$425 billion<\/a> in venture capital was invested in over 24,000 companies \u2014\u00a0up 30 percent from the year before. <\/p>\n\u201cI think this is the best time to start a company,\u201d said Universe Walker, founder and CEO of BeautyDeskAi, which offers AI voice and SMS communication software for beauty-service businesses. \u201cUtilizing AI models, there are so many problems to be solved and so much money to be made.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a panel called \u201cInvestor Perspectives: Demystifying the Capital Stack,\u201d participants listened eagerly as a panel of venture capitalists shared insights on how to build a VC-fundable company or secure their first round of investment, hoping to find out anything that might give their business an edge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat can I do to stand out?\u201d someone anxiously asked a panel of VC investors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJust be a fucking dawg,\u201d said Abbie Strabala, a junior partner at Outlander VC.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When asked how to avoid burnout, another panelist, Monique Woodward of Cake Ventures, told the crowd that she finds it helpful to take regular sound baths.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a founder told you they take sound baths, you would see that as an indicator of success?\u201d a participant asked, hopefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cUm, no. You really do not need to tell me that,\u201d Woodward said.<\/p>\n
The primary draw of a conference like this is the ability to connect with other founders. <\/p>\n
Antony Tran, a college student and early-stage founder of a language-learning app, said that amid the often cutthroat field of startups, shared experiences make a gathering like this feel less like a competition for VC dollars and status. <\/p>\n
\u201cOther events are pretty intense,\u201d Tran said. \u201cHere, I feel like you can just pick up conversations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one thing I see here is people helping each other more,\u201d said Amy Errett, CEO of hair-dye company Madison Reed and the keynote speaker of the conference. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe world needs more great entrepreneurs. But there are certain challenges to being out. Having a like-minded community makes it easier to do a very difficult thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
That question \u2014\u00a0when to come out \u2014 was one of the most fraught at the conference. Despite the existence of a few extremely successful, openly gay founders like Sam Altman, StartOut\u2019s own data shows that it\u2019s not easy for everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Specifically, it found that between 2000 and 2022, most of the funding given to startups with openly gay founders went to companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area. On average, Bay Area-based, queer-led startups got about six times more than their equivalents in New York City or Los Angeles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Which raised the question:\u00a0Is it to better to wait until after you become rich and famous to come out?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless you work in oil and gas, definitely come out,\u201d advised Sean Howell, founder of Hornet, onstage for a panel on the state of LGBTQ+ entrepreneurship. \u201cI don\u2019t know a single AI entrepreneur who isn\u2019t queer in some way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In fact, Howell said, he saw being a queer startup founder in San Francisco as an asset. <\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the money is invested in this town. You have so much allyship here that you should not be afraid.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not everyone agreed. \u201cI think it\u2019s very unsafe to try this if you\u2019re trans,\u201d warned one participant. \u201cIt\u2019s very different being gay than trans.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u2019s definitely a difference, said Brian Richardson, CEO of StartOut, between being someone who is visibly queer and someone who can pass in conventional startup culture. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still a challenge,\u201d he told the crowd. \u201cIt\u2019s a very personal decision that you have to make and figure out, when we battle those issues continuously.\u201d<\/p>\n
The opening address from Richardson invoked an era,\u00a0not too long ago,\u00a0when living as an openly queer person meant being locked out of the mainstream economy. <\/p>\n
Richardson praised activists Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Storm\u00e9 DeLaverie, though he didn\u2019t mention that, while they were alive, Johnson and Rivera had few options to support themselves beyond sex work, and DeLaverie primarily worked in nightclubs. <\/p>\n
All three, he told the audience, were \u201cscrappy, passionate, brilliant, entrepreneurial sort of folks.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we can do today is build on their legacy, to make the future better for ourselves and those queer kids who are just starting to come out,\u201d said Richardson.<\/p>\n
There was no closing address or keynote to wrap up the event. Instead, one of the organizers announced that the event would end with \u201ctime with family.\u201d <\/p>\n
Conference-goers lounged together on couches and warmly hugged attendees they had only met a few hours before. Pop music played in the background. More cake was passed around.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cQueer people have always built better when the cards were stacked against us,\u201d CEO Brian Richardson had told the crowd that morning. \u201cSo even at maybe the worst of times, in so many ways, for us it\u2019s still the best of times, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/062026_ZM_AteTessPWM-27-930x620.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
We won’t ignore your neighborhood<\/p>\n
When a San Francisco neighborhood has a Mission Local reporter, it means someone is there<\/strong>. We’re following new housing projects proposed on your block, keeping tabs on what your district supervisor is up to at City Hall, and letting you know when longtime businesses close (and new ones open). When big news breaks, we already know the context.<\/p>\nMost neighborhoods don’t have that. Yours could.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nThat’s what Mission Local is building. <\/strong>Our reporters don’t parachute in — they write consistently on San Francisco, so you’re never reading about your neighborhood from someone who just looked it up.<\/p>\nSo far we are in five of San Francisco’s neighborhoods. But we know all San Franciscans deserve our kind of coverage. Will you join us?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the 17th floor of the LinkedIn headquarters last Thursday, a rooftop happy hour was underway. Around the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[178],"tags":[79,18,236,19,17,71326,753],"class_list":["post-542288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneurship","tag-business","tag-eire","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-pride","tag-tech"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116773121769060019","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Mission](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/mission-local-logo-300x300.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\n