Where founders, investors, and builders shaping what’s next come together to raise capital, scale AI, and swap real stories.
Startups today are building in the middle of two huge forces: the rise of AI and the grind of fundraising. At Startup Grind, we skip the fluff and get to what matters: how founders are actually raising money, building AI-powered products, and finding investors who back bold ideas.
At its core, Startup Grind is about community—connecting people, ideas, and opportunities so startups everywhere can thrive.
April 27–29, 2026 [our 13th year!]Fox Theater, Redwood City, CA
We hope you'll join us and 5,000 others on April 28-29, 2026 to experience it firsthand.
Note: April 27 is open to Startup Exhibitors only (Apply to Exhibit your Startup here: https://www.startupgrind.tech/exhibition)
The Main event takes place on April 28-29.
Agenda
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Hosted By
James Gee, Global Partnerships Manager
I recently relocated from the UK to Silicon Valley to expand Startup Grind's sales and partnership program, collaborating closely with Derek bringing fresh ideas and forge new connections that will fuel future growth.
I'm also an entrepreneur at heart, launching my own startup in 2015, experiencing the thrilling highs and challenging lows of being a founder firsthand. This unique perspective fuels my excitement for connecting with founders and partners at the 2024 Global Conference. Beyond the world of startups, I am an avid sports fan, whether it's playing or watching a game. If you're in the Bay Area, don't hesitate to reach out - as I’d be thrilled to join you for a game!
Derek Andersen, Chapter Organizer
For the past 15 years Derek has been building communities. He is the co-founder/CEO of Bevy, a SaaS product that helps companies like Salesforce, Atlassian, Google, Snowflake, and Adobe build virtual and in-person communities. Bevy has raised $60M from Accel, Upfront Ventures, and others. He co-founded Startup Grind, a community of 600 Chapters in 125 countries educating, inspiring, and connecting startup people. Since 2012 Startup Grind has hosted 20,000 events. In 2010 he co-founded Commonred which was acquired by Income.com. Derek also previously worked as a product manager at Electronic Arts. He currently lives in Palo Alto CA with his wife and four children.
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Global Partner
Snowflake (https://www.snowflake.com)
Snowflake delivers the Data Cloud - a global network where thousands of organizations mobilize data with near-unlimited scale, concurrency, and performance. Inside the Data Cloud, organizations unite their siloed data, easily discover and securely share governed data, and execute diverse analytic workloads. Wherever data or users live, Snowflake delivers a single and seamless experience across multiple public clouds. Snowflake's platform is the engine that powers and provides access to the Data
Presenting
Mayfield Fund (https://mayfield.ai)
Mayfield is an early-stage venture capital firm with a people-first philosophy and $3 billion under management. The firm has a proven track record of partnering with founders starting at the inception stage to help build iconic enterprise, AI-first, deeptech and human and planetary health companies. Mayfield has invested in more than 550 companies, resulting in 120 IPOs and more than 225 acquisitions. Some recent notable investments include HashiCorp, Lyft, Poshmark, Mammoth Biosciences, Marketo
Gold
Carta (http://www.carta.com/launch?utm_campaign=20240423-nam-general-smb-startup_grind_partnership&utm_medium=social&utm_source=startup_grind)
Carta helps people manage equity, build businesses, and invest in the companies of tomorrow. Carta Launch is the only free cap table product, helping new founders get started. The company is trusted by more than 40,000 companies, over 7,000 funds and SPVs, and over two million equity holders to manage cap tables, compensation, valuations, liquidity, and more. For more information, visit carta.com.
Silvers
Atlassian (https://atlassian.com/startups)
Atlassian's mission is to unleash the potential of every team. With Atlassian for Startups, it's never too early to start with Atlassian!
Snowflake (https://www.snowflake.com)
Snowflake delivers the Data Cloud - a global network where thousands of organizations mobilize data with near-unlimited scale, concurrency, and performance. Inside the Data Cloud, organizations unite their siloed data, easily discover and securely share governed data, and execute diverse analytic workloads. Wherever data or users live, Snowflake delivers a single and seamless experience across multiple public clouds.
Customer.io (https://customer.io/solutions/startups)
Customer.io is a customer engagement platform designed for organizations to create personalized customer journeys that engage, convert, and scale. Orchestrate messages across all channels, including email, in-app, SMS, push, and webhooks. Over 7,400+ companies, including Notion, Typeform, and Angi, rely on Customer.io to power their messaging needs.
Startup Grind is a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. We host monthly events in more than 600 cities and 125+ countries featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share personal stories and lessons learned on the road to building great companies. Our monthly fireside chat interviews, startup mixers and annual conferences provide ample opportunities to connect with amazing startups and the people behind them, tap into a strong support network, form meaningful connections and gain inspiration for the startup journey ahead. For more information visit StartupGrind.com or follow us on twitter @StartupGrind.
Complete your event RSVP here: https://www.startupgrind.com/events/details/startup-grind-silicon-valley-san-francisco-bay-area-presents-startup-grind-conference/.
