{"id":900630,"date":"2026-09-18T11:52:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T18:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/?p=900630"},"modified":"2026-09-18T11:53:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T18:53:40","slug":"llama-lounge-26-microsoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/18\/llama-lounge-26-microsoft\/","title":{"rendered":"Llama Lounge 26 @Microsoft"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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We did it! Photos: Llama Lounge 26 was hosted last week. We were graciously hosted by Microsoft in the heart of Silicon Valley in their newly renovated, state-of-the-art theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We packed the house with 300+ attendees, and in fact hit capacity and had to turn people away. That included about 220 founders, dozens of investors, and dozens of corporate AI buyers who purchase technologies from founders, I try to assemble an ecosystem of leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I kicked things off with a lightning talk on “How startups can win in AI when code is free”. I emphasized that business strategy and access to proprietary data and community are critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We then had a panel with our hosts, moderated by me, featuring the Microsoft for Startups team, including Patrick Cook, Zain Gulamali, and Shaloo Garg to hear how they help early-stage, midsize, and enterprise-class companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key aspect of Llama Lounge is the AI pitches on stage by top founders emceed by Silicon Valerie Bertele ?. We featured 11 early-stage startups, some of which we’ve invested in, and many others introduced to us by investor friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yes, I kick off each event by sounding the ceremonial conch shell, which brings good luck to all scaling startups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

?Startup Pitch Emcee: Valerie Bertele,<\/a> AI & Startups Growth @Microsoft<\/p>\n\n\n\n

?AI Startups to Pitch and Demo:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. ?AIX Global<\/a>: Adaptive execution intelligence for AI & quantum<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. ?Chimeboard<\/a>: Simulate audience behavior for consumer marketing<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. ?Entrapeer<\/a>: Strategic decision-making engine for enterprises<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. ?Founding.Dev<\/a>: Replace expensive SaaS subscriptions with your own tools (Antler)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. ?Gofer AI:<\/a> Data infrastructure for humanoid robot manipulation (Breakthrough Ventures)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. ?Orbitax<\/a>: Agentic AI for international tax compliance<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. ?Oway<\/a>: The coordination OS for the physical economy (YC)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. ?Pageform AI<\/a>: Agentic data room for diligence\u00a0& deals<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. ?Sante<\/a>: AI infrastructure for biological risk intelligence (Breakthrough Ventures)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. ?Sun<\/a>: The future of audio content (Blitzscaling Ventures)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  11. ?Wrnt<\/a>: Infrastructure for stock warrants, equity\u2019s third channel<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Photos by Erick Davidson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    We did it! Photos: Llama Lounge 26 was hosted last week. We were graciously hosted by Microsoft in the heart of Silicon Valley in their newly renovated, state-of-the-art theatre. We packed the house with 300+ attendees, and in fact hit capacity and had to turn … Continue readingLlama Lounge 26 @Microsoft<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":900631,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-900630","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\/900630","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=900630"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":900654,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900630\/revisions\/900654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}