{"id":391611,"date":"2026-07-09T04:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T04:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/391611\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T04:28:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T04:28:15","slug":"ai-startup-takes-over-painted-lady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/391611\/","title":{"rendered":"AI startup takes over Painted Lady"},"content":{"rendered":"

At 8 a.m. on Wednesday morning, one of the only signs that something was happening at the \u201cPink Painted Lady,\u201d one of the seven famous private residences on Alamo Square\u2019s \u201cPostcard Row,\u201d was the actor in a pirate costume assuming a drunken stance by the front steps.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the top of the stairs, an usher in a black suit checked Partiful reservations, then lifted the velvet rope. Behind it: a launch party for Ahoy<\/a>, an AI startup celebrating the rollout of its agentic meeting scheduler and business aide by transforming the ground floor of the home into a swashbuckling fantasia.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you see a company launch, you spend $60,000 on a launch video,\u201d said Jana Iris, a key investor in Ahoy with TQ Ventures. \u201cInstead we thought: let\u2019s do something for the community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For an industry critics fear has come to plunder<\/a> San Francisco\u2019s real estate, the company\u2019s pirate-themed shindig \u2014 overtaking one of the Painted Ladies \u2014 may have been a smidge on the nose.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the event was free, open-invite<\/a>, and offered a rare chance to see inside the otherwise restrictive historic landmark.<\/p>\n

\"AA pirate skeleton greets guests of Ahoy\u2019s launch party. Photo by Brandon Pho.<\/p>\n

Leah Culver, a former senior engineer at Twitter and now Airbnb, bought the Pink Lady in 2020 for $3.55 million, well above the asking price. In 2022, Culver announced she was putting the home back up for sale. The three-story house had been neglected for decades before Culver bought it, and the extent of the work that needed to be done was overwhelming<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, Culver says, it\u2019s no longer on the market as she decides on long-term plans. \u201cIn the meantime, we\u2019re going to continue to explore opportunities for public access,\u201d Culver told Mission Local. \u201cNot just tech folks hoping to do events.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iris, a good friend of Culver\u2019s, persuaded her to let Ahoy turn the open rooms into a smuggler\u2019s cove, decking its storied walls with buccaneer mannequins, a skeleton in a brig, and other seafaring frills.<\/p>\n

\"PeopleGuests mingle inside the \u201cPink Painted Lady\u201d for Ahoy\u2019s agentic meeting product launch. Photo by Brandon Pho. <\/p>\n

Dozens of people attended at different parts of the day. Conversation ranged from networking requests to musings about their employers (several guests refused to share who they worked for).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been here for 20 years through a few different booms and busts,\u201d Iris said, her months-old puppy Dolores at her feet. \u201cSan Francisco has always been a Gold Rush, transient city. There are always going to be people who come to make their money and leave. And then there are people like us: I plan to be in S.F. for the rest of my life, and I want to create events like this, fostering appreciation for the city\u2019s art and music and culture, forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WomanJana Iris, a longtime tech startup fixture and Ahoy investor with TQ Ventures, sits with her dog Dolores on the steps of the \u201cPink Painted Lady.\u201d Photo by Brandon Pho.<\/p>\n

For Ahoy\u2019s co-founders Monique Eisenach and Kevin Bluett, the party was a way to differentiate themselves as \u201cnot like any other startup.\u201d The two previously spent a combined 17 years at customer service software company HubSpot, they said, and wanted to get people\u2019s attention in a way that felt community-oriented.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to preserve \u2014 and continue to celebrate \u2014 our history,\u201d Eisenach said. \u201cBut also,\u201d she added, \u201cbuild new things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps unintentionally, they tapped into an understanding shared by some city preservationists.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistoric buildings that survive are those that get used and are active,\u201d said Woody LaBounty, president and CEO of SF Heritage<\/a>, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the city\u2019s historic character. \u201cAnd getting more people inside to appreciate them is a good thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

At this, the launch succeeded. Judith Hengeveld, a website designer, and her husband Nick, a developer at GitHub, trekked from San Carlos simply to see the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t exactly know what Ahoy does,\u201d Judith said. \u201cBut my guess is it has something to do with AI.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At 8 a.m. on Wednesday morning, one of the only signs that something was happening at the \u201cPink…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-391611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}