Sponsored Executive Dinner Report

NeurIPS 2025
Executive Dinner

Presented by Country Club

An exclusive gathering of 50 AI industry leaders at Mastro's Ocean Club, San Diego. Meaningful conversations shared, valuable connections made, and collaborative relationships established.

December 3, 2025
San Diego, California
During NeurIPS Conference

Event Impact

Quantifiable results from an evening of strategic networking and relationship building

50
Elite Attendees
28+
VC-Backed Startups
6
Unicorns Present
4.5hrs
Engagement Duration
6
Strategic Categories
25+
Sales Opportunities

Attendee Composition

49 high-profile executives across 6 strategic categories

AI Infrastructure & Platforms

10
attendees
20%

Generative AI & Applications

8
attendees
16%

AI Agents & Simulation

9
attendees
18%

Enterprise AI Solutions

12
attendees
24%

Tech Giants & Strategic

6
attendees
12%

Ecosystem Enablers

4
attendees
8%

Attendee Catalog

Complete directory of executives and their companies

AI Infrastructure & Platforms

Olga Megorskaya

CEO

Toloka
Toloka
$300M+
140%+

Provides human-powered data solutions for AI training. Raised $72M led by Bezos Expeditions in May 2025.

Jason Corkill

Founder & CEO

Rapidata
Rapidata
$50M+

Cloud-based platform for real-time human feedback and data labeling. Released 1.5M-annotation dataset in Jan 2025.

Greg Schoeninger

CEO

Oxen.ai
Oxen.ai
$25M+
100%

High-performance data version control for AI datasets. Raised $6.7M seed and launched one-click model fine-tuning.

Raullen Chai

Co-Founder & CEO

IoTeX
IoTeX
$250M+
15%+

EVM-compatible blockchain for DePIN and real-world AI. Raised $50M in 2024 and launched W3bstream middleware.

Arman Behnam

Co-founder

Quis
Quis
$2M+

AI-powered infrastructure for context-aware people search using graph neural networks. Currently in stealth mode.

Anil Murty

VP - Product & Engineering

Overclock Labs (Akash Network)
Overclock Labs (Akash Network)
$960M
1729%

Decentralized marketplace for cloud compute. Launched Mainnet 14 and expanded GPU supply 10x in 2024.

R. Remington Tramel

Head of Sales

Akash Network
Akash Network
$800M+
749%

Drives enterprise adoption of decentralized GPU/CPU resources. Launched Akash Chat API with 749% YoY revenue surge.

Jonathan Fischoff

Head of MLE

Fal.AI
Fal.AI
$4B+
4650%

High-performance generative media infrastructure with serverless GPU APIs. Raised $250M Series D at $4B+ valuation in Oct 2025.

Generative AI & Applications

David Lu

Engineering

Hedra
Hedra
$200M+
120%

AI-powered expressive character video creation. Secured $32M Series A in May 2025 for scaling video generation.

Max Sapo

Co-Founder & CEO

Happyverse
Happyverse
$12M+
300%+

AI video avatars with emotionally intelligent interactions. Launched v2.0 in Nov 2025 with reduced latency.

Saurav Pandit

Co-Founder, Chief Science Officer

2nd Set AI
2nd Set AI
$6M+

Brand-safe generative AI for entertainment and media. Closed $2M pre-seed in Aug 2025 and launched early access.

Omid Aryan

Founder/CEO

Melodia
Melodia
$5M+

AI-powered music discovery with 80K+ Creative Commons tracks. Preparing Seed/Series A funding round.

Lindsey Allen

Chief Product Officer

Boson.AI
Boson.AI
$25M+
100%

Generative AI audio models for enterprise voice. Launched Higgs Audio V2 open-source and migrated to Azure.

Shahab Mousavi

CEO

Tavana AI
Tavana AI
$1M+

Aggregates 150+ AI models for unrestricted access. Launched Jan 2025 with image generation capabilities.

Amirhossein Afsharrad

CTO

Tavana AI
Tavana AI
$1M+

Personal AI assistant aggregating 150+ LLMs for Persian users. Platform architecture and LLM integration.

Demian Borba

Founder & CEO

Pactto
Pactto
$10M+
700%+

Video feedback platform with AI transcription for creative teams. Raised $500K pre-seed and joined StartX S25.

AI Agents & Simulation

Tyler Marques

CTO

Good Start Labs
Good Start Labs
$12M+

AI evaluation through gaming environments. Raised $3.6M seed in Oct 2025 and launched AI Diplomacy benchmarks.

Soheil Feizi

Founder and CEO

RELAI
RELAI
$5M+

Platform for reliable AI agents with open-source SDK. Launched Maestro optimizer and secured NSF SBIR grant.

Francesco Bonacci

Founder

Cua (YC X25)
Cua (YC X25)
$20M+

Secure virtual environments for AI agents to control operating systems. Launched Cua Playground and raised $500K.

Andi Partovi

Co-Founder

Veris AI
Veris AI
$30M+

High-fidelity simulation for training AI agents. Raised $8.5M seed and named ODF Top Company 2025.

Nazneen Rajani

Chief Executive Officer

CAI
CAI
$50M+
100%+

Simulation-based AI evaluation for enterprise safety. Launched VERITAS judges and entered AWS/Google marketplaces.

Ali Parandeh Gheibi

CTO

Fidian
Fidian
$50M+

AI "AI engineer" for reliable, secure agents in production. Venture backed, stealth mode. Leads technical strategy.

Andy Zhou

Co-Founder

Intology
Intology
$10M+

Autonomous AI scientist (Zochi) for research workflows. AI-generated paper accepted at ACL 2025 - first peer-reviewed.

Jing Conan Wang

Founder & CEO

DeepVista
DeepVista
$10M+

AI-powered business communication assistant for founders. Secured pre-seed and grew 150+ CEO waitlist.

Enterprise AI Solutions

Jeffrey Schwartz

Founder and CEO

Dentity
Dentity
$10M+
50%+

Digital identity platform with verifiable credentials. Acquired Trinsic's SSI platform in Dec 2024.

Cyril Gorlla

Co-Founder and CEO

CTGT
CTGT
$45M+

Enterprise AI risk management with hallucination detection. Raised $7.2M seed led by Gradient Ventures.

Ricardo Baeza-Yates

Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer

Theodora AI
Theodora AI

AI-powered bias detection in organizational communications. Opened Paris office in 2024 for EU market.

Reza Iranmanesh

Co-Founder & CTO

ReadyOn
ReadyOn
$100M+
400%+

AI-powered staffing optimization for frontline enterprises. Closed seed and preparing Series A.

Thomas ZHU

Chief Technology Officer

HrFlow.ai
HrFlow.ai
$30M+
15%

AI-powered API for HR and talent data. Launched Parsing API v4.0 and Gideon-I scoring in 2025.

Mouhidine SEIV

CEO & Chief of Science Officer

HrFlow.ai
HrFlow.ai
$30M+
15%

AI APIs for HR data processing and talent matching. Launched Parsing v4.0 and opened US offices.

Sam Bigdeli

CEO & Co-Founder

KavAI
KavAI
$20M+
60%

Sensor-native AI for heavy industry monitoring. Partnered with Tuurny for autonomous electronics repair.

Amar Krishna

Co-Founder

Matrice.ai
Matrice.ai
$30M+
150%

No-code Vision AI platform for enterprises. Raised $5M seed expansion led by Voltage Park.

Sharif Tabebordbar

Global Head of Cell and Gene Therapy

Novartis
Novartis

Leads cell and gene therapy focusing on neuromuscular programs. Novartis acquired Kate Therapeutics for $1.1B.

Tech Giants & Strategic

Iman Zadeh

Director of Applied Science

Oracle
Oracle
$635B
8.40%

Leads Oracle's GenAI and Multimodal AI team. Launched OCI Generative AI Service and expanded AI in Oracle Health.

Vahab Mirrokni

Google Fellow, VP@Google Research

Google
Google
$3.8T
16%

Leads Algorithms & Optimization division. Launched Gemini 3 Pro with advanced inference optimization.

Ali Khodaei

VP of AI Product

SandboxAQ
SandboxAQ
$6B+
35%

Leads SAIGE for physics-grounded AI. Raised $150M Series E-II and partnered with Carahsoft for public sector.

Vanitha Kumar

Senior Vice President, Enterprise AI

Qualcomm
Qualcomm
$179.8B+
16%

Leads Enterprise AI and 5G/edge integration. Announced AI200 and AI250 data center inference accelerators.

Nick Mourlas

Former CIO, Johnson & Johnson | Advisor

ReefHaven Ventures
ReefHaven Ventures
$25M+

Former CIO of Johnson & Johnson - strategic gateway to migrate J&J's infrastructure to Alibaba Cloud for cost optimization. Currently advising stealth VC in medtech and digital health.

Greg Horowitt

Director of Innovation

UC San Diego
UC San Diego
$10B+
17%+

Direct pathway to UC San Diego infrastructure contracts - university labs, student services, and professor research infrastructure. UC San Diego ecosystem manages 1K+ startups with $13.5B raised.

Ecosystem Enablers

Aras Sheikhi

Chief Executive Officer

Janus Innovation Hub
Janus Innovation Hub
$500K+
15%+

Mission-driven incubator for immigrant founders. Launched Autism Startup Incubation Program with Vanderbilt.

Amy Packard Berry

Executive Vice President MarCom

Sparkpr
Sparkpr

Leads Marketing Communications for tech PR. Launched AI Visibility Playbook for AI-enabled campaigns.

Amin Vatani

Co-founder & CEO

Momentum World
Momentum World
$50M+
+200%

Predictive matchmaking for conferences. Attendees pay after matches confirmed, raising satisfaction and revenue.

Ali Kian

CTO & Co-Founder

Momentum World
Momentum World
$50M+
+200%

AI-powered digital twin solutions for organizational dynamics. Leads technology strategy and AI research.

Strategic Opportunities

6 critical pathways to convert connections into market leadership

AI Infrastructure Migration

CriticalQ1 2026

Migrate GPU-intensive workloads to Alibaba PAI platform with 50-90% cost reduction. Qwen model family delivers GPT-4 performance at fraction of hyperscaler pricing.

Key Actions

  • Deploy Toloka's 300M+ data labeling operations on PAI-DLC with distributed training
  • Migrate Fal.AI's serverless GPU inference to PAI-EAS for cost optimization
  • Onboard Akash Network compute marketplace as Alibaba Cloud distribution channel

Target Companies

Toloka ($300M+)Fal.AI ($4B+)IoTeX ($250M+)Akash ($960M)Oxen.ai ($25M+)

Generative AI Model Integration

HighQ1-Q2 2026

Power video, audio, and image generation with Qwen-VL (vision), CosyVoice (TTS), and Qwen3-Coder. Offer API pricing 67-87% below AWS Bedrock and Azure OpenAI.

Key Actions

  • Integrate Hedra's character video generation with Qwen-VL vision models
  • Deploy Happyverse avatar system on PAI platform with CosyVoice voice cloning
  • Provide Boson.AI enterprise audio with Alibaba FunAudioLLM framework

Target Companies

Hedra ($200M+)Happyverse ($12M+)2nd Set AI ($6M+)Boson.AI ($25M+)Melodia ($5M+)

Agentic AI Platform Adoption

StrategicQ2-Q3 2026

Establish Alibaba as the foundation for AI agent development with Qwen-Agent framework, MCP support, and DashVector RAG. QwQ-32B reasoning models enable multi-step tool orchestration.

Key Actions

  • Deploy Good Start Labs evaluation platform on Qwen3-Max with function calling
  • Integrate Veris AI simulation environments with PAI-DSW development workspace
  • Power RELAI's Maestro agent optimizer with Qwen model fine-tuning APIs

Target Companies

Veris AI ($30M+)Cua ($20M+)Good Start Labs ($12M+)CAI ($50M+)RELAI ($5M+)

Startup SaaS Infrastructure

HighQ2-Q4 2026

Offer venture-backed SaaS startups 50-70% cloud cost reduction for rapid scaling. AnalyticDB for vector search, PAI for model deployment, OSS for storage at fraction of AWS/GCP pricing.

Key Actions

  • Migrate ReadyOn's staffing optimization APIs to PAI platform with AnalyticDB PostgreSQL
  • Deploy HrFlow.ai talent matching infrastructure on Alibaba Singapore/EU regions
  • Onboard Matrice.ai vision inference workloads to PAI-EAS with auto-scaling

Target Companies

ReadyOn ($100M+)HrFlow.ai ($30M+)Matrice.ai ($30M+)CTGT ($45M+)KavAI ($20M+)Dentity ($10M+)

Tech Giants Infrastructure Partnership

CriticalQ1 2026

Secure enterprise infrastructure contracts through strategic relationships. Nick Mourlas provides J&J migration pathway, Greg Horowitt unlocks UC San Diego's university infrastructure.

Key Actions

  • Engage Nick Mourlas for Johnson & Johnson cloud cost optimization assessment
  • Partner with Greg Horowitt for UC San Diego lab/research infrastructure contracts
  • Collaborate with SandboxAQ on quantum-safe AI infrastructure deployment

Target Companies

Johnson & Johnson (via Nick Mourlas)UC San Diego ($10B+)SandboxAQ ($6B+)Oracle ($635B)Qualcomm ($179.8B)

Ecosystem Partner Development

Long-termOngoing

Build sustainable customer pipeline through VCs, incubators, and event organizers. Offer startup programs with cloud credits, technical workshops, and go-to-market support for Asian expansion.

Key Actions

  • Launch Alibaba Cloud Startup Program with Janus Innovation Hub incubator
  • Sponsor Momentum World country club dinners for executive networking and matchmaking
  • Partner with Sparkpr for PR campaigns targeting AI startup ecosystem

Target Companies

Janus HubReefHaven VenturesMomentum World (Matchmaking & Dinners)Sparkpr
Event Gallery

Key Moments

Highlights from an evening of strategic connections

Alibaba Cloud presentation to industry leaders

Alibaba Cloud presentation to industry leaders

Full room engagement at Mastro's Ocean Club

Full room engagement at Mastro's Ocean Club

Premium dining experience with gourmet entrees

Premium dining experience with gourmet entrees

Executive networking and strategic discussions

Executive networking and strategic discussions

Intimate conversations between AI leaders

Intimate conversations between AI leaders

Extended engagement until 10:30 PM

Extended engagement until 10:30 PM

Strategic conversations throughout dinner

Strategic conversations throughout dinner

Premium Mastro's cuisine selection

Premium Mastro's cuisine selection

High-quality attendee engagement throughout event

High-quality attendee engagement throughout event