The Information’s 2025 WTF Summit
October 28–29 in Napa, The Information's WTF Summit hits its seventh year with a lineup that feels less like a tech event and more like an executive insurgency. The kind of gathering where the titles are real, the stakes are higher, and the side conversations might just reroute your Series C. Don’t mistake the view for vanity, what’s being built here doesn’t stay in the Valley. It echoes across product boards, policy playbooks, and boardroom bets.
Led by Jessica E. Lessin, the WTF Summit has grown from boutique intelligence to boardroom oracle. This year’s theme, “embracing volatility,” isn’t a tagline. It’s a blood type. In a market where capital's cautious, platforms are politicized, and AI moves faster than your legal team can redact, this summit asks what the next decade of leadership actually looks like, and who’s got the guts to drive it.
The guest list is as sharp as it is strategic. Elizabeth Stone, Netflix CTO since October 2023, knows how to scale an algorithm without losing the plot. Canva’s new CFO Kelly Steckelberg stepped out of Zoom after a seven-year run and straight into the design wars. Rose Wang’s grown Bluesky past 20 million users in under 15 months. That’s not traction, it’s gravitational pull. Then there’s Anjali Sud, who turned Vimeo into a public company before taking the CEO seat at Tubi in 2023, proving she knows how to ride the ad-supported wave without capsizing.
This isn’t just tech. Rebecca Blumenstein brings newsroom command as NBC News’ President-Editorial, Rachel Whetstone just joined Sierra after six seismic years shaping Netflix’s narrative, and Dina Powell McCormick’s move to BDT & MSD Partners made her not just Vice Chairman but President of Global Client Services, a signal that capital and counsel are fusing faster than founders can catch their breath.
The perimeter’s guarded by intelligence, too. Wendi Whitmore, now Chief Security Intelligence Officer at Palo Alto Networks, doesn’t just know the threat landscape, she helped write it. Kim Scott, author of Radical Candor, brings clarity like a scalpel. Amanda Greeley of Spence, Inc., Caitlin Thompson of Racquet Media, and Bianca Gates of Birdies prove that brand power still beats trend cycles.
Meta’s backing. PwC’s supporting. But this isn’t corporate theater, it’s cultural engineering. With just 300 in the room, every introduction is loaded, every exchange potentially asymmetric.
This isn’t about watching disruption. It’s about learning who’s authoring it.
And at The Estate Yountville, it’ll all go down between the vines.
Save your spot here: https://www.theinformation.com/events/wtf-summit-2025
Let’s connect and keep the momentum going across the tech ecosystem. Whether you’re a founder shaping the future, a leader driving change, a VC backing bold ideas, or an investor spotting the next big thing, together, we’re pushing boundaries. Proud to be building the future with you.
Let’s connect on LinkedIn and Twitter (X), and keep the conversation going.
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