Builders & Founders Night @ Entrepreneurs First

Building something? Thinking about starting? Or just want to meet other ambitious founders and builders in the Bay Area?

Join us at the Entrepreneurs First San Francisco office for an evening bringing together founders, students, engineers, and builders to learn from each other and make new connections.

We'll kick things off with a short conversation featuring founders and startup advisors sharing what they've learned about building, finding early users, and turning ideas into real products.

Then we're doing something a little different: a live startup experiment.

Prisha Bhanushali, founder of TapSmart and current EF-Start participant, will put the audience through an interactive credit-card rewards challenge to explore a deceptively simple problem: when you're about to pay, which card should you actually use?

You'll experience the problem firsthand, see a live product demo, and have the opportunity to test the beta yourself.

We'll finish with plenty of time for open networking with other founders and builders.

Whether you're already building a company, looking for a cofounder, exploring an idea, or simply curious about startups — you're welcome.

What to expect

🎤 Founder conversation
Lessons on building, getting early users, iterating quickly, and learning from customers.

⚡ Live startup experiment
Compete in an interactive rewards challenge — winner gets a gift card.

📱 Live product demo
See how a product evolves from user feedback and test an active beta.

🤝 Networking
Meet other Bay Area founders, engineers, students, and builders.

Schedule

4:30 PM — Doors Open + Welcome
Meet everyone and hear briefly from Entrepreneurs First.

4:40 PM — Founder Panel
Building, finding users, making mistakes, and iterating.

5:00 PM — Live Startup Experiment
Interactive TapSmart rewards challenge + prize.

5:15 PM — Product Reveal + Beta Demo

5:25–6:30 PM — Open Networking

About Entrepreneurs First

Use exactly the description Orie gave you, since EF specifically requested this wording:

Entrepreneurs First (EF) turns exceptional individuals into funded founders. Some might have an early idea, others may need a cofounder. What matters is their potential. We back these founders first, then give them a bridge to Silicon Valley. To date, their companies are worth > $16B.

And use the EF logo Orie attached, rather than grabbing one from Google.

Hosts

Prisha Bhanushali
Founder, TapSmart | EF-Start

Jachin Thilak
Founder & Builder

Hosted at Entrepreneurs First — San Francisco