North Star: Demo Night in SF

The Bay Area doesn’t get the Northern Lights, so we’re bringing them to you 🌌

This is the night where we celebrate Nordic-born startups and the VCs, accelerators, hacker houses, and operators who make it easier for them to build and grow here.

The evening includes:

🌠 The Northern Lineup 
10 promising Nordic startups building in the Bay take center stage in front of investors, operators, and founders.

✨ Under the Aurora: Fireside Chat on ‘Growing and Scaling in the Bay'
Hear candid insights on what Nordic and European founders get right (and wrong) in the bay and what makes US investors and customers say yes to an intercontinental team.

🔥 Special Guests. Meet our speakers and judges:

• Jorn Lyseggen, Founder & Exec Chairman, Meltwater and Founder and Managing Partner, Shack15: With 3 exits and 2 IPOs, Jorn is best known for founding Meltwater and scaling it with just $15,000 from a rundown shipping container to a global leader in media intelligence, serving over 27,000 customers across 110 countries with teams across 50 offices worldwide.

• Nick Linck, Founder of The Residency: With 10,000+ startups applying since 2022 and just a 3% acceptance rate, The Residency is known for the funding, coaching, and unparalleled connections they provide to ambitious early-stage teams. Residents from their founder residency have gone onto raise from a16z, Sequoia, Accel, Founders Fund, and more.

• Moderated by: Vladimira Cincurova, CEO and Founder, European Startup Embassy: European Startup Embassy offers physical and virtual infrastructure for European startups and investors to thrive in the U.S, including a residency, access to US capital and practical mentorship. Vladimira is also a founding member of Lumus Ventures and a regular jury member in startup competitions such as Startup Weekend.

🤝 Networking and high-signal conversations with founders and operators

🥤 Snacks and drinks on us

Agenda:

• 5.00 PM - Dusk: Doors open, food and beverages served.

• 5.30 PM - First light: Kickoff and welcome by the hosts.

• 5.40 PM - The Northern Lineup I: 5 startups demo back-to-back with 5 mins each.

• 6.10 PM - Under the Aurora: Not your usual fireside chat.

• 6.30 PM - The Northern Lineup II: 5 startups demo back-to-back with 5 mins each.

• 7.00 PM - The North Star Awards: Judges’ deliberate and annouce favorites.

• 7.10 PM -  Afterglow: Network, trade intros and swap stories with the founders, judges and the community in the room.

• 8:00 PM - Last light: Event ends.

Who should attend:

• Nordic founders and builders in the Bay Area

• Investors curious about the Nordic startup ecosystem in the Bay

• Operators that support Nordic startups

Meet your co-hosts:

Aiven for Startups provides up to $100K free credits and technical guidance to help you build and scale your AI and agentic products and applications on fully managed open source data infrastructure including services like Postgres, Kafka, OpenSearch, Clickhouse, Valkey, Datahub and more, across any cloud of your choice. More at https://aiven.io/startups.

SILTA House is a residency for top Finnish founders building their ventures in the Bay Area. More at siltahouse.com.

​Rho is the all-in-one banking platform for startups and the accountants supporting them. With banking setup in minutes, cashback cards, and powerful tools for managing spend, bills, and closing the books, Rho helps high-growth startups move fast and stay focused — backed by support that goes to the end of the earth to help you win. More at https://www.rho.co/.