{"id":900122,"date":"2025-06-10T15:45:45","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T22:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/?p=900122"},"modified":"2025-06-16T09:15:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T16:15:11","slug":"llama-lounge-18-a-two-year-anniversary-at-zoom-hq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/10\/llama-lounge-18-a-two-year-anniversary-at-zoom-hq\/","title":{"rendered":"Llama Lounge 18, a Two-Year Anniversary at Zoom HQ"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"428\" src=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screen-Shot-2025-06-10-at-3.44.43-PM-1024x428.png\" alt=\"Llama Lounge 18 at Zoom HQ\" class=\"wp-image-900123\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screen-Shot-2025-06-10-at-3.44.43-PM-1024x428.png 1024w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screen-Shot-2025-06-10-at-3.44.43-PM-300x125.png 300w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screen-Shot-2025-06-10-at-3.44.43-PM-768x321.png 768w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screen-Shot-2025-06-10-at-3.44.43-PM-1536x642.png 1536w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screen-Shot-2025-06-10-at-3.44.43-PM-2048x856.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/erickd.com\/\">Erick Davidson<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A Night of AI Innovation in the South Bay, hosted in Downtown San Jose<br><br>On <a href=\"https:\/\/lu.ma\/llamalounge18\">May 22, 2025, Llama Lounge<\/a> celebrated its two-year anniversary with 250 AI founders, investors, and corporate partners at Zoom HQ in San Jose \u2014 marking one of the largest GenAI startup events in the South Bay to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong> Highlights included:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Opening remarks by Zoom CEO Eric Yuan <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>10 AI startup pitches Led by Product Hunt CEO Rajiv Ayyangar<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Live demo floor, food &amp; drinks, and signature Conch Shell Call<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A crowd of AI leaders from Meta, Amazon, Google, Nvidia, Salesforce, Apple, IBM, and dozens more<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A packed room of early-stage VCs, corporate venture groups, and technical builders<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From immersive learning platforms to agentic search tools and robotic orchestration, the demo companies showcased the frontiers of AI. The event ended with a group photo and open networking until 9PM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"732\" src=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00079-1-1024x732.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-900133\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00079-1-1024x732.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00079-1-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00079-1-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00079-1-1536x1098.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00079-1-2048x1464.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br><br>Most attendees were AI founders, in addition:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" data-id=\"900130\" src=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09727-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-900130\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09727-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09727-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09727-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09727-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09727-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09727-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"640\" data-id=\"900129\" src=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00153-1-1024x640.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-900129\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00153-1-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00153-1-300x187.jpg 300w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00153-1-768x480.jpg 768w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00153-1-1536x960.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00153-1-2048x1280.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" data-id=\"900135\" src=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00840-2-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-900135\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00840-2-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00840-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00840-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00840-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00840-2-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"640\" data-id=\"900134\" src=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC01008-1024x640.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-900134\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC01008-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC01008-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC01008-768x480.jpg 768w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC01008-1536x960.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC01008-2048x1280.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"640\" data-id=\"900132\" src=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09781-1024x640.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-900132\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09781-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09781-300x187.jpg 300w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09781-768x480.jpg 768w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09781-1536x960.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09781-2048x1280.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" data-id=\"900131\" src=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09799-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-900131\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09799-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09799-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09799-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09799-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC09799-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00404-1024x640.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-900137\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00404-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC00404-300x187.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Above: San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan addresses the Llama Lounge community<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Corporate AI Leaders in Attendance:<\/strong><br>Zoom: Execs, Product team, Ecosystem team<br>Adobe, Engineering Management<br>Adobe: Lead software engineer<br>Albertsons: Sr Machine Learning Engineer<br>Amazon: SWE<br>Amazon: Business Leader Amazon Pay Product<br>Amazon: MLE @ Amazon Search Science &amp; AI<br>Apple, Global Program Strategy<br>AWS: Director, AWS AI Devices<br>Bytedance: Director of global partnership<br>C3 AI, Vice President and Chief Data Scientist<br>Cisco: Head of Products AI\/ML, Speech and Computer Vision<br>Cisco: Product Manager<br>Coupa: AI Center of Excellence<br>Datadog: Head of AI products<br>Fujitsu Research of America: Alliances<br>Google, Open Source<br>Google, Senior Software Engineer<br>Google, Sr Engineering Manager at Google Colab<br>HP: Principal AI Solutions Architecture<br>HPE: SR Marketing Manager<br>JETRO: Startup relations<br>IBM: Vice President, Product Management<br>IBM: Head of Community, AI Alliance<br>IBM: Artificial Intelligence Researcher<br>IBM: Software Engineer II, Enterprise AI<br>Intel: AI research lab<br>Intel: Engineering<br>LinkedIn: Senior Software Engineer<br>Lucid Motors: Engineering &amp; Program Management<br>Mazda Motor Corporation, Innovation &amp; New Ventures<br>Megagon Labs, Head of Product<br>Meta, Director, AI Infra Ecosystem and Partnerships<br>Meta, Product Manager Lead<br>Meta, Product Manager, AI<br>NRI: Software Architect<br>Nvidia: Inception program<br>Nvidia: Software engineers<br>Oracle: Software Architect<br>Palo Alto Networks, TPM<br>Palo Alto Networks: AI Product Leader<br>Panasonic: Global Strategy &amp; Transformation<br>QA, Head of Channels and Ecosystems<br>Rakuten Symphony, President of Unified Cloud Biz<br>Salesforce, Sr Director Products<br>Swisscom Outpost, VP Technology &amp; Innovation<br>Thesis Capital<br>UCSC: Innovation &amp; Entrepreneurial Development<br>ViaPath Technologies: VP of R&amp;D<br>Volkswagen: AI Open Innovation &amp; Technology Strategist<br>Zoominfo, Enterprise Architect<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>VCs and Investors in Attendance:<\/strong><br>Blitzscaling Ventures<br>10vc<br>500 Global<br>Advantary<br>AE Investments<br>Airbus Ventures<br>AutoTech Ventures<br>Avenir<br>BDev Ventures<br>Berkeley Angel Network<br>Berkeley SkyDeck<br>Breakthrough Ventures<br>Converge VC<br>Cota Capital<br>DCG Ventures<br>DCM Ventures<br>Dell Tech Capital<br>Diversity Venture Capital<br>Dnipro VC<br>DST Global<br>Edgerunner Ventures<br>Embedding VC<br>Everest AI Ventures<br>Fetch AI<br>Forward Deployed VC<br>G2C Venture Partners<br>Ganas Ventures<br>Galaxy Ventures<br>GIC: Gov of Singapore<br>HP Tech Ventures<br>HealthTech Capital<br>Hesperian Ventures<br>How Women Invest<br>Inception Studios<br>Informed Ventures<br>Insight Partners<br>Jolly VC<br>Juniper Ventures \/ Perplexity Fellow<br>KX Horizon (KXVC)<br>LaMarka<br>MS&amp;AD Ventures<br>Omni Ventures<br>Ottomate Global<br>Pacific 8 Ventures<br>PodiumVC<br>Presidio Ventures<br>Principal Venture Partners<br>Qualcomm Ventures<br>Race Capital<br>Raydiant<br>Rebellion Ventures<br>RingCentral Ventures<br>SHACK15 Ventures<br>Scale Ventures<br>Script Assets<br>Sequoia Capital<br>ShuckerVC<br>SignalRank<br>Singtel Innov8<br>Speciale Invest<br>Standard Investments<br>Samsung Catalyst Fund<br>Trampoline Venture Partners<br>Vangal<br>Venture Builder<br>VentureXchange Ltd.<br>Vibranium Ventures<br>WAVE Ventures<br>Wipro Ventures<br>XY Ventures<br>Zhenfund<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo by Erick Davidson A Night of AI Innovation in the South Bay, hosted in Downtown San Jose On May 22, 2025, Llama Lounge celebrated its two-year anniversary with 250 AI founders, investors, and corporate partners at Zoom HQ in San Jose &mdash; marking one &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/10\/llama-lounge-18-a-two-year-anniversary-at-zoom-hq\/\" class=\"more-link\"><span>Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Llama Lounge 18, a Two-Year Anniversary at Zoom HQ<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":900123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-900122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-llama-lounge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900122"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":900141,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900122\/revisions\/900141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}