Hot Off The AI Furnace - October 23rd

AI Hot 100 Summit Updates, Call for Talent, Apply to be a speaker

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AI Furnace
October 23, 2025

The AI Hot 100 Summit 2026 is back for its third edition on May 7th, 2026 in New York City. The only AI Summit built for real connections where startup innovation meets enterprise implementation.

Hot 100 Speaker Alert: Insight Partners and Mastercard Join the Lineup

We’re thrilled to announce 2 new speakers taking the stage at The AI Hot 100 Summit 2026:

George Mathew, Managing Director at Insight Partners

George is a prolific investor in AI, having backed and supported industry-defining companies like Jasper, Weights & Biases (CoreWeave), Crew AI, Databricks, Relavance AI, Turing, and Shoreline (Nvidia).

Laura Gebhardt, VP Data and AI Strategy at Mastercard

Laura leads global initiatives at Mastercard to embed AI and data innovation into their products and services targeting areas like core card payment solutions, Cross-Border Account-to-Account (A2A) Payments, Bill Payments, Corporate Solutions, and SME Solutions—shaping how Mastercard responsibly builds, scales, and governs Data & AI across markets.

George and Laura will be joining executives from OpenAI, NVIDIA, Haleon plc, Anthropic, Cursor, Eleven Labs, Adobe, Walmart, & more.

Interested in joining the action? Showcase your brand alongside the biggest companies in AI or register now for early bird pricing to save $700+ on your pass.

Interested in Speaking at The AI Hot 100 Summit?

The AI Hot 100 will spotlight bold voices and transformative ideas redefining AI. If you’re driving AI innovation in enterprise, we want to hear from you. The call for speakers is filling fast. Applications are due on November 28 at 5 PM ET, but they're reviewed on a rolling basis, so the earlier you submit the better!

Make your mark on the most forward-thinking event in AI. Apply to speak today!  

A Call for Talent: Join the AI Hot 100 Summit Team

Strategy and Ops Interns

Interested in starting an AI company or joining an AI VC down the road? The AI Furnace is looking for 3 all-star Strategy & Ops Interns to join us to support the AI Hot 100 Summit on May 7th 2026.

We’re looking for 10x people with high agency, initiative and an ownership mindset with killer execution skills, willing to roll-up their sleeves and get shit done. Minimum 20 hours/week commitment - do not apply if you have multiple projects going on.

Skills we’re looking for: ranging from operations, research, outreach and sales, social media, software development, automations, database development and more.

Benefits for selected candidates:

  • Meet and interact with some of the hottest AI founders + startups in the world who have raised up to $100M+

  • Meet VC partners at Tier-1 VCs like a16z, Bessemer, Sequoia, and more

  • A chance to liaise and interact with Fortune 500 AI Executives, who manage the biggest AI budgets in the world

AI Hot 100 Volunteer

Are you a student interested in volunteering on the day of The AI Hot 100 Summit? Apply below.

Where is the Hidden Value in AI? Hear it first from Investors at Sequoia, Bessemer Venture Partners and Insight Partners

Highlights from the 2025 Summit - “Investing at the Frontiers: The Hidden Value in AI” w/ Sequoia, Bessemer Venture Partners and Insight Partners

Listen to the Managing Director at Insight Partners talk about how incumbents are losing their distribution advantage, giving startups power with AI agents

Speakers: George Robson (Partner, Sequoia Capital), Charles Birnbaum (Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners), George Mathew (Managing Director, Insight Partners)

Watch the full Investing at the Frontiers Panel hosted at the AI Hot 100 Summit 2025, delving into the future of AI and where the real value will be created.

Are You an AI Startup That Has What it Takes? The AI Hot 100 is Now Accepting Startup Applications for 2026

The AI Furnace is curating a list of the hottest 100 AI startups from across the US and bringing them to the AI Hot 100 Summit in NYC on May 7, 2026, for a chance to get in front of Fortune 500 executives and partner level investors.

Startups range from pre-seed to Series D companies who are tier-1 VC backed and/or showing strong revenues on our list and we are opening it up for more.

Upcoming Events 📅

👀 ICYMI - Access the AI Hot 100 Market Report 2025

On July 10th, we dropped the 2025 AI Hot 100 Market Report by The AI Furnace. Here, we highlighted the Hot 100 startups building in AI in North America this year.

About The AI Furnace

The AI Furnace is a global network of 25,000+ AI founders, developers and researchers. It was started by Angela Mascarenas and Hamza Zaveri, AI founders from NYC and London who started the org to support fellow AI founders and operators building in local cities outside of Cerebral Valley (San Francisco).

📢 Interested in sponsoring? Reach out to us at [email protected] to get your brand in front of 25k+ AI executives, entrepreneurs, researchers, investors, and AI leaders.