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.
JUL 29
SF
Agents & Bagels: Weekly breakfast meet up for agent builders
Agents & Bagels: Weekly breakfast meet up for agent builders for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
NYC
Data to Insights on Snowflake + Hex: NYC Hands-On Workshop
Data to Insights on Snowflake + Hex: NYC Hands-On Workshop for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
SF
AI Breakfast @ Tesla hosted by Founders Bay x You.com
AI Breakfast @ Tesla hosted by Founders Bay x You.com for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
NYC
Hacking Agents Meetup - NYC
Hacking Agents Meetup - NYC for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
NYC
Forward-Deployed AI Forum
Forward-Deployed AI Forum for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
NYC
Build With AI. Own the Decisions. Live demos and real talk on AI enablement — with Twilio, Datadog, and SWARM
Build With AI. Own the Decisions. Live demos and real talk on AI enablement — with Twilio, Datadog, and SWARM for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
NYC
Fonzi’s July Tech Talk
Fonzi’s July Tech Talk for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
NYC
AI After 5: NYC Monthly Mixer
AI After 5: NYC Monthly Mixer for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
NYC
Agentic Economy Meetup: How AI Agents Pay With AgentCash and USDC
Agentic Economy Meetup: How AI Agents Pay With AgentCash and USDC for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
NYC
Local & open-source AI NYC meetup #1
Local & open-source AI NYC meetup #1 for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
NYC
Papers We Love: Brooklyn - DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learning
Papers We Love: Brooklyn - DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learning for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
NYC
Pogo Dinner Series: From Transactions to Insights: AI + Purchase-Verified Data
Pogo Dinner Series: From Transactions to Insights: AI + Purchase-Verified Data for the NYC builder network with curated in-person attendance.
![[AI Nexus × KASC Joint Colloquium] Bridge Builders](https://images.lumacdn.com/uploads/ps/c0dfbe0c-a333-47e6-876f-ba701f80b96b.png)
JUL 29
SF
[AI Nexus × KASC Joint Colloquium] Bridge Builders
[AI Nexus × KASC Joint Colloquium] Bridge Builders for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
SF
Bayview Tech Lab: AI for Marketing and Social Media
Bayview Tech Lab: AI for Marketing and Social Media for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
SF
Belief State: MAFIA | Researcher game night
Belief State: MAFIA | Researcher game night for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
SF
Codex Community Meetup
Codex Community Meetup for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
SF
Fundraising AMA - How I raised $15M for 6 startups from 140+ investors—even though 4 of the startups were in “not hot” categories
Fundraising AMA - How I raised $15M for 6 startups from 140+ investors—even though 4 of the startups were in “not hot” categories for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
SF
Marketers for Sustainability | Edition 5
Marketers for Sustainability | Edition 5 for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
SF
Bay Area Frontier Research Club #15 | Embodied AI (dinner + paper discussion @ Mission Robotics)
Bay Area Frontier Research Club #15 | Embodied AI (dinner + paper discussion @ Mission Robotics) for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
SF
Building data agents enterprise can actually trust
Building data agents enterprise can actually trust for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
SF
Can We Close the Sim2Real Gap?
Can We Close the Sim2Real Gap? for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
SF
July 29 | Columbia University Bay Area Asian Alumni Gathering
July 29 | Columbia University Bay Area Asian Alumni Gathering for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
SF
@Machine Speed: Continuous Compliance for the Agentic Era
@Machine Speed: Continuous Compliance for the Agentic Era for the SF builder network with curated in-person attendance.
JUL 29
SF
Telemetry-aware AI agents that act in Slack, Linear, and GitHub, without your production data leaving your cloud
Telemetry-aware AI agents that act in Slack, Linear, and GitHub, without your production data leaving your cloud 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.