Join Us for the Inaugural Founder Matching Event!

Are you an AI tinkerer with an active startup idea who is looking for a technical or business co-founder? Conversely, are you interested in joining an early-stage startup as a co-founder or founding engineer? We heard your feedback that finding co-founders and startups to join is a daunting task. That is why we created this unique event designed specifically for those starting and looking to join early-stage startups! This event is sponsored by Ascend and JP Morgan.

Key Details

• Date: Tuesday, December 10, 2024
• Time: 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
• Location: (To be disclosed upon registration confirmation)

How to Apply

1) Fill out the RSVP event registration on the event page

2) Fill out the founder matching form

RSVP and complete the founder match form by 11/21 to receive the best chance of being invited to the event. Completing the form provides you with higher quality matches. All others will be invited as-needed. Invitations will be sent by the week of 12/2.

Who Should Attend

• Technical and business founders who have an active startup idea and are looking for a co-founder or founding engineer
• Technical and business leaders who are looking to join an early-stage startup as a co-founder
• Engineers who want to join an existing founder team as a founding engineer

Event Format

• Pre-Event Matching: All participants must RSVP and complete the founder matching form to be eligible. Based on your responses and AI Tinkerers profile, the top matches will be invited to attend the event in-person.
• Founder Stories: Hear from successful Seattle-based founders Court Lorenzini (founder of Docusign, NASDAQ: DOCU), Shivaas Gulati (founder of Remitly, NASDAQ: RELY), and Grant Goodale (founder of Convoy) about their own co-founder matching journey: how they met their co-founder, what worked well, what they would have done differently.
• Speed Matching: Founders and those looking to join a startup will be paired into groups based on an AI matching algorithm. Each pair will have ~5 minutes to talk to each other before moving to the next person in the group, until each founder has met each person looking to join a startup.
• Networking: Afterwards, connect with your top matches and tinkerers in other groups to strengthen your connections.

👑 Sponsors

The event is generously sponsored by Ascend, who will be providing food, drinks, and helping with the event itself as facilitator, including our moderated panel on founding teams.

Ascend

Ascend is a pre-seed venture capital firm investing in both AI infrastructure and what we call SaaS 3.0: AI-native vertical software applications disrupting the b2b software status quo. Kirby Winfield, Founding General Partner; Associate Nate Bek; and Partner and Chief of Staff Jen Haller work to support portfolio founders on their journey from the idea stage to seed, series A, and beyond - connecting them with customers, talent, and Silicon Valley venture capital.

JP Morgan

JP Morgan’s Startup Banking team combines global resources with local expertise to empower founders at every stage of their journey. Beyond traditional banking services, they provide startups with access to a powerful network of investors and mentors, along with tailored financial solutions to help companies scale. As active members of the Pacific Northwest’s startup ecosystem, their commitment to fostering diverse and inclusive spaces in tech makes them an ideal partner for our community. Visit JP Morgan - Solutions for Founders to learn more.

📊 AI Tinkerers Seattle Stats

• Attendees: This exclusive community of 5,394 technical professionals features a high-signal membership where 35% are CTOs, founders, or principal architects. Key skill areas are balanced across generative AI orchestration (35%), distributed systems infrastructure (35%), and applied machine learning research (30%). Notable achievements include members deploying production-grade agentic architectures, pioneering open-source AI developer tooling, and optimizing GPU-compiler performance at scale.
• Companies Represented: Featuring tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Google, alongside innovative AI platforms and startups such as OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenPipe, Fixie.ai, CopilotKit, and more