Dave Yuan
VSaaS Collective Live
Presented by
Tidemark Logo

VSaaS Collective Live

For the founders and CEOs building vertical platforms for the agentic age.

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VSaaS Live returns for its third year — and this time, we’re going bigger.

For 2026, we’ve expanded to a day and a half, giving you more time for conversations, connections, and sessions that matter most.

No investors in the room. No generic playbooks. Just founders and CEOs who get it. If you run a Vertical SaaS business, we built this for you.

Collective Live 2026 is about getting to the other side — and becoming a System of Action.

The application layer isn’t dead.
It’s the whole game.

Foundation models are moving up the stack. Agents are beginning to do the work. And the software playbook that got us here won’t be enough for what comes next.

For vertical platforms, the opportunity is to become the System of Action for their industry — whether by transforming an existing Control Point or building an AI-native one from the ground up.

That requires more than adding AI to the product. It means rethinking the product, infrastructure, organization, and business model around a world where agents execute work and get better over time.

Collective Live is about how to make that transition. We’ll hear from established vertical software leaders crossing to the other side, AI-native companies building new category leaders, and the product, engineering, and GTM operators rebuilding their companies for the agentic age.

Two days built for vertical software leaders.

Wednesday, October 21
‍@ Pier 70 (555 20th Street)
We kick off at 4:30pm with our welcome party presented by our friends at Tight. We'll have areas set-up to meet with other attendees in your industry!

Thursday, October 22
‍@ Convene 100 Stockton
Our full conference: mainstage keynotes and firesides, breakouts, and plenty of time with the other CEOs and founders in the room. We'll conclude with a closing reception hosted by Unit!

AGENDA

Pier 70 · San Francisco
‍
555 20th Street

WEDNESDAY 10/21

4:30–7:00 PM

Welcome party

Sponsored by Tight.com

Convene · 100 Stockton, San Francisco
‍
Entrance: 40 O’Farrell Street · Doors open 9:00 AM · All times PT

THURSDAY 10/22
Morning & early afternoon · MainstagE‍

9:30-10:00

30 min

The Race to Be the System of Action

Dave Yuan

Founder · Tidemark

10:00-10:30

30 min

Full Replacement: The Rillet Approach

Nicolas Kopp

CEO · Rillet

10:30-11:00

30 min

Break

11:00-11:30

30 min

Integrate & Swarm: Multi-Agents, Multi-Stakeholder, Multi-Vertical

Pablo Palafox

CEO · HappyRobot

11:30-12:00

30 min

AI Transformation & Platform Games with Podium

Eric Rea

CEO · Podium

12:00-1:00

60 min

Lunch

5th Floor · Presented by Layer

1:00–1:30

30 min

Beyond the Command-Line Era

David Webster

Head of UX · Google

Breakouts

GTM · Room 1
Engineering · Room 2
GTM · Room A

WAVE 1

1:40-2:10 PM

Brand in the Age of AI

Kelly Esten

CMO · Toast

Engineering · Room B

Building the Agentic Software Factory

Rishit Shah

SVP Engineering · Podium

Soam Vasani

Soam Vasani

Software Engineer · Stripe

2:10–2:15 PM · Change rooms
GTM · Room A

WAVE 2

2:15–2:45 PM

Selling Work, Not Software

Sam Trudo

Fmr Head of Revenue · EvenUp

Engineering · Room B

Building the Context Layer

Animesh Koratana

CEO · PlayerZero

2:45–2:50 PM · Change rooms
GTM · Room A

WAVE 3

2:50–3:20 PM

AI-First GTM

Kyle Norton

Fmr CRO · Owner.com

Engineering · Room B

Owning the Vertical Frontier — Infrastructure for Agents

Shaosu Liu

Co-Founder & CTO · Loop

3:20–3:25 PM · Change rooms
GTM · Room A

WAVE 4

3:25–3:55 PM

GTM in the Agentic Age

Kelly Esten

CMO · Toast

Kyle Norton

Fmr CRO · Owner.com

Sam Trudo

Frm Head of Revenue · EvenUp

Kevin Hamilton

Kevin Hamilton (Moderator)

Fmr CMO · Toast

Engineering · Room B

Continual Learning: How Agents Get Better Over Time

Ronak Malde

Co-Founder · Trajectory AI

4:00–4:25 PM · Agents spotlights · 4th Floor

Agents · Room 1
Agents · Room 2
Agents · Room 3

4:00–4:25 PM

Agents · Room A

The Case for Vertical Models (Language & Function)

Jeff Seibert

CEO · Digits

Agents · Room B

Replacing Cousin Richie in Insurance Renewals

Jackson Fregeau

CEO · Quandri

Agents · Room C

Earning the Trust Ladder: Agent Swarms for the Trades

AJ Jain

AJ Jain

CEO · Broccoli

Closing · Mainstage

4:30–5:00

30 min

Doing the Work: Clio’s Agentic Transition

Ronnie Gurion

COO & President · Clio

5:00–5:30

30 min

Building AI-Services with Gainsight

Chuck Ganapathi

CEO · Gainsight

5:30 PM

90 min

Closing Reception

Sponsored by Unit

LEARN from the best in Vertical SaaS

Our 2026 speaker lineup is now live!

AJ Jain

AJ Jain

CEO

Animesh Koratana

CEO

Chuck Ganapathi

CEO

Dave Yuan

Founder & Partner

David Webster

Head of UX

Eric Rea

Co-founder & CEO

Jackson Fregeau

CEO & Co-Founder

Jeff Liu

Co-Founder & Co-CEO

Jeff Seibert

CEO & Founder

Kelly Esten

CMO & COO

Kevin Hamilton

Former CMO

Kyle Norton

CRO (Former)

Nicolas Kopp

CEO & Co-Founder

Pablo Palafox

Co-Founder & CEO

Rishit Shah

SVP of Engineering

Ronak Malde

CEO & Founder

Ronnie Gurion

President & COO

Sam Trudo

Head of Revenue (Former)

Shaosu Liu

Co-Founder & CTO
Soam Vasani

Soam Vasani

Software Engineer
LIVE

Collective Live 2025 by the numbers

200+
attendees

17+
industries
represented

$4B+
in combined ARR

4+
continents
represented

Text Link

WHO attends VSaaS Live

Companies that attended 2025

A room that gets it. VSaaS Live brings together leaders of VSaaS companies for in-person discussions and learning with legendary operators without the pressure of other investors in the room.

POWERED by our partners

Thanks to our sponsors, VSaaS Live remains free for all founders and CEOs.

Our 2026 sponsors include:

TIDAL WAVE

Unit logo

RIP CURL

HIGH TIDE

CORE

SECURE YOUR SPOT

Space is limited—we sold out in 2025!

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