Llama Lounge 24 @Google DeepMind

Llama Lounge 24 was hosted at Google DeepMind’s Googleplex in the heart of Silicon Valley, with Peter Danenberg and Justin Woo making it happen on the Google side. The turnout reflected where the industry is right now: roughly 60% AI founders, 20% investors, and 15% corporate AI leaders looking to partner with startups.

The line to get in stretched outside the building, and the theatre was standing room only. As always, I kicked things off by sounding the ceremonial conch shell, followed by remarks from Google, then 10 startup pitches led by emcee Rajiv Ayyangar, each with a demo table for live follow-up conversations. Demand continues to outpace our venue capacity, and we’re actively working on larger spaces for future events.

I also brought a few hundred plush lobsters to give away, and the reasoning is worth explaining. Silicon Valley has a tradition of mascots that track where the industry’s attention is: unicorns, decacorns, llamas, and now lobsters. The lobsters were a nod to two things happening in the market right now: the rise of personal agents (a nod to Open Claw) and the acquisition of Moltbook by Meta, a company I backed as an angel investor. The response was more than I expected. People took them home, put them on their desks, and have been sharing photos ever since.

Rajiv Ayyangar, Peter Danenberg, and Steven Echtman helped distribute what turned out to be a coveted item.

AI Startups to Pitch and Demo:

?AdZen: Advertising platform for LLMs and publishers
?Ambiguous: (a16z, Blitzscaling) Build AI coworkers that work like teammates
??Cara (AI Fund): Automated in home assessments for at risk populations
?DiaDia Health: AI medical reasoning platform for precision & root-cause care
?Echo: Turning chat conversations into market intelligence
?Fastshot (YC): Autonomous AI mobile app builder
?Fetch AI: Personal social AI – connect, discover, monetize agents
?Glam AI: Entry-level consumer AI content platform
?Lightberry: (YC, Blitzscaling): Makes robots emotionally intelligent: listen, speak, see
?Vidably (AI Fund): Human evidence for AI commerce

VCs and Investors, backers of AI Startups:

?Blitzscaling Ventures
?2077 Ventures
?212 VC
?3C AGI Partners
?500 Global
?7BC Venture Capital
?Acorn Pacific Ventures
?AI Fund
?Accel
?Across Ventures
?AGI House Ventures
?Alchemist Accelerator
?Alpha Square Group
?Antler
?Argonautic Ventures
?Arrington Capital
?Bay Angels
?Benhamou Global Ventures
?Berkeley Angel Network
?Bessemer Venture Partners
?Blackwood
?Bosch Ventures
?Bridge Associates
?BRI Capital Partners
?Brookfield
?Bullpen Capital
?Caffeinated Capital
?CDIB Capital
?CCV Capital
?Cisco
?Converge VC
?Cota Capital
?Cyber Fund
?DEEPCORE Inc
?Denso
?DG Daiwa Ventures
?Diversity VC
?Dnipro VC
?EnvisionX
?FalconX
?Fika Ventures
?Financial Freedom Fellows
?Fortino Ventures
?Fusion Fund
?G2C Ventures
?Galaxy Ventures
?GenLab
?Genesia Ventures
?Go Global World
?Google Ventures
?Grayscale Ventures
?Han River Partners
?Hat Trick Capital
?HeavyBit
?Heliad
?Hui Capital
?Hyundai motor company
?Icon Ventures
?ID4 Ventures
?J Ventures
?Jolly VC
?KASIKORN
?KBTG CVC
?Llama Ventures
?LvlUp Ventures
?Luminar Ventures
?Matrix Partners
?Mavka Ventures
?Maxitech
?MPCi
?Mercurius Media Capital
?Mosaic Venture Lab
?Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Ventures
?MS&AD Ventures
?Nemway Ventures
?Neo Ventures
?Neurone
?NextStar Venture Partners
?Next Gen Partners
?NTT Docomo Ventures
?Omni Ventures
?Pachamama Ventures
?PG&E
?Plug and Play
?PodiumVC
?Presidio Ventures
?Prosperity 7 Ventures
?RA Capital
?Race capital
?Rainfall Ventures
?Region4
?Relentless
?Resilient Earth Capital
?Ring Central Ventures
?S28 Capital
?Samsung NEXT Ventures
?Sancus Ventures
?Scale Asia Ventures
?Selcouth Capital
?Shack15 Ventures
?Shorooq
?shuckerVC
?SK Telecom CVC
?Sony Ventures
?Solaris Venture Partners
?Sophia Business Angels (SBA)
?Sorenson Capital
?SparkLabs
?StartX
?Sunstone
?Quadri Ventures
?Temasek
?Tencent Investments
?Treeo VC
?TVGP
?UpScaleX
?Wiharper
?Xora
?Yzi labs
?Z Ventures
?ZVC Ventures