Discover Opportunities:

Events for Venture-Scale Founders

Location

13 Available

AI for Founders & CEOs: The Five Levels of Thought Partnership (Remote only)

April

7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Zoom

Sam Keller

"Incredible event that taught me a LOT about how to use AI to help me be a better leader."

"This was my favorite event! I loved the feeling of learning. It felt like being in a college class again."

After a successful first event in San Francisco, FounderNexus is partnering with Gen AI Academy again to bring back an exclusive AI workshop. This time virtually, so everybody can join from wherever they are.

This isn't another AI overview or hype session. It's a practical deep dive built around one core promise: you leave with tools and skills you'll use the very next day.

Led by Sam Keller, Co-Founder of Gen AI Academy, this session has already transformed how 300+ leaders think about and use AI — and now it's coming to you, wherever you are.

Before the workshop, you'll receive a personalized AI Self-Assessment so the session is calibrated to exactly where you are and where you want to go.

What You'll Walk Away With

In just three hours, you'll learn how to:

• Pressure-test your biggest decisions: use AI to challenge assumptions and stress-test strategy in real time

• Get dramatically better outputs: brief AI the way you'd brief your sharpest executive

• Build your AI Dream Team: specialized assistants working for you around the clock

• Automate with AI Agents: move beyond insights into real execution: research, workflows, and action

• Win in high-stakes moments: from strategic planning to major negotiations, have AI in your corner

What Leaders Are Saying

"Best one this year by far!! Immediately valuable."

"I was literally blown away - I will be utilizing the new tools immediately."

"This will take our company to the next level. We are already applying it."

"Now I have a much deeper understanding of how to use AI tools in my work."

About Gen AI Academy

Gen AI Academy has an origin story unlike most: in 2023, founder Sam Keller and his 12-year-old son Kaz sat down to explore the promise and pitfalls of ChatGPT. That father-son experiment quickly grew into something much bigger, as hundreds of leaders joined their workshops hungry to make sense of this powerful new technology.

What Sam kept hearing was the same thing: leaders didn't just want technical how-tos. They needed the mindsets, skills, tools, and habits to weave AI into strategy, culture, and daily work. Gen AI Academy was built to answer exactly that need. Today they've trained 1,000+ professionals, including 300+ Founders & CEOs, delivering hands-on training, custom-built AI tools, and governance frameworks that make adoption powerful and responsible.

Featured in Forbes. genaiacademy.ai

Spots are limited. Reserve yours now and show up ready to lead differently.

expert event

Artificial Intelligence and Diagnostic Inventions: Significant shifts in the Examination of Patent-Eligible Subject Matter

May

7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Zoom

John Morgan

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) systems offers paradigm-shifting advances in many areas of human endeavor, including healthcare. Yet, innovations in AI and diagnostic medicine have met significant patent-eligibility hurdles in recent years.

Innovators will therefore be interested in recent, patent-friendly changes in US Patent Office policy and proposed legislation to reform US patent law regarding subject-matter eligibility, and to adapt their patent practice and strategy accordingly to benefit business needs.

This topic covers:

A brief introductory history of US patent-eligible subject matter examination and case law
recent changes in USPTO policy and proposed legislative reform
adapting patent practice and strategy to benefit business needs, including identifying patent-eligible inventions, IP cost allocation and control, portfolio management
consistency in approach across the portfolio and multiple jurisdictions

Members only

expert event

Venture Insights with Two Ravens (Members only)

May

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Zoom

Isaac Kato

This is your chance to sit down with a founder-turned-VC who's built, scaled, and exited - multiple times.

Isaac Kato is the Founding General Partner of Two Ravens, a pre-seed and early seed stage venture capital firm backing extraordinary founders from non-obvious backgrounds. Isaac brings a rare combination of operator experience and institutional investing chops to every founder relationship.

What Two Ravens looks for:

Stage: Pre-Seed and Early Seed

Check size: $250K – $500K first checks

Investment areas: Enterprise-facing AI, software, and technology platforms — with a focus on diverse, immigrant, and off-the-beaten-path founders, including those building right here in Seattle

Before Two Ravens, Isaac was Managing Director of the Techstars Seattle and Filecoin Techstars Accelerators, and before that, President of Mighty AI, a leading training data platform for computer vision and autonomous vehicles, which was acquired by Uber. He co-founded Sven Technologies, a 3D graphics software startup sold to a public CAD company, and was co-founder and CFO of Verne Global, an Icelandic green data center company where he raised $200M in capital before its $320M acquisition in 2021. He also spent a decade as a VC and growth equity investor at General Catalyst Partners and Summit Partners.

Isaac holds an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School and an MS and BS from Stanford University.

This is a members-only session.

expert event

BYOT (Bring Your Own Topic)

May

6:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Zoom

Court Lorenzini

B.Y.O.T. - Bring Your Own Topic: This event will be online only, and allow members and prospects to raise timely issues you're facing and get input from the other founders present.

expert event

How Startups and Founders Can Navigate Today’s Immigration Shifts

May

7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Zoom

Tahmina Watson

This talk empowers founders with the latest insights, alternative pathways, and strategic frameworks to navigate today’s complex environment. You’ll discover how to stay compliant, agile, and competitive, even when policies feel stacked against you.

H1B visa- $100k price tag
Policy and regulation changes in immigration law
Trending risks for ‘legal immigration’

expert event

How to sell to the CIO

May

7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Zoom

John Matthews

How to Successfully Sell to a CIO

Selling to a CIO is one of the hardest things a founder can do. They're balancing legacy systems, security mandates, internal politics, and a hundred competing priorities — and they've seen every pitch before.

In this Expert Session, John Matthews - a seasoned CIO with decades of experience on the buying side — will help you understand exactly how CIOs think, what they care about, and what it actually takes to earn their trust and close the deal.

Come with your live-fire challenges. Every attendee gets time to work through their specific situation and walk away with concrete, actionable insights.

What you'll learn:

How to lead with business outcomes, not features
How to position yourself as a partner, not just a vendor
How to navigate internal politics and stakeholder complexity
How to reduce the perceived risk of buying from you

I can say with confidence that I get far more value from FounderNexus than the cost of the membership, and I'm not even taking full advantage! This community is going to be an important part of my journey as I continue building and growing my company.

Steve Tout

founder, Identient

I really loved how welcoming the vibe felt from the moment I arrived.

Katrina Romatowski

founder, reSpace

It was awesome

Edan Shahar

founder, Wild Zebra

The event was great! Highlight: Encouragement of diverse viewpoints and good founder mix

Darian Parrish

founder, PwrOn

I think the breakout sessions are a loose but useful way to get people talking about challenges and resolutions.

Mark Fiebig

founder, Payscore

I was initially hesitant to join yet another group as there is no shortage of people claiming to help entrepreneurs, but Court Lorenzini and FounderNexus are the real deal. Any serious founder will benefit immensely from joining FounderNexus.

Jasper Kuria

co-founder, ConversionMagic

Great event, I learned a lot! Looking forward to next one

Shama Keskar

founder, Mudita Studios

FounderNexus fills a gap for entrepreneurs by complementing traditional incubator and early investment programs with a high-quality peer founder network.

Bob Lach

founder, Lightbridge Solutions

I also felt a sense of real community for the first time as a founder. You're all onto something special here!

Elias DeFaria

co-founder, SDF Labs

This was a fast track to relevant experience/advice in a room where you hold nothing back.

Nicole Resch

Co-founder, Imperative

I have attended events nationwide and joined so-called “MasterMind” groups, but nothing comes close to the network and support I have experienced at FounderNexus.

Arthur Baranovskiy

co-founder, ARY Engineering

Interested in starting a FounderNexus chapter in your area?

If you're an experienced venture-scale founder that's passionate about growing your local entrepreneurial community and likes being at the center of things, we'd love to connect. We've got everything you need to get a local chapter started.