An entrepreneur and co-founder of a Bay Area venture capital firm has created a new monthly event series in the Valley that focuses on artificial intelligence.
Jeff Abbott, a general partner of Blitzscaling Ventures, launched AI Salon, a free, monthly event series for AI builders, startup founders and investors, held in partnership with Arizona State University.
AI Salon provides a forum for AI startups to demo their projects, network with the community, receive valuable feedback and build relationships.
AI Salon’s inaugural event kicked off Dec. 4 at the ASU Cloud Innovation Center at SkySong, attracting more than 70 attendees, who listened to a presentation from entrepreneur and investor Reid Hoffman on the future of AI, and interacted with eight local companies.
“We were really pleased, both with the registrations and the turnout,” Abbott said.
Although Abbott is partner of a Bay Area venture capital firm, his roots to the Valley run deep. He previously served as director of acceleration programs and services for ASU's Entrepreneurship + Innovation Group at SkySong and was a professor of practice at ASU's Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Abbott was active in the local startup ecosystem from 2008 to 2016, but then moved to Europe. Now, he’s living in the Valley again and looking forward to getting reacquainted with the local tech community.
Abbott was inspired to create AI Salon because of the growing interest in AI. The Bay Area hosts thousands of hackathons, meetups and lecture series on AI a week, some of which have waitlists of attendees, he said.
“I've been to dozens of these events, and every time it has been incredibly beneficial because you see what people are building. You see the cutting-edge technologies that they're using and the problems they're trying to solve,” he said. “You really see a convergence of so many different players or stakeholders.”
AI Salon already has commitments with co-organizer partners to start chapters in Miami, Mexico City, Rome, Amsterdam and Santiago, Chile, Abbott said.
“One of the things that we plan to offer to our community partners is exclusive content coming from leaders of highly relevant AI companies in Silicon Valley and around the world,” he said. “Every one of the meetings will have access to a content library of dedicated messages from top AI executives and thought leaders that we’ll make available.”
AI Salon’s next event is Jan. 22 from 6 to 9 p.m. at ASU’s Cloud Innovation Center at SkySong, 1435 N. Scottsdale Road.
It will include a presentation from Chris Yeh, co-author of "Blitzscaling" and founding partner of Blitzscaling Ventures, and a local guest speaker, who has yet to be announced.
