January 29, 2025 · Top presenting company
Haptic
Founder Kevin Hoil Yoo earned top presenting honors for navigation technology that communicates through touch to assist people with visual impairments.
Read the event recap ↗Startup Walnut Creek · Past events & winners
Great ideas.
Recognized here.
Our January and November 2025 gatherings helped build today’s Startup Walnut Creek community. Explore the founders, conversations and winning ideas behind that momentum.
2Startup Walnut Creek events in 2025
12Startup presentations across both events
$10,000Cash prizes awarded in November 2025
November 12, 2025 · Health-tech winner
Mednition $5,000
Co-founder and CEO Steven Reilly represented the company’s AI-powered tools supporting nurses’ clinical decisions.
Read the event recap ↗
November 12, 2025 · Sports-tech winner
Demotu $5,000
Co-founder Evan Ledahl presented AI-powered movement analysis for training, injury prevention and athletic performance.
Read the event recap ↗
Photos via The Shadelands Scene’s November event recap.
January 29, 2025
Startup Walnut Creek: The first gathering
More than 120 attendees gathered at 2850 Shadelands Drive for founder stories, investor insights and six startup pitches.
November 12, 2025
Startup Walnut Creek: Building momentum
More than 200 attendees joined industry panels, networking and six pitches, with two $5,000 category awards.
The experience in the room
Investors and academic leaders
from our past events.
Our November 2025 panels connected founders with perspectives from angel investors, venture capital firms and academic institutions. Selected past panelists include:
Rebecca Stafford
Band of Angels
Early-stage investor panel · November 2025Ron Weissman
Band of Angels
Early-stage investor panel · November 2025Laurel Mintz
Fabric Ventures
Early-stage investor panel · November 2025Rick Spencer
Growth Factory Ventures
Early-stage investor panel · November 2025Yash Hemeraj
Benhamou Global Ventures
Seed to Series A panel · November 2025Daniel Hoffer
Deep Venture Partners
Seed to Series A panel · November 2025Brian Bell
Team Ignite Ventures
Seed to Series A panel · November 2025Roger Thompson
Saint Mary’s College of California
Academic affairs panel · November 2025Charlie Faas
Saint Mary’s College & San Jose Sports Council
Academic affairs panel · November 2025Dan Rascher
University of San Francisco & SportsEconomics LLC
Academic affairs panel · November 2025Organizations are shown as reported for the 2025 event. Read the full panel recap ↗ · Speakers and judges for January 2027 will be announced separately.
Attendance figures follow the organizing team’s October 26 recap. Historical reporting and photos: January recap and November recap, The Shadelands Scene. Archived articles retain the earlier event name. Past awards do not establish the prize amounts for 2027.