The conference for leaders building software in the AI era.
The AI era of software is a US story too. Shift USA brings the founder-first model that built Europe's software community to the world's largest software market.
The US market is where the AI platform shift is happening fastest. Silicon Valley, Austin, New York — the companies rewriting software from the ground up are concentrated here. So is the capital chasing them. And so are the leaders who need the honest conversation most.
The events market for this audience is broken. The big conferences are either too technical, too enterprise, or too pay-to-play. What doesn't exist yet is what SaaStock built in Europe: a founder-first event with no keynote theatre, no sponsored panels, and a room full of people who are actually building.
The existing US conference circuit is built for a world that's changing fast. The big events are either too technical, too enterprise, or too anchored in the SaaS playbook to serve founders and operators navigating what comes next. Shift USA is built for what comes after SaaS — the AI-native companies, the transformed incumbents, and the investors who need to tell the two apart.
45-minute working conversations between two founders on a single hard problem — pricing the AI transition, rebuilding GTM for agents, hiring for an AI-native company. No slides. No stage management. Just the actual thinking.
A small number of full-room moments with founders and operators who have genuinely done something remarkable in the AI era. Selected for honesty, not profile. These are the sessions that reframe how you think.
Closed-door sessions of 12–15 founders and operators at similar stages. Moderated, not facilitated. These are the conversations that used to happen in the corridor — now they have a room and 90 minutes.
A dedicated stage for founders building AI-native companies from scratch. Not a side room — a co-equal stage. The Builders get their own programme alongside the main event.
The real value happens in conversations. Pre-scheduled 1:1 meetings with peers who are in the same moment you are — compare approaches, challenge assumptions, and walk away with insights you can act on immediately.
Shift USA attendees get access to the insights, data, and relationships from Shift Europe. The companies winning the AI era aren't thinking in geographies. Neither are we.
Austin is the right city for this. It has replaced San Francisco as the place where leaders and operators who are actually building — not just pitching — tend to end up. The cost of living is manageable, the founder density is real, and the culture is more about making things than performing venture theatre.
South by Southwest proved Austin can host a global tech conversation. But SXSW is a media event. Shift USA is a software leader event. The scale is different, the room is different, and the conversation is different.
Shift AI isn't a European event adding a US edition. It's a global platform for the founders building software in the AI era — wherever they are. Shift Europe and Shift USA are two chapters of the same story.
Shift USA 2027 is in active planning. The date, venue, and speaker lineup will be confirmed in Q4 2026. Join the waitlist now to be first in line for early-bird pricing, speaker nominations, and sponsorship conversations.
This isn't a waitlist that goes nowhere. It's the list we use to build the event — we'll ask you what topics matter, what format works, who you want to hear from.
No spam. Your details are used only for Shift USA updates. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Shift USA is being built now. The founding sponsors shape the event — your logo on the first edition, your team in the room when the AI-era playbooks are written, and your brand associated with the most important transition in software in a decade.
Founding sponsor packages are available before the public launch. These are structured as multi-event deals spanning Shift Europe 2026 and Shift USA 2027 — giving your brand a presence across both continents and both editions.
Enquire About SponsorshipBarcelona, Spain — 13–14 October 2026