AI redefines what it means to be a startup. When the cost of code drops by a thousand, traditional barriers to entry vanish. For founders who build alongside AI agents, the possibilities seem limitless.
But the breathless race to AI reveals some hard truths. Code you didn't build breaks in unexpected ways. When you 10x your output, you 10x someone else's input. Relying on AI leads to the unmistakable sameness of content and interfaces. Everyone else is catching up, and competitive moats erode overnight. And when you can build anything, the problem becomes knowing what you should build, and whether anyone will care when you do.
Any startup that isn’t embracing AI already is probably doomed—but those who rush recklessly ahead are building atop a fragile foundation, and mistaking easy for good.
July 9th, 2026
AIFest
Build on bedrock, not hype.
AI changes everything
ATTEND AIFEST WITH YOUR STARTUPFEST TICKET
Whether you're building apps that use AI, or just using AI to build apps, don't miss this content. Join us for a four-hour series of talks and workshops hosted by Startupfest chair Alistair Croll that goes beyond the hype and looks at how AI agents are fundamentally changing the cost of software, the reality of customer retention, and the fundamentals of tech entrepreneurship.
You’ll walk away with:
- 5 Lenses to Think About the Future
Master the frameworks—from Jevons’ Upside to Christensen’s Value Migration—to predict where the industry is headed. - The New Competitive Moats
Identify where real advantage lives when traditional barriers to entry have been automated away. - A Blueprint for Scalability
Understand why context, skills, harnesses, and pipelines are the essential foundations for the next generation of startups. - Survival Strategies for Retention
Learn the two types of customer retention and why one of them is headed for certain doom. - Hands-on Pioneer Intelligence
Gain insights from over a year of global experimentation with AI agents and frontier tech.
Who should attend
AIFest is designed for:
- Software-centric Founders: Building in SaaS, e-commerce, or marketplaces.
- Marketing Leaders: Looking to scale activity and automate complex tasks without ballooning headcount.
- Ecosystem Players: Accelerators and investors who need to see around the next corner of the industry.
You’ll get the most value if you are:
- Ready to embrace AI agents: And move beyond simple chatbots into full startup augmentation.
- Navigating eroding moats: And looking for a stable foundation to build atop.
- Prioritizing sustainable growth: Instead of rushing recklessly into fragile tech stacks.
AIFest 2026 Speakers
AIFest 2026 Agenda
July 09
1:00 PM EDT
Welcome to AIFest
Join Startupfest Content Chair Alistair Croll as he kicks off AIFest, a half day deep-dive that goes beyond the hype and looks at how AI agents are fundamentally changing the cost of software, the reality of customer retention, and the fundamentals of tech entrepreneurship. See More.
1:05 PM EDT
Life in the Fast Lane - Building a Dark Factory Code Generator
Harper Reed shares what a year of running a team on ~100% AI-generated code has taught him about workflows, guardrails, org design, and the choice every leader is about to face. See More.
1:35 PM EDT
Data Rooms in 2026
Building a data room used to require either expensive advisors or a founder with an investment banking or consulting pedigree. In this talk, Fatima draws on her background in both to break down what actually matters in pre-seed and seed fundraising documents — from market sizing to financial models to sensitivity tables. See More.
2:05 PM EDT
When Execution Is Free, Judgment Is Everything
In this talk, we will explore why the leaders who win in the AI era will be those who slow down to think deeply about the problems they are solving, design the right experiments, and cut through the noise to guide their organizations toward meaningful outcomes. See More.
2:35 PM EDT
The Obstacles to Deploying AI Agents to Production
In this session, Morgan Willis will walk through what it takes to build AI agents you can trust in production. She'll walk through a layered approach that combines input validation, output filtering, LLM-as-judge steering, and action approval—the layers you need to turn a vibe-coded experiment into actual infrastructure. See More.
3:05 PM EDT
Workshop: Your Agentic Co-Founder
Join Startupfest chair and bestselling author Alistair Croll for a two-hour dive into the world of AI-augmented startups. It's a two-hour, interactive discussion on what's working, what's changing, and where entrepreneurship is headed with a second intelligence joining the team. See More.
In collaboration with
