Twill x J2 Ventures Presents The AI Hardware Frontier: Powering Intelligence in the Real World
Twill x J2 Ventures Presents The AI Hardware Frontier: Powering Intelligence in the Real World
When: Wed, Oct 8 • 5:00–8:00 PM
Where: Twill HQ, SoMa, San Francisco
Meet us at #SFTechWeek!
Tech Week (presented by a16z) brings together the startup and VC ecosystem with events across the city. As part of SF Tech Week (Oct 6–12), we’re hosting The AI Hardware Frontier: Powering Intelligence in the Real World
AI is no longer just software—it’s powered by breakthroughs in hardware that push the limits of compute, healthtech, and autonomy. From silicon and systems to biomedical devices and infrastructure, the AI hardware frontier is where innovation meets the physical world.
At this evening gathering, we’ll explore how founders, investors, and industry leaders are building and scaling hardware and vertical solutions to power the next wave of intelligence. Expect candid conversations on challenges and opportunities across compute platforms, healthtech, and dual-use applications, as well as how venture and corporate capital are fueling this space.
Join us at Twill HQ in SoMa for an evening of:
Keynote insights from leading voices at the intersection of hardware and AI.
Two dynamic panels: one diving into industry trends and adoption, another on the venture capital perspective.
Lightning Talks (5–10 minutes each) from startup founders building the future of AI hardware.
Curated networking with fellow executives, investors, and builders.
Program Flow
5:00–5:45 PM: Arrival & networking over food and drinks
5:45–6:30 PM: Industry Panel: AI Hardware in the Real World
6:30–8:00 PM: Closing networking mixer
Speakers
🎤 Christine Keung — General Partner, J2 Ventures
🎤 Jeff Tatarchuk — Cofounder, TensorWave
🎤 Sean Batir — Tech Lead at AWS, ex-CTO of National Geospatial Intelligence Agency
🎤 Samuel Chang Ph.D. — Director of Product, Cerebras Systems
🎤 Ian Clow — VC Investor, Samsung Catalyst Fund
🎤 Raymond Lee — Founder, Twill
Who’s in the room
Founders (dual-use/defense, cyber, bio, infra), investors, Fortune 500 execs, and government/DoD leaders shaping acquisition and innovation pipelines.
🎟 RSVP today to secure your spot
Space is limited; curated admission for builders and decision-makers.
Then, join us for our follow-on event 10/9 430-7p along with femtoAI and EDGE AI FOUNDATION for a panel and mixer at The Future Is Local: Edge AI Panel & Mixer at the Hanwha AI Center in SF. Sign up here to reserve your spot: https://partiful.com/e/p6ibEbs3sSHXkqWs8Rmn?utm_source=twill
Panelists:
🎙️ Pete Bernard, CEO, EDGE AI FOUNDATION
🎙️ Sam Fok, Co-Founder & CEO, femtoAI
🎙️ Marcellino Gemelli, Director of Business Development, Bosch Sensortec GmbH
🎙️ Kinara Pandya, Staff Engineer, Edge Impulse (a Qualcomm company)
🎙️ Moderator: Roja de Cande, Director of Product Management, femtoAI
✉️ Subscribe to our calendar for priority invites to upcoming events: https://luma.com/twill
Join our upcoming events
Highlights from previous events
Twill and Norton Rose Fulbright Present: The Horizon Forum
Twill Presents Threads: Scaling AI from Concept to Production
AI Founders, Investors, and Execs at the Ballpark
Innodata & Twill Present: Prompt Exchange
🤝 Interested in Partnering or Investing?
We’re opening a channel for those who want to connect with the incredible founders from Y Combinator. If you’re an investor, advisor, or potential partner looking to explore opportunities, submit your details below and we’ll make sure you’re on the radar.
Looking to make your next career move in tech? We have some exciting roles currently available from within the community!
Join a seed-stage startup as a Founding Engineer and work directly with the founder to shape the future of the company. Backed by Y Combinator, Initialized Capital, Progressive Ventures, and other leading investors, this is a unique opportunity to have a front-row seat in building and scaling a high-growth startup.
Founding Engineer - Own major features end-to-end: API design, backend logic, frontend UI, and everything in between. We’re building the control center for U.S. duty drawback—a $10B/year opportunity hiding in plain sight. We use AI and automation to recover tariffs paid by importers when goods are later exported, returned, or destroyed. Most companies don’t even realize they’re eligible. We make sure no dollar is left behind.
San Francisco - In person
This founding team has scaled and led engineering teams through multiple successful acquisitions, including one valued at over $350M and one bootstrapped AI infra company that exited within two years.
LLM EVALUATION ENGINEER - you’ll build the evaluation layer in a—the part of the system that decides whether an LLM prompt, response, tool call, or agent behavior is acceptable. This includes designing and tuning guardrails, classifiers, and semantic judgment systems that operate in real-time.
Engineering - Remote - Fulltime
FOUNDING SOFTWARE ENGINEER - you won’t just be piping logs or tuning models—you’ll architect systems that reconcile latency, correctness, and observability across distributed pipelines. You’ll be designing the nervous system of a new class of software—where AI Agents reason, act, and fail in unpredictable ways. If you're excited by AI and want to shape its safe deployment—not just watch from the sidelines—this is your opportunity.
Engineering - Remote - Fulltime
BACKEND / PLATFORM ENGINEER, AI ANALYTIC ENGINES - Design and optimize streaming data pipelines using Kafka, Redpanda, or similar technologies to support high-throughput, low-latency processing of LLM interactions.
Engineering - Remote - Fulltime