Startup Grind NYC

We're at the brand new Time Out Market at Union Square. It features a selection of the city's best food and drink together under one roof, offering a wide variety of excellent options to choose from throughout the event.

Look for Startup Grind table signs toward the back near the outdoor patio.

👉 NO RSVP ON MEETUP. Complete your RSVP here in order to be considered for attendance.

Most startup advice is for the start. This isn't that.

If you're past the existential founder stage and are deep in the execution grind, then this is your room.

🕴️Who This Is For
You've crossed the Rubicon. You've moved beyond product-market fit. Now you're worry about whether that technical debt will collapse the system, or whether you can trust what's being reported up to you.

🫷 Hard Requirements

• $3M+ ARR (or equivalent GMV/run rate for marketplace/transactional models)
• OR $10M+ raised from institutional investors
• You manage managers. Not just direct reports.
• Full-time commitment. This is your career, not an experiment.

You MUST complete your RSVP here in order to be considered for attendance.

If you're still founder-led selling, pivoting your core value prop, or managing everyone directly, you're not there yet. That's not a judgment. It's just a different phase with different problems.

🏨 What This Actually Is
No panels. No pitches. No sales speeches.

24 experienced founders in a closed room at the National Arts Club, a 126-year-old private members club on Gramercy Park where real conversations happen behind closed doors.

The kind of place where you can admit you have no idea how to compensate a sales team, or that you're about to fire the co-founder who got you here.

Together, we'll solve your operational bottlenecks through direct experience-sharing, brutal honesty about what failed, and introductions to people who've been through it.

📈 Stage Homogeneity, Industry Heterogeneity
The group is stage-specific (Series A/B, scaling phase) but sector-agnostic (Fintech, SaaS, Proptech, D2C... doesn't matter).

You need peers who are feeling the same structural breaks right now. Not people ahead of you giving theoretical advice. Not people behind you asking you for help.

🏆 What You Walk Away With

• Specific solutions to your current bottlenecks (or the people who can provide it)
• A network of founders who understand the isolation of scaling. New peers that you can text when you're about to make a terrible hiring decision
• Permission to reject the standard Manager Mode advice and build something that actually works

You MUST complete your RSVP here in order to be considered for attendance.

🕰️ Details

• Date: Friday, February 6th, 12:00 - 2:00 PM
• Location: The National Arts Club, Gramercy Park, Manhattan
• Size: 24 seats (strict cap)
• Cost: $100 (includes lunch and bar)
• Dress: Business casual (it's a members club, but we're not trying that hard)

📝 Application Required
We're vetting for stage alignment and operational reality.

If you're reading this and thinking "I'm not sure I qualify," then you probably don't yet... and that's okay.

But if you're reading this and thinking "Finally, someone gets it!" then apply now.

📲 Know someone who fits? Forward this. The value of the room increases with the quality of the people in it.

You MUST complete your RSVP here in order to be considered for attendance.

**NO RSVP ON MEETUP. FOLLOWING LINK IN DESCRIPTION TO ATTEND**

The AI Briefing is a new recurring AI deep-dive for decision-makers.
Each month, we select one high-signal industry report, circulate it in advance, and meet to cut through the noise.

You must complete your RSVP here to be considered to attend:
https://www.startupgrind.com/events/details/startup-grind-new-york-city-presents-the-ai-briefing-by-startup-grind-1/

This Month’s Source: 2026 AI Business Predictions (PWC 2026)

Most AI initiatives pay for themselves, but fail to drive actual transformation. Join the AI Briefing to become one of the few front-runners who are able to capture top-line growth by moving past sporadic, ground-up experiments.

The Mission: Focus on the shift from exploratory pilots to a disciplined march to value. We'll use the latest PwC benchmarks to identify the levers required to turn agentic AI into an engine for revenue growth.

📊 The Format:

• 10-Minute Executive Download: A rapid-fire summary of the report’s critical metrics (e.g., the 8x growth in message volume and the rise of non-technical coding).
• Cross-Pollinated Debate: Founders share what they are shipping; Executives share what they are actually deploying (and blocking).
• Operational Reality Check: We’ll discuss the Shadow AI reality: 75% of workers are completing tasks they previously couldn't do. And how IT is scrambling to govern it.

You must complete your RSVP here to be considered to attend:
https://www.startupgrind.com/events/details/startup-grind-new-york-city-presents-the-ai-briefing-by-startup-grind-1/

🤝 Who Should Attend:

• Enterprise Executives: Benchmark your adoption curve. Are you in the AI Leader bracket seeing 1.7x revenue growth, or falling behind?
• Founders & Builders: Stop guessing what enterprises want. See the exact use cases (IT, Marketing, HR) that are scaling right now.
• Operators: Learn how non-technical teams are using AI to write code and automate their own workflows.

📍 Where: Location on approval 🗓️ When: Friday, February 13th | 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM

📬 The Prep: This is a working session, not a lecture. Review the report here. Bring your perspective.

RSVP to be considered. Strictly limited capacity to ensure high-quality dialogue.

You must complete your RSVP here to be considered to attend:
https://www.startupgrind.com/events/details/startup-grind-new-york-city-presents-the-ai-briefing-by-startup-grind-1/

It's time to go beyond the deck and see the best live tech from New York's emerging startups.

Welcome to a pitch event with a twist. We skip the fluff and focus on what matters: a live look at real products.

This pitch & demo showcase gives you a first look at new technology from startups that are actively building and shipping product — sometimes even before VCs have seen them!

Complete your RSVP here:
https://www.startupgrind.com/events/details/startup-grind-new-york-city-presents-the-startup-pitch-demo-showcase-2/

The format is fast-paced and interactive. After each demo, the floor is open for questions, ideas, and honest feedback from the community.

We welcome investors who want an unfiltered look at new technology and early-stage teams.

• 📅 Date: Thursday, February 19th
• 🕓 Time: 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
• 📍 Venue: The Yard: Herald Square
• 🎫 Tickets: Only $5 (includes happy hour refreshments)
• 📑 Founders: **Sign up here to pitch **at an upcoming event

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

• Startups ready to demo a real product and get honest feedback
• Engineers, PMs, and designers who love seeing new tech in action
• Investors looking for a ground-floor, early look at local startups
• Anyone in the NYC tech scene who wants to connect with and support the people building things

AGENDA

• 5:30 PM: Doors Open & Networking
• 6:00 PM: Startup Pitches & Demos with Audience Q&A
• 7:00 PM: Meet the Presenting Startups

PITCH FORMAT

• Pitch & Demo - 6 minutes
• Audience Q&A - 4 minutes
• Pitch deck AND product demo are required

Complete your RSVP here:
https://www.startupgrind.com/events/details/startup-grind-new-york-city-presents-the-startup-pitch-demo-showcase-2/