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Building At The Intersection Of AI & Regulation
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| With Alex Bowcut (Head of Engg, Sphere), Leo Mehr (Dir. Engg, Ramp), Johnathan Hsu (CTO, Valon), Kevin Bai (Head of Forward Deployed Engg, Rippling). |
| A16Z HQ, 180 Townsend St, San Francisco |
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Apr 01 (Wed) , 2026 @ 06:00 PM
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| DETAILS |
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Sphere, Ramp, Rippling, & Valon are each building AI in complex, regulated industries where you can't afford to be wrong. Compliance, finance, mortgages. Real stakes, real consequences.
Join us at a16z's SF office for an evening of conversation about what it actually takes to build AI systems when you can't just move fast, break things.
AGENDA
6:00-6:30 PM - Arrivals & Networking
6:30-7:15 PM - Fireside Chat
Hosted by Alex Bowcut, Head of Eng @ Sphere
Co-hosted by Johnathan Hsu, CTO @ Valon, Kevin Bai, Head of Forward Deployed Eng @ Rippling, & Leo Mehr, Director of Eng @ Ramp
7:15-7:30 PM - Q&A
7:30-9:00 PM - Reception & Networking
WHAT TO EXPECT
Curated engineering room (application-only)
Engineering-relevant fireside chat
Reception with Sphere & a16z team
Light bites + drinks
ABOUT SPHERE
Every breakthrough in trade infrastructure has followed the same pattern: reduce a transaction cost, expand the market. Containerization for goods. SWIFT for money. Stripe for payments. Compliance is one of the last & largest - & the hardest, because trade rules aren't data to be looked up. They're a complex adaptive system with 190+ sovereign jurisdictions, in different languages, changing constantly, reacting to each other.
Sphere built the system that solves it. Our AI (TRAM) ingests global trade law, interprets it, resolves conflicts across jurisdictions, & produces compliance determinations more reliable than human experts. We handle the entire lifecycle - calculation, registration, filing, remittance - at millisecond latency with zero downtime.
Backed by a16z & YC. $21M Series A. 30%+ MoM growth. Customers include ElevenLabs, Replit, Deel, Runway, & Lovable. Small team, global surface area. San Francisco, in office.
Jobs board: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/sphere
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