Tech Breakfast Club

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Ben Hills describes the startup landscape in America like this: In D.C. it’s about policy; in San Francisco it’s about tech and in New York it’s all business. 

It’s a big simplification, of course, but it helps him explain to friends and family why he decided against San Francisco when he moved from D.C. to New York.

Ben is the CEO of HeyIris.AI, which uses AI to draft responses to RFPs, security questionnaires and other documents. He said it’s an advantage to be able to connect with a wider array of startups in New York. 

We met, along with his colleague Gadi Paskoff, at a Tech Breakfast Club meetup at Balthazar organized by Morgan Barrett and co-hosted by Laura Hamilton, Wil Hagen and Alyssa Krejmas. The event was sponsored by Theron McCollough from Citizens Private Bank.

The Tech Breakfast Club is among the best meetups in the city. Morgan, a lawyer at Optimal, organized the first in October 2022 and now schedules one a month. He has also done events in Austin, Boston and Miami and in June plans to do his first in San Francisco. 

I go because — as Ben pointed out — you meet incredible people solving problems you didn’t even know existed. In just 90 minutes one can get a feel for the range of what people are building and the availability of venture capital.

That gives you a sense of where the world is headed and how fast.

Here are some of the people I met and things I learned in no particularly order: 

Samantha Gabriella Khoury at Seaav taught me about sustainable fashion.

Jake Aronskind, CEO of Pepper, inspired me to share my take on carbonara on his recipe-sharing platform.

Jacob Zachs at Fasten sold me on a credit card that rewards drivers for auto loan payments.

Rhea Karimpanal & Joseph Jacob taught me about automating restaurant operations. 

Eugene Sokhransky at Essense.io explained why product managers shouldn’t hate Jira.

Michaelangelo II Anglero at Tradery Labs convinced me machine learning can replace quants on Wall Street.

Guanhao Wu of Exovolar persuaded me we will all fly individual aircraft soon. 

Mike Wolkon, co-founder of Night Inn, opened my eyes to a marketplace for sommeliers.

All the startups I met were using generative AI as core features to build their application. But they were not per se AI companies. 

As startups, they have more latitude to use Gen AI than established players. That’s one reason they are so interesting to follow: they illustrate future ways the tech will transform everything we do.

One thing everyone agreed on was that tech can’t replace a Thursday morning breakfast at Balthazar. 

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BRIEF OBSERVATIONS

GROWING AN AUDIENCE: Mr. Beast, the most successful creator online, with a reminder that growing an audience requires a) time and b) persistence.

LET’S GO!: Marques Brownlee, the most influential tech reviewer online, with a reminder that to get big you have to start somewhere.

AUTHENTIC CONTENT: Jefferies CEO Rich Handler with a reminder that the most compelling online content shares authentic

JEFF BEZOS: Garrett Scott says he has watched a Jeff Bezos video about leadership every Saturday for the past six years. The video is fantastic, and I suspect Bezos would admire the commitment and consistency.

CRIME: Derek Thompson from The Atlantic is one of the most thoughtful social critics and most effective at communicating those ideas on social media.