💻 AI Startup Rodeo @ SXSW '26 (unofficial) March 10th & 11th
AI Startup Rodeo Pass (2 Day)
AI Startup Rodeo is almost here.
We are about to create something special in Austin. This two day gathering brings together the local AI community building real world products, along with full stack developers, builders, indie hackers, founders, and investors, for focused learning, practical conversations, and real momentum.
Tuesday will focus on deeper AI integration. Wednesday will center on AI payments and programming especially relevant for builders working at the intersection of emerging AI tools, systems, and applied workflows. Across both days, expect technical talks, candid lessons from teams shipping in production, hands on workshops, developer labs, and demo tables featuring tools and platforms being built right now.
The event takes place at TCEA in Austin, giving us a setting that feels safe, structured, and classroom focused. That matters, especially with everything the community has had to process this past weekend. We want this to be a high signal environment where builders, founders, and curious minds can learn, connect, and explore serious ideas around AI before the larger conference chaos begins on Thursday.
AI Startup Rodeo is designed to be a space for thoughtful conversations, practical learning, real workshops and presentations, and meeting other builders working at the edge of what is next. Because it is being hosted at TCEA, the atmosphere will feel more like a strong learning environment than a loud expo floor. That means more room for focus, better conversations, and a setting that feels welcoming whether you are already deep in the work or just starting to get more curious about AI.
Please bring your laptop and charger. Lunch will be provided both days, with water and coffee available throughout.
We believe the same people who care about incentives, systems, open tools, and building from first principles should be paying close attention to what is happening in AI right now. That feels especially relevant for the broader Austin tech community.
Your pass includes onsite access for both days, Tuesday, March 10 and Wednesday, March 11, 2026, along with food, drinks, and the full program of talks, labs, workshops, and demos. Event hours run from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM each day.
Space is limited.
You can also share the event here: https://luma.com/jvi9l17h
What to Expect
Day 1: Full Stack AI Labs, Workshops + Demo Floor
A hands on day for developers focused on integrating AI into real workflows. Expect talks on AI assisted coding, MCP security, autonomous systems, infrastructure decisions, and how teams are bringing AI into production with speed and rigor.
Day 2: AI x Bitcoin, Startup Labs + Builder Talks
A high signal day for builders working at the intersection of AI, Bitcoin, payments, and startups. Expect practical sessions on programmable money, Bitcoin open source development, AI agents, and what it takes to build products that can move from idea to traction.
Schedule
Day 1 • Tuesday, March 10
8:00 AM – 9:00 AM
Registration + Breakfast
Start the day with coffee, light breakfast, and time to meet fellow builders before programming begins.
9:00 AM – 9:20 AM
Introduction & Remarks by Roberto Fuentes
Opening welcome, house rules, day overview, and sponsor thank yous.
9:30 AM – 10:00 AM
CostAgent: Building an LLM Powered Autonomous System for 70% Cloud Cost Savings
Krishna Reddy
A look at how CostAgent uses large language models to manage AWS Spot workloads autonomously while reducing cloud costs and preserving workload reliability. This session breaks down the prompt engineering, infrastructure design, and decision making patterns behind giving AI real control over cloud environments.
10:05 AM – 10:35 AM
How Vibe Coding Helped Me Build What the Sales Team Actually Needed
Andres Garcia
A practical story about using AI to turn a chaotic workflow of spreadsheets, PDFs, and email chains into a custom quoting and product management system. This session shows what can happen when domain knowledge, AI coding tools, and persistence come together to solve an operational problem at scale.
10:40 AM – 11:10 AM
The AI Accelerated Workflow: Shipping Faster with Claude Code and Linear
Jack Moffat
A tactical session on connecting project management directly to AI assisted execution. Learn how teams are integrating Linear with Claude Code to reduce time from ticket creation to merged pull request, while still keeping guardrails, context, and human review in place.
11:15 AM – 11:45 AM
SAFE MCP: Securing Tool Using AI Agents with MITRE ATT&CK
Saurabh Yergattikar
As more teams move from AI demos to tool using agents in production, new security risks emerge. This talk introduces SAFE MCP, a practical framework for threat modeling and defending agent systems, with concrete patterns around permissions, policy gates, integrity, monitoring, and detection.
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Lunch + Networking
Lunch onsite with time to connect with builders, founders, and collaborators. Will be serving Authentic Tex-Mex tacos.
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Ship Agents Safely: Hands On Threat Modeling + Guardrails for Tool Calling
Saurabh Yergattikar
A hands on workshop focused on hardening AI applications that use tools. Participants will walk through real failure modes such as prompt injection, tool misuse, schema poisoning, and exfiltration patterns, then implement practical guardrails that can be reused in production systems.
2:35 PM – 3:05 PM
Presentation by Colin McNamara
Description coming soon.
3:10 PM – 3:40 PM
Presentation by TBA
Description coming soon.
3:40 PM – 4:00 PM
Outro by Car Gonzalez
Day 1 wrap up, sponsor thank yous, and a look ahead to Day 2.
Day 1 • 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
After Party Drinks at Ani’s Day & Night
Keep the conversations going after the event with after party drinks at Ani’s Day & Night. Join speakers, builders, founders, and friends of AI Startup Rodeo for a relaxed Austin hang after a full day of talks, workshops, and demos. Expect good drinks, strong conversations, and a chance to keep connecting with the community in a more casual setting. Ani’s current menu includes cocktails, mocktails, beer, wine, coffee, and weekday happy hour specials.
Sponsored by Synapto
Day 2 • Wednesday, March 11
8:00 AM – 9:00 AM
Registration + Breakfast
Begin Day 2 with a warm welcome, pick up your event badge, and enjoy coffee and a light breakfast while connecting with fellow builders.
9:00 AM – 9:20 AM
Introduction & Remarks
Welcome to AI Startup Rodeo, a look at the Day 2 agenda, house rules, and sponsor thank yous.
9:20 AM – 9:30 AM
Speaker Shuffle
Buffer time for sponsor demos, hallway conversations, and schedule catch up.
9:30 AM – 10:00 AM
Presentation by Christopher David
Description coming soon.
10:00 AM – 10:05 AM
Speaker Shuffle
Buffer time for sponsor demos, hallway conversations, and schedule catch up.
10:05 AM – 10:35 AM
Presentation by Dakota Brown
Description coming soon.
10:35 AM – 10:40 AM
Speaker Shuffle
Buffer time for sponsor demos, hallway conversations, and schedule catch up.
10:40 AM – 11:10 AM
Choosing the Right AI Stack for Your Product by Ted Thayer
Building a real software product with integrated AI forces decisions that no benchmark or blog post prepares you for - especially with no software engineering background! Cloud or local? Big or fast models? Private or not? This session walks through the actual constraint-driven choices Ted made to build Feed Filter's production AI stack, optimizing for latency, cost, and user experience. A grounded session for builders and founders to think through AI stack decisions no matter their developer background.
11:10 AM – 11:15 AM
Speaker Shuffle
Buffer time for sponsor demos, hallway conversations, and schedule catch up.
11:15 AM – 11:45 AM
The Alby AI Toolkit: Programmable Money Meets AI
Roland
This session explores the intersection of AI development and programmable money, showing how builders can use AI agents to generate functional Bitcoin and Lightning enabled applications in minutes. Through a live or near live demonstration, Roland walks through how a payment enabled app can go from a single prompt to a working product. Attendees will also get an overview of the Alby AI Toolkit, including builder focused tools, testing environments, and integrations that make it easier to prototype, test, and ship Bitcoin native applications quickly. A hands on look at reducing friction for developers building at the edge of AI and Lightning.
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Lunch + Networking
Enjoy lunch while connecting with industry professionals, builders, and potential collaborators. Will be serving Jets Pizza.
1:00 PM – 1:45 PM
Are AI Agents Ready to Manage Money?
Jordi Montes
Three years ago, Jordi Montes left Lightning Labs to work on one big question: what will it take for AI agents to transact in the real world? As founder and CEO of Fewsats, he has been building at the intersection of AI and payments ever since. In this talk, he shares lessons from L402, the current blockers in payments, the state of the AI agent ecosystem, and how both industries are likely to evolve.
1:45 PM – 1:50 PM
Speaker Shuffle
Buffer time for sponsor demos, hallway conversations, and schedule catch up.
1:50 PM – 2:50 PM
Presentation by Adam Jonas & Satsi
A practical conversation on how Bitcoin development actually happens.
Adam Jonas and Satsi will unpack what it means to work on Bitcoin open source in practice: how ideas are evaluated, where rigor matters most, how review culture works, and why long term responsibility shapes the way serious contributors approach the work.
This session is built for builders who want a clearer picture of the path into Bitcoin R&D. Expect a thoughtful discussion on tradeoffs, ambiguity, contribution, and what separates people who stay committed to the work from those who do not. For anyone curious about contributing to Bitcoin but unsure where to begin, this will offer a grounded look at how the process really works.
2:50 PM – 3:00 PM
Speaker Shuffle
Buffer time for sponsor demos, hallway conversations, and schedule catch up.
3:00 PM – 3:40 PM
How To Use AI Agents To Maximize Your Marketing & Lead Generation by Brandon Keys
3:40 PM – 4:00 PM
Outro by Roberto & Car
Day 2 wrap up, after party notes, and sponsor thank yous.
Day 2 • 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
After Party Drinks at Ani’s Day & Night
Keep the conversations going after the event with after party drinks at Ani’s Day & Night. Join speakers, builders, founders, and friends of AI Startup Rodeo for a relaxed Austin hang after a full day of talks, workshops, and demos. Expect good drinks, strong conversations, and a chance to keep connecting with the community in a more casual setting. Ani’s current menu includes cocktails, mocktails, beer, wine, coffee, and weekday happy hour specials.
Sponsored by Synapto
Why Attend
AI Startup Rodeo is built for people who want more than surface level conference chatter. This is for builders, founders, engineers, and operators who want practical insight, real conversations, and a better sense of where AI, Bitcoin, payments, and startup execution are heading next.
Come to learn, meet the right people, and leave with ideas you can apply immediately.
Lock in on Early Bird Pricing at aistartuprodeo.com!