Conference Schedule
April 2, 2026
Smart AI Leadership Summit
8:30 – 9:00 AM
Registration & Breakfast
9:00 – 9:05 AM
Welcome & Opening Remarks
Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
MC: Amir Kabir, Founder, Overlook Ventures
9:05 – 9:10 AM
Partner Keynote: SVB
9:10 – 9:15 AM
Partner Keynote: Sequoia One
9:15 – 10:05 AM
Panel: The New Rules of Fundraising: What VCs Actually Fund in 2026
Kenan Saleh, Partner, a16z
Lauri Moore, Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners
Andrew Brackin, Partner, Gradient Ventures
Madison Faulkner, Partner, NEA
Brent Murri, Partner, M13
David Kwon, Partner, Abstract Ventures
Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
10:05 – 10:35 AM
Fireside Chat: Zero to Category: How to Build a Defining AI Company from Scratch
Justin Osofsky, VP of Meta, former COO of Instagram
Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
10:45 – 11:15 AM
Panel: Cracking the Enterprise: Selling AI to CIOs and CISOs
Patti Degnan, Partner, a16z
Kevin Smith, CIO, Lyft
Deepa Gopinath, CIO, MongoDB
Parul Saini, former Head of IT, Uber
Moderator: Yousuf Khan, Venture Partner, Ridge Ventures
MC: Anarghya Vardhana, Venture Partner, Maveron
11:20 – 11:50 AM
The Agentic Bet: Where Smart Money Is Going in AI Agents
Sonali Singh, Partner, Sequoia
Alan Du, Partner, M12 (Microsoft's Venture Fund)
Joseph Ros, Partner, Entrepreneur First
Radhika Malik, Partner, Dell Technologies Capital
Daniel Suh, Partner, Gold House Ventures
Mo Islam, Partner, Threshold
Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
11:50 – 12:00 PM
Demo
Steve Frey, Founder, AGI, Inc.
12:00 – 1:00 PM
Lunch & Networking
MC: Shomik Ghosh, Partner, Sierra Ventures
1:00 – 1:40 PM
The Billion-Dollar Blueprint: Patterns Behind the Fastest-Scaling AI Companies
Alexander Mashrabov, CEO & Co-founder, Higgsfield AI
Jake Stauch, Co-founder & CEO, Serval
Dan O'Connell, CEO, Front
Boris Sofman, Co-founder & CEO, Bedrock Robotics
Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
1:55 – 2:40 PM
Fireside Chat: Distribution is the Product: GTM Lessons from Founders Who've Done It
Marc Boroditsky, CRO, Nebius
Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
2:45 – 3:15 PM
Panel: AI GTM Trends: What's Working Right Now and What's Next
Dan Tobin, VP, Databricks
Lauren Schwartz, Head of Claude Codes Sales, Anthropic
Darren Moffett, VP, LangChain
Jordan Van Horn, Co-Founder, Monte Carlo
Moderator: Jules Gsell, Strategic Advisor, IVP; former VP of Databricks
3:25 – 3:55 PM
Panel: Scaling the Machine: GTM Infrastructure, Hiring & Ops for AI Companies at Growth Stage
Anand Chandrasekaran, Managing Partner, Celesta Capital
Caroline Duffy, Partner, Cowboy Ventures
Namrata Ram, VP of Revenue Strategy & Operations, Together AI
Mark Goldberger, VP, Metaview; former Head of Enterprise Sales, Ramp
Ashish Uchil, Global BD & Partnerships, ElevenLabs; former VP of Brex
Rong Yan, CTO, HeyGen
Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
4:00 – 4:50 PM
Panel: From Adoption to Expansion: How Product and Customer Success Drive AI Revenue
Olivia Nottebohm, COO, Box
Scott Holden, CMO, Vanta
Rashida Hodge, CVP, Microsoft
Dave Steer, CMO, Webflow
Vijay Krishnan, Founder & CTO, Turing
Tushar N Shah, CPO, Uniphore
Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
4:55 – 5:15 PM
Fireside Chat: Own the Layer, Own the Market: AI Infrastructure as a GTM Strategy
Chase Lochmiller, Co-founder & CEO, Crusoe
Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
5:15 – 5:20 PM
Closing Remarks
Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
6:00 PM
Cocktail Reception & Speaker Dinner (Invite Only)
Conference Schedule
April 2, 2026
Smart AI
GTM Summit
12:30 PM
Check-In, Welcome & Networking
MC by Kevin Jiang, Founding Partner, Mangusta Capital
4 pm and after
MC by Josh Constine, Venture Partner, SignalFire
9:00 – 9:15 AM
Opening Address: Setting the Stage for AI Leadership
John Benetti, Managing Director, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)
9:00 – 9:15 AM
Welcome & Opening Remarks
Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
Partner Keynote: SVB
Partner Keynote: Sequoia
MC: Anarghya Vardhana, Venture Partner, Maveron
9:00 – 9:15 AM
Welcome & Opening Remarks
Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
Partner Keynote: SVB
Partner Keynote: Sequoia
MC: Anarghya Vardhana, Venture Partner, Maveron
1:05 – 1:20 PM
Opening Remarks: Why AI Now
Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
1:20 – 1:50 PM
Opening Fireside chat: The Future of AI Security & Scale
Snehal Antani, Co-Founder & CEO, Horizon3.ai
Ilya Kirnos, Founding Partner & CTO, SignalFire
2:00-2:40 PM
Panel: The New AI Investment Playbook
Lucas Swisher, General Partner, Coatue Management
Susana Rojas, Partner, Index Ventures
Kathleen Estreich, Partner, Pear VC
Ambar Bhattacharyya, Managing Partner, Maverick Ventures
Elizabeth Weil, Managing Director, Scribble Ventures
Andy McLoughlin, Managing Partner, Uncork Capital
Matt Vail, Head of VC Partnerships, OpenAI
Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
3:20 – 3:50 PM
Fireside Chat: AI, Trust & the Future of the Enterprise
Jeetu Patel, President & Chief Product Officer, Cisco
Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
4:50 – 5:20 PM
Panel: From Breakthroughs to Business: Scaling AI in the Real World
Dipti Borkar, VP & GM, Microsoft
Aparna Sinha, SVP of Product, Vercel
Sami Ghoche, Co-Founder & CEO, Forethought
Arpit Mittal, Partner, Threshold Ventures
Timur Yarnall, Director of AI Partners, Snowflake
Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
4:00 – 4:50 PM
Smart AI 100 Startup Demos: Founders on the Frontier
Rishi Bhargav, Co-Founder, Descope
Karan Vaidya, Co-Founder, Composio
Soham Mazumdar, Co-Founder & CEO, Wisdom AI
Christopher Potts and Moritz Sudhof - Co-Founders of Bigspin AI
Mahi de Silva - Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Higgsfield AI
Sara Wyman - Founder & CEO of Stackpack
Allen Wang, Co-Founder & CEO, Ditto AI
Conor Brennan Burke, Founder & CEO, Hyperspell
Bill Sun, Founder - Generative Alpha
Lenjoy Lin, Co-founder, Genspark.ai
1:00 – 1:40 PM
The Billion-Dollar Blueprint: Patterns Behind the Fastest-Scaling AI Companies
Alexander Mashrabov, CEO & Co-founder, Higgsfield AI
Jake Stauch, Co-founder & CEO, Serval
Samir Menon, Founder & CEO, Dexterity Inc.
Dan O'Connell, CEO, Front
Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
5:30 – 6:00 PM
Panel: Global AI Capital Flows (Where Big Tech and VC Are Betting Next)
Ganesh Bell, Managing Director, Insight Partners
Janelle Teng, Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners
Sara Choi, Partner, Wing VC
Thomas Jueng, Senior Managing Director, Samsung Ventures
Tushar Gupta, Managing Director, Qualcomm Ventures
Clayton Petty, Partner, Gradient Ventures
Aidan Madigan-Curtis, Partner, Eclipse Capital
Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
6:10 – 6:40 PM
Fireside Chat: The Next Wave of AI Infrastructure
Marc Boroditsky, Chief Revenue Officer, Nebius
Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
6:40 – 7:20 PM
Smart AI 100 Awards & Group Photo
Grace Gong, Founder and CEO, Smart Venture Media
Jason Saltzman, Head of Insights, CB Insights
Presented by HubSpot, Snowflake, Morpheus, Vercel, SVB, Sequoia, Nebius, Wilson Sonsini, Auth0, Smart Venture Media
2:40 – 3:10 PM
Panel: Building the AI Dream Team (How to Recruit and Retain the Best Talent)
Advith Chelikani, Co-Founder, Pylon
Connor Heggie, Co-Founder, Unify
Deborah Hanus, Co-Founder & CEO, Sparrow
Dave Yarbrough, Business Consultant, Sequoia
Ivor Stratford, CEO, Morpheus
Meera Clark, Partner, Redpoint Ventures
Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
4:50 – 5:00 PM
Smart AI 100 Interactive Games lead by 14.ai
Closing Remarks Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
4:50 – 5:00 PM
Closing Remarks
Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
5:00 PM
Cocktail Reception & Speaker Dinner
(Invite Only)
Join the top AI Companies, leading VCs, Fortune 500 execs
Spring 2026
Summit
2 April 2026
Leadership
Leveraging the Power of Artificial Intelligence to Shape Tomorrow
Smart AI
Smart Venture Media Leadership Summit 2026
Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media
VP of Meta, ex-COO of Instagram
CRO, Nebius
Co-Founder and CEO at Crusoe
Scott Holden, CMO, Vanta
COO, Box
CVP, Microsoft
Founder & CTO, Turing
CIO, MongoDB
CIO, Lyft
Partner, Sequoia Capital
Partner, Andreessen Horowitz
Partner, NEA
Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners
Partner, M12
Co-founder & CEO, Higgsfield AI
Co-founder & CEO, Serval
CEO, Front
Co-founder & CEO, Bedrock Robotics
Strategic Advisor, IVP, ex-VP of Databricks
VP, Together AI
CMO, Webflow
CTO, HeyGen
VP, Metaview, former head of enterprise sales at Ramp
Partner, Gradient Ventures
VP, LangChain
Co-Founder, Monte Carlo
Global BD & Partnerships, ElevenLabs, former VP of Brex
Head of Claude Codes Sales, Anthropic
Partner, Cowboy Ventures
Partner, Gold House Ventures
Managing Partner, Celesta Capital
Partner, M13
Partner, Entrepreneur First
Partner, Dell Technologies Capital
Partner, Abstract Ventures
Partner, Andreessen Horowitz
Venture Partner, Ridge Ventures
Co-Founder, AGI, Inc.
ex- Head of IT, Uber
GTM, Vanta; Venture Partner, Maveron
Partner, Sierra Ventures
Partner, Threshold
Founder, Overlook Ventures
TOP VOICES
Meet the Speakers
Venue
SVB Experience Center
532 Market St
San Francisco, CA 94104
Ticket Price $1,300
Who You’ll Meet
Get face-to-face with top-tier venture capitalists hunting for groundbreaking AI startups, Fortune 500 execs ready to invest and integrate new tech, and visionary founders who’ve successfully scaled AI solutions. Build relationships here that drive funding, partnerships, and strategic growth.
Why Attend?
Walk away with actionable strategies to accelerate your market expansion, insider knowledge on how Fortune 500 companies select AI partners, and real-world advice for navigating funding rounds from elite investors. One day here can unlock the connections and insights to scale your AI startup faster.
APRIL 2026
Smart AI Leadership Summit
April's 2025 exclusive event brought together AI startups seeking strategic connections to accelerate market expansion. Attendees engaged directly with influential VCs, Fortune 500 decision-makers eager to adopt innovative AI solutions, and visionary founders who had successfully scaled groundbreaking technologies.
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