🧡 From the Freeway Team

Happy Thanksgiving week!

As we head into the holiday, we’re feeling especially grateful for this community — founders, operators, ecosystem builders, and job seekers who continue to show up for Arizona’s tech future.

📊 The 4th Tech Talent Summit Impact Highlights

A heartfelt thank-you to the 70+ community members who took the time to share feedback. Your insights shape what we build next.

Attendance & Reach

• 550 registered

• 430+ attendees across two days

• 70+ survey responses powering this snapshot

Who Showed Up
Our audience reflected the full ecosystem:

• Job Seekers (28%)

• Founders & CEOs (22%)

• Exhibitors (18%)

• Service Providers (6%)

• Investors (5%)

⚡ Community Experience & Vibrancy

• Vibrancy Score: 8.63 / 10 average

• Likelihood to Recommend: 8.75 / 10

  • Nearly 60% gave a perfect 10

• Overall Event Rating: 7.0 / 10

🔥 Most Valuable Experiences

• Networking Opportunities – 82%

• Insightful Speakers – 73%

• Breakouts & Workshops – 33%

• Startup Pitches – 31%

• Career Fair – 29%

• Growth Village – 22%

📈 What This Sparked Next

• 84% plan to attend future Freeway events

• 53% want to join our online community

• 49% want to mentor or volunteer

• 53% want to partner or collaborate

🚀 Demand for What’s Coming in 2026

• 84% want to learn more about Freeway’s Startup Talent Network

Whether you’re actively hiring, looking for your next role, or simply staying plugged into what’s emerging in the PHX market, we’re glad you’re here and grateful to be on this journey with you.

Wishing you rest, reflection, and meaningful connection this week. 🦃✨

— Your friends at Freeway PHX

🚀 Tech Arizona Advocates: Nominate AZ’s GTA Global Stars

🚀 GTA Global Stars: Now Accepting Nominations!

Global Tech Advocates (GTA) has launched GTA Global Stars, a worldwide initiative (in partnership with Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres World Tour) to spotlight exceptional young founders building scalable solutions for energy transition and a sustainable future.

Selected founders will be showcased on GTA’s Tech for Net Zero Resource Hub, each with a dedicated profile highlighting their mission, their progress, and the support they need—funding, partnerships, mentorship, or visibility.

Who qualifies?

• Seed → Series A founders with active, operational ventures

• Building a product, pilot, or service advancing the global energy transition

🌍️ Learn more + nomination criteria

📝 Nominate or self-nominate here (3 minutes)

📅 Deadline: November 30, 2025

If you know (or are) a founder building climate, clean tech, or energy transition solutions? Submit a nomination by Nov 30th! Let’s spotlight Arizona’s innovators on the global stage.

Take Charge of Your Financial Future: Breakfast, Networking & Financial Wellness with Prudential Pathways

​Want to make sense of your financial life, but not sure where to start? Let us show you how. Join us on Thursday, January 22, from 8:30- 9:30 a.m. MST at Kiln Phoenix for breakfast, networking, and a financial wellness educational seminar hosted by industry innovator, Prudential Pathways. Prudential Pathways aims to make building a financial planning strategy less intimidating and more empowering through easy-to-understand educational programs.

​This seminar will cover important topics like these:

• ​Assessing your current financial situation

• ​Protecting yourself and your assets

• ​Setting financial priorities and managing debt

• And more

Hosted by: ​Gil Valadez, Financial Professional, Prudential Pathways Speaker

​Gil Valadez has been with Prudential since October 1986. He welcomes the opportunity to educate his clients on the importance of growing and protecting their financial wellness. He works hard to ensure each client is confident about their goals and prepared for unexpected challenges, whatever their life stage. Gil is very active in the community, including having served on several Boards of Directors, including the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, Phoenix Center for Community Development, Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting, and Hispanic Business Leadership Council.

✨ 25 AI Tools of Christmas ✨ 

​Freeway is proud to be a Community Partner of the 25 AI Tools of Christmas, a new free offer from DefineMe designed to help founders, creators, and leaders learn one AI tool a day, explained through real professionals and real workflows.

Over the course of 25 days, you’ll get an email each day of a new AI tool so you can discover what’s actually useful, what saves time, and what’s worth adopting.

By January, you’ll feel ahead with new knowledge towards greater success in the new year.

📊 Dive Into the Phx Tech Ecosystem

The Freeway dashboard is the fastest way to get a real read on what’s happening in Arizona’s startup scene. It’s basically the command center for founders, investors, and anyone tracking momentum in the market.

• Track VC activity and funding trends

• See the hottest growing startups and scaleups

• View ecosystem heatmaps across Phoenix and Arizona

• Check recent funding rounds and investor activity

• Search companies, founders, investors, and verticals

• Save searches and monitor momentum over time

Search companies, investors, industries, and save your filters so you can watch everything evolve.

If you want to understand Phoenix tech in under a minute, this is the place to do it.

Want to join as a community partner supporting this free resource? Reply to this email.

💼 Featured Roles at Scaling Startups

If you’re exploring your next chapter, here are a few standout roles from across the ecosystem this week:

VP of Product – Solera Health

Product Owner, Integrations – Coursedog

Customer Collections Specialist – Fullbay

Customer Marketing Manager – Virtuous Management

Marketing & Administrative Coordinator – PHX FWD

Director, Business Development – Algoface

Senior Infrastructure Engineer – eVisit

Want more? Search 100+ More Open Roles on the PHX FWD Job Board

🤝 Freeway Community Meet-ups

Our Freeway Community Meet-ups are where the magic happens. They are casual, high-signal spaces to meet other founders, operators, investors, and builders who care about the future of work and tech in Arizona.

Freeway Community Meetup

🗓️ Every Tuesday at 6 p.m. MST

📍 Virtual space (metaverse)

Each week, we gather in our virtual space to talk innovation — from what you’re building to what you’re seeing across PHX and the broader tech ecosystem.

Bring:

• Something you’re working on or curious about

• News or updates from around PHX tech

• Questions, asks, or intros you’re looking for

It’s a real conversation, not just business card swaps: space to share ideas, get feedback, and connect with people who are building what’s next.

Make sure you’re in Slack (below) for reminders, weekly topics, and follow-up connections.

🙋Join the Freeway Slack Group

Freeway has an awesome new active community space that brings founders, builders, and operators together in one spot. It’s a great place to swap ideas, ask questions, share wins, and stay plugged into what’s happening across the ecosystem.

Come hang out, meet new people, and say hi. 👋

🗓️ Upcoming Networking and Career Events

We’re lining up fresh ways to meet great people and open doors. RSVP and start building career-launching connections.