Hi there 👋
October is stacking up nicely, and we’d love to see you. Whether you want to get on stage, put a live product in front of a room, talk shop with founders and investors at a pace where you can actually finish a sentence, or bring us in to help fill your own event. The following is how to find us.
1. Assembling 2026 | AI Summit
Friday, Oct 2 · 10 am – 6 pm · San Francisco
One focused day, three tracks:
Founders: moats, unit economics, and building for agent users
Builders: real architecture and infra calls while the ground is still moving
Creators: two hands-on workshops on judgment, process, and what to learn next
What you’ll actually walk away with: founders who’ve been through it sharing the tactics behind the numbers, live product demos, and lunch on us. Speakers are being announced soon.
General Tickets are free for founders, builders, students, researchers, and community friends. If you want VIP access, Walnut community members get an exclusive 20% off discount with code WALNUT20.
Building something you want in front of a room? Founder demo slots are still open. You will have 5–7 minutes with a live product.
2. Slow Run, Fast Talk: VC & Founders Mixer
Mon–Fri, Oct 5–9 · 8:00 am - 9:30 am · #SFTechWeek
A daily Zone 2 run for founders and investors, slow enough to hold a real conversation the whole way.
It’s the opposite of the loud 7pm mixer with 90 seconds per person: 45 minutes side by side, then coffee at 8:45. No decks, nobody left behind. RSVP once, show up whenever you can, and meet different people each morning.
3. Consumer AI Showcase: Live Demos & The Retention Playbook
Tuesday, Oct 6 · 10 am – 2 pm · #SFTechWeek
Getting someone to try your AI product is easy. Getting them back on day 30 is where most consumer AI companies quietly break.
We built this morning around that gap: a panel with people who’ve shipped consumer AI at scale: what their retention curves actually looked like, and what finally moved the number, followed by six founders demoing live products. No slides, just the thing running. Plenty of time to meet the 100+ curated consumer AI founders, builders, and operators in the room.
👉 Apply to demo here (Applications close Oct 2.)
Our previous pitch event:
4. Host something during TechCrunch? Let’s do it together. 🤝
If you’re running something in October during TechCrunch, we can help on two fronts:
Marketing. We’ll put your event in front of our community of founders, builders, investors, and operators, across this newsletter, our channels, and community calendars we manage on Luma.
Agents Meet. Our AI matchmaking layer for events: attendees get matched to the people they should actually meet before they walk in, with intros handled ahead of time. We’ve run it at 20+ events and conducted 20K+ matches across 5000+ people. This greatly increase attendees’ show up rate and engagement.
You keep your event, your brand, your agenda. We just make the room more live.
Reach out to Walnut Team about your event
Four different rooms, one thing in common: enough time to actually talk to someone, and make real connections.
I cannot wait to see you in October.
The Walnut Team ❤️