Los Angeles has no single giant startup conference, but its calendar is full of rooms where founders meet buyers and investors: Nosh Live and Brewbound Live for food and drink brands in December, the Milken Institute Global Conference (2–5 May 2027), the USC and Techstars Demo Day (3 June 2027) and the Create & Cultivate Festival for women in business (25–26 September 2027).
This guide lists startup, tech, investor and women-founder events in Los Angeles County from November 2026 to the end of 2027, plus two big shows in Anaheim, 45 minutes away. We checked every date on the organiser's own website. We mark each event as Confirmed (date on the official site), Announced (date from a reliable second source) or Expected (based on past editions only). Prices are in US dollars.
This article is regularly updated with new events. Do you know about an event that needs to be added? Send us some info and we will see if it's a fit.
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Must Attend Startup Events in Los Angeles 2026–2027: Calendar from November 2026 to September 2027
Autumn 2026: November and December
AutoMobility LA: 19 November 2026
The industry day before the LA Auto Show opens to the public (20–29 November, $25 for adults). For mobility founders it puts carmakers, suppliers and the motoring press in one hall for one day. Global Entrepreneurship Week runs on 16–22 November, but we found no Los Angeles programme for it.
Nosh Live and Brewbound Live: 3–10 December 2026
BevNET's food conference. Speakers include Sam McBride (Kettle & Fire) and Tara Bosch (Snackish); Pitch Slam applications for 2026 are closed, but the room is still full of buyers and investors. Register by 23 October to save $100.
The drinks side of the same team, a week later. Speakers include Rob Tod (Allagash Brewing) and Ryan Lake (J.P. Morgan); the Pitch Slam grand prize is a $10,000 Brewbound advertising package.
PitchFest and DevFest LA: 10–12 December 2026
The year-end edition of PitchFest, a monthly Santa Monica pitch night that also hosts the Startup World Cup LA regional. Approved founders get a one-minute pitch; there are also paid guaranteed slots, so judge the value before you pay.
A cheap, hands-on day on Google's AI and cloud tools, with talks by Richard Seroter and Martin Omander of Google Cloud. A good place to meet LA developers and possible technical co-founders.
Spring 2027: March to May
Expo West and OFC: March 2027
Not in Los Angeles but close enough: the biggest buyer show for natural and organic brands in the US. If you sell food, drinks, beauty or supplements, this is the week retailers and investors scout new brands.
A deep-tech event: 17,800 people and 706 exhibitors came in 2026. For hardware founders in photonics or data-centre networking, it is where buyers and investors of the sector meet.
LA Hacks: mid-April 2027
UCLA's student hackathon, LA Hacks, runs for 36 hours at Pauley Pavilion in mid-April 2027 (exact days not published yet), with more than 1,000 students. Founders come as sponsors and mentors to find technical talent.
Milken Institute Global Conference: 2–5 May 2027
The densest gathering of institutional investors and CEOs in Los Angeles each year. More useful for later-stage founders and fund managers than for first-time founders.
Summer and autumn 2027
USC and Techstars Demo Day: 3 June 2027
The new LA cohort pitches to investors at the end of the programme. Founders with a USC link should note the dates: applications close on 18 November 2026 (final deadline 8 March 2027).
Anime Expo and SIGGRAPH: July and August 2027
A fan event with no startup programme, but consumer, merchandise and games founders can test products with a huge audience.
The main conference for computer graphics, held in Anaheim in 2027; Hollywood studios and tool makers come to see new tech.
Create & Cultivate Festival: 25–26 September 2027
The biggest women-in-business event in Los Angeles. Its Small Biz Marketplace is for independent founders and early-stage brands with less than $1 million in yearly revenue; a group of five general-admission tickets costs $1,870.
Dates not announced yet
- Upfront Summit 2027: "back for 2027", say the organisers. The 2026 edition, where LA's VCs and their investors meet, ran on 25–26 February at Nya Studios West in Hollywood. summit.upfront.com
- LA Tech Week 2027: the 2026 week of founder and investor events ran in October; 2027 dates are not out. Watch out: latechweek.com is a parked domain, not the event.
- AI on the Lot 2027: the AI-and-film conference held its fourth edition in Culver City in late May 2026. aionthelot.com
- LABEST Week 2027: UCLA's medtech and bioscience week, with more than 26 live pitches in 2026 (18–21 May). UCLA TDG
- Hacktech 2027: Caltech's hackathon in Pasadena, last held on 24–26 April 2026. hack.caltech.edu
- Knapp Venture Competition 2027: UCLA Anderson's student venture competition; the 2026 first prize was $40,000. UCLA Anderson
- USC New Venture Seed Competition 2027: USC's student and alumni competition, usually in April.
- SoCal Deep Tech Week 2027: last held on 14–18 September 2026 in Long Beach.
- LA Games Conference 2027: the games business and investment day, last held on 30 September 2026; "2027 Agenda Coming Soon". lagamesconference.com
- Nosh Live, Brewbound Live and AutoMobility LA 2027: expected again in late 2027; the Brewbound Pitch Slam prize already includes a pass to Brewbound Live 2027.
Leaving Los Angeles: VidCon moves from Anaheim to Nashville in autumn 2027 (vidcon.com), ViVE's 2027 digital health edition is in Nashville, and Adobe MAX 2026 is in Miami Beach.
Recurring meetups and communities
- Startup Grind Los Angeles: a weekly founder meetup at the Kinn. Startup Grind
- LA Venture Association (LAVA): investor round tables, Meet the VC sessions and a Women at LAVA group. lava.org
- PitchFest: monthly pitch nights in Santa Monica for startups raising money. PitchFest
- GDG Los Angeles: developer meetups, including a women-in-tech brunch. GDG Los Angeles
- AI on the Lot: build nights and sprints for AI and media builders in Culver City. aionthelot.com
- Founder Institute Los Angeles: a pre-seed programme with free online events. Founder Institute
- Grid110: free programmes for overlooked founders, including the Blackbird Founders Fellowship, which ends in a pitch competition. grid110.org
Quieter now: we found no 2026 events from the LA Cleantech Incubator's public calendar, no new cohort or demo day at the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator, and no 2026 events from Girls in Tech LA.
Events for women founders in Los Angeles
- Create & Cultivate Festival: 25–26 September 2027 in Downtown LA. createcultivate.com
- FoundHER & FundHER: monthly lunches for women founders in LA and the San Fernando Valley, $20 a ticket. FoundHER & FundHER
- Women at LAVA: the LA Venture Association's group for women in venture. lava.org
- WiTH Foundation (Women in Technology Hollywood): programmes and a yearly SoCal women's leadership summit. withollywood.org
- NAWBO-LA: the Los Angeles chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners, with a yearly business conference. nawbola.org
- GDG Los Angeles: brunch and networking for women in tech. GDG Los Angeles
If you run an event for women founders in Los Angeles, send it to us and we'll add it.
Funding and support to know before you go
- The $800 minimum tax: every LLC doing business or organised in California pays $800 a year, even with no business, until it is cancelled. The first-year exemption for new LLCs only covered 2021–2023. California Franchise Tax Board
- New corporations get a first-year break: newly incorporated or qualified corporations don't pay the $800 minimum franchise tax in their first year. FTB
- California Competes Tax Credit: more than $180 million in credits for 2026–27; the remaining windows are 4–25 January 2027 and 1–15 March 2027. GO-Biz
- CalOSBA: the state's network of free small business support centres and 13 Inclusive Innovation Hubs. CalOSBA, Accelerate California
- USC and Techstars Accelerator: applications close on 18 November 2026 for the cohort that ends with the 3 June 2027 demo day. Techstars
How to get the most out of Los Angeles startup events
- Go where your industry buys. LA's best founder events are industry rooms: Nosh and Brewbound for food and drink, Expo West for natural products, OFC for hardware, AutoMobility for mobility.
- Register early. Nosh Live and Brewbound Live tickets are $100 cheaper until 23 October.
- Use the communities between events. Startup Grind's weekly meetup, LAVA's investor sessions and FoundHER & FundHER lunches are where you build the network that gets you into Upfront and Milken.
- Plan for distance. Santa Monica, Downtown, Marina del Rey and Anaheim are far apart in traffic; book a hotel near the venue.
- Apply to pitch. PitchFest, the Techstars accelerator and the university competitions put founders in front of investors; see more startup competitions.
List your event in this guide
Do you run a startup, tech or investor event in Los Angeles? Send us the name, dates, venue and official link, and we'll check whether it fits this guide. We list events for founders, with a real date and an official page.
This article is regularly updated with new events. Do you know about an event that needs to be added? Send us some info and we will see if it's a fit.
🔗 Add an awesome event
Startup events in other places
- Must Attend Startup Events in San Francisco, USA
- Must Attend Startup Events in New York, USA
- Must Attend Startup Events in Paris, France
- Must Attend Startup Events in Stockholm, Sweden
- Must Attend Startup Events in Dubai, UAE
- Must Attend Startup Events in Lisbon, Portugal
- Must Attend Startup Events in Barcelona, Spain
- Must Attend Startup Events in Munich, Germany
- Must Attend Startup Events in Toronto, Canada
- Must Attend Startup Events in Tokyo, Japan
- Must Attend Startup Events in Las Vegas, USA
- Must Attend Startup Events in Boston, USA
- Must Attend Startup Events in Tel Aviv, Israel
- Must Attend Startup Events in Hong Kong
- Best startup events in Europe (with country guides)
FAQ
What are the main startup events in Los Angeles?
Nosh Live (3–4 December 2026), Brewbound Live (9–10 December 2026), the Milken Institute Global Conference (2–5 May 2027), the USC and Techstars Demo Day (3 June 2027) and the Create & Cultivate Festival (25–26 September 2027). The Upfront Summit and LA Tech Week have no 2027 dates yet.
When is LA Tech Week 2027?
Not announced yet. The 2026 edition ran in October; latechweek.com is a parked domain, not the event.
Are there events for women founders in Los Angeles?
Yes: the Create & Cultivate Festival (25–26 September 2027), the monthly FoundHER & FundHER lunches, Women at LAVA, the WiTH Foundation and NAWBO-LA.
Where can startups pitch to investors in Los Angeles?
At PitchFest's monthly pitch nights in Santa Monica (year-end showcase on 10 December 2026), the USC and Techstars Demo Day, the Nosh and Brewbound Pitch Slams, and university competitions at UCLA, USC and Caltech.
How much does it cost to keep a company in California?
Every California LLC and corporation pays at least $800 a year in minimum tax; new corporations skip it in their first year.
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
