​The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of global supply chains—shutdowns, labor shortages, and bottlenecks left businesses scrambling to adapt. 5 years later, companies have been forced to rethink efficiency, resilience, and automation to keep up with growing demand.

​The inaugural HardTech Forum, hosted by MistyWest, will be focused on The Tech Driving Modern Logistics, where we'll discuss how AI, automation, and data-driven technologies are transforming supply chains.

​Starting with a keynote from Kevin Damoa of Glīd Technologies and followed by a panel discussion with supply chain execs and VCs, we're talking about the innovations reshaping the future of logistics - and the workforce gaps, outdated infrastructure, and regulatory challenges that need to be overcome to create a truly resilient global supply chain.

​​​Doors open at 5:30pm
Keynote at 6:30
Panel Discussion at 6:45pm
Networking from 8:00pm until close

​Refreshments and light snacks will also be served 🍕🍺

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​Our Panelists

​Matthew Mueller, Co-founder of Glīd Technologies

​Matt Mueller is a technology leader with 17 years of experience spanning Fortune 100 companies, startups, and aerospace leaders like SpaceX, where he played a key role in scaling Falcon 9 production and improving reliability. He later led avionics manufacturing and operations before joining Hadrian as Head of Quality (founding member), where he established quality systems for aerospace manufacturing and earned the company's AS9100 and ISO 9001 certifications. With an MBA from UC Berkeley, he has advised tech companies on operational excellence and now serves as Co-Founder and COO of Glīd Technologies, working to democratize rail logistics.

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​Daniël Walet, Senior Operations Research Scientist at Lineage Logistics

​With a background in Operations Research, Daniël has spent the past 8.5 years at Lineage leading a team responsible for the material flow design and optimization of highly automated cold storage warehouses, resulting in capital deployments exceeding $750 million. Beyond the physical design, he also focuses on automating the decision-making processes in the warehouse as part of Lineage’s proprietary Warehouse Execution System (LinOS), driving higher efficiency and productivity for both warehouse team members and robots across automated and manual facilities.

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​Paulina Szyzdek, VC & Angel Investor

​Paulina is a VC and an active angel investor focused on deep tech, frontier tech and industrial markets. She worked with Bosch Ventures, How Women Invest, Blissity Ventures, GroundUp Ventures, and Zane VC. Prior to her VC career she worked in banking and consulting (State Street Bank, Euroclear Bank, Deutsche Bank, Chatham Financial) in Switzerland, Belgium, Poland, and the US. She holds Master’s Degrees in Finance, Disruptive Innovations and MBA. She serves as an Advisory Council Member at Harvard Business Review and as a Mentor at National Venture Capital Association. Paulina is interested in longevity, bio tech and humanoid robotics and writes about it in her newsletter HardTech Reads.

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​Venu Gutlapalli, Co-Founder & CEO of Tag-N-Trac

​Venu Gutlapalli is the Co-Founder & CEO of Tag-N-Trac, where he focuses on driving revenue growth, productization, and scaling a global organization using agile methods. He leads sales strategy for channel partners across supply chain, asset management, and condition monitoring verticals, leveraging purpose-built IoT sensors to enhance real-time visibility and traceability in multimodal logistics. Prior to Tag-N-Trac, Venu was Senior Director of Engineering at Qualcomm, where he led global connectivity teams (WiFi/BT/GNSS) across mobile, automotive, and IoT business units. He played a key role in establishing partnerships with major OEMs worldwide and bridging the gap between Qualcomm’s semiconductor technologies and the evolving needs of mobile handset manufacturers.

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​(Keynote) ​Kevin Damoa, Co-Founder & CEO of Glīd Technologies

​​Kevin A. Damoa is a mechanical engineer, operations executive, and veteran with a career spanning space exploration, clean mobility, and defense logistics. A former U.S. Army and Air Force serviceman, he later led logistics at SpaceX, managed F-35 integration at Northrop Grumman, and held executive roles at Romeo Power, XOS Trucks, Canoo, and Serial 1 Cycle. Now, as Founder & CEO of Glīd, he’s pioneering autonomous road-to-rail clean energy solutions.

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​Our Sponsors

​HardTech Forum extends our massive thanks to our platinum sponsor Memfault, gold sponsors SVB, Edge Impulse and Intent, and silver sponsor Nordic Semiconductor, whose contributions enable us to offer bigger and better meetups for our community.

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​About MistyWest

​​MistyWest is a product development firm accelerating the world's transition to a more sustainable future. We help our clients develop market-ready solutions for mining, infrastructure, and clean tech in half the time compared to ramping up an equivalent internal team.

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​​​Code of Conduct

​​​We promise a welcoming environment at our events for all, regardless of gender, identity, sexual orientation, disability, appearance, race, age, or religion. Harassment of any kind will not be tolerated, and any attendees in violation of our code will be asked to leave.