Embedded Files
Fall 2025 Workshops
Workshops from our Fall 2025 Program. At the end of the Program, these workshops will be moved to their respective category.
Build a LinkedIn Strategy That Drives Revenue
September 23, 2025
Traditional sales tactics are losing their edge—LinkedIn has become the go-to channel for founders to build audience and accelerate deals. In this 60-minute workshop, Noah Greenberg (CEO, Stacker) shares how he used LinkedIn to generate $5M+ in ARR. Learn how to craft content that attracts your ideal customers, combine it with smart outreach, and start building your own high-impact strategy.
The State of VC: Trends Shaping 2025
September 25, 2025
Join Ashley Neville, Carta's Director of Insights, as she describes the current state of venture investing using data from more than 40,000 US startups. We'll touch on valuations, fundraising, founder dilution, and differences between geographies and sectors across the early-stage VC landscape.
Enterprise Sales – How to Sell & Build a Scalable Sales Engine
October 2, 2025
Enterprise sales are challenging, with long cycles, multiple stakeholders, and tough procurement barriers. This session will break down how to effectively sell into large companies, from identifying decision-makers and building champions to overcoming objections and structuring scalable, recurring revenue deals. Learn proven strategies to shorten sales cycles, position your startup as a must-have solution, and develop a repeatable sales process for long-term success.
Demystifying Fundraising
October 7, 2025
With this workshop, our Ventures Principal, Janis Skriveris, will share how to craft a compelling pitch, build long-term investor relationships, and navigate the fundraising process with confidence.
This workshop will demystify what VCs really care about, how venture capital works, and how to position your startup to attract the right investors.
The Series A Journey: Insights from Founders
October 9, 2025
Raising a series A is a big step - and often a tough one to navigate. In this session, Mayada Gonimah, co-founder of Thread AI, will share what the journey looked like for her and her team: how they approached fundraising, what moved the needle, and what they learned along the way. Expect a candid conversation, practical insights, and the opportunity to ask Maya questions about the journey. If you're thinking ahead to your own Series A, this is a session worth catching.
Perfecting Your Pitch
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Join Carley Hart (Cornell Tech, Runway Startups) for a practical workshop on pitching best practices. With deep expertise in tech, innovation, and partnerships, Carley will share insider tips to help you craft a clear, compelling pitch that captures attention and drives results.
Service Partner Showcase
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Join us for this session to learn more about Plug and Play's Service Partner offerings! We will feature a select few Service Partners, where you will get a chance to dive deeper into their products & discounts, and ask any questions you may have.
Featuring: Google Cloud, Google Pixel, Mercury, Insperity, Hubspot, LinkedIn & more
Hands-on Workshop on Building and Launching AI Agents
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
Join this interactive workshop to accelerate your journey into agentic development. We’ll cover the essentials of building reliable AI agents, from frameworks and observability to evaluation strategies and common tools like agentic RAG and databases. You’ll walk away with best practices, practical tips, and a working understanding of how to design, test, and optimize your very first agent ready for real-world use.
How to Avoid the PoC Trap
Thursday, October 23, 2025
Proof of concept (PoC) projects can be a powerful tool in developing product market fit and customer relationships. However, they can also trap you in corporate purgatory, delaying your growth while shortening your runway. In this workshop, Matt Johnson from Laiier (a Plug and Play alumni startup) will discuss the purpose of the PoC, techniques to avoid common traps and how to create mutual value.
Leveraging your network for Fundrasing
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
In this session, you'll learn how early stage founders can take greatest advantage of their existing network in starting fundraising outreach, how to cater pitches for specific investor personas and best practices in outreach, messaging and follow ups. This tactically oriented session is meant to teach you how to optimize the limited communication and time you have with prospective investors and determine your best path based on what you're able to learn about them. The session will be led by Anand Deshpande, Investor Partnerships at Mercury, angel investor and startup mentor.
Mental Armor for Founders: How to Stay Resilient, Decode Emotions, and Lead Your Startup to Success Without Losing Yourself
Wednesday, November 5, 2025
Your startup’s success depends not only on your product, but on your state of mind. In this workshop, we’ll explore how resilience works under founder pressure, how to decode emotions as real data for smarter decisions, and when to lean on AI for clarity (and when not to). You’ll leave with practical tools to strengthen your mental armor, protect your energy, and lead your company with confidence—without losing yourself in the process.
Fall 2025 Corporate Reverse Pitches
Corporate Reverse Pitches from our Fall 2025 Program.
INX Corporate Reverse Pitch - SV New Materials and Packaging Program
September 24, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
Unlike traditional pitch events, this reverse pitch format shifts the focus to our partners—allowing them to lead the conversation and highlight the challenges they’re looking to solve, the technologies they’re excited about, and the types of startups they’re eager to connect with.
Tosoh Corporate Reverse Pitch - SV New Materials and Packaging Program
September 24, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
Unlike traditional pitch events, this reverse pitch format shifts the focus to our partners—allowing them to lead the conversation and highlight the challenges they’re looking to solve, the technologies they’re excited about, and the types of startups they’re eager to connect with.
SBI and SNBL Corporate Reverse Pitch - Seattle Enterprise and AI Program
October 1, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
Unlike traditional pitch events, this reverse pitch format shifts the focus to our partners—allowing them to lead the conversation and highlight the challenges they’re looking to solve, the technologies they’re excited about, and the types of startups they’re eager to connect with.
Sherwin-Williams Corporate Reverse Pitch - SV New Materials and Packaging Program
October 6, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
October 6, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
Unlike traditional pitch events, this reverse pitch format shifts the focus to our partners—allowing them to lead the conversation and highlight the challenges they’re looking to solve, the technologies they’re excited about, and the types of startups they’re eager to connect with.
PepsiCo Corporate Reverse Pitch - SV New Materials and Packaging Program
October 6, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
October 6, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
Unlike traditional pitch events, this reverse pitch format shifts the focus to our partners—allowing them to lead the conversation and highlight the challenges they’re looking to solve, the technologies they’re excited about, and the types of startups they’re eager to connect with.
Greater MSP Corporate Reverse Pitch - SV New Materials and Packaging Program
October 9, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
October 9, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
Unlike traditional pitch events, this reverse pitch format shifts the focus to our partners—allowing them to lead the conversation and highlight the challenges they’re looking to solve, the technologies they’re excited about, and the types of startups they’re eager to connect with.
Allianz Corporate Reverse Pitch - SV New Materials and Packaging Program
October 13, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
October 13, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
Unlike traditional pitch events, this reverse pitch format shifts the focus to our partners—allowing them to lead the conversation and highlight the challenges they’re looking to solve, the technologies they’re excited about, and the types of startups they’re eager to connect with.
Novonesis Corporate Reverse Pitch - SV Food and Beverage Program
October 15, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
October 15, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
Unlike traditional pitch events, this reverse pitch format shifts the focus to our partners—allowing them to lead the conversation and highlight the challenges they’re looking to solve, the technologies they’re excited about, and the types of startups they’re eager to connect with.
Global Energy Corporate Reverse Pitch - Orlando Smart Cities Program
October 15, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
October 15, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
Unlike traditional pitch events, this reverse pitch format shifts the focus to our partners—allowing them to lead the conversation and highlight the challenges they’re looking to solve, the technologies they’re excited about, and the types of startups they’re eager to connect with.
DeepTech Corporate Reverse Pitch - SV DeepTech Program
October 15, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
October 15, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
Unlike traditional pitch events, this reverse pitch format shifts the focus to our partners—allowing them to lead the conversation and highlight the challenges they’re looking to solve, the technologies they’re excited about, and the types of startups they’re eager to connect with.
Pelliconi Corporate Reverse Pitch - SV New Materials and Packaging Program
October 20, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
October 20, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
Unlike traditional pitch events, this reverse pitch format shifts the focus to our partners—allowing them to lead the conversation and highlight the challenges they’re looking to solve, the technologies they’re excited about, and the types of startups they’re eager to connect with.
Coca-Cola Corporate Reverse Pitch - SV Food and Beverage Program
October 22, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
October 22, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
Unlike traditional pitch events, this reverse pitch format shifts the focus to our partners—allowing them to lead the conversation and highlight the challenges they’re looking to solve, the technologies they’re excited about, and the types of startups they’re eager to connect with.
Mobility Partners Corporate Reverse Pitch - SV Mobility Program
October 29, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
October 29, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
Unlike traditional pitch events, this reverse pitch format shifts the focus to our partners—allowing them to lead the conversation and highlight the challenges they’re looking to solve, the technologies they’re excited about, and the types of startups they’re eager to connect with.
Taiyo Life Corporate Reverse Pitch - SV InsurTech Program
November 4, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
November 4, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
Unlike traditional pitch events, this reverse pitch format shifts the focus to our partners—allowing them to lead the conversation and highlight the challenges they’re looking to solve, the technologies they’re excited about, and the types of startups they’re eager to connect with.
Meiji Yasuda Corporate Reverse Pitch - SV InsurTech Program
November 5, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
November 5, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
Unlike traditional pitch events, this reverse pitch format shifts the focus to our partners—allowing them to lead the conversation and highlight the challenges they’re looking to solve, the technologies they’re excited about, and the types of startups they’re eager to connect with.
Grange Corporate Reverse Pitch - SV InsurTech Program
November 12, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
November 12, 2025
During the program, we’ll spotlight our Corporate Partners, giving them the opportunity to share an overview of their organization, their approach to innovation, and what they look for in startup collaborations.
Unlike traditional pitch events, this reverse pitch format shifts the focus to our partners—allowing them to lead the conversation and highlight the challenges they’re looking to solve, the technologies they’re excited about, and the types of startups they’re eager to connect with.
Fundraising & Venture Capital
Workshops focused on raising capital, investor relations, and VC trends.
The State of VC: Trends Shaping 2025
The State of VC: Trends Shaping 2025
Join Peter Walker, Carta's Head of Insights, as he walks through data from over 40,000 US startups to analyze key trends in venture investing. Explore insights on valuations, fundraising dynamics, founder dilution, and how geography and industry influence early-stage VC activity.
Fundraising Psychology for Early Stage Founders
Fundraising Psychology for Early Stage Founders
Mallory Contois, Head of Community at Mercury, combines her psychology background and founder experience to share how psychological principles can improve your fundraising approach. Learn how to understand investor mindsets and pitch with confidence.
Pitch Perfect: Avoid Common Mistakes and Get Expert Feedback
Click Here to access the video recording.
Passcode: 3fbfc3$F
Join HubSpot for Startups, Power to Pitch, and Gust to uncover the five most common pitching mistakes founders make. Gain expert insights during a live AMA and pitch deck reviews, and learn how to position yourself for investor success.
How to Nail Your Numbers:
Why Early-Stage Startups Need to Have a Compelling Financial Narrative Alongside Their CEO's Vision
Early-stage startups need more than a great vision — they need a compelling financial narrative. Ryan Perlowin will walk through key financial frameworks, metric buckets, and the inflection points where metrics matter most.
Strategic Financial Planning
Today’s investors prioritize traction over vision. Learn how to manage burn, establish go/no-go milestones, and build financial discipline early—even without a CFO. This workshop is essential for founders navigating today’s lean fundraising environment.
Go-To-Market (GTM), Sales & Customer Acquisition
Workshops focused on enterprise sales, customer acquisition, and commercialization strategies.
Go-To-Market (GTM), Sales & Customer Acquisition
Workshops focused on enterprise sales, customer acquisition, and commercialization strategies.
How to Win Customers & Leverage Plug and Play
NayaOne shares its journey to winning enterprise customers and how the Plug and Play ecosystem accelerated their sales process. Learn strategies to refine your approach and build key enterprise relationships that drive growth.
Enterprise Sales for your B2B Startup
Master the sales systems every B2B startup needs to scale: the 3 growth phases, 9 sales accelerators, and the right hiring roadmap. Learn how to build a predictable, repeatable, and scalable enterprise sales machine.
Running Successful Paid Pilots with Your Early Customers
In this training, you'll master a proven process for designing and executing Paid Pilot Programs that convert. Learn how to structure your offer, define key metrics and timelines, keep stakeholders engaged, and turn pilots into long-term deals—achieving win rates of 75% or higher. Plus, get practical strategies for handling pilots that don’t lead to immediate sales. Perfect for startups and teams looking to validate and grow with early customers.
Building Your Startup’s Sales Playbook
To grow beyond the early stages, startups must go beyond hustle and build a structured, scalable sales engine. This session explores how to develop a repeatable go-to-market strategy across every stage of growth—from your first customer to $10M+ ARR. Learn how to structure your sales efforts across prospecting, pipeline management, onboarding, and team building, and how each function evolves as your company scales.
Commercialization Strategies - Becoming Indispensable to Customers
Understand how to become essential to your customers through strategic account management. This session covers pivotal moments in the buying journey and how to align your value proposition to drive commitment and long-term success.
Operations & Scaling
Workshops on internal infrastructure, processes, documentation, and scaling strategy.
Scaling to Unicorn Status: Lessons from the Top with Co-Founder and CTO of Turing
Vijay Krishnan, Co-Founder of Turing, shares insights from scaling to a billion-dollar valuation. Discover strategies for growth, key inflection points, and hard-earned lessons that can accelerate your journey to unicorn status.
Scaling your business: Why Product Documentation is Necessary for Achieving Velocity
Learn why product documentation and knowledge sharing are critical for startups scaling their delivery. Discover how internal clarity leads to faster development, team alignment, and easier onboarding as your company grows.
Talent, Team Building & Leadership
Topics around hiring, compensation, boards, and C-suite building.
Compensation to Attract and Retain Top Talent
Rani Mavram, CEO of Complete.so, outlines how to build, communicate, and scale a winning compensation strategy. Learn how to use comp as a competitive advantage while optimizing for cost, trust, and long-term retention.
Building Your C-suite
Murem Sharpe, Partner at TechCXO, guides founders through building an impactful executive team. Learn when to bring on leadership roles, how to choose the right talent, and how C-suite titles can accelerate company growth.
How to Build A Board That Adds Value While Not Losing Control
Avoid common board-building mistakes. This session from Entrelliance teaches founders how to recruit, structure, and manage a high-impact board that adds value — without giving up too much influence or inviting unnecessary drama.
Culture & International Business
Workshops focused on cross-cultural communication and international expansion.
Culture & International Business
Workshops focused on cross-cultural communication and international expansion.
Bringing Your Startup to the U.S.
Corporate lawyer Todd Rumberger of WilmerHale shares what foreign founders need to know about forming and funding a U.S. entity, from IP protections to financing structures, all tailored to startups expanding across borders.
Working with Japanese Corporates
Learn the fundamentals of Japanese business etiquette and communication styles. This workshop helps startups bridge cultural gaps and form productive relationships with corporate partners in Japan.
Partner & Perk Showcases
Informational sessions primarily designed to introduce partner benefits or services.
Service Partner Showcase
Get to know the Plug and Play Service Partners and the perks available exclusively to Spring 2025 startups. Learn how to leverage these offerings to save costs and accelerate your business.
Featured service partners include:
CARTA: Carta helps companies and investors manage equity, cap tables, valuations, and ownership efficiently.
MERCURY: Mercury provides banking and financial tools designed to help startups scale seamlessly.
INSPERITY: Insperity provides comprehensive solutions to help businesses streamline operations, manage compliance, and support employee growth.
K&L GATES: K&L Gates is a global law firm providing comprehensive legal services across industries, including corporate, regulatory, and intellectual property law.
HUBSPOT: HubSpot is a leading CRM platform that helps businesses grow through marketing, sales, customer service, and content management tools.
GOOGLE CLOUD: Google Cloud is a suite of cloud computing services that provides scalable infrastructure, AI-powered tools, and data analytics solutions to help businesses innovate and grow.
Legal & Compliance
Workshops covering legal structuring, IP, and regulatory considerations.
Foundational & General Strategy
These span broad strategic advice and don’t fall into only one category.
Foundational & General Strategy
These span broad strategic advice and don’t fall into only one category.
Avoiding the POC Trap
Proof of Concept projects can unlock partnerships or stall progress. Matt Johnson from Laiier shares how to design PoCs that create mutual value while avoiding endless pilot purgatory that drains resources and time.
PITCH POLISHING
How Leaders Communicate Trust
Anthony Lee of Heroic Voice Academy introduces a communication framework to help founders build trust during pitches and presentations. Learn to connect, inspire, and convert support in high-stakes conversations.
Anthony Lee is the Founder of the Heroic Voice Academy, a communications training company. His company works with global impact leaders, preparing them for their most important presentations and conversations.
How Leaders Communicate Trust
Anthony Lee, Founder of Heroic Voice Academy, introduces a proven communication framework to help startup leaders build trust in high-stakes conversations. Learn how to define your leadership brand, craft a compelling message, and convert initial meetings into lasting relationships with investors, customers, and partners.
Session A: Build Relationships
Session A: Build Relationships
Learn how to create instant rapport and alignment with stakeholders. This session focuses on the emotional and strategic elements of communication that drive trust, connection, and ROI from key meetings and pitches.
Session B: Optimize Your Content
Create messages that resonate. Learn how to select essential content, tailor it to your audience’s expertise, and speak with the voice of a leader, visionary, and changemaker to move conversations forward.
Session C: Engage Your Audience
Master the message delivery techniques that increase comprehension and engagement. Learn how to teach, inspire, and drive action during your presentations — and how to apply these skills across conversations and emails.
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