Palo Alto – August 25, 2025 – AI isn’t just moving fast—it’s redefining how we build, create, and compete.
Step SF at The Midway, tucked near Pier 80 in San Francisco’s unmarked warehouse district—is an unlikely but perfect backdrop for a conference that mixed gritty startup energy with global ambition.
Rooted in Dubai and expanding into San Francisco for its second year, Step SF struck a rare balance as a global bridge between MENA and the Valley—bringing fresh perspectives, new builders, and conversations that didn’t feel like recycled panel scripts.
And it did not disappoint—brimming with global founders, provocative conversations, and no-fluff insights into AI’s future — Step SF was one of the most insightful and forward looking conferences I have attended in a while.
Important Highlights
1. Jeremiah Owyang (Blitzscaling Ventures) framed the day with a killer keynote. His AI strategy made one thing clear: defensibility comes from data, distribution, and differentiation. He also spotlighted Leanaileaderboard.com, where AI-native startups are hitting $3.7M in revenue per employee vs. roughly $600K for public SaaS firms—a jaw-dropping efficiency gap.
2. Barkley Dai (Luma Labs) mapped where GenAI video is going: natural-language video editing/modification and a push for invisible watermarks to protect provenance and safety.
3. The infrastructure panel underscored a hard truth: AI’s bottleneck isn’t talent—it’s energy. Only ~10% of data centers today can support AI workloads; the U.S. needs faster scale-up (including nuclear and gas) to keep pace.
4. Agentic workflows are here: companies like Claude Code, Cursor, and Cognition AI are already running 150+ parallel prompts. The future is persistent, multi-step agents.
5. VCs were blunt: this isn’t SaaS 2.0. Winners will be vertical, domain-deep, and data-defended.
A Standout Moment
Hearing Amjad Masad of Replit was inspiring. Replit nearly died in 2022—after layoffs and a last-ditch pivot to focus on agentic tools. Fast forward: revenue has jumped from $2M in 2024 to $150M+ today, with Agentic 3.0 around the corner. Their agents went from running for two minutes to full-blown multitaskers. It’s one of the most remarkable comeback stories I’ve seen—and a masterclass in persistence.
Early-stage AI Marketing & Ad Startups Worth Watching
*heyBTW — Community + AI networking, IRL-style
*Pixelesq — End-to-end AI-powered websites
*Quentn — Visual automation for SMB marketing
*MY AIO — Predictive analytics for SMB growth
*Quick Hub — Automates campaigns, reviews, promos via AI
San Francisco is both the epicenter and the frontier of AI. Advertising and marketing leaders are already scaling AI tools and leaning into the AI-native startup ecosystem.
If you want to connect and learn more about the collision of AI + Digital Advertising, email me (ryan.klinefelter@woodsidecap.com) to start the conversation.
Woodside Capital Partners is one of the leading corporate finance advisory firms for tech companies in M&A and financings in the $30M –$500M segment. The firm has worked with some of the best entrepreneurs and investors since 2001, providing ultra-personalized service to select clients. Our team has global vision and reach, and has completed hundreds of successful engagements. We have deep industry knowledge and extensive domain experience in the following sectors: Autonomous Vehicles and ADAS, Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence, CloudTech, Enterprise Software, Information Security, Digital Entertainment & Lifestyle, Health Tech, Internet of Things, Networking / Infrastructure, Robotics, Semiconductors, Batteries, Energy Storage, Aerospace and Defense. Woodside Capital Partners is a specialist in cross-border transactions, with extensive relationships among venture capitalists, private equity investors, and corporate executives from global 1000 companies. More about Woodside Capital Partners here.
Questions? Contact Ryan Klinefelter, Executive Director, Woodside Capital Partners at ryan.klinefelter@woodsidecap.com.