AI Engineers Presents: Founders to Follow
Join us as we bring together a group of NYC’s most exciting startup founders. This is a unique opportunity for intimate conversations and to hear about their journeys and what excites them about the businesses they are building.
Presenting Founders:
Sam Kotlove, Cofounder @Smoke AI
Smoke is an AI workspace that automates the manual tasks running your business so you can focus on delivering great customer experience. While you're doing the work, Smoke handles lead follow-up, content posting, and outreach that keeps new customers coming in.
Dylan Gleicher, Cofounder & Michael Chime, Cofounder & CEO @ Prepared:
An AI-powered public safety platform used by 911 centers. The company raised over $130M from investors including a16z, General Catalyst, and First Round, and was acquired by Axon (NASDAQ: AXON) in 2025.
Julien Nakache, Founder & CEO @ Granted (Formerly Medbill)
Granted is building an AI-powered product that makes access to healthcare and insurance expertise hundreds of times more efficient and dramatically more human. By transforming the messy, manual work of claims and billing into a proactive, connected product, Granted can finally deliver trusted help - instantly, affordably, and at scale.
Alex Leimam, Cofounder @ Vert
Building great apps and making them viral. 7 million downloads and counting.
Brett Martin, President & Cofounder @ Fonzi AI:
An AI-powered talent marketplace connecting elite engineers with high-growth AI startups and tech companies. Through a fast, structured hiring process called Match Day, Fonzi delivers high-signal, curated introductions between top talent and teams actively building in AI. Backed by investors including Lightspeed Ventures and Charge Ventures.
Avante Price, CEO & Cofounder @ Posh:
Posh enables anyone to build an IRL community based on shared interests, while connecting consumers with the communities of people just like them. The company has raised over $68M from investors including FirstMark Capital, Goodwater Capital, Causeway Ventures, and EPIC Ventures.
Event Format: A mix of high signal networking and short presentations from six founders, ranging from seed stage to post exit. Each founder will briefly share what they are building, the technical challenges they are tackling, and key business model decisions.
Complimentary pizza, soft drinks, beer, & wine will be provided to all attendees!
Attendance: This is an invite only event for New York’s top software engineers, venture backed founders, VC investors, and tech operators.
Agenda:
6:00pm: Networking with pizza and drinks courtesy of Fonzi AI
6:30pm: Smoke, Prepared, Granted
7:00pm: Networking break
7:30pm: Vert, Fonzi, Posh
8:00pm: Networking break
8:30pm Wrap up
About the host:
Fonzi is a recruiting platform focused exclusively on product and AI engineering hires in NYC and SF. We work with 75+ open roles across the best startups in the city.
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