The future of deep tech will be explained to you at StrictlyVC Palo Alto on December 3

Tomorrow evening, at PlayGround Global in Palo Alto, some very smart people who build things you don’t understand yet will explain what’s to come. This is it The final StrictlyVC event of 2025In fact, the lineup is ridiculous.

The series has traveled around the world under the title nursing From TechCrunch. Steve Case rented a theater in Washington, DC. We spoke with the Prime Minister of Greece in Athens. Kirsten Green hosted us at the Presidio Hotel in San Francisco. However, the concept is always the same: bring people together who are working on really important developments in a smaller framework, before everyone realizes that they are important.

One of our favorite moments was when, in 2019, Sam Altman told a StrictlyVC crowd that OpenAI’s monetization strategy was essentially “building AGI, then asking it how to make money.” Everyone laughed. He wasn’t kidding.

This time, we have Nicholas Kellesa particle accelerator physicist who spent 20 years at the Department of Energy building things that shouldn’t be possible. Now he’s tackling the biggest problem facing semiconductor manufacturing: Every advanced chip relies on $400 million worth of machines that use lasers, and only one Dutch company knows how to make them. (More infuriating to some is that the Americans invented this technology and then sold it to Europe.) Kelley’s is building America’s next generation using particle accelerator technology. It’s as strange as it sounds but it’s also very important at this moment. There is also increasing competition Chasing the same prize.

Then there Mina Fahmywho created a ring that captures your whispered thoughts and Converts them to text. Before you roll your eyes, know that he and co-founder Kirak Hong spent years at Meta working on these things after their company was acquired. Stream Ring isn’t trying to be your friend, it’s trying to expand your mind. Backed by Tony Schneider, the operator who scaled WordPress in its earlier days, Sandbar has just come out of stealth and may be on to something. (Schneider is a partner at True Ventures, whose other bets on devices include Peloton, Ring, and Fitbit; he’s also coming to Palo Alto next week.)

We have Max Hudak —Science Corp. founder, Time Magazine Cover subjectand earlier, the co-founder of Neuralink (along with Elon Musk) – who has already restored vision to dozens of blind people with retinal implants. He is now working on “biohybrid” brain-computer interfaces where chips grown with stem cells grow into your brain tissue so that paralyzed people can control devices with their thoughts. This is just the tip of the iceberg, says Hudak. In fact, he thinks 2035 will look very different than it does today, and he’s happy to share that.

Finally, we are happy to welcome you Chi Hua dog From Goodwater Capital and Elizabeth Weil From Scribble Ventures, two venture capitalists who backed Twitter, Spotify, TikTok, Slack, SpaceX, Figma, and Coinbase before they became household names. Shane runs Goodwater Capital. Will founded Scribble Ventures after stints at Andreessen Horowitz and Twitter, has made over 100 angel investments, and has the first fund to achieve 4x returns. (Her network So good that it’s annoying.) They both think Silicon Valley is completely misreading the moment when everyone is pouring capital into enterprise AI, and they’ll explain why.

Hosted by PlayGround Global in collaboration with General Partner Pat Gelsingerformer CEO of Intel. There will be drinks, delicious food and merriment. Seating is limited, so if you want to get candid insights directly from venture capitalists and technical experts, and make meaningful connections, then Register to grab your seat before it’s gone. StrictlyVC events have limited seating.

If you would like to partner with the series in 2026, Contact us here.