DON’T MISS OUT!
9/24 Twill Presents: Threads – Scaling AI from Concept to Production
A high-caliber gathering of tech execs, AI pioneers, and data innovators. Expect lightning talks, real-world insights, and big ideas about how to move from proof-of-concept to production at scale.
⏱️ Tuesday, September 24, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM PDT
📍 SOMA San Francisco, CA
Lightning Talks with industry transformers:
Tanya Roosta, Ph.D., MFE – Applied Science Manager, Amazon
Bryce Gilleland – General Partner, California Innovation Fund
Arko C. – CEO Pipeshift (YC S24) | Forbes 30U30
Zohaib Ahmed – Founder & CEO @ Resemble AI (California Innovation Fund)
Ronald Ding – Co-Founder & CTO @ Shadeform (YC S23)
Samuel Kahn K. - VP, AI & Data Science TICKR
Raymond Lee – Founder Twill
with our newly added speaker:
Bhavuk J. – Google | Tower Research Capital
Get to know some of our incredible speakers ahead of time! We’ve included short videos so you can hear their perspectives before the event kicks off.
At twill, we believe networking shouldn’t feel stiff or transactional. That’s why we design gatherings that spark genuine interactions, mixing professionals, builders, and creatives in environments that are as fun as they are meaningful. Think less “conference room small talk” and more “effortless conversations under the stars.”
Upcoming Events
Don’t miss out! Several exciting events are coming up:
Stay tuned here’s where you can connect with us next. SIGN UP TODAY
THE INNODATA GENAI SUMMIT
🎟 Complimentary Invite Opportunity
Are you a Director, senior leader, or an AI Engineer/Researcher shaping the future of AI? Apply now for a chance to receive a Complimentary Invite to the Innodata GenAI Summit on October 9th in San Francisco.
👉 Submit your name, email, LinkedIn URL, role, and company through our form
What is Tech Week?
Tech Week (presented by a16z) is a week of events hosted by VCs and startups to bring together the tech ecosystem.
SF Tech Week: October 6–12
LA Tech Week: October 13–19
Explore the full schedule: https://www.tech-week.com/calendar/sf
Meet us at #SFTechWeek
We’re excited to be hosting Dual-Use Advantage: Winning Capital & Contracts in Defense on October 8th as part of SF Tech Week!
This in-person event will bring together founders, investors, and defense leaders to discuss how startups can successfully win both venture capital and government contracts. Join us at Twill HQ in SOMA, San Francisco for an evening of insights, networking, and real conversations.
👉 Register here: partiful.com/e/EoHnGTB5DNhOaEe7LxKL
Our social and wellness events are designed to bring people together in a supportive, uplifting space where connection meets self-care. Whether it’s a mindful workshop, community gathering, or wellness-inspired celebration, each event blends relaxation, learning, and fun. Expect engaging activities, empowering conversations, and opportunities to recharge your mind, body, and spirit while building meaningful relationships.
Job Board
Looking to make your next career move in tech? We have some exciting roles currently available from within the community!
Join a small fast-growing team building AI-driven workflows:
Cloud Engineer and AI Operations - We are a small team building a core AI-driven workflow to accelerate human processing of a high volume of non-structured data. The system is built and operational, and we are adding an additional full-stack developer to extend and improve it. We are seeking a skilled engineer to design, build, and secure AI/ML systems at scale. The ideal candidate combines strong software engineering, ML pipeline experience, and cloud infrastructure expertise with a security-first mindset.
Qualifications: Proficiency in Python, JavaScript, node.js, and SQL.
Join a seed-stage company as a Founding Engineer and work directly with the founder to shape the future of the company. Backed by Y Combinator, Initialized Capital, and other leading investors, this is a unique opportunity to have a front-row seat in building and scaling a high-growth startup:
Founding Engineer - Own major features end-to-end: API design, backend logic, frontend UI, and everything in between. We’re building the control center for U.S. duty drawback—a $10B/year opportunity hiding in plain sight. We use AI and automation to recover tariffs paid by importers when goods are later exported, returned, or destroyed. Most companies don’t even realize they’re eligible. We make sure no dollar is left behind.
For the below roles, you’ll work with a founding team that has scaled and led engineering teams through multiple successful acquisitions, including one valued at over $350M:
LLM EVALUATION ENGINEER - you’ll build the evaluation layer in a—the part of the system that decides whether an LLM prompt, response, tool call, or agent behavior is acceptable. This includes designing and tuning guardrails, classifiers, and semantic judgment systems that operate in real-time.
FOUNDING SOFTWARE ENGINEER - you won’t just be piping logs or tuning models—you’ll architect systems that reconcile latency, correctness, and observability across distributed pipelines. You’ll be designing the nervous system of a new class of software—where AI Agents reason, act, and fail in unpredictable ways. If you're excited by AI and want to shape its safe deployment—not just watch from the sidelines—this is your opportunity.
BACKEND / PLATFORM ENGINEER, AI ANALYTIC ENGINES - Design and optimize streaming data pipelines using Kafka, Redpanda, or similar technologies to support high-throughput, low-latency processing of LLM interactions.
Spotlight
172 Startups to Watch: YC Summer 2025
To celebrate YC Demo Day, the S25 batch is already shaping up to be one of the most exciting yet. Here are a few standouts:
💸 Shor (YC S25) (https://lnkd.in/grgpnFZ7)
The fastest, most affordable payroll for global teams.
Hiring and paying global teams has traditionally been slow, expensive, and complex. Shor makes it fast, simple, and affordable by combining AI agents with stablecoin settlement. From one Slack or WhatsApp thread, you can instantly generate contracts, onboard hires, run payroll, and have payments land in minutes — all while staying fully compliant.
👉 Hire and pay international contractors for $20/month with near-instant settlement.
👥 Full-time employees (EOR) are coming soon at $99/month.
🔗 Interested? Learn more and request beta access at tryshor.com.
🛁 Don’t want to read? Here’s Max Zavidow explaining it all: https://lnkd.in/gcqyMufX
📙 Knowlify (YC S25) (https://lnkd.in/giRyQhpd)
Everyone loves how 3Blue1Brown explains complex ideas. Knowlify lets you do that for any topic, instantly. With AI, they convert text into beautiful explainer videos in <15 seconds. From researchers to publishers to enterprises, this is a game-changer for making knowledge actually stick.
🗣️ Pingo AI (https://lnkd.in/gFBGFCjn)
Most language apps focus on memorization. Pingo is different: it helps you speak confidently by practicing real-life conversations with an AI tutor that feels like a native speaker. They’ve already grown to 300k users and $200k MRR in just months.
🔥 We’ve also collected a full list of 172 YC S25 startups, complete with descriptions, launch info, and founder details—all in one place.
Want it for free? Write a post tagging @Raymond Lee, @twill, @Y Combinator and we’ll send it to you!
🤝 Interested in Partnering or Investing?
We’re opening a channel for those who want to connect with the incredible founders from Y Combinator. If you’re an investor, advisor, or potential partner looking to explore opportunities, submit your details below and we’ll make sure you’re on the radar.
Behind Twill is Raymond Lee, a visionary leader committed to building meaningful ecosystems for innovators.
His mission is simple yet powerful: connect people shaping the future of AI, technology, and business in ways that spark collaboration and lasting impact.
Thanks for reading! Stay plugged into the latest founder news, events, and opportunities:
📩 Join our newsletter for weekly updates
📅 Subscribe to our events calendar so you never miss what’s next
Let’s keep building the future, together. 🚀
Social/Wellness Events