Rethinking Token Economics: A Conversation with Deedy Das (Menlo Ventures) & Shashank Goyal (OpenRouter)

the vibe

Every model choice is a bet. It shouldn't be a blind one. Join us for a fireside conversation with Deedy Das, Partner at Menlo Ventures, and Shashank Goyal, Founding Engineer & Head of Provider Ecosystem at OpenRouter, on how to make smarter model decisions. Drawing on investments across the AI infrastructure stack and insights from 750T+ tokens routed across every major model and provider, they’ll explore what matters beyond benchmarks. When frontier models are worth it. When smaller models quietly win. Why token efficiency is becoming a real competitive advantage - and what it means for latency, reliability, and your margins. Plenty of time for audience questions - we want this to be a conversation, not a presentation. And yes, we'll be meeting at the top of Salesforce Tower, with 360-degree panoramic views of San Francisco - drinks and delicious bites included. Space is limited. RSVP approval is required. *** OpenRouter is the largest, most battle-tested AI model exchange: 400+ models from 60+ providers, processing ~25 trillion tokens weekly. Instead of hand-rolling routing logic and juggling provider keys, you route through OpenRouter once and let Auto Router pick the best execution path for every request — with automatic failover when providers degrade.