On Wednesday evening at PlayGround Global in Palo Alto, some very smart people who are building things you don’t understand yet will explain what’s coming. This is the final StrictlyVC event of 2025, and truly, the lineup is ridiculous.
The series has bounced around the globe under the auspices of TechCrunch. Steve Case rented a theater in D.C.; we talked to Greece’s prime minister in Athens; and Kirsten Green hosted us at the Presidio in San Francisco. The concept is always the same, though: get people who are working on genuinely important developments in a room before everyone else figures out they’re important.
Our favorite moment? In 2019, Sam Altman told a StrictlyVC crowd that OpenAI’s monetization strategy was basically “build AGI, then ask it how to make money.” Everyone laughed. He wasn’t joking.
This time we’ve got Nicholas Kelez, a particle accelerator physicist who spent 20 years at the Department of Energy building things that shouldn’t be possible. Now he’s tackling semiconductor manufacturing’s biggest problem: every advanced chip depends on $400 million machines that use lasers only one Dutch company knows how to make. (More galling to some: Americans invented the technology, then sold it to Europe.) Kelez is building the next generation in America using particle accelerator tech. It’s as nerdy as it sounds but more important than you might imagine.
Then there’s Mina Fahmi, who’s made a ring that captures your whispered thoughts and turns them into text. Before you roll your eyes, know that he and cofounder Kirak Hong spent years at Meta working on this stuff after their company was acquired. The Stream Ring isn’t trying to be your friend, by the way — it’s trying to extend your brain. Backed by Toni Schneider, an operator who scaled WordPress to a billion visitors, Sandbar just emerged from stealth and might well be onto something. (Schneider is a partner at True Ventures, whose other hardware bets have included Peloton, Ring, and Fitbit; he’s also coming to Palo Alto next week.)
We have Max Hodak — Science Corp founder, Time magazine cover subject, and, earlier, Neuralink cofounder — who has already restored vision to dozens of blind people with retinal implants. Now he’s working on “biohybrid” brain-computer interfaces where chips seeded with stem cells grow into your brain tissue so paralyzed people can control devices with their thoughts. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as Hodak views it. In fact, he thinks 2035 is going to look wildly different from today, and he’s happy to share how.
Finally, we’re thrilled to welcome Chi-Hua Chien and Elizabeth Weil, two VCs who’ve backed Twitter, Spotify, TikTok, Slack, SpaceX, Figma, and Coinbase before they were household names. Chien runs Goodwater Capital and thinks Silicon Valley is completely misreading the AI moment while everyone piles into enterprise AI. Weil founded Scribble Ventures after stints at Andreessen Horowitz and Twitter, made 100+ angel investments, and has a first fund showing 4x returns. Her network is so good it’s annoying. Both think the best consumer tech opportunities are the ones everyone’s ignoring, and they’ll explain why.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
October 13-15, 2026
PlayGround Global is hosting, along with general partner Pat Gelsinger, the former CEO of Intel. There will be drinks, delicious food, and merriment; seating is limited, so if you want to come, act fast.
If you want to partner with the series in 2026, get in touch.
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#future #explained #Palo #Alto #TechCrunch
![Here’s Your First Look at The Riddler, Mad Hatter, Scarecrow, and Roxy Rocket in ‘Caped Crusader’ Season Two
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey gets an “R” rating. Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man turns children into bloodsucking ghouls. Spider-Man: Brand New Day has a longer running time than John Boorman’s Excalibur. Come fly the teeth of the wind, share my wings. It’s Morning Spoilers! The Guide Deadline reports James Badge Dale, Abigail Cowen, and Edouard Philipponnat will star in The Guide, a “psychological thriller” concerning psychotropic mushrooms from directors Inon and Natalie Shampanier. The film stars Cowen as “a young woman who enters a psilocybin mushroom retreat in an effort to heal past traumas, surrendering herself to the care of a psychedelic therapy guide (Badge Dale). As the guide’s motives come under suspicion, the past bleeds into the present and the session unravels into a psychedelic nightmare.” Spider-Man: Brand New Day According to Shaw Theaters, Spider-Man: Brand New Day runs an impressive two hours and twenty-five minutes long.
The Odyssey TLC Chinese Theaters suggests Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has been rated “R” and runs two-hours and fifty two-minutes long. As the film is budgeted at 0 million, World of Reel states this would officially make it the most expensive R-rated movie of all time.
Ray Gunn Empire Magazine has a new image from Brad Bird’s animated sci-fi noir, Ray Gunn, starring the voice of Sam Rockwell as a Chris Pine-esque detective. Ice Cream Man Demonically-tainted ice cream turns children into cannibalistic deviants in the “red band” (and very gory!) trailer for Eli Roth’s latest, Ice Cream Man. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JeUjIqK_4c[/embed] Fall 2: Deadpoint Two young women are trapped on a plank instead of a pole in the first trailer for the horizontal sequel to Fall.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsztt5qDj_A[/embed] Ice Age: Boiling Point Elsewhere, the Ice Age cast is shot skyward by a volcanic geyser in the first teaser for Boiling Point. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWY_wCPfIIM[/embed] The Littlest Hobo According to Deadline, a live-action reboot of The Littlest Hobo is now in development at Lionsgate Canada from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s production company, Point Grey, in partnership with franchise rights holders New Hobo Productions, Inc. As always, the new series will follow a crime-fighting German Shepherd who wanders from town-to-town doing everything from solving domestic disputes to foiling jewel heists. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms During a recent interview with The Playlist, director Owen Harris provided a positive update on the troubled second season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
I’m in Belfast. We are halfway through season 2, slugging away. We are about to go off to Gran Canaria to shoot a part of it, and we have been shooting. We started shooting in November, I think, end of November. We’ve shot it in chunks. Another six episodes, and I’m doing four of them. Batman: Caped Crusader Amazon and Warner Bros. Animation shared several new images from the second season of Batman: Caped Crusader, including our first looks at all-new incarnations of The Riddler, Scarecrow, The Mad Hatter, and Roxy Rocket. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds During her recent appearance at FedCon ’26 in Germany (via Instagram), Christina Chong teased the ninth episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ fourth season was “the hardest episode I’ve ever had to do,” because “someone I love very, very much is in it.”
Rick and Morty Finally, Rick tests the limits of the “Five Point Exploding Heart Technique” in a new clip from this week’s episode of Rick and Morty. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxuqiI6mAIo[/embed] Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Heres #Riddler #Mad #Hatter #Scarecrow #Roxy #Rocket #Caped #Crusader #SeasonBatman: Caped Crusader,Morning Spoilers,Rick and Morty,Spider-Man: Brand New Day,The Odyssey](https://i2.wp.com/gizmodo.com/app/uploads/2026/06/Morning-Spoilers-June-5-Caped-Crusader-1280x853.jpg?ssl=1 "Here’s Your First Look at The Riddler, Mad Hatter, Scarecrow, and Roxy Rocket in ‘Caped Crusader’ Season Two
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey gets an “R” rating. Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man turns children into bloodsucking ghouls. Spider-Man: Brand New Day has a longer running time than John Boorman’s Excalibur. Come fly the teeth of the wind, share my wings. It’s Morning Spoilers! The Guide Deadline reports James Badge Dale, Abigail Cowen, and Edouard Philipponnat will star in The Guide, a “psychological thriller” concerning psychotropic mushrooms from directors Inon and Natalie Shampanier. The film stars Cowen as “a young woman who enters a psilocybin mushroom retreat in an effort to heal past traumas, surrendering herself to the care of a psychedelic therapy guide (Badge Dale). As the guide’s motives come under suspicion, the past bleeds into the present and the session unravels into a psychedelic nightmare.” Spider-Man: Brand New Day According to Shaw Theaters, Spider-Man: Brand New Day runs an impressive two hours and twenty-five minutes long.
The Odyssey TLC Chinese Theaters suggests Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has been rated “R” and runs two-hours and fifty two-minutes long. As the film is budgeted at 0 million, World of Reel states this would officially make it the most expensive R-rated movie of all time.
Ray Gunn Empire Magazine has a new image from Brad Bird’s animated sci-fi noir, Ray Gunn, starring the voice of Sam Rockwell as a Chris Pine-esque detective. Ice Cream Man Demonically-tainted ice cream turns children into cannibalistic deviants in the “red band” (and very gory!) trailer for Eli Roth’s latest, Ice Cream Man. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JeUjIqK_4c[/embed] Fall 2: Deadpoint Two young women are trapped on a plank instead of a pole in the first trailer for the horizontal sequel to Fall.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsztt5qDj_A[/embed] Ice Age: Boiling Point Elsewhere, the Ice Age cast is shot skyward by a volcanic geyser in the first teaser for Boiling Point. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWY_wCPfIIM[/embed] The Littlest Hobo According to Deadline, a live-action reboot of The Littlest Hobo is now in development at Lionsgate Canada from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s production company, Point Grey, in partnership with franchise rights holders New Hobo Productions, Inc. As always, the new series will follow a crime-fighting German Shepherd who wanders from town-to-town doing everything from solving domestic disputes to foiling jewel heists. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms During a recent interview with The Playlist, director Owen Harris provided a positive update on the troubled second season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
I’m in Belfast. We are halfway through season 2, slugging away. We are about to go off to Gran Canaria to shoot a part of it, and we have been shooting. We started shooting in November, I think, end of November. We’ve shot it in chunks. Another six episodes, and I’m doing four of them. Batman: Caped Crusader Amazon and Warner Bros. Animation shared several new images from the second season of Batman: Caped Crusader, including our first looks at all-new incarnations of The Riddler, Scarecrow, The Mad Hatter, and Roxy Rocket. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds During her recent appearance at FedCon ’26 in Germany (via Instagram), Christina Chong teased the ninth episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ fourth season was “the hardest episode I’ve ever had to do,” because “someone I love very, very much is in it.”
Rick and Morty Finally, Rick tests the limits of the “Five Point Exploding Heart Technique” in a new clip from this week’s episode of Rick and Morty. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxuqiI6mAIo[/embed] Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Heres #Riddler #Mad #Hatter #Scarecrow #Roxy #Rocket #Caped #Crusader #SeasonBatman: Caped Crusader,Morning Spoilers,Rick and Morty,Spider-Man: Brand New Day,The Odyssey")
![Here’s Your First Look at The Riddler, Mad Hatter, Scarecrow, and Roxy Rocket in ‘Caped Crusader’ Season Two
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey gets an “R” rating. Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man turns children into bloodsucking ghouls. Spider-Man: Brand New Day has a longer running time than John Boorman’s Excalibur. Come fly the teeth of the wind, share my wings. It’s Morning Spoilers! The Guide Deadline reports James Badge Dale, Abigail Cowen, and Edouard Philipponnat will star in The Guide, a “psychological thriller” concerning psychotropic mushrooms from directors Inon and Natalie Shampanier. The film stars Cowen as “a young woman who enters a psilocybin mushroom retreat in an effort to heal past traumas, surrendering herself to the care of a psychedelic therapy guide (Badge Dale). As the guide’s motives come under suspicion, the past bleeds into the present and the session unravels into a psychedelic nightmare.” Spider-Man: Brand New Day According to Shaw Theaters, Spider-Man: Brand New Day runs an impressive two hours and twenty-five minutes long.
The Odyssey TLC Chinese Theaters suggests Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has been rated “R” and runs two-hours and fifty two-minutes long. As the film is budgeted at $250 million, World of Reel states this would officially make it the most expensive R-rated movie of all time.
Ray Gunn Empire Magazine has a new image from Brad Bird’s animated sci-fi noir, Ray Gunn, starring the voice of Sam Rockwell as a Chris Pine-esque detective. Ice Cream Man Demonically-tainted ice cream turns children into cannibalistic deviants in the “red band” (and very gory!) trailer for Eli Roth’s latest, Ice Cream Man. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JeUjIqK_4c[/embed] Fall 2: Deadpoint Two young women are trapped on a plank instead of a pole in the first trailer for the horizontal sequel to Fall.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsztt5qDj_A[/embed] Ice Age: Boiling Point Elsewhere, the Ice Age cast is shot skyward by a volcanic geyser in the first teaser for Boiling Point. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWY_wCPfIIM[/embed] The Littlest Hobo According to Deadline, a live-action reboot of The Littlest Hobo is now in development at Lionsgate Canada from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s production company, Point Grey, in partnership with franchise rights holders New Hobo Productions, Inc. As always, the new series will follow a crime-fighting German Shepherd who wanders from town-to-town doing everything from solving domestic disputes to foiling jewel heists. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms During a recent interview with The Playlist, director Owen Harris provided a positive update on the troubled second season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
I’m in Belfast. We are halfway through season 2, slugging away. We are about to go off to Gran Canaria to shoot a part of it, and we have been shooting. We started shooting in November, I think, end of November. We’ve shot it in chunks. Another six episodes, and I’m doing four of them. Batman: Caped Crusader Amazon and Warner Bros. Animation shared several new images from the second season of Batman: Caped Crusader, including our first looks at all-new incarnations of The Riddler, Scarecrow, The Mad Hatter, and Roxy Rocket. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds During her recent appearance at FedCon ’26 in Germany (via Instagram), Christina Chong teased the ninth episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ fourth season was “the hardest episode I’ve ever had to do,” because “someone I love very, very much is in it.”
Rick and Morty Finally, Rick tests the limits of the “Five Point Exploding Heart Technique” in a new clip from this week’s episode of Rick and Morty. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxuqiI6mAIo[/embed] Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Heres #Riddler #Mad #Hatter #Scarecrow #Roxy #Rocket #Caped #Crusader #SeasonBatman: Caped Crusader,Morning Spoilers,Rick and Morty,Spider-Man: Brand New Day,The Odyssey](https://gizmodo.com/app/uploads/2026/06/Morning-Spoilers-June-5-Caped-Crusader-1280x853.jpg "Here’s Your First Look at The Riddler, Mad Hatter, Scarecrow, and Roxy Rocket in ‘Caped Crusader’ Season Two
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey gets an “R” rating. Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man turns children into bloodsucking ghouls. Spider-Man: Brand New Day has a longer running time than John Boorman’s Excalibur. Come fly the teeth of the wind, share my wings. It’s Morning Spoilers! The Guide Deadline reports James Badge Dale, Abigail Cowen, and Edouard Philipponnat will star in The Guide, a “psychological thriller” concerning psychotropic mushrooms from directors Inon and Natalie Shampanier. The film stars Cowen as “a young woman who enters a psilocybin mushroom retreat in an effort to heal past traumas, surrendering herself to the care of a psychedelic therapy guide (Badge Dale). As the guide’s motives come under suspicion, the past bleeds into the present and the session unravels into a psychedelic nightmare.” Spider-Man: Brand New Day According to Shaw Theaters, Spider-Man: Brand New Day runs an impressive two hours and twenty-five minutes long.
The Odyssey TLC Chinese Theaters suggests Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has been rated “R” and runs two-hours and fifty two-minutes long. As the film is budgeted at $250 million, World of Reel states this would officially make it the most expensive R-rated movie of all time.
Ray Gunn Empire Magazine has a new image from Brad Bird’s animated sci-fi noir, Ray Gunn, starring the voice of Sam Rockwell as a Chris Pine-esque detective. Ice Cream Man Demonically-tainted ice cream turns children into cannibalistic deviants in the “red band” (and very gory!) trailer for Eli Roth’s latest, Ice Cream Man. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JeUjIqK_4c[/embed] Fall 2: Deadpoint Two young women are trapped on a plank instead of a pole in the first trailer for the horizontal sequel to Fall.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsztt5qDj_A[/embed] Ice Age: Boiling Point Elsewhere, the Ice Age cast is shot skyward by a volcanic geyser in the first teaser for Boiling Point. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWY_wCPfIIM[/embed] The Littlest Hobo According to Deadline, a live-action reboot of The Littlest Hobo is now in development at Lionsgate Canada from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s production company, Point Grey, in partnership with franchise rights holders New Hobo Productions, Inc. As always, the new series will follow a crime-fighting German Shepherd who wanders from town-to-town doing everything from solving domestic disputes to foiling jewel heists. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms During a recent interview with The Playlist, director Owen Harris provided a positive update on the troubled second season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
I’m in Belfast. We are halfway through season 2, slugging away. We are about to go off to Gran Canaria to shoot a part of it, and we have been shooting. We started shooting in November, I think, end of November. We’ve shot it in chunks. Another six episodes, and I’m doing four of them. Batman: Caped Crusader Amazon and Warner Bros. Animation shared several new images from the second season of Batman: Caped Crusader, including our first looks at all-new incarnations of The Riddler, Scarecrow, The Mad Hatter, and Roxy Rocket. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds During her recent appearance at FedCon ’26 in Germany (via Instagram), Christina Chong teased the ninth episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ fourth season was “the hardest episode I’ve ever had to do,” because “someone I love very, very much is in it.”
Rick and Morty Finally, Rick tests the limits of the “Five Point Exploding Heart Technique” in a new clip from this week’s episode of Rick and Morty. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxuqiI6mAIo[/embed] Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Heres #Riddler #Mad #Hatter #Scarecrow #Roxy #Rocket #Caped #Crusader #SeasonBatman: Caped Crusader,Morning Spoilers,Rick and Morty,Spider-Man: Brand New Day,The Odyssey")
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