​Why struggle with Reviewer 2!

​If you’ve ever thought “I should just build this instead of arguing with Review2 on OpenReview,” this room is for you.

​✨ Founder Mode with BakeLab & Friends @ NeurIPS is a small, invite-only salon + happy hour for people who care about frontier AI and startups.

​We’re bringing together:

• ​💸 Top VCs from leading early-stage funds

• ​🧠 Top Researchers & Engineers from frontier labs and universities: OpenAI, DeepMind, Meta, Stanford, MIT, UC Berkeley, and friends.

• ​🚀 Founders building agentic systems, infra, and expert-level data and benchmarks.

​What you actually get 💼

​If you’re a researcher / PhD / professor

• ​A reality check on which of your ideas could be companies (and which are better as pure research).

• ​First-person stories from people already living between lab and startup.

• ​A chance to explore collaborations with BakeLab on expert-level datasets, evaluation pipelines, and benchmarks in your domain (finance, science, coding, etc.).

• ​1–2 founders / infra builders you can actually message later to turn a sketch into a real project.

​If you’re a founder or “maybe-founder”

• ​Candid input on your 0→1 story from both top researchers and top VCs.

• ​Signal on what frontier labs actually need.

• ​4–5 relationships that don’t end when NeurIPS does.

​If you’re an investor

• ​A curated room of people who are 6–18 months away from starting, or already quietly building.

• ​Direct access to what the next wave of technical founders are thinking about.

​📍 Location: revealed upon confirmation

​📅 Wednesday, December 3

​⏰ 6:00–9:00 pm (PST)

​Please RSVP early - Approval is required. 

​We’ll confirm ~50 attendees before the event to ensure a high-signal mix of researchers, founders, investors, and ecosystem partners.

​About the Hosts

​BakeLab is a stealth-mode industry research lab founded by a group of researchers. We craft the next generation of data and evaluation infrastructure for frontier models. Reach out to [email protected] if you’d like to be part of what we’re building.

​500 Global backs bold early-stage founders who are reshaping industries around the world.
As one of the most active global venture firms, 500 has invested in 2,800+ companies across 80+ countries, providing capital, expertise, and global networks to help startups grow and scale. With a strong focus on technological innovation and global reach, 500 partners with founders from day one to turn ambitious ideas into category-defining companies.

​Hat-Trick Capital partners with visionary AI founders at the earliest stages, empowering them with capital, technical insight, and a founder-first support network.
With deep roots across frontier AI research, open-source communities, and real-world deployment, Hat-Trick helps teams move from breakthrough ideas to scalable products. Through hands-on guidance and a global ecosystem of builders, HATTrick backs those bold enough to redefine how intelligence is built, applied, and distributed.

​GenAI Assembly is a global community accelerating AI innovation, bringing together researchers, developers, founders, and industry leaders to share ideas, build together, and push the frontier through high-signal events, workshops, and meetups.

​Vanta is a global non-profit bridging top-tier academia, frontier technology, and long-term capital, helping founders, scholars, and investors cut through AI hype and understand real structural shifts through summits, private roundtables, and frontier research.