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SF IRL - Mar 2nd, 2026

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

Author

Jonathan Chang
March 02, 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 #184.

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!

Lightfield is an AI-native CRM that remembers everything, then acts on it. It automatically captures and organizes every customer conversation across email, meetings, and notes, creating your team’s collective customer memory. Try Lightfield free today.

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. 

Location: San Francisco

Time: 6-8pm

What: Lightfield is hosting our next Founding Sales Masterclass with Mark Roberge, founding CRO of HubSpot, who built one of SaaS’s most iconic revenue engines - scaling sales from 1 to 450 people and driving 6,000%+ growth.

Today, Mark is the bestselling author of The Sales Acceleration Formula and a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, where he teaches the science behind modern go-to-market, and how to build predictable, data-driven revenue engines.

The transition from founder-led sales to a scalable revenue engine is where most startups stall or break. In this masterclass, you’ll get practical insights on scaling your sales org from early traction to repeatable growth - straight from one of the pioneers of modern sales science.

Lightfield is an AI-native CRM that remembers everything, then acts on it. It automatically captures and organizes every customer conversation across email, meetings, and notes, creating your team’s collective customer memory. Try Lightfield free today.

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: 6-8pm

What: Lightfield is hosting our next Founding Sales Masterclass with Mark Roberge, founding CRO of HubSpot, who built one of SaaS’s most iconic revenue engines - scaling sales from 1 to 450 people and driving 6,000%+ growth.

Today, Mark is the bestselling author of The Sales Acceleration Formula and a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, where he teaches the science behind modern go-to-market, and how to build predictable, data-driven revenue engines.

The transition from founder-led sales to a scalable revenue engine is where most startups stall or break. In this masterclass, you’ll get practical insights on scaling your sales org from early traction to repeatable growth - straight from one of the pioneers of modern sales science.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 6:30-8pm

What: ​We live in an era of fractured attention and competing commitments, and for most of us, pressure has become the default state. For those in leadership, the cost isn't just a drop in productivity; it's an erosion of our ability to stay present with ourselves and others.

​In this session, Vlad Moskovski makes the case that thinking harder is not the answer, and introduces the Somatic Intelligence Model - a practical framework for restoring capacity, clarity, and presence from the inside out. The evening includes a guided experience of the Somatic Wheel, a four-step practice for restoring capacity under pressure, and a one-page framework you can take away.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 5:30-8:30pm

What: ​Most early healthtech products are built to win a demo – not to survive real enterprise evaluation.

​In this session, we’ll explore the technical and architectural decisions that actually matter when health systems, pharma buyers, and health tech investors get involved. From scalability and integrations to governance, security, and long-term roadmap thinking, we’ll unpack why some products move beyond pilots while others stall.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 5:30-8:30pm

What: Beyond the Prompt: The Infrastructure of Autonomous Agents

​The focus of AI development is shifting from theory to high-velocity execution. We are moving beyond the potential of autonomous agents into the grit of building the infrastructure that allows them to scale, learn, and perform.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 5-7pm

What: Hosted by Women in AI & Nikunj Kothari, Partner at FPV Ventures

​A hands-on evening for women curious how AI actually fits into real workflows. We’ll explore Claude Code through practical demos, see how people prototype ideas, analyze data, write scripts, and automate tasks, then try it yourself.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 6:30-9pm

What: ​Join us for a powerhouse panel to celebrate Women's History Month, moderated by Cowboy Ventures' Founder and Managing Partner, Aileen Lee. Panelists:

  • ​Haya Odeh, Co-Founder and VP of Design at Replit

  • ​Cristina Cordova, COO at Linear

  • ​Anique Drumright, CPO at Harvey (Ex-GM Rippling and Ex-Loom, Ex-Uber)

Location: San Francisco

Time: 7:30-9:30pm

What: By popular demand, we are hosting another OpenClaw workshop! This time with our dear friend, pebblebed.

​​This is a hands-on workshop designed for small businesses or entrepreneurial individuals who want to set up OpenClaw as a practical, 24/7 AI assistant for day-to-day workflows. No prior experience with OpenClaw or technical background needed. Technical support will be offered onsite.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 4-9:30pm

What: This workshop is led by n8n and powered by Avanai, the new company of our Berlin workshop wizard, Aemal Sayer, and Christian Voigt.

​​​The n8n Builder Sessions are perfect for those who have attended a Starter Session, or already have some experience of n8n or automation.

​​​In just a few hours, you'll go from building basic workflows, to becoming a capable automation engineer who can design, test, and deploy real-world, scalable automations. 💪

Mar 4th, 2026 - Stablecoin Frontiers

Location: San Francisco

Time: 4-7pm

What: ​Hosted by Lattice & Bridge

​Lattice is an early stage crypto venture fund actively investing in stablecoin related businesses.

​Bridge is the leading stablecoin infrastructure platform for moving money globally. Businesses use Bridge to easily receive, store, convert, issue, and spend stablecoins, enabling them to serve new markets and move money faster and cheaper across borders. Bridge was acquired by Stripe in February 2025.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 6-9pm

What: ​Profound’s new SF office is ready, and we’re throwing an office warming to celebrate. We’re inviting our investors, team, friends of the company, and the broader community to come see the space and kick off this next chapter with us.

​We’ll have a DJ, drinks flowing, great food, fun games, and a room full of people building interesting, ambitious things. Come hang with the Profound crew, see the new space, and spend the night in good company.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 9:30-4pm

What: ​Join the Stripe founder community for a day of hands-on building and coworking with the Stripe team. Whether you’re looking for a chance to connect with other founders, 1:1 guidance from the Stripe team, or just a change of scenery, we’d love to have you join. 

​Build Days are coworking days with Stripe designed specifically for founders, whether you’re already building on Stripe or just getting started. Plus, get lunch, coffee, and swag on us. 

​Don't miss the morning as we kick off with an intimate fireside chat featuring Zach Lloyd, CEO of Warp.dev. Warp is an agentic development environment that empowers developers to ship better software more quickly. Previously the principal engineer at Google, cofounder and CTO at SelfMade, and the interim CTO at TIME, Zach will walk us through his founding journey to Warp. Join us in the room to hear his practical advice on how to build and scale a company in the AI era.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 6-9pm

What: Agentic AI is moving from experiments into real enterprise workflows. Join Fin and Snowflake for a candid conversation on what it takes to move from pilots to production—and what enterprise customers are actually buying today.

​We'll explore the critical question facing leaders: when to build, buy, or do both. And we'll unpack what's non-negotiable when deploying AI at scale—from data foundations and reliability to trust and proof of value.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 6-9pm

What: ​Claude Code has changed the CTO playbook. Whereas 6 months ago AI was mostly used as a copilot, the latest models can now completely automate the role of a junior engineer. The implications are vast and provoke important questions:

  • ​How many AI employees can a single team member manage?

  • ​How far can you scale your team with AI employees, where are the bottlenecks?

  • ​What roles should engineering teams hire for today, and what roles will be automated in the next 6 months?

Mar 4th, 2026 - Agent Infra Demo Night

Location: San Francisco

Time: 530-8:30pm

What: An evening for founders and developers building the next generation of agent systems.

​We’re bringing together teams from Composio, Braintrust, WorkOS, Notion, and Convex for a series of 7-minute, high-signal lightning demos — each company showing how their stack powers real-world agent workflows, from identity and knowledge to evaluation and execution.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 10am-4pm

What: Our Journey: Built on three successful series and 500+ attendees, the Funded Female Founders Summit brings together venture-backed women founders, VCs, and LPs for high-signal conversations on the founder and capital journey.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 5:30-8pm

What: ​What's the tool you wish existed when you were figuring it all out? The AI assistant that could have saved you hours of Googling? The resource that would have made your first 90 days less chaotic?

​Join us for an International Women's Day celebration where we're not just talking about AI—we're building with it. In this beginner-friendly mini hackathon, you'll create something that would have helped past you: a simple workflow, a custom GPT, a tiny app, or whatever your imagination (and a little AI magic) can pull together.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 8-9:30am

What: ​Kick off your morning with conversations and impromptu demos with others navigating the chaos of building AI Agents inside of tech companies.

​Join our network of experienced Founders, Product Managers, and Engineering leaders for Agent Builders Breakfast. A new regular casual, social gathering for people actively building AI agents inside of tools like Claude Code, Cursor, OpenClaw. Bring your latest skill to share for others to use.

Location: San Francisco

What: ​Build Personal AI Agents for Longevity / Health wellness / fitness use cases with OpenClaw!

Location: San Francisco

Time: 7-10pm

What: ​Get ready to kick off your GDC experience with a bang at the Beta Hat x Deconstructor of Fun Pre-Game! Join us on Sunday March 8th from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM (ish) at Persona, in the heart of downtown San Francisco. This is your chance to mingle with fellow industry insiders and creative minds before the main event begins. Whether you're a seasoned GDC veteran or a first-timer, this pre-game party is the perfect opportunity to make new connections and catch up with old friends. So grab a drink and get ready to set the tone for a productive week at GDC. We can't wait to see you there!

Location: San Francisco

Time: 6:30-9pm

What: ​An Inside Look at Early Roles in High-Growth AI Startups

​Most engineers want to join early. Very few know how.

​This AI Collective event is a practical, no-fluff breakdown of what it actually takes to become a founding engineer at a high growth AI startup.

​The session features a keynote and workshop with Xinchi Qi, who joined Revamp as its founding engineer and later grew into CTO and cofounder, not by chasing titles, but by doing the work that early companies need most.

Location: San Francisco

Time: 9-11:30am

What: We’re gathering The Council Angels, select founders, and top operators for a thoughtfully designed morning centered on movement, longevity, and modern wellness.

​Featuring Somato - a beautifully engineered Pilates reformer that lives under your bed and supports strength for years to come.

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