Founders
Summit 2026

I'll show you how we trained our avatar algorithms from scratch across 4 generations. I collected and labeled our own 4K data and ran 3 to 6 month development cycles per model to get to studio quality. Along the way I developed a clear point of view on when to build our own model vs. when to partner with OpenAI, Anthropic, others: I build where I can own the quality and the pricing power, like avatars and face swap, and I partner where the field moves too fast to win on my own, like text-to-video and AI music. In this workshop I'll walk through how I decide what to build proprietary versus what to buy, and how to actually train models that justify premium pricing in a market racing to zero.

FullEnrich built an MCP server so GTM teams can pull verified emails and mobile numbers without leaving Claude. The surprise: agents consume credits 10x faster than humans clicking in a UI, and customers started buying credits in bulk. Ben walks through what they built, how they got customers to actually use it (chat interfaces with no direction are the hard part), and how it reshaped pricing from seats to prepaid credit packs. A practical session for any CEO deciding whether an MCP is worth the engineering time.

Eventeny went from a $60/mo subscription to taking 3–5% of every ticket and vendor payment on its platform — and grew from 1,200 to 30,000+ events with $0 raised. Aly walks through the math of the switch, how to help your customers make more money first, and where the GMV model breaks.

A prediction session. Nathan takes each of the six layers of the AI stack and lays out where Founderpath expects value to accrue, where it expects a bloodbath, and the specific business models it's betting on with real capital. Growth-equity investors get a sparring partner; CEOs get a map of where their category is headed and what the exits look like.

Most founders think SMB healthcare is unsellable: low ACV, skeptical buyers, no IT department. Joe built DearDoc to $20m+ ARR selling HIPAA-compliant AI chat, phone agents, and scheduling to private practices, and he did it with an outbound sales machine, not a product-led funnel. He'll walk through the unit economics of a high-velocity SMB sales team, how he hires and ramps reps in weeks, and where the model breaks.

A tactical session built as a checklist. PJ walks through the top decisions every founder faces when adding payments: rails, partner bank, PayFac vs. ISO vs. API, pricing to your customers, compliance ownership, reconciliation, and support.