Llama Lounge 9: Do these Photos Capture the Vibe?

Above: Partial view of the Llama Lounge Ecosystem (250 AI founders and 60 VCs).

I run an event series, Llama Lounge the AI Event Series, the 10th Llama Lounge event is April 25th in Palo Alto. A year ago, I could see the AI market forming, and I knew I wanted to “Get in front of a Parade” so I kicked off an event series to help host and assemble the ecosystem. It’s grown so much, we can’t fulfill the demand. The business and tech industry is rabid over AI, a mixture of excitement, opportunity, and let’s be honest: fear.

Llama Lounge 9: AI Founders and Funders.

Community is one of my superpowers –I’ve been organizing events in the SF Bay area since web2 –this latest AI trend is no different, bring the community together so everyone can win, and everything will prob work out.

In San Francisco, I organized Llama Lounge 9, the ninth in a series aimed at bringing together the AI startup community. The theme was focused on enabling founders and funders within the SF Bay Area to build relationships and enable partnerships.

This event was hosted by Capgemini Applied Innovation Exchange, is a global platform for innovation, bringing together a framework for action, a network of exchanges, who generously provided a dedicated space and food and bev for these critical interactions. I partnered with my friend of over a decade, Joshua Baillon, we had prior partnered when he was at Nestle Innovation and I was running Crowd Companies my second company.

The AI market is evolving, with many startups in the pre-seed phase and some moving to seed stage. This environment created a prime opportunity for startups to engage with potential investors –and I really wanted to be a catalyst to enable this to happen.

Eleven AI Startups on the Demo Floor:
We seek to have a minimum of 1/3 of demo founders are women.

1. Agit: AI Personal Trainer in your pocket

2. Deep Infra: Simple scalable API for AI models

3. HelloBiome: AI-Driven Microbiome Innovation

4. HyperBound: Sales training with AI prospects

5. Genie/Gather: AI that reduces the mental load

6. GGX: AI enabled exchange for wholesale goods*

7. Indexical: AI-powered scraping & data extraction

8. LastMile AI: AI dev platform for engineering teams

9. Productive.ai AI automation for cell phone calls

10. Reframe: Ultrafast Inbound Lead Research using Agents

11. Twig: AI co-pilot for customer experience teams
    
    *Blitzscaling Ventures Portfolio Company.
    
    
    Watermarked photos were taken by ErickD, hire him to help your company or event.

Above: Doors open! Llama Lounge 9 hosted at Cap Gemini Applied Innovation Exchange in SoMa district SF –the cradle of AI.

Above: Conch Call signals to the community to assemble for opening remarks and Llama Lineup (speed pitches)

Above: Calling of the community, while Josh musically directs. Fun fact, me: former Jazz musician.

Above: The Llama Lounge community assembles: Majority are founders, and dozens of VCs.

Above: My friend for over a decade, Josh Baillon, Director of the Applied Innovation Exchange, welcomes the community, he leads programs to help large companies connect to the startup ecosystem, enabling new partnerships and innovations.

Hafsa Tagir deliver in person demos for the fitness app, Agit, some attendees did workouts while AI captured their motion.

Above: Dr Elsa Jungman from Hello Biome.

Above: Enlai from Productive AI gives real time demos.

Above: HelloBiome demo station

Above: Shanelle Roman of Indexical delivers a demo

Above: Spencer of GGX, an AI for a commodities exchange, gives off real time demos, including integrating the attendees SMS to simulate real time orders with an agent. GGX is a Portfolio company of Blitzscaling Ventures.

Above: Peter of Reframe gives a 30 second pitch.

Above: Hafsa Tagir holds the room with her pitch of Agit the AI for fitness with mocap from a mobile device.

Above: LastMile team delivers an overview to the community.

Above: Tanya from LastMile delivers the 30 second pitch

Above: Tanya from LastMile grabs the attention of the community in her 30 second pitch

Above: The Llama Lounge community is grateful to our host, Capgemini Applied Innovation Exchange and looks forward to future events to bring together the AI ecosystem.

65 Registered Investors: 

Blitzscaling Ventures, 500 Global, 65 Equity Partners, AltaIR Capital, Alumni Ventures, AV8, BAG Ventures, BMW i Ventures, Blue Owl, BTV: Better Tomorrow Ventures, Buildtech VC, Bullpen Capital, BDev Ventures, Canaan Partners, Capital G (Alphabet), Cathay Innovation, Cervoo Inc, Coelius Capital, Conductive Ventures, Costanoa VC, CRV, E14 Fund, MIT, EnvisionX, FalconX Ventures, FOCUS Investment Banking, Foothill Ventures, Galaxy Ventures, General Catalyst, GenLab, GIC, Green Bay Ventures, Hat-Trick Capital, Hike Ventures, Honda Innovations, JetBlue Ventures, J2 Ventures, Kittyhawk VC, Kyber Knight Capital, Lobby Capital, Modernist Venture Club, Monochrome Capital, m]x[v Capital, Next47, NEC X, OMERS Ventures, Pear VC, Plug and Play, PodiumVC, Position Ventures, Practical VC, Presidio Ventures, RingCentral Ventures, Scrum Ventures, Shack15 Ventures, Sorenson Capital, Storm Ventures, Swift Ventures, Theory Ventures, The Bradley Group, TNT Capital, Uncorrelated Ventures, Vibranium Venture Capital, Wipro Ventures, XY Ventures, and Yamaha Motor Ventures.

Post written by organic Jeremiah, then copy edited by GPT4. Find me on TwitterX, Linkedin, and Subscribe to my Email Newsletter. Llama Lounge logo by Sightbox.