The Whole Stack: An Evening with Researchers, Founders, and VCs
The research decides what's possible. The founders decide what's real. The capital decides what's next. They're rarely in the same room.
This is a closed-door salon for 30 people: ten researchers from frontier labs, ten founders building AI-native companies, and ten investors backing them. One conversation, three vantage points.
Everyone in this room is drowning in secondhand takes about AI. This evening is the opposite: firsthand only. What the people training the models actually see coming. What the people shipping products actually hit in production. What the people writing checks actually believe, stripped of the thesis-post version.
Format:
Three short provocations, five minutes each, one from each side of the room:
A researcher on what's coming that the market hasn't priced in
A founder on what broke when the research met real users
An investor on where the capital is actually moving, not where the headlines say
Then the floor opens. Moderated, off the record, disagreement welcome. We close with a long unstructured hour, and we'll make sure you meet the people you came to meet.
Agenda:
6:30 PM: Doors open, drinks
7:00 PM: Three provocations
7:20 PM: The room talks (60 min)
8:20 PM: Open hour, introductions made
9:30 PM: Close
Who's in the room:
Researchers: doing frontier or applied work at leading labs and companies. You know what's real because you build it.
Founders: running AI-native companies, in market, with technical depth. Pre-seed to Series A.
Investors: actively deploying into AI at pre-seed to Series B. Partners and principals who take the first meeting themselves.
Ten seats per side. Every registration is reviewed to keep the balance.
A note on RSVPs:
Thirty seats, ten per side, and the balance is the point. Register only if you're committed to attending. If plans change, tell us early so your seat goes to someone on the waitlist.
About the host:
Hosted by OpenStages, a Bay Area team that plans and hosts curated closed-door sessions for founders, researchers, and investors.