When StrictlyVC San Francisco opens TechCrunch’s 2026 events calendar on April 30, it will do so with a notably weighty addition to its speaker roster. Praveen Neppalli Naga, Chief Technology Officer at Uber, has confirmed his participation in what is rapidly becoming the most talked-about gathering in the San Francisco startup ecosystem this year.
The announcement came as a surprise to many in the valley. StrictlyVC events are known for their candid, high-signal conversations — the kind that happen off the main stage, in the hallways and after-party clusters where deals actually get done. That Naga chose to appear signals something about where Uber sees itself in the AI conversation right now.
What Naga Will Bring to the Stage
Naga’s fireside chat with TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos will center on one of the most relevant challenges in technology today: operating complex platforms at scale during the AI revolution. For Uber, that challenge is existential. Millions of rides, deliveries, and logistics operations run through its systems every single day. Adding AI capabilities — whether in routing, pricing, driver assistance, or customer support — onto infrastructure that already handles billions of events requires a level of engineering discipline most companies never have to develop.
What makes Naga particularly interesting as a speaker is his depth of tenure. He joined Uber in 2015, well before the current wave of AI excitement transformed every CTO’s roadmap. That means he has watched the company navigate multiple technological transitions, from mobile-first to cloud-native to the present AI moment. He did not inherit a freshly architected system — he helped build the one that runs today.
His portfolio at Uber includes a focus that often goes underreported in the AI hype cycle: earnings systems for drivers and couriers. Behind the scenes, calculating fair, transparent, and timely pay for millions of independent contractors across dozens of countries is a genuinely hard problem. It involves compliance, currency, taxation, banking infrastructure, and real-time accuracy. Naga’s team has been quietly solving that for years.
A Roster Worth Blocking Your Calendar For
Naga is not the only name drawing attention to the April 30 event. The lineup has assembled an unusual cross-section of the current tech landscape:
- Lior Susan, founder and CEO of Eclipse, who recently closed a $1.3 billion fund focused on physical AI startups
- Amjad Masad, co-founder and CEO of Replit, offering a practitioner’s view on AI-driven software development
- Nicolas Sauvage, president of TDK Ventures, to host a conversation on raising capital from strategic corporate investors
- Campbell Brown, former CNN host and former Meta media partnerships lead, now with Forum AI, tackling disinformation in the AI era
That spread — from deep tech investors to media veterans — is intentional. StrictlyVC has built its reputation on exactly this kind of interdisciplinary collision.
Why StrictlyVC Has Become the Go-To Event in SF
For those unfamiliar with the format, StrictlyVC is not a typical conference. There is no expo floor. There are no keynotes stretched to 90 minutes. The events are designed around curated, unfiltered conversations — fireside chats and panels where speakers are pushed on the real challenges they face, not the polished narratives they rehearse for earnings calls.
The SF edition in particular has carved out a niche as the place where founders and investors come to sharpen their worldview before committing capital or launching the next campaign. In a market where AI is reshaping every vertical simultaneously, that kind of calibration matters more than ever.
The TechCrunch Disrupt Connection
For those whose calendars do not clear on April 30, TechCrunch is already signaling its flagship event for the year. Disrupt 2026 takes place October 13–15 in San Francisco and is positioning itself as the definitive gathering for founders, investors, and tech leaders navigating the next wave of AI-driven disruption. Early registration is open with savings of up to $410.
But April 30 comes first. And in the startup world’s current rhythm, six months is an eternity.
Key Details at a Glance
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Event | StrictlyVC San Francisco |
| Date | April 30, 2026 |
| Venue | Sentro Filipino Cultural Center, San Francisco |
| Host | TechCrunch Events |
| Featured Speaker | Praveen Neppalli Naga, CTO, Uber |
| Topic | Operating at scale in the age of AI |
| Registration | StrictlyVC SF Event Page (TechCrunch) |
Looking Ahead
Naga’s appearance at StrictlyVC arrives at a moment when the transportation and logistics sector is undergoing its most significant AI-driven transformation since ride-sharing disrupted taxis. Autonomous vehicles, AI-powered routing, predictive demand modeling, and driver-facing AI assistants are all active development areas at Uber and its competitors.
What makes his perspective worth hearing is that he is not a newcomer to the space, and he is not a pure AI researcher. He is an engineer who has had to keep a massive, real-world platform running while selectively adopting — and in some cases building from scratch — AI capabilities that actually hold up under pressure.
Tickets for StrictlyVC San Francisco are limited, and the early signal from the TechCrunch team suggests they will not last long once word spreads about the final speaker additions.
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