AI、运动员与 Keith Rabois：StrictlyVC 将于 9 月 10 日重返纽约

Mark your calendars: on Thursday night, September 10, StrictlyVC — TechCrunch’s boutique evening series — is heading to New York’s West Village (the real one — brownstones, cobblestones, and all — not the Mission Bay stretch of San Francisco that’s earned the nickname “Vest Village” for all the Patagonia-clad VCs roaming around). It’s our first New York event in two years, and after a run of great nights this year in San Francisco, L.A., and Athens, we couldn’t be more excited to be back — with a stacked lineup to match.

请在日历上标记好：9 月 10 日（周四）晚上，TechCrunch 的精品晚间系列活动 StrictlyVC 将前往纽约西村（真正的西村——有褐砂石建筑、鹅卵石街道的那种，而不是旧金山 Mission Bay 那片因到处是穿着 Patagonia 马甲的风险投资人而被戏称为“马甲村”的地方）。这是我们两年来首次在纽约举办活动，在今年于旧金山、洛杉矶和雅典度过了一系列精彩的夜晚后，我们非常激动能回归，并带来了同样强大的嘉宾阵容。

What’s in store: Keith Rabois. We’re kicking off the night with the inimitable Keith Rabois, who recently relocated East from Silicon Valley and, true to form, seems intent on shaking things up wherever he lands. Rabois has never been shy about what he thinks is working in venture and what isn’t — he’s backed Ramp four times and invested as often in State Affairs, a company using AI and local journalists to track statehouse-level news and policy data across all 50 states. He’ll share his strong opinions on founders who raise more capital than they actually need, just because they can. And we’ll get him talking about Khosla Ventures’ boldest AI bet yet: its early $50 million check into OpenAI back in 2019 when the outfit had no clear business model — plus what he makes of the narrative that OpenAI is facing more headwinds right now than its rivals.

活动亮点：Keith Rabois。我们将以独一无二的 Keith Rabois 开场，他最近从硅谷搬到了东海岸，并且一如既往地打算在他落脚的任何地方掀起波澜。Rabois 从不避讳谈论他认为风险投资中哪些行得通、哪些行不通——他曾四次支持 Ramp，并同样多次投资了 State Affairs，这是一家利用人工智能和当地记者追踪全美 50 个州议会层面新闻和政策数据的公司。他将分享他对那些仅仅因为“能筹到钱”就筹集超过实际需求资金的创始人的强烈看法。我们还将与他探讨 Khosla Ventures 在人工智能领域最大胆的赌注：2019 年在 OpenAI 还没有明确商业模式时，就对其投入了 5000 万美元的早期资金；此外，他还会谈谈对“OpenAI 目前比竞争对手面临更多阻力”这一说法的看法。

Craig Shapiro and Jason Levien. After our sit-down with Keith, stick around for a conversation you won’t find anywhere else. Craig Shapiro’s venture firm, Collaborative Fund, is generously co-hosting the evening with us, and we’ll sit down with Shapiro and Jason Levien, CEO of D.C. United, to talk sports organizations as business investments — and the increasingly tangled intersection of sports, fandom, commerce, and community.

Craig Shapiro 与 Jason Levien。在与 Keith 的访谈结束后，请留下来参加一场你在其他任何地方都听不到的对话。Craig Shapiro 的风险投资公司 Collaborative Fund 是本次活动的联合主办方，我们将与 Shapiro 以及 D.C. United 的首席执行官 Jason Levien 对话，探讨体育组织作为商业投资的价值，以及体育、粉丝文化、商业和社区之间日益交织的联系。

Staying on the theme of community, we’ll dig into a conversation with two founders building for a world where AI does more — but also takes something away. Tristan Walker, who sold his last company, Walker & Company Brands (maker of Bevel), to Procter & Gamble in 2018, is back with Heirloom Craft, a startup focused on reshoring American fine craftsmanship — training a new generation of artisans and rebuilding the supply chains behind them.

围绕“社区”这一主题，我们将与两位创始人进行深入交流，他们正在为一个人工智能发挥更大作用、但同时也带来某些缺失的世界进行建设。Tristan Walker 曾于 2018 年将他的上一家公司 Walker & Company Brands（Bevel 的制造商）出售给宝洁公司，如今他带着 Heirloom Craft 回归，这是一家专注于将美国精湛工艺回流本土的初创公司，旨在培养新一代工匠并重建其背后的供应链。

Brynn Putnam. Walker will be joined by Brynn Putnam, who sold her last company, connected-fitness startup Mirror, to Lululemon for $5 billion, just three years after it was launched. Putnam’s newest venture is Board, a game company blending physical play with AI-powered creation tools — built as something of an antidote to the isolation tech has fueled, bringing people back together around, literally, a board.

Brynn Putnam。与 Walker 同台的还有 Brynn Putnam，她在创立互联健身初创公司 Mirror 仅三年后，就以 5 亿美元的价格将其出售给了 Lululemon。Putnam 的最新创业项目是 Board，这是一家将实体游戏与人工智能创作工具相结合的游戏公司，旨在作为科技所带来的疏离感的一种解药，通过一块“棋盘”将人们重新聚在一起。

Deven Parekh. Last but not least, we’re thrilled to catch up with Deven Parekh, who has co-run Insight Partners — the New York powerhouse investment firm — for more than 25 years. Insight doesn’t do a lot of press, but Parekh has agreed to pull back the curtain on how the firm is thinking about a landscape where it’s gotten harder to tell asset classes apart, as some of the biggest funds have grown exponentially larger. What we want to know: how does Insight compete in a world where capital itself is a commodity, but the potential returns on massive investments have also never been bigger?

Deven Parekh。最后但同样重要的是，我们很高兴能与 Deven Parekh 交流，他共同管理纽约实力雄厚的投资公司 Insight Partners 已超过 25 年。Insight 平时很少接受媒体采访，但 Parekh 同意揭开面纱，分享公司如何看待当前资产类别界限日益模糊的格局，尤其是随着一些大型基金规模呈指数级增长。我们想知道的是：在资本本身已成为大宗商品，但大规模投资的潜在回报却从未如此巨大的世界里，Insight 如何保持竞争力？

Expect a fun night all around, with drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and plenty of networking before and after the fireside chats, including with Connie Loizos, Rebecca Bellan, and other TechCrunch writers (as well as our friends from other outlets). Giant thanks again to the team at Collaborative Fund for making the night possible. More details and ticketing info right here. See you in the (real) West Village.

期待一个充满乐趣的夜晚，在炉边谈话前后，我们将提供饮品、开胃小菜以及充足的社交机会，届时包括 Connie Loizos、Rebecca Bellan 和其他 TechCrunch 的作者（以及我们来自其他媒体的朋友）都将出席。再次衷心感谢 Collaborative Fund 团队让这个夜晚成为可能。更多详情和票务信息请点击此处。西村（真正的西村）见。