NYC Coffee Club: Early-Stage AI-Native Founders & Funders

AI-native should describe how a company is designed, not the paragraph somebody added to the pitch deck after the market moved. Forum Ventures is building this coffee gathering around founders starting from that premise and the funders trying to understand what changes when AI sits inside the operating model from day one.

Small, focused rooms can be more useful than large conferences when the participants share a specific company-building question. Early-stage founders need candid feedback on product scope, technical defensibility, distribution, and the milestones investors will treat as evidence. Funders need a sharper view of which teams are using AI structurally rather than cosmetically.

What the event is built around

• What makes an early-stage company genuinely AI-native
• Founder formation, product focus, and early evidence
• How funders are evaluating technical and commercial defensibility
• Peer exchange among founders at a similar stage
• Relationship building in a deliberately small format

Who should have it on the radar

The gathering is intended for early-stage AI-native founders and funders active in the New York ecosystem. Registration requires approval, and the final location is shared with confirmed guests. It is not described as members-only; approval is a capacity and audience-control mechanism.

What to watch

The listed hosts include Olivia O’Sullivan, Alice Krenitski, Naomi Goez, Lauren Roberts, Alexis Clarfield-Henry, and Maria Pope. There is no separate public speaker roster. The signal is the room itself and the quality of the founder-investor exchange.

Event details

• Date: 2026-08-21
• Time: 10:00 AM–11:00 AM ET
• Location: Location shared after approval, New York, NY
• Type: Networking
• Register: Official event page

Registration requirements, capacity, location details, and program information can change. Use the official registration page for the latest information from the organizer.