Much of my outreach and learning has been through cold calls, emails, LinkedIn and YouTube. Meeting founders in person gave me a clearer picture of the challenges they are actually working through.
A few things stood out:
What stood out
Signals and founder implications
| Signal | What founders can carry forward |
|---|---|
| Evals | I met people working on how to test AI systems and understand whether their results are reliable. There is a lot happening here that I want to learn more about. |
| Sovereign AI | At Open Source x Sovereign AI, Molly Mackinlay of FilOz gave a great presentation that brought questions of data ownership and infrastructure control into focus. |
| Context and memory management | Conversations about what AI should remember, retain and carry between tools opened up new questions for me. |
| Scaling agents securely | Build AI Agents with Auth0 at Okta explored agent security. The Google for Startups and Wiz session added perspectives on AI and cloud security. |
| Understanding customers and building a brand | The session at Reddit headquarters explored how Reddit can be useful for founders. Tonik’s brand session and Sell & Scale at Okta added perspectives on positioning and reaching customers. |
| Preparing for growth | The Series A panel at Expensify reinforced getting important commitments in writing and signed. Financial Systems for Founders with East Bay Founders brought practical lessons on cash, runway and financial decisions. |
Thank you to the founders, speakers and organizers who shared their experience throughout the week.
What has an in person conversation taught you that you hadn’t picked up online?
Quick answers
Questions founders may ask
What stood out at SF Tech Week?
Evals, sovereign AI, context and memory management, scaling agents securely, understanding customers, building a brand and preparing for growth were the themes that stayed with me.
What will I do differently after these conversations?
I want to listen longer before offering a solution and ask founders what they are struggling with, what they have tried and what still gets in the way.
Sources and related reading
- Financial Systems for Founders
- Preparing for a Series A
- Selling to government
- Sovereign AI and agent memory
- Google for Startups and Wiz
- MeetStream and Prefactor Founders Night
- Potato Meter and brand building
- Built by Community at Reddit
- Build AI Agents with Auth0
- Agents and APIs
- The Auth0 buyer pitch
- Can your agents actually ship?
- Explore practical AI security questions