THE DEAL LOUNGE
The Deal Lounge
The Deal Lounge is a curated, executive-level experience that brings together founders, operators, investors, and business leaders focused on scaling companies, forming strategic partnerships, and unlocking real growth capital within the Bay Area innovation economy.
The program centers on capital access, business strategy, innovation, and high-signal relationship-building—designed to move beyond panels and into actionable conversations that drive deals, partnerships, and next steps.
How It Works
5 minutes total per session
2-minute founder pitch
3-minute rapid investor Q&A
1 founder vs. 4–5 aligned funds
Real-time outcomes: Pass • Follow-Up • Move to Deal Room
Top founders advance to private, closed-door Deal Room discussions
Who It’s For
Founders
You want serious investor feedback fast
You can pitch clearly under pressure
You’re actively fundraising or preparing to raise
Investors
You want curated deal flow
You prefer fast filtering + structured Q&A
You want follow-ups that turn into real conversations
What You Get
Founders
Direct exposure to multiple aligned funds at once
Live Q&A + clear next-step signal (Pass Follow-Up Deal Room)
A real shot at closed-door Deal Room discussions
Investors
Structured pitches with rapid diligence-style Q&A
Side-by-side comparison across the same category
Fast identification of who’s worth moving forward
We’re organizing the panels across three tracks:
Sustainability, Climate & Energy
FinTech, Web3 & E-commerce
AI, DeepTech & Infrastructure
Agenda:
12:00 PM — Doors Open + Lunch
1:00 PM — Jackie Wu: How Startups Can Increase Sales:
One strategic conversation can move a room of founders, investors, and policy leaders from interest to a clear “yes.”
At The Deal Lounge, Jackie Wu—2x award-winning growth strategist and creator of One Conversation to YES™—will teach how startups close high-value deals without chasing, discounting, or burning runway.
Her Quick Sales Close method is endorsed by respected speaker and sales organizations, and she’s proven it by closing a $228,000 deal in under 30 minutes and securing statewide support from California’s current State Treasurer in seven minutes.
In a high-signal 30-minute session, attendees will learn to qualify buyers fast, shorten sales cycles, structure high-stakes conversations that convert, and build traction that increases valuation momentum.
1:30 PM — Jonny Angel: Leveraging AI in Your Business
2:00 PM — Deal Lounge 1: Energy Transition + Sustainability (power, grid, storage, electrification)
Investor / Judges:
Ellen Damaso, Capital Partner, Plus Ultra Capital Partners, $2M+ checks
Jane Ge, Managing Partner, Vectors Capital, $100k-$500k checks
Agneta Rosenberg: Climate Angels fellow, VC Scout for Endgame Capital
Porter Wong, Clean Leap, Cleantech Open
Tim Taylor, Pitch Coach, Kranz Consulting
Investor Judge Alternate:
Countessina Anna De Bacci, Managing Partner, De Bacci Capital, $500k-$2M checks
Vince Kohli, Liquidity Provider, Trillion Global Capital / Google DeepMind / xAI, $500k-$2M checks
Startup Pitch Order:
Envire — Real-time environmental data for venues and major events. Cuts waste/costs and simplifies emissions reporting.
Battery Coin — Asset-backed energy storage program for AI infrastructure and microgrids. Building U.S.-made graphene-aluminum batteries.
Bitakora — Guided journaling with a “Tarot-style” reflection flow. Helps users track mood, habits, and emotions.
Skyfit Wellness Lounge — Airport gym + recovery lounge for travelers. Built for fitness, wellness, and downtime between flights.
Bhanu AI — Operating system for solar assets and maintenance. Uses prediction + education to improve returns and impact.
AUTOGENBOT — Off-road agricultural robotics starting with orchard spraying. Reduces labor and operating costs for farms.
Crewz — Shared rides combining carpools with on-demand shared trips. Lowers cost and emissions for riders and drivers.
Solunar Wellness — AI hormone health using tongue-scan TCM diagnostics. Delivers personalized herbal protocols for women.
Candela — Building tech that recovers wasted energy. Helps properties reduce costs and manage rising grid demand.
Sorem.ai — Wound diagnostics for clinicians and payers. Improves assessment of complex wounds and outcomes.
My Vision Labs — AI coaching companion for sports and fitness. Helps athletes train with personalized guidance.
Upshift — AV-as-a-Service for OEMs and fleets, starting with teleoperations. Scales teleop now, autonomy later.
Trustbl.ai (ImpactEdge, Inc.) — Sustainability performance platform for global supply chains. Turns ESG work into measurable business value.
3:00 PM — Live Debate: Manish Jain, Professor PK, Lucas Root & De Kai on the Future of Work & AI
4:00 PM — Deal Lounge 2: FinTech, Web3, Payment Gateways
Investor Judge Alternate:
Abhijith Neelamchalil, SF Lead, Legendary Ventures, $2M+ checks
Charles Liu, Venture Partner, Generative Ventures, $100k-$500k checks
Angus Hsu, Arc5 Ventures, $25k–$100k checks
Ryan Wang, General Partner, Solaris Ventures, $2M+ checks
Serephina Ha, General Partner, Axci Capital
Han Lee, Consulting Partner, SELECT
Investor Judge Alternate:
Simon Tapias, Private Investor
Startup Pitch Order:
Medallion XLN — Creator platform for owning and monetizing digital work. Built-in permissions, revenue splits, and collaboration.
Ballers — AI auto-generates basketball highlights and mixtapes. Sells to leagues, parents, and players.
WealthRyse — AI co-pilot for wealth advisors to build custom portfolios. Series A with growing ARR.
NettyWorth — AI loan infrastructure for on-chain assets. Enables borrowing, matching, and refinancing.
Memberly — Subscription event platform that stabilizes demand. Helps producers avoid one-off ticket uncertainty.
SFB — AI-forward travel and adventure startup. In product development.
ITB Brands (I’m Too Busy Media) — Media brand turning audience into skincare sales. Uses content to drive repeat product revenue.
OutPaged — Publisher OS for immersive storytelling. Converts ebooks into AR-enhanced editions fast.
Book Bunny — AI tools to create ebooks/audiobooks faster and cheaper. Adds translation and AI audiobooks.
InEvo AI — Automates commercial insurance intake end-to-end. Turns submissions into carrier-ready packets.
The SoCiety Presents COLOR — Nightlife discovery app for venues and audiences. Helps users find events and venues grow.
Blendbound — Indie game studio building emotional sandbox games. Focused on identity-safe, non-competitive play.
Centscape — Save-now-buy-later wishlist for any store. Helps users buy debt-free and merchants convert intent.
Trainect — People analytics platform using multi-agent AI. Improves retention, performance, and wellbeing.
ARVAM Solutions — Enterprise asset management software for complex facilities. Built for adoption and leadership analytics.
Wasder — Blockchain-based private liquidity infrastructure for enterprises. Built for enterprise-grade workflows.
Alternates
YBuffet — Marketplace for startup listings with viral distribution. Mixes Craigslist-style posts with TikTok mechanics.
CoGo City — Connects students to local paid work opportunities. Helps teens earn and businesses hire flexibly.
Storkful — Gamified lifestyle brand for the “AI babies” era. Built for social distribution and creator-led moments.
ConceptCraft AI — Turns content into visual frames in seconds. AI creation tools with early revenue.
5:00 PM — Hila Lauterbach & Renat Gersch: The Traction Formula — GTM Strategy & Execution for Early-Stage Startups
6:00 PM — Deal Lounge 3: AI & Infrastructure, Robotics & Automation
Allison Paz, General Partner, Backpocket Capital, $2M+ checks
Radu Skutaru, Venture Partner, Vu Venture Partners, $500k-$2M checks
Aaron Rose, Chief Executive Officer, Lyman Communications
Theresa Yu, Managing Director, Global Bridge Capital
Vince Kohli, Liquidity Provider, Trillion Global Capital / Google DeepMind / xAI, $500k-$2M checks
Investor Judge Alternate:
Joe Gordon, Investor, Accor
Angus Hsu, Arc5 Ventures, $25k–$100k checks
Startup Pitch Order:
Creationist Entanglement Theory (CET) — Deep-tech research building new measurement and inference systems. Focused on detecting hidden relational patterns in complex environments.
PromptliAI — Routes each enterprise prompt to the best AI system. Cuts cost, reduces risk, and improves reliability.
Conway Innovation Co — AI automation for busywork and workflows. Helps teams move faster with less manual effort.
iOrchestra — AI agents for hardware engineering (“hardware vibe engineering”). Automates hardware workstreams for hardware companies.
Abacus Semiconductor — Chips and smart memory built for AI workloads. Developing processors, accelerators, and AI-optimized memory.
QSVA — Security controls for agentic AI. Helps enterprises manage risk as AI systems take actions.
QuantZero — Zero-trust access orchestration for cloud apps. Centralizes and automates secure access.
Setip.io — Self-hosted infrastructure platform with DNS, routing, HTTPS, and security. Lets companies run without a cloud vendor.
DataToInsights.ai — Governed agentic AI for trusted enterprise insights. Turns messy data into decisions for CPG, retail, and manufacturing.
Neopolis Global (heyNavii.ai) — AI career companions plus a professional agent network. Helps people grow and match with opportunities.
VeriScript — AI medical billing verification and claims support. Reduces errors and speeds reimbursements.
Velixar AI — Persistent memory infrastructure for AI systems. Provides scalable, auditable context that doesn’t reset.
Quantux — Software to license quantum photonics chip designs. Enables distributed manufacturing of comms chips.
Subtexts — Tests real traffic across many AI models at once. Compares quality, latency, cost, and reliability.
Alternates
Thucydides Aerospace — Solar-powered autonomous drones built for extreme endurance. Designed for persistent, infrastructure-free operations.
Aegis Whistle (Backfeed.xyz) — Voice AI for handling sensitive grievances fairly. Built for HR, ethics, and support workflows.
CipherJobs — Secure AI recruiting platform for enterprises and job seekers. Automates hiring workflows with a planned 2026 launch.
Berry AI (berryai.ai) — Knowledge + annotation system for AI agents. Helps teams build and manage the agent knowledge layer.
7:00 PM — Deal Lounge 4
Call to Action Buttons
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Thank you to our venue sponsor - NAI NorCal
Venue Sponsor:
The Kilpatrick Team at NAI Northern California is a commercial real estate advisory group specializing in investment sales, acquisitions, and leasing across office, retail, multifamily, and mixed-use assets in the Bay Area. We represent private owners, family offices, and institutional investors in the disposition, repositioning, and acquisition of investment assets. Backed by one of the Bay Area’s top-ranked brokerages with over 30 years of market experience, a proprietary database of 25,000 active investors, and more than $2 billion in total transaction volume, our team brings disciplined underwriting, market intelligence, and a hands-on leasing approach to every assignment. We are strategic partners in commercial real estate.
Parking Information – 1000 Van Ness
Parking is available on-site for all guests at 1000 Van Ness, with direct access to the building from the garage.
Garage Entrance:
The parking garage entrance is located at the corner of O’Farrell Street and Polk Street.
If Driving North on Van Ness:
Turn right onto O’Farrell Street
The garage entrance will be on the left side at the end of the block, just before reaching Polk Street
Parking Rates:
$8 per hour
$28 daily maximum
Building Access:
From the parking garage, take the elevator to the Lobby level.
Upon exiting the elevators, the Grand Gallery will be directly in front of you.
If you have any trouble locating the entrance, please feel free to reach out and we’ll be happy to assist.