If you've ever been to PyCon, you know one of the best parts of the expo hall is Startup Row, a stretch of booths where early-stage companies built on Python show off what they're creating. But only attendees get to walk that lane, so let's bring it to everyone. In this episode, we stroll down Startup Row together. We kick things off with the organizers, Jason and Shay, who share the program's origin story going back to Paul Graham and the PSF, plus some surprising stats, including two unicorns among the alumni. Then we meet five startups: Tetrix, bringing AI to institutional investing in private markets. Arcjet, security that lives inside your app as an SDK. Phemeral.dev, serverless hosting built for Python web apps. CapiscIO, an identity and authority layer for AI agents. And Pixeltable, a multimodal database from Marcel Kornacker, co-creator of Apache Parquet. See if you can spot the theme running through them all. Let's go for a walk. 
 
Episode sponsors 
 
<a href='https://talkpython.fm/agentfield-page'>AgentField AI</a>
<a href='https://talkpython.fm/training'>Talk Python Courses</a> 
 
<h2 class="links-heading mb-4">Links from the show</h2>
<div>Guests 
Naunidh Bhalla: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/naunidhbhalla?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >linkedin.com</a> 
Grant Gittes: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantgittes/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >linkedin.com</a> 
Marcel Kornacker: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelkornacker/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >linkedin.com</a> 
Beon de Nood: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/beondenood/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >linkedin.com</a> 
Chinmaya Joshi: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/cshjoshi/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >linkedin.com</a> 
David Mytton: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmytton/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >linkedin.com</a> 
Shea Tate-Di Donna: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheatatedidonna/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >linkedin.com</a> 
Jason Rowley: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasondrowley/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >linkedin.com</a> 
Azul Garza: <a href="https://github.com/AzulGarza?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >github.com</a> 
Renée Rosillo: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneerosillo/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >linkedin.com</a> 
 
Tetrix: <a href="https://www.tetrix.co/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >tetrix.co</a> 
Tetrix Jobs: <a href="https://www.tetrix.co/careers?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >tetrix.co</a> 
Arcjet: <a href="https://arcjet.com/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >arcjet.com</a> 
Pixeltable: <a href="https://www.pixeltable.com/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >pixeltable.com</a> 
Phemeral.dev: <a href="https://phemeral.dev/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >phemeral.dev</a> 
CapiscIO: <a href="https://capisc.io/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >capisc.io</a> 
 
Episode #551 deep-dive: <a href="https://talkpython.fm/episodes/show/551/stroll-down-startup-lane-2026#takeaways-anchor" target="_blank" >talkpython.fm/551</a> 
Episode transcripts: <a href="https://talkpython.fm/episodes/transcript/551/stroll-down-startup-lane-2026" target="_blank" >talkpython.fm</a> 
 
Theme Song: Developer Rap 
🥁 Served in a Flask 🎸: <a href="https://talkpython.fm/flasksong" target="_blank" >talkpython.fm/flasksong</a> 
 
---== Don't be a stranger ==--- 
YouTube: <a href="https://talkpython.fm/youtube" target="_blank" > youtube.com/@talkpython</a> 
 
Bluesky: <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/talkpython.fm" target="_blank" >@talkpython.fm</a> 
Mastodon: <a href="https://fosstodon.org/web/@talkpython" target="_blank" > @talkpython@fosstodon.org</a> 
X.com: <a href="https://x.com/talkpython" target="_blank" > @talkpython</a> 
 
Michael on Bluesky: <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/mkennedy.codes?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >@mkennedy.codes</a> 
Michael on Mastodon: <a href="https://fosstodon.org/web/@mkennedy" target="_blank" > @mkennedy@fosstodon.org</a> 
Michael on X.com: <a href="https://x.com/mkennedy?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" > @mkennedy</a> </div>

Podurama

Home

Trending

Personal

Your Podcasts

New Episodes

My Files

Favourite Episodes

Tags (Folders)

Recently Played

Bookmarks

Followed Playlists

#551: Stroll Down Startup Lane - 2026

Talk Python To Me

AI Chapters

AI Insights

Reviews