Probably the largest event we’ve hosted to date.
On April 17 2025, Llama Lounge 17 brought together over 500 attendees at Stanford’s Jen-Hsun Huang Engineering Center for a sold-out evening of AI innovation, startup demos, and community connection. Curated by Jeremiah Owyang and the Blitzscaling Ventures team, the event spotlighted 10 cutting-edge AI startups tackling enterprise automation, agent-based computing, data engineering, and more.
We were delighted to collaborate with Stanford Black in Computer Science and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity — a member of the Divine Nine. Thank you for the partnership.
The night kicked off with a signature conch shell call, setting the tone for lightning pitches, networking, and access to some of the most promising founders in the space. Attendees included Stanford CS and engineering students, AI-focused VCs, and executives from Amazon, Google, Nvidia, Meta, Salesforce, Microsoft, and dozens more.
Featured Startups on the Demo Floor and Pitch Stage
- AI-MD – Health scans via smartphone
- ComputerX – Desktop agents for automation
- Exo AI – AI for financial risk
- Glamir AI – Personal AI beauty concierge
- GuidenAI – Enterprise agent creation
- Palona AI – AI sales agents
- Potpie – Dev workflow automation
- Remix – Virtual teleportation
- Synexis – Investor deal flow intel
- TensorStax – Data engineering automation
Registered Ecosystem Leaders (the majority were AI founders)
Corporate AI Leaders: Who partner with AI Startups:
- Burton Algorithms: AI Engineering Firm & our generous sponsor
- Acrisure Insurance: Principal
- Accenture: SF AI Studio Lead
- Adobe: Investor, Corporate AI leader
- Amazon: Conversational & Agentic AI Research
- Amazon: LLM Inference engineering
- Amazon: Applied scientist
- Amazon: Product Manager, SageMaker
- AMD: TPM
- Apple: Global Program Strategy
- Apple: AI
- Apple: Sr Engineering, AI ML
- AT&T: Product Manager, Data, AI
- Autodesk: AI Marketing
- Calix: AI and ML
- Capgemeni: Applied Innovation (AI)
- C3 AI: VP and Chief Data Scientist
- Dell: Software engineering
- eBay: Software engineering
- Ford Motors / Latitude, Machine Learning
- Cisco: VP Products, AI
- Google: Sr SWE Google Search
- Google: Google Cloud AI
- Google: AI Labs
- Google: Biotech, Strategic Startups
- Google: Vertex AI
- Google: Open Source (JAX and OpenXLA)
- Google: Product Manager
- Google: Google for Startups Accelerator
- Google: YouTube product engineer
- HP: AI Partnership Development
- IBM: AI Research
- IBM Apptio: Product Manager (AI)
- Intuit: Machine Learning
- LinkedIn: Head of Connected TV
- Mazda: Prog Mgr Innovation & Biz Dev
- McKinsey
- Meta: AI Product Engineer
- Meta: Instagram product growth
- Meta: Product manager
- Meta: Smart Glasses Voice AI
- Meta: Llama
- Microsoft: AI Software Engineering
- NEC: NEC X, early-stage accelerator
- Neuralink: SW Engineer
- Nordstrom: Applied Scientist
- Nvidia: Startup Partnerships
- Nvidia: AI Agents Partnership
- Nvidia: Director of Corp Dev
- Okta: Product Manager
- Oracle: Oracle Management Cloud
- Palo Alto Networks: Product Management
- Philips: Product Engineer
- Porsche: Technical software lead
- QA: Head of Channels and Alliances
- Rivian: Software Engineering
- Roblox: Director of Product (AI)
- Salesforce: Corporate AI leader
- Samsung: AI developer relations
- SAP: Global VP Strategic Partnerships
- Snowflake: LLM inference platform
- SoftBank: AI Business Dev
- Swisscom Silicon Valley outpost
- Stanford: AI lab
- Streamlabs (Logitech): Head of Streamlabs
- Target: Data team
- TikTok: Machine Learning
- TikTok: SWE
- Tesla: Data Engineer
- Walmart: Walmart global tech
- Walmart: Data Science, fulfillment
- Visa: Product Manager
- VW: Tech strategy and open innovation lead
- Zoom: Head of Product (AI focused)
- ZoomInfo: Enterprise Architect
- Zurich Insurance Group: Head of AI Governance
- VCs and Investors: Backers of AI Startups
- Blitzscaling Ventures
- 10VC
- 2468 Ventures
- 3M Ventures
- 500 Global
- 99VC
- Alchemist Accelerator
- Alpha Square Group
- Alumni Ventures
- Arbor Ventures
- Argonautic Ventures
- Bay Angels
- Berkeley SkyDeck
- BDev Ventures
- Bullpen Capital
- Cannelure Partners
- Cathay Innovation
- CCV Capital
- Cota Capital
- DCM Ventures
- DigitalDx Ventures
- Diversity Venture Capital
- DST Global
- Edgerunner Ventures
- Embedding VC
- Emphasis Ventures
- Entrepreneurs First
- Everest Ventures
- FalconX
- Flourish Ventures
- Founder VC
- Foundation Capital
- Galaxy Ventures
- Ganas Ventures
- Georgian
- G2C Ventures – True Blue Partners
- GIC: Gov of Singapore Investment Corp
- Gotion Inc: CVC
- Hanwha Asset Management USA
- Hat Trick Capital
- Hesperian Ventures / Berkeley SkyDeck
- HP Tech Ventures
- Icebreaker VC
- Inception Studio
- Inflect Capital
- InMotion Ventures / Jaguar Land Rover
- Insight Partners
- iSeed Ventures
- J-Ventures
- Juniper Ventures
- KFC Ventures
- Lobby VC
- M12 (Microsoft)
- Mashup Ventures
- Maven Ventures
- Mayfield Fund
- Mighty Capital
- Momenta Ventures
- MongoDB Ventures & Corp Dev
- MS&AD Ventures
- Next47
- Noveus Capital
- Nvidia Venture Investments
- NYX Ventures
- Omni Ventures
- Outcomes Fund
- Overlook VC
- Page One Ventures
- Pegasus Airlines CVC
- Plug and Play: Investment team
- Practical VC
- Presidio Ventures
- Primavera Ventures
- Region4
- RingCentral Ventures
- Qualcomm Ventures
- Rebellion Ventures
- Red Cedar Ventures
- Sand Hill Angels
- SIERRA Ventures
- Scrum Ventures
- Sky9 Capital
- shuckerVC
- Singtel Innov8
- Springcamp VC
- Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs
- Techstars
- Transform VC
- True Blue Partners
- Venrock
- Vibranium VC
- VU Venture Partners
- YellowRocks / Sintelis
- Zhenfund
