The tech industry's most exclusive gathering is closing out 2025 with its most ambitious lineup yet. StrictlyVC's final event of the year brings together creators of technology that reads thoughts, restores vision, and challenges semiconductor giants - all under one roof at PlayGround Global in Palo Alto this Wednesday.
Silicon Valley's most prescient tech gathering is closing out 2025 with a roster that reads like science fiction. The final StrictlyVC event of the year showcases inventors working on technology that captures whispered thoughts, manufactures chips using particle accelerators, and grows computer interfaces directly into brain tissue.
The Wednesday evening event at PlayGround Global continues the series' tradition of spotting breakthrough technologies before they hit mainstream consciousness. As TechCrunch editor Connie Loizos points out, the 2019 event featured Sam Altman explaining OpenAI's monetization strategy as "build AGI, then ask it how to make money." Everyone laughed. They're not laughing now.
This year's headliner is Nicholas Kelez, a particle accelerator physicist who spent two decades at the Department of Energy building what seemed impossible. Now he's tackling semiconductor manufacturing's $400 million problem - every advanced chip depends on extreme ultraviolet lithography machines that only Dutch company ASML knows how to make. The irony stings: Americans invented the technology, then sold it to Europe. Kelez is building the next generation domestically using particle accelerator technology, potentially breaking a critical supply chain dependency.
The consumer tech spotlight falls on Mina Fahmi and cofounder Kirak Hong, former Meta employees whose Stream Ring captures whispered thoughts and converts them to text. Their startup Sandbar just emerged from stealth with backing from Toni Schneider, the operator who scaled WordPress to a billion visitors. Schneider, now a partner at True Ventures, previously backed hardware hits including Peloton, Ring, and Fitbit.
The brain-computer interface sector gets its moment through Max Hodak, founder and former Neuralink cofounder who's already restored vision to dozens of blind people with retinal implants. His current work on "biohybrid" interfaces involves chips seeded with stem cells that grow into brain tissue, enabling paralyzed patients to control devices through thought alone. Hodak believes 2035 will look radically different from today and plans to explain his vision.
