Tonight at Playground Global in Palo Alto, some of the brightest minds building technologies of the future will explain what’s coming next. This is the final StrictlyVC event of 2025, and the lineup is truly exceptional.
The series has traveled the world under TechCrunch, from a theater in Washington D.C. with Steve Case to a conversation with Greece’s prime minister in Athens. The concept remains constant: gather people working on genuinely important developments in an intimate setting, long before the rest of the world recognizes their significance.
One memorable moment came in 2019 when Sam Altman told a StrictlyVC crowd that OpenAI’s monetization strategy was essentially to build AGI and then ask it how to make money. The audience laughed, but he was not joking.
This evening’s guests include Nicholas Kelez, a particle accelerator physicist who spent two decades at the Department of Energy building the seemingly impossible. He now tackles semiconductor manufacturing’s biggest challenge: the reliance on $400 million machines from a single Dutch company. Kelez is using particle accelerator technology to build the next generation of these machines in America, a critically important endeavor that is attracting growing competition.
Then there is Mina Fahmi, who created a ring that captures whispered thoughts and turns them into text. He and co-founder Kirak honed this technology at Meta after their company was acquired. Their Stream Ring aims to extend your brain, not be your friend. Backed by Toni Schneider, who scaled WordPress early on, their startup Sandbar just emerged from stealth.
We also welcome Max Hodak, founder of Science Corp., a Time magazine cover subject, and earlier a co-founder of Neuralink alongside Elon Musk. He has already restored vision to dozens of blind people with retinal implants. Now he is developing “biohybrid” brain-computer interfaces where chips seeded with stem cells integrate with brain tissue, aiming to let paralyzed people control devices with their thoughts. Hodak believes 2035 will look wildly different from today and will share his vision.
Finally, we are thrilled to host Chi-Hua Chien of Goodwater Capital and Elizabeth Weil of Scribble Ventures, two investors who backed companies like Twitter, Spotify, TikTok, Slack, SpaceX, Figma, and Coinbase before they were household names. Chien runs Goodwater Capital. Weil founded Scribble Ventures after roles at Andreessen Horowitz and Twitter, made over 100 angel investments, and has a first fund showing strong returns. Both believe Silicon Valley is misreading the current moment as capital floods into enterprise AI, and they will explain why.
Playground Global is hosting the event along with general partner Pat Gelsinger, the former CEO of Intel. There will be drinks, delicious food, and conversation. Seating is limited, so if you want candid insights directly from these leaders and to make meaningful connections, secure your seat before it’s gone. StrictlyVC events have limited seating.