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  • SF IRL - June 16th, 2025

SF IRL - June 16th, 2025

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

Author

Jonathan Chang
June 16, 2025

Sponsored by

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 #149.

I'm Jonathan, the creator of SF IRL. I've been a Bay Area resident all my life and moved into San Francisco about 4 years ago. My full-time job is at Brex where I meet founders and VCs while trying to create a community in the city. 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 9000+ subscribers. As we keep growing, if you enjoy reading these, please share this with your friends so we can hit 10,000 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!

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Location: San Francisco

Time: 5:30pm

What: Join seed & Series A founders at a suite at the SF Giants Game.

June 18th, 2025 - Brex Summer Rooftop Soiree

Location: San Francisco

What: Private Rooftop Soiree in San Francisco with DJ, sushi and cocktails all night long.

June 24th, 2025 - Founder Pasta Making Night 

Location: San Francisco

Time: 6pm

What: Join early stage founders at a pasta making night in San Francisco.

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 Jonathan’s People You Should Meet here - coming soon.

Events Coming Up

Location: San Francisco

Time: 1-5:30pm

What: ​Hosted by OPAQUE, this is a pre-conference workshop designed to supercharge your AI agent development from prototype to production. Learn from

​as they walk you through the NORMAL Stack—a six-layer blueprint for secure, observable, production-grade AI. If your models run on sensitive data or power autonomous agents, this workshop is your playbook.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 5:30-7:30pm

What: ​Get ready for an electrifying evening of live robotics demos, hands-on tinkering, and show-and-tell sessions from some of the Bay Area’s most innovative hackathon-winning teams. Whether you're a seasoned hardware hacker, a software wizard, or just curious about robotics and AI, this meetup is for you.

June 19th, 2025 - Full Stack Founder Poker & Ice-cream Social

Location: San Francisco

Time: 5pm

What: ​Calling all tech titans, startup sorcerers, VC visionaries, and now… card-curious rookies!

​Yes, you there — the one Googling “what is a flop in poker and is it offensive?” — you’re invited too!

​This isn’t just for people who learned poker from their crypto cult. This is for everyone — from the Poker Paprika Prodigies to the Cumin Newbies who think Texas Hold'em is a BBQ event.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 6-9pm

What: This is your monthly gathering for the people who keep companies running. Whether you’re a Chief of Staff, Head of Ops, COO, VC platform lead, or just the go-to person for getting things done—this is YOUR CREW.

​We dive into what’s actually working—practical solutions, battle-tested strategies, and secret ops hacks from people in the trenches. It’s the kind of conversation you won’t find on LinkedIn.

​More than just a happy hour, this is a space where startup operators, leaders, and innovators come together to share ideas, swap tools, and expand their network in a relaxed, welcoming setting. Whether you’re optimizing systems, scaling teams, or untangling a compliance mess—this is your room.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 10am-4pm

What: ​​The discovery of Green Fluorescent Protein gave rise to the Nobel Prize in 2008 and has been used in synthetic biology ever since as an indicator for successful experiments. Further mutations were developed from the original chromoprotein that have given rise to a whole rainbow of color.

​​To celebrate pride this year we're having an open house where you can come paint with rainbow bacteria to have your drawings on petri dishes come to life.

​​This event also serves as a double-function for all previous students to come in to use shared equipment on projects and/or to just practice synthetic biology techniques.

Location: Fremont

Time: 9am-1pm

What: Join us for an exclusive half-day workshop on Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) — right in the heart of the Bay Area’s booming AI scene!

​Whether you're:

​🎓 A curious student stepping into the world of RAG
💼 A business professional looking to pivot into AI
🔬 A researcher exploring practical implementations
🛠️ An experienced engineer seeking a hands-on refresher
🚀 A product builder eager to prototype smarter search systems
🤝 Or simply someone excited to collaborate and learn in a buzzing AI community.

​This hands-on crash course will take you from 0 to RAG in just one morning. You’ll not only learn what makes today’s smartest AI apps tick — you’ll build your own RAG project with expert guidance (no prior ML experience needed!).

Location: San Francisco

Time: 2-5pm

What: ​How to start a Deep Tech Startup hosted by YC Partner Jared Friedman

Location: San Francisco

Time: 10am-12pm

What: Join Adam, Gus, and Emily of Boost VC for some pickleball & Breakfast to get your blood pumping!

​What to expect:

  • ​🚀 Founders × Investors, same court: We’re bringing together the boldest builders and backers in robotics, AI, climate, space, and every other frontier.

  • ​🥎 Pickleball optional: Rackets are provided, and there’s plenty of sideline space for pure conversation if you don't play!

  • ​☕️ Breakfast on us!

  • ​🥳 No agenda, no pitches: Just rally, mingle, and see where the conversation (and the ball) bounce.

June 23rd, 2025 - AI Accelerated Science

Location: San Francisco

Time: 12pm-4pm

What: We’re at an inflection point.

AI has gone from beating humans at chess to cracking the protein-folding problem. From life sciences and physics to chemistry and material science, we’re witnessing the earliest glimpses of a future where scientific discovery is accelerated by algorithms, guided by data, and deployed in the real world. Leading voices agree that this could be the most impactful application of AI just yet but many scientists remain skeptical.

June 23rd, 2025 - Fifty Years: Bio Night

Location: San Francisco

Time: 5-8pm

What: Dive into the future of bio with leading scientists, founders, and special guests shaping the field.

​​San Francisco, the birthplace of biotech and the world’s largest startup hub, is at the heart of the life sciences revolution.

​We’ll explore the latest tech and challenges in bio, including engineering cells to fight disease, pushing the frontiers of Mars exploration, extending longevity, creating carbon-negative chemicals, and more.

Location: Menlo Park

Time: 4:30-7:30pm

What: Scaling a company isn't just about implementing the right processes — it’s about continuously rebuilding them as you grow.

​Join us for a dynamic panel discussion, audience Q&A, and networking as we explore how engineering and product organizations evolve through the growth cycles leading up to — and beyond — IPO.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 6:30-8:30pm

What: ​​Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) is a gene-editing tool that allows scientists to modify an organism’s DNA. The system is based on a naturally occurring defense mechanism found in bacteria to fight off viral invaders by cutting their DNA.

Time: 9:30-2pm

What: Serving a model isn’t the finish line—it’s the starting gun.

​Welcome to DeployCon, a free, no-fluff, engineer-first summit for teams building the next generation of AI. We’re bringing together top minds in LLMops to share how they deploy, scale, and evolve AI systems in production.

June 25th, 2025 - Red Skies Rising: A Vision for Terraforming Mars

Location: San Francisco

Time: 7-8:30pm

What: ​Join us for Strange Sessions (think Tiny Desk concerts meets TED), where visionary thinkers and scientists explore groundbreaking ideas shaping our future.​
In this edition, former NASA aerospace engineer Alex Kling discusses how experiments like harvesting atmospheric energy for airborne Mars exploration and deploying nano-particles to trap heat could help make Mars more livable.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 5-8pm

What: ​In celebration of SF Pride Month

​Join us for an unforgettable evening honoring the women redefining the future of AI. From visionary founders to influential investors, we’re gathering the boldest voices shaping the next era of innovation.

June 25th, 2025 - Harry’s Healthtech Hang

Location: San Francisco

Time: 5:30-8pm

What: A happy hour but one where everyone has the intention of helping others, empowering them to achieve their professional and personal goals. You will mingle, enjoy beverages and light bites (read: open bar for beer & wine), pay it forward, and maybe get help in return.  

Location: San Francisco

Time: 2-7pm

What: ​An event for founders, builders, and funders powering the next wave of Consumer AI.

June 26th, 2025 - 123rd SF Hardware Meetup @ Humanmade | Humanoid Robotics

Location: San Francisco

Time: 6:30-9:30pm

What: ​Join us for SF Deep Tech Week as we talk about all things Humanoid Robotics.

​🤖 There will be a chance for an open mic. All demos and standup pitches welcome.

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