Smart Venture Media Leadership Summit 2026

12:30 PM — Check-In, Welcome & Networking

MC by Kevin Jiang, Founding Partner, Mangusta Capital

4 pm and after 

MC by Josh Constine, Venture Partner, SignalFire

 

1:00 – 1:10 PM — Opening Address: Setting the Stage for AI Leadership

John Benetti, Managing Director, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)

 

 

1:10 – 1:25 PM — Opening Remarks: Why AI Now

Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media

 

 

1:30 – 2:00 PM — Opening Keynote: The Future of AI Security & Scale

Snehal Antani, Co-Founder & CEO, Horizon3.ai

Ilya Kirnos, Founding Partner & CTO, SignalFire

 

 

2:10 – 2:40 PM — Panel: The New AI Investment Playbook

Lucas Swisher, General Partner, Coatue Management 

Susana Rojas, Partner, Index Ventures 

Kathleen Estreich, Partner, Pear VC
Ambar Bhattacharyya, Managing Partner, Maverick Ventures

Elizabeth Weil, Managing Director, Scribble Ventures

Andy McLoughlin, Managing Partner, Uncork Capital 

Matt Vail, Head of VC Partnerships, OpenAI

Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media

 

 

2:50 – 3:20 PM — Panel: Building the AI Dream Team (How to Recruit and Retain the Best Talent)

Advith Chelikani, Co-Founder, Pylon

Connor Heggie, Co-Founder, Unify

Deborah Hanus, Co-Founder & CEO, Sparrow

Dave Yarbrough, Talent Partner, Sequoia 

Ivor Stratford, Partner, Morpheus

Meera Clark, Partner, Recpoint Ventures 

Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media

 

 

3:30 – 4:00 PM — Fireside Chat: AI, Trust & the Future of the Enterprise

Jeetu Patel, President & Chief Product Officer, Cisco

Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media

 

 

4:10 – 4:40 PM — Smart AI 100 Startup Demos: Founders on the Frontier

Rishi Bhargav, Co-Founder, Descope

Karan Vaidya, Co-Founder, Composio

Soham Mazumdar, Co-Founder & CEO, Wisdom AI

Christopher Potts and Moritz Sudhof - Co-Founders of Bigspin AI 

Mahi de Silva - Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Higgsfield AI

Allen Wang, Co-Founder & CEO, Ditto AI

Conor Brennan Burke, Founder & CEO, Hyperspell

Sara Wyman, Founder & CEO, Stackpack

Bill Sun, Founder, Generative Alpha

Lenjoy Lin, Co-founder, Genspark.ai

 

 

4:50 – 5:20 PM — Panel: From Breakthroughs to Business: Scaling AI in the Real World

Dipti Borkar, VP & GM, Microsoft Azure Data

Aparna Sinha, SVP of Product, Vercel

Sami Ghoche, Co-Founder & CTO, Forethought

Arpit Mittal, Partner, Threshold Ventures

Timur Yarnall, Director of AI Partners, Snowflake

Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media

 

5:30 – 6:00 PM — Panel: Global AI Capital Flows (Where Big Tech and VC Are Betting Next)

 

Janelle Teng, Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners​

Sara Choi, Partner, Wing VC

Thomas Jueng, Senior Managing Director, Samsung Ventures

Tushar Gupta, Managing Director, Qualcomm Ventures

Clayton Petty, Partner, Gradient Ventures

Aidan Madigan-Curtis, Partner, Eclipse Ventures

Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media

 

 

6:10 – 6:40 PM — Fireside Chat: The Next Wave of AI Infrastructure

Marc Boroditsky, Chief Revenue Officer, Nebius

Moderator: Grace Gong, Founder & CEO, Smart Venture Media

 

 

6:40 – 7:20 PM — Smart AI 100 Awards & Group Photo

Grace Gong, Founder and CEO, Smart Venture Media

Jason Saltzman, Head of Insights, CB Insights 

Presented by HubSpot, Snowflake, Morpheus, Vercel, SVB, Sequoia, Nebius, Wilson Sonsini, Auth0, Smart Venture Media

 

 

7:20 PM — Interactive Session: Future of Play with AI

Live Tech Game by 14.ai

 

 

7:45 PM — Smart AI 100 Happy Hour (Hosted Celebration)

An evening of networking, drinks, and connection to close out the summit.

 

Speaker Dinner (Invite Only)