Tech Events by Whale

with Gloria Baeuerlein (Founding Partner, Puzzle Ventures)

A seated dinner for founders and operators with Gloria Baeuerlein, founding partner at Puzzle Ventures, hosted by Whale with Puzzle Ventures and Index Ventures. Capped at 20 people. Hosts are Bas van den Brande, Alexander Kempen and Joris Dekker. 18:30 to 22:00. Registration is subject to host approval and the exact location is shared only once you are approved. Why go: a 20-seat table with a founding partner is a different conversation from a panel, and Whale curates who is in the room. Best for founders raising now or about to, who want a pre-seed investor's unfiltered read over dinner rather than in a pitch.

with Sako Arts (CTO Netherlands, Wonderful) · Joris Dekker (Leading Deployment, Duna)

A fireside chat on forward deployed engineering: embedding engineers inside customers to make AI work in production, rather than shipping one-size-fits-all SaaS and hoping. Sako Arts, CTO Netherlands at Wonderful, talks with Joris Dekker, who leads deployment at Duna. Wonderful raised a $550 million Series C in September led by Insight Partners, more than doubling its valuation to $5 billion, and operates in more than 35 countries. They cover what marks out a good forward deployed engineer, why embedding with customers beats generic SaaS in an AI-first environment, the tension between white-glove service and scale, managing executives alongside day-to-day stakeholders, and how to structure change management. Doors 17:00, fireside chat and Q&A 17:15, drinks and bites 18:00 to 19:00, at Norrsken House Amsterdam, VOC-kade 10. Free, registration subject to host approval. Why go: forward deployed engineering is the role everyone is hiring for and almost nobody has defined. Best for engineering leaders and founders selling AI into enterprise accounts.

with Paul Veugen (Founder & CEO, Desert Ant Labs)

A fireside chat with Paul Veugen, founder and CEO of Desert Ant Labs, hosted by Joris Dekker as part of Whale's expert-led sessions for founders and operators. 17:30 to 19:30 at RIVVIA, Keizersgracht 264. Registration is subject to host approval. Whale has not published an agenda or the subject of the conversation yet; its own newsletter says more information will follow.

with Ashwin Sreenivas (Co-founder, Helia / formerly Palantir)

A small fireside with Ashwin Sreenivas, whose route from Palantir into founding and selling an AI company gives him an unusually concrete view of enterprise AI deployment. Named-speaker events at this scale on the Keizersgracht fill quickly — register early.