UGLY TALK: WOMEN TECH FOUNDERS - The Messy Middle
Important Attendance Information:
Due to building security requirements, registration will close on 26th, 6pm. All attendees must be on the pre-approved guest list to gain entry. We are at capacity, please update RSVP according to your plan. Please bring an ID to enter the building.
💡 What’s the Ugly Truth
Most people only see the highlight reel: the launch, the raise, the “we made it” post.
The Ugly Truth is every “overnight success” you admire lived in "The Messy Middle" first.
And founders live here longer than anyone admits.
This is the stage before momentum.
Before validation.
Before clarity shows up.
It’s confusing. It’s lonely.
And it requires a kind of courage that doesn’t look like confidence.
It looks like belief without proof.
This night is for the people in it — to tell the real stories, share what actually helped, and not do it alone.What’s the Messy Middle
Because The Messy Middle isn’t a failure.
It’s not a pause.
It’s the work.
And every breakthrough you admire once lived here too.
🙋 Who this is for
Building something real (startup, product, community, creative business) and feeling the fog
Tired of polished panels and want honest, usable conversations
Craving clarity + community
Curious how other women founders navigate the hard parts without pretending it’s easy
🎤 Who’s on the Panel
Ananya Jain McLaughlin - CEO of FullCircle
Ananya Jain Mclaughlin is the CEO of FullCircle, which powers the technology behind the likes of Andrew Huberman’s premium supplements brand Momentous, Grammy Award-winning Cyndi Lauper’s fanbase in 43 countries, and other enterprise customers. FullCircle began in mental health by supporting 3M people during covid and quickly earned recognition from Forbes and the royal family’s Princess Diana Award. That work revealed a pattern: as the number of customers grows, providing each customer the same attention is challenging for almost all businesses. Seeing how quickly customer relationships may break down at scale, FullCircle built the customer journey technology layer that enables brands today to deliver hyper-personalized attention across every moment of the customer lifecycle. Prior to FullCircle, Ananya studied engineering. The US government fast tracked her to citizenship under the 'exceptional talent' category.
Sri Ramaswamy - CEO of Charlee.ai Inc
Sri Ramaswamy is the Founder & CEO of Charlee.ai, a patented risk-intelligence platform that turns unstructured claims language into actionable signals. With 22+ years across insurance, analytics, and AI, she pioneered Charlee’s Claims Graph RAG and pre-trained language models built on 60M+ claims to predict litigation, improve reserves, and surface potential fraud. ARM-certified with decades in tech, Sri turns unstructured insurance data into measurable outcomes. A frequent speaker and mentor, she advances practical and ethical AI that delivers operational value at scale.
Jiayue He - CEO & Founder of Ergeon Inc.
Jenny He started Ergeon after learning through her own home renovation that construction was inefficient for everyone involved. She became a licensed contractor, mapped the failure points, and built a platform that makes outdoor projects fast, transparent, and fair. Ergeon’s end-to-end software lets customers design, price, and manage projects online, while vetted local installers deliver on-site. By combining technology, AI, and disciplined operations, Jenny’s woman-led company delivers faster timelines, clearer pricing, and steadier work for installers—proving that modernizing construction is as much about people and process as it is about tech
Moderator:
Jenny Chen - Founder of Puzzle Exchange
Jenny runs a health community called Puzzle Exchange, a health community with 100+ SF-based healers to support you in building the right health plan (and the right “doctor” for you, not the “best”) through curiosity, real conversations, and practical tools. Prior to Puzzle, Jenny runs a AI social listening platform and a social commerce agency that worked with over 200 DTC brands and provide consulting to global brands such as Louis Vuitton, Google, Armani, and Dior.
💬 What We’ll Talk About
How a modern company is adapting AI by breaking things while running a 200-person team across 30 countries
How a founder bets on herself and her family—leaves a high-income job, takes unpaid time, and spends 14 years building a product while growing 100% organically and self-funding sustainably, even as everyone questions the path.
How a woman founder takes on an industry no one else wants to do, and ends up capturing 50% of the U.S. market
How a woman founder starts with a bold filter, only wanting to target companies with $30M+ revenue and then keeps growing beyond that as the company evolves, the market pulls, and the ambition expands.
Agenda
6:00 - 6:30 Networking & Pizza
6:30 - 7:10 Panel Discussion: The messy middle
7:10 - 7:30 Q&A
7:30 -8:00 Networking
🤝 Co-hosted With
Puzzle Exchange - Building the right health plan through curiosity, real conversations, and practical tools.
GREY Journal – Media partner spotlighting modern entrepreneurs (featured on Apple News + Google News).
Out Reach Partner
Funding Breakthrough Lab is a San Francisco 501(c)(3) nonprofit pre-accelerator that helps founders strategize, fundraise, and grow their startups. With a mission to build a better tomorrow, we’ve created a thriving community of over 19,000+ subscribers where education, networks, and resources come together to unlock founder potential.
Apply now for the next cohort and gain the credibility, connections, and confidence to secure funding for your startup: fundingbreakthroughlab.org
🤝 Venue Partner
Persona - An online identity verification platform that helps businesses, from any size and industry to collect, verify, and manage user identities throughout a customer lifecycle. Available in over 200 countries. Starting at $0.
⭐ About Ugly Talk:
Started in 2019, Ugly Talk has been transforming business setbacks into breakthrough “aha!” moments by hosting unfiltered, no-nonsense events where battle-tested entrepreneurs share their raw lessons and insights.
With a growing presence in cities like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Miami, we’ve built a vibrant community of thousands of founders and industry leaders making a profound impact on the entrepreneurial landscape.
Official Website: UglyTalk.com
🗣📢 Important Notice for Ugly Talk Attendees
Admission & Confirmation
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Report any violations to the event hosts immediately.
Violations may result in immediate removal from the event and exclusion from future invitations.
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Official Event Page: [Link]