About us
We are a community of Silicon Valley professionals involved in technology who support each other in upgrading our knowledge and skills as well as in developing great connections through our networking.
The following groups of people tend to attend our events:
- Investors, VCs, Seed & Angel Investors
- Entrepreneurs & Startup Founders
- Business & Tech Professionals
If you have an interest in the topic, please do not hesitate to join. Thank you.
We do our best to maintain a friendly but intentional environment in our events to foster good and meaningful connections for all who attend and participate.
We host the following types of events:
1. Educational events to upgrade skills and knowledge.
2. Educational events to expose new technologies and innovation.
3. Investor events to help you get introduced to investors.
4. Networking events to connect with others in the field and potential collaborators or mentors.
5. Social events to enjoy and connect in surprising and good ways.
6. And much more!
Please join our group asap.
Atul Padha, Niki Gastinel and Sunil Bhaskaran
Upcoming events
23
How to Land a Software Engineering Job in 2027
·OnlineOnlineThis event is being promoted by many groups.
Our meetup group is participating by promoting this event.
This event is organized by Albert's List.
Our meetup group is collaborating by promoting this event.
This is an online event.
Attendees can be located anywhere in the world!
This event is FREE to attend!
In order to attend, please register here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-land-a-software-engineering-job-in-2027-tickets-1999858158587?aff=ideatoipo
The software engineering market didn't collapse. It split — and most candidates are still preparing for the market that existed three years ago.
Openings exist, but they've concentrated. AI-adjacent and infrastructure roles are competitive to fill while generalist roles sit far below their pre-2022 baseline. The entry rung has thinned as AI absorbs the well-bounded work that used to train junior engineers, which pushes recent grads and career changers into a crowded middle already occupied by laid-off mid-level engineers. Time-to-hire has stretched. Fully remote postings are rare.
The bigger change is one almost nobody is preparing for: the interview itself got rebuilt. After a wave of real-time AI assistance in remote coding screens, companies responded in two directions. Some dragged interviews back on-site. Others redesigned the assessment — adding rounds where you're handed an AI assistant and evaluated on whether you can prompt it, catch its mistakes, and defend the result. Follow-up questions became the filter. Narrating your reasoning out loud went from nice-to-have to the thing you're actually scored on.
If your prep strategy is "grind 500 LeetCode problems," you are optimizing for a screen that increasingly isn't the deciding round.
Join software engineer and mentor Phong Lam for a working session on what's actually required to land a software engineering role right now. He'll cover:- Where the market genuinely split, and which side of it your background currently sits on
- Why interview loops changed in 2026 — on-site returns, AI-assisted rounds, and follow-up questions as the real filter
- How to prepare by pattern, not volume: recognizing question families instead of memorizing solutions
- The new prep skill nobody practices — debugging and defending code you didn't write
- How to talk about using AI in your work without sounding like you've outsourced your judgment
- How mid-level and senior engineers coming off a layoff avoid reading as "generalist" on paper
- Where the openings actually are, including the non-obvious companies quietly hiring software talent
- What career changers and recent grads can do to clear a bar that moved after they enrolled
Come with your questions, your loop stories, and the roles you're targeting.
ABOUT PHONG LAM
Phong Lam is a senior software engineer at Circle, with past stops at DoorDash, Walmart, and IBM. Alongside his career he mentors junior and senior engineers on algorithmic problem solving, web frameworks, and navigating interviews. Connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/phongtlam/.1 attendeePitch to Investor Panel
Menlo College, 1000 El Camino Real, Atherton, CA 94027, USA, Atherton, CA, USThis event is organized in collaboration with many groups.
This is an in-person event.
There is a cover charge for this event.
A "YES" RSVP on our meetup site does not confirm your reservation.
In order to attend, please register here:
Pitch to Investor Panel Tickets, Wednesday, October 14 • 6 PM - 9 PM | Eventbrite
Take advantage of early responder pricing!
Hurry! Slots are limited!
A panel of investors will discuss the latest trends in startup funding and outline what they invest in and what they are looking for in a startup.
Pre-selected entrepreneurs will then pitch to the panel, followed by questions and feedback from the panel.
The pitch format is:
Two minutes, no slides, followed by four minutes of Q & A / feedback from the panel.There are also slots for the lightning pitch round - one minute pitch, no slides, no feedback from the panel.
Audience members (even those who are not pitching) will benefit from the insights offered by the investor panelists and will learn more about the Silicon Valley startup investment ecosystem.
All attendees will have an opportunity to interact with investor panelists during the networking portions of the event before and after the program.
Agenda
6:00 PM to 7:00 pm Check In, Food, Networking
7:00 pm to 8:40 pm Program
8:40 pm to 9:00 pm NetworkingPanelists:
(More panelists TBA.)Carlos Vadillo-Rodriguez, Wharton Angels
Oscar Simon, Investor, Plug and Play Tech Center
Daniel Theobald, Venture Partner, Republic Ventures
Preethy Padmanabhan, Marketing Exec, Angel Investor, LP, How Women Invest & Arka Ventures
If you would like to pitch to the investor panel in the official pitch line up, send an email message to:
pitchanddemo@gmail.com
Put this in the subject header:
W 10/14/26 Elevator Pitches - Pitch Applicant
Additionally, there will be startup demo tables and tables for startup service providers.
If you would like space on a startup demo table, or if you are a startup service provider and would like a sponsor table, please send an email message to:
siliconvalleysponsor@gmail.com
Put this in the subject header:
W 10/14/26 Pitch Event - Tabler
6 attendeesHow to Land a Job for the Remainder of 2026
·OnlineOnlineThis event is being promoted by many groups.
Our meetup group is participating by promoting this event.
This event is organized by Albert's List.
Our meetup group is collaborating by promoting this event.
This is an online event.
Attendees can be located anywhere in the world!
This event is FREE to attend!
In order to attend, please register here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-land-a-job-for-the-remainder-of-2026-tickets-1995863892630?aff=ideatoipo
2026 is now in full swing and the job market has been a mixed bag. Returning inflation, AI-based layoffs, global uncertainty, and declining consumer confidence—amid sky-high demand for AI-centric roles—are dominating the job market. As we get into the second half, where do things stand?
We'll discuss:- Our predictions for 2026 and how they look so far
- Which industries are hot and which are not
- Where AI is affecting the job search, and where they aren't
- Tactics that still matter in an uncertain market
- Upcoming Albert's List events you can attend to help your job search
- And much more!
Whether you are employed and looking for a new role, or out of work and looking, this webinar will have resources and ideas you can use to create a meaningful job hunt for the rest of the year.
1 attendeeHow to Turn Job Search Chaos into a Strategy That Works
·OnlineOnlineThere are many groups promoting this event.
Our meetup group is participating by promoting this event.
This event is organized by Albert's List.
This is an online event.
Attendees can be located anywhere in the world!
This event is FREE to attend.
In order to attend, please register here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-turn-job-search-chaos-into-a-strategy-that-works-tickets-2002106652894?aff=ideatoipo
"I've applied to 80 jobs. I've heard back from one."
You've heard this from your smartest friends. From former top performers. Maybe from yourself. The market changed — AI rewrote the rules, recruiters are overwhelmed, and job seekers are exhausted. If that's you, the problem isn't effort. It's that effort without a strategy just produces more applications, not more offers.
In this session, you'll see the difference between doing more and doing the right things — and walk away with a concrete next step, not another list of tips to sit on.
What you'll learn:- The #1 mistake that makes even qualified candidates invisible to recruiters
- How to build a target market instead of applying to anything remotely related to your background
- Why "networking" usually fails — and what a useful conversation actually looks like
- The shift from application volume to strategic execution, and how to make it stick past week one
This is for you if:
- You've been laid off, ghosted, or stuck without knowing why
- You're changing careers and don't know where to start
- You're tired of activity that doesn't turn into conversations
From there, two paths, not two products with a winner. Work through your strategy independently with The Playbook. Or get live coaching and a cohort in 6 Weeks to Hired: The Fall 2026 Job Search Bootcamp — Playbook included for the program, plus two months free after it ends.
Either way, you leave with a plan, not a longer to-do list.1 attendee
Past events
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