecosystem
Trusted by leading organizations
Mission
From discovery to PMF: events that match founder stage and technical depth.
We blend flagship hackathons with intimate founder rooms. Early builders get momentum, while funded teams get high-context peer networks and PMF-level strategy conversations.
See founder dinner formatsAbout James Steinberg
AI researcher, serial entrepreneur, and host of high-signal builder rooms.
Background, operator context, and founder outcomes are documented below. These references explain why these events are run with a tighter standard than generic meetups.
Two Tracks
One network, two intentionally different experiences.
Students / Developers
Execution-heavy programs for technical builders shipping projects and meeting mentors.
- Hackathons with clear build milestones
- Hands-on workshops and technical talks
- Demo-focused events with real feedback loops
Funded Founders
Private founder rooms optimized for tactical growth and high-trust relationship building.
- Curated dinners across NYC and SF
- Operator and investor-adjacent conversation
- Selective PMF conversations and peer exchange
Event Formats
Programmed with card-level precision and strong attendance intent.
AUG 31
SF
China Quant Investment Delegation × Silicon Valley — NVIDIA, Stanford & UC Berkeley
China Quant Investment Delegation × Silicon Valley — NVIDIA, Stanford & UC Berkeley for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 31
NYC
Inertia Beta Party
Inertia Beta Party for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 31
NYC
Betting on Open Source: Post-Training Models in Production with EliseAI & Baseten
Betting on Open Source: Post-Training Models in Production with EliseAI & Baseten for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 31
NYC
founder dinner (with a GPU!)
founder dinner (with a GPU!) for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 31
SF
AI workflow show-and-tell
AI workflow show-and-tell for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 31
SF
Women Tech Meetup: Who’s Betting Big on AI?
Women Tech Meetup: Who’s Betting Big on AI? for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 31
SF
AI Agents, Living Labs & the Future of Society: Inside Edge Cities’ Experiments to Prototype New Ways to Live, Build & Flourish (S
AI Agents, Living Labs & the Future of Society: Inside Edge Cities’ Experiments to Prototype New Ways to Live, Build & Flourish (SF) for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 31
SF
Cognitive Communes: Local-first agents for community living
Cognitive Communes: Local-first agents for community living for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 31
SF
Degrees of Freedom: Bring Your Own Robot @ Mission Robotics
Degrees of Freedom: Bring Your Own Robot @ Mission Robotics for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 31
SF
Scrappy AI Founders Play Soccer (seed to series A)
Scrappy AI Founders Play Soccer (seed to series A) for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 31
SF
90/30 Club Reading - Robots Need More than VLA and World Models
90/30 Club Reading - Robots Need More than VLA and World Models for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
SEP 01
SF
Headway Harness & Breakfast
Headway Harness & Breakfast for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
SEP 01
SF
KCD SF Bay Area: AI, Kubernetes, and Platform Engineering
KCD SF Bay Area: AI, Kubernetes, and Platform Engineering for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
SEP 01
SF
Founders + Solo Operators: Get Your Time Back w/ Minds
Founders + Solo Operators: Get Your Time Back w/ Minds for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
SEP 01
NYC
NYC Voice AI Meetup: Build Smarter Voice Agents
NYC Voice AI Meetup: Build Smarter Voice Agents for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
SEP 01
NYC
Build AI AGENTS with Avahi
Build AI AGENTS with Avahi for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
SEP 01
NYC
AI 2040 discussion: AI safety planning workshop
AI 2040 discussion: AI safety planning workshop for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
SEP 01
NYC
Girlie Pops (and friends) Who VibeCode
Girlie Pops (and friends) Who VibeCode for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
SEP 01
SF
Agentic + AI Night: Multi-Agent Governance and Security
Agentic + AI Night: Multi-Agent Governance and Security for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
SEP 01
NYC
The Future of Enterprise AI: NYC Private Dinner
The Future of Enterprise AI: NYC Private Dinner for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
SEP 01
SF
First Look: Korea Private Investor Showcase
First Look: Korea Private Investor Showcase for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
SEP 01
SF
SuccessLab Executive Roundtable: The New Architecture of AI-Powered Support
SuccessLab Executive Roundtable: The New Architecture of AI-Powered Support for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
SEP 01
SF
AI Creative Lab: Create Beautiful Reports, Slides, Posters & Videos
AI Creative Lab: Create Beautiful Reports, Slides, Posters & Videos for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
SEP 01
SF
Learning Layer Paper Reading Club - Week 30 - ARIS: Autonomous Research via Adversarial Multi-Agent Collaboration
Learning Layer Paper Reading Club - Week 30 - ARIS: Autonomous Research via Adversarial Multi-Agent Collaboration for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
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Real rooms. Real builders. Real follow-through.
Founder Dinner Series
Funded Founder Rooms
We host intimate dinners across NYC and SF with founders from ecosystems like Y Combinator, Speedrun, and Techstars.
PMF Track
Product-Market-Fit Dinner
More selective than standard founder dinners, this room is generally reserved for teams that have raised $4M+ and are beginning to show PMF.
Contact
Want your next event room to feel this sharp?
If you are building in AI and care about room quality, we should talk.