Tonight at Playground Global in Palo Alto, some very smart people who build things you don’t understand yet will explain what’s coming. This is it last StrictlyVC event of 2025and really, the composition is ridiculous.
The series has traveled around the world under the auspices by TechCrunch: Steve Case rented a theater in Washington, DC. we spoke with the Prime Minister of Greece in Athens. and Kirsten Green hosted us at the Presidio in San Francisco. The idea is always the same, though: Bring together people working on really important developments in a smaller environment, before everyone else knows they’re important.
One of our favorite moments was when, in 2019, Sam Altman told a StrictlyVC crowd that OpenAI’s monetization strategy was basically “build AGI and then ask it how to make money.” Everyone laughed. He wasn’t kidding.
This time, we have Nicholas Keleza particle accelerator physicist who spent 20 years at the Department of Energy building things that shouldn’t be possible. Now it faces semiconductor manufacturing’s biggest problem: Every advanced chip depends on $400 million machines that use lasers only one Dutch company knows how to build. (More sad for some: The Americans invented the technology and then sold it to Europe.) Kelez is building the next generation in America using particle accelerator technology. It’s as nerve-wracking as it sounds but extremely important right now. There is also increasing competition chasing the same prize.
Then there is Mina Fahmiwho made a ring that captures your whispered thoughts and turns them into text. Before you turn a blind eye, know that he and co-founder Kirak Hong spent years at Meta working on these things after their company was acquired. Stream Ring isn’t trying to be your friend – it’s trying to expand your brain. Backed by Toni Schneider, an operator who upgraded WordPress in its earlier days, Sandbar has just come out of stealth and may well be on to something. (Schneider is a partner at True Ventures, whose other hardware bets include Peloton, Ring and Fitbit; he’s also coming to Palo Alto tonight.)
we have Max Hodak — Founder of Science Corp., Time magazine theme coverand, earlier, the co-founder of Neuralink (with Elon Musk) — who has already restored sight to dozens of blind people with retinal implants. Now he’s working on “biohybrid” brain-computer interfaces, where chips with stem cells are grown in your brain tissue so that paralyzed people can control devices with their thoughts. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as Hodak sees it. In fact, he thinks 2035 will look a lot different than today, and he’s happy to share how.
Finally, we welcome with pleasure Chi-Hua Chien of Goodwater Capital and Elizabeth Weil of Scribble Ventures, two VCs that have backed Twitter, Spotify, TikTok, Slack, SpaceX, Figma and Coinbase before they were household names. Chien runs Goodwater Capital. Weil founded Scribble Ventures after stints at Andreessen Horowitz and Twitter, has made 100+ angel investments and has a 4x return on seed capital. (Her network is so good it’s annoying.) Both think Silicon Valley is completely misreading the moment when everyone is pouring capital into business AI, and they’ll explain why.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
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13-15 October 2026
Playground Global hosts, along with general partner Pat Gelsingerthe former CEO of Intel. There will be drinks, delicious food and fun. places are limited, so if you want to get honest insights directly from these VC and tech heavyweights and make meaningful connections, then register for your spot before it’s gone. StrictlyVC events have limited places.
If you want to work with the series in 2026, get in touch here.
