Merve Isler, Founder and CEO of Marvelous, sits down with Ventureport to discuss how AI can help revenue teams find the right rooms, guests and opportunities.
Updated
July 3, 2026 11:39 AM
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Marvelous, an AI product company. PHOTO: MARVELOUS
Most B2B sales teams spend their days inside software. They track leads in a customer relationship management (CRM) tool, send emails, build outbound lists and measure every digital touchpoint. Still, many important business relationships move forward in person. A dinner after a conference, a small founder roundtable or a private customer event can do what dozens of cold emails cannot: build trust quickly.
That is the gap Marvelous wants to fill. The bootstrapped San Francisco-based AI startup is building what founder and CEO Merve Isler calls “Salesforce, but for real life”. Her idea is simple: if companies already use software to manage digital sales, they should also have software to manage the real-world moments that help close deals.
Marvelous brings data, automation and targeting into in-person go-to-market (GTM) work. It helps B2B sales, revenue, marketing and growth teams plan in-person events such as curated dinners, launch events, mixers, happy hours and conference side events. These formats are already familiar to companies selling to enterprise buyers. The problem is that they are often managed through spreadsheets, venue calls, scattered guest lists and manual follow-ups.
That creates two problems. First, the process is slow. Teams can spend weeks figuring out who to invite, where to host and how to manage responses. Second, the return is hard to measure. Companies spend heavily on conferences, dinners and private events, yet they often do not have a clear way to know whether an event will influence pipeline before they commit the budget.
Marvelous wants to pull those pieces into one AI-powered event management platform.
“Our main target customer is revenue and sales teams,” Isler said. “Because about 40% of deals close in person, but there's no infrastructure built for that—so that's what we do.”
For Isler, the idea comes from experience. Before starting Marvelous, she worked at Google from Istanbul, managing developer product launches and go-to-market programs across Turkey, Central Asia and the Caucasus. During that time, she helped build more than 100 communities around the world and coordinated thousands of events a year across eleven time zones. The work was fast, local and very manual.
That experience shaped the foundation for Marvelous. Isler saw that building products had become easier, while distribution remained difficult. A startup can now ship software faster than ever. Reaching the right people, in the right setting, is still a different challenge.
At Google, Isler had to understand how people gathered, communicated and built trust in different markets. A product launch might require developer meetups in dozens of cities, but the right approach could change from country to country. In Kazakhstan, she said, Telegram worked better than WhatsApp. In Afghanistan, Facebook mattered more. Each market had its own habits, and growth depended on understanding those details. Those details and adapt quickly.
Marvelous grew out of that playbook. Isler saw that offline distribution had patterns, even when it looked chaotic from the outside. The right guest list, the right room, the right timing and the right follow-up could change the outcome of a sales conversation. Most of that knowledge, however, lived in people’s heads. Marvelous is her attempt to turn it into software.
Inside the platform, a company can start by choosing the kind of satellite event it wants to host: a launch event, a mixer, a happy hour, a brunch, a lunch or a dinner. From there, users can connect their CRM. When Salesforce is connected, Marvelous analyzes contacts and creates relationship scores based on signals such as buying intent, past event activity and how warm a relationship appears to be. If a team also uses an event platform such as Luma or Eventbrite, Marvelous can bring that event data into the picture as well.
The product is built around Maven, Marvelous’ AI assistant. Maven can help plan an event through Slack, iMessage or the Marvelous platform itself. For instance, a user might ask Maven to plan an executive dinner for 18 people within a set budget. From there, Maven can find warm contacts, estimate who is likely to attend, build a guest list, recommend venues, send invitations and run follow-up sequences across email, LinkedIn and SMS. The goal is to let sales teams focus on conversations and closing deals instead of worrying about logistics. Put simply, Marvelous helps a company find the right guests, secure the right venue and understand which event format is likely to work. Instead of guessing whether a US$10,000 dinner will pay off, the company gets a clearer view of the potential return.
AI Insiders, Marvelous’ invite-only network of verified AI and enterprise leaders, is also part of the company’s go-to-market strategy. Rather than asking every customer to build an event from scratch, Marvelous can group several companies that want to reach the same audience into one curated event. Such a setting creates revenue, product feedback and fresh data about what works in different markets. The network spans verticals such as cybersecurity, fintech, robotics, healthcare AI and enterprise SaaS. It now includes members from more than 475 companies, with C-level executives making up nearly half of the community. So far, AI Insiders has facilitated more than 2,000 introductions and contributed to over US$560 million in deals. Isler describes it as one of Marvelous’ strongest go-to-market channels.
The first AI Insiders event took place at AWS GenAI Loft in San Francisco in April 2026. It brought together 150 curated guests, including AI founders, tier-one investors, enterprise executives and researchers for an evening focused on high-impact conversations and collaboration.
The timing may work in Marvelous’ favor: Digital outreach is getting louder, and AI will make it easier for companies to send more emails, messages and automated pitches. That may make high-trust in-person conversations more valuable, especially in enterprise sales where relationships take time. At the same time, event budgets need proof. Revenue leaders want to know whether a dinner, roadshow or customer event is worth the cost.
Marvelous is betting that offline sales will become a measurable category for software. If the company can prove that its relationship scores, event intelligence and AI agent help teams create a stronger pipeline, it could become an important tool for B2B go-to-market teams. The core message of Marvelous is easy to understand: the deals may happen in the room, but data can still power the room.
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CES 2026 and the move toward wearable robots you don’t wear all day.
Updated
January 28, 2026 5:53 PM
The π6 exoskeleton from VIGX. PHOTO: VIGX
CES 2026 highlighted how robotics is taking many different forms. VIGX, a wearable robotics company, used the event to introduce the π6, a portable exoskeleton robot designed to be carried and worn only when needed. Unveiled in Las Vegas, the device reflects a broader shift at CES toward robotics that move with people rather than staying fixed in industrial or clinical settings.
Exoskeletons have existed for years, most commonly in controlled environments such as factories, rehabilitation facilities and specialised research settings. In these contexts, they have tended to be large, fixed systems intended for long sessions of supervised use rather than something a person could deploy on their own.
Against that backdrop, the π6 explores a more personal and flexible approach to assistance. Instead of treating an exoskeleton as permanent equipment, it is designed to be something users carry with them and wear only when a task or situation calls for extra support.
The π6 weighs 1.9 kilograms and folds down to a size that fits into a bag. When worn, it sits around the waist and legs, providing mechanical assistance during activities such as walking, climbing or extended movement. Rather than altering how people move, the system adds controlled rotational force at key joints to reduce physical strain over time.
According to the company, the device delivers up to 800 watts of peak power and 16 Nm of rotational force. In practical terms, this means the system is designed to help users sustain effort for longer periods, especially during physically demanding activities_ by easing the body's load rather than pushing it beyond normal limits.
The π6 is designed to support users weighing between 45 kilograms and 120 kilograms and is intended for intermittent use. This reinforces its role as a wearable companion — something taken out when needed and set aside when not — rather than a device meant to be worn continuously.
Another aspect of the system is how it responds to different environments. Using onboard sensors and processing, the exoskeleton can detect changes such as slopes or uneven ground and adjust the level of assistance accordingly. This reduces the need for manual adjustments and helps maintain a consistent walking experience across varied terrain, with software fine-tuning how assistance is applied rather than directing movement itself.
The hardware design follows a similar logic. The power belt contains a detachable battery, allowing users to remove or swap it without handling the entire system. This keeps the wearable components lighter and makes the exoskeleton easier to transport. The battery can also be used as a general power source for small electronic devices, adding a layer of practicality beyond the exoskeleton’s core function.
VIGX frames its work around accessibility rather than industrial automation. “To empower ordinary people,” said founder Bob Yu, explaining why the company chose to focus on exoskeleton robotics. “VIGX is dedicated to expanding the physical limits of humans, enabling deeper outdoor adventures, making running and cycling easier and more enjoyable and allowing people to sustain their outdoor pursuits regardless of age.”
Placed within the wider context of CES, the π6 sits alongside a growing number of portable robots and wearable systems that prioritise convenience, mobility and personal use. By reducing the physical and practical barriers to wearing an exoskeleton, VIGX is testing whether assistive robotics can move beyond niche environments and into everyday life. If that experiment succeeds, wearable robots may become less about dramatic augmentation and more about quiet support — present when needed and easy to put away when not.