Silicon Valley Inner Circle: 5-Day Private Access Experience ｜VIP Access to Startup Grind ｜Private Investor & Founder Program
Silicon Valley Inner Circle — Founder & VC Access
BFC x Summit House
Not a tour. Not a program. An entry point into Silicon Valley.
April 28 – May 2, 2026
Most people visit Silicon Valley.
A few get into the rooms where deals happen.
This is built for the latter.
What This Really Is
This is not a 5-day itinerary.
This is a curated entry into Silicon Valley’s founder + investor network.
Over 5 days, you will:
Sit in rooms with founders, VCs, and professors
Join private dinners where real conversations happen
Build relationships that typically take years to access
Program Breakdown
April 28–29 | Startup Grind Conference + VIP Access
Attend one of the highest-signal conferences in Silicon Valley
5,000+ founders, 400+ VCs
Curated exposure to AI, venture, and emerging tech
What to Expect This Year
This year’s scale is significant:
5,000+ attendees
400+ VC funds
150+ exhibitors
175 sessions
Speakers include partners and leaders from:
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)
Stephanie Zhan – Partner Sequoia Capital
Anish Acharya – General Partner Andreessen Horowitz
Corinne Marie Riley – Partner Greylock Partners
Mamoon Hamid – Partner Kleiner Perkins
Chetan Puttagunta – General Partner Benchmark
Ashton Kutcher – General Partner at Sound Ventures
Sangeen Zeb – General Partner GV (Google Ventures)
Christine Tsai – CEO & Founding Partner 500 Global
Steve Jang – Managing Partner & Founder Kindred Ventures
Tomasz Tunguz – Founder Theory Ventures
Navin Chaddha – Managing Partner Mayfield
Mike Duboe – General Partner Greylock Partners
Tiffany Luck – Partner New Enterprise Associates (NEA)
Matt Kraning – Partner Menlo Ventures
Ann Bordetsky – Early Stage Investor New Enterprise Associates (NEA)
Matt Stephenson – Head of Tech Talent Bain Capital Ventures (BCV)
Gabe Pereyra – President & Co-Founder of Harvey
Lin Qiao – CEO and cofounder of Fireworks AI
Amjad Masad – CEO Replit
Grant Lee – CEO & Co-founder Gamma
April 29 | Palo Alto — Inner Circle Begins
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Private VIP Dinner (curated by BFC + Summit House)
→ Small, invitation-only group
→ High-signal founders, investors, and operators
April 30 | Napa Valley — Where Relationships Are Built
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Private Vineyard Experience
→ Estate tour
→ Wine history session
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Private Lunch (Hosted)
1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Keynote: David Hefter
AI Investment Strategist at BlackRock
Founder Sessions
→ Insights from leading Stanford founders
Evening
Private Dinner
👉 This is where real relationships are formed.
May 1 | Berkeley — From Founders to Nobel Minds
Morning
Keynote Session
Lunch (Hosted)
Afternoon | Summit House, Berkeley
Founder Discussions
→ Berkeley founders sharing
Private Conversation
→ Session with a Berkeley Nobel Laureate
Evening
Private Dinner
May 2 | Stanford — At the Source
Keynote: Miko Matsumura
Managing Partner at gCC Venture Capita, Stanford Guest Lecturer
Roundtable Discussions with Stanford Professors and Founders
→ AI systems
→ Frontier technologies
→ Operator-level insights
→ Small-group, high-signal environment
Who This Is For
This is not for everyone.
We are selecting:
Founders building in AI / deep tech
Investors allocating into early-stage / frontier tech
Operators scaling serious companies
If you are looking for information → not a fit
If you are looking for access → this is it
What You Actually Get
Access → rooms you normally cannot enter
Network → founders, VCs, professors
Positioning → part of a high-signal circle
Opportunity → deals, partnerships, capital
Important
Limited to 15 people
Application / referral required
We optimize for who is in the room, not volume
Final Thought
In Silicon Valley,
your trajectory is often determined by who you have access to.
Not knowledge. Not content.
Access.
SG 26 Speakers
Take a look at the full speaker lineup.
Stephanie Zhan – Partner Sequoia Capital
Anish Acharya – General Partner Andreessen Horowitz
Corinne Marie Riley – Partner Greylock Partners
Mamoon Hamid – Partner Kleiner Perkins
Chetan Puttagunta – General Partner Benchmark
Sangeen Zeb – General Partner GV (Google Ventures)
Hans Tung – Managing Partner Notable Capital
Christine Tsai – CEO & Founding Partner 500 Global
Jon Callaghan – Managing Partner & Co-founder True Ventures
Rajeev Dham – Partner Sapphire Ventures
Steve Jang – Managing Partner & Founder Kindred Ventures
Tomasz Tunguz – Founder Theory Ventures
Navin Chaddha – Managing Partner Mayfield
Kobie Fuller – General Partner Upfront Ventures
Sundeep Peechu – Managing Partner Felicis
Kanyi Maqubela – Managing Partner Kindred Ventures
Frederique Dame – General Partner GV (Google Ventures)
Fabiola Quinzaños – Partner MONASHEES
Mike Duboe – General Partner Greylock Partners
Tiffany Luck – Partner New Enterprise Associates (NEA)
Matt Kraning – Partner Menlo Ventures
Brian Rothenberg – Partner defy.vc
Joseph Dormani – Partner Thomson Reuters Ventures
Ann Bordetsky – Early Stage Investor New Enterprise Associates (NEA)
Matt Stephenson – Head of Tech Talent Bain Capital Ventures (BCV)
Gabe Pereyra – President & Co-Founder of Harvey
Lin Qiao – CEO and cofounder of Fireworks AI
Ashton Kutcher – General Partner at Sound Ventures
Dave Ferguson – Co-CEO at Nuro
Tamar Yehoshua – Chief Product at Atlassian
Tuhin Srivastava – CEO & Co-founder Baseten
Harrison Chase – CEO & Co-founder LangChain
Mitesh Agrawal – CEO Positron AI
Stefano Ermon – CEO & Co-founder Inception
Ivan Poupyrev, Dr. – CEO & Founder Archetype AI
Maithra Raghu – CEO & Founder Samaya AI
Soyoung Lee – Head of GTM & Co-founder TwelveLabs
Robert Brooks IV – VP of Revenue & Founding Team Lambda
Travis Addair – Sr Engineering Director, AI at Rubrik
Amjad Masad – CEO Replit
Rahul Vohra – Founder & Head of Superhuman Mail
Michel Tricot – CEO & Co-founder Airbyte
Grant Lee – CEO & Co-founder Gamma
Karri Saarinen – CEO & Co-founder Linear
Abhinav Asthana – CEO Postman
Immad Akhund – CEO & Co-founder Mercury
Tanay Kothari – CEO & Co-founder Wispr Flow
Matt Hammel – COO & Co-founder AirOps
Nurasyl Serik – CEO & Co-founder RemoFirst
Rachel Wolan – Chief Product Officer Webflow
Philip W. Braddock – Head of Atlassian
Wen Sang – COO & Co-founder Genspark
Sara Ramos – Head of Marketing Base10 Partners
Cecilia Stallsmith – Head of Marketing Lovable
Lindsay Amos – Founder Amos Communications
Joan DeGennaro – Founder Scale Venture Partners
About the Host
The Bay Area Founders Club (BFC), founded by Dr. Paul Fang in Silicon Valley in 2022 and managed by a dedicated group of Stanford alumni and students, is a thriving community of over 100,000 members, including more than 5,000 startups and over 1000 venture capital firms. With most startups in our network raising $1-10 million, and some exceeding $20 million, our mission is to empower creators who aspire to make a global impact. We provide the essential resources, support, and connections needed to transform visionary ideas into reality.
Unlock insider access and elevate your founder journey—join BFC NOW.
About the Co-Host
Berkeley Summit House: Empowering entrepreneurial dreamers to boldly shape their future in a boundless environment
Founded in 2024, Berkeley Summit House (BSH) began as a sanctuary for a young founder who arrived in the United States with an idea and only a one-way ticket and has since evolved into a platform for entrepreneurial dreamers. Our mission is to build a human-centered innovation community. We focus on the "human" behind the technology, providing the belief and the physical space that high-potential innovators need to explore and grow. By prioritizing people, BSH offers a platform where founders are free to iterate and develop into effective leaders.
To support this high-level innovation, BSH maintains private sanctuaries, including the original house in the Berkeley Hills and a retreat in Napa Valley. These spaces serve as the heart of our community, hosting curated conversations between founders and industry veterans, and deep-thinking retreats for our network of investors and mentors.