How AI-Native Companies Are Built: From Voice Interfaces to Growth, Talent and Operations
The AI-Native Founder Stack
How Founders Build Faster—and What VCs Want to Fund
Presented by Voiskey. Sponsored by Querit. Hosted by PopPopTech.
How can a small startup team operate with the speed and capabilities of a much larger company—and turn that advantage into an investable business?
Join startup founders, AI builders and venture investors for an evening about the AI-native founder stack: the tools and decisions that help startups communicate faster, access trustworthy real-time information, acquire customers, hire the right people and automate recurring work.
The evening brings together five AI products supporting different parts of company building:
Voiskey — voice as a working interface
Querit — real-time web search for LLMs and AI agents
Nexad — AI-powered marketing and growth
Metix AI — AI-assisted recruiting and hiring
AgentX — building and operating AI agents
Each company will present a short founder-focused keynote, followed by two panels featuring startup leaders and venture investors.
The first panel examines how small teams can use AI to operate and scale more efficiently. The second asks the question every AI founder eventually faces:
What turns an impressive AI product into a company that customers rely on—and VCs want to fund?
Five Products, Five Founder Questions
Voiskey: What changes when voice becomes your working interface?
Voiskey turns natural speech into polished text for messages, emails, notes and AI prompts.
The session explores how founders can capture ideas, communicate faster and reduce the friction between thinking about work and completing it.
Querit: How can AI products stay current enough to earn users’ trust?
Querit is a real-time web search API built for LLMs and AI agents, delivering fresh, grounded and relevant information at the speed required by modern AI products.
The session explores when founders need real-time search, how retrieval can improve an AI product, and why current, trustworthy information matters when users rely on AI to make decisions.
Nexad: How can AI help a small team run growth?
Nexad builds AI marketing products, including Soku AI, connecting marketing analysis with creative testing and campaign execution.
The conversation examines where founders can use AI to accelerate growth, how small teams can test more efficiently, and where human judgment still matters.
Metix AI: How does hiring change for an AI-native company?
Metix AI’s recruiting agent, Mira, supports candidate sourcing, outreach and screening.
The session focuses on how founders define the right role, find relevant talent and use AI to accelerate recruiting without giving up human judgment.
AgentX: When are AI agents ready to own a real workflow?
AgentX helps teams build, evaluate and operate AI agents.
The session explores which recurring startup workflows are ready for automation, how teams evaluate reliability, and when people need to remain involved.
Founder and VC Panels
Panel 1: The AI-Native Founder Stack — How Small Teams Build and Scale Faster
How can an early-stage startup use AI to operate with the speed and capabilities of a much larger company?
Founders from Voiskey, Querit, Nexad, Metix AI and AgentX join venture investors to examine how AI is changing communication, research, growth, recruiting and operations—and whether that increased efficiency creates meaningful business leverage.
Topics include:
Where early-stage startups lose the most time and money
Which company workflows founders should automate first
How voice, real-time search and agents can work together
How AI changes growth, recruiting and daily operations
Whether AI allows smaller teams to build more scalable companies
Which operational metrics matter to investors
Where human judgment and accountability must remain
Panel 2: From AI Product to Investable Company — What Founders and VCs Look For
Many startups can build an impressive AI feature. Far fewer can turn it into a company that customers repeatedly use, trust and pay for.
Startup founders and venture investors discuss what separates an interesting AI demo from an investable business—from product reliability and distribution to proprietary data, retention and defensibility.
Topics include:
What makes an AI product investable in today’s market
How founders move from a useful feature to a durable company
What VCs evaluate beyond the product demo
Which traction signals founders should establish before fundraising
How real-time information, reliability and trust affect adoption
How voice interfaces can become recurring user behavior
Whether distribution matters more than model ownership
What creates defensibility when AI models are widely available
What would make a VC invest—or immediately pass
Featured Speakers
Shi Miao, Product Lead, Voiskey — Lead Keynote and Panelist
LinkedIn profileJason Hu, Co-founder & CEO, Nexad
LinkedIn profileZhilin Wang, Co-founder & CTO, Metix AI
LinkedIn profileXuelai (Robin) Wang, AgentX
LinkedIn profileQuerit representative — Speaker to be announced
Venture investor guests — To be announced
Agenda
All times are Pacific Time.
5:00–5:30 PM — Check-in & Founder Networking
Arrivals, introductions and founder conversations.
5:30–5:35 PM — Welcome by PopPopTech
Introduction to the AI-Native Founder Stack.
5:40–5:45 PM — Voiskey Lead Keynote
From Voice to Work: A Faster Interface for Founders.
5:50–5:55 PM — Querit Keynote
Keeping AI Products Fresh, Grounded and Trustworthy.
6:00–6:05 PM — Nexad Keynote
How Small Teams Can Run Growth with AI.
6:05–6:10 PM — Metix AI Keynote
Hiring for an AI-Native Team.
6:10–6:15 PM — AgentX Keynote
When AI Agents Are Ready to Own Real Workflows.
6:15–6:20 PM — Short Break & Panel Setup
6:20–6:50 PM — Founder & VC Panel 1 + Audience Q&A
The AI-Native Founder Stack: How Small Teams Build and Scale Faster
Founders and venture investors discuss how AI can create operational leverage across communication, research, growth, recruiting and execution.
6:55–7:35 PM — Founder & VC Panel 2 + Audience Q&A
From AI Product to Investable Company: What Founders and VCs Look For
Founders and investors examine what turns an AI product into a trusted, scalable and fundable company.
7:35–8:30 PM — Founder Networking & Small Gifts
Continue the conversation with speakers, investors and fellow founders.
Who This Is For
This event is designed for:
Startup founders and aspiring founders
AI builders and technical leaders
Product, growth and operations leaders
Investors evaluating AI-native companies
Teams building AI agents, productivity tools or enterprise applications
Anyone exploring how AI changes the way companies are built
Whether you are testing your first product, building an early team or preparing to raise capital, bring one real question about the company you are building.
What You’ll Take Away
You will leave with a clearer understanding of:
Which startup workflows can already be improved with AI
How voice, real-time search and agents can work together
How small teams can operate more efficiently
What makes customers repeatedly use and trust an AI product
What venture investors look for beyond an AI demo
Which experiment your company should run next
More Than the Stage
Meet founders, builders and venture investors during the opening and closing networking sessions.
Compare notes with the speakers, discuss the challenges inside your company and connect with people building across voice, search, growth, recruiting and AI agents.
Small gifts will be available on site while supplies last.
Come with one question about the company you’re building. Leave with a clearer next experiment—and a better understanding of what customers and investors are looking for.