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- SF IRL - May 4th, 2026
SF IRL - May 4th, 2026
A curated newsletter showcasing the top tech & startup events in San Francisco
Jonathan Chang
May 04, 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 #193.
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.
Sponsored
May 20th, 2026 - O11yCon SF: Observability for AI in Production
Location: San Francisco, CA
Date: May 20th-21st
What: Join developers, practitioners, and technical leaders at O11yCon SF, a two-day, community-driven conference focused on building and operating software in the AI-driven agent era.
Hear from teams at Google, Salesforce, Stripe, and more as they share real-world lessons on observability, reliability, and managing system complexity in production. Expect hands-on sessions, practical insights, meaningful peer exchange, and honest conversations about what's actually working today.
Registration Details: Use discount code O1C26IMLH by May 15th to save on your ticket. Access is limited.
May 21st, 2026 - ElevenLabs: The AI startup operating system: from product to GTM
Location: San Francisco, CA
Time: 3-6pm
What: The rules of building a startup just changed. The founders currently winning rewrote the playbook entirely — we invite you to join us to hear how and why they're succeeding.
AI is changing what it means to build and go to market. Engineering teams run smaller and faster. GTM motions look nothing like the classic playbook. But most advice is still theoretical.
This panel brings together founders and operators actively building AI-native products and GTM at companies like ElevenLabs and Miro for an honest and practical conversation hosted at SVB's office in downtown SF. Stick around after for drinks, food, and conversations worth having.
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
May 5th, 2026 - Proto to Prod: You Built It. Now Ship It Securely.
Location: San Francisco
Time: 5:30-8pm
What: A builder session for engineers, founders, and AI builders who have already built something — and are ready to ship it to production without introducing risk, drift, or broken infrastructure.
May 5th, 2026 - Daytona & WorkOS AI Builders - SF, May 2026
Location: San Francisco
Time: 5:30-8pm
What: An event dedicated to exploring all things AI Engineering!
May 5th, 2026 - Startmate Accelerator Demo Day | San Francisco
Location: San Francisco
Time: 6-9pm
What: After a 7-year hiatus we are back in San Francisco for one night only where 18 of ANZ's top startups will take to the stage. Brought to you by the most active early-stage investor in ANZ, Startmate. 🦘☀️
Location: San Francisco
Time: 5-8pm
What: Lukasz Kaiser, co-inventor of the Transformer, is stepping into the ring for the most gloriously nerdy showdown in SF: a live, tongue-in-cheek Transformers vs. Post-Transformers boxing match of ideas! Adrian Kosowski from Pathway will step into the ring on the post-transformer side, alongside Liquid AI’s CTO Mathias Lechner.
May 5th, 2026 - Physical AI & Robotics Investor Breakfast — Hosted by Cathay Innovation & Zero Infinity Partners
Location: San Francisco
Time: 8:30-10:30am
What: Join Zero Infinity Partners and Cathay Innovation for a private breakfast bringing together a select group of investors at the forefront of physical AI and robotics.
We're bringing the full stack into one room. Early stage to growth stage — investors who see the full arc from earliest signals to scaling — and who believe these technologies will transform how legacy systems and infrastructure operate.
May 5th, 2026 - Stand-Up Biotech Comedy Show with Austin Nasso
Location: San Jose
Time: 8-9:30pm
What: After a full day of cutting-edge biology, it’s time to laugh about it!
Join viral comedian Austin Nasso for a special stand-up set crafted for the SynBioBeta crowd. Known for his sharp impressions and tech-adjacent humor, Austin brings a fast-paced show that pokes fun at startup culture, venture capital, AI hype, and, for the first time, the quirks of the biotech world.
May 6th, 2026 - Women Shaping the Future of AI in Law | micro1 & Women in AI
Location: San Francisco
Time: 6-8pm
What: Join micro1 and Women in AI for an evening with founders and operators leading the charge in AI for legal. We’ll explore where the technology is delivering real value, where challenges remain, and what it all means for the future of legal practice and careers.
May 6th, 2026 - Inside the Investor Mind Series: What Makes a Startup Fundable + Investing in Demographic Change
Location: Menlo Park
Time: 4:30-7:30pm
What: Join us for a conversation with Monique Woodard, Founder and Managing Director of Cake Ventures, about what makes a startup fundable + investing in demographic change.
Hosted by Venturous Counsel, a uniquely mission-driven law firm that serves as US fractional general counsel to values-aligned and diverse-led startups and investors.
May 6th, 2026 - -1 to Snowflake with Sridhar Ramaswamy
Location: San Francisco
Time: 4:30-6:30pm
What: South Park Commons is delighted to host Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO of Snowflake as part of our -1 to Now series.
Event Details
4:30pm: Doors Open
5:00-6:00pm: Fireside Chat
May 6th, 2026 - GenClaw World Tour - San Francisco
Location: San Francisco
Time: 6-9pm
What: The AI Collective and Genspark are partnering for the GenClaw World Tour: 5 cities, 5 days, one global moment.
This is your chance to get hands-on with GenClaw, the enterprise-ready alternative that delivers everything you love about OpenClaw, without the security risk.
Join us for a live demo, guided workshop, and real talk about why GenClaw's architecture is changing how enterprises think about AI, straight from the Genspark team.
May 7th, 2026 - Small Biz Game Night: SF Small Business Week
Location: San Francisco
Time: 5-7pm
What: We’re celebrating SF Small Business Week with a swanky game night!
Join Pilot, Justworks, and Rootly AI for an evening celebrating local small businesses and the community behind them.
Set in the heart of San Francisco, this event is a chance to relax and enjoy a game night with local partners and entrepreneurs.
May 7th, 2026 - Bolt Office Grand Opening
Location: San Francisco
Time: 5-8pm
What: Join us for the grand opening of Bolt’s new San Francisco office.
We’re bringing together builders, founders, product teams, partners, and friends for an evening of cocktails, curated food, dessert, and conversations with the team behind bolt.new, the AI-powered platform now used by 8 million people to build software.
May 7th, 2026 - Camp AI: Agents at Work //San Francisco//
Location: San Francisco
Time: 5:30-8:30pm
What: We've packed our bags, and we're hitting the road. By popular demand, Camp AI is headed on a world tour 🌎 We're starting at our home base in San Francisco and coming to a city near you. 🌉🗽🗼
Tech founders, builders, and AI enthusiasts are invited to an evening of demos, a panel discussion, and conversations around developing, shipping, and scaling agentic workflows. This is a chance to network with up-and-coming startups and leaders developing AI technologies.
May 7th, 2026 - Stripe x HitPay x Bretton: Agentic Commerce Demo Night
Location: San Francisco
Time: 6-8pm
What: Join founders, engineers, and product builders for a night of demos, ideas, and conversations at the frontier of AI × payments.
May 7th, 2026 - Mahjong Party for AI Builders
Location: San Francisco
Time: 5-8pm
What: Our AI Community Mahjong Night Series brings fun and networking together over tiles. Explore the game’s history and styles of play while connecting with fellow AI builders and chatting about hot AI topics and ideas. Come to play and stay for the community!
What’s in store:
5:00–5:30 PM — Check-in, registration, food
5:45–6:15 PM — Learn to play Mahjong instruction from Jamie
6:15–7:30 PM — Open play time and networking
7:30–8:00 PM — Prize announcements, thank you, goodbye
Mahjong tutorials & open play (beginners and pros welcome)
Delicious bites and treats to nibble on
May 8th, 2026 - ✦ SCALE Demo Day ✦ @AGI House
Location: Hillsbourogh
Time: 12-8pm
What: Where AI startups become companies
📍 AGI House
📅 May 8, 2026 · 12:00 — 20:00
The next generation of AI isn’t being announced.
Live Demos.
4 weeks inside SCALE.
Built on GMI Cloud × NVIDIA
with support from Pixverse, Inworld, TiDB, Composio, Pilot, Vidu, Bria, HydraDB, Smallest...
May 9th, 2026 - Physical AI Hack World Tour — SF
Location: San Francisco
Time: 9am
What: A Global Build Series for Physical AI
The Physical AI Hack World Tour is a series of hands-on robotic hackathons across cities — built around the Makermods open-source ecosystem -
Each stop brings together builders working on real systems — combining real robots, open frameworks, and real-world data.
At the center is MakerMods’ open-source stack: hardware you can inspect, modify, train on, and take home — powered by XLeRobot kits, Hugging Face LeRobot, and modular components.
May 9th, 2026 - DREAM MODELS
Location: San Francisco
Time: 6:30-9:30pm
What: What does it mean to own an image, when the image no longer points back to anything real?
This spring, TITLES and Gray Area gave five artists an unusual brief: train a custom AI model on your own creative practice, and see what it dreams up.
May 10th, 2026 - Running with Researchers: SF
Location: San Francisco
Time: 2-4pm
What: Kick off Research Week with an afternoon run, and the chance to connect with researchers.
More interested in walking or jogging? We’ll make sure you have a buddy to match your pace.
May 12th, 2026 - Women Healing Women: AI x Health | Women in AI
Location: San Francisco
Time: 6-8pm
What: Join Women in AI for an evening at the intersection of two of the most important frontiers in tech: artificial intelligence and women's health.
This panel and networking event brings together founders, investors, and operators who are building the future of femtech and health AI, from diagnostics and clinical tools to consumer wellness and reproductive health. The conversation will explore how AI is transforming women's healthcare, where the biggest gaps and opportunities still exist, and what it takes to build and fund in this space.
May 13th, 2026 - SF DEMO NIGHT 🚀 (w/ The AI Collective)
Location: San Francisco
Time: 5:30-8:30pm
What: 2026 is already accelerating fast – new breakthroughs, new companies, and a city doubling down on its role as the global center of AI. This May, we’re bringing together the builders shaping what’s next with 8 hand-picked pre-Series A demos you won’t see anywhere else.
Powered by The AI Collective – here's what's to expect:
⚡️ 8 elite curated demos from the Bay's most visionary founders
🎤 Live Q&A – challenge the builders in real time
🧬 Interactive Demo Night App to connect, follow up, and join waitlists instantly
🏆 Live community voting to crown the night’s champions and enshrine them in our Hall of Fame
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