The key facts
- The summit will take place on November 4, 2026 at SoWa Power Station, Boston, in partnership with Fidelity Private Shares
- Announced speakers: Steve Fredette (Toast), Kent Bennett (Bessemer), Rudina Seseri (Glasswing), Lior Div (7AI), Chase Garbarino (HqO), Dave Balter (True Ventures)
- Live pitches are planned on the Build Stage with Chirag Shah (Define Ventures) and Simran Suri (Maveron) participating
Startup Founders Summit in Boston
On November 4, 2026, TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 will be held in Boston at the SoWa Power Station venue, organized by TechCrunch in partnership with Fidelity Private Shares. The one-day event will bring together founders, investors and operators to discuss the challenges facing startups: when to scale, how to know when product-market fit has been achieved, how to win enterprise customers, build a team and prepare a pitch for investors. The organizers have also announced sessions, roundtables, networking and a closing reception hosted by Fidelity Private Shares.
Key Speakers and Topics
Steve Fredette, president, co-founder and director of Toast, will speak on the Impact Stage on the topic 'Building a Company That Keeps Reinventing Itself' — about a company's evolution after going public. Kent Bennett, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, will lead a session titled 'Finding Product Market Fit Before You Scale' about signals of readiness for growth. Rudina Seseri, founder and managing partner of Glasswing Ventures, will discuss in 'When to Scale and When to Hit the Brakes' when to accelerate and when to hold back growth. Lior Div, CEO and co-founder of 7AI, will present the topic 'Built for AI From Day One' — about building a company around AI from the very beginning, rather than adding AI to existing processes. Chase Garbarino, CEO and co-founder of HqO, will talk in 'The Boston Founder Playbook' about building a company from Boston outside Silicon Valley.
Pitches and the Rest of the Program
Dave Balter, venture partner at True Ventures and CEO of Edisyl, will speak on the topic 'Your Pitch Has to Earn the Next Conversation' — about how the goal of a pitch is not to close a deal but to get the next meeting. Later in the day, the Build Stage will host 'So You Think You Can Pitch?', where startups will pitch before a jury of investors: Balter, Chirag Shah (partner at Define Ventures) and Simran Suri (principal at Maveron) will evaluate the presentations in real time. The program also features Hunter Worland from NEA on distribution as a competitive advantage, Vineet Edupuganti, co-founder and CEO of Cogent Security, on building '10x teams', Tina Tosukhowong from TDK Ventures on the hidden signals of future category leaders, as well as Kristen Craft and Evan Schnidman from Fidelity Private Shares — on fundraising trends and working with enterprise customers, respectively.
