Velocity to Market: Lessons from Innovation Leaders on How Founders & Innovators Can Succeed in the Chaos of the Moment
Thursday, October 22, 2026, 5:30 PM PDT – 7:30 PM PDT
Kiln · 1120 SE Madison St, Portland, OR 97214, USA
Hosted by ProductTheory.io
Everyone is being told to move faster: ship the product, leverage AI, raise the round, make the brand, post the content, find product-market fit...pronto! How can it ever be possible to do all the things, just right with less money, fewer people, and a screaming free-for-all to get to the market amidst the chaos and noise of the landscape? Our collective work with hundreds of startups has shown us that, in the chaos of this moment, fast is not always the same as forward. Velocity to Market brings together four deeply experienced Portland practitioners who work alongside founders and innovation teams every day: Kate Carter (Saint Friend), Nick Carter (Saint Friend), Ali Maaxa (ProductTheory), and Jeremy Solly (Defyner). We will share candid stories from the field: what they are seeing work, what is quietly failing, where founders are lured into wasting precious time and capital, and how the smartest teams are building momentum without skipping the work that makes a business viable. This is not a generic “AI will change everything” panel, nor a dog-and-pony show of startup clichés. It is an honest conversation about how companies move from an interesting capability to: A product people need A story people understand A brand people trust A go-to-market motion that can survive contact with the real world We are on a mission to helping founders avoid misdirection that comes from using outdated frameworks or half-baked new tools. Together, we'll explore: How founders can distinguish urgency from actual progress Why product-market fit, customer understanding, and positioning cannot be automated away Where AI genuinely helps teams work faster—and where it creates costly false confidence How brand, narrative, and trust become strategic advantages in an increasingly crowded market What investors, advisors, and founders can do to build companies that are not merely launchable, but durable How to “game” the moment without being gamed by its hype cycles, pressure, and endless stream of supposedly essential tools Come for sharp stories, useful provocations, practical frameworks, and a more grounded way to think about building in 2026. –––––Panelists & Storytellers––––– Kate Carter (Saint Friend) Co-Founder | Creative Leader, Strategist, and Brand Builder Kate Carter is the co-founder of Saint Friend, a Portland-based collaborative brand studio that helps organizations build brands people genuinely want to be part of. Her work sits at the intersection of creative direction, brand strategy, client partnership, and the practical realities of helping organizations make decisions when there are many competing opinions, constraints, and ambitions in the room. Kate brings a fiercely human perspective to brand-building: strong work is not produced by chasing generic best practices, automating every decision, or treating creative craft as an unnecessary expense. It comes from listening closely, asking better questions, bringing the right people into the process, and making an organization’s real character visible. Nick Carter (Saint Friend) Co-Founder | Writer, Brand Strategist, and Storyteller Nick Carter is a co-founder of Saint Friend, where he leads writing, strategy, and storytelling work for organizations that need to clarify what they do, why it matters, and why anyone should care. He works with companies to find the language beneath the language: the real human problem, the product truth, the customer stakes, and the distinctive story that can carry a business into a crowded market. Nick’s work is especially relevant in an era of AI-generated sameness. When every company can generate a passable website, campaign, or feature list, the differentiator is no longer simply polished output. It is a credible point of view, a specific customer truth, and a story people recognize as human. Ali Maaxa (ProductTheory) Founder | Product Strategist, Digital Anthropologist, and AI Adoption Researcher Ali Maaxa, Ph.D., is a product strategist and digital anthropologist who helps founders and innovation teams turn complex capabilities into products people actually want, understand, and adopt. Through ProductTheory, she works across product-market fit, customer discovery, design-partner strategy, founder-led sales, positioning, AI adoption, and organizational change. With more than two decades across technology, research, product, and go-to-market work—including AI and machine-learning-related work before the current hype cycle—Ali brings a rare combination of behavioral research, startup pragmatism, and cultural analysis. Her work asks a deceptively simple question: What happens when real people encounter a new tool, and what must change for it to become useful, trusted, and meaningful? Jeremy Solly (Defyner) Marketing, Brand, and Growth Leader | Strategic Inflection Specialist Jeremy Solly is a Portland-based marketing and brand leader with experience helping organizations navigate consequential moments of growth, transition,…