/ About this event
250 registrations on luma. Do you want to pitch your startup? - Message me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tatianasf/
This event is a part of #SFTechWeek—a week of events hosted by VCs and startups to bring together the tech ecosystem. Learn more at www.tech-week.com
250 registrations on Luma.
This event is part of #SFTechWeek - a week of events hosted by VCs and startups to bring together the tech ecosystem. Learn more at [www.tech-week.com](http://www.tech-week.com)
🚀 Startup Pitch Night SF
Founders. Builders. Investors. One room.
From the organizer behind a recent San Francisco startup event with 770+ registrations.
Join ambitious founders, engineers, operators, investors, and startup leaders for an evening of startup pitches, direct feedback, curated networking, and new connections in San Francisco.
📅 October 8, 2026 📍 San Francisco - 1000 Van Ness, San Francisco Thrad office, 2nd floor
🎟️ Choose Your Access
Free Access Request to join and wait for approval.
Priority Access: VIP Sushi Access + 1 Drink Direct registration, priority entry ahead of Free Access guests, and priority seats.
Founder Pitch Packages Want to pitch your startup on stage? Founder packages are available below.
👇 See Founder Pitch Packages below for details.
Priority Access is free. It is not a ticket and does not guarantee admission.
⚖️ Meet the Judges
Alan Zong Partner & Co-founder at UpScaleX
UpScaleX is a San Francisco and Palo Alto-based seed fund and founders' community focused on AI-native applications, agentic economies, and vertical AI.
Mark Liu Seed-stage investor at UpScaleX focused on applied AI and agentic systems, bringing a sharp investor lens from his background in software private equity.
Maria Frolova Fractional CFO and Advisor to Founders SaaS | AI | FinTech | Financial Services & M&A | Marketplaces & eCommerce
Recovered JPMorgan investment banker with 5 IPOs and $30B in M&A under her belt. Fractional CFO of TrueLeap, PortlyAI, and Project Pixel. Advisor @ Astia. Mentor @ Techstars. Founding Partner of ESSNTL. Former executive leader in Finance and Data at fintech unicorn Republic and e-commerce startup VIDA. Migrated a $2B EFI legacy business to SaaS as Corp Dev and Partnerships leader.
Ishtiaque Mohammad Founder & CEO @ SowFin VC investor and General Partner at Astra Ventures, focused on early-stage startups from Pre-Seed through Series A.
Oleg Sotnikov Angel Investor Senior Director of Engineering / VP of Engineering
🌟 Invited Expert
Arriel Balogun, MBA, PMP, SSYBC
Topic: Why VC Feedback Doesn’t Close the Traction Gap
🎙️ Panelists
Mark Liu Seed-stage investor at UpScaleX.
Maria Frolova Fractional CFO and Advisor to Founders, former JPMorgan investment banker, Mentor @ Techstars, Founding Partner of ESSNTL.
Pranjal Saxena Strategy & Operations at Google, Angel Investor, Ex-McKinsey.
Oleg Sotnikov Angel Investor, Senior Director of Engineering / VP of Engineering.
Andrea Tortella CEO @ Thrad - Paid ads in LLMs.
👥 Who Should Join
This event is designed for:
* Startup founders * Engineers and AI builders * Investors and angels * Product and startup operators * People looking for co-founders, talent, customers, partnerships, investment, or new opportunities
🚀 Founder Pitch Packages
Want to pitch your startup on stage?
Founder packages are currently offered privately by request and are not available through the normal public ticket selector.
🎤 Starter - $99 1 ticket left
Best for a quick startup introduction.
* 1-minute pitch on stage * Product or company link * Basic company listing on Luma * Startup poster or visual displayed during your pitch * Opportunity to place a limited number of company-provided flyers in the designated event area * Listing in the shared B4SF Startup Directory
🚀 Visibility - $149 1 ticket left
Best for a launch or stronger event visibility.
* Priority pitch scheduled before Starter pitches * 2-minute pitch on stage * Priority product or company link * Priority company listing on Luma * Priority poster placement during your pitch * Placement of one company-provided physical poster in an approved event area * Priority B4SF Startup Directory listing
The participating company must print and bring its physical poster.
🏆 Showcase - $199 1 ticket left
Best for maximum event presence.
* Top-priority pitch scheduled before Visibility and Starter pitches * 3-minute pitch on stage * Dedicated event table for approved promotional and demo materials * Priority product or company link * Priority company listing on Luma * Priority poster placement during your pitch * Placement of one company-provided physical poster * Priority B4SF Startup Directory listing * Media support beginning up to 2 weeks before the event and continuing through 1 week after the event * Exposure through the B4SF email newsletter with an audience of approximately 20K emails
🏆🏆🏆 Spotlight - $349
Includes everything in Showcase, plus:
* Dedicated audience Q&A * Sponsored giveaway or raffle opportunity * Professional founder and startup photos * Premium host mention * Premium event placement * Featured Company status * Additional opportunities to engage attendees around your startup before, during, and after your presentation
🌟🌟🌟 Founder Featured Pitch - $599
Best for founders who want a more substantial presentation, feedback, and premium event visibility.
* 4-minute featured startup pitch * Up to 4 minutes of audience Q&A * Judges feedback * Slide and projector support * Founder Spotlight * Priority networking introductions * Premium event visibility * One $50 gift card for an audience giveaway or activation
👑👑👑 Strategic Spotlight - $999
Our highest-level company positioning package.
* 5-minute featured startup pitch * Up to 5 minutes of audience Q&A * Judges feedback * Founder Spotlight * Premium host introduction * Priority networking introductions * Custom audience activation * Extended event visibility before, during, and after the event * Two $50 gift cards for audience giveaways or activations
📦 Materials
Participating companies provide their own:
* Posters * Flyers * Business cards * Demo materials * Banners, if permitted * Other approved promotional materials
B4SF provides the approved placement and table opportunity included with the applicable package.
🔐 How to Request a Founder Package
1. Choose Starter, Visibility, or Showcase. 2. Message the organizer on LinkedIn with the package you want. 3. You will receive a private one-use access code. 4. Use the code to purchase your Founder Pitch Package.
Founder packages are not currently available for direct public checkout.
📸 Community Highlights from Previous Events
A look at startup pitches, builder conversations, direct feedback, and community moments from previous events organized by the host in San Francisco.
These photos are from previous events. The people, venues, companies, and brands shown are not confirmed speakers, sponsors, partners, or participants for this event.
🏆 Pitches, Recognition & Community
🎤 Speakers, Feedback & Builder Conversations
🤝 Community Energy & Networking
🤝 Our Sponsors
Thrad
Delivering Sponsored Intelligence with Paid Ads in AI.
Thrad is the advertising infrastructure for AI apps to monetise with in-chat ads and brands to buy ads in LLM apps reaching millions of users daily around the world.
🌍 Our Outreach Partners
Ontology of Value® by Natalia Bielczyk, PhD
A high-end career incubator and talent intelligence platform for managing careers and teams in the AI-first economy. We build lighthouses and telescopes for the leaders of the future.
Watch Natalia’s recent TEDx to learn more.
Funding Breakthrough Lab
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit pre-accelerator with a mission of creating a supportive community of 24,000+ subscribers to build a better tomorrow.
We support founder success, not just startup success, by ensuring founders have access to education, networks, and resources to unlock their potential.
Founded by Natalie Pan, an engineer, community builder, and executive coach.
Apply for the next cohort here: https://fundingbreakthroughlab.org
🏙️ Builders for San Francisco B4SF
🚀 The Pitchers
1. Avinash Gujje Founder & CEO @ ZUUZ
ZUUZ is a platform that turns sales email into pipeline automatically. ZUUZ connects with existing CRMs and sales mailboxes to identify deals, renewals, and RFPs that were happening in email but never made it into the CRM, without changing how sales teams already work.
https://b4sf.com/companies/zuuz
2. Rachit Verma Founder @ Smartbrowse
SDE Incoming Intern @ Cisco | CS & Game Design Student at UCSC, 3rd Year | Officer at UCSC Networking Student Association
3. Rohan Tandon Founder @ Lucidstarfield Labs Creative Technologist
4. Michelle Akhidenor Founder, The Peers Project Michelle AI launches Q4 2026 Forbes 30 Under 30
5. Nelly Perchatkin Founder & CEO of Midnight Mastermind Technologies
Nelly is a trauma survivor who rewired her mind after her brother’s fatal plane crash and years of complex trauma. She now blends neuroscience, ancient practices, and technology to help shape the future of health tech.
Master My Mind is a psychotherapist-backed subconscious reprogramming platform that uses personalized AI-generated affirmation scripts, brainwave audio, and subliminals to help users form habits, reach goals, and manifest.
https://b4sf.com/companies/master-my-mind
6. Bogdan Barchuk Founder & CTO, Insomnia by CQR Cybersecurity LLC
An all-in-one cybersecurity toolkit for authorized security testing. Insomnia combines vulnerability discovery, web and API testing, network and Active Directory assessment, OSINT, mobile analysis, exploit validation, AI-assisted workflows, and reporting in one integrated platform.
https://b4sf.com/companies/insom-ai
7. Mitesh Shethwala Founder - Currently.club
Currently.club is the world's first real-time social network, where people share what they're doing RIGHT NOW, unfiltered, through their camera lens only.
8. Yezhisai Murugesan Founder @ Ask The W
Ask The W is a human-facing product layer around AI agents. It helps builders set the direction, orchestrates work across specialized AI agents, and carries projects from idea to execution without losing context.
https://b4sf.com/companies/ask-the-w
9. Josephine Lee Co-founder, Palette - YC S26
Palette is building the creative infrastructure for AI-native media, enabling companies to generate and edit production-quality video at scale.
Longer term, Palette is building toward a world where media is generated on demand, personalized to each viewer, and interactive by default.
