(presented by Rock Yard Ventures)

FUTURE TITANS

emerging manager summit 2026

📆 January 27, 2026 📍 Austin, TX

FUTURE TITANS is a highly curated one-day event created to help emerging managers in VC, growth, secondaries, and multi-stage/hybrid funds build tomorrow’s most significant firms. We’ll bring together industry leaders, emerging GPs, and the pioneering LPs that back them for a day of content, collaboration, and community.

WHAT TO EXPECT

FUTURE TITANS is not where people walk around staring at name tags to see if someone is worth talking to (aka, holding LPs hostage and hard pitching them!).

There will be no name tags. You will have to talk to people without knowing who they are! Just like the good old days.

This ethos also means no pitch decks. So when you do meet someone who could invest in your fund, aka an LP, don’t roll into a hard pitch.

BUT, we do hope this is the single best destination for emerging managers to meet new LPs and vice versa.

And that’s not all; you can read the whole section on WHAT TO EXPECT here.

AGENDA

January 26th

  • 6:00-8:00 PM (Night before activities)

January 27th

  • 8:30-5:00 PM (Main Program)

    • FULL AGENDA TO COME

  • 5:00-7:00 PM (Offsite Happy Hour)

SELECT SPEAKERS

  • A smiling man with short brown hair and fair skin, wearing a maroon sweater, standing outdoors in front of green leafy bushes.

    Benjamin Bayles

    TEXAS TEACHERS RETIREMENT SYSTEM

  • A smiling man in a suit and dress shirt with a blurred gray background.

    Jeremy Heer

    UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FOUNDATION

  • A professional headshot of a man with a light complexion, short brown beard, and receding hair, wearing a dark suit jacket and light blue dress shirt, against a plain gray background.

    Case Fell

    THIRD LAKE PARTNERS

  • A smiling woman with long blonde hair wearing a black top, against a white background.

    Allie Cefalo

    KLEINER PERKINS

  • A bald man with a beard wearing black glasses and a cream-colored cable knit sweater, looking at the camera.

    Ben Birnbaum

    KEYFRAME CAPITAL

about the organizer

Smiling man with a beard wearing a red beanie, black leather jacket, and a necklace, against a gray background.

Hi, I’m Daniel Dart, founder of Rock Yard Ventures — backing exceptional founders who are redefining technology across core and foundational industries like construction, energy, supply chain, manufacturing, and infrastructure.

As an emerging manager myself, I know firsthand how hard it is to build something from nothing (it’s hard as hell!). That’s the motivation behind FUTURE TITANS. To create a community and platform that brings together tomorrow's great GPs and LPs for learning, building, and backing the next generation of category-defining founders.

I believe everything in life (not just VC) is an apprenticeship business. FUTURE TITANS is my way of creating the next best thing to apprenticing under the legends at blue-chip firms.

I’d love you to join me for the ride.

— Daniel

  • Benjamin Bayles - Texas Teachers Retirement System

    Jeremy Heer - U of Illinois Foundation

    Melford Carter - GCM Grosvenor (retired)

    Edgar Smith - Beyond 26 Advisors

  • Ben Birnbaum - KeyFrame Capital

    Kevin Novak - Rackhouse Venture Capital

 

 

Our PARTNERS

A cargo ship navigating through the ocean during sunset or sunrise, with a vibrant orange sky and calm waters.
Silhouette of a person climbing a mountain at sunrise or sunset.
Logo of Rackhouse Venture Capital with stylized lines and text.