Immigrant Founders Pitch Night: Fireside Chat, Lightning Pitches & Gallery Demos

Step inside a beautiful San Francisco art gallery for an evening spotlighting immigrant founders building the next generation of American companies. For immigrant founders, building in the U.S. means more than product, traction, and fundraising. It often means navigating visas, uncertainty, limited networks, cultural translation, and the pressure to make every opportunity count. Join us June 29th for a fireside chat with Sharmin Ali, immigrant founder lightning pitches, VC Q&A, demo booths, dinner, and networking. Each startup will pitch for 2 minutes, followed by 2 minutes of VC Q&A. After the pitches, guests will visit demo booths and vote for their favorite startups using event tickets. Each attendee receives 3 voting tickets toward the Crowd Favorite Award. Supported by Stelmakh & Associates LLC

Fireside Chat 🎙️ Speaker | Sharmin Ali

3× Founder (1🦄). Fortune India 40 Under 40. Bestselling Author. AI Entrepreneur.

From India to Wall Street to founding an AI company backed with over $20M — Sharmin's story is one of ambition, survival, and reinvention. She built, scaled, exited, nearly lost everything, and came back stronger. This is the immigrant founder journey, live. In conversation with Tonya J. Long, Managing Partner, Daymaker Ventures

VC Judge Panel 🎤 VC Judge | Tonya J. Long

Managing Partner, Daymaker Ventures. Author. Capital Architect. Twenty years at the intersection of enterprise technology and venture capital. $1.5B in value created. Deploys syndicated capital into early-stage AI, enterprise software, and future-of-work companies. Author of AI and the New Oz — #1 on Amazon. 🎤 VC Judge | Jasmeet "BeardedMaker" Singh

Managing Partner, JMoon Ventures. 3× Founder. Physical AI Investing in robotics since 2004 — before the category had a name. Backs seed-stage founders building in robotics, humanoids, IoT, XR, and AI-enabled hardware. 25% IRR. 300+ startups advised. Portfolio includes Orange Wood Labs, Brisk AI, and Rural Hologram.

🎤 VC Judge | Patricia Liu

Co-President, MIT Angels. Founder, Venture-Ready Pitching. Stanford Lecturer. Leads a 700-person MIT alumni angel network writing checks into early-stage companies across AI, deep tech, software, and hardware. Teaches pitching across the Stanford ecosystem and advises founders at top-tier VCs and accelerators. 🎤 VC Judge | Igor Buchatskiy

Venture Partner, TA Ventures. Pre-seed through Series A across SaaS, fintech, digital health, mobility.

Checks ranging $100K–$1M. Ukrainian immigrant who built a leading FMCG company from the ground up before moving into venture. Ex-McKinsey and Bain executive with operating experience as a VP/CEO across FMCG and agribusiness.

🎤 VC Judge | Alexis Zamira Maciel

Principal, Unshackled Ventures. Day-zero investor. Immigrant founder champion. Backs early-stage founders building from zero, with a focus on immigrant ambition, founder-problem fit, and overlooked talent. At Unshackled Ventures, Alexis helps identify and support immigrant-led startups at the earliest stages, bringing a sharp eye for resilience, market insight, and the kind of founder grit that rarely shows up cleanly on a pitch deck.

Featured Startup Pitches & Demos Meet the startups pitching and demoing live at Immigrant Founders Pitch Night. Petpin The first real-world data network captured by animals, powered by wearable AI. StarDrive Deterministic, auditable AI for defense and safety-critical operators deploying autonomous systems in space, contested environments, and critical infrastructure. Reer AI design workspace bringing agentic workflows into CAD and BIM tools like Rhino, Revit, & more. SageMed AI Agentic AI platform automating regulatory-grade post-market evidence for MedTech and pharma. Future AGI Open-source AI agent engineering platform for testing, monitoring, optimizing, and guardrailing production agents. Proxyble Real-time API security for platform and security teams to detect and stop abuse from clients, bots, and AI agents. Relayn AI infrastructure for mobile first economy. Dreamz Sleep neurotechnology mask using brain sensing, gentle stimulation, and personalized insights to support better rest. Blueprints AI AI platform that turns sketches, CAD files, PDFs, photos, or plain-language project descriptions into code-compliant, permit-ready construction documents.

Mirai Tech DeepTech wearable sensing platform developing smart insoles and motion analytics for rehabilitation, sports performance, and injury prevention.

Labvana AI platform built to help scientific R&D teams use AI and machine learning in physical labs without heavy custom engineering.

Topaas.AI Codebase intelligence layer that turns large legacy systems into agent-ready specs using spectral graph theory.

P1 Energy Modular synthetic fuel platform converting renewable methanol into drop-in fuels usable in today’s engines without modification.

Robility Assistive robotic technology to enhance human mobility

Aora A wearable device behind your ear that track’s brain activities throughout the day.

Chargebotic Drones that harvest power from the grid and deliver it where the mission is.

Cognivix Enabling robots to learn precise industrial manipulation from a single human demonstration. No teleoperation. No long training. Just show and repeat.

Founders building across AI, software, robotics, fintech, consumer, health, infrastructure, deep tech, and other high-growth sectors are invited to apply to pitch.

Schedule 5:30 PM — Doors + Check In Food, drinks, and networking 6:00 PM — Fireside Chat Investor and founder insights on building, fundraising, and scaling in America 6:20 PM — Immigrant Founder Lightning Pitches Selected founders pitch investors and receive feedback 7:30 PM — Dinner, Demos, & Networking Attendees and investors visit startup booths and give tickets to their favorites. 9:00 PM — Crowd Favorite Award 9:30 PM — Event Concludes

*Schedule is subject to change*

Registration & Attendance This event is open to founders, investors, operators, advisors, students, and ecosystem leaders interested in startups, venture capital, and immigrant entrepreneurship. Designed for people building, funding, or supporting the next generation of immigrant-led companies in America.

Supported by

Stelmakh & Associates LLC — At Stelmakh & Associates, LLC, we help technology professionals, startup founders, and extraordinary individuals build their future in the United States. Founded in Silicon Valley and based in Seattle, our firm helps with O-1, EB-1A, and EB-2 NIW visas, guiding clients through every stage of the immigration process.

This event is part of Visa2Venture Week. Click here for more information to get involved.