🎯 The Big Picture
Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga is joining the StrictlyVC San Francisco speaker lineup on April 30, bringing deep operational expertise from one of the world's most complex technology platforms. The event is shaping up to be the must-attend gathering for founders and investors in the SF startup ecosystem.
📖 What Happened
Naga will sit down with TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos to discuss operating at scale in the AI era. His tenure at Uber dates back to 2015 — well before the current AI boom — giving him a rare perspective on how infrastructure demands have evolved.
His responsibilities extend beyond AI. Naga has driven the development of earnings systems for Uber's vast driver and courier network. Before Uber, he played a key role in building LinkedIn's early products and infrastructure.
The StrictlyVC SF roster now features five confirmed speakers:
• Praveen Neppalli Naga — Uber CTO, scaling systems for millions of daily rides and deliveries
• Lior Susan — Eclipse founder & CEO, managing a $1.3B fund focused on physical AI startups
• Amjad Masad — Replit co-founder & CEO, building the future of AI-driven software development
• Nicolas Sauvage — TDK Ventures president, hosting a session on strategic capital and early-stage investing
• Campbell Brown — Former CNN host and Meta media lead, now tackling AI disinformation with Forum AI
💰 By the Numbers
| 📊 Metric | 💡 Context |
|---|---|
| $1.3B | Size of Lior Susan's Eclipse fund, targeting physical AI startups |
| Since 2015 | Naga's tenure at Uber, predating the current AI revolution |
| 5 speakers | Confirmed speakers for StrictlyVC San Francisco on April 30 |
🎤 Highlights
• Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga joins StrictlyVC SF to discuss operating at scale in the AI era.
• Naga has been at Uber since 2015 and previously helped build LinkedIn's core infrastructure.
• Eclipse's $1.3B fund, led by Lior Susan, is placing major bets on physical AI startups.
• Replit CEO Amjad Masad will address AI-driven software development and engineer concerns.
• Campbell Brown brings media and policy expertise on combating AI-generated disinformation.
⚡ The Bottom Line
StrictlyVC SF is assembling the kind of cross-disciplinary lineup that reflects where AI is actually heading — beyond models and into infrastructure, physical systems, policy, and developer tools.
📰 Source: TechCrunch 🔗