fnSummit 2026 (October 21 - 23, 2026)
San FranciscoSome members will tell you they didn’t fully understand Founders Network until their first Summit. This is our 11th annual — three days each fall when members leave the daily grind for the hills of Sonoma and the one room where founders at their caliber talk straight, off the record, from the opening toast to the closing hike. Many come back year after year, and a lot of them go on to become Lifetime members. That is not a coincidence.
Summit is the shortcut to the value of FN. Membership is built on peer mentorship and the lifelong relationships you form with founders like you — and nothing delivers that faster than three immersive days together. The people you meet here are the same ones you’ll trade notes with in the forums and see at virtual events all year; Summit is what makes those relationships real. If you want to realize the full value of your membership, make Summit a tradition — treat it as a fixed point on your calendar, a priority you protect every year, not a someday.
Relationships, not business cards. The founder you debate strategy with over dinner becomes the person you call at 11pm six months later. Members describe fnSummit as “the start of deeper relationships, friendships, and partnerships.”
Candor you can’t buy. Real fireside chats with founders who’ve been through it, keynotes from serial entrepreneurs on what actually worked, and panels and office hours where the hard questions — fundraising, hiring, the co-founder conversation you’re avoiding — get answered honestly, because everyone signed up for the same trust.
Investors as people, not gatekeepers — built for real conversation, not a 30-second pitch.
Room to actually think. Morning meditation and a closing hike, wine and spirit tastings, the opening champagne sabrage. Sonoma was chosen on purpose — the setting is what lets the guard come down.
“The most worthwhile business event I’ve ever been to.” — Carla Riggi, Founder
“The connections and learning more than paid for itself. Everyone felt genuine.” — Joe Deobald, Founder
On the time and the cost, do the math — it’s less than you think, both ways.
Time: one full day, one evening, one full day, and one morning. You’re away from your family, your startup, and your inbox for barely two working days — and you spend them with members you already work alongside the rest of the year.
Cost: the bulk of your ticket is Room & Board, passed to the venue at cost — two nights at the Flamingo Resort & Spa, every meal, and every drink. A hosted wine-country weekend that would run about $2,000 on its own. The conference itself — production, speakers, three days of programming — is a $1,499 value that guests pay in full. As a member you pay a fraction of that: it’s bundled free with the Lead plan and discounted on Scale.
Who it’s for. Summit is designed for Lead and Scale members getting the most out of their membership, and it’s open to everyone. Wherever you are, if you’re ready to invest a few days in the relationships that outlast any single round, this is where it happens.
The agenda. Three days, built to move — the full run of show is in the agenda below.
Confidentiality. Everything shared at Founders Network stays off the record. We’re built on trust, and the community protects it — investors, members, and staff speak openly because they know it stays in the room. Members model our values: Reciprocity, Humility, Authenticity, and Inclusivity.
Agenda
Wednesday 21 October
Check-in (3:00 PM - 5:30 PM) {room: Flamingo Resort & Spa, Santa Rosa}
Opening Ceremony & Reception (5:30 PM - 8:00 PM) {room: Lobby}
{speaker: Stephen Yang}
Badge pickup.
Sonoma Denim Night: Blue Jeans, Great Minds. Throw on your favorite denim and join us for cocktails, connections and good company.
Opening Fireside: Exits, Patient Capital and the Long Game (8:00 PM) {room: Lazeaway Patio, poolside}
{speaker: Richard White}, {speaker: Hooman Radfar}
Richard White returns to the Summit fireside two years after fnSummit 2024 with the rest of the story: scaling Fathom to more than 400,000 monthly users and its September 2026 acquisition by Superhuman. Hooman Radfar, new to FN but not to building, on taking AddThis to an exit to Oracle, backing companies from Stripe to SpaceX, and starting again with Collective. And our host Stephen Yang, whose resort we gather in, on three decades of patient-capital investing and the values that make the long game worth playing.
Pool & hot tub open {room: Lazyway Patio, poolside}
Thursday 22 October
Yoga & Breathwork (7:00 AM - 8:00 AM) {room: Outdoor, poolside}
{speaker: Heather Rhyker}
Breakfast (8:00 AM - 9:00 AM) {room: Ballroom Foyer}
Opening Remarks (9:00 AM - 9:15 AM)
{speaker: Kevin Holmes}
Opening Keynote - The Hard Reset: A Founder’s Field Guide to Capital, Models and Moats (9:15 AM - 10:00 AM)
{speaker: Nuno Gonçalves Pedro}
Capital is scarcer, seat-based pricing is breaking, and the model layer has turned geopolitical. Nuno looks at what has actually changed for founders, from fundraising and pricing to model dependency and moats, and leaves you with five things to act on when you get home.
Member Demos (10:00 AM - 10:30 AM)
{speaker: Christopher Saunders}, {speaker: Alex Ortiz}, {speaker: David Homan}, {speaker: Allison Rosenberg}
Five minutes each — see what fellow fn'ers are building.
What 17 Years of Pre-Seed Investing Taught Me About Founders, Capital & What Actually Works (10:30 AM - 11:15 AM)
{speaker: Charles Hudson}
Charles Hudson of Precursor Ventures shares the founder traits, market signals, and hard-won lessons that guide his bets before there’s any traction to judge.
Shifting Compliance Left: Turning Security and Compliance into a Competitive Advantage (11:15 AM - 12:00 PM) {room: Ballroom}
{speaker: Sammy Chowdhury}
Most founders wait until a customer or regulator demands compliance, and by then it’s rushed, expensive and built on sand. Sammy shows how starting early helps you close deals faster, avoid costly rework and unlock new markets. He also covers the new attack surface that agentic AI creates, including shadow AI, MCP tools and non-human identities, and how auditors are starting to look at it.
Lunch (12:00 PM - 1:15 PM) {room: Ballroom}
Buffet.
Women's Leadership: Community and Mental Health (1:15 PM - 1:25 PM) {room: The Aviary}
{speaker: Amy T. Wister}
Hear from our Women's Leadership leaders on how the group supports women founders and why mental health deserves a place in the conversation.
2027 FN Ski (1:25 PM - 1:35 PM) {room: The Aviary}
{speaker: Kevin Shrock, M.D.}
Learn more about the 2027 FN Ski trip.
Scaling an AI startup to six figures of recurring revenue in under a year (1:35 PM - 2:20 PM) {room: The Aviary}
{speaker: Andrew Sossin}
Lead Mentor Experience (2:20 PM - 2:30 PM) {room: The Aviary}
{speaker: Andrew Schulz}, {speaker: Dave Goulden}
Our Lead Mentors share their experience in the program, what the mentor relationship looks like, and why you should consider joining them.
Building Alaris: From First Customer to Acquisition (2:30 PM - 3:15 PM) {room: The Aviary}
{speaker: Jeremy Kelstrom}
FN lifetime member Jeremy Kelstrom shares the story of building Alaris, the vertical SaaS company behind childcare, check-in and member experience tools for 500+ organizations including YMCA, Mountainside Fitness and EOS Fitness. Alaris was acquired by Daxko in 2026, and Jeremy will cover the road to that sale, what the process actually looked like, the lessons he learned along the way and what he’d do differently.
Lead Your Local Community: Chapter Leadership Team (3:15 PM - 3:30 PM) {room: The Aviary}
{speaker: Christopher Saunders}, {speaker: Dave Renz}
Hear from two Chapter Leaders about what it takes to build community locally, and how you can join the Chapter Leadership Team.
Session with Carlos Sanabria, Designli (3:30 PM - 4:00 PM) {room: The Aviary}
{speaker: Carlos Sanabria}
Pickleball Tournament, Office Hours & Free Time (4:00 PM - 5:00 PM)
Office hours with domain experts running alongside.
Offsite Dinner & Fireside (5:00 PM - 8:30 PM)
{speaker: Kevin Bradt}
Rides leave the lobby at 5:00 pm.
Closing a $15.8M round and 10x revenue growth.
Back at the Hotel (8:45 PM)
Open bar, pool and hot tub.
Friday 23 October
Breakfast (8:00 AM - 9:00 AM) {room: Ballroom Foyer}
Patterns and Awareness: Recognizing What Shapes Us (9:00 AM - 9:45 AM)
{speaker: Antons Davis}
Many of the choices we make each day are shaped by patterns we rarely notice. An experiential coaching session on how we approach decisions, relationships and uncertainty — and how greater awareness creates new possibilities for choice, meaning and growth.
Leading with Clarity, Courage and Purpose (9:45 AM - 10:30 AM)
{speaker: Michelle Gordon}
Founders rarely get the luxury of certainty. In this session, Dr. Michelle Gordon shares how to find clarity in uncertainty, act when the challenge is courage rather than information, and let purpose guide your next right step. Drawing on her research with entrepreneurial co-founder teams, you'll leave with a practical framework for the decisions you're facing right now.
Break & Check-out (10:30 AM - 11:00 AM)
Orchestrating Connection (11:00 AM - 12:00 PM)
{speaker: David Homan}
How to build relationships to raise, scale and exit — and create intentional, purposeful community. We cannot give 100% to everything, even if that is what it takes to build companies, support our families and help our friends. Includes an orchestrated gathering to deepen our bonds with each other.
Closing Ceremony & Final Reflections (12:00 PM - 12:15 PM)
{speaker: Kevin Holmes}
Lunch & Departures (12:15 PM)
On the road by early afternoon.
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