AI Startup Pitch Night with Early Stage Investors
We're bringing together early-stage AI founders, investors, and builders for an evening of high-energy pitches, sharp Q&A, and genuine connection, hosted at the AWS GenAI Builder Loft in San Francisco.
This is an event happening at AWS Builder Loft, so please make sure that you are not only approved on Luma, but also sign up for the event here at AWS: http://events.builder.aws.com/d/ydzypf
About This Event
8 pre-seed startups selected from applications, taking the stage to pitch live and get feedbacks from top investors:
5 min pitch
3 min live Q&A from our judge panel, per startup
So you could
Watch 8 live pitches and the Q&A that follows, and see how founders think on their feet and how investors probe a pitch
Network with founders, operators, and investors in the room before and after the pitches
Get a founder's-eye view of what makes a pitch land, useful whether you're building something yourself or just curious how funding decisions get made
Agenda
5:00–6:00 PM — Doors open at 5:00 pm, networking with pizza and drinks
6:00–8:00 PM — Pitches + results
8:00–8:30 PM — Closing networking
Apply to Pitch
If you want to pitch your startup or project at this event, please fill in this application form(We have closed the application. Stay tuned for the finalist and blind pitch list!)
Submission Deadline: Aug. 2, 2026
Finalist Announce: Aug. 3, 2026
Awards
Top 3 teams walk away with Apple gift cards, plus the top 1 winner team receives an interview opportunity for Antler's residency batch.
Judges
Ryan Green: Principal at Antler. He concentrates on pre-seed investments and bringing exceptional founders to Antler SF. Previously, he was involved in deep-tech and AI investing at AIC. Prior to venture, he led deployment and product development at an IoT startup. He started his career in cybersecurity at Deloitte.
Lan Wu: Investor at Fusion Fund. She focuses on enterprise AI, data infrastructure, industrial automation, healthcare applications and deep tech.
Gavin Zhu: Investor at Llama Ventures. He focuses on early-stage companies. He works with founders across AI agents, developer tools, and infrastructure.
Jaski S: Jas is the founder of Cassini Research and a product builder whose work spans product strategy, zero-to-one execution, and human-computer interaction. He previously built Polkassembly, a governance platform with 250,000+ monthly users that supported $300M+ in treasury ops. He was an investor at Woodstock fund and is a trained Electronics engineer. His recent work includes Juno, an open-source local voice layer for Mac, and Stu, a single-ear wearable exploring how ambient AI can listen, remember, and assist throughout the day.
Startups Who will Demo
5-min pitch lineup:
Jobotics AI: Jobotics is building the AI execution operating system for construction by unifying enterprise data, capturing domain knowledge, deploying specialized AI agents, and continuous learning.
Precision AI Solutions: “A New Operating System for Oncology” — Precision approach to cancer care integrating molecular profiling, AI-guided treatment intelligence, and functional testing into one unified clinical workflow.
Oasive: Oasive is building the AI operating system for the $140 trillion global bond market.
OpenRefactory: A vulnerability clearing house that you will need to manage the surge of security vulnerabilities in your open source supply chain dependencies.
xevall: xevall is the independent evaluation layer for human-AI interaction: benchmarks and calibrated judges that measure whether AI agents with vision and voice actually understand the people they work with.
Sip Studio: Sip Studio is the AI filmmaker that grows businesses organically
Zentrik: Zentrik is the orchestration layer for AI-native software teams, turning fragmented customer evidence into decisions and agent-ready context that carries through to shipped code.
90 second blind pitch lineup:
Dreamz: Adaptive sleep mask which improves sleep using closed loop neuromodulation
Edit on the Spot: Edit on the Spot is an AI infrastructure for live events. It uses a cloud-to-cloud AI workflow to automatically segment multi-room live events, detect key moments, apply brand templates, and deliver polished video clips and full sessions in under 10 minutes — no manual editing required.
Press Club: We help founders land press through cold outreach.
Anuba Technologies: Anuba helps restaurants catch incorrectly built orders before they reach the customer, preventing refunds, remakes, customer churn, and negative reviews.
We deploy our solution as Hardware-as-a-Service and align our pricing with the value we create by charging based on the revenue we help recover.Retriever AI: Add one script tag to your website to give your users an agent that types/clicks/navigates your site to onboard/guide/checkout users & AI.
publik: We make open-source software accessible, and adaptable.
Carver Agents: We make sure that your agents stay continuously compliant from a regulatory view point
Ivorymade: Ivorymade is a dental lab that uses AI agents to operate a distributed design and production network, combining small-lab service with large-lab pricing, capacity, and capabilities.
DaoBrew AI: Task ranking with work context and body signal.
Who should come
Founders building in AI
Investors
Growth and startup leaders
Anyone building in the space who wants to meet the next wave of AI companies.
Smarter Networking with Walnut AI
The goals and offers you share during registration will be used to create your Digital Twin, an AI agent that represents you and works behind the scenes to match you with the right fellow attendees. So instead of cold-scanning name tags, you'll walk in already knowing who's worth meeting.(No app to download currently, everything happens through email.)
About Walnut AI
Walnut AI is a human-centered AI infrastructure company dedicated to shaping the future of professional growth in the AI era. It tackles information asymmetry and transforms how individuals manage their professional digital assets, build meaningful relationships, and amplify human capability in professional intelligence and productivity.
Linkedin: iwalnut-ai
X: walnutai_
Official Website: https://walnut.ai
About Antler
Antler is a pre-seed fund, the first believer at the inception stage, investing $500K+ as your first institutional check. You can apply for their NYC, ATX, or SF residency here: https://www.antler.co/apply
About Llama Ventures
Llama Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based early-stage venture capital firm partnering with ambitious founders building enduring AI-native companies. We invest across the full intelligence stack—from deep-tech hardware and AI infrastructure to enterprise software, healthcare, fintech, robotics, and consumer applications.
Guest Instructions
By registering for this event, you acknowledge that you are 18 years or older and agree to follow the AWS Code of Conduct and the AWS Event Terms and Conditions
It is mandatory to bring valid physical government ID to enter the AWS Builder loft (No Digital IDs will be accepted).
There is no scooter/bike parking available in the building. If you plan to bring one, you will need to find parking options nearby.