Join us for StrictlyVC Los Angeles 2026, an intimate evening bringing together leading investors and entrepreneurs for high-signal conversations from the front lines of venture capital and frontier technology. Taking place Thursday, June 18, at The Aerospace Corporation Campus in El Segundo, this edition continues StrictlyVC’s focus on direct access to the ideas and leaders shaping where technology and capital are headed next. Secure your spot here.
For executives, investors, and founders navigating an increasingly complex market, this is an opportunity to step inside conversations that rarely happen in public and hear directly from the people driving change across defense, AI, and advanced industry.
Who’s taking the stage
We will begin the evening with Ethan Thornton, founder of Mach Industries. In his session called “Built for a New Era of Defense Technology,” Thornton will discuss what it means to build a hard tech company at speed and why defense innovation is undergoing a structural shift as autonomy, manufacturing, and national security become increasingly interconnected. His perspective reflects a new generation of founders choosing to operate in industries once considered slow-moving, now rapidly reshaped by technological acceleration.
Image Credits:Slava Blazer Photography / Flickr (opens in a new window) Next, the conversation turns to backing the next frontier of physical AI, featuring Delian Asparouhov of Founders Fund and Saif Khawaja of Shinkei Systems. Together they will explore how advances in AI, robotics, and automation are beginning to reshape not just software systems but also the physical world and what it takes to move breakthrough technologies from concept to real-world deployment at scale.
