Upcoming events: November 3rd - 9th

Happy Sunday,

Costumes off, calendars on. We’re sliding from pumpkin spice to peppermint velocity as the Xmas craze enters the chat. Big week ahead: shipping, selling, and sharpening the plan. Let’s get into it.

Tech Tea:

VC-backed coffee chain LAP in Berlin has faced backlash from locals and even vandalism. Their damping strategy of pricing flat white at €2.50 and super-paced growth has sparked intense debates over killing the “coffee culture” and gentrifying small businesses out of market.

Josh Wander, a co-founder of investment firm 777 Partners, was charged with a $500 million fraud. The case flaunts astonishing deceit, cheating investors and faking bank statements in Microsoft Paint. The collapsed Everton takeover is more than another FBI case, it’s a mirror reflecting the rot beneath football’s financial surface.

A California startup, 1X technologies, has opened preorders for what it calls the world’s first consumer-ready humanoid home robot, a $20,000 machine named Neo that can perform basic chores but may also stream video from inside users’ homes to remote human operators. ⁠“If you buy this product, it is because you’re OK with that social contract,” CEO Bernt Børnich told The Wall Street Journal. “If we don’t have your data, we can’t make the product better.” 1X says it expects the robot’s abilities to improve as more homes are added to its data network.

This week I’m hitting:

• November 4, NEW TREND SOCIETY with Adrian Per — ​an intimate evening with Director and creative @omgadrian aka Adrian Per. NEW TREND SOCIETY founder Benjamin Diedering will interview him on a Live Podcast, followed by Q&A and a get together.

• November 6, Mission Matters: AI’s impact on Entertainment Investing — ​​ insights gained from being film executives who have collectively produced or financed 700+ films combined with over 80 years of experience and generated over $12 billion in financing and multi-billions at the global box office. ​

Upcoming Events / Rooms Worth the Convo

LA

• November 4, Meadow Pitch party — ​This November, whether you’re pitching to investors, recruiting your dream team, rallying support for a community project, or sharing that wild idea that keeps you up at night – this is your moment.

• November 5, Startup Cafe: FounderLine with Scott Dudelson ($1B exit) — ​Join Jeffrey Chernick and Alix Gitter, co-authors of High Five Energy, for the first FounderLine Live: an in-person, interactive taping that’s redefining how founders get support.

• November 6, AI in Healthcare: Can It Fix a Broken System? — an insightful evening exploring the role of AI in revolutionizing healthcare. Hosted by Long Beach Accelerator and Walter Larkins, this engaging event will delve into how artificial intelligence can address the challenges and opportunities within our healthcare system.

• November 7, Ryan Chan - From Hypergrowth to AI Disruption: Building a $50M Company — ​an eye-opening session with Ryan Chan, CEO and Founder of UpKeep Technologies, as he shares hard-won insights from building a mobile-first SaaS platform used by over 10,000 businesses worldwide.

• November 7, AI Unfiltered: Founder Fridays Beverly Hills — an evening in the heart of Beverly Hills, where driven entrepreneurs come together to connect, collaborate, and grow — not just their companies, but each other.

• November 6, Women Vibecode Gathering: Get on the Bus — ​AI is reshaping tech roles, yet knowing where to start can be the biggest challenge. This event meets you where you are! Get some coffee, open your laptop and start vibecoding with the support of other women in tech. Come for the mentorship and structure.

🎤 Reverse Pitch

Portfolio highlights: Yoneda Labs — AI copilot for chemistry; Paradigm Robotics — Rugged robots for critical missions; Aethero — Orbital data infrastructure.

Pitch: Warm intro preferred; cold pitches considered via LinkedIn/contact on Ajira site.

How he helps: Network-driven co-investor; long-term partnerships; focuses on founders with “unconquerable” resilience. (Ajira invests largely via network but is open to being convinced.)

Notes: Per his (public) profile, he’s made dozens of angel investments and co-invested alongside firms like a16z and Khosla.

🧠 Lingo of the Week — “teleop”

What people say: “Neo just learned to walk by himself!”
What they mean: teleoperation (aka teleop): a remote human is live-driving the robot. Also called human-in-the-loop or a Wizard-of-Oz demo.
Why it matters: Teleop ≠ autonomy. Great for safety, data collection, and demos—but different claims for scalability, margins, and “AI breakthrough” headlines. Investors and press care which mode you’re showing.

Upcoming Events U.S.-wide

SF

• November 3, Whitepaper Reading - SF Bay Area — x402 and Agentic Payments - Jay Yu, Pantera Capital - Blog | x402 Whitepaper.

• November 5, Fin x Jam x Vercel: The AI Loop Connecting Support and Engineering — ​Join product and customer leaders from Fin, Jam, and Vercel for a fireside chat exploring how AI, collaboration tools, and new team structures are reshaping the way customer issues become engineering insight.

• November 6, Blueprint Festival — a festival of inventions where you'll test-drive robots, interact with next-gen hardware, hold devices that were just sketches not too long ago, and see what happens when people bring their blueprints to life.

NYC

• November 3, Femtech Insider IRL - NYC Edition — The evening opens with a fireside chat with Femtech Insider founder Kathrin Folkendt moderated by Forbes Contributor and Ventuneer Founder Geri Stengel - reflecting on where we've been and where we're headed. Then we do what we do best: Connect, unfiltered and unstructured, over drinks.

• November 5, NYC FYSK Founder & Community Happy Hour — ​We’re curating a room of breakout founders and our NYC engineering community for an evening of connection and conversation over drinks.

• November 6, Supermicro | Intel: Accelerate AI Infrastructure for Financial Services — an exclusive, invite-only event in the heart of New York’s financial hub, where Supermicro and Intel come together to showcase the latest advances in compute designed specifically for the financial services industry.

Austin

• November 3, Conscious Connection for founders, leaders, and curious people — This unique gathering brings together founders, leaders, and curious people in Austin for an evening of Conscious Connection. This isn't a traditional "networking" event. A² is all about the authenticity that comes from depth.

• November 4, Beyond Performance: Building Your Brand and Influence — ​Hosted in partnership by w.tech ATX and Women in Product Austin, this event brings our communities together for an evening of learning, connection, and career growth.

*If you want your event featured in this newsletter - email me at [email protected]