StrictlyVC San Francisco is adding a heavyweight speaker to its 2026 lineup: Praveen Neppalli Naga, Uber's Chief Technology Officer. The conference takes place April 30 at the Sentro Filipino Cultural Center and marks the kickoff event for TechCrunch's year ahead.
Why this matters: Uber operates one of the world's most complex technology platforms, coordinating millions of drivers, passengers, and delivery partners across dozens of countries simultaneously. Neppalli Naga oversees the infrastructure and engineering decisions that keep this massive system running—making him uniquely positioned to discuss real-world AI implementation at enterprise scale.
The timing is significant. As companies rush to integrate artificial intelligence into their operations, many face the same challenge: how do you actually deploy AI when you're managing billions of transactions daily? This isn't theoretical—it's the daily reality at Uber. Neppalli Naga's participation suggests the conference will focus on practical lessons rather than AI hype.
For executives and product leaders attending, this represents a rare opportunity to hear directly from someone leading technology decisions at one of the world's most demanding scales. The conversation will likely touch on infrastructure challenges, team organization, and the specific ways AI is reshaping operations in a company serving hundreds of millions of users.
StrictlyVC has built a reputation for curating speakers who can actually move the needle on industry thinking. Adding Uber's CTO reinforces that approach—bringing practitioners who are actively solving hard problems, not just talking about them.
