🚀 Startup Pitch Night SF | Builders for San Francisco
🚀 Startup Pitch Night SF
Founders. Builders. Investors. One room.
From the organizer behind a recent San Francisco startup event with 770+ registrations.
Join ambitious founders, engineers, operators, investors, and startup leaders for an evening of startup pitches, direct feedback, curated networking, and new connections in San Francisco.
📅 October 8, 2026 - San Francisco, 1000 Van Ness, San Francisco (Thrad office, 2 floor)
🎟️ Choose Your Access
Free Access - Request to join and wait for approval.
Priority Access: VIP Sushi access+ 1 Drink - Direct registration, priority entry ahead of Free Access guests, priority seats.
Founder Pitch Packages - Want to pitch your startup on stage? Founder packages are available below.
👇 See Founder Pitch Packages below for details.
Join Priority Access to be among the first to know when tickets are released.
Priority Access is free. It is not a ticket and does not guarantee admission.
🎤 What to Expect
• Live startup pitches • Direct feedback and audience Q&A • Founders, builders, investors, and startup operators • Curated networking • New startup, hiring, investment, and collaboration opportunities • A high-energy room built around people who are actually building
👥 Who Should Join
This event is designed for:
• Startup founders • Engineers and AI builders • Investors and angels • Product and startup operators • People looking for co-founders, talent, customers, partnerships, or new opportunities
🚀 Want to Pitch?
Selected founders will have the opportunity to pitch their startups live.
Choose Yes when asked about pitching during Priority Access registration.
Pitching opportunities are limited and subject to selection.
🔥 Why Join Priority Access?
Priority Access members will be the first to receive:
• Ticket release announcements • Early access to available ticket options • Pitch application opportunities • Important event updates • Selected community opportunities
Tickets will be released separately.
Joining Priority Access does not confirm admission to the event.
📍 San Francisco, California
Exact venue details, speakers, judges, and ticket information will be announced.
⚖️ Meet the Judges:
Alan Zong, (Partner & Co-founder at UpScaleX)
UpScaleX is a San Francisco and Palo Alto-based seed fund and founders' community focused on AI-native applications, agentic economies, and vertical AI.Mark Liu, Seed-stage investor at UpScaleX focused on applied AI and agentic systems, bringing a sharp investor lens from his background in software private equity.
Maria Frolova, Fractional CFO and Advisor to Founders
SaaS | AI | FinTech | Financial Services & M&A | Marketplaces & eCommerce, Recovered JPMorgan investment banker with 5 IPOs and $30B in M&A under her belt, Fractional CFO of TrueLeap (AI, SaaS, infrastructure), PortlyAI (AI, Future of Work), Project Pixel (AI, AdTech). Advisor @ Astia. Mentor @Techstars
Founding Partner of ESSNTL (advisory and fractional leadership services), Executive leader in Finance and Data at Fintech unicorn Republic and e-Commerce startup VIDA, Migrated $2B EFI legacy business to SaaS as Corp Dev and Partnerships leader)Ishtiaque Mohammad, Founder & CEO @ SowFin, VC investor and General Partner at Astra Ventures, focused on early-stage startups from Pre-Seed through Series A.
Oleg Sotnikov, Angel Investor, Senior Director of Engineering/VP of Engineering
🌟 Invited Expert: Arriel Balogun, MBA, PMP, SSYBC
Topic: Why VC Feedback Doesn’t Close the Traction Gap
Panelists:
Mark Liu, Seed-stage investor at UpScaleX.
Maria Frolova , Fractional CFO and Advisor to Founders, JPMorgan investment banker, Mentor @Techstars, Founding Partner of ESSNTL
Pranjal Saxena - Strategy & Operations at Google, Angel Investor, Ex McKinsey
Oleg Sotnikov, Angel Investor, Senior Director of Engineering/VP of Engineering
Andrea Tortella, CEO @ thrad - Paid ads in LLMs
👥 Who Should Join
This event is designed for:
Startup founders
Engineers and AI builders
Investors and angels
Product and startup operators
People looking for co-founders, talent, customers, partnerships, investment, or new opportunities
🚀 Founder Pitch Packages
Want to pitch your startup on stage?
Founder packages are currently offered privately by request and are not available through the normal public ticket selector.
🎤 Starter - $99 (1 ticket left)
Best for a quick startup introduction.
1-minute pitch on stage
Product or company link
Basic company listing on Luma
Startup poster or visual displayed during your pitch
Opportunity to place a limited number of company-provided flyers in the designated event area
Listing in the shared B4SF Startup Directory
🚀 Visibility - $149 (1 ticket left)
Best for a launch or stronger event visibility.
Priority pitch scheduled before Starter pitches
2-minute pitch on stage
Priority product or company link
Priority company listing on Luma
Priority poster placement during your pitch
Placement of one company-provided physical poster in an approved event area
Priority B4SF Startup Directory listing
The participating company must print and bring its physical poster.
🏆 Showcase - $199 (1 tickets left)
Best for maximum event presence.
Top-priority pitch scheduled before Visibility and Starter pitches
3-minute pitch on stage
Dedicated event table for approved promotional and demo materials
Priority product or company link
Priority company listing on Luma
Priority poster placement during your pitch
Placement of one company-provided physical poster
Priority B4SF Startup Directory listing
Media support beginning up to 2 weeks before the event and continuing through 1 week after the event
Exposure through the B4SF email newsletter with an audience of approximately 20K emails
🏆🏆🏆Spotlight - $349.00
includes everything in Showcase, plus dedicated audience Q&A, a sponsored giveaway or raffle opportunity, professional founder and startup photos, premium host mention, premium event placement, Featured Company status, and additional opportunities to engage attendees around your startup before, during, and after your presentation.
🌟🌟🌟 Founder Featured Pitch - $599
Best for founders who want a more substantial presentation, feedback, and premium event visibility.
4-minute featured startup pitch
Up to 4 minutes of audience Q&A
Judges feedback
Slide and projector support
Founder Spotlight
Priority networking introductions
Premium event visibility
One $50 gift card for an audience giveaway or activation
👑👑👑Strategic Spotlight - $999 Strategic
Our highest-level company positioning package.
5-minute featured startup pitch
Up to 5 minutes of audience Q&A
Judges feedback
Founder Spotlight
Premium host introduction
Priority networking introductions
Custom audience activation
Extended event visibility before, during, and after the event
Two $50 gift cards for audience giveaways or activations
📦 Materials
Participating companies provide their own:
Posters
Flyers
Business cards
Demo materials
Banners, if permitted
Other approved promotional materials
B4SF provides the approved placement and table opportunity included with the applicable package.
🔐 How to Request a Founder Package
Choose Starter, Visibility, or Showcase.
Message the organizer on LinkedIn with the package you want.
You will receive a private one-use access code.
Use the code to purchase your Founder Pitch Package.
Founder packages are not currently available for direct public checkout.
📸 Community Highlights from Previous Events
A look at startup pitches, builder conversations, direct feedback, and community moments from previous events organized by the host in San Francisco.
These photos are from previous events. The people, venues, companies, and brands shown are not confirmed speakers, sponsors, partners, or participants for this event.
🏆 Pitches, Recognition & Community
🎤 Speakers, Feedback & Builder Conversations
🤝 Community Energy & Networking
Our Sponsors:
Thrad
Delivering Sponsored Intelligence with Paid Ads in AI.
Thrad is the advertising infrastructure for AI apps to monetise with in-chat ads and brands to buy ads in LLM apps reaching millions of users daily around the world.
Our Out Reach Partners:
Ontology of Value® by Natalia Bielczyk, PhD is a high-end career incubator and talent intelligence platform for managing careers and teams in the AI-first economy. We build lighthouses and telescopes for the leaders of the future.
Watch Natalia’s recent TEDx to learn more.
Funding Breakthrough Lab is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit pre-accelerator with a mission of creating a supportive community (24,000+ subscribers) to build a better tomorrow. We support founder success not just startup success by ensuring founders have access to education, networks, and resources to unlock their potential. Founded by Natalie Pan, an engineer, community builder and executive coach. Apply for the next cohort here https://fundingbreakthroughlab.org.
Builders for San Francisco
B4SF
The pitchers:
1. Avinash Gujje, Founder & CEO @ ZUUZ (a platform that turns sales email into pipeline automatically. ZUUZ connects with existing CRMs and sales mailboxes to identify deals, renewals, and RFPs that were happening in email but never made it into the CRM, without changing how sales teams already work. https://b4sf.com/companies/zuuz
2. Rachit Verma, Founder @ Smartbrowse,
SDE Incoming Intern @ Cisco | CS & Game Design Student at UCSC (3rd Year), Officer at UCSC Networking student Association
3. Rohan Tandon, Founder @ Lucidstarfield Labs - Creative Technologist
4. Michelle Akhidenor, Founder, The Peers Project (Michelle AI launches Q4 2026) | Forbes 30 Under 30
5 Nelly Perchatkin, Founder & CEO of Midnight Mastermind Technologies, is a trauma survivor who rewired her mind after her brother’s fatal plane crash and years of complex trauma. She now blends neuroscience, ancient practices, and technology to help shape the future of health tech.
Master My Mind is a psychotherapist-backed subconscious reprogramming platform that uses personalized AI-generated affirmation scripts, brainwave audio, and subliminals to help users form habits, reach goals, and manifest. https://b4sf.com/companies/master-my-mind
4. Bogdan Barchuk, Founder & CTO, Insomnia by CQR Cybersecurity LLC (an all-in-one cybersecurity toolkit for authorized security testing. Insomnia combines vulnerability discovery, web and API testing, network and Active Directory assessment, OSINT, mobile analysis, exploit validation, AI-assisted workflows, and reporting in one integrated platform). https://b4sf.com/companies/insom-ai
5.Mitesh Shethwala, Founder - Currently.club. currently.club is the world's first real-time social network — where people share what they're doing RIGHT NOW, unfiltered, through their camera lens only.
6.Yezhisai Murugesan, Founder @ Ask The W (a human-facing product layer around AI agents. Ask The W helps builders set the direction, orchestrates work across specialized AI agents, and carries projects from idea to execution without losing context). https://b4sf.com/companies/ask-the-w
7.Josephine Lee, co-founder Palette (YC S26). Palette is building the creative infrastructure for AI-native media, enabling companies to generate and edit production-quality video at scale. Longer term, Palette is building toward a world where media is generated on demand,
personalized to each viewer, and interactive by default.