Ground Truth by Sphere ft. a16z /// For Engineers Building AI in Regulated Industries
Ground Truth by Sphere ft. a16z
A half day conference for senior engineers building at the edge of AI and regulation.
Two in-depth panels with engineering and technical leaders on building in industries where there is no room for error.
Then a reception that runs late.
1:00 – 2:00 PM · Doors open · Welcome
2:00 – 3:45 PM · Panel 1
Where do reliability guarantees sit in compliance heavy industries, and where does automation stop and human review begin?
3:45 – 4:15 PM · Subsurface session
A 20-minute deep dive into a problem submitted with an application, tied to Panel 1.
4:15 – 5:15 PM · Break
Introductions matched across the room. Coffee, light bites.
5:15 – 6:30 PM · Panel 2
Is deep domain depth genuine technical defensibility, or does it just delay the inevitable as models climb?
6:30 – 7:00 PM · Subsurface session
The second deep dive from the room.
7:00 – 9:00 PM · Reception
Heavy appetizers, open bar, and networking until late.
ABOUT SPHERE
SWIFT for money. Stripe for payments. Compliance is one of the last and largest — and the hardest, because trade rules aren't data to be looked up. They're a complex adaptive system with 190+ sovereign jurisdictions, in different languages, changing constantly, reacting to each other.
Sphere built the system that solves it. Our AI (TRAM) ingests global trade law, interprets it, resolves conflicts across jurisdictions, and produces compliance determinations more reliable than human experts. We handle the entire lifecycle — calculation, registration, filing, remittance — at millisecond latency with zero downtime.
Backed by a16z and YC. $21M Series A, 30%+ month-over-month growth, customers include ElevenLabs, Replit, Deel, Runway, and Lovable.
Small team, global surface area. Everyone owns a domain that would be a full team at a larger company. San Francisco, in office.
The problem keeps compounding. Expanding into input tax, withholding, e-invoicing, tariffs — each multiplies the complexity. Tens of millions of transactions today, billions ahead.