Founder × Funder: New York City — September 16, 2026
A gathering of founders, active investors, and experienced operators discussing fundraising, building companies, growth, and emerging opportunities.
AI-native founders + active investors. The people building and backing what's next.
200+
Projected attendees
1
Live panel
6–9 PM
NYC evening event
Pre & post
Event media distribution
Figures shown as published before the event; attendee numbers were projections.
About the edition
A premium NYC room for the people building and backing what's next.
Founder × Funder brought together AI-native founders and active investors for an evening built around the conversations that actually move companies forward — raising, building, gaining traction, navigating company-building challenges, and what investors are looking for now.
One live panel, a curated guest list, and pre- and post-event media distribution across the hosts' networks.
Who was in the room
The intended mix, curated by the hosts.
~60%
Founders
AI-native founders, pre-seed to Series B, building what's next — joined by later-stage and exited founders attending as angels, mentors, and panelists.
~30%
Investors
Angels, VCs, and capital partners writing checks now and sourcing deal flow.
~10%
Operators & ecosystem
Senior operators and a limited set of partners who genuinely serve growing companies.
The panel
One conversation, three perspectives on what gets funded next.
Moderated live on stage by Shilpi Nayak, the Founder × Funder panel brings institutional capital, angel capital, and hard-won founder experience into one seated conversation — raising now, what investors are actually underwriting, and what founders wish they'd known earlier.
Moderator
Shilpi Nayak
Host & Moderator
Founder, House of 434 · GP, 434 VC
Seat 01
Jenny Fielding
Co-founder + General Partner · Everywhere Ventures
Co-founder and General Partner at Everywhere Ventures on how institutional capital is pricing and picking at pre-seed through Series B today.
Seat 02
Moshe Neuman
Investor, Advisor, Super Connector · Valued Ventures
One of the most connected investors across the NYC, SF, and Israel ecosystems on how first checks get written, what earns conviction pre-traction, and how to run a founder-angel relationship.
Seat 03
Ilias Anwar
Founder & Operator · Anwar Enterprises
A founder who has scaled brands, events, and creator ecosystems to billions of views and a community of 70,000+ founders, investors, and creators — on the decisions that compounded and the ones he'd take back.
Original tickets
How admission worked
Registration was handled on Luma with host approval. Shown for historical reference — this edition has concluded.
Early Bird
Available until Aug 31, 11:59 PM
Requires approval
$35
Standard
General admission
Requires approval
$50
The original host team
Co-hosted with
XDC Tech co-hosted the New York edition and opened its New York office as the venue for the evening.
Featured research · September 16
AI commerce, settlement, and trust
QAIX has published a whitepaper on the Agentic Settlement Protocol, exploring how autonomous agents can transact through refundable, delayed-fulfilment commerce on stablecoin rails.
Beyond Series B
The room isn't only pre-seed and seed.
Series B+ and exited founders join Founder × Funder as panelists, mentors, angels, and the people founders most want to meet. They come to share what scale actually looks like, spot their next co-founder or investment, and stay close to what's being built at the earliest stages. If you're post-Series B or post-exit, this room is built for you too — as a speaker, a sponsor, or the most interesting person at the table.
Speak or moderate
Later-stage and exited founders anchor the panel and the conversations around it.
Meet what's next
Direct access to 200+ AI-native founders before the rest of the market sees them.
Angel angle
Many later-stage founders in the room are active angels sourcing their next deal.
