StrictlyVC event in San Francisco set for April 30 with TDK and Replit

In short: TechCrunch is holding its first StrictlyVC event of 2026 in San Francisco on April 30, and it has announced several speakers.

What happened

TechCrunch said StrictlyVC San Francisco will take place on April 30 at the Sentro Filipino Cultural Center. The event is part of TechCrunch’s StrictlyVC series, which focuses on conversations with investors and startup founders.

TechCrunch listed several speakers for the night. They include Nicolas Sauvage, president of TDK Ventures, who will talk with TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos about how corporate venture capital works (when a big company invests in smaller startups). TechCrunch said Sauvage leads a $500 million effort to invest in early-stage companies.

Another speaker is Campbell Brown, a former CNN host and former head of news at Meta, who is now co-founder and CEO of Forum AI. TechCrunch said her talk will focus on making AI platforms more trustworthy, including how to check whether information from “LLMs” is accurate (LLMs are large language models, which are AI systems that generate text, like a very advanced autocomplete).

TechCrunch also said Amjad Masad, co-founder and CEO of Replit, will speak. Replit is a tool that helps people build software in a browser, and Masad is expected to discuss new ways people are creating software with AI help.

Why it matters

For founders building AI products, events like this can be a direct way to learn what investors look for and to meet the people who write checks. For everyone else, it is another sign that AI is now a main topic in startup funding conversations, not a side topic.

Source: TechCrunch AI