FounderX is the only event where I walk away with five warm investor intros and three potential co-marketing partners. Every single year, it delivers.
Founders, investors, accelerator and program directors, EDOs, trade missions, corporate innovation teams, and university partnership offices. Anyone whose work touches how startups get built, funded, or launched. If you connect your market to the global startup economy, you belong in the room.
FounderX is a working session, not a conference. 300 people, off the record, three days of hands-on workshops and closed-door roundtables. No keynotes from a stage. No booths in a lobby. Most attendees come back every year.
Yes. Every track has hands-on workshops designed for non-technical leaders. The EDO track in particular is built for ecosystem builders learning AI alongside their work. Walk in curious. Walk out with tools you can use Monday.
Founders leave with a working agent stack, a GTM engine, and an MCP-ready product. Investors leave with an AI-augmented sourcing and diligence workflow. EDOs leave with a 90-day rollout for upskilling their region. Plus 30+ peer relationships across 40+ countries.
No. Attendees book their own travel. The Bay Area is served by SFO, OAK, and SJC airports. Most international attendees arrive August 24 and depart August 28. We send a logistics guide with arrival recommendations, ground transport options, and time-zone tips once you are registered.
Yes. We share a curated list of partner hotels near the Day 1 reception venue, with negotiated rates for FounderX attendees. Booking links go out to confirmed attendees and sponsors. Book early — Silicon Valley hotels fill up fast in late August.
Attendees of FounderX will get access to the STEP San Francisco Conference. You can learn more about STEP here.
If you are a Local Leader, Mentor, or Alumni of the FI Network, check your email or login to your dashboard to find a special access code.
Several economic development organizations are planning to bring a delegation. Please reach out to us at (partners@fi.co) or you can book a time with our Head of Partnerships here.
Thank you for your interest in sponsoring FounderX 2026. We are only onboarding a handful of partners. This makes sure our incentives are aligned. Please reach out to us at (partners@fi.co) or you can book a time with our Head of Partnerships here.
Six concrete outcomes most EDOs will leave with:
(1) A playbook to launch 10x more founders from your region. Hands-on workshops on FI's Validate, Develop, and Launch curriculum applied at regional scale.
(2) A direct line into Silicon Valley. Off-the-record relationships with operators, investors, and program leaders that take regional teams years to build cold.
(3) A working understanding of how AI is being used. See, touch, and use the same tools your founders are using — Claude, Cursor, Replit, Harmonic, Granted AI, and more.
(4) Upskilled staff who can lead in the age of AI. Practical AI training built for non-technical public-sector teams, with prompt templates and workflows your office can deploy Monday.
(5) Exposure for your founders. Bring a delegation so your strongest companies meet 50+ first-check investors and learn the agentic stack alongside global peers.
(6) A peer network of ecosystem leaders globally. Three days with other directors solving the same problems — what works, what doesn't, what comes next.
If you have more questions. Please reach out to us at (partners@fi.co) or you can book a time with our Head of Partnerships here.