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November 24-26th 2023
MindsDB SF AI Collective,
3154 17th St,
San Francisco, CA 94110

techstars
Startup Weekend
San Francisco AI

What is Techstars Startup Weekend?

Techstars Startup Weekend is a dynamic accelerator program condensed in 3 days where you can develop, prototype, design, and validate your startup ideas. You'll be immersed in an invaluable network of AI mentors and seasoned coaches, and gain access to valuable resources that will help you refine your AI concepts, and pitch your ideas effectively in front of the best investors in the Bay Area.

Get ready for a high-speed startup experience!

Fun

Immerse yourself in an exciting, high-energy environment where innovation meets excitement. Enjoy creative problem-solving and collaborative challenges, making your startup journey an adventure.

Learning

Gain hands-on experience, learn from industry experts, and develop essential skills as you bring your ideas to life. It's an intensive crash course in startup success!

Networking

Forge invaluable connections with like-minded individuals, mentors, and potential collaborators. Expand your professional network and build lasting relationships that can drive your startup forward.

Attendees

100+

participants

10+

mentors

5+

speakers and workshops

15+

sponsors and partners

Schedule

Day 1

5:00 p.m.
Registration, Networking/Icebreaker, Dinner 
6:30 p.m.
Welcome
7:00 p.m.
Speaker
7:30 p.m.
Pitches
8:00 p.m.
Voting
9:15 p.m.
Team formation
10:00 p.m.
Work begins
10:30 p.m.
Go home

Day 2

8:30 a.m.
Breakfast
9:00 a.m.
Kick-off
9:30 a.m.
Workshops (Optional)
10:00 a.m.
Work
11:30 a.m.
Mentor sessions annoucement
12:00 p.m.
Lunch
2:00 p.m.
Mentor meetings
5:00 p.m.
Teams Check-Ins
6:00 p.m.
Dinner Break
8:00 p.m.
Wrap-up announcements
10:30 p.m.
Go home

Day 3

8:30 a.m.
Breakfast
9:00 a.m.
Kick-off
9:30 a.m.
Pitch Workshop/ Mentoring Session (Optional)
10:00 a.m.
Work
12:00 p.m.
Lunch
2:00 p.m.
Teams Check-Ins
4:00 p.m.
Final Presentation submission deadline
5:00 p.m.
Early Dinner/snacks
5:30 p.m.
Evening presentation starts
6:00 p.m.
Final pitches start
7:30 p.m.
Judges deliberate
8:00 p.m.
Winning teams are announced
8:15 p.m.
Event wrap-up
8:30 p.m.
Post-event networking and celebrations (afterparty)
10:30 p.m.
Go home

Speakers

Hien Luu
Head of ML Platform - Doordash
Author, Speaker, Advisor
Passionate AI/ML engineering leader, building scalable infrastructure to power real-world applications. Author of the Beginning Apache Spark 3 book. Speaker at MLOps World, GHC 2022, Data+AI Summit, XAI 21 Summit, YOW Data!, appy(), QCon (SF,NY, London).
Igor Markov
Research Scientist - Meta, Director at Nova Ukraine
Igor L. Markov is Research Scientist at Meta. He previously worked as professor at the Univ of Michigan. He received his M.A. in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Computer Science from UCLA. He is an IEEE Fellow and an ACM Distinguished Scientist.
Anton Borzov
Partner at STRATMINDS. Product Design at WhatsApp, neeva
Anton is a Partner at STRATMINDS, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm focused on applied Artificial Intelligence. Prior to STRATMINDS, he was a Founding Product Designer and Head of Design at Neeva, an AI-powered, ad-free, private and personal search engine with ambition to create a better alternative to Google. Neeva was acquired by Snowflake in 2023 for its amazing AI search tech after growing to 2M users. Before Neeva, Anton was a Founding Product Designer at WhatsApp, where he hired and mentored a global design team serving its growing user base (0 to 1.5B users). He is passionate about integrating life into products and design, and has been studying at buildingbeauty.org, a program based on the works of Christopher Alexander. Anton actively supports the Ukrainian startup and design ecosystems, enjoys connecting designers with businesses and publishing books about design and unfolding life.
Iain McIntyre
Growth & Events - MindsDB
Iain has ten years of experience as a founder, CEO, and Head of Growth, building and scaling innovative products and teams across fields ranging from wearable neuro-technology to applied AI. His startup experience includes raising $6M in funding, conducting extensive user testing, clinical trials and shipping hardware/software products to thousands of paying users, garnering mainstream press attention and establishing strategic partnerships.

Judges

Neal Sales-Griffin
Managing Director at Techstars in San Francisco (eBay Future of eCommerce), Oakland (J.P. Morgan), and Chicago
Managing Director at Techstars for the San Francisco-based Future of eCommerce program (powered by eBay), Oakland (powered by J.P. Morgan), and Chicago programs. Loves solving meaningful problems and helping people make progress. At Techstars we #givefirst and help founders succeed.
Kevin Liu
Head of Investments & Portfolio Capital at Techstars
Kevin is the Head of Investments and Portfolio Capital at Techstars and helps manage the global investment portfolio of over 3500 portfolio companies. As of 2023, Techstars has more than $1B in AUM across both Accelerators and Venture and Techstars alumni have a combined market cap of more than $105B. Kevin is a pre-seed and seed investor in over 40 companies including Retool, Vise, Culture Biosciences, Hightouch, Causal, Certn, and Seldon. Kevin is based in San Francisco.
Hendrik Dahlkamp
Serial Entrepreneur, several exits to Apple and Google
Hendrik loves building deep robotics and computer vision tech. Co-founder Google Street View, Co-founder Google Maps GroundTruth, First engineer Waymo, DRI HomeKit Secure Video, Stanford AI Lab.
Nick Bilogorskiy
Managing Partner, 408 Ventures, Co-founder - Nova Ukraine, ex-Google, Meta, Microsoft
Nick Bilogorskiy was the director for Security Intelligence at Google, leading an engineering team to promote trust and ensure user safety at Google. He has over 20 years experience building great security engineering and operations teams. Nick was a founding member at Cyphort, which was acquired by Juniper Networks; created and led the Cyphort Labs Threat Research team and played a critical role designing Cyphort’s malware detection logic and product user experience. Prior to Cyphort, Bilogorskiy was Chief Malware Expert at Facebook and also held security research leadership positions at Fortinet and Sonicwall.
Pranav Reddy
Founding investor - Conviction VC
Founding Investor at Conviction, interested in AI, ML & more. Previously engineering and product lead at Neeva. Prior to that, published first-author neuroscience work and was a Rhodes finalist. Motivated by learning to do hard things well from talented mentors.
Kevin Leffew
Replit
Kevin Leffew is a Sr. BizOps Manager at Replit; helping companies and developers go from idea to software, fast.
Tara Tan
Founder and General Partner - Strange Ventures
Tara Tan is Founder and General Partner at Strange Ventures, an investment firm focused on AI and the future of human creativity. An industry veteran who has built and backed startups in emerging technologies for nearly 20 years, Tara previously drove investments at global design and strategy firm, IDEO.
Prior to that, she led design at deep tech startups, and founded an interactive media and gaming company in 2012. Tara is a frequent contributor and speaker on the intersection of creativity, technology, and capital, and has appeared at SXSW, SF Design Week, DevCon, and more.
Nadine Fahoum
Principal - Crane Street Capital
Nadine is a Principal at Crane Street Capital, focusing on the education and healthcare sectors. Her approach blends solid private equity principles with a focus on technological advancements. Nadine plays a key role in integrating AI solutions into her portfolio companies, improving their processes, efficiency, and growth. She is passionate about identifying and applying practical, innovative strategies while maintaining a strong emphasis on sustainable capital allocation and long-term business health.Prior to that, she led design at deep tech startups, and founded an interactive media and gaming company in 2012. Tara is a frequent contributor and speaker on the intersection of creativity, technology, and capital, and has appeared at SXSW, SF Design Week, DevCon, and more.
Safa Rashtchy
Founding Managing Partner - Think + Ventures
Safa Rashtchy is the founder and Managing Partner of Think + Ventures, a thesis-based and research-drivenearly-stage fund in Silicon Valley. Safa has been a Silicon Valley investor, advisors, and board member for over 15 years and has invested in over 60 companies. His investments include Bina Technologies (acquired by Roach), Tubi.tv (acquired by Fox Media), Nimble VR (acquired by Facebook), and several other exists.Safa is an advisor/board observer to Snapwire, Spry Health, Axgen, and Contilio. His thesis on consumer value proposition and market-driven investments have been at the core of Think + Ventures. Safa pioneered the concept of “Teen Focus Groups” for internet and online trends and has continued his mission to encouragecompanies to get close to their customer and to listen to them. Safa has worked with and advised numerous public companies during his Wall Street years, including Google, Alibaba, Netflix, Yahoo, and others. From 1997 until 2007, Safa was a Managing Director at Piper Jaffray and Company. He led the firm’s expansion efforts in the Internet industry and its expansion to China, as well as active involvement with leading Internet and technology companies.Safa enjoyed top ranking and recognition from Wall Street, including three consecutive years of the prestigious Institutional Investor (II) ranking, as well as top rankings for stock picks and earnings estimates. In 2007, Safa was named the Investment Analyst of the Year and received the 2007 New Economy Award from iResearch in China. In 2002, Safa was named to The Wall Street Journal’s ”Best on the Street” analyst survey and was also a winner in Institutional Investor magazine’s “Home Run Hitters of 2001ʺ top stock pickers list.
Nazar Gulyk
Tech Entrepreneur, Stanford GSB
Nazar is a passionate and experienced Ukrainian tech entrepreneur and startup founder based in San Francisco. With a strong background in business and technology, he is dedicated to empowering young founders and companies to bring their innovative ideas to life.
Additionally, he serves as a TechStars Community Leader in San Francisco, leading a local pre-acceleration program.

Mentors

Adi Kancherla
Prev. Dist. Systems - Google
Adi Kancherla, holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His impressive career trajectory includes a significant role at Google, where he developed vital software for Fortune 500 companies. As a serial entrepreneur, Adi founded three venture-backed startups in the Web 3 space, showcasing his acumen in identifying and nurturing nascent ideas into successful businesses. He served as CTO and CEO, raising nearly $5.3 million USD. Adi’s expertise extends to building talented teams, proving his knack for recognizing and cultivating potential. As a mentor, he offers invaluable insights, a robust industry network, and a proven track record in transforming innovative ideas into thriving enterprises. His guidance is a beacon for startups striving to make a mark in the tech world.
Alyona Mysko
CEO/Founder at Fuelfinance
Founder of a fintech startup Fuelfinance.me and raised $1M in seed round and recently hit $100k MRR. Alyona is building startup with a mission to help founders avoid financial mistakes. Fuel is used to manage more than $250M in customers' P&L. Fuelfinance won #2 Golden Kitty Award and was mentioned in Business Insider, CNN, American Banker. Alyona was also a guest at Masters of Scale podcast.Alyona has 10+ years in finance (PwC) being expert in financial planning, analysis and risk management.
Chinar Movsisyan
CEO & Founder - Manot
An AI enthusiast with a specialization in the Computer Vision field, Chinar has successfully delivered over 15 AI-powered products from inception to completion. With experience gained at various research labs and venture-backed startups, Chinar is the founder of Manot, a startup dedicated to providing an insights management platform for computer vision performance. The platform aims to streamline the AI development pipeline for companies, resulting in cost and time reduction while crucially eliminating catastrophic failures.
Fabio Marastoni
Chief of Staff & Strategy - Improvado.io
At Improvado, Fabio played a key role alongside the CEO in securing $22M for the Series A funding round. Responsibilities included the preparation of crucial presentations for investors, strategic business planning, and ensuring meticulous readiness for scrutiny and due diligence. Fabio was also actively involved in preparing board of directors' meetings.Simultaneously, Fabio provided support to founders by assisting in the restructuring and enhancement of pitch decks. Leveraging past experiences in customer-facing sales pitches, Fabio contributed valuable insights to optimize presentations.
Mohammad (Hamudi) Naanaa
Co-Founder & CTO - Portal AI, AI Researcher
As the technical co-founder of Portal AI, Hamudi is dedicated to assisting entrepreneurs in effortlessly elevating and managing their businesses through AI intelligence. With a robust background spanning 6 years in AI research, engineering, and community building at Apple, Google, and Amazon, Hamudi has contributed significantly to major hardware and software releases, impacting millions of users. During this time, Hamudi played a key role in spearheading AI research and product development.Hamudi actively participates in the hackathon circuit, earning awards for innovative product ideas. Beyond this, Hamudi frequently serves as a judge, leveraging their expertise to evaluate the work of others. Fueled by a strong belief in the transformative potential of startups, Hamudi is passionate about utilizing their knowledge to empower and inspire emerging tech entrepreneurs.
Amy Pragel
Founder, Sales, Product, Strategy - Moody’s Analytics
Stanford LEAD
With 17 years of experience in FinTech spanning Sales, Product, and Strategy, Amy founded a for-profit public benefit corporation during Stanford LEAD, disrupting charitable giving in the US. Serving as a founder in the school's incubator program, Amy actively manages the business, mentors, and strategizes on design thinking. While maintaining a corporate role in third-party due diligence, Amy is gearing up for the winter season launch of their venture, actively pitching for external capital. Currently enrolled in an incubator program, Amy leverages their diverse background to refine the business model and understand customers. Passionate about mentoring and startup advising, Amy has consistently guided startups to top 10 placements in incubator cohorts.
Deep S.
Startup Advisor on Pitch Deck, Revenue Growth and Startup Exit, Acquisition
A dedicated mentor across four incubator programs and alumni, Deep S. possesses expertise in guiding startups through pitching, messaging, scaling, and exits. Deep S. serves as an executive coach and advisor, having conducted workshops attended by over 23,000 individuals from 50 countries. Active mentor at Berkeley Skydeck, FalconX, Y-Combinator Alumni and TechStars Alumni.
Tove Andersson
Entrepreneur, Founder - KryptoGäris
Tove Andersson is an accomplished entrepreneur and leader in the blockchain space. She founded KryptoGäris, the largest network for women in crypto in Scandinavia and she has held positions such as CMO of a dev tool startup and board member of a publicly-listed health tech company. Moreover, she has been a popular speaker at SXSW and Eth Denver and mentored and judged at the respective hackathons. Before transitioning into the tech industry, Andersson was a professional Art Director at the renowned advertising agency DDB where she worked with clients Klarna, Samsung, and Volkswagen and won awards including a Cannes Lion and a Webby Award for her work.
Dane Patterson
Startup attorney, Partner - Goodwin
As a startup attorney and Partner at Goodwin, Dane brings nearly a decade of experience in providing counsel to startups and founders. Dane has played a pivotal role in advising on numerous company formations, venture capital financings, and navigating M&A and IPO exits. The breadth of Dane's practice includes collaboration with high-profile companies, and a particular passion for working closely with early-stage founders at the inception of their startup journey. Dane also serves as a mentor for Techstars Silicon Valley, further contributing to the growth and development of the startup ecosystem.
Samuel Ekpe
Cofounder, CEO - Grupa
As a three-time founder, Samuel currently holds the position of Cofounder and CEO at Grupa. With a background encompassing building, engineering, and fundraising, Samuel is actively involved in developing an autonomous software system at Grupa, where human engineers play a pivotal role in the loop. The company is presently in the process of raising $2.5M to execute and scale this mission.
Toni Xu
CEO of Lvlup, Inc. 
A serial entrepreneur with a track record of building successful teams and products. Toni identified market opportunities and critical problems, devised creative solutions, built A-teams, turned things around, and scaled things up multiple x, many times. Toni designed and built 2 game platforms, 1 e-commerce platform, designed, produced, and published 50+ games across web, mobile, and VR, Blockchain, acquired and operated 30M users.
Giordano Tovo
Sales, VC - LvlUp ventures
In the EU, Giordano has played a pivotal role as a founding member of a marketing agency and consulting business specializing in sales services. In San Francisco, Giordano collaborated with venture capitalists, contributing to deal sourcing, analysis, and due diligence. Giordano’s efforts facilitated funding for startups by enhancing pitch decks and establishing connections with suitable investors. Additionally, Giordano extends support to startups in optimizing sales strategies to drive revenue growth.
Girish Kejariwal
Vice President, Digital (Global Conversational AI Lead) - Genpact
Throughout the majority of their career, Girish has dedicated their efforts to constructing innovative solutions that drive digital transformation within enterprise settings. Known for an exploratory approach, Girish delves into challenges to gain a profound understanding, analyzing multiple paths toward a solution, and collaboratively working with teams to identify optimal win-win outcomes. In recent achievements, Girish's startup secured a notable position in the top 3 at the Stanford Lead Incubator and Startup Accelerator. With a robust background, Girish brings extensive experience in product development, consulting, and the management of enterprise application products and solutions.
Arjun Arora
Founder - Advisor.AI
With over a decade of experience, Arjun brings expertise in B2B enterprise sales, data science, machine learning products, marketing, customer success, and GTM strategy to the table.
Matthew Fanciullo
Strategic Advisor and Legal Program Manager
Matthew Fanciullo is a legal professional at Chime, America's largest digital bank. He has a robustbackground in the fintech and legal sectors, with significant experience from Google, Chime, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Wells Fargo Securities. Matthew has also worked as a Strategy Advisor for the Silicon Valley tech startup Abundance Protocol, where he worked with the CEO on corporate strategy, fundraising, and compliance solutions. His expertise in legal frameworks and startup environments makes him a standout in the field.
Michael Popchuk
Building successful SAAS products
Michael is a serial entrepreneur with a track of record in SAAS B2B startups.Since 2007 he started 3 and successfully exited one startup.As a management consultant, I helped market leaders in fintech, e-commerce, and entertainment to achieve transparent and predictable delivery.
Dr. Samy Movassaghi 
Technical Lead in AI - Vanguard, Ex- Google 
Serial award-winning technical expert in Generative AI, Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence. She is currently an AI technical lead at Vanguard which is an American registered investment advisory firm that has been around for close to 50 years with $7.7 trillion in global assets under management. Samy's cutting-edge research contributions have been acknowledged through various awards: - Making a Breakthrough in Computer Science Award by Google, - PhD of the year awarded by the Professional Association for Australia's ICT sector - Featured Amongst Top seven researchers as CSIRO's seven. She has also been featured in 20+ newspapers and magazines Worldwide, some of which are: The ABC Science Show, SBS, The Financial Review, WHO magazine, The Deal & many more.
Yurii Filipchuk
Serial Tech Entrepreneur
A serial tech entrepreneur from Ukraine now based in San Francisco. As founder of the virtual events platform Party.Space, raised over $2 million in funding, closed deals with Google, Zapier, Grammarly, and UC Berkeley, and navigated pivots before winding down operations. Have experience in investments and helping companies fundraise. Now working on a new venture in the AI field. Yurii makes meaningful connections and enjoys barbecue, shisha, and shawarma.

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