StrictlyVC events deliver exclusive insider VC content while creating meaningful connections with leading investors & entrepreneurs. Join us for an evening of intimate interviews with industry heavy hitters and impactful conversation.
Exclusive VC insights and networking at StrictlyVC
Mix and Mingle – Cocktail parties with killer content.
StrictlyVC events deliver exclusive insider content from Silicon Valley and the global venture scene. If you’re an investor looking to mingle with your peers and watch some killer content, this event is for you. Get the inside scoop directly from sources you can trust. Previous events included interviews with Sam Altman (OpenAI), Marc Andreessen (Andreessen Horowitz), Katie Haun (Haun Ventures), Hans Tung (GGV Capital) and many more!
Previous speakers
More speakers to be added to the lineup. Check back in for more updates.
Pat Gelsinger
General Partner / Former CEOPlayground Global / Intel
Jay Graber
CEOBluesky Social
Max Hodak
Founder & CEOScience
Nicholas Kelez
CEO and CTOxLight
Daniel Lurie
Mayor of San FranciscoCity and County of San Francisco
Tekedra Mawakana
Co-CEOWaymo
Pat Gelsinger
General Partner / Former CEO, Playground Global / Intel
Pat Gelsinger is a visionary engineer and values-driven leader with over 45 years of experience shaping Silicon Valley as a CEO, CTO, and technologist. He has played a pivotal role in developing foundational technologies in semiconductors, microprocessors, and industry standards during his time at Intel, EMC, and VMware. Today, Pat is a General Partner at Playground Global, a deep tech venture capital firm managing $1.2 billion in assets. He also serves as Executive Chair of xLight, a Playground portfolio company advancing free electron lasers, and sits on the board of Gloo, a platform supporting the faith and flourishing ecosystem. In addition, he contributes to several faith-based philanthropies. Pat is also a speaker, author, inventor, and investor—as well as a husband, father of four, and grandfather of eight.
Jay Graber is the CEO of Bluesky, a public benefit company building an open social network. Previously, she built Happening, a site for social events, and developed Zcash, a privacy-preserving cryptocurrency. She has also worked as an organizer at digital rights nonprofits.
Max Hodak is the Founder and CEO of Science Corporation, a leader in brain-computer interfaces (BCI) focused on restoring vision, cognition, and mobility to those with debilitating conditions for which there are no treatment options
Science’s PRIMA retina implant for patients blinded with late stage macular degeneration (loss of central visual field) has completed pivotal clinical trials with over eighty percent of patients achieving significant visual acuity improvements, making it the first BCI technology to restore functional vision to these patients. PRIMA received U.S. FDA Breakthrough status in 2023 and is currently in the process of gaining both FDA and European approval.
Prior to founding Science, Max was president of Neuralink, which he co-founded in 2016.
Max began his life-long passion for BCI as a young child and started programming at the age of six. As a freshman at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, studying biomedical engineering, he worked his way into the renowned Nicolelis Lab – one of the best neural engineering labs in the country, typically open only to graduate students – and spent his undergraduate years immersed in BCI research. Since graduating from Duke, his primary research and professional focus has been on neural engineering and the brain.
Nicholas serves as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of xLight. Before assuming his roles, Nicholas led the development effort to build the world’s first useful quantum computer at PsiQuantum.
Nicholas spent 20 years in the Department of Energy National Lab system building and operating large scale, x-ray science facilities and instrumentation. Starting at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, he developed novel instrumentation and upgrades for the Advanced Light Source (ALS) and Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) user facilities. He then moved to SLAC National Lab at Stanford where he was the Chief Engineer for the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), a 3-mile-long x-ray free electron facility for ultrafast science.
Nicholas is a native of California and attended the University of California, Berkeley.
Daniel Lurie was born and raised in San Francisco. Daniel founded Tipping Point Community in 2005. Under his direction as CEO, Tipping Point has raised over $500 million to help house, employ, educate and support hundreds of thousands of Bay Area families. Former Mayor Ed Lee selected Daniel in 2013 to lead the San Francisco Bay Area Super Bowl 50 Host Committee, an effort that brought over $240 million in economic impact to the region. Following
the devastating fires in the North Bay in 2017, Daniel and Tipping Point partnered with 90 Bay Area business and community leaders to organize Band Together – a benefit concert that raised $17 million for those hardest hit by the deadly fires. In total, Tipping Point’s Emergency Fire Relief Fund raised over $34 million.
He is a graduate of Duke University and obtained his Master’s in Public Policy at UC Berkeley. He lives in the City with his wife Becca and two school-aged children.
Tekedra N. Mawakana is the co-CEO of Waymo, an autonomous driving technology company.
As co-CEO, Tekedra oversees the company’s strategy for the wide adoption of the Waymo Driver. She boasts 20+ years of experience advising consumer technology companies to advance their business interests globally.
Tekedra currently serves on the Board of Directors for Intuit and the Advisory Council for Boom Technology. She is a social impact-focused angel investor and an Advisor and LP with the Operator Collective.
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Disrupt 2026:Meet the connections that change everything
Join 10,000 founders, VCs, and operators on Oct 13-15 for high-signal networking, real deals, and tactical insights you can use immediately. Register now at low rates.
