Curated AI events in NYC and SF.
For Students, Developers, and Funded Founders
I run two calibrated tracks: Students / Developers and Funded Founders. We host high-quality hackathons, founder dinners, and premium PMF conversations in NYC and SF.
Design Principles
Built like a real team: curation, context, and execution discipline.
Room Quality First
Attendee quality beats vanity metrics. The right room creates compounding outcomes.
Context by Track
Students/developers and funded founders get separate, purpose-built experiences.
Operator-Led Formats
Events are run with production-level planning, not community chaos.
Real Follow-Through
Dinners, intros, and post-event workflows are built to move relationships forward.
Ecosystem
Trusted by leading organizations
Mission
From discovery to PMF: events that match founder stage and technical depth.
We blend flagship hackathons with intimate founder rooms. Early builders get momentum, while funded teams get high-context peer networks and PMF-level strategy conversations.
See founder dinner formatsAbout James Steinberg
AI researcher, serial entrepreneur, and host of high-signal builder rooms.
Background, operator context, and founder outcomes are documented below. These references explain why these events are run with a tighter standard than generic meetups.
Two Tracks
One network, two intentionally different experiences.
Students / Developers
Execution-heavy programs for technical builders shipping projects and meeting mentors.
- Hackathons with clear build milestones
- Hands-on workshops and technical talks
- Demo-focused events with real feedback loops
Funded Founders
Private founder rooms optimized for tactical growth and high-trust relationship building.
- Curated dinners across NYC and SF
- Operator and investor-adjacent conversation
- Selective PMF conversations and peer exchange
Event Formats
Programmed with card-level precision and strong attendance intent.
AUG 02
SF
SundAI Club SF Hack
SundAI Club SF Hack for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 02
NYC
Informationbanker Fintech & AI networking walk
Informationbanker Fintech & AI networking walk for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 02
SF
AI Builders Basketball Tournament | .local Build Fest Week
AI Builders Basketball Tournament | .local Build Fest Week for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 02
SF
Outside LLMs III - Outside Lands & OpenAI Hackathon
Outside LLMs III - Outside Lands & OpenAI Hackathon for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 02
SF
🤖🍨 Sundae Robotics 02: Robotics, Dexterity, Cross-Embodiment & World Models — DexterityGen & SPIDER
🤖🍨 Sundae Robotics 02: Robotics, Dexterity, Cross-Embodiment & World Models — DexterityGen & SPIDER for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 02
SF
硅谷清华校友会 × AI Vanguard《AI语音交互界面》校友创业项目交流会
硅谷清华校友会 × AI Vanguard《AI语音交互界面》校友创业项目交流会 for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 02
SF
AI "Agents" — Power Walk
AI "Agents" — Power Walk for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 02
SF
AI Founders & Researcher Dinner
AI Founders & Researcher Dinner for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 03
SF
A Morning Walk: When AI Agents Touch Money
A Morning Walk: When AI Agents Touch Money for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 03
NYC
Mistral Catfe Coworking
Mistral Catfe Coworking for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 03
SF
9Zero x Vectors Capital Community Lunch & Learn: Data Center Series - China vs U.S.
9Zero x Vectors Capital Community Lunch & Learn: Data Center Series - China vs U.S. for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 03
NYC
The Citizen AI Project
The Citizen AI Project for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 03
SF
Silicon Valley AI/Tech Investing Summit---Attend or Pitch
Silicon Valley AI/Tech Investing Summit---Attend or Pitch for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 03
SF
Silicon Valley Healthtech Summit---Attend or Pitch
Silicon Valley Healthtech Summit---Attend or Pitch for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 03
SF
the Silicon Valley AI/Tech Investing Summit
the Silicon Valley AI/Tech Investing Summit for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 03
NYC
AI-Bio Meetup at NYC
AI-Bio Meetup at NYC for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 03
NYC
LangChain NY Meetup: Building Agents with Agents
LangChain NY Meetup: Building Agents with Agents for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 03
SF
9030 club reading "Reinforcement Learning via Self-Distillation": #63 - ML Paper Reading Group
9030 club reading "Reinforcement Learning via Self-Distillation": #63 - ML Paper Reading Group for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 04
NYC
NYC: Fireside Chat "Motherhood & AI"
NYC: Fireside Chat "Motherhood & AI" for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 04
NYC
Brand Design Futures with Notion + Ramp
Brand Design Futures with Notion + Ramp for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 04
NYC
New York City | Claude Code for Developers
New York City | Claude Code for Developers for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 04
NYC
Sovereign AI: A Fight for the Future of Freedom
Sovereign AI: A Fight for the Future of Freedom for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 04
SF
AI After Hours
AI After Hours for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
AUG 04
SF
Paper Reading Night by HydraDB: Graph Neural Retrieval for LLM Reasoning
Paper Reading Night by HydraDB: Graph Neural Retrieval for LLM Reasoning for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
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Real rooms. Real builders. Real follow-through.
Founder Dinner Series
Funded Founder Rooms
We host intimate dinners across NYC and SF with founders from ecosystems like Y Combinator, Speedrun, and Techstars.
PMF Track
Product-Market-Fit Dinner
More selective than standard founder dinners, this room is generally reserved for teams that have raised $4M+ and are beginning to show PMF.
Contact
Want your next event room to feel this sharp?
If you are building in AI and care about room quality, we should talk.