FORGE 2025: When great minds connect, ideas accelerate
Venture Banking
Ojai Valley Inn, California — September 29–October 1, 2025
FORGE isn’t your typical tech summit.
Now in its second year, FORGE, hosted by Stifel Venture Banking, brought together more than 80 deep tech founders, investors, and innovators to exchange ideas and form lasting connections.
The event opened Monday evening with remarks from Matt Trotter, Managing Director, Stifel Venture Banking. Against the backdrop of Ojai’s golden hills, the group quickly found common ground—ambitious, collaborative, and driven by curiosity.
On Tuesday, participants engaged in three thematic tracks—Capital, Go to Market, and Nuts & Bolts—each designed to explore the evolving dynamics of building and scaling AI-driven technologies.
A selection of those nine sessions include:
Applying ML and LLMs to the physical world: Led by Sunil Nagarai, Founding Partner, Ubiquity Ventures, and Frederik Ryden, CEO, Olis Robotics, this session shed light on where automation meets reality—how far AI, robotics, and computer vision models can really go before systems design, safety, and economics pull them back to earth.
Crossing the chasm: Raising growth stage funding in Deep Tech. Led by Jocelyn Kinsey, Partner, DFJ Growth, this session explored how to translate complex technology into a compelling commercial story, build investor confidence through milestones, and balance long development timelines with market readiness.
All Systems Go-Launching Products pre-PMF. With Timothy Harris, CEO, SwiftNav, this session explored the path from early traction to scalable markets—how to identify the right customers, avoid false signals, and connect initial product fit to long-term commercial opportunity.
The afternoon’s curated activities—pickleball, hiking to a local brewery, jeep rides to a mountain winery, and e-biking to Ventura Beach—extended the spirit of connection. These experiences encouraged organic, productive discussions well beyond the sessions.
The day concluded with a garden dinner under the stars, featuring family-style dining and thoughtful conversation—a fitting close to a day defined by shared learning and new relationships. By Wednesday morning’s closing breakfast, many attendees were already discussing next steps and collaborations inspired by their time in Ojai.
Stay tuned for upcoming articles featuring key takeaways and perspectives from this year’s FORGE conference.
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