Inaugural OpenClaw LA Meetup

Overview

• Turnout: ~100 people (initially planned for just 15)
• Location: DTLA; had to upgrade to a larger venue the literal day before
• Organizers: Myself + JM, self-funded with last min sponsor support
• Energy: Packed room, people who RSVP'd were actually real (not AI), vibrant and wide-eyed about the future
• Cost: Down bad on $$$ but clutch sponsors helped stop the bleeding. Thankfully the friends we made along the way are priceless?

The Crowd

• People showed up surprisingly on time at 2pm, no fashionably-late issues
• Everyone was grateful and excited to be there. "I needed this. Everyone else in my life thinks I'm crazy."
• Representation from Google, TikTok (ByteDance), SpaceX, OpenAI, and non-tech industries incl. film/TV, healthcare, construction, law, etc.
• Great gender diversity, people of all age ranges, some traveling 1hr+, healthy mix of industry veterans and ambitious rising talent. Half of the presenters were women!

• The room was loud. You could tell people couldn't talk fast enough given their pent up excitement over the past several weeks.
• Was worried it would be too loud / people would want to continue chatting during demos, but everyone found a seat and paid close attention once things got going!

Welcome

• Welcomed the organic, non-agentic audience
• Saying "we painfully did this out of pocket" and immediately transitioning to introducing sponsors got some good laughs
• Dennis (cofounder, Definitive) asked the crowd "what's with all the crypto sponsors, amirite?" immediately before pushing his own crypto trading platform as a paid sponsor

Demo Highlights

1. Ryan: The Meta Agent Presentation

• Ryan wanted to demo something but had no idea what; ultimately had his OpenClaw agent figure it out end-to-end: draft a presentation, build a website, deploy it, come up with its own topic and voice module
• So for his slot he simply loaded a website, hit play, and the agent presented itself and how it helps Ryan day-to-day. Even flipped through all the slides without guidance. Very cool meta touch

2. Vasilisa: The Fitness Tracker

• Brought a fresh, high-performance lifestyle perspective you don't always see in traditional dev circles. Uses her agent to track all workouts via Oura ring signals. Agent designs custom workouts every morning based on previous activity and energy levels: how long to run, what exercises, fully tailored
• Onboards friends by writing SOUL.MDs for them. Built one friend an agent to vent to about his toxic girlfriend because she was tired of hearing about it; huge laughs from the crowd

3. Corinne: The Badass Mom

• Built a full-blown mission control web app for her family:
  • Curriculum planner: every subject in a grid with the full curriculum, mini lessons, daily plans
  • Daily schedule: calendar-like view with color-coded labels per family member
  • Summer camp planning: entire section for managing and planning summer camps
• Her kids have their own agents:
  • Daughter (12): agent helps her organize and track her magic tricks (lesson planning, mastered tricks, videos)
  • Son (11): agent helps him design, code, and launch a video game

• Agent-to-agent chat: built a chat room in the dashboard where all family agents can talk to each other
• First time meeting someone applying AI to parenting. Proves this tech can up-level anyone's life regardless of use case

4. Gabriel Cowen: The Filmmaker

• Background in film and TV, collaborated with some incredible studios
• Had previously paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to build software tools for the industry. Was able to build the equivalent platform with OpenClaw in a week.
• Now building all kinds of things completely on his own with AI
• Killer quote: "As someone with ADD, I thought I just had too many thoughts and wanted to accomplish too many things. It turns out I just didn't have the right tools... until now."

5. Andy: The Construction Cost Killer

• Background in multifamily real estate PE since 2015. Building Keystone OS: an AI operating system for real estate investing and operations
• Core thesis: California construction costs are inflated partly because navigating building codes, permits, and contractor scopes is a nightmare
• AI compresses the time from information → decision → execution. Already deploying in real workflows
• Long-term vision: a system that catches budget drift and flags risk before it becomes a lawsuit

Takeaways / Common Themes

1. Gratitude

People seemed deeply thankful. Common sentiment: "I thought I was going crazy talking to my friends about this stuff. Glad to have found my people."

2. Demand for More

Being asked "so when's the next event?" despite never having made plans (we barely made this event happen!)

3. Generosity

Many attendees stepped up and generously offered event space, including some sweet offices in K-Town and Santa Monica.

4. Community

Everyone wanted to keep in touch. Created a private Telegram group chat to start. The intention is to keep it simple, without overplanning or micromanaging.

After the Event

• People didn't want to leave!
• Nearly 50 people hung around in the parking lot afterwards, continuing banter
• Large group went to a bar down the block with outdoor space
• Lots of electricity and momentum to carry into the future
• Debriefed with JM in the parking lot after everything died down, exhausted and reflective
• Recounted my thoughts to my AI agent during the drive home via dictation to help put this blog post together!

Future Event Ideas

• Beginner workshop: smaller crew, longer session, people bring their laptops/Mac minis, actual hands-on setup and debugging
• 102-level meetup: for experienced builders, deeper demos and discussions (e.g. optimizing token performance)
• Irvine meetup: closer to home, good number of people from OC came through

Shoutouts

• JM: This was his idea from the start. He came to me with a shot in the dark just two weeks ago, after he had an epiphany at Carnival in Brazil. He threw together an intro-to-OpenClaw segment for beginners (identified via the sign-up form that many hadn't used it yet), gave an overview so no one felt lost, and wanted to follow up with resources afterwards. Really appreciated his thoughtful approach throughout.

• Dennis: Showed up early and was invaluable, even though he absolutely didn't have to. Helped with logistics: food/drink placement, table arrangement, chair setup, creating aisles for seating. "Put the food all the way inside so people don't block the entrance and feel comfortable coming in." You could tell he had just orchestrated a massive event himself (his own wedding!)

• The Sponsors: Though we were far from breaking even, I have to give a massive shoutout to our sponsors (and friends!), some of whom came through hours before the event. To Debbie from Privy, Dennis from Definitive, Rish from Farcaster, Jon from EigenLayer, and Bobby from early.build: it meant the world to have your support. Thank you ❤️

P.S.

This is my first ever blog post! I haven't set up a mailing list, but if there's enough demand, I'll tell my bot to help me get one going. You can pre-subscribe in the meantime, as janky as that sounds.