🧁 Baker’s debrief #4: finding the middle — signals from sf tech week, cal hacks, and tc disrupt

#bakersdebrief

🧁 intro

2025 felt like a year of recalibration — when founders, investors, and builders all started asking the same quiet question: what does balance look like now?
From SF Tech Week’s creative chaos to CalHacks’ new generation of AI builders and TechCrunch Disrupt’s sober optimism, the signal is clear: the ecosystem is shifting from “raise fast” to “build right.”

🍞 sf tech week — when the city becomes the stage

SF Tech Week has evolved into something more like a city-wide carnival — one week flowing into LA Tech Week, turning the West Coast into a two-week celebration of builders, creators, and dreamers.
It’s less a conference now, more an occasion — a reason for people from around the world to fly in, meet face-to-face, and test their ideas against the Valley’s rhythm.

Beyond the usual AI buzz, a quieter but unmistakable trend appeared: tech, art, and fashion are melting into each other.
We saw AI-powered nail art startups, fashion-tech panels hosted by Gap, and social-fashion apps built by high school and college founders exploring identity through digital style.

The week began not with a keynote, but a coffee rave on Market Street, co-hosted by EchoHer and Manus — complete with a DJ, daylight, and a crowd that felt more like a cultural festival than a tech gathering.

🌀 AI isn’t just optimizing workflows anymore — it’s redefining expression.
The city itself has become the lab where creativity, community, and code rise together.

💡 cal hacks — builders beyond boundaries

This year’s CalHacks was the largest yet. Over 9,000 people signed up, with around 4,500 qualified hackers; the team expected half to attend, but the turnout exceeded all estimates — over 1,000 more people than planned, enough to overload the venue’s custom-built network.

The sheer scale was remarkable, but even more striking was the mindset shift: this generation uses AI not as a trend, but as a tool to solve their own problems.

Across more than 700 projects, I saw both familiar challenges reframed and new ones imagined:
– AI tools helping students stay engaged through webcam detection.
– Agricultural systems preventing wildfires in California’s mountains.
– Reflections, a digital twin that helps users stay aligned with their goals and schedules.
– And a language-learning app that teaches through TikTok and Reels comments, turning social chatter into cultural context.

In my judging round, about two-thirds of teams were diverse, with at least one woman or underrepresented founder.
It may not represent the entire pool, but it shows the direction: the emerging generation is more inclusive, intentional, and deeply hands-on with AI.

🌀 The strongest signal wasn’t technical — it was generational.
They’re not waiting for permission; they’re building tools to shape their own worlds.

⚙️ techcrunch disrupt — between the boom and the balance

This year’s TechCrunch Disrupt felt broader, more global, and more balanced than ever.
The Startup Battlefield finalists were more diverse in both backgrounds and industries.
And across the exhibition floor, variety thrived — it wasn’t just Silicon Valley or AI-first anymore.

There were startups tackling pharma innovation, pet-health detection tools, social-discovery apps connecting people through shared cuisines, and even infra-level challenges where developers generated images matching a target — the closest match won a Plot Llama.

🌀 It was more diverse, more experimental, and more fun than ever.

Investor panels noted that fundraising now takes two months longer on average, with 500+ AI unicorns crowding the field.
Yet the sentiment wasn’t panic — it was perspective.
Founders and investors alike are looking for substance over scale: traction, clarity, and credibility.

Character.AI’s CEO highlighted a growing truth — compliance and law will always lag innovation, but founders can’t afford to.
They’re learning to self-regulate, to design responsibly before the rules arrive.
And as the cost of building drops, branding and authenticity rise in importance.

🌀 As creation becomes easier, conviction becomes the differentiator.
The founders who thrive next year will be the ones who balance innovation with integrity — and hype with humility.

🌗 finding the middle — the real signal

Across these events, one theme kept rising: the ecosystem is learning to balance speed with sense.
Funding cycles slow down, but building cycles accelerate.
Barriers to entry fall, but expectations — of clarity, diversity, and intention — rise.
AI is everywhere, yet what stands out most remains deeply human.

Maybe the real question isn’t what’s next,
but how we find the middle: where conviction meets traction, creativity meets responsibility, and innovation meets empathy.

Freshly from the oven of the Baker-in-Chief at LeavenLab 🔥