TechCrunch Sessions: AI Speakers
Prepare for next-level insights as the leading AI experts step onto the main stage, fueling growth and offering a sneak peek into the future of AI.
Stay tuned for more speaker announcements — check back regularly for the latest updates!
Senior VP of MySQL Database and MySQL HeatWaveOracle / MySQL
Consulting Principal Member of Technical StaffOracle / MySQL
CEOOdyssey
Deputy Director – TechnologyUK Department for Business and Trade
PartnerCapitalG
COOLinear
Head of the European Union Office in San Francisco, Senior Tech Envoy to the U.S.European Union Delegation to the U.S.
Co-Founder & General PartnerInitiate Ventures
Principal AI EngineerToyota
Solutions ArchitectCohere
PartnerKhosla Ventures
PartnerAccel
Senior Product ManagerGoogle DeepMind
Co-founder/CEOCLIKA
Senior Vice President, Cloud StrategyOracle MySQL
CEOTwelve Labs
CEOTanka
Solution Advisor, SAP AI and BTPSAP
General PartnerFelicis
Founder & General PartnerRecursive Ventures
CEO & Co-FounderNarada AI
PhD, Cognitive Scientist and Member of Technical Staff, Amazon AGI SF LabAmazon
Head of AI SafetyElevenLabs
Senior Director, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Center of ExcellenceSAP
Chief of StaffFLUIX AI
ProfessorUC Berkeley
Staff ReporterSan Francisco Business Times
PartnerNEA
Senior Development Manager, MySQL and HeatWaveOracle MySQL
Co-founder and Chief Research OfficerAnthropic
CEO & Co-founderNLX
Director, Customer Engineering, Google Cloud StartupsGoogle
Startups LeadOpenAI
Staff Solutions ArchitectCohere
Vice President, Community EngagementOracle MySQL
Executive DirectorGlobal Innovation Forum
Nipun Agarwal is senior vice president of MySQL Database and MySQL HeatWave development at Oracle. His interests include distributed data processing, machine learning, and hardware software co-design. Previously, Nipun directed research initiatives at Oracle Labs that resulted in the introduction of new Oracle products, including HeatWave. Joining Oracle in 1994, Nipun was initially a member of the Oracle Database team. He holds an MS in computer science and has been awarded over 200 patents.
Sandeep Agrawal leads the HeatWave Generative AI and Machine Learning projects as a part of MySQL HeatWave. HeatWave GenAI and AutoML are the product of years of research and advanced development and aims to help both data scientists and non-data scientists quickly apply GenAI or ML to a given problem. Prior to HeatWave, Sandeep led the Oracle AutoML project within Oracle labs, creating a state-of-the-art distributed AutoML engine. He is passionate about Machine Learning and Systems Architecture and applying both to solve real-world problems. Prior to Oracle, he completed his PhD in Computer Science from Duke University in 2015.
Sandeep's Sessions
Building Richer and More Scalable GenAI Applications for Startups and Developers
Learn how MySQL HeatWave empowers you in building AI-based solutions in areas such as personal productivity, automating workflows for compliance, service, or support, and increasing efficiencies in healthcare, among others. By leveraging HeatWave’s built-in vector store, in-database LLMs, in-database machine learning capabilities, and massively parallel processing architecture, teams can develop richer GenAI applications that incorporate real-time data, advanced personalization, and complex retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) techniques without the need for separate, specialized databases or complex ETL processes. This approach simplifies the GenAI development stack, accelerates time-to-market, and allows startups and developers to focus on innovation rather than infrastructure management, ultimately enabling the creation of more powerful, responsive, and scalable GenAI solutions.
Oliver is co-founder and CEO of Odyssey. Odyssey is pioneering world models, the next frontier of artificial intelligence. Previously, Oliver built driverless cars at Cruise and Voyage.
Oliver's Sessions
How to Launch a Product Against Entrenched Incumbents
It’s tough to break out in the AI sector, in large part because it’s dominated by well-funded incumbents. However, this doesn’t mean new companies are doomed to fail. In this talk, founders at breakout AI startups discuss how they’ve managed to find success while fending off formidable rivals in the industry.
Matthew Caron is the Deputy Director for Technology at the UK Department for Business and Trade, based out of the British Consulate-General in San Francisco. In addition to leading the San Francisco & Pacific Northwest Tech Trade & Investment team Matthew develops and delivers strategy alongside Sector Director Eleanor Boyer for technology focused teams across North America supporting businesses looking to internationalize. He supports US companies as they seek to do business in the UK, UK companies as they look to export products to the US and companies on both sides of the Atlantic as they identify trade barriers. Prior to working at the consulate Matthew spent time working with the European Commission in DC on the TTIP Free Trade Agreement Negations, Primarily on Agriculture and Government Procurement. He also spent time at the British Embassy in Washington DC. Matthew Holds an MA in International Trade and Economic Diplomacy from the Middlebury Institute for International Studies at Monterey and a BA in International Studies and Anthropology from Emory University. Originally from Vermont Matthew enjoys skiing, hiking and exploring national parks.
Matthew's Sessions
The AI Policy Playbook: What Global Startups Need to Know
AI is revolutionizing how startups operate, but navigating policy, regulation, and global expansion remains a challenge. In this breakout session, we will explore how startups can leverage AI-driven tools for digital trade, compliance, and scaling across borders. Attendees will gain insights into key policies shaping AI startups, strategies for navigating data regulations, and how to leverage AI for international growth. Whether you’re a founder, investor, or policymaker, this session will provide actionable takeaways to turn AI into a competitive advantage in a fast-changing global landscape.
Jill is an investment partner at CapitalG, where she focuses on emerging use cases for AI/ML, data infrastructure, and enterprise technology. She has spent the past few years working with senior Googlers and industry experts to round out her AI/ML thesis and has had the fortune of working with several tremendous founders and technologists in the space. Since joining CapitalG in 2020, Jill has led the firm’s investment in Magic and played a leadership role in investments in executive women’s network Chief and financial data leader MX. She has also been a guest lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business since 2019. Prior to joining CapitalG, Jill worked in senior startup operating roles, both as the CEO of a private equity-backed business and as the founder of a Y Combinator-backed startup. Jill graduated magna cum laude from Williams College with a dual degree in economics and psychology and was captain of the women’s basketball team. She came out to the West Coast to earn an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, but she was born and raised in Boston, where she had the opportunity to cheer on the most impressive era of professional sports a city has ever experienced (Go, Patriots).
Jill's Sessions
From Seed to Series C: What VCs Want to See from Founders
AI has dominated venture funding, with investments soaring 62% to $110 billion in 2024—even as overall startup funding declined. But slapping “AI” onto a pitch deck isn’t enough. As the hype around foundation models fades, investors are zeroing in on real-world applications, AI agents, and sustainable business models. In this talk, top VCs will share what it really takes to get funding at each stage, from seed to Series C, and what they want to see in AI startups now.
Cristina Cordova is the chief operating officer at Linear and is an active angel investor and adviser to early-stage startups. She began her career in partnerships, joining startups as one of the first business hires. Cristina spent seven years at Stripe, joining as the 28th employee. During her tenure, she built the Partnerships organization from the ground up and led a business unit focused on developing new financial services products for businesses. After Stripe, she joined Notion to lead Platform & Partnerships, where she also oversaw the growth team concentrating on the self-serve business.
Cristina's Sessions
How to Launch a Product Against Entrenched Incumbents
It’s tough to break out in the AI sector, in large part because it’s dominated by well-funded incumbents. However, this doesn’t mean new companies are doomed to fail. In this talk, founders at breakout AI startups discuss how they’ve managed to find success while fending off formidable rivals in the industry.
Gerard de Graaf
Head of the European Union Office in San Francisco, Senior Tech Envoy to the U.S., European Union Delegation to the U.S.Senior EU Envoy for Digital and Head of the EU Office in San Francisco, Gerard de Graaf has worked for more than 30 years in the European Commission across a wide range of policy areas. Until his appointment in summer 2022, he was director in DG CNECT, responsible for the Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts (DSA/DMA). Before joining DG CNECT, he worked in the Secretariat-General of the European Commission, in DG Research and Innovation and in DG Internal Market and he was trade counsellor at the Commission’s Delegation to the United States in Washington DC.
Gerard's Sessions
The AI Policy Playbook: What Global Startups Need to Know
AI is revolutionizing how startups operate, but navigating policy, regulation, and global expansion remains a challenge. In this breakout session, we will explore how startups can leverage AI-driven tools for digital trade, compliance, and scaling across borders. Attendees will gain insights into key policies shaping AI startups, strategies for navigating data regulations, and how to leverage AI for international growth. Whether you’re a founder, investor, or policymaker, this session will provide actionable takeaways to turn AI into a competitive advantage in a fast-changing global landscape.
Iana is the Co-founder and General Partner of Initiate Ventures, an early-stage firm investing in health tech and life sciences companies that use digital platforms and AI to drive scientific breakthroughs and improve healthcare. Previously, she spent four years at GE Ventures, a leading healthcare-focused fund, where she led investments in startups spanning AI/ML, genomics, clinical research, novel payor models, and care delivery innovation. Before joining GE Ventures, Iana was with ProCure Treatment Centers where she helped develop and operate the most extensive network of radiation (proton) therapy centers in the United States. During her tenure there, the company raised more than $700M in capital and secured strategic investments from large healthcare systems and independent physician groups. Iana has served on multiple private and not-for-profit boards and is a frequent speaker and panelist at leading industry events. She earned her MBA from Columbia University and received her bachelor’s degree, with honors, also from Columbia University.
Iana's Sessions
So You Think You Can Pitch?
Please join us for “So You Think You Can Pitch” where three promising early stage AI startups will have 4 minutes to wow a panel of judges, who will then provide feedback.
Kordel France is a principal AI engineer at Toyota where he leads development for various AI & robotics applications among the manufacturing and quality control groups. He is a technologist, technical leader, and multi-disciplined engineer teaching machines to solve complex problems through AI. He has worked in various capacities as an engineer designing sensors for products such as drones and robots, and coding scalable AI systems for products like voice assistants and vision-language models. Prior to his position at Toyota, he founded a small company that invented a new type of sensor enabling robots to navigate by scent. Here, he led engineering, product design, and business development that enabled the company to quickly achieve revenue and gave him a much larger appreciation for the complexities of manufacturing at scale. Fascinated by the math behind markets, Kordel considers himself an “amateur quant” and spends most of his spare time coding algorithmic trading strategies.
Kordel's Sessions
How Toyota Repair Technicians Leverage AI with NLX
Amid brands struggling to bring AI concepts and prototypes into full-scale production, NLX and Toyota will share their experiences with actionable advice on using AI to solve significant business problems and navigating the process from executive buy-in, to technology integration to change management. NLX cofounder and CEO Andrei Papancea and Kordel France, Principal AI Engineer at Toyota North America, will discuss a compelling and unexpected use case for AI-powered conversation experiences–car repair. NLX and Toyota created an experience that lets technicians quickly access technical information from millions of pages of repair manuals, diagnostic procedures, and wiring diagrams in a conversational experience that gives answers, instructions, and guidance. Since deployment, Toyota has improved technician productivity and overall Fixed Operations Efficiency, a key success metric for car dealerships.
Betsy Groves, Ph.D., is a Solutions Architect at Cohere, where she serves as a trusted technical advisor helping enterprise customers implement secure AI solutions. With over a decade of experience in evaluating, tailoring, and creating custom software and analytics-based solutions, Betsy has led cross-functional teams of machine learning developers, statisticians, scientists, and engineers to deliver actionable, data-driven solutions to stakeholders in diverse industries. Throughout her career, Betsy has led the development and validation of AI solutions for healthcare, manufacturing, and consumer technology. Her work has included supporting FDA submissions for AI-enabled medical devices and developing validation methodologies for safety-critical systems. She has also provided expert legal opinions on software defects and intellectual property matters, ensuring the reliability and compliance of software-driven products. Betsy has authored several white papers on AI implementation strategies, including analyses of regulatory frameworks for AI in healthcare and practical approaches to responsible AI deployment. She brings a practical perspective to AI implementation, combining technical expertise with an understanding of software development and AI integration. Betsy holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Rochester and a B.S. in Computational Physics from UC Davis.
Betsy's Sessions
Behind Your Firewall: Secure Generative AI for Regulated Enterprises
Ever wonder how to use advanced generative AI in healthcare or finance without breaking a sweat over data privacy? Join us for a lively breakout session at TC Sessions: AI, where Yann Stoneman (Solutions Architect at Cohere) and three additional panelists will lead an interactive, 50-minute conversation. We’ll show you how to deploy secure, customized AI models on your own turf—no external cloud needed—through real-world use cases from Cohere’s North (an agentic AI workspace) and Compass (multimodal retrieval). You’ll walk away with practical tips for tackling compliance challenges, unlocking internal data safely, and delivering tangible value through private AI systems. Expect a dynamic mix of demos, Q&A, and audience interaction that will leave you ready to build AI solutions behind your own firewall.
Kanu is a partner at Khosla Ventures, where she invests in enterprise applications and infrastructure that leverage advances in AI, as well as robotics and autonomous systems. She has led, and helps manage, investments in companies, including PolyAI, Kognitos, Moonhub, Regie, Zendar, Nomagic, and Waabi, among others. Kanu has more than 10 years of operating experience as a research scientist at Intel and Cadence, and as an early engineer at Heavy.ai (hardware-accelerated analytics solution), Spyglass (predictive analytics for design, acquired by Synopsys), and Nascentric (fast-circuit simulation tool, acquired by Cadence). She was awarded the Nvidia Graduate Fellowship for her work in hardware acceleration. Kanu has co-authored three books; authored 35+ peer-reviewed publications; and holds a U.S. patent. She obtained a PhD and a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from Texas A&M University and a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of Delhi. Kanu also earned her MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was co-president of the annual Venture Capital and Private Equity Conference.
Kanu's Sessions
From Seed to Series C: What VCs Want to See from Founders
AI has dominated venture funding, with investments soaring 62% to $110 billion in 2024—even as overall startup funding declined. But slapping “AI” onto a pitch deck isn’t enough. As the hype around foundation models fades, investors are zeroing in on real-world applications, AI agents, and sustainable business models. In this talk, top VCs will share what it really takes to get funding at each stage, from seed to Series C, and what they want to see in AI startups now.
Sara Ittelson joined Accel in 2022 and focuses on early-stage consumer, enterprise, and AI companies. At Accel, Sara serves on the boards of AssemblyAI, Cinder, Minoan, Syrup and others. Prior to joining Accel, Sara spent several years as Head of Strategic Partnerships at Faire, supporting its growth from $535M to its recent mark of $12.4B. Sara also worked in Global Business Development at Uber, in the ride-share business, and then at Uber Eats. Originally from Chico, California, Sara graduated from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Northwestern University.
Sara's Sessions
From Seed to Series C: What VCs Want to See from Founders
AI has dominated venture funding, with investments soaring 62% to $110 billion in 2024—even as overall startup funding declined. But slapping “AI” onto a pitch deck isn’t enough. As the hype around foundation models fades, investors are zeroing in on real-world applications, AI agents, and sustainable business models. In this talk, top VCs will share what it really takes to get funding at each stage, from seed to Series C, and what they want to see in AI startups now.
Logan leads product for Google AI Studio, the platform for developers to build with Gemini.
Logan's Sessions
How Founders Can Build on Existing Foundational Models
There seems to be a new, more impressive AI model every week. In this talk, we’ll speak with leaders at industry leading AI companies to discuss how startups can build on top of AI foundation models. Given the rapid pace of development, we’ll discuss how to grow with the AI industry, and not get left behind.
Nayul Kim is the Co-founder and CEO of CLIKA, an AI infrastructure startup delivering an automated model compression and compilation toolkit that makes AI models faster, smaller, and instantly deployable across diverse hardware platforms. As a passionate startup operator and proud kool-aid brewer, Nayul is focused on building a world-class team and translating cutting-edge research into real-world enterprise impact. Before founding CLIKA, she led innovation initiatives across both public and private sectors as a consultant and business development manager. Born in Korea and raised across four continents—including Spain, Uruguay, and Argentina—Nayul brings a global perspective to everything she builds. She now resides in San Francisco, where she’s scaling CLIKA and shaping the future of efficient AI deployment.
Nayul's Sessions
So You Think You Can Pitch?
Please join us for “So You Think You Can Pitch” where three promising early stage AI startups will have 4 minutes to wow a panel of judges, who will then provide feedback.
Luke works as senior vice president at Oracle, reporting to one of the CEO’s directs. He helps with technology standards, information security, government affairs, and other corporate initiatives. He also teaches at UC Berkeley on Mondays and is himself a PhD candidate at University of Birmingham. Before coming to Oracle he has worked at several startups, including a 4-year stint at Netscape. His education includes advanced degrees from UT, Pratt Institute, and Columbia University in New York.
Jae Lee is the co-founder and CEO of Twelve Labs, which creates state-of-the-art multimodal foundation models to enable developers and enterprises to better understand large corpuses of video data. Jae holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from UC Berkeley.
Jae's Sessions
How Founders Can Build on Existing Foundational Models
There seems to be a new, more impressive AI model every week. In this talk, we’ll speak with leaders at industry leading AI companies to discuss how startups can build on top of AI foundation models. Given the rapid pace of development, we’ll discuss how to grow with the AI industry, and not get left behind.
Kisson Lin, CEO of Tanka.ai, is a trailblazer in AI-driven organizational management. Tanka.ai stands out as the world’s first team messaging platform with AI long-term memory, revolutionizing workplace collaboration by eliminating context loss and inefficiencies across communication channels. At the heart of Tanka’s innovation is the MemoryGraph, a proprietary knowledge system that stores and evolves enterprise knowledge, enabling faster decision-making and intelligent automation. Tanka has integrated neuroscience-inspired AI memory into enterprise communication, positioning itself as a next-generation team communication platform, where AI plays as the Chief Memory Officer for everyone. Previously, Kisson co-founded Mindverse, pioneering AI agents as the future of personalized automation. She launched MindOS, a groundbreaking AI Agent Marketplace predating the GPT Store, and created Me.bot, a personal AI with persistent memory. Mindverse was backed by Sequoia China and Square Peg VC, among many other top investors. Kisson’s vision extends beyond technology, aiming to redefine how businesses leverage AI for strategic alignment and growth. Prior to her entrepreneurial journey, she was the Strategy Director at TikTok and Meta. Her session at TechCrunch AI will offer a roadmap to AI-powered collaboration—revealing how adaptive memory and intelligent workflows will redefine the future of work.
Kisson's Sessions
Your Next Co-Founder Will Be AI
“Founder mode” once defined startups: raw, relentless, human. But today’s founders face a paradox. Hierarchies became SaaS tools, middle managers became kanban boards—yet leadership burdens only intensified. Founders juggle investor updates, product roadmaps, and endless context-switching. The bottleneck isn’t your vision; it’s biology. Imagine an AI co-founder who remembers every conversation, crafts pitch decks, automates follow-ups, writes product docs, builds prototypes, tracks tasks, monitors teams, and recommends clients and talent—all without equity. All while you recharge. With experience at Meta and TikTok, and multiple startups including Tanka, and across different cultures, Kisson has always been passionate about the future of team dynamics. Join her vision for AI-native startups where solo founders achieve unprecedented scale and agility.
Max McPhee is a Solution Advisor at SAP and helps customers use AI, app dev, and automation to improve their processes. Max started his career as an RPA developer focused on finance process improvement and then joined SAP as a product manager for SAP Build. He is looking forward to the future of AI agents and agentic process automation.
Max's Sessions
Suite AI: How SAP is Bringing AI to the Enterprise
As the adoption of AI increases, hear how SAP is expanding its AI capabilities across the business suite. Start planning how to leverage upcoming innovations to boost efficiency, streamline processes, and drive greater engagement across your business. Learn about SAP’s AI agent Joule, embedded AI capabilities, and custom AI development.
Astasia Myers is a General Partner at Felicis. Before joining Felicis, she was an enterprise partner at Quiet Capital and an investor at Redpoint Ventures. Astasia focuses on early-stage investing across AI, data, open source, developer tools, and security. She has invested in LaunchDarkly, Solo.io, Hex, Semgrep, Airbyte, and Supabase, among others. With experience from an early-stage startup, Baird IT systems equity research, and Cisco CorpDev, Astasia has spent over ten years dedicated to enterprise software. Astasia earned dual bachelor’s degrees with honors and Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University and a master’s from the University of Cambridge
Astasia's Sessions
So You Think You Can Pitch?
Please join us for “So You Think You Can Pitch” where three promising early stage AI startups will have 4 minutes to wow a panel of judges, who will then provide feedback.
Itamar is the founder of Recursive Ventures, a pre-seed fund investing in startups disrupting industries with Data & AI. Itamar has been on all sides of the startup table – a founder and executive, an institutional VC, and an angel investor. He has supported over 50 successful startups, including Deel, Honeybook, Placer, Credible (IPO), MileIQ (acquired by Microsoft), Automatic Labs (acquired by SiriusXM), Tile (acquired by Life360), SafeGraph, and Armory. He’s been recognized by Business Insider as a Top 100 global seed investor for the last four years. As an operator, he helped take Life360 from Seed to IPO, scaling the business to over $250m in revenue and over $8b market cap. Before that, Itamar was a founding team member and head of Product at Gigya (acquired by SAP for $350m). He holds an MBA from Berkeley Haas and an undergraduate degree in computer science from the Tel-Aviv Jaffa College.
Itamar's Sessions
So You Think You Can Pitch?
Please join us for “So You Think You Can Pitch” where three promising early stage AI startups will have 4 minutes to wow a panel of judges, who will then provide feedback.
David Park is the CEO & Co-Founder of Narada AI, leading the company’s mission to revolutionize enterprise automation with Large Action Models. Dave earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Computer Science from Stanford University where he was a Terman Engineering Award winner and NSF Fellowship recipient. He has authored numerous publications in formal verification and has a deep background in automation. Before starting Narada AI, Dave co-founded and bootstrapped Coverity out of Stanford, driving the company to a $375M acquisition. Now, at Narada, he is bringing the same expertise and vision to transform enterprise automation with agentic AI based on new research from the UC Berkeley AI Research Lab.
David's Sessions
So You Think You Can Pitch?
Please join us for “So You Think You Can Pitch” where three promising early stage AI startups will have 4 minutes to wow a panel of judges, who will then provide feedback.
Danielle is a PhD cognitive scientist. She leads the human-computer interaction (HCI) team at the Amazon AGI SF Lab, which is developing foundational capabilities for practical AI agents that can act in both digital and physical environments. She received her PhD from Northwestern, where she studied language evolution and the development of social cognition. Prior to Amazon, she was at Adept and Google.
Danielle's Sessions
How Founders Can Build on Existing Foundational Models
There seems to be a new, more impressive AI model every week. In this talk, we’ll speak with leaders at industry leading AI companies to discuss how startups can build on top of AI foundation models. Given the rapid pace of development, we’ll discuss how to grow with the AI industry, and not get left behind.
Artemis leads AI Safety at ElevenLabs. Before that, she worked on the safe use of OpenAI’s models and products and led Meta’s global response to geopolitical and adversarial threats. She holds a PhD in political science and a JD from Stanford and has experience in management consulting, international organizations, law, and civil society.
Artemis's Sessions
A Focus on AI Ethics and Safety
Generative AI media startup ElevenLabs’ head of AI safety, Artemis Seaford, joins Databricks Co-Founder and Executive Chairman Ion Stoica for a panel spotlighting the ethical and safety issues with AI today. The two will discuss deepfakes — an increasingly hot topic as AI tools become cheaper and easier to use — as well as possible mitigations that can be put in place to help developers and companies deploy AI more responsibly.
Rob Seifert is a Senior Director at SAP, in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Center of Excellence. In this role he supports customers transformation to efficient, user-friendly, connected, automated and secure solutions to support an intelligent enterprise. Rob has over 29 years of diverse experience in SAP roles with experience as a user, citizen developer, program manager, product owner, leader, and project sponsor for customer implementation of S/4HANA.
Rob's Sessions
Suite AI: How SAP is Bringing AI to the Enterprise
As the adoption of AI increases, hear how SAP is expanding its AI capabilities across the business suite. Start planning how to leverage upcoming innovations to boost efficiency, streamline processes, and drive greater engagement across your business. Learn about SAP’s AI agent Joule, embedded AI capabilities, and custom AI development.
Abhishek Sriram works at the intersection of deep tech, infrastructure, and systems design. He is focused on building resilient, intelligent solutions that bridge physical operations and machine intelligence. His work centers on enabling engineering-first teams working on problems that demand cross-disciplinary thinking and real-world impact. Abhishek heads team building and operations with the founders of FLUIX, together, the team believes they are only chance America has to win the AI arms race. FLUIX helps AI infrastructure double compute without doubling resources. Smarter and faster expansion using AI & automation.. Abhishek lives in Sunnyvale, California.
Abhishek's Sessions
So You Think You Can Pitch?
Please join us for “So You Think You Can Pitch” where three promising early stage AI startups will have 4 minutes to wow a panel of judges, who will then provide feedback.
Ion Stoica is a Professor in the EECS Department and holds the Xu Bao Chancellor Chair at the University of California at Berkeley, the Director of Sky Computing Lab, and the Executive Chairman of Databricks and Anyscale. He is currently doing research on AI systems and cloud computing, and his work includes numerous open-source projects such as SkyPilot, vLLM (most popular LLM inference engine), ChatBot Arena (most popular evaluation system for LLMs in the wild), Ray (emerging standard for scaling AI workloads used by OpenAI to train ChatGPT) and Apache Spark (de-facto standard for big data processing). He is a Member of National Academy of Engineering, an Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy and an ACM Fellow. He also co-founded three companies, Anyscale (2019), Databricks (2013) and Conviva (2006).
Ion's Sessions
A Focus on AI Ethics and Safety
Generative AI media startup ElevenLabs’ head of AI safety, Artemis Seaford, joins Databricks Co-Founder and Executive Chairman Ion Stoica for a panel spotlighting the ethical and safety issues with AI today. The two will discuss deepfakes — an increasingly hot topic as AI tools become cheaper and easier to use — as well as possible mitigations that can be put in place to help developers and companies deploy AI more responsibly.
Sara Bloomberg
Staff Reporter, San Francisco Business TimesSara Bloomberg (she/her) has been covering innovation, tech, startups and entrepreneurship for the San Francisco Business Times since 2021. She has lived in San Francisco since 2009, covered Big Tech as a researcher for Japan’s Asahi Shimbun, and has previously written and photographed stories for the San Francisco Public Press, 48 Hills, KQED, the SF Bay Guardian and SF Weekly. She studied politics and languages at UC Santa Cruz, and journalism at City College of San Francisco.
Sara's Sessions
How Toyota Repair Technicians Leverage AI with NLX
Amid brands struggling to bring AI concepts and prototypes into full-scale production, NLX and Toyota will share their experiences with actionable advice on using AI to solve significant business problems and navigating the process from executive buy-in, to technology integration to change management. NLX cofounder and CEO Andrei Papancea and Kordel France, Principal AI Engineer at Toyota North America, will discuss a compelling and unexpected use case for AI-powered conversation experiences–car repair. NLX and Toyota created an experience that lets technicians quickly access technical information from millions of pages of repair manuals, diagnostic procedures, and wiring diagrams in a conversational experience that gives answers, instructions, and guidance. Since deployment, Toyota has improved technician productivity and overall Fixed Operations Efficiency, a key success metric for car dealerships.
Ann is a partner at NEA focused on early-stage investing in AI category creators, consumer and prosumer applications that shape our daily lives and user-centric business software. She loves working with visionary, technical founders who want to build iconic products and generational companies. Ann’s experience prior to NEA spans 5 pioneering tech companies, including 2 startup exits and business leadership roles at Uber and Twitter during their hyper-growth phase. She holds an MBA from Stanford and a B.S. from UC Berkeley.
Ann's Sessions
How to Launch a Product Against Entrenched Incumbents
It’s tough to break out in the AI sector, in large part because it’s dominated by well-funded incumbents. However, this doesn’t mean new companies are doomed to fail. In this talk, founders at breakout AI startups discuss how they’ve managed to find success while fending off formidable rivals in the industry.
Gaurav Chadha
Senior Development Manager, MySQL and HeatWave, Oracle MySQLGaurav Chadha is a Senior Development Manager leading development of HeatWave Lakehouse. With a keen interest in systems, machine learning, and computer architecture, Gaurav brings a multifaceted expertise to database technology. Prior to his current role, Gaurav played an integral part in the development of Exadata Exascale, showcasing his adeptness at systems, database, and cloud technologies. Following the completion of his PhD from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Gaurav started at Oracle Labs in 2016, working on a research project which eventually graduated into HeatWave
Gaurav's Sessions
Building Richer and More Scalable GenAI Applications for Startups and Developers
Learn how MySQL HeatWave empowers you in building AI-based solutions in areas such as personal productivity, automating workflows for compliance, service, or support, and increasing efficiencies in healthcare, among others. By leveraging HeatWave’s built-in vector store, in-database LLMs, in-database machine learning capabilities, and massively parallel processing architecture, teams can develop richer GenAI applications that incorporate real-time data, advanced personalization, and complex retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) techniques without the need for separate, specialized databases or complex ETL processes. This approach simplifies the GenAI development stack, accelerates time-to-market, and allows startups and developers to focus on innovation rather than infrastructure management, ultimately enabling the creation of more powerful, responsive, and scalable GenAI solutions.
Jared Kaplan is the Chief Science Officer and Co-Founder of Anthropic, an AI lab whose research and products put safety at the frontier. As a public benefit corporation, Anthropic is dedicated to building AI systems that benefit humanity. Jared’s research on scaling laws revolutionized the AI industry by providing a framework for understanding and predicting the behavior of advanced AI systems, guiding resource allocation, and shaping the development of transformative technologies. Jared also helped pioneer Constitutional AI, an approach to AI development that aims to create AI systems that are constrained by and aligned with a set of predetermined principles and values. He spent the first 15 years of his career as a theoretical physicist in academia, and prior to co-founding Anthropic, Jared was instrumental in building GPT-3 and Codex at OpenAI. In addition to his work at Anthropic, Jared is an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, where he has taught courses on the foundations of deep learning. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics from Stanford University.
Jared's Sessions
The Frontier of AI: A Fireside Chat with Anthropic co-founder Jared Kaplan
In this fireside chat, Anthropic Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer Jared Kaplan will share his vision for how AI will change the way humans interact with computers, work, and each other. In a wide-ranging conversation, he’ll dive into Anthropic’s approach to building trusted AI agents for enterprises, share an insider’s perspective on building at the frontier of AI, and offer tactical take-aways for businesses of all sizes to implement AI and maximize its impact. You won’t want to miss it.
Andrei Papancea is CEO at NLX where he drives the vision and strategy of creating and delivering next-generation conversational experiences for organizations across industries. Under his leadership, NLX has raised over $25 million in funding from top venture capital firms and now powers automated customer experiences for some of the world’s biggest brands, including United Airlines, Comcast and Red Bull. Prior to co-founding NLX, Andrei built the Conversational AI platform for American Express, processing millions of conversations across AmEx’s main servicing channels. NLX grew out of this experience with Andrei building a platform that solved key challenges around deploying conversational AI at the scale and complexity large enterprises require. He teaches graduate lectures on Cloud Computing and AI Engineering at Columbia University and New York University and holds a M.S. in Computer Science from Columbia University.
Andrei's Sessions
How Toyota Repair Technicians Leverage AI with NLX
Amid brands struggling to bring AI concepts and prototypes into full-scale production, NLX and Toyota will share their experiences with actionable advice on using AI to solve significant business problems and navigating the process from executive buy-in, to technology integration to change management. NLX cofounder and CEO Andrei Papancea and Kordel France, Principal AI Engineer at Toyota North America, will discuss a compelling and unexpected use case for AI-powered conversation experiences–car repair. NLX and Toyota created an experience that lets technicians quickly access technical information from millions of pages of repair manuals, diagnostic procedures, and wiring diagrams in a conversational experience that gives answers, instructions, and guidance. Since deployment, Toyota has improved technician productivity and overall Fixed Operations Efficiency, a key success metric for car dealerships.
Iliana Quiñonez, Director of North America Startups Customer Engineering, leads a team dedicated to accelerating startups’ success through cloud technology. She focuses on empowering her team to deliver innovative solutions for a wide range of clients, from early-stage startups to IPO-bound companies. With over 25 years of industry experience, including advisory roles with startups, accelerators, and VCs, Iliana emphasizes customer empathy, technical leadership, and creative thinking to build high-performing teams. Her ability to foster meaningful connections across ecosystems has been pivotal in establishing her team as a trusted partner in the North American startup ecosystem
Iliana's Sessions
Democratizing AI and Building Collaborative Systems with AI Agents
This session explores the emerging field of collaborative AI agents and the strategic importance of democratizing their development for organizational advancement. We will examine practical approaches to enable individuals and teams to design and implement intelligent agents capable of seamless interaction with both human experts and other AI systems. Whether you possess extensive AI experience or are in the early stages of exploration, this session will provide valuable insights into the potential of AI agents to enhance collaborative workflows and build sophisticated intelligent systems for the future.
Hao is a member of the Startups Go-to-Market team at OpenAI, where he helps founders build with AI. Prior to joining OpenAI, he worked at Stripe advising fintech startups, and held early GTM roles at OpenPhone and Slack. Hao studied at the Smith School of Business in Canada.
Hao's Sessions
Building Your AI Engine: How OpenAI Works with Startups
In the rapidly evolving AI landscape, startups can gain a competitive edge by collaborating closely with model providers. Join Hao Sang from OpenAI’s Startups Team for a session that demystifies OpenAI’s resources for startups, from technical guidance to advanced model access. Discover how feedback from startups helps shape OpenAI’s roadmap, ensuring that their products evolve to meet your needs.
Yann Stoneman is a Staff Solutions Architect at Cohere, the security-first enterprise AI leader building cutting-edge foundation models and end-to-end solutions. Before Cohere, he spent two years at AWS, helping enterprises use AI and debuting an AI demo at AWS re:Invent 2023. Yann partners with organizations to deliver seamless integration, deep customization, and user-friendly AI experiences. He has spoken at industry events such as Generative AI World (Boston) and Voices of Data Science, and his thought leadership has appeared on Cohere’s and AWS’s official blogs. Yann holds a bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School.
Yann's Sessions
Behind Your Firewall: Secure Generative AI for Regulated Enterprises
Ever wonder how to use advanced generative AI in healthcare or finance without breaking a sweat over data privacy? Join us for a lively breakout session at TC Sessions: AI, where Yann Stoneman (Solutions Architect at Cohere) and three additional panelists will lead an interactive, 50-minute conversation. We’ll show you how to deploy secure, customized AI models on your own turf—no external cloud needed—through real-world use cases from Cohere’s North (an agentic AI workspace) and Compass (multimodal retrieval). You’ll walk away with practical tips for tackling compliance challenges, unlocking internal data safely, and delivering tangible value through private AI systems. Expect a dynamic mix of demos, Q&A, and audience interaction that will leave you ready to build AI solutions behind your own firewall.
Heather Vancura
Vice President, Community Engagement, Oracle MySQLHeather VanCura is Vice President, Community Engagement at Oracle, including leading the Java Community Process (JCP) and MySQL Community Outreach teams. With 20 years of experience at Oracle and Sun Microsystems, she actively engages with the developer community as an international speaker, hackathon & event organizer, and mentor around the world. Heather is passionate about diversity in technology and volunteers with organizations such as Ted AI and IEEE Women in Engineering. Her extensive community involvement includes serving on the boards of Dress for Success and FIRST LEGO League NorCal. Heather’s dedication to empowering developers to grow their careers extended to her book, “Developer Career Masterplan”, published in 2023.
Heather's Sessions
Building Richer and More Scalable GenAI Applications for Startups and Developers
Learn how MySQL HeatWave empowers you in building AI-based solutions in areas such as personal productivity, automating workflows for compliance, service, or support, and increasing efficiencies in healthcare, among others. By leveraging HeatWave’s built-in vector store, in-database LLMs, in-database machine learning capabilities, and massively parallel processing architecture, teams can develop richer GenAI applications that incorporate real-time data, advanced personalization, and complex retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) techniques without the need for separate, specialized databases or complex ETL processes. This approach simplifies the GenAI development stack, accelerates time-to-market, and allows startups and developers to focus on innovation rather than infrastructure management, ultimately enabling the creation of more powerful, responsive, and scalable GenAI solutions.
Hua C. Wang is Executive Director of the Global Innovation Forum (GIF). Its mission is to inspire, promote, and facilitate international trade and investment to enhance global economic growth and job creation. At GIF, Hua leads strategy and partnerships to make trade and digital policy more inclusive. She engages an international network of small, minority, and women-led businesses, nonprofit leaders, and government officials to improve access to the global marketplace. Hua amplifies the voices of entrepreneurs in public policy discussions in the U.S. and with organizations like the WTO, APEC and UN. Previously, Hua led a top tech accelerator in Alabama, where 15 startups collectively raised $20 million and generated $11 million in revenue. She also founded SmartBridge Health, a cancer telemedicine startup, and served as an entrepreneur-in-residence with Start-Up Chile, the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre, and Halcyon Incubator. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Hua worked as a private equity attorney at Proskauer and K&L Gates, as in-house counsel at Cisco Systems, and as a global scholar at the Kauffman Foundation. Earlier in her career, she was an investment banking analyst at Lehman Brothers and a healthcare strategy consultant at Accenture. Hua is a graduate of Duke University and Northwestern University School of Law.
Hua's Sessions
The AI Policy Playbook: What Global Startups Need to Know
AI is revolutionizing how startups operate, but navigating policy, regulation, and global expansion remains a challenge. In this breakout session, we will explore how startups can leverage AI-driven tools for digital trade, compliance, and scaling across borders. Attendees will gain insights into key policies shaping AI startups, strategies for navigating data regulations, and how to leverage AI for international growth. Whether you’re a founder, investor, or policymaker, this session will provide actionable takeaways to turn AI into a competitive advantage in a fast-changing global landscape.
