David C. Murphy, Founder & CEO

Passionate about helping entrepreneurs accelerate their startups, David C. Murphy is Founder & CEO of TechFire, which Techmeme recognized in their list of nationally and internationally significant tech conferences.

TechFire has hosted more than 60 events since 2013.

TechFire has hosted many of the nation's most prominent startup founders and venture capitalists, as well as the government leaders who regulate them such as: founders like Aurora Innovation's Chris Urmson (former head of the Google Self-Driving Car Project), HotelTonight's Sam Shank, and Dollar Shave Club’s Michael Dubin; VCs from top firms like Kleiner Perkins, Greylock, CRV, Lightspeed, First Round, True Ventures, Upfront, and Greycroft; ecosystem leaders like Techstars co-founder Brad Feld; and policymakers from US Senator Gary Peters and Congressman Adam Schiff to NHTSA chief Heidi King.

TechFire's events have attracted Fortune 500 and industry-leading sponsors such as Ford (Spin), Lyft, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, DLA Piper, Fenwick & West, Deloitte, EY, CBRE.

TechFire also helps cities and local governments grow accelerate their startup ecosystem, and is a longtime consultant to clients like the City of Burbank (running programs since 2015 including Burbank Tech Summits, Burbank Tech Talks, and Startup.Burbank Pitch Festivals) and the Fairfax County (Virginia) Economic Development Authority (convening programs on topics as diverse as cybersecurity/intelligence/big data and AR/VR).

Before TechFire, David founded Angelenos Against Gridlock, funded by Elon Musk and Geocities billionaire David Bohnett, as well as corporate sponsors like Google, Uber, and Lyft. David's work led to coverage on the front page of the Los Angeles Times, and on Good Morning America, Bloomberg, The Telegraph (UK), Business Insider, and beyond.

In high school, David co-founded Hotline Communications (the Discord of the 1990s), whose chat software attracted millions of users around the world and corporate users like Apple and General Motors.

David's career has also included stints working in Congress, at USAID (in Kiev, Ukraine), and Space Adventures (the space tourism startup that sent the world's first space tourist to the International Space Station). A native of the Washington, DC area, David has also lived in Bulgaria and Kenya, and spent extensive time in China as the recipient of the Avery-Durfee China Fellowship. 

David is a graduate of Claremont McKenna College (CMC), and former President of its Los Angeles alumni chapter. It was as a student at CMC that David first developed his love for hosting events, as one of two students hosting the 100+ speakers a year at the renowned Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum speakers series, where highlights of their thousands of speakers over the years include Bono, Bill Clinton, Mitt Romney, Thomas Friedman, and Desmond Tutu.

David lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Connect with David on Twitter at @DavidCMurphy or on LinkedIn, or email him at david@techfire.co.