{"id":3491693,"date":"2026-08-28T02:02:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T02:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/28\/ai-athletes-and-keith-rabois-strictlyvc-is-back-in-new-york-on-september-10\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T02:02:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T02:02:44","slug":"ai-athletes-and-keith-rabois-strictlyvc-is-back-in-new-york-on-september-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/28\/ai-athletes-and-keith-rabois-strictlyvc-is-back-in-new-york-on-september-10\/","title":{"rendered":"AI, athletes, and Keith Rabois: StrictlyVC is back in New York on September 10"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Mark your calendars: on Thursday night, September 10, StrictlyVC \u2014 TechCrunch\u2019s boutique evening series \u2014 is heading to New York\u2019s West Village (the real one \u2014 brownstones, cobblestones, and all \u2014 not the Mission Bay stretch of San Francisco that\u2019s earned the nickname \u201cVest Village\u201d for all the Patagonia-clad VCs roaming around). <\/p>\n

It\u2019s our first New York event in two years, and after a run of great nights this year in San Francisco, L.A., and Athens, we couldn\u2019t be more excited to be back \u2014 with a stacked lineup to match. What\u2019s in store:<\/p>\n

Keith Rabois<\/strong>. We\u2019re kicking off the night with the inimitable Keith Rabois, who recently relocated East from Silicon Valley and, true to form, seems intent on shaking things up wherever he lands. Rabois has never been shy about what he thinks is working in venture and what isn\u2019t \u2014 he\u2019s backed Ramp four times and invested as often in State Affairs, a company using AI and local journalists to track statehouse-level news and policy data across all 50 states. He\u2019ll share his strong opinions on founders who raise more capital than they actually need, just because they can. And we\u2019ll get him talking about Khosla Ventures\u2019 boldest AI bet yet: its early $50 million check into OpenAI back in 2019 when the outfit had no clear business model \u2014 plus what he makes of the narrative that OpenAI is facing more headwinds right now than its rivals.<\/p>\n

Craig Shapiro and Jason Levien<\/strong>. After our sit-down with Keith, stick around for a conversation you won\u2019t find anywhere else. Craig Shapiro\u2019s venture firm, Collaborative Fund, is generously co-hosting the evening with us, and we\u2019ll sit down with Shapiro and Jason Levien, CEO of D.C. United, to talk sports organizations as business investments \u2014 and the increasingly tangled intersection of sports, fandom, commerce, and community.<\/p>\n

Image Credits:<\/strong>StrictlyVC\/TechCrunch \/<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tristan Walker<\/strong>. Staying on the theme of community, we\u2019ll dig into a conversation with two founders building for a world where AI does more \u2014 but also takes something away. Tristan Walker, who sold his last company, Walker & Company Brands (maker of Bevel), to Procter & Gamble in 2018, is back with Heirloom Craft, a startup focused on reshoring American fine craftsmanship \u2014 training a new generation of artisans and rebuilding the supply chains behind them. <\/p>\n

Brynn Putnam<\/strong>. Walker will be joined by Brynn Putnam, who sold her last company, connected-fitness startup Mirror, to Lululemon for $500 million, just three years after it was launched. Putnam\u2019s newest venture is Board, a game company blending physical play with AI-powered creation tools \u2014 built as something of an antidote to the isolation tech has fueled, bringing people back together around, literally, a board.<\/p>\n

Deven Parekh<\/strong>. Last but not least, we\u2019re thrilled to catch up with Deven Parekh, who has co-run Insight Partners \u2014 the New York powerhouse investment firm \u2014 for more than 25 years. Insight doesn\u2019t do a lot of press, but Parekh has agreed to pull back the curtain on how the firm is thinking about a landscape where it\u2019s gotten harder to tell asset classes apart, as some of the biggest funds have grown exponentially larger. What we want to know: how does Insight compete in a world where capital itself is a commodity, but the potential returns on massive investments have also never been bigger?<\/p>\n

Expect a fun night all around, with drinks, hors d\u2019oeuvres, and plenty of networking before and after the fireside chats, including with Connie Loizos, Rebecca Bellan, and other TechCrunch writers (as well as our friends from other outlets). <\/p>\n

Giant thanks again to the team at Collaborative Fund for making the night possible. More details and ticketing info right here. See you in the (real) West Village.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n

Mark your calendars: on Thursday night, September 10, StrictlyVC \u2014 TechCrunch\u2019s boutique evening series \u2014 is heading to New York\u2019s West Village (the real one \u2014 brownstones, cobblestones, and all \u2014 not the Mission Bay stretch of San Francisco that\u2019s earned the nickname \u201cVest Village\u201d for all the Patagonia-clad VCs roaming around). <\/p>\n

It\u2019s our first New York event in two years, and after a run of great nights this year in San Francisco, L.A., and Athens, we couldn\u2019t be more excited to be back \u2014 with a stacked lineup to match. What\u2019s in store:<\/p>\n

Keith Rabois<\/strong>. We\u2019re kicking off the night with the inimitable Keith Rabois, who recently relocated East from Silicon Valley and, true to form, seems intent on shaking things up wherever he lands. Rabois has never been shy about what he thinks is working in venture and what isn\u2019t \u2014 he\u2019s backed Ramp four times and invested as often in State Affairs, a company using AI and local journalists to track statehouse-level news and policy data across all 50 states. He\u2019ll share his strong opinions on founders who raise more capital than they actually need, just because they can. And we\u2019ll get him talking about Khosla Ventures\u2019 boldest AI bet yet: its early $50 million check into OpenAI back in 2019 when the outfit had no clear business model \u2014 plus what he makes of the narrative that OpenAI is facing more headwinds right now than its rivals.<\/p>\n

Craig Shapiro and Jason Levien<\/strong>. After our sit-down with Keith, stick around for a conversation you won\u2019t find anywhere else. Craig Shapiro\u2019s venture firm, Collaborative Fund, is generously co-hosting the evening with us, and we\u2019ll sit down with Shapiro and Jason Levien, CEO of D.C. United, to talk sports organizations as business investments \u2014 and the increasingly tangled intersection of sports, fandom, commerce, and community.<\/p>\n

Image Credits:<\/strong>StrictlyVC\/TechCrunch \/<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tristan Walker<\/strong>. Staying on the theme of community, we\u2019ll dig into a conversation with two founders building for a world where AI does more \u2014 but also takes something away. Tristan Walker, who sold his last company, Walker & Company Brands (maker of Bevel), to Procter & Gamble in 2018, is back with Heirloom Craft, a startup focused on reshoring American fine craftsmanship \u2014 training a new generation of artisans and rebuilding the supply chains behind them. <\/p>\n

Brynn Putnam<\/strong>. Walker will be joined by Brynn Putnam, who sold her last company, connected-fitness startup Mirror, to Lululemon for $500 million, just three years after it was launched. Putnam\u2019s newest venture is Board, a game company blending physical play with AI-powered creation tools \u2014 built as something of an antidote to the isolation tech has fueled, bringing people back together around, literally, a board.<\/p>\n

Deven Parekh<\/strong>. Last but not least, we\u2019re thrilled to catch up with Deven Parekh, who has co-run Insight Partners \u2014 the New York powerhouse investment firm \u2014 for more than 25 years. Insight doesn\u2019t do a lot of press, but Parekh has agreed to pull back the curtain on how the firm is thinking about a landscape where it\u2019s gotten harder to tell asset classes apart, as some of the biggest funds have grown exponentially larger. What we want to know: how does Insight compete in a world where capital itself is a commodity, but the potential returns on massive investments have also never been bigger?<\/p>\n

Expect a fun night all around, with drinks, hors d\u2019oeuvres, and plenty of networking before and after the fireside chats, including with Connie Loizos, Rebecca Bellan, and other TechCrunch writers (as well as our friends from other outlets). <\/p>\n

Giant thanks again to the team at Collaborative Fund for making the night possible. More details and ticketing info right here. See you in the (real) West Village.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3491694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3491693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3491693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3491693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3491693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3491694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3491693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3491693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3491693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}