Million Dollar Secret - OpenAI, Replit or Campfire

Million Dollar Secret An evening for AI founders who've stopped pretending it's easy. Menlo Park. Invite or approval only. One night. Around a hundred people. Every founder in the room has either raised an institutional round for their AI company or built one to impressive ARR. No tourists, no tire-kickers, no one working the room with a pitch deck. Just the people actually building. The whole thing runs on a simple rule: you're in because someone in the room vouched for you. That's the secret. There isn't a growth hack or a fundraising trick behind the name. The secret is who's standing next to you at the event. Also in the room: a hand-picked group of VCs who know how to have a conversation without turning it into a term sheet. The ones you'd actually want on your cap table. The ones that are actively investing in AI. The evening centers on a panel on the state of Silicon Valley and AI leading into 2027 and the GTM landscape. What actually gets funded in AI right now. What founders keep getting wrong. What the next twelve months look like from where they're sitting. The Panel: Andrew Verrilli was one of Replit’s first five GTM hires and helped grow the organization to more than 100 people in under two years. He works with companies transforming their software development, product development and day-to-day operations with AI agents. He also builds internal tools for Replit’s GTM team, bringing a hands-on perspective to how companies become agentic and AI-first.

Chris McDonough VP of Sales at Campfire, the AI-native ERP taking on the legacy giants. Chris has a habit of joining companies just before they explode. As employee 40 at Motive, he helped take revenue from $800K to $30M in about 100 days. He then scaled an office from 0 to 100 at Samsara and spent time at Verkada before moving to Campfire, where he’s building an AI-native sales org from scratch. His contrarian view is that AI won’t replace sales reps but will widen the gap between the best and the rest.

John Du - GTM at OpenAI, helping companies understand how frontier AI can be applied to real business problems

Moderated by the best in the Bay: Brian Sparkes CEO of Silicon Valley Venture, a venture platform that connects startups, investors and ecosystem leaders. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, Brian is a third-generation entrepreneur and a Strategic GTM Communication advisor to startups and C-suite executives. He works with 1,400+ founders and executives a year and partners with Startup Grind, Plug and Play, Founder Institute and Bay Angels, among others. He hosts the Silicon Valley Impact Podcast, formerly on 92.9 FM, and is the former Head of Communication for Bay Angels. He has also guest lectured at Stanford Law School on communication and emotional intelligence. His belief: the best communicator wins.

Around that: drinks, dinner-style bites, and enough time and space to have the conversations that don't happen at bigger events. The kind where you meet your next investor, your next co-founder, your next real friend in this thing. If you're in, you already know why. Details Date: November 5 Time: 4:00pm – 7:30pm, panel at 5pm sharp Venue: Menlo Park