BUILD powered by Lovable with Vernon + Friends
The world is moving fast, and it's easy to feel like you're watching it happen instead of being in it.
Starting a business. Changing careers. Building a product. These used to take a team, a budget, and months. With the right tools and the right room, they now take days.
BUILD exists so you don't have to figure that out alone, or wait for a perfect moment that isn't coming.
How it works
Capped at 25 people. Small enough so that everyone can participate.
Deliberately mixed: founders, career-pivoters, builders, and the AI curious sit in the same groups on purpose. The best unlock usually comes from someone who isn't in your industry or too close to your idea.
No lectures. Each session opens with a 10–15 minute grounding on the game plan, then it's structured work sprints.
Everyone leaves with something completed or having made meaningful progress.
Who this is for
Entrepreneurs building or growing something of their own
SMBs and C-Suite leaders wanting to upskill their teams
People pivoting careers or trying to figure out what's next
Anyone who wants to build with AI, technical background or not
Must be 18+ to attend
Who this isn't for
People who want to sit in the back and absorb content. There is no back of the room here folks!
Admission is free
Please donation to a local charity of your choice
You must register before the registration closes
What to bring
Laptop and charger
The idea for what you want to build
Access to wherever you're launching it (logins, admin, contact list)
Nerve. We'll supply the countdown
What you leave with Proof of launch, real-time response from the room and beyond, and a much shorter distance between "I have an idea" and "it's out there" for everything you do next.
About Lovable
Lovable is an AI-powered platform for building web apps by describing what you want in plain English. Rather than manually coding every feature, you can prompt it with an idea—such as “build a member directory with profiles, search, and paid access”—and it generates a working full-stack application that you can continue refining through chat.
Think of Lovable as “ChatGPT for creating web apps, products, and websites”—you explain the product you want, and it turns that description into a working application you can iterate on.
About the Hosts
Vernon T. Foster II is a 3x founder and 2x author with 15 years building communities, agencies, and media. He runs Growth Dinners, an invite-only IRL community for founders past $1M in revenue, and WebinarRev, a done-for-you service that runs end-to-end webinar programs to fill B2B pipeline.
He's also a Lovable Ambassador and City Lead for Richmond, with the express goal of making the first step more accessible for CEOs, founders, SMBs, and GTM professionals with ideas and deep expertise who don't come from technical backgrounds.
Vernon hosts the Rooms of Influence podcast and newsletter, where he documents how founders, builders, and B2B marketers create outsized influence. Featured in Entrepreneur, Built In, and The Good Men Project.
Ethan Halfhide is a post-exit founder and CEO of revstreem.ai which uses AI to run AEO and paid ads for brands scaling acquisition in AI search. He was previously CEO of AmbitiousLabs, the #1 Non-Code Accelerator, which taught 1,500+ students to build apps with AI — including alumni who raised millions on Shark Tank.
He's now building a holdco of niche directories and SaaS products on Lovable and publishes Rapid AI News, a weekly newsletter.
In-kind support thanks to our friends at Lovable!
Sponsors and Partners