Inside 2026 Startup City: Unlocking the Future of Urban Innovation

Fred Schonenberg
Hello, everyone. Nice to see all of you. I'm Fred Schonenberg, the founder and CEO of VentureFuel. Got a little bit of background on our company where we help large organizations from the state of California to Comcast, partner with startups to drive innovation and commercial growth. We help companies seize what's next now. We've run over 100 programs, innovation programs around the world, including startup competitions, like the one we're going to talk about today. 

We are so proud to welcome you to our Tomorrow.City USA Startup City Information Session. If you are a startup, if you're building a technology that helps cities become smarter, safer, more sustainable, or more efficient, this conversation is for you. Our goal today is to answer one question, which is why should your startup apply to this? And what could it unlock for your group, for your company? 

I'm so excited today to welcome to the stage and be joined by Aarti Tandon. Aarti is the CEO of Tomorrow.City USA. She is a leader, one of the most respected thought leaders in this space of the intersection of urban innovation, policy, and technology. Aarti, welcome to the show.

Aarti Tandon
Thank you, Fred. It's always a joy to be in these discussions with you. And more importantly, we're so excited for VentureFuel to be a partner of ours in West Palm Beach in April.

Fred Schonenberg
I think it's so exciting that the way this all started was when someone from my team went to your conference in New York last year and came back and basically shook my door down and was like, we have to be involved. What Aarti is building is just incredible. Can you tell me a little bit about maybe the gap you saw in the market for Tomorrow.City and how you brought this to be?

Aarti Tandon
Yeah, so a little bit of backdrop. We used to be called Smart City Expo USA. We licensed our brand from the largest smart city conference in the world, Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona. They have attracted 25,000 people for the last decade around urban innovation. They set the gold standard. And after having been to the event so many times, I was like, you know, a lot of US cities, a lot of US founders don't have the opportunity to travel or go to Barcelona. They can't justify it. And hence they have no access to some best practices from around the world.

And so we brought the events to states. We were there in 2019 in Atlanta, 2022 in Miami. Then we were in New York the last few years and we're so thrilled to be in West Palm Beach. And the gap, the gap that we're seeing is that the headlines are screaming about AI, data centers, trillion dollar valuations, and yet our cities are on fire and flooding. Why? Like we have all this innovation. What is the disconnect? And that's what we're here to solve.

Fred Schonenberg
Can you talk about the difference of Tomorrow.City US from any other urban innovation conference or other conferences of this kind? Kind of understand what's different about this.

Aarti Tandon
Yeah. So first, the reason we're called Tomorrow.City USA is because we love smart cities, but smart is for some and tomorrow is for everyone. So we really wanted to make this inclusive in terms of the kinds of innovation we're seeing, whether it's dairy farmers and blueberry farmers, like you were talking about earlier with me, or if it's transit or if now it's a genetic AI and this layer over everything. And so what does tomorrow look like from hospitality to sports to what we want our cities to look like? 

And I think what our sweet spot is, the big conferences, the South by Southwest and CES is like the hundreds of, that's all great. But for us, we believe that 2,000 to 2,500 highly curated city and state and federal and private sector leaders, all in a room where you can actually have real engagement. You're not hoping someone just stops by your booth. You don't hope for something, you wanna make sure you have a strong ROI. And so when you look at the people that we have speaking, I mean, these are CEOs and CEO of Brightline, the CEO of OpenGov, the CEO of Promise.

These are people who have, OpenGov is just acquired by Cox at a billion dollar valuation and Promise by Phaedra Ellis Lampkins, half a billion dollar valuation. And they're all helping cities become more efficient and modern, and obviously Brightline has changed the way that we all move in cities. And then we've got mayors. We've got the mayor of Atlanta, the mayor of West Palm Beach, the mayor of Tempe. I mean, these guys are using data and AI and automating their government and transportation. The mayor of Fort Lauderdale, their airports alone are incredibly leaning into the future. So for us, we've got the chief mobility officer of Michigan. I mean, talking about Evitals. So we really make sure that we cover a lot of different subjects and that we bring in high level leaders.

Fred Schonenberg
Yeah, and I mean, just looking through the list of speakers, you have the chief innovation officer of so many different cities as well. And there's just so many different decision makers that as a startup founder, one of your goals is how do I move the needle? How do I get in front of decision makers to get my product into the market? And those decision makers are gonna be at this conference.

Aarti Tandon
Yeah, I mean, also I was telling you earlier, we're also working with the state department. Hopefully we're gonna be doing a cool program with them where like if you're trying to go overseas and they're looking for a company that's doing work in LIDAR or public safety or something, like this is about scale. And unless you actually are able to demonstrate your work and have people touch and feel and interact with it, it's very hard for you to scale with some of these, whether it's private sector innovation leaders or public sector folks.

Fred Schonenberg
Is there at a high level, do you think there's been anything like this moment, right? Are there any shifts in city budgets, infrastructure, policy that is making this space more open for startups and maybe it's the AI adoption, but just curious your thoughts there.

Aarti Tandon
Yeah, I think that first of all, for us specifically, I think the backdrop of West Palm Beach is really important, right? Like it is a city that's modernizing, that's accelerating its growth, that wants to use next gen tech to leapfrog into the future. So whether it's public infrastructure, whether it's sports, obviously with Steve Ross spending so much money there with the dolphins and everything else, but I know that's Miami, but that whole area, that South Florida region, there's so much growth that's happening.

But I will also say at this moment in time, agentic AI, like all of these cities, knows that they can be more efficient and that they can modernize quickly just with the tools that we have. And the question's gonna be, who's in front of them first, right? Everybody's starting to sell very similar models, like they're using publicly available data and they're talking about how they're able to synthesize it, whether it's agentic AI, whether it's physical AI. And the question is like, who's battle tested, who's ready and how do you engage with them, right? If you can't get in front of these people, you can't actually show off your technology and that's why we've got the platform that we do.

Fred Schonenberg
So I wanna make this tactical for the founders that have joined this. What value does a startup get out of joining this competition? 

Aarti Tandon
Yeah, I will tell you that a lot of the startups and actually so many have reached out to me is the access. I mean, you can't get a meeting with these people if you try to just go and call their offices, right? So to be in a casual environment is really important, one, but then also two, you have the ability, everybody walks the show floor. 

Let me just be really clear about why our programs work because we don't have startups like off in some other conference room. We don't have the speakers in some VIP area where they don't have access. Everybody walks the show floor and all of the stages are built in a way that people aren't speaking at you, they're speaking with you. Like we're all very successful people in this room and we've decided to remove all barriers. 

So if you're a startup, you can literally walk up to someone and say, I would really like for me to share my work with you. That said, if there's nowhere for you to share your work, if you don't have a place on the show floor, you're just talking to someone like, I have this tech I'd really like to show it to you. It's very hard to get on someone's calendar if they can't touch and feel your technology or engage with it in some way or know the problem that you're trying to solve. So having a presence is very important. And especially some of, if there are people who are speakers, even if they get off the stage and they don't have anywhere to demo their work, it's really a lost opportunity.

Fred Schonenberg
Yeah, I think it's funny. I used to joke, we used to do tours with our clients at CES and South by and things like that. But I remember walking the floor at CES with the CEO of a Fortune 50 company and it was an electric toothbrush company next to a breakthrough AI company that ended up saving them 100 million plus per year and continues to do so. And it was this moment of like, there's 2000 companies here. They're all disparate. They're all over the place. None of this makes sense, right? Like it's a free-for-all, right? And it's cool. I'm like, I get it.

I'm not throwing any shade all the time. But what's beautiful about this is it is like the who's who of the urban innovation space coming together and you have an opportunity to show off why you're different in a space where they're actually open to that conversation.

Aarti Tandon
Yeah, yeah. I think that everyone who's in this room is there for a singular focus. If you have an innovation that can help us modernize or create efficiencies within our government or within our business, we wanna hear from you, right? And that's why it's such an incredible group of public and private sector leaders. We often go into a place where it's just public sector or a place which is private sector or if it's just so narrow, but actually cities aren't. They do have to take a holistic approach to these things. So we've got everyone. 

Let me give you an example. JJ Eden's coming. He's the founder of E-ZPass. Everybody knows E-ZPass. He is now working on an amazing technology where your car is now your digital wallet. Like he's at the forefront of innovation. If you've got mobility or innovation, you should walk up to him and be like, hey, this is what I'm working on. I would love to figure out how we can deploy this in your work or in other places. 

Leanne Buchanan, I mean, she runs the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority. I mean, all she does is work with startups all day long to solve specific problems for the city, whether it's water, whether it's safety, like she's got all of these challenges. So I think that the kinds of people that can help you scale are in this room and it's not some schizophrenic kind of place. You're not hoping someone walks by. And it's also West Palm Beach. 

It's smaller. You're not paying crazy prices at all these other events that are really hard for startups to afford. And you're just hoping something works out for you. We can pretty much say that you will walk away meeting someone senior that you're looking to meet.

Fred Schonenberg
And one of the things, and you touched on it a little bit, is that fear. And I've been on the other side when you're an early stage founder, you spend some money to go to a conference and you have this moment of like, what's my ROI? Am I just gonna be standing at a booth hoping, right? That one person tends to take a walk. Can you talk about how maybe you've intentionally engineered this to make sure that there is that interaction between the government side, the business side, and the startups?

Aarti Tandon
Yeah, so obviously the competition is some way to engage, but it's all about the show floor design. It is the most accessible, intimate, but expansive space where everybody has access to each other. So like the hundred speakers that you see on our list, they're not on some stage where like, you can't go and reach them after like, you hear about their incredible desire for innovative companies.

And then you try and go talk to them and they're like, there's nowhere to be found because there's some behind some curtain walking through some backstage. No, that's not how this works. It's like, you can literally walk up to Keith Carswell, the director of economic innovation for Miami, who's doing stuff that's computing on the edge and say, I've got this technology, may I share it with you? So I think that's what we've done. We've removed the barriers because these guys are looking for innovators just as much as the startups are looking to scale with these leaders. 

Fred Schonenberg
100%. And I think one of the reasons we were so excited to get involved is this wasn't just a, hey, we're gonna put startups on stage and let them do their pitch and it'll be during a coffee break, right? Like we actually together came and we're like, hey, wait a second, will they get exposure to the city leaders? How can we include the speakers as judges, right? And maybe you could talk to that just as, I know we haven't officially announced all the individuals judging, but just maybe at a higher level, what types of people will be the judges for this? Because we have a semifinals and a finals on stage.

Aarti Tandon
Yeah, I mean, because this is the kind of people that we have in the room, we are really excited that there are gonna be some VC judges, some CEOs from private sector companies, and then some very high level public sector leaders. We're just working through everyone's schedules, but we can certainly say, and just by looking at our speaker list, you know that whoever's judging is gonna be at the highest level and really give you serious feedback. 

Like, let's also talk about that for a second. It's really important for startups to understand how you scale with cities? Like, how do you do business with cities? And if you haven't done that before, that's a very difficult thing to do. And then also in this timeframe, how do you get through procurement? How do you get, like there are, and also can you solve a lot of their challenges and problems? So as long as the startups know and are clear on their mission and what problems they can solve, there is an entire room for them to have a strong ROI by showing up. 

Fred Schonenberg
Yeah, and I think one of the things that impressed me so much when we first started talking was seeing the judges and the speakers that we were gonna bring to this. And that's part of the reason why I said, hey, as VentureFuel, we're gonna invest in the winner. We're gonna cut a check for $25,000, which is something we normally don't do as part of our competitions. 

But I knew that with the combination of venture capitalists, private equity folks, the government folks, the enterprise side of things, we're gonna get such a unique read on these companies that it would be foolish not to invest. And then on our side too, and you saw a little bit in the video at the beginning, but being part of VentureFuel's network after the show, what does that mean? 

We work with Fortune 100 companies, governments, and our job is to commercialize innovation. And so part of this is we're investing in one of the companies and we are gonna open the doors to our network post-program as part of this. So I think you'll have access to corporate partners, potential pilots, strategic intros, and I think really some interesting commercial pathways that are a major differentiator.

Aarti Tandon
And listen, Fred, I mean, that just says so much about you're putting your money where your mouth is because you know everybody in that room and the startups that are applying are worth the investment that you're making, right? So, I mean, that speaks volumes. I also will say, I was speaking to someone the other day last year at Javits Center. Our speakers included five FIFA World Cup CEOs. We had the CEO of the Paris Olympics. We had Steve Ross and Mayor James. We had Joby, Archer, Waymo, all these incredible companies.

And I remember telling everyone that during the Paris Olympics, they didn't work with any blue chip companies. They gave a billion dollars worth of contracts to startups. And like, that's how they've been innovating. They brought in all these things and those startups continue to work in the city well afterwards. And that's like something that we're really trying to advocate for. 

Like, you need companies that are agile and able to innovate, whether you're a sports team that's now using so much AI for part, like we have TWG AI coming. They own… TWG owns the Lakers, the Dodgers, Chelsea FC, and everyone else. They're like, have an entire AI division focused on sports. That's a very big deal. You know, Vivek Ranadive, they're using AI for all sorts of things inside the stadium and also for infrastructure. 

And then of course, you've got all the chief data officers, innovation officers. Somebody everyone should pay attention to is the Commissioner of Economic Development and the Chief Innovation Officer for Connecticut, Daniel O'Keefe, absolute star talking about transformation of cities. Yeah, we're really proud of our program and we're really excited to work with you.

Fred Schonenberg
Oh yeah, no, we couldn't be more excited. I'm curious over the past years that we've run this, do you have any stories or examples of a success that has come out of it from a startup standpoint? And potentially it is the Paris Olympics. What's a perfect example?

Aarti Tandon
Yeah, I would say in New York, I remember we had a light pole company that won and ended up winning a million other events after that. I would say that a lot of the companies that we've made introductions to have gone on to do either pilots or scale. Our team can share with you a list of those folks. But I also know that there's so many startups that have been reaching out. 

Like, can I please have a presence again? I'm so excited to be there again because once you're in the room, you know why people keep coming back every year and we love those stories. And I think because we're gonna be in West Palm Beach going forward, I think that there's an ability for us to show impact in the community year in and year out as opposed to moving.

Fred Schonenberg
Is there anything beyond the booth for how startups are integrated beyond maybe their expo floor or the pitch competition? Are there other opportunities within the couple of days down in West Palm?

Aarti Tandon
Yeah, so we've got... So first of all, the event is sort of designed more festival style than just like an expo where you're just walking through. So we've got Startup City, which is great. Then we've got a lot of opportunities for engagement. Like there's podcasts, there's lunches, there's experiences. I know that we're working on something special that I hope will come through soon for a very cool sports experience in West Palm Beach. And then we've really... Like we have a lot of breaks, like hour-long breaks, hour-long lunches, hour-long afternoons. We've teamed up with Sport Beach. We'll have some activities. So there's a lot of networking opportunities and happy hours as well.

Fred Schonenberg
Yep, and I know that once we get to the semifinalists and finalists of the pitch competition, we're gonna have a dinner and incorporate them into meeting some of the judges one-on-one, which is really cool. And I think one of the questions I had for you is for startups listening that are thinking about what Startup City is, can you maybe paint a picture for what that experience they're walking into? Like just visually. 

Aarti Tandon
I would say Startup City, you walk into, if you haven't been to the West Palm Beach Convention Center, you walk through this beautiful long hallway that's outside, you walk right in and there's like, we are all in one hall. I would rather be around 2,000, 2,500 highly curated people than 100,000 of people I have no idea who they are. And we've got a series of stages, an AI forum, a real estate forum, and then we've got Startup City, which is a series of booths but has its own stage called the Tomorrow Forum. And that's where we've got these engagements.

I will say that one of the things we try and do, we're gonna make sure that we do it again this year, is pair up startups with some leaders for discussions. We did that in New York where we had Cody Kinsley, who was the Health and Human Services Secretary of North Carolina who oversaw a $19 billion budget sit with startups to say, this is how you scale health opportunities or public interest opportunities in North Carolina. And so we're working on those pairings with you now, which is really exciting.

Cause I don't think that people get that like one-on-one knowledge from a real city leader until they actually have that discussion. So it's not, this isn't a time where you go to pitch them. It's a time where you actually sit and learn and it's really interactive. People can ask questions. It's almost like office hours. So, you know, I should have said that at the outset, that's something that differentiates us where people in our group really take the time to engage with the startups.

Fred Schonenberg
I love it. All right, so we're gonna go to a Q & A for the audience. So please put any questions you have into chat. I think we're live on LinkedIn as well as YouTube and one popped in already. And I would ask this, Aarti, if the founders are on the fence right now, what's your pitch to them?

Aarti Tandon
I would just say, I mean, I would say, look at literally our lineup. And if you have a startup that you deeply believe could resonate with any of these people, then you really should be in the room. I mean, I don't know how many events people go to and then they see a great lineup, but they don't have access to those speakers because they're far away. They're on some main stage. 

This is a room where everybody is accessed. Everybody's accessible. But if you don't have a technology that you could walk somebody over to and say, this is how it works. I'd love to demo it for you. It's a lost opportunity because people don't have time to set up a meeting with you later. They don't have time to have you come by their office. So if you're not there or ready and prepared to show them your tech, that would be a lost opportunity.

So I would say if the people in the room resonate with you, whether it's mobility, whether it's mobility and transit, whether it's public safety, we've got leaders from Fox Safety coming, actually. We've got sheriffs, the former fire chief of LA, the battalion chief, the former police chief of Baltimore County. We've got sports leaders, AI leaders, that if it resonates with you, then be ready to show them what your tech is about.

Fred Schonenberg
Yeah, I love it. One of the next questions, I'll take this one, which is what types of startups are you looking for with stage and product type? I think you just gave a nice list of the product type. And I would say on the stage side of things that you need to be enterprise ready is the phrase VentureFuel uses a lot, which is like you're ready to run a pilot. It's real. It is not academic. It is not an idea. 

But one of these decision makers is gonna see your product and wanna move on it. And if you're ready for that, whether that's your first pilot, whether you're series A, B, C, anything along that precede to series, I would say B probably, this is an opportunity to be in front of those decision makers. So that would be the gamut I would give on the type of startup.

Aarti Tandon
I don't know if we have other questions, but I was gonna say, by the way, we all know it only takes one meeting to get your foot in the door. So, and these CIOs, by the way, are overseeing so many areas of the city, whether it's sports, whether it's transportation. So getting in front of any of these CIOs, you don't know what they're working on. So that's the other thing is like really being in the room and listening and then approaching them and saying like, I've got X.

Fred Schonenberg
Yeah. I'll answer the last one and then we've got a closing thought. But are there any strings attached with participation fees equity? No, it's as clear as it could be. So the only fee is that we ask you to get a booth as part of this so that you can be there in person and show what you have to all the speakers and judges that will be there. And the equity piece is essentially a venture that will be investing at whatever your valuation is. So we're not, there's no hidden terms there.

So whether that ends up being a safe or some other vehicle, depending on what stage you are, when leaving it a little bit agnostic, but we would be joining in, we would not leave or ask for any preferential treatment. So hopefully that answers that question. And I will say this, on the way out, if every founder that is listening, if you're building technology for cities, if you're looking for pilots, partnerships, enterprise access, if you want visibility plus real commercial opportunity, this is your opportunity, please apply.

The Startup City space is limited. You obviously get the $25,000 investment from us, access to all of our corporate innovation network to help accelerate your trajectory. We're gonna put the link in the chat again to apply. Any questions you have, we'll give you space to ask those offline afterwards. And we'd love to see you all in West Palm Beach. And Aarti, thank you. Thank you for building a platform that doesn't just talk about the future of cities, but is actually connecting the people who are gonna shape it and create it.

Aarti Tandon
Thank you, Fred. It's an absolute joy. And we want all the innovators in the room. This is your opportunity to get in front of real decision makers. And we hope to see you in a couple of weeks in West Palm. 

Fred Schonenberg
I'm looking forward to it.

Aarti Tandon
Thank you.

Fred Schonenberg
All right, take care. Thank you, Aarti. Thanks everyone.