Idea Cafe II: Delusions, Vibes, and the Uncomfortable Truths in Building with AI

The Idea Cafe is an ongoing invite only series in NYC where entrepreneurs, builders, and leaders get together to talk about business, technology, and society. Our goal is to put thoughtful people in a room and give them space to share experiences, perspectives, and ideas with others who are building interesting things.
You can think of it a bit like the salon gatherings of the old world. A group of curious, driven people coming together to exchange viewpoints, challenge assumptions, and explore ideas that might turn into something bigger.
Something fundamental has shifted in what it costs to build software, and most companies (especially SMBs) haven't jumped into the trenches to get real world experience. You can't rely on Twitter hypemen or Dario Amodei to tell you what's real.
At our last session, Ben Dynkin, Head of AI Governance at Barclays; Eugene Granovsky, CEO of Bellawatt; and Marco Yammine, CEO of CVT, gave the room a brutally honest look at the current landscape: like how reliable vibe-coded products really are and where the real risks sit.
Only 36 months ago, the only way to turn an idea into a working product meant hiring costly engineers, waiting months, with no guarantee of results. But the tools have fundamentally changed,  and a focused team can now build in weeks what used to take a department a year.
For the second installment of the Idea Cafe, we're sitting down with operators and founders  where speed creates opportunity but getting it wrong still carries real consequences. If the barrier to building has fallen, does that change what's possible for your business? Does it change what your business is worth? How does it affect your moat and those of competitors? What about all the industries that stayed in the software stone age? How will this paradigm shift affect us as individuals, and the world at large?
Hosted in NYC. Invite only. Coffee and tasty brunch provided.
Thank you to our sponsor CVT for making this possible again. CVT is a product venture studio that turns founder-level ideas into market-ready software. Since 2020, we've taken companies from napkin concept to scalable product — including work for IKEA, Caterpillar, and Samsung — typically with an initial investment under $100K. We partner with operators who know their industry and are ready to build something real.