The only NY Tech Week guide you need
Let me be honest with you. Tech Week is a flex of FOMO. The calendar is endless, half of it is “invite only” theater, and if you try to do all of it you’ll end up sweaty on a 7am founder run with zero ROI and a tote bag you didn’t want.
I treat this week the way I treat my money - intentionally. A few high-signal rooms beat thirty open bars. Heres a picture of me networking at the last NY Tech week, following my same intentionality principles and I actually walked away with a good interview, connections, and content!
I went through the whole a16z calendar and pulled the ones worth your actual time, organized into the three things I care about: building with AI, getting paid, and the rooms women aren’t usually invited into. Plus the fun ones, because networking on an empty soul is its own kind of broke.
Every link goes straight to the host’s RSVP. Most fill up so apply early!
Start here: the non-negotiables
If you do nothing else, do these. They run across the week and they’re the rooms people will be talking about after.
a16z speedrun AI Faire
a16z’s own AI showcase. This is the room where the funding actually is . If you’re building, be seen here.
<div class="frich-tip">Happening all week. RSVP here. </div>
ElevenLabs NY Tech Week Pop-Up
Voice AI is eating content creation and ElevenLabs is the name. As someone who repurposes one recording into a week of posts, this is directly relevant to anyone making content at scale.
<div class="frich-tip">Happening all week. RSVP here. </div>
The Light Stack | 2026
The serious infra crowd - observability, data, deployment. If you’re technical, this is your people. Less pitch theater, more “show me the architecture.”
<div class="frich-tip">Happening all week. RSVP here. </div>
Vital Signs: A HealthTech Mixer
Healthtech money is patient money. Useful if you care about where the next decade of funding flows.
<div class="frich-tip">Happening all week. RSVP here. </div>
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3 — LAB DAY (THE BIG ONE)
If you only show up one day this week, make it Wednesday. Every frontier lab opens its doors and the talent in these rooms is unmatched.
MY TOP PICK: Anthropic Founder Salon: Inside the AI-Native Era
I build half my workflows on Claude, so this is the one I'm circling. A small, on-record conversation about what stronger models mean for early-stage companies. If you do one AI lab event all week, do this. It will fill - apply early.
<div class="frich-tip">Wednesday, 1:30pm. RSVP here. </div>
Google for Startups: Latest from Google DeepMind
DeepMind researchers walking through the newest model and agent capabilities. It kicks off Google's full-day Hub in Chelsea - back-to-back AI talks all Wednesday, including a 401-level agents masterclass.
<div class="frich-tip">Wednesday, 9am. RSVP here. </div>
Scale AI: Human in the Loop LIVE
A live recording on post-training, evals, and the unglamorous work of making frontier models actually usable. The highest concentration of applied AI engineers you'll find all week - exactly who you want to know.
<div class="frich-tip">Wednesday, 6pm. RSVP here. </div>
Founder Fireside w/ Partiful x a16z
Partiful basically runs the social layer of NYC right now. A founder-heavy room on consumer social and what makes an invite product feel alive - and a16z partners will be working it.
<div class="frich-tip">Wednesday, 5pm. RSVP here. </div>
THURSDAY, JUNE 4 - BUILDERS + WOMEN WHO FUND
Thursday is hands-on. Working lounges over panels, and the night events are where the women-who-write-checks rooms open up.
OpenAI Builder Lounge
Not a panel, but a working lounge with the OpenAI team in the room and accessible all afternoon. RSVPs are heavily filtered, so write a real builder note when you apply. This is rare East Coast access.
<div class="frich-tip">Thursday, 2pm. RSVP here. </div>
ElevenLabs: Live from NY
Live demos of newer voice and audio-agent products with the research team taking questions. As someone who turns one recording into a week of content, this is directly my lane — and they barely do East Coast events.
<div class="frich-tip">Thursday, 6pm. RSVP here. </div>
Female Investors & Founders
An intimate room of female founders and the investors who actually fund them. They'll hand a man a seat at the table and hand you a checklist - so build your own table here.
<div class="frich-tip">Thursday, 5pm. RSVP here. </div>
FRIDAY, JUNE 5 - CLOSE STRONG
Everyone's burnt out by Friday, which means the rooms are smaller and the conversations are realer. Don't tap out early;, this is when you actually get face time.
DON'T MISS: a16z speedrun AI Faire
a16z's tech-and-entertainment accelerator throws its public anchor here - a demo-heavy afternoon of speedrun-backed AI companies with a16z partners working the room. This is where the funding is.
<div class="frich-tip">Friday, 11am. RSVP here. </div>
11-11 Sprint: Tech Week Edition
A live venture-building sprint - founders build and sharpen new ventures from scratch in real time. If you learn by doing (I do), this beats sitting through one more fireside.
<div class="frich-tip">Friday, 11am. RSVP here. </div>
HOW TO ACTUALLY WORK THE WEEK
- Treat Wednesday as the main event. Block it. The lab rooms - Anthropic, Google, Scale - are the highest-signal hours of the entire week and they don't repeat.
- Pick three a day, not thirty. One big room, one builder/working session, one social. The girl trying to do all 1,000 ends the week with a cold and zero follow-ups.
- Write a real note on the filtered RSVPs. OpenAI and the lab events screen applicants. "Excited to connect" gets ignored. One specific line about what you're building gets you in.
- Follow up within 24 hours. I draft my follow-ups in my own voice with AI the same night while the room is fresh. A connection you don't message is just a business card you'll throw out.
- Don't tap out Friday. Smaller rooms, realer conversations, actual face time with people who were unreachable Wednesday.
<div class="frich-tip">Check the live calendar daily: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.</div>
See you out there,
Kristina
