SF Tech Week 2026 runs Monday, October 5 through Sunday, October 11, presented by a16z. There's no venue and no badge. Startups, funds and companies host their own events and list them on one official calendar, and you register for each event separately.
The official page describes the process in seven words: pick your events, apply, and get in. Plan around the middle one. An open-data snapshot of the calendar, taken on September 23, counted 1,713 listings starting inside the week. On many of the events people talk about afterwards, registering puts you in a queue, and the host decides who gets in.
Our stake, up front: Ascent Valley runs a pitch night in San Francisco on Wednesday, October 7. It's in this guide, described the way we'd describe anyone else's, including when it's the wrong pick.
The week, day by day
Tuesday through Thursday carry 1,231 of the 1,713 listings, about 72%. Two things follow. Decide those three evenings first, because that's where you'll be double-booked. And treat Monday, Friday and the weekend as the quiet part of the week: far fewer listings, and the same city full of people who flew in for it.
Decide your ask before you open the calendar
At our evenings, everyone writes a role and an ask on a sticker at the door. Most asks sound like one of four sentences. The same four make a good filter for Tech Week, because each points at a different kind of room. The snapshot sorts every listing into one of 36 collections, so the mapping is direct.
| Your ask | Collections to look in | Listings |
|---|---|---|
| I came with a problem | Dinners & Small-Table Conversations; Coffee, Breakfasts & Daytime Socials | 42 · 62 |
| I have an idea, I want your honest take | Fundraising, Pitches & Exits; Demos, Launches & Showcases | 54 · 37 |
| I want to grow | Sales, GTM & Customer Success; Careers, Teams & Leadership | 55 · 67 |
| I've hit a ceiling | Founder Practice & Cofounders; Investors, Funds & Capital | 30 · 36 |
Two more collections deserve a look. Global Founders & Cross-Border Growth has 78 listings, one of the largest in the week. If you moved to the US recently, start there. Mixers & Happy Hours is the largest at 113. Use mixers for range, and plan the follow-up that turns one of those conversations into a second one.
Write a registration a host can read
On an approval-gated event, your registration is the application. The host sees your name, your company and one line, usually in a long list, usually late at night. Put the company, the stage and the ask in that line.
Founder, payroll automation for restaurant groups, pre-seed. Looking for two design partners with 10+ locations.
That gets read. "Excited to connect!" doesn't. Apply the day an event posts. The calendar keeps growing through the week, so check it again on Sunday, October 4.
A week that fits in one calendar
- Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: one anchor event per evening, chosen by your ask. Apply to all three this week.
- One daytime event. The Coffee, Breakfasts & Daytime Socials collection has 62 listings. Mornings don't compete with your evening anchors, so this one comes free.
- One Monday or Friday event. Monday has 203 listings and Friday 161, against 438 on Wednesday.
- One empty evening. Keep it for the follow-ups the week produces. Send each one within two days, while you can still name what you talked about.
Where a five-founder room fits
Our Wednesday evening is small on purpose. You sit at one table for the first hour, on a topic the city voted for before the evening. Then five founders get five minutes each on stage, and the room asks the questions. Then the floor stays open for an hour.
It's the right pick if you want one real conversation with the same few people, and somewhere to continue it after the week. Your ticket includes an invitation to the San Francisco community space (In beta), which opens in Slack, in the browser or in Telegram.
It's the wrong pick if you need to meet one specific fund's partners that night. Go to that fund's own event and apply early. We don't promise an investor in the room on any given evening, and we won't tell you in advance who's coming, because we don't know.
If Wednesday is already full, we're at Rick & Roxy's on Wednesday, September 30 for AI & Tech Networking, with tables by stack and problem, and again for pitch nights on October 21 and November 4.
Then LA
LA Tech Week follows straight after, October 12 to 18, on its own official calendar at luma.com/latw. Plenty of people do both. Our LA evening that week is Thursday, October 15, at Florentín Rooftop Bar.
Quick answers
- When is SF Tech Week 2026?
- Monday, October 5 to Sunday, October 11, 2026.
- Is there one ticket for the whole week?
- No. Each event has its own registration page, and many ask the host to approve you.
- Which day is busiest?
- Wednesday, October 7, with 438 listings in the September 23 snapshot. Thursday has 398 and Tuesday 395.
- Where is the official calendar?
- tech-week.com and luma.com/sftw. Other lists, including the dataset we used for the counts, are third-party copies of it.
Mentioned in this piece
Places
- Rick & Roxy's · San Francisco · Sep 30, Oct 7, Oct 21, Nov 4
- Florentín Rooftop Bar · Los Angeles · Oct 15
Organizers
- Tech Week, presented by a16z · official calendars
Data
- The SF Edit · open dataset, snapshot Sep 23, 2026
