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SF IRL - Jan 19th, 2026

A curated newsletter showcasing the top tech & startup events in San Francisco

Author

Jonathan Chang
January 19, 2026

Hi SF IRL! There's a ton of vibrance and energy coming back into the city and at SF IRL, we are excited to be a part of it. Excited to come with you all with some great events for Issue #178.

I'm Jonathan, the creator of SF IRL. I've been a Bay Area resident all my life and moved into San Francisco about 5 years ago. My vision for SF IRL is simple. Showcase the best tech + startup events in SF and to connect all of our builders and investors together. We are a growing community having over 10000+ subscribers. As we keep growing, if you enjoy reading these, please share this with your friends so we can hit 11,000 readers. As always, SF IRL is one of my many side projects. If you like to be involved in helping, please shoot me an email!

Excited to say SF IRL has partnered with ElevenLabs to give founders 33 million in ElevenLabs credits or equivalent to $4k to build voice AI agents.

Check Out the ElevenLabs Startup Grant & use code 11SFIRL723 for expedited review. We believe voice is the most natural way to communicate, and the future of human-AI interaction depends on making those conversations feel real. The ElevenLabs Grants Program exists to give early-stage startups and small teams the tools they need to build the future of AI audio with the best tools available, without cost being a blocker. ElevenLabs is the complete conversational agents platform, so whether a startup is creating an AI tutor, support assistant, or the next generation of voice-powered game characters, the grant will provide them with 12 months and 33 million characters of free access to ElevenLabs' cutting-edge AI audio, equivalent to over 600 hours of audio. 

I’ve made a form to connect the best founders raising with my list of VCs. If you are a founder raising your next round and want to potentially be featured to investors in the SF IRL network, please fill out this form.

I’m launching a newsletter that will feature the top founders looking to hire, founders looking for their cofounder, and operators that are looking for their next role. If you are interested in being featured, fill this form here.

You can subscribe to Day Zero here.

Events Coming Up

Location: San Francisco

Time: 4-6:30pm

What: The "growth at all costs" era is over. The new flex isn’t how much you raised; it’s how much you’ve built with how little you had.

​Whether you’re pre-seed and stretching every dollar, or Series A and trying to make your runway last until a better market, the challenge is the same: Everything is a priority, but you only have one move.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 6-9pm

What: Last November, we packed the house for our first‑ever SF Pitch Night – our most popular event yet! The energy, crowd, and caliber of founders blew everyone away. Now we’re doing it again!

​Kick off 2025’s first big SF event with the return of the city’s ultimate AI and tech pitch showcase. Bigger stage. Sharper founders. Even more electric energy! ⚡

Jan 22nd, 2026 - Multimodal Builders Night

Location: Palo Alto

Time: 5:30-8pm

What: This is a closed-door meetup for founders, CTOs, and core technical leaders building real multimodal AI products.

​We are bringing together a small group of builders who are actively working on multimodal systems — from model integration and infrastructure decisions to productization and real-world deployment.

​This is not a demo day or a recruiting event. The goal is high-signal conversations with people who are actually shipping.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 5:30-8:30pm

What: ​AI isn't coming to GTM. It's already here. And if your team is still manually prospecting and enriching data, you're already behind.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 12-3pm

What: Join us to learn how DeckBird.ai can 10x the marketing power of your presentation decks and videos for:

  • ​Sales: 10x the click rate by embedding in email and website.

  • ​Marketing: elevate the brand with personalization.

  • ​Training: deliver the content with clarity using voice narrating.

  • ​Education: make course materials engaging and interactive.

  • ​Fundraising: build trust with video embedding.

  • ​Financial Services: explain easily the products and services offerings.

  • ​Real Estate: walk through the real estate listing to potential buyers.

  • ​Consulting: explain key points of the consulting projects.

Jan 23rd, 2026 - The Simulated World - AI Product Summit

Location: San Francisco

Time: 3-9pm

What: ​A one-day, invitation-only gathering for the people shaping how simulation tech is actually used.

​Join us for a deep dive into the future of simulation in a cozy, living-room-meets-salon vibe. Think sofas, rugs, cushions, and plenty of curiosity as big ideas get shared from world-class experts.

​From how humans really behave to how autonomous agents will shape digital worlds. Across behavioral science, policy, AI, design, and forecasting, we’ll explore how teams can use simulation to predict outcomes, reduce risk, and build better products before they exist.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 9:30am-5:30pm

What: Together, we build tests to guide frontier AI models on human flourishing that will touch 5+ billion humans. Please join us to ensure the world’s most powerful AI models are shaped by the best of human values. Three important groups will come together for this effort: 

  1. ​Flourishing Stewards (e.g. philosophers, ethicists, contemplative tradition teachers, neuroscientists, economists)

  2. ​Domain Stewards (e.g. mental health, conflict mediation, education, health advice)

  3. ​Evaluation Experts from AI labs

Location: San Francisco

Time: 6-8:30pm

What: Growth Craft: The AI-Native Growth & GTM Stack

​AI has lowered the bar to building product, and raised the stakes to winning the distribution game. As more teams ship faster, growth and go-to-market have become the real differentiators.

​Traditional GTM and customer workflows were not designed for this pace of product development. Manually building landing pages, running A/B tests, and iterating on funnels the old way slows teams down at the exact time when speed and iteration matters most.

​But who is writing the new rulebook for growth in an AI-native world? And what does it even look like?

​On Jan 27, come hear from four AI-native founders and industry insiders as they share their stories building companies at the heart of the new AI-native growth craft.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 6-8:30pm

What: AngelList's Founders Cafe presents "Under Pressure" a game show where guests answer fireside style questions while vibe-coding a complete project under a time crunch.

Keith Peiris is the CEO of Lightfield, an AI-native CRM that remembers everything your team learns about customers, then acts on it. No more lost context from scattered emails, meeting notes, and conversations. Lightfield automatically captures it all, creating your team's collective customer memory. Backed by Greylock, Lightspeed, and Coatue, Keith is helping founders learn from every interaction and build repeatable growth engines faster.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 7-9pm

What: ​​"Why are there no coffeeshops open late? But what if I want to co-work at night?!?" - everyone on Twitter

​​​Look no further! We are so excited to present Cafe Compute! The first, late-night pop-up coffeeshop with a barista bar ☕️, donuts 🍩, swag 🎉, and more.

​We're kicking off the New Year at checkpoint 0. Join us in manifesting that 2026 will be the year when your validation loss converges to 0.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 6-8pm

What: AI is moving fast, but not everything matters. This evening cuts through the hype to focus on what’s real in 2026: where AI is creating meaningful value, how regulation and safety are evolving, and what founders and operators need to pay attention to now.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 6-8pm

What: Want to build your network? Join us at Peacekeeper on Weds 1/28, and mingle with like-minded young professionals in San Francisco.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 6-8:30pm

What: ​We're bringing together 20 seed to Series A founders from our community—founders that we believe have a unicorn trajectory.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 5:30-8:30pm

What: Join us for a live conversation with Keith Peiris, Co-Founder & CEO of Lightfield, and Grace Gong, Founder & CEO of Smart Venture Media and host of Venture with Grace and Smart Venture Podcast.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 3:30-5:30pm

What: ​Curious what the brilliant minds of SPC are up to?

​​​​​Join us for a showcase of the latest demos from SPC. Live demos only.

​​​​Demos will be in person at SPC-SF, starting at 3:30pm PT.​

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