When AI Met Humans: VSF Tech Club Conference, Spring 2025

We just wrapped up our VSF Tech Club Conference, and let me tell you, it was a firecracker. After months of zoom meetings, and “You’re on mute” moments, we actual humans met in the same physical space. This time, we went big. The theme was AI Nexus. Because why not talk about the one thing that is either going to change the world or steal our jobs (or both)?

We kicked things off with a short walkthrough of our journey, how this club started in Jan 2023 as a small weekly Zoom hangout and grew into a strong community of techies who love to discuss the system designs, discuss behavioral/management topics, and occasionally argue about tabs vs spaces.

We had a killer lineup of speakers this time, no exaggeration.

Praneeth Guduguntla, CEO and Founder, Ambria: Praneeth gave us a nice walk through of how his team is building production-ready AI agents to automate back office ops in manufacturing and distribution. Manufacturing meets AI? Now that’s a niche.

Sandeep Agarwal, Director of Engineering, Uber: Sandeep gave an amazing overview on how Uber is evolving from Predictive AI to GenAI within their Earner Engineering space. He broke it down further on how they are building trustworthy AI systems at scale.

🔥 New Segment: The Fireside Chat

This was a first for us and it worked! We hosted an AI startup panel that kept the crowd buzzing. The panelists shared raw, insightful stories about:Startup journeys, Idea formation, Building and scaling AI companies. Some of the insights felt obvious in hindsight. But nobody had ever said them out loud before. The kind of stuff that makes you go, “Oh, now that makes sense.”

The Panel:

• Apoorva Dornadula Sr. Manager, AI Studio

• Atul Raghunathan CTO, Hyperbound

• Pranil Dasika CEO, Augur AI

• Sriharsha Guduguntla CEO, Hyperbound

Each of them brought their own flavor, and they kept it real. No “follow your passion” fluff.

Beyond the speakers, what really made the day special was the energy in the room. We could feel it — the buzz, and the curiosity. A couple of attendees (including myself) stood up to share how the club helped them grow, upskill, and even land their next big gig. Hearing stories like that on how someone found direction, confidence, or a new job because of this club is the kind of stuff that reminds us why we do this.

Sponsors and Shoutouts

We got our first ever sponsor for the Tech Club conference! Bunch of thanks to Dinesh Singh, the Realtor for stepping up and backing us. It is not everyday someone from the housing world sees value in a tech conference, but Dinesh gets it and we are thankful.

And of course, none of this would have happened without the behind the scenes magic from our team:

• Srinivas and Veera: my co-founders and day one warriors

• Our rockstar officers: Sravanthi, Shanthi, Visu, and Manoj

You all pulled off a full on tech conference while balancing day jobs, and family.

That’s a Wrap

Every time we do one of these, we walk away a little tired, a little proud, and a lot inspired. Today was no different. The effort it takes to pull off something like this? 100% worth it, when we see the spark it lights in others.

Want to join our next event?

Follow us, stay tuned, or reach out. We meet every week on Zoom and go in-person every six months. No fluff, no pitches, just people who love to think, build, and learn together.