TechCrunch Disrupt 2022
October 18 – 21, 2022 — San Francisco
Speakers
Wemimo Abbey
CEO & FounderEsusu Financial Inc.
Jeremy Abelson
Founder & Portfolio ManagerIrving Investors
Medha Agarwal
General Partnerdefy.vc
Toyin Ajayi
Co-founder & PresidentCityblock Health
Omolara Ajele
Operating PartnerFast Forward Venture Studio
Sheena Allen
CEO & FounderCapWay
Allison Barr Allen
Angel InvestorTrail Run Capital
Danny Angers
EVP & Chief Growth OfficerVOSKER
Sara Araghi
DirectorFranklin Venture Partners
Mike Asem
General PartnerM25
Robin Åström
Co-founder and CEOWehype
Anna Auerbach
ConsultantEgon Zehnder
Opeyemi Awoyemi
Managing PartnerFast Forward Venture Studio
Saranya Babu
Chief Marketing OfficerCloudinary
Trisha Bantigue
CEO and Co-founderQueenly
Leyonna Barba
Managing Director, J.P. Morgan’s Middle Market Banking and Specialized Industries BusinessJ.P. Morgan
Rajeev Batra
PartnerMayfield
Idris Bello
Founding PartnerLoftyInc Capital Management
Gene Berdichevsky
Co-founder & CEOSila
Jacob Berlin
Chief Executive OfficerTerray
Pali Bhat
Chief Product OfficerReddit
Michael Biercuk
CEO & FounderQ-CTRL
Jacqueline Blackburn
AssociateScout Ventures
Keily Blair
Chief Strategy & Operations Officer (CSOO)OnlyFans
Laura Bock
PartnerQED
Niko Bonatsos
Founder & Managing DirectorVerdict Capital
Gwyneth Borden
Founder & CEORemynt
Ann Bordetsky
PartnerNEA
Peter A Boyce II
Founder & Managing PartnerStellation Capital
Jake Bright
Venture PartnerFast Forward Venture Studio
Haseeb Budhani
Co-founder & CEORafay Systems
Anna Buldakova
Co-founder and CEOVektor AI
Kristen Burke
ConsultantEgon Zehnder
Brett Callow
Threat AnalystEmsisoft
Tomas Campos
CEO & CofounderSpinwheel
Annie Case
PartnerKleiner Perkins
Guilherme Cerqueira
Founder & CEOWorthix
Navin Chaddha
Managing PartnerMayfield
Josephine Chen
PartnerSequoia Capital
Carolyn Childers
Co-founder & CEOChief
Quentin Clark
Managing DirectorGeneral Catalyst
Parker Conrad
Co-founder & CEORippling
Beth Daly Torres
Executive Director in the Office of Disability InclusionJ.P. Morgan
Paul Davison
Co-founder & CEOClubhouse
Daniel Day
Head of MarketingMonte Carlo
Chris Dixon
Founder & Managing Partnera16z crypto
Denelle Dixon
CEO & Executive DirectorStellar Development Foundation
Mandela Schumacher-Hodge Dixon
CEOAll Raise
Amanda DoAmaral
Co-founder & CEOFiveable
Brylan Donaldson
CEO & Co-founder7th Ave
Ngozi Dozie
CEO & Co-founderCarbon
Sara Du
Co-founder & CEOAlloy Automation
Nisha Dua
Co-founder & Managing PartnerBBG Ventures
Henrique Dubugras
Co-founder & Co-CEOBrex
Michael Elanjian
Head of Digital Investment Banking & Digital Private MarketsJ.P. Morgan
Tom Eschbacher
Director, New and Emerging BusinessLinkedIn
Josh Fabian
Co-founder & CEOMetafy
Johanna Faries
SVP & General Manager, Call of DutyActivision Blizzard
Dylan Field
Co-founder & CEOFigma
Jenny Fleiss
Venture PartnerVolition Capital
Ruth Foxe Blader
PartnerAnthemis
George Fraser
CEOFivetran
Ami Gan
CEOOnlyFans
Maëlle Gavet
CEOTechstars
Emily G.-Cebrián Lombán
Co-founder and CEOFROGED
Tomio Geron
Senior ReporterProtocol
Margaret Glover-Campbell
COOVirtual Gurus
Eric Glyman
Co-founder & CEORamp
Jennifer Stisa Granick
Surveillance and Cybersecurity CounselAmerican Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Draymond Green
NBA 4 X Champion & HostThe Draymond Green Show
Kirsten Green
Founding PartnerForerunner
Peyton Greenside
CSO & CofounderBigHat
Alka Gupta
Venture PartnerFin Capital
Arvind Gupta
PartnerMayfield Fund
Dan Hardman
Managing Director, Co-Head of Technology and Disruptive Commerce GroupJP Morgan Chase
Anu Hariharan
Managing Director, YC ContinuityY Combinator
Brett Harrison
AdvisorFTX
Kevin Hart
Brand PartnerFabletics Men
Tess Hatch
PartnerBessemer Venture Partners
Chris Herd
Founder & CEOFirstbase
Jomayra Herrera
PartnerReach Capital
Alex Hersham
Co-founder and CEOZencargo
Erik Hersman
FounderBRCK
Mar Hershenson
Founding Managing PartnerPear VC
Chris Hewish
PresidentXsolla
Arman Hezarkhani
Founder & CEOParthean
Jamison Hill
PartnerBase10 Partners
Katelin Holloway
Founding PartnerSeven Seven Six
Alex Holmes
Chairman & CEOMoneyGram
Dan Horowitz
Senior DirectorLinkedIn
Xiaodi Hou
CEOTuSimple
Steve Isakowitz
President and CEOThe Aerospace Corporation
Kevin Issadore
Head of Business Development, North AmericaMarqeta
Daniel Jacker
CEO & CofounderZaiNar
Rehan Jalil
Founder & CEOSecuriti
Ruby James
Manager, StartupsLinkedIn
Nicole Johnson
PartnerForerunner Ventures
Myriam Joire
Host & FounderMobile Tech Podcast
Kristin Kallergis
Managing Director Global Head of Alternative InvestmentsJ.P. Morgan
Kate Kamel
Director, GrowthLinkedIn
Lindsay Kaplan
Co-founder & Chief Brand OfficerChief
Ayanna Kerrison
InvestorPrecursor Ventures
Jamal Khan
Chief Growth & Innovation OfficerConnection
Mark Kidwell
Chief Data Architect, Analytics Data PlatformAutodesk
Avlok Kohli
CEOAngelList
Kevin Kollar
SVP Growth VerticalsFIS
Jeff Kolovson
Co-founder & COOFaire
Emily Koster
Director of CommunicationsSamsung Next
Thejo Kote
Founder & CEOAirbase
Brandon Krieg
Co-CEO and Co-FounderStash
Madhukar Kumar
Chief Developer Evangelist & CMOSingleStore Inc.
Mary-Catherine Lader
COOUniswap Labs
Jim Lanzone
CEOYahoo
Dave Latham
VP of Product CDK RoadsterCDK Global
Gloria Lau
CEO & CofounderAlpha Medical
Sofia Laurell
Co-founder and Co-CEOTiny Organics
Mélanie Lavoie
Senior VP Talent & CultureVOSKER
Andrew Le
CEO & Co-FounderBuoy Health
Aileen Lee
Founder & Managing PartnerCowboy Ventures
Jeremy Legg
Chief Technology OfficerAT&T
Peter Levine
General Partnera16z
Hongyi Li
Director, Open Government ProductsOpen Government Products
Melissa Li
Head of Community and Managing PartnerDorm Room Fund
Sam Liang
CEO & CofounderOtter.ai
Rebecca Liao
CEO & CofounderSaga
Gary Little
CEOFoursquare
Kevin Liu
Head of Portfolio Capital & InvestmentsTechstars
Marc Lore
Founder, Chairman & CEOWonder Group
Michael Machado
Head of ProductDevRev, Inc.
Karena Man
ConsultantEgon Zehnder
Martin Mao
CEO & Co-founderChronosphere
Kanyi Maqubela
Managing PartnerKindred Ventures
Diego Mariscal
Founder & CEO2Gether-International
Caryn Marooney
General PartnerCoatue Management L.L.C.
Amy Jo Martin
Founder & CEORenegade Global
Edna Martinson
Co-founderBoddle Learning
Alton McDowell
Managing Director – MM Specialized Industries Industry VerticalsJ.P. Morgan
Chintan Mehta
CIO & Head of Digital Technology and InnovationWells Fargo
Nik Milanovic
General PartnerThe Fintech Fund
Neal Moawed
Global Head of Industry ResearchInterSystems
Sheel Mohnot
Co-founder & General PartnerBetter Tomorrow Ventures
Tim Montgomery
Senior Vice President, North America Digital PartnershipsMastercard
Katie Moussouris
CEOLuta Security
Pete Muend
Director, Commercial Systems Program OfficeNational Reconnaissance Office
Dave Munichiello
General PartnerGV
Yorick Naeff
Co-founder and CEOBUX
Tashi Nakanishi
Managing Partner, HartBeat VenturesCEO, XPV Group
Madhu Narasimhan
EVP, Head of InnovationWells Fargo
Ryan Nece
Co-founder & Managing PartnerNext Play Capital
Thomas Nguyen-Lien
General Manager, Customer Advisory ServiceVOSKER
Jordan Nof
Co-founder & Managing PartnerTusk Venture Partners
James Norman
General PartnerBlack Operator Ventures
Kara Nortman
PartnerUpfront Ventures
Bryan Offutt
PartnerIndex Ventures
Joshua Ogundu
CEOCampfire
Janine O'Neill
Talent DirectorSequoia
Ulili Onovakpuri
Managing DirectorKapor Capital
Shirin Oreizy
Founder & CEONext Step
Deidre Paknad
Co-founder & CEOWorkBoard
Dheeraj Pandey
CEO & CofounderDevRev
Ursheet Parikh
PartnerMayfield Fund
Annie Pearl
Chief Product OfficerCalendly
Roxanne Petraeus
CEO & CofounderEthena
Vieje Piauwasdy
Contributor
Archana Prasad
VP of Product ManagementMarqeta
Erin Price-Wright
PartnerIndex Ventures
Chelsea Puckett
SVP of Strategic Payments SystemsStride Bank
Connie Qian
Vice PresidentForgepoint Capital
Katie Rae
Founder, CEO & Managing PartnerThe Engine
Kamini Ramani
CMOMayfield
Karthik Ranganathan
Co-Founder & Co-CEOYugabyte
Geoff Schmidt
CEOApollo GraphQL
Alison Rapaport Stillman
Founding & Managing PartnerSerena Ventures
Alexandre Robicquet
Co-Founder & CEOCrossing Minds
Jeremiah Robison
Founder and CEOCIONIC
Adriana Roche
Chief People OfficerMURAL
Robert Roman
President & Co-founderHartBeat Ventures
Aaron Ronquillo
Cofounder, Investor, AdvisorNakoshi
Andy Rooks
FounderPrice Theory
Ali Rosenthal
Founder & Managing PartnerLeadout Capital
Christina Ross
CEO & CofounderCube
Thomas Rouffiac
Co-founder and COONatrion
Sophie Ruddock
VP & GM of North AmericaMultiverse
Kristina Rudzinskaya
Founder & CEOEtalon
Gyanda Sachdeva
VP, Product ManagementLinkedIn
Maryanna Saenko
Co-founderFuture Ventures
Andrej Safundzic
CEO and Co-founderLumos
Dave Samuel
Founding Managing PartnerFreestyle VC
RJ Scaringe
Founder & CEORivian
Aydin Senkut
Founder & Managing PartnerFelicis
Ham Serunjogi
CEO & Co-founderChipper Cash
Aravinda Seshadri
Founding PartnerVenturous Counsel, a Professional Corporation
Manuela Seve
CEOalphaa.io
Mahesh Shah
EVP and Chief Product and Technology OfficerCDK Global
Shaival Shah
Co-founder and CEORibbon
Deena Shakir
General PartnerLux Capital
Erin Sharoni
Chief Product OfficerFOXO Technologies
Emmalyn Shaw
Co-founder & Managing PartnerFlourish Ventures
Cuy Sheffield
Head of CryptoVisa, Inc.
Ash Shehryar
Founder, Chief Design OfficerPronto Media Group
Robert Siegel
Lecturer in ManagementStanford Graduate School of Business
Yat Siu
Co-founder & Executive ChairmanAnimoca Brands
Gefen Skolnick
FounderCouplet Coffee
Rachel Sonnenberg
Startup Acquisition: Pilots LeadAmazon Web Services
Christine Spang
Co-founder and CTONylas
Maddie Stone
Security Researcher, Project ZeroGoogle
Sam Stone
Director of Product Management, Pricing & DataOpendoor
Alain Sylvain
Founder & CEOSYLVAIN
Emir Talu
Co-founder & PartnerPentas Ventures
Clarence Tan
Co-founderBoddle Learning
Adam Tesan
Chief Revenue OfficerChargeebee
David Tisch
Managing PartnerBoxGroup
Lo Toney
Founding Managing PartnerPlexo Capital
Christine Tsai
Founding Partner & CEO500 Global
Alan Tu
Portfolio Manager, Global Technology StrategyT. Rowe Price
Kelvin Umechukwu
CEO & CofounderBumpa
Sandhya Venkatachalam
Founder, Managing PartnerAxiom Partners
Mike Verdu
Vice President, GamesNetflix
Eduardo Vivas
Co-founder & CEOCurated
Lucy Wang
Managing DirectorEquity Capital Markets, J.P. Morgan
Parilee Wang
Head of ProductAlloy
Milo Werner
General PartnerEngine Ventures
Ted Westhelle
Senior Manager, North American Digital SalesMambu
Serena Williams
Founding & Managing PartnerSerena Ventures
Rich Wong
PartnerAccel
Sam Wong
Startup Coach & Fractional FounderFundable Startups
Pae Wu
General Partner, SOSV & CTO, IndieBioSOSV
Ryan Wyatt
CEOPolygon Studios
Stephane Wyper
SVP Venture Investments, FIS Impact VenturesFIS
Anatoly Yakovenko
Co-Founder of Solana & CEO of Solana LabsSolana Labs
Dmitriy Yakubov
Head of PartnershipsCheckout.com
Emil Yeargin
Vice President, TalentGusto
Elizabeth Yin
Co-Founder & General PartnerHustle Fund
Guled Yousef
Web3 Angel Investor & Product LeadDefi Pulse
Adewale Yusuf
CEO & Co-FounderAltschool
Kathy Zhou
CTO and Co-founderQueenly
John Zimmer
Co-founder &PresidentLyft
Eric Zimmerman
Principal, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Amazon Web ServicesAWS
Will Edwards
Co-founder & CEOFirehawk Aerospace
Vihari Kanukollu
Co-founder & CEOUrbanKisaan
Peter A Boyce ll
Founder & Managing PartnerStellation Capital
Charles Hudson
Managing PartnerPrecursor Ventures
Ysbrant Marcelis
Development PartnerCommerce Ventures
Dylan Massey
CEOInterchecks
Vieje Piauwasdy
Senior Director, Equity StrategySecfi
Abbey grew up in the slums of Lagos, Nigeria, and came to the United States when he was 17 years old. His personal experiences inspired Abbey and his co-founder to start Esusu, a financial technology company that helps low- to moderate-income households use their on-time rent payments to build credit. Prior to Esusu, he created a global social venture which provided affordable access to clean water for over 250,000 people in eight emerging countries. In addition, he founded data analytics company Open Aid Initiative which was acquired in 2014. Abbey’s early career includes roles at Accenture, Goldman Sachs, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Beyond Esusu, Abbey serves as a Queen’s Young Leader and member of the Royal Commonwealth Society. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Minnesota with a B.S. in Business Management and earned his M.P.A. from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. In 2020, Abbey was recognized on Forbes 30 Under 30 list. In 2021, he was selected by Goldman Sachs as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs.
Wemimo's Sessions
What Happens When We Don’t Have Diverse Voices in the Room to Help Shape the Future? @ Breakout Session #1
Wemimo Abbey, the diverse co-founder behind Esusu, shares the Inspirational story behind his innovative startup and the challenges he and his co-founder faced along the way. As minorities, they encountered unique challenges, and with the help of J.P. Morgan, the founders overcame them to ultimately reach their goals. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion isn’t just a check in the box, why is it so important? In this session we will discuss the benefits of including minority voices in startups and how to ensure DEI.
Jeremy Abelson is the founder and lead portfolio manager of Irving Investors.
Jeremy's Sessions
Expanding the Ecosystem: How to Get Institutional Investors Invested in You @ Breakout Session #1
Hear from institutional investors about their growing interest in private markets. They’ll share their thoughts on what makes a good investment and how to get their attention.
As a General Partner at Defy, Medha is fortunate to support exceptional entrepreneurs from day zero through hyper-growth. Whether building her own startups or partnering with founders, she has experienced the highs and lows of company-building—sometimes all within the same hour. It’s one of the hardest, loneliest jobs in the world, which is why she believes founders need trusted partners who can be there for anything, big or small. Medha strives to be that person. Before Defy, she spent seven years as a Partner at Redpoint Ventures, focused on early-stage fintech, vertical SaaS, marketplaces, and healthcare. She had the privilege of working with companies like Whatnot, Tend, Proper Finance, LiveKit, and Anvyl—founders who taught her as much as she supported them. Medha began her career at Bain & Company, founded two startups (Skedge.me and Roomidex), and started her investing journey at Bessemer Venture Partners. Born in New York to immigrant parents, she’s the eldest of three and shaped by the values they modeled—grit, humility, and continuous improvement. She studied Social Studies at Harvard College and rowed on the varsity lightweight crew team, where she learned what it means to push past limits for your team. She later attended Harvard Business School and now lives in Marin with her husband and three kids. Most weekends, they’re outdoors exploring, and she still squeezes in a morning workout—old habits die hard. Medha is proud to be part of Defy and to continue backing the next generation of iconic founders.
Medha's Sessions
What The Startup World is Really Like For Underrepresented People
EBIT margins for companies with diverse management teams were nearly 10% higher than for companies with below-average management diversity. So how can we support diverse founders? From VC investments to building management teams, what should your approach to diversity and inclusion be? This panel will offer insights based on real experiences as under-represented founders and investors.
Dr. Toyin Ajayi is co-founder and CEO of Cityblock Health, a tech-enabled, value-based healthcare provider for Medicaid, dually-eligible and lower-income Medicare beneficiaries in underserved communities. Cityblock’s model of care meets individuals where they are, delivering highly personalized medical care, behavioral health care, and social services to members in neighborhoods where it’s needed most. Prior to Cityblock, Dr. Ajayi served as Chief Medical Officer of Commonwealth Care Alliance, a nationally renowned integrated health plan and care delivery system for individuals eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. In this role, she led clinical operations, spearheaded care delivery innovations, and oversaw multi-disciplinary teams of clinicians, community health workers and administrators. Dr. Ajayi received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and her medical degree, with Distinction in Clinical Practice, from King’s College London School of Medicine. Board certified in Family Medicine, Dr. Ajayi completed her residency training at Boston Medical Center and continues to practice primary care with a focus on patients with chronic, complex and end-of-life needs. She has published and spoken extensively about her work in caring for populations with complex needs, including at TEDMED, NCQA, and HLTH, and in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Toyin's Sessions
Making Care Actually Work
Cityblock Health has experienced considerable growth on the back of a care model designed to actually meet the recipients of care where they already are, while still satisfying the needs of payers. It seems to be true accessibility in a framework that works with the existing US healthcare infrastructure, but we’ll here from CEO Toyin Ajayi about the work that remains to be done.
Omolara Ajele is co-founder and operating partner at Fast Forward, a venture studio and fund focused on unlocking prosperity in Africa. At Fast Forward, she supports portfolio companies with strategy on GTM and scaling. She was employee no. 10 at Jumia (NYSE:JMIA) where she led partnerships for Nigeria and later was founding MD of Jumia Pay. Lara bagged her MBA at MIT and has also worked at Facebook and Charles Schwab in product and program management roles.
Omolara's Sessions
Why African Tech Needs Venture Studios @ Roundtable #9
Could venture studios deliver superior results when it comes to providing entrepreneurial solutions to hard problems in Africa?Entrepreneurship is about risk. The Venture Studio model claims to reduce that risk and maximize the learnings and may be even important in emerging markets where uncertainty is higher and a deep understanding of context and people is necessary. Studios around the world are getting a 34% exit rate VS 21% for Accelerators and 19% for the average venture industry. Is Africa ripe for venture studios, given the increase in back-able and experienced operators who are looking to launch companies. Let’s discuss how this model can be utilized for rapid introduction of new market models and opportunities. This is a roundtable discussion – come share your thoughts and learn from others.
Sheena Allen is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and creative architect. She was born in Terry, MS, and is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, where she received a dual degree in Psychology (B.S.) and Film (B.A.). In 2011 during her senior year in college, Sheena started her first tech company, Sheena Allen Apps, and bootstrapped the startup to generate millions of mobile app downloads. In 2019, she started executing on her second tech startup, CapWay, which gave Sheena the title of the youngest female in America to own and operate a digital bank. The fintech company focuses on creating economic access and opportunities for all through inclusive financial products and services, including banking, content, payments, and more. In 2016, Sheena made her film premiere in She Started It, a documentary that follows five women around on their startup journey. In 2022, Sheena starred in a second, this time solo and short documentary, created by Google for their Black Women in Tech series. In addition to film, Sheena has also released a print book titled The Starting Guide about her early journey in tech, being a non-technical founder, and business 101 tips.
Sheena's Sessions
What The Startup World is Really Like For Underrepresented People
EBIT margins for companies with diverse management teams were nearly 10% higher than for companies with below-average management diversity. So how can we support diverse founders? From VC investments to building management teams, what should your approach to diversity and inclusion be? This panel will offer insights based on real experiences as under-represented founders and investors.
Allison is a founder and helper for startups. Previously, she was co-founder & COO at Fast and Head of Product Operations for the Money Team at Uber. She started at Uber in 2014 and served in a range of Product, Ops, Strategy, and Leadership roles at the company, helping it scale from 2k to 26,000+ employees. Prior to Uber, Allison was a strategy consultant at PwC. Allison started investing in the stock market in 2012 and is a self-taught public equity investor. Through angel investing, Allison is able to combine her love of investing with her passion for coaching and mentoring young startups.
Allison Barr's Sessions
How To Manage Staff In A Remote, Asynchronous Reality
Companies big and small are figuring out how they are going to distribute and manage their workforces in 2022. After a few years when even the most traditional company was forced to go remote, startups are now having to choose between remote setups, hybrid teams or a return to the office. But no matter what they choose, all companies are going to have more remote staff than ever before. To help founders understand how to manage those staffers, Trail Run Capital’s Allison Barr Allen, Mural’s Adriana Roche and WorkBoard’s Deidre Paknad are joining us to talk about what works.
Danny is the EVP, Chief Growth Officer as well as one of the co-founders and board members of VOSKER. An experienced business developer, his corporate development and interpersonal skills has led to significant growth opportunities across various technological sector. Pulling knowledge and strength from over ten years of experience as a specialist business developer and go-to-market strategist, Danny’s truest passion and values lies in pursuing bold ideas whilst supporting and leading disruptive technologies throughout the globe. Admired for expressing a genuine commitment to changing the world, Danny Angers exhibits a great rigour around decision-making, all whilst creating a diverse and inclusive tech environment. Danny’s impressive professional career has, therefore, often been described as witnessing a humble man with not-so-humble strategies. Watching this self-made serial entrepreneur move, create, disrupt and reinvent the tech industry is that of true wonder and magic. Danny’s deep devotion to the unrelenting growth and power of technology not only makes him a VOSKER asset but an industry veteran whose renowned actions will continue to speak volumes – on both a local and global scale.
Danny's Sessions
Scaling Your Business During a Recession
In the past few years, we have faced the sudden consequences of a pandemic and now have the threat of recession looming overhead. With this background, the speakers will be explaining how they could achieve 582% growth for VOSKER in just 2 years between 2019 and 2021- especially considering the pandemic and global-chip shortage. VOSKER was established in 2018 and is a fast-growing company looking to be the next global technology leader. In this session, the main takeaways would be how to successfully pivot and adapt during unexpected challenges and use uncertain times as an opportunity to innovate. This will give participants key insights into how they can scale their business even during a recession.
Sara Araghi is a director of Franklin Venture Partners, the firm’s specialized investment team that invests in private opportunities, focusing on mid- and late-stage companies it believes are poised for transformative impacts across multiple industries. In addition Ms. Araghi is a vice president, research analyst and portfolio manager for Franklin Equity Group. She specializes in the equity research and analysis of the softline and specialty retail industries and serves as Consumer Sector team leader. She is a portfolio manager on the Franklin Growth Opportunities Fund and FTIF Franklin U.S. Opportunities Fund (SICAV), as well as related portfolios. Ms. Araghi earned her B.S. in business administration and graduated with honors from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder and member of the CFA Society of San Francisco and CFA Institute. Ms. Araghi was recognized by the San Francisco Business Times as one of the Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business for 2021.
Sara's Sessions
Expanding the Ecosystem: How to Get Institutional Investors Invested in You @ Breakout Session #1
Hear from institutional investors about their growing interest in private markets. They’ll share their thoughts on what makes a good investment and how to get their attention.
As a general partner at M25, Mike has managed over 100 investments in early-stage companies. Outside of his responsibilities at M25, Mike is a Kauffman Fellow (Class 24) and a national board member of BLCK VC, leading initiatives in the Midwest to connect, engage, empower, and advance Black venture investors. Prior to M25, Mike founded The Anvil, a co-working space and startup incubator on Purdue University’s campus, where he helped launch the first Purdue startup to be accepted to Y Combinator, and many more that have gone on to raise venture capital and get acquired. Mike lives in Chicago with his wife, Erikka, and in his free time, he enjoys making wine, eating sushi, following Chicago sports, and traveling.
Mike's Sessions
How To Raise In 2022 If You Are Not Located In A Major Hub
Sure, you no longer have to be located in Silicon Valley — let alone California — to build a startup or raise money. But there are still areas where there are more venture capitalists per square mile and areas where there are fewer. To get to grips on raising outside of traditional startup hubs, we’re bringing together VCs who either live and invest, or simply invest in more up-and-coming geographies. Mike Asem of M25, Rich Wong of Accel, and Hustle Fund’s Elizabeth Yin are joining us for this particular chat. It’s going to rock.
Meet the Speaker: How to Raise in 2022 If You're Not Located in a Major Hub
Join this small group discussion with select speakers in the TechCrunch+ Lounge. *You must have a current TC+ annual or 2-year subscription to access the TechCrunch+ Lounge*
Robin Åström is CEO and Co-Founder of Swedish startup Wehype, the influencer marketing platform and agency that connects leading brands, such as EA, Microsoft, Ubisoft and McDonald’s, with billions of gamers worldwide.
Robin's Sessions
Love What You Do: Lessons from the Passion Economy @ Roundtable #4
In this roundtable session, Robin Åström, Co-founder and CEO of influencer marketing platform and agency Wehype, will lead a discussion on how the passion economy has democratized the ability to make money from creativity (and at scale), and the importance of startup founders operating within industries that they are genuinely, deeply passionate about. Robin will draw on his experience of turning his gaming obsession into a competitive edge, after identifying and filling a gap in the gaming influencer market with co-founders he met playing Counter-Strike as a teenager. Their love of gaming has provided them with the extra motivation to overcome challenges, enabling them to build Wehype into a rapidly growing and profitable business, working with some of the world’s biggest brands, including EA, Microsoft and Ubisoft.
Love What You Do: Lessons from the Passion Economy @ Roundtable #3
In this roundtable session, Robin Åström, Co-founder and CEO of influencer marketing platform and agency Wehype, will lead a discussion on how the passion economy has democratized the ability to make money from creativity (and at scale), and the importance of startup founders operating within industries that they are genuinely, deeply passionate about. Robin will draw on his experience of turning his gaming obsession into a competitive edge, after identifying and filling a gap in the gaming influencer market with co-founders he met playing Counter-Strike as a teenager. Their love of gaming has provided them with the extra motivation to overcome challenges, enabling them to build Wehype into a rapidly growing and profitable business, working with some of the world’s biggest brands, including EA, Microsoft and Ubisoft.
Anna Auerbach, based in New York, is a core member of Egon Zehnder’s Technology and Digital practice. Anna is an experienced advisor, founder, and operator. She works across advisory and search work, and has a particular focus on the intersection of product, technology and marketing for high-growth companies. Anna is also active in the firm’s HR officers practice. Prior to joining Egon Zehnder, Anna was the Cofounder and CEO of Werk, which pioneered Saas analytics for people policies and benefits. Werk’s software and data insights were featured in HBR, Fast Company, WSJ, Bloomberg, and other publications. Earlier in her career, Anna worked in consulting. She began her career at McKinsey & Co., where she focused on technology, media and telecommunications work. She then worked at two specialty consulting firms, leading one as the Chief Operating Officer. Anna earned a BA in economics and psychology from Brandeis University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Anna's Sessions
The CPO-to-CEO Pipeline @ Roundtable #8
The product function has never been as important as it is today. As we see it continuously evolve and expand in importance, are product leaders poised to develop into the next generation of CEOs? Join a discussion with advisors who offer their expertise in evaluating future CEOs, hearing how other product leaders have made this transition. Additionally, compare notes with others on what this trend, along with the expanding mandate of the product role, could mean for the function.
Rewiring Founders to Hire for Tomorrow @ Roundtable #6
It’s not news that founders face a lot of pressure to surround themselves with the right talent from day one. But high-growth companies face rapidly evolving needs for talent, and founders may not have received the right kind of training on how to interview candidates or what to look for. How can you ensure that you are hiring not just for right now but also for the future? Two leadership advisors with expertise in executive search for tech start-ups will give insight into the framework they use to evaluate talent as a company scales. As they shed insight on the right strategies for evaluating for a candidate’s future potential, they are also eager to hear from founders: what are your biggest hiring concerns? What do founders feel search firms don’t really “get” about the hiring process?
Rewiring Founders to Hire for Tomorrow @ Roundtable #8
It’s not news that founders face a lot of pressure to surround themselves with the right talent from day one. But high-growth companies face rapidly evolving needs for talent, and founders may not have received the right kind of training on how to interview candidates or what to look for. How can you ensure that you are hiring not just for right now but also for the future? Two leadership advisors with expertise in executive search for tech start-ups will give insight into the framework they use to evaluate talent as a company scales. As they shed insight on the right strategies for evaluating for a candidate’s future potential, they are also eager to hear from founders: what are your biggest hiring concerns? What do founders feel search firms don’t really “get” about the hiring process?
Trust as the New Currency in Tech @ Roundtable #9
“Trust dies, but mistrust blossoms.” -SophoclesThe conversation around data privacy has evolved to one that includes the concept of trust, and today’s start-ups have the benefit of hindsight when it comes to avoiding the mistakes that big tech made in years past when prioritizing growth over customer privacy. How do you learn from the mistakes and missteps of tech pioneers who have not kept trust at the forefront of their mission? How do you build trust into your processes from the beginning and then maintain it as an important pillar of your mission as you scale and grow?Our leadership advisory team wants to hear from attendees passionate about data security about how the conversation needs to change. What future challenges could there be to data privacy in your industry that you should be planning for today? And how you engage with your customers. How do you make things right with customers when things go wrong?
Opeyemi is a General Partner of Fast Forward, a venture studio and fund focused on unlocking prosperity for Africa. As an entrepreneur, he previously founded Moneymie, a crypto to fiat infra service, Jobberman, the largest online recruitment platform in Africa backed by Tiger Global; and Whogohost, a web hosting company in Nigeria.
Opeyemi's Sessions
Exit Pathways for Africa Startups @ Roundtable #7
As funding continues to grow on the African continent, we need to start understanding the paths to exit.We have seen a string of $50m+ African exits in the last 2 years; DPO to Network International, Paystack to Stripe, Sendwave to World Remit, Capricorn Digital to MFS Africa. We have also seen an IPO – Jumia. What should investors expect going forward? Sub $500m exits or IPOs? Who are these acquirers – global firms or African giants? Should founders be mindful of these trends and what should they do about it? This is a roundtable discussion – come share your thoughts and learn from others.
Saranya Babu is the Chief Marketing Officer for Cloudinary, the media experience cloud company for many of the world’s top brands. Saranya is a seasoned B2B marketing leader previously leading the marketing team at Wrike (acquired by Citrix in 2021) and Instapage, where she implemented, built and scaled sophisticated cross-functional marketing strategies. She has experience working in bootstrapped, VC funded, Private Equity owned, and public companies with proven success achieving 2X – 10X growth in revenue and valuation. She is a recipient of the 2021 Silicon Valley Women of Influence award and shortlisted in the 2020 B&T Women in Media award.
Saranya's Sessions
Building the Visual Economy Through Developer-Led Innovation
Over the last decade and accelerated by the pandemic, a huge part of the economy has shifted online driven mainly by technological advancements that offer comparable and even better online visual experiences than the physical ones. Unlike shifts that have been driven by executive leadership, this one has been driven by developers and entrepreneurs that have led the way in adopting cutting edge practices. Learn how developer driven innovation through approaches like API-first, headless, and composable architectures can help you engage better, faster and more effectively with your customers.
Trisha Bantigue is the CEO and co-founder of Queenly, the leading online marketplace for the formalwear industry. She was recently featured on the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 as the main cover for the Art & Style category. Trisha was an emancipated youth who fought her way to survive in order to attain her college degree from UC Berkeley. Prior to founding Queenly, she has worked at some of the most successful tech companies such as Google, Facebook and Uber.
Trisha's Sessions
Art of Persuasion: How to Convince People to Work with You @ Roundtable #1
As a founder, the most important lesson that I’ve learned is to master the art of persuasion in order to convince just about anyone to work with you, as well as believe in your capability to execute a vision. In order to get an investor to see your big picture for your company, you have to confidently pitch and convince them that you are worth investing in. In order to get a cofounder to work with you for no pay and sacrifice their current stability, you have to prove to them that you’re a trustworthy partner and that you won’t quit on them when the going gets tough. In order to recruit top talent and build out a team, you have to sell the upside potential of joining early and to inspire them to follow you as their leader. These are all essential interpersonal skills that are often overlooked when the topic of “”what makes a great founder?”” comes up in tech articles, TED talks, podcasts, etc. You often hear about grit and technical skills, but those are ultimately useless if you can’t convince anyone to be on your team. Join this roundtable to discuss tools to gain the unique ability to convince others to be your advocate, and to stick with you til the very end, success or failure, to better equip yourself if you plan on starting a company.
Art of Persuasion: How to Convince People to Work with You @ Roundtable #2
As a founder, the most important lesson that I’ve learned is to master the art of persuasion in order to convince just about anyone to work with you, as well as believe in your capability to execute a vision. In order to get an investor to see your big picture for your company, you have to confidently pitch and convince them that you are worth investing in. In order to get a cofounder to work with you for no pay and sacrifice their current stability, you have to prove to them that you’re a trustworthy partner and that you won’t quit on them when the going gets tough. In order to recruit top talent and build out a team, you have to sell the upside potential of joining early and to inspire them to follow you as their leader. These are all essential interpersonal skills that are often overlooked when the topic of “”what makes a great founder?”” comes up in tech articles, TED talks, podcasts, etc. You often hear about grit and technical skills, but those are ultimately useless if you can’t convince anyone to be on your team. Join this roundtable to discuss tools to gain the unique ability to convince others to be your advocate, and to stick with you til the very end, success or failure, to better equip yourself if you plan on starting a company.
Leyonna M. Barba is a Managing Director in J.P. Morgan’s Middle Market Banking and Specialized Industries business, leading the New York Technology & Disruptive Commerce (TDC) practice that serves high-growth, disruptive companies in the innovation economy. Advising clients at every stage in their growth profile, early to late stage, Leyonna is a skilled professional in an array of solutions ranging from operational optimizations, cash management, international growth and debt financing. Leyonna was named to Crain’s New York Business’ 2022 Notable Diverse Leaders in Banking & Finance. Prior to working in TDC, Leyonna spent more than 15 years in the investment and corporate banking practices at J.P. Morgan. She started her career in Debt Capital Markets advising clients on capital structure, M&A financing, leverage recapitalization and liability management. Leyonna earned a M.B.A. from Columbia University and a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance and Accounting from Washington University in St. Louis. She is an active member of the New York Alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Leyonna's Sessions
What Happens When We Don’t Have Diverse Voices in the Room to Help Shape the Future? @ Breakout Session #1
Wemimo Abbey, the diverse co-founder behind Esusu, shares the Inspirational story behind his innovative startup and the challenges he and his co-founder faced along the way. As minorities, they encountered unique challenges, and with the help of J.P. Morgan, the founders overcame them to ultimately reach their goals. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion isn’t just a check in the box, why is it so important? In this session we will discuss the benefits of including minority voices in startups and how to ensure DEI.
Rajeev Batra is an experienced investor and former enterprise software entrepreneur and executive. He helps lead Mayfield’s enterprise practice, focusing on Cloud and SaaS, and engages deeply with entrepreneurs on company building from the earliest stages. He has had a front-row seat to the trend of SaaS growing from systems of record to systems of engagement/action, by partnering with the founders of industry leading companies such as Marketo, Outreach, ServiceMax, SmartRecruiters, Crunchbase, Skilljar and WideOrbit. Rajeev holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, and a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park, where he serves on the Board of Visitors of the A. James Clark School of Engineering.
Rajeev's Sessions
How Startups Can Survive The Downturn With Financial Planning @ Roundtable #7
Whether you’re out looking for your first check or figuring out how to extend your latest funding round, the fundraising landscape has changed dramatically and holistic financial planning is more important than ever. Join Christina Ross, 3x CFO turned Co-founder & CEO of FP&A platform Cube, and Mayfield partner Rajeev Batra for a candid conversation on what startups need to survive today, including the key metrics investors are looking at, finding the balance between growth and operational efficiency, and more.
Idris “Afropreneur” Bello is a Founding Partner at Loftyinc Capital Management, an Africa focused venture fund with a stellar pre-seed and seed portfolio including Andela, Flutterwave, RelianceHMO, Trella, Chefaa, Early in his career, he worked with Chevron, ExxonMobil, the Clinton Foundation Health Access Initiative. A first class honors graduate of Computer Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, he has an M.Sc in Computer Science & Data Mining from the University of Houston; an MBA from Rice University and an M.Sc in Global Health Science from the University of Oxford, where he was a 2011 recipient of The Lord Weidenfeld Scholarship. Listed among CNN’s Top Ten African Technology Voices, he is a Singularity University Impact Fellow, Harambean Fellow, , MIT Global Start-up Fellow, SAP Ashoka Global Changemakers Award Winner, and a Nigeria Leadership Initiative Future Leader. He spends most of his time between Houston, Lagos, Cairo, and airport lounges.
Idris's Sessions
Why African Tech Needs Venture Studios @ Roundtable #9
Could venture studios deliver superior results when it comes to providing entrepreneurial solutions to hard problems in Africa?Entrepreneurship is about risk. The Venture Studio model claims to reduce that risk and maximize the learnings and may be even important in emerging markets where uncertainty is higher and a deep understanding of context and people is necessary. Studios around the world are getting a 34% exit rate VS 21% for Accelerators and 19% for the average venture industry. Is Africa ripe for venture studios, given the increase in back-able and experienced operators who are looking to launch companies. Let’s discuss how this model can be utilized for rapid introduction of new market models and opportunities. This is a roundtable discussion – come share your thoughts and learn from others.
Gene Berdichevsky is the CEO and Co-Founder of next-generation battery materials company, Sila. Under his leadership, Sila has become the first to industrialize and deliver in-market a new type of lithium-ion chemistry through the launch of WHOOP 4.0, which demonstrated an increase in energy density without compromising cycle life, power safety, or other performance parameters. Thanks to investments by blue-chip companies, including Mercedes and Daimler, Sila is working to scale up its science for the electrification of everything: consumer electronics, electric vehicles, electrified flight, and evolution of our power grid to greatly reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Prior to co-founding Sila, Gene was the seventh employee at Tesla Motors where he served as Principal Engineer on the Roadster battery, leading the development of the world’s first, safe, mass-produced, automotive lithium-ion battery system. Gene holds two degrees from Stanford University; an MS in Engineering with a focus on energy and materials, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering. He has co-authored 42 patents and 4 academic publications.
Gene's Sessions
Building Companies with Longer Time Horizons
Not every startup can generate revenue from day one. From hardware to hard science, some startups take more time to build income streams. How can founders get around revenue concerns in a more conservative funding market? And how do investors weigh risk when it comes to bets that may take longer to pull off? For growing startup categories like robotics and climate, these are not idle questions. We’re bringing Sila’s Gene Berdichevsky, Index Ventures’ Erin Price-Wright and The Engine’s Milo Werner together to share the real nuts and bolts of early fundraising in 2022.
Speaker Q&A: Building Companies with Longer Time Horizons
Come with your questions for these experts speakers to chat about the real nuts and bolts of early stage fundraising in 2022.
Jacob is a distinguished inventor at the intersection of nanotechnology and synthetic chemistry. Prior to joining Terray full-time, he ran an NIH-funded lab at City of Hope, where he was an associate professor. He has more than 40 publications, 20 patents and over 11 thousand citations associated with his work. He was named one of the “Rising Stars and Young Nanoarchitects in Materials Science” by the Royal Society of Chemistry and was nominated for the Kabiller Young Investigator Award in Nanoscience and Nanomedicine. Jacob received his PhD in organometallic chemistry from CalTech where he studied with Nobel Laureate Bob Grubbs. Jacob completed his postdoctoral training at MIT and Rice University focusing on synthetic chemistry and nanotechnology, and received a BA in chemistry from Harvard University (magna cum laude).
Jacob's Sessions
Tech Driven Biology and Chemistry: Solving Science’s Hardest Problems at Scale @ Breakout Session #2
Join leaders in the AI-Driven Drug Discovery market for a fireside chat exploring how to build the next-generation of digital biotech. BigHat Biosciences, Terray Therapeutics and AWS will discuss topics including company building, science fact vs. fiction and the future of medicine. Understand how the intersection of biology and chemistry is enabling new techniques to develop novel therapeutics through the lens of technology. Walk away with insights from startup founders about building and running a startup that are applicable across all industries.
Before joining Reddit, Pali held senior leadership roles for more than ten years at Google. He recently led a nearly thousand-person team of engineers, product managers, user experience designers, and researchers across a high-growth product suite. Pali was also the vice-president of product management and led Google’s payment products globally. Before Google, Bhat held leadership positions at SAP Labs and McKinsey & Co.
Pali's Sessions
What Does Product-Market Fit Mean When Hype Tanks?
Reddit Chief Product Officer Pali Bhat, AngelList CEO Avlok Kohli and Calendly Chief Product Officer Annie Pearl are coming to Disrupt to help founders hone their definitions of product-market fit. The concept, often shortened to PMF, is tricky as it’s not easily defined for all startups at once. But one thing that happens when market sentiment takes a dive is that definitions tighten. So how should founders measure PMF in a more difficult market, from both a fundraising and customer perspective? We’ll find out.
Meet the Speaker: What Does Product-Market Fit Mean When Hype Tanks?
Join this small group discussion with select speakers in the TechCrunch+ Lounge. *You must have a current TC+ annual or 2-year subscription to access the TechCrunch+ Lounge*
Michael J. Biercuk is the CEO and Founder of Q-CTRL, a quantum technology company focused on making quantum tech useful through quantum control infrastructure software. Q-CTRL is backed by global VCs including Airbus Ventures, InQTel, DCVC, Sierra Ventures, and Horizons Ventures, and works with leading quantum hardware providers including IBM and Rigetti. Michael is also a Professor of Quantum Physics and Quantum Technology at the University of Sydney and Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and his Masters and PhD from Harvard University. He held a research fellowship in the Ion Storage Group at NIST Boulder, and has served as a full-time technical consultant to DARPA, helping to steer government investments in quantum information and advanced computer architectures. Michael is a SXSW and TEDx speaking alumnus and a multi-time Australian Museum Eureka Prize nominee and winner.
Michael's Sessions
Three Ways to Leapfrog Your Competition Using Quantum Computing – Without a PhD
Quantum computing is everywhere you look – in mainstream press, tech news, investor newsletters. It’s described as transformational and disruptive; the quantum revolution is coming, and you’re told you will be left behind if you don’t get ahead. But how can someone without a PhD in quantum physics or an organization far from quantum computing research benefit? In this session we’ll give an accessible overview of quantum computing and outline three simple steps for anyone to take advantage of this transformational new technology – no PhD required!
At Scout, Jacqueline is focused on tackling the toughest problems through mindset and innovation. She’s passionate about generating maximal value creation and impact through web3/blockchain infrastructure. She helps source, diligence, and execute deals as well as support current portfolio companies and investor relations. Jacqueline graduated from the United States Naval Academy and went on the lead forward deployed teams as one of the few women in the Naval Explosive Ordnance Disposal Community. She continuously trained and built small unit teams for “no fail” missions that required coordination with federal agencies, foreign dignitaries and local authorities to conduct global operations out of the Middle East and Africa. Prior to Scout, she spent two years at JP Morgan working closely with founders and helped build out their early stage Technology and Disruptive Commerce practice. Jacqueline lives in NYC.
Jacqueline's Sessions
Famously Overlooked: How Underestimated Founders Survive and Thrive in a Competitive Market @ Breakout Session #1
It has been proven time and again that it is harder for diverse founder and funders to ‘make-it’ in venture. Hear from those who have beaten the odds and succeeded–what it took, how they feel about their success today and what they are doing to lift up others.
Keily is proud to serve as Chief Strategy & Operations Officer at OnlyFans. She is responsible for formulating, driving and communicating OnlyFans’ strategic initiatives and future goals to users, commercial partners, and other key stakeholders. Keily’s background is in law, operational strategy, and government affairs.
Keily's Sessions
How OnlyFans Changed the Internet’s Oldest Industry
Nothing drives tech innovation like sex. But after earning billions in revenue and providing stable income to thousands of adult creators, OnlyFans dropped a bombshell: it would ban porn. After creator backlash, those plans didn’t last long — the founding CEO stepped down, and now, Amrapali Gan and Keily Blair are in charge. Hear from these newly installed execs about what their leadership means for OnlyFans.
Laura Bock is a partner at QED and focuses on U.S. fintech investments. Prior to QED, Laura spent time advising financial institutions on growth, product, operations and strategy as a consultant at management consulting firm Oliver Wyman. Her work focused on banks, insurers and payment companies across North America. Laura also spent time at the World Economic Forum, where she led an initiative focused on bringing better financial infrastructure to emerging economies. Laura lives in New York City. Outside of work, she enjoys pickleball, board games and live music. Laura studied biophysics and biochemistry at Princeton University.
Niko Bonatsos is the Founder and Managing Director at Verdict Capital. Niko leads the first money round in ridiculously ambitious tech founders who are building in categories that don’t yet have a name. Niko has been an early stage VC for 15+ years now and was an early investor in companies such as Discord, General Intuition, Hive, Mercor, Pylon, Remote.com, Snap and Triumph Arcade. Prior to becoming a VC Niko was a perpetual student and collected a few degrees from NTUA, the University of Cambridge and Stanford University.
Niko's Sessions
State of VC in 2022
VCs have never had so much capital socked away — with $100 billion more in so-called dry powder than the end of last year, according to Preqin — but with a tightening exit market, many are ‘slowing their roll’ and asserting more control over deals after years of feverish dealmaking. What new terms are they introducing into deals? Where are they forging ahead — and pulling back — and why? What do founders need to know for their startups to survive and thrive in 2023 and beyond? For a clearer understanding of what’s happening on the ground right now, this will be a must-see conversation.
Gwyneth J. Borden is a seasoned public policy professional, who has worked in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors and for organizations ranging from the U.S. Senate to IBM to startups to trade associations. Gwyneth has a breadth of expertise, having worked in various industries, from IT to hospitality to manufacturing. Gwyneth is the founder and CEO of Remynt, which empowers consumers to rebuild their credit while resolving debt. A civic leader, Gwyneth serves as Chair of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which oversees the transportation infrastructure and network in San Francisco. Gwyneth is also an Advisor to The Third Place, a YC-backed business subscription startup that enables independent businesses to capture recurring income and deepen customer loyalty. Gwyneth also serves on the nonprofit boards of SFFILM and The Edible Schoolyard Project.
Gwyneth's Sessions
Women of Disrupt Breakfast powered by Elpha Bay Area Meetup
Join the women attending Disrupt for networking and a panel discussion on Advocating for yourself and uplifting othersFIRST COME, FIRST SERVED – OPEN TO ALL WOMEN & THOSE WHO IDENTIFY AS WOMEN
Ann is a partner at NEA focused on early-stage investing in AI category creators, consumer and prosumer applications that shape our daily lives and user-centric business software. She loves working with visionary, technical founders who want to build iconic products and generational companies. Ann’s experience prior to NEA spans 5 pioneering tech companies, including 2 startup exits and business leadership roles at Uber and Twitter during their hyper-growth phase. She holds an MBA from Stanford and a B.S. from UC Berkeley.
Ann's Sessions
TechCrunch Startup Battlefield – Session 2
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Peter A. Boyce II is the Founder & Managing Partner of Stellation Capital, an early stage venture capital firm headquartered in Brooklyn. Prior to this, Peter spent eight years as a Partner at General Catalyst, an $8B venture capital firm that invests in powerful, positive change that endures. In addition to his work at GC, he co-founded & advises Rough Draft Ventures: a funding platform to support technology entrepreneurship on university campuses. Peter is a graduate of Harvard University, earning a B.A. in Applied Mathematics and a Secondary in Computer Science. He grew up in New York City, where he graduated from Stuyvesant High School. He is proud to be a Ron Brown Scholar. Outside of his time investing, Peter serves as a non-profit board member to support communities he is passionate about: The Shed, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The New Museum, NEW INC, Code Nation, and the Harvard College Fund. He serves as a Rock Venture Capital Partner at Harvard Business School, Program Advisor for the HBS MS/MBA Program, and an MIT Sandbox Board Member.
Jake Bright is a writer, author and advisor with a focus on global business, politics, and technology. From 2017 to 2020, he was a contributing writer and advisor at TechCrunch where he published on Africa, mobility and politics. Bright helped spearhead consistent Africa coverage and co-produce the first Startup Battlefield competitions in Africa and Africa focused programming on the Disrupt San Francisco mainstage. Bright’s first book, The Next Africa (Macmillan 2015), forecast the rise of Africa’s venture backed startup scene. Prior to this he worked in international finance and as a speechwriter in Washington, DC. Bright continues to contribute occasional guest pieces at TechCrunch.
Jake's Sessions
Navigating Silicon Valley. – OG advice for African founders. @ Roundtable #6
Great product, great traction. New to the Bay Area and looking to raise? Let’s discuss how to navigate creating relationships and building your own network in Silicon Valley.A key part of unlocking funding for underrepresented founders is building relationships and networks. Many still have challenges doing this optimally. What should an ambitious founder from Africa do? Is the experience different from what other founders have been through? Let’s have a very open transparent discussion on how to show up, and build authentic and powerful approaches to Silicon Valley networking. This is a roundtable discussion – come share your thoughts and learn from other perspectives too!
Haseeb Budhani is the CEO and co-founder of Rafay Systems, which he co-founded in October of 2016. Prior to Rafay, Haseeb spent at a year at Akamai Technologies as the company’s Vice President of Enterprise Strategy. Akamai acquired Haseeb’s previous company, Soha Systems, in October 2016. Haseeb co-founded Soha in the second half of 2013 and served as the company’s CEO. Prior to Soha, Haseeb served as the Chief Product Officer for Infineta Systems, where he was responsible for overseeing all aspects of the company’s product marketing, marketing communications, and partner management activities. Prior to Infineta, Haseeb served as Vice President for NET’s Broadband Technology Group, spearheading the group’s product marketing, program management, and business development functions. Previously, Haseeb held senior product management, marketing, and engineering roles at Personal IT, Citrix Systems, Orbital Data, IP Infusion, and Oblix. Haseeb holds an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California.
Haseeb's Sessions
How to Recession-proof Your SaaS Startup @ Roundtable #3
During economic downturns, resources are in short supply and companies must find ways to reduce costs while continuing to deliver on business goals. In such situations, B2B SaaS companies are in a prime position not to just stay afloat but to find avenues of growth. How? Consuming critical capabilities as SaaS allows for quick and easy scaling of services – net-net, organizations can better utilize their resources for innovation, reduce costs (time, money), and deliver on company goals in times of economic distress. In this roundtable, we’ll discuss why SaaS startups must rethink their strategy during times of economic downturn, and evolve their GTM strategies to focus on revenue growth while reducing their overall TCO.
How to Recession-proof Your SaaS Startup @ Roundtable #3
During economic downturns, resources are in short supply and companies must find ways to reduce costs while continuing to deliver on business goals. In such situations, B2B SaaS companies are in a prime position not to just stay afloat but to find avenues of growth. How? Consuming critical capabilities as SaaS allows for quick and easy scaling of services – net-net, organizations can better utilize their resources for innovation, reduce costs (time, money), and deliver on company goals in times of economic distress. In this roundtable, we’ll discuss why SaaS startups must rethink their strategy during times of economic downturn, and evolve their GTM strategies to focus on revenue growth while reducing their overall TCO.
Anna Buldakova is a co-founder and CEO of Vektor AI, a career development platform. Previously she was a Product Lead for AI products at Facebook, and a PM at Intercom, Yandex and various startups. Anna is also a product advisor for companies developing AI products.
Anna's Sessions
Hacking Hiring: How to Build an A-team without a Budget of a Large Corporation @ Roundtable #1
Success of your company depends on your ability to hire and retain talent, however, hiring has become an immensely complex and expensive process. How can you as a startup founder build an A-team without a budget of a large corporation? We’ll discuss some of the recent trends, research findings and founder lessons to help you answer that question. – How to create a job description that would stand out amongst thousands of others – How to hire people from top companies – How to balance different seniority levels – What startup founders need to know about hiring Gen Z – What psychological principles to keep in mind to build an A-team
Hacking Hiring: How to Build an A-team Without a Budget of a Large Corporation @ Roundtable #1
Success of your company depends on your ability to hire and retain talent, however, hiring has become an immensely complex and expensive process. How can you as a startup founder build an A-team without a budget of a large corporation? We’ll discuss some of the recent trends, research findings and founder lessons to help you answer that question.
Kristen Burke, based in Atlanta, is active in Egon Zehnder’s Consumer, Digital, and Technology practices. She applies deep insights gained from her own management and entrepreneurial experience to support clients, while focusing on founders, marketing and product officers. Kristen is especially passionate about and experienced in innovation, emerging technologies, and digital transformation. Prior to joining Egon Zehnder, Kristen spent more than 10 years at Georgia Pacific Consumer Products in various management roles, most recently as the Director of Innovation leading Smart Home IoT & Digital Experimentation. Earlier she worked as a Senior Consultant at Kalypso focusing on innovation. Kristen launched her career as a Sales Specialist at AstraZeneca.
Kristen's Sessions
Rewiring Founders to Hire for Tomorrow @ Roundtable #8
It’s not news that founders face a lot of pressure to surround themselves with the right talent from day one. But high-growth companies face rapidly evolving needs for talent, and founders may not have received the right kind of training on how to interview candidates or what to look for. How can you ensure that you are hiring not just for right now but also for the future? Two leadership advisors with expertise in executive search for tech start-ups will give insight into the framework they use to evaluate talent as a company scales. As they shed insight on the right strategies for evaluating for a candidate’s future potential, they are also eager to hear from founders: what are your biggest hiring concerns? What do founders feel search firms don’t really “get” about the hiring process?
Trust as the New Currency in Tech @ Roundtable #9
“Trust dies, but mistrust blossoms.” -SophoclesThe conversation around data privacy has evolved to one that includes the concept of trust, and today’s start-ups have the benefit of hindsight when it comes to avoiding the mistakes that big tech made in years past when prioritizing growth over customer privacy. How do you learn from the mistakes and missteps of tech pioneers who have not kept trust at the forefront of their mission? How do you build trust into your processes from the beginning and then maintain it as an important pillar of your mission as you scale and grow?Our leadership advisory team wants to hear from attendees passionate about data security about how the conversation needs to change. What future challenges could there be to data privacy in your industry that you should be planning for today? And how you engage with your customers. How do you make things right with customers when things go wrong?
Brett is a Vancouver Island-based Threat Analyst with cybersecurity company Emsisoft. Emsisoft is a partner in Europol’s No More Ransom project, has been involved in some of the most high profile ransomware incidents of recent years and has helped both companies and individuals avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom demands.
Brett's Sessions
Winning The War On Ransomware
Ransomware attacks are escalating at an alarming rate. We’ll hear from experts about what winning the war on ransomware looks like and how startups can play their part.
Meet the Speaker: How to Create Robust Security Programs for Your Startup
Join this small group discussion with select speakers in the TechCrunch+ Lounge. *You must have a current TC+ annual or 2-year subscription to access the TechCrunch+ Lounge*
Tomas Campos is the CEO of Spinwheel, an intelligent consumer debt platform that helps Americans see, understand, and act on their debt in their favorite apps and services. For over 16 years, Tomas has been a noteworthy entrepreneur, and executive across payments, retail, consumer, and Saas businesses. He sold his previous company to Westfield Inc. and served as their SVP of product. Before Westfield, Tomas was the global general manager of the $1.5 billion digital payments division at Blackhawk Network Inc.
Tomas's Sessions
What The Startup World is Really Like For Underrepresented People
EBIT margins for companies with diverse management teams were nearly 10% higher than for companies with below-average management diversity. So how can we support diverse founders? From VC investments to building management teams, what should your approach to diversity and inclusion be? This panel will offer insights based on real experiences as under-represented founders and investors.
Annie Case is a partner at Kleiner Perkins where she focuses on investments in consumer, healthcare and marketplaces. Before joining Kleiner Perkins, Annie worked in product and business operations roles at Uber. While at Uber, she supported the SVP of Operations and helped scale the UberEats business to new markets internationally. Annie started her career as a consultant at Bain & Company in San Francisco, where she worked with clients in the technology, private equity, and education practices. Annie graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in Human Biology and an M.S. Management Science & Engineering. She was also a member of the Stanford Women’s Soccer team.
Annie's Sessions
How To Raise First Dollars In A More Difficult Market, The Venture Perspective
It is clear by now that the venture market has changed this year. That means that founders looking to raise first capital for their startup can’t follow last year’s playbook and expect results. So what do founders need to know, and how can they best snag investor attention in a market where the rules are changing? We’re bringing together Annie Case of Kleiner Perkins, Reach Captial’s Jomayra Herrera and Sheel Mohnot of Better Tomorrow Ventures to share the real nuts and bolts of early fundraising in 2022.
Meet the Speaker: How to Raise First Dollars in a More Difficult Market
Join this small group discussion with select speakers in the TechCrunch+ Lounge. *You must have a current TC+ annual or 2-year subscription to access the TechCrunch+ Lounge*
Guilherme Cerqueira is the founder and CEO of Worthix, an Atlanta-based technology startup. He has +20 years of experience in Marketing Research, is a serial entrepreneur, and is a member of multiple accelerators and associations, such as 500startups, ATDC, ESOMAR, and Endeavor. Cerqueira majored in Psychology and has multiple degrees and certifications from renowned international institutions such as ENSEAD, Standford, and Harvard Business School.
Guilherme's Sessions
Look Beyond the Survey to Capture the True Voice of the Customer @ Breakout Session #2
Global companies spend $90B a year on analytics and surveys trying to understand customers’ expectations and decisions. How can companies shift their perspective away from cold, transactional data to the truth behind what’s on customers’ minds now to better understand their purchase decisions? Join the CEO of Worthix who will detail case studies and give you tips on how you can use AI-powered, Voice of the Customer technology to help streamline your interation process to better follow what your customers want from your business.
Navin leads Mayfield as Managing Partner. Under his leadership, Mayfield has raised eight U.S. funds and guided over 80 companies to positive outcomes. He has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and has ranked on the Forbes Midas List of Top 100 Tech Investors seventeen times, including being named in the Top Five in 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024. Navin’s investments have created over $120 billion in equity value and over 40,000 jobs. During his venture capital career, Navin has invested in over 60 companies, of which 18 have gone public and 27 have been acquired. Navin was one of the earliest Silicon Valley investors to leverage the promise of tech in India. He is Vice Chair of the Stanford Engineering Venture Fund and advisor to Neythri.org. Navin is an active philanthropist dedicated to supporting education, expanding opportunities for underrepresented communities, and addressing food insecurity. As an entrepreneur, Navin has co-founded or led three startups including VXtreme: a streaming media platform, acquired by Microsoft to become Windows Media; Rivio/CPA.com: a SaaS provider for small businesses, and iBeam Broadcasting (NASDAQ:IBEM): a streaming media content delivery network. Navin holds an MS degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University and a B.Tech degree in electrical engineering from IIT Delhi, where he was honored with the distinguished IIT Alumni Award.
Navin's Sessions
Getting to Yes and What Happens Next: An Unfiltered Chat with a Top VC @ Breakout Session #2
Over the last decade, Navin Chaddha, 14-time Midas lister & early-stage investor in Lyft, Poshmark & HashiCorp, has led Mayfield as it invested in over 100 inception stage companies in the consumer, enterprise, human/planetary health and web3 sectors. Attend a candid conversation with him to ask your questions and to hear what he looks for when he writes that first check, as well as the key company building steps that come next. He’ll share insights on managing the fundraising process during a downturn, inspiring and convincing VCs with your vision, assembling your board and more.
Josephine Chen is a Partner on the early stage team at Sequoia, where she works with seed and Series A companies in enterprise software, fintech, and crypto. She works with companies such as Found, Magic Eden, Benchling, and Anrok. Prior to Sequoia, Josephine worked at Emergence Capital and McKinsey.
Josephine's Sessions
TechCrunch Startup Battlefield – Session 1
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Carolyn Childers is the Co-Founder and CEO of Chief, the private network built to drive more women into positions of power and keep them there. She is an experienced leader and operator, having successfully scaled several early-stage businesses. Prior to founding Chief, Carolyn was SVP of Operations at Handy, then led the launch of Soap.com and acted as GM through its acquisition by Amazon. Carolyn was named to Inc.’s Female Founders 100 List.
Carolyn's Sessions
Yes, Chief
Chief’s stamp of approval has an obvious allure. The professional network is dedicated exclusively to driving more women into positions of power and keeping them there, charging thousands for a private membership (if you’re lucky enough to get accepted). It’s a pitch that has landed over 15,000 members and, most recently, a billion dollar valuation as of March 2022. At Disrupt, co-founders Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan will speak to what’s propelled Chief’s growth in just three years, the challenges along the way, and how to strategize something as subjective and elusive as community.
Quentin Clark, managing director at venture capital firm General Catalyst, focuses on investing in enterprise software and platforms that are transforming the workplace. He has made investments in Aviatrix, Eightfold, Glean, Lessen, Neon, Percent, TripleBlind and several yet to be announced companies. He was an early investor into and is on the boards of Coda, Commure, Minio and ThoughtSpot. Prior to joining GC, Quentin was CTO at Dropbox (NASDAQ: DBX), where he led the company’s engineering, product, design, and growth teams. Prior to Dropbox, he was CTO at SAP, and previously spent two decades with Microsoft leading the entire family of data products. Quentin received a BS at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Quentin's Sessions
Talent Has Changed Forever: A CEOs Playbook to Building and Retaining Tomorrow's Distributed Workforce
The modern workforce is in the middle of one of its biggest shifts since the industrial revolution. Businesses have encountered the rise of global talent pools and entirely new sets of jobs and skills needed to grow. Now, they need to completely rethink how they source, train, equip, motivate, and reward workers.In this session, we will explore strategies, systems and tools around building the ‘human enterprise” in this decade. Global VC firm General Catalyst will reveal the technology innovation needed to create successful and enduring businesses that promote thriving cultures in the new global, remote working world.Quentin Clark, General Catalyst Managing Director and former Dropbox CTO will discuss the needs of the modern hybrid workforce with Sophie Ruddock, VP and GM North America at Multiverse. They will explore a world in which the Chief Human Resource Officer is becoming the new Chief Growth Officer and talent retention is as critical as customer retention. A whole new era of innovation around workforce transformation is just beginning. We’ll explore what work in the human enterprise looks like in 2030.Talent Has Changed Forever. Attendees will take away a playbook to build and retain tomorrow’s distributed workforce.
Parker Conrad is a three-time entrepreneur leading his latest venture as Co-Founder and CEO of Rippling, the first way for businesses to manage all of their HR, IT, and Finance—payroll, benefits, computers, apps, corporate cards, expenses, and more—in one global workforce platform. Formerly he was Co-Founder and CEO of Zenefits and SigFig.
Parker's Sessions
Going Global
Rippling co-founder Parker Conrad will reveal the workforce platform’s plans to expand internationally. He will also give founders an inside look into how Rippling’s “compound startup” model allowed it to build an entire infrastructure-as-a-service solution with a swat team of engineers.
As global program manager in the Office of Disability Inclusion, Beth works closely with senior leaders across the firm to develop and execute strategies, processes, tools and resources to better support employees with disabilities, those who care for disabled family members and small business founders with disabilities. Her work is aimed at removing barriers and changing culture – helping to shape a work- and marketplace where individuals with disabilities are viewed as leaders. Beth joined JPMorgan Chase’s Diversity & Inclusion team in 2010, where she led the establishment of the Office of Disability Inclusion. She transitioned to the Office once it was formally launched in June 2016. Beth was also the liaison for the Access Ability Business Resource Group during this time. She serves on the Corporate Advisory Board for Disability:IN. An advocate for people with disabilities throughout her life, Beth draws on her lived experiences with neurodiversity and mental health. She lives outside of Atlanta, GA and is the mom of four children, all with special needs – including triplets who were adopted from the foster care system. Beth received a Master’s degree in Comparative Political Science, with a concentration in Public Policy and Social Movements, from the University of Kentucky and a Bachelor of Arts from Wheaton College in Massachusetts.
Beth's Sessions
Accessibility in Startups – What does being inclusive really mean? @ Breakout Session #1
People with disabilities face unique barriers and deal with systemic discrimination akin to other underrepresented groups, creating the greatest untapped resource globally. Yet the lived experiences of people with disabilities make them innately adept entrepreneurs and team members, with diverse perspectives that foster innovation and inclusion at startups. In this session, we will address the following questions and more: How can we create opportunities to harness the innate entrepreneurial skills of disabled people? Why is it important to include board/team members with disabilities? Why is it critical for startups to consider accessibility and inclusion when developing their products and services?
Paul is the CEO and co-founder of Clubhouse, a social network based on voice. Prior to Clubhouse, Paul was the CEO and founder of Highlight (a location-based social network acquired by Pinterest), an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Benchmark, and part of the early team at Metaweb (a graph search startup acquired by Google). Paul holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. He lives just outside San Francisco with his wife and three young kids.
Paul's Sessions
Founder Fireside: Clubhouse
Few startups had as much hype – and early consumer buy-in – as Clubhouse. Since its mega-hit introduction, however, it has seen its service copied by a host of competitors while working to expand and fine-tune its model. TechCrunch will sit down with Clubhouse co-founder and CEO Paul Davison to talk about the company’s past, present, and future.
Daniel Day is currently Head of Marketing at Monte Carlo, the Data Observability Platform built to accelerate the world’s adoption of data by reducing data downtime. Before joining Monte Carlo, Daniel helped to build and scale Marketing, ABM, and Demand Generation functions at several fast-growing bay area startup companies in the data and AI space including Snowflake, Scale AI and Rollbar. Daniel is passionate about building data-driven and data-enabled marketing teams and creating better marketing experiences through the use of data.
Daniel's Sessions
All Weather Marketing: How to Weather the Storm and Win Market Share
Marketers have always needed to make good decisions, but marketers especially in today’s environment. They are being told to cut, pause, or change advertising campaigns…but is there any data to support those recommendations? We believe the short answer is “no” and there is strong evidence to the contrary. In this session, we will arm you with research and approaches to make the case for driving growth in any economic situation. Plus, we’ll have a fireside chat on how startups and founders are capitalizing on the growth opportunity.
Chris's Sessions
Bankrolling the Blockchain with a16z Crypto
Venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is the largest and one of the best-known funding sources for web3 startups. Alongside a16z founder Marc Andreessen, general partner Chris Dixon has been integral to the firm’s rise as a giant in the crypto VC world — he was an early investor in startups including Coinbase, Uniswap and Oculus VR. Hear from Dixon about how a16z crypto is putting its massive $7.6 billion pool of capital to work by backing early-stage web3 companies.
The Stellar Development Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports the development and growth of Stellar, an open-source public blockchain that allows money to be tokenized and transferred anywhere in the world.
Denelle's Sessions
The Great Expectations of Crypto and Blockchain @ Breakout Session #1
The “crypto winter” has sparked debate about the real-world use cases of crypto and blockchain. For the technology to reach its full potential and become truly transformational for consumers and businesses, we need to focus on building useful solutions with viable business models and prioritizing interoperability, transparency, accessibility, user experience and inclusion.Join the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) and MoneyGram in an important conversation around the current challenges and opportunities in the crypto and blockchain space, as well as a first-of-its-kind solution that creates a bridge between the cash and crypto economies through a global on/off-ramp service for digital wallets.
Mandela is the CEO of All Raise, a non-profit on a mission to accelerate the success of female and nonbinary investors, founders, and operators in tech. Mandela’s career in the tech industry began when she dropped out of her PhD program at the age of 25 to start her own company and became one of the first Black women to raise capital in Silicon Valley. Before All Raise, Mandela was the Founder and CEO of Founder Gym, the top training program teaching underrepresented founders how to raise venture capital. She was also the founding Portfolio Services Director at Kapor Capital and the Global Director of Startup Weekend Education (acq. by Techstars). Mandela is an active angel investor, limited partner, Sequoia Capital Scout, and an inaugural member of First Round Capital’s Angel Track program. Mandela has appeared on more than 150 stages and in more than 100 publications and was recognized as one of Entrepreneur magazine’s 100 Most Powerful Women, a Forbes 30 Under 30 awardee, and LinkedIn’s Top 10 Voices in Venture Capital and Startups. She received a Bachelor’s Degree in Intercultural Communications from Pepperdine University, a Masters Degree in Education and Administration & Policy, and was a PhD candidate in Urban Schooling at UCLA.
Mandela Schumacher-Hodge's Sessions
TechCrunch Startup Battlefield – Session 2
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Negotiating Your First Term Sheet
It’s always a good time to sit down and chat about the mechanics of term sheets and the give and take between investors and founders. It’s an especially good time now as the balance of power between founders and investors has shifted from a period in which founders never had great ability to demand friendly terms to an era in which it feels like investors have more power than in recent history. So we’ll get the latest from All Raise CEO Mandela SH Dixon, Techstars Head of Portfolio Capital & Investments Kevin Liu and Black Operator Ventures General Partner James Norman on term sheets, negotiations and terms to help founders navigate the current climate.
Speaker Q&A: Negotiating Your First Term Sheet
Come with your questions for these expert speakers to chat about and the give and take between investors and founders.
Amanda DoAmaral is an educator, activist, and co-founder of Fiveable – a social productivity platform for students. She spent a half a decade teaching high school history in Oakland, CA, where her passion for creating equitable educational opportunities was ignited. Amanda has been a vocal advocate for inclusive history curriculum and is active within the Milwaukee tech community.
Amanda's Sessions
How To Raise Dollars When Investors Are More Cautious, The Founder Perspective
While it’s always good to hear from venture capitalists when it comes to dollars and cents, how founders are navigating the capital market is just as important. So we’re gathering Amanda DoAmaral of Fiveable, Sara Du of Alloy Automation and Arman Hezarkhani of Parthean to talk us through what worked for them and how their perspective has been updated in light of the changing economy.
Speaker Q&A: How to Raise Your First Dollars When Investors Are More Cautious: The Founder Perspective
Come with your questions for these expert speakers to chat about what worked for them, and how their perspective has been updated in light of the changing economy.
Brylan Donaldson is the Cofounder and CEO of 7th Ave, the digital HQ for creators on the user-owned web and is backed by MaC Ventures, Twitter and Backstage Capital. Prior to 7th Ave, Brylan worked in product and partnership roles at Affirm, Blavity and Bleacher Report. He is also the co-founder of Gifts To Our People (GTOP), a generative NFT art collection project rooted in the collective experiences of the Black Diaspora community.
Brylan's Sessions
Web3, Crypto, Blockchain – Unlocking Prosperity for Tech and Creative Industries in Africa @ Roundtable #7
Crypto adoption is highest in Africa than any other continent. What are the drivers, insights and opportunities for crypto in the region?Kenya, Nigeria, SouthAfrica, Togo are among top 10 economies using crypto according to Chainalysis’ Global Crypto Adoption Index. What does this mean for growth on the continent? How can the core value proposition of cryptocurrency and blockchain – decentralization, trust systems, immutability and programmatic nature be used to create and unlock value in Africa and for Africa? How does it increase cross-border trade, help creatives monetize more, and allow self-governing systems to remove current inefficiencies in African markets?In the same vein, how can we preserve value for crypto adopters in Africa – especially for the poorest people on the continent. What safeguards need to be put in place? This is a roundtable discussion – come share your thoughts and learn from others.
Ngozi Dozie is the Co-founder of Carbon, a leading neobank in Africa with more than 2 million customers. He previously founded Kaizen Venture Partners and. Ngozi Dozie had his MBA at Wharton and holds degrees from Oxford and Imperial College.
Ngozi's Sessions
Exit Pathways for Africa Startups @ Roundtable #7
As funding continues to grow on the African continent, we need to start understanding the paths to exit.We have seen a string of $50m+ African exits in the last 2 years; DPO to Network International, Paystack to Stripe, Sendwave to World Remit, Capricorn Digital to MFS Africa. We have also seen an IPO – Jumia. What should investors expect going forward? Sub $500m exits or IPOs? Who are these acquirers – global firms or African giants? Should founders be mindful of these trends and what should they do about it? This is a roundtable discussion – come share your thoughts and learn from others.
Sara Du is CEO & cofounder of Alloy Automation, a no-code automation platform for ecommerce. Brands use Alloy to connect the different apps they use across marketing and logistics in order to move data and automate actions across their full tech stack. SaaS companies also leverage Alloy’s white-labeled solution, Forge, to reduce repetitive integration work and get connected to the world of ecommerce data. Founded in 2019, Alloy is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Ventures, Y Combinator, and a group of unicorn founders from the likes of Attentive, Klaviyo, Shippo, & more. Prior to starting Alloy, Sara spent on year of undergrad at Harvard before leaving to work at Snapchat as an engineer, and then at Wish as a designer. She is originally from Atlanta and currently resides in NYC. Outside of her primary work, she enjoys foreign films and angel invests in commerce and developer tools startups.
Sara's Sessions
How To Raise Dollars When Investors Are More Cautious, The Founder Perspective
While it’s always good to hear from venture capitalists when it comes to dollars and cents, how founders are navigating the capital market is just as important. So we’re gathering Amanda DoAmaral of Fiveable, Sara Du of Alloy Automation and Arman Hezarkhani of Parthean to talk us through what worked for them and how their perspective has been updated in light of the changing economy.
Speaker Q&A: How to Raise Your First Dollars When Investors Are More Cautious: The Founder Perspective
Come with your questions for these expert speakers to chat about what worked for them, and how their perspective has been updated in light of the changing economy.
Nisha Dua is a Managing Partner at BBG Ventures, which she co-founded in 2014. BBGV is an NYC-based, early-stage fund leading investments in companies built by female and diverse founders that are solving the needs of consumers, workers and employers. BBGV invests in big categories that require new thinking such as Health & Wellbeing; The Future of Work & Ed; FinTech; Climate; and solutions for Overlooked Consumers. At BBGV Nisha has invested in over 100 female-led start-ups including Spring Health, Real, Fiveable, KiwiCo, Blueland and The Mom Project. Nisha has spent over a decade working in media, tech, strategy and law. She was the General Manager of AOL’s millennial site, Cambio, which she grew 4X in less than a year. She founded BUILT BY GIRLS, a software platform which has connected over 20,000 girls or non-binary talent with professionals in technology. Nisha was previously Chief of Staff for the AOL Brand Group, working on strategy, operations and special projects. She cut her teeth as a management consultant for Bain & Company and an M&A lawyer at Australian law firm Blake Dawson.
Nisha's Sessions
TechCrunch Startup Battlefield – Session 2
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Henrique Dubugras is the founder Brex, the billion-dollar corporate credit provider for startups.
Henrique's Sessions
Founder Fireside with Brex and Y Combinator
Brex rolled into the corporate card market with a bang, blanketing San Francisco in advertising and leveraging small-city network effects to get founders to sign up other founders. But since its launch, the corporate card space has evolved into the incredibly competitive corporate spend market. How is Brex working to stay ahead of its rivals? We’ll chat with co-founder and CEO Henrique Dubugras and one of his backers, Y Combinator’s Anu Hariharan, to learn more.
Michael Elanjian is Head of Digital Investment Banking & Digital Private Markets at J.P. Morgan. In this firmwide role, he builds new digital businesses and capabilities for J.P. Morgan’s clients. Michael is also the founder of Capital Connect, a platform that provides fundraising, networking, and data to founders and investors. After it was acquired by J.P. Morgan in 2022, Global Shares, which offers cap table and share plan services to private and public companies, is also part of Michael’s organization. Previously, Michael was the Head of Digital Innovation for the Corporate & Investment Bank where he drove the business’ digital strategy, FinTech investments and acquisitions, as well as created J.P. Morgan’s product incubation effort, AreaX. Michael is a member of J.P. Morgan’s Global Investment Banking Management Team, Wealth Management Solutions Management Team, CIB Digital & Platform Services Leadership Team, and the Global Private Bank Executive Committee. Before joining J.P. Morgan in April 2018, Michael spent 9 years at Goldman Sachs. There he led a team that developed and implemented the strategy that guided the firm’s market structure and financial technology investments, for both internal and client facing initiatives. Michael graduated Summa Cum Laude from Babson College, with majors in Finance, Computational Finance and Entrepreneurship.
Michael's Sessions
The Art of Inclusivity with Kevin Hart
Financial inclusion is multifaceted: you’re fighting up against homogenous networks, deceptive warm intros and the basic need for more fluency across different demographics. There’s an art to it. Comedian and actor Kevin Hart, alongside Mike Elanjian of Capital Connect by JP Morgan and Robert Roman of Hartbeat Ventures, are joining us to talk about these very complexities. Hartbeat Ventures will also chat about their work investing in the likes of Fabletics, C4, Hydrow and Therabody, while JP Morgan will give us a look at how institutions are breaking down barriers.
Leading the New + Emerging Business org within LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, Tom Eschbacher has built out a 25-person group dedicated specifically to helping startups achieve their demand gen goals. Each half, the LinkedIn Marketing for Startups team partners with ~800 VC-backed B2B startups to build an ROI-positive channel strategy. Tom has been at LinkedIn since 2016. Prior to that, he worked in ad sales at Vevo, Shazam and the National Basketball Association. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two young sons.
Tom's Sessions
Delivering Value & Driving Pipeline: How B2B Marketers Can Tackle Both @ Roundtables #5, 6, 7, and 8
Continuing the conversation from the main stage, join us for an open discussion about the challenges startup marketers face while accelerating growth for their business. The forum will dive deep into topics like how marketers can deliver value to stakeholders, why sales and marketing alignment is critical for scaling, and why audience analysis is now a key competency for marketers. We’ll talk about finding your customers, establishing credibility, differentiating your company, and most importantly, driving pipeline growth.
Josh Fabian’s vision for the future wasn’t always so clear. At age 16, he dropped out of high school and moved out determined to make it on his own. To support his young family, Josh bootstrapped his way to a career as a web designer, eventually becoming Lead Designer at Groupon. He then founded Kitsu, an anime social curation community with over 1 million users. Like many with an entrepreneurial spirit, he didn’t stop there. When his kids started playing Pokémon competitively, Josh hired one of the best players in the world to coach them at a shockingly low rate of $20 per hour. After learning that this world-champion gamer also had to manage a full-time job to survive, the idea for Metafy was born. As the first platform built by gamers for gamers, Josh and his co-founder launched Metafy to enable the best players in the world to make a living doing what they love.
Josh's Sessions
Founder Fireside: Metafy and Seven Seven Six
Metafy is bringing video game coaching to the masses, and it’s not only for gamers who may want to go pro. As digital gaming has become one of the most important international pastimes, consumers are more willing than perhaps ever to spend on their hobby. TechCrunch will sit down with Metafy founder and CEO Josh Fabian and his venture capital backer, Katelin Holloway of Seven Seven Six, to dig more deeply into the company, its market, and how it is working to grow even faster.
Speaker Q&A: How to Build the Best Founder-VC Partnership
Come with your questions for these expert speakers to chat about how to find the right investor for your startup.
Johanna is SVP/General Manager of Activision Blizzard Call of Duty franchise, responsible for overseeing the direction of the mega-popular, multi-billion dollar blockbuster IP. Prior to joining Activision, Johanna spent 12 years working for the NFL.
Johanna's Sessions
Answering the Call of Duty
Johanna Faries is no stranger to the world of games. After a stint at the NFL, she led Activision’s esports leagues (the CDL and the OWL) before taking over as General Manager of Call of Duty. It’s one of the biggest video game franchises to ever exist, and she’ll sit down with us at Disrupt just ahead of this year’s launch: Modern Warfare II. We’ll discuss her strategic vision for Call of Duty as a game and as a community, as well as her thoughts on the shifting landscape of gaming and esports.
Dylan Field is the co-founder and chief executive of Figma, a cross-platform design and collaboration tool. Before starting Figma, Dylan interned at LinkedIn, Flipboard, and O’Reilly Media.
Dylan's Sessions
Lessons from the Product Building Trenches
Figma lived the startup dream. Launched in a dorm room and sold for $20 billion to Adobe, but before he achieved those lofty heights, CEO and co-founder Dylan Field was a young guy with an idea and no business experience. Hear the lessons he learned along the way and what he would do differently if he could start over today.
Jenny Fleiss is an entrepreneur and intrapreneur, founding two scaled digitally native businesses from scratch: Rent the Runway and Jetblack. She joined Volition Capital in 2021 as the Company’s first Venture Partner, where she’ll focus on Internet applications, e-commerce, digital health, and next-generation consumer brands.
Ruth Foxe Blader is a Partner at Anthemis and thought leader in fintech and insurtech. At Anthemis, Ruth leads strategic investment efforts across Europe and North America. Ruth specializes in technology-enabled business models, insurance technology, risk transfer, early stage investing, product strategy and digital transformation. Prior to joining Anthemis, Ruth worked for Allianz SE, where she spearheaded leading digital innovation efforts. She was a founding member of the AllianzX team, where she led investments in startups including Lemonade, MoneyFarm, Argus Cyber Security and SimpleSurance. A New Jersey native, Ruth has spent the last decade between New York, London and Paris. In 2018 and 2019, Ruth was recognized for her outstanding contribution to the global financial technology ecosystem and listed among the Women in Fintech Powerlist by Innovate Finance. She currently serves on the boards of Axle, Demex, Hokodo, Hometree, Kaiko, Proportunity and Stable.
Ruth's Sessions
How To Compete Without Losing Your Mind Or Runway When Cash Is Expensive
We love a competitive startup category here at TechCrunch. Watching startups go head to head is fascinating and illuminating. But for startups in hot sectors with big markets, competing can be very expensive. So how should startups that have incumbents to take on, other startups to best, or both, approach the balance between growth and spend this year? We’re gathering Anthemis Partner Ruth Foxe Blader, Ramp Co-founder & CEO Eric Glyman and Airbase Founder & CEO Thejo Kote to help guide more early-stage founders.
Speaker Q&A: How to Compete without Losing Your Mind and Runway When Cash is Expensive
Come with your questions for these experts speakers to chat about how should startups that have incumbents to take on, other startups to best, or both, approach the balance between growth and spend this year?
George Fraser is the CEO and co-founder of Fivetran, the global leader in data movement. George founded the company with Taylor Brown, Chief Operating Officer at Fivetran, in 2012 after completing the prestigious Y-Combinator accelerator program. Under George’s leadership, Fivetran has grown from a startup into a global enterprise valued at $5.6 billion, serving thousands of companies worldwide to streamline data integration and power innovation. He holds a PhD in Neurobiology from the University of Pittsburgh and a BS in Cognitive Science and Biology from Carnegie Mellon University.
George's Sessions
The Secrets of Managing Data for 5,000 Companies @ Breakout Session #1
As a data movement company that powers analytics and operational systems for some of the world’s most innovative brands (like Square, Okta, JetBlue), Fivetran offers a bird’s-eye view into real-world data management challenges. In this session, Fivetran will be joined by a Fortune 500 customer to discuss simple, actionable insights on building a solid data foundation that enables teams and organizations to be more efficient and grow revenue.
Amrapali (Ami) Gan is the CEO at OnlyFans, the subscription social platform revolutionizing creator and fan connections. Gan is responsible for day-to-day leadership responsibilities and work closely with the creator community to help them maximize control over their content. In her former role as Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Gan has worked closely with OnlyFans to make it the platform that it is today. Prior to joining OnlyFans, Gan worked in rapid growth companies and fast-moving consumer industries. She was with unicorn Quest Nutrition as the Head of Brand Communications, where Ami helped them through a rapid growth period, and for Red Bull Media House focusing on Activation & Communications. Most recently, she served as Vice President of Marketing, helping launch and rebrand the first cannabis restaurant in the U.S.
Ami's Sessions
How OnlyFans Changed the Internet’s Oldest Industry
Nothing drives tech innovation like sex. But after earning billions in revenue and providing stable income to thousands of adult creators, OnlyFans dropped a bombshell: it would ban porn. After creator backlash, those plans didn’t last long — the founding CEO stepped down, and now, Amrapali Gan and Keily Blair are in charge. Hear from these newly installed execs about what their leadership means for OnlyFans.
Maëlle Gavet is the CEO of Techstars and was previously a senior executive at numerous large tech companies around the world.
Maëlle's Sessions
Famously Overlooked: How Underestimated Founders Survive and Thrive in a Competitive Market @ Breakout Session #1
It has been proven time and again that it is harder for diverse founder and funders to ‘make-it’ in venture. Hear from those who have beaten the odds and succeeded–what it took, how they feel about their success today and what they are doing to lift up others.
Emily is the Co-Founder and CEO of FROGED, a Product Success Platform designed to connect and evolve the entire Customer Lifecycle. She has an extensive background in business development within software, industrial construction, energy, retail, civil construction and has managed multinational and multidisciplinary teams having lived in Brazil, Malaysia, France and Spain. Prior to starting FROGED she spent seven years in Brazil, working as MD at Abencor Brasil, responsible for the Brazilian and Colombian markets and hitting more than 20M USD turnover per year and always very connected to R&D and new lines of BD.
Emily's Sessions
How Product Success & Capital Efficiency Go Hand in Hand @ Roundtable #2
As VCs tighten their tickets are start-ups prepared for measures that extend their runway while building a product success model? Learn why European start-ups are better prepared and how you can do more with less.
How Product Success & Capital Efficiency go hand in hand @ Roundtable #4
As VCs tighten their tickets are start-ups prepared for measures that extend their runway while building a product success model? Learn why European start-ups are better prepared and how you can do more with less.
Tomio Geron writes about technology, venture capital and startups for WSJ Pro Venture Capital and The Wall Street Journal from the Journal’s San Francisco bureau. Previously he worked at a startup company. Prior to that, he was a staff reporter at Forbes magazine, covering technology and venture capital, and also edited the Midas List of top technology investors. Before that he was a reporter at Dow Jones, writing for VentureWire and contributing to WSJ.com. He received a William R. Clabby Dow Jones Newswires award. He has also worked at newspapers covering crime, courts, health and other topics. Email him at tomio.geron at wsj.com or follow him on Twitter at @tomiogeron.
Tomio's Sessions
How Banks and Fintech Startups Can Effectively Co-Thrive @ Breakout Session #2
More than ever before, the future of banking will rely on strategic relationships to create value for customers across a variety of ecosystems. In this session, you’ll hear about a model for engagement that propels speed-to-market and regulatory compliance, ultimately saving fintech startups time and money.
As Chief Operating Officer for Virtual Gurus, Margaret Glover-Campbell’s mission is to create meaningful employment for under-represented individuals. Margaret focuses on balancing people and automation to scale the organization and ensure stakeholders on both sides of the marketplace experience exceptional service. Margaret’s career began in advertising and design. Drawn to her tech startup clients who were defining and building new industries, she eventually made the move client-side to be more hands-on in the building. Since then, Margaret has worked primarily in startup and scale-up environments, always being drawn back to the excitement of starting something new, creating and building products and industries that are on the brink of breaking into modern lives. Margaret is passionate about empowering women to succeed in the tech sector and is a proud ally to the 2SLGBTQIA+ and First Nations communities.
Margaret's Sessions
Scaling Responsibly: Walking the Talk on ESG and DEI @ Roundtable #5
Organizations with a real and transparent commitment to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have become increasingly attractive to both investors and customers. But with such a wide range of possible approaches and solutions, it can be daunting for organizations to decide where to focus first. We’ll share insights and examples from a few companies who are blazing bold trails in ESG and diversity, and we’re equally keen to hear what you’re implementing, or thinking about trying. Let’s riff off of each other’s experiences and brainstorm ways to better support both people and the planet as we scale.
Scaling Responsibly: Walking the Talk on ESG and DEI @ Roundtable #5
Organizations with a real and transparent commitment to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have become increasingly attractive to both investors and customers. But with such a wide range of possible approaches and solutions, it can be daunting for organizations to decide where to focus first. We’ll share insights and examples from a few companies who are blazing bold trails in ESG and diversity, and we’re equally keen to hear what you’re implementing, or thinking about trying. Let’s riff off of each other’s experiences and brainstorm ways to better support both people and the planet as we scale.
Scaling Responsibly: Walking the Talk on ESG and DEI @ Roundtable #5
Organizations with a real and transparent commitment to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have become increasingly attractive to both investors and customers. But with such a wide range of possible approaches and solutions, it can be daunting for organizations to decide where to focus first. We’ll share insights and examples from a few companies who are blazing bold trails in ESG and diversity, and we’re equally keen to hear what you’re implementing, or thinking about trying. Let’s riff off of each other’s experiences and brainstorm ways to better support both people and the planet as we scale.
Scaling Responsibly: Walking the Talk on ESG and DEI @ Roundtable #5
Organizations with a real and transparent commitment to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have become increasingly attractive to both investors and customers. But with such a wide range of possible approaches and solutions, it can be daunting for organizations to decide where to focus first. We’ll share insights and examples from a few companies who are blazing bold trails in ESG and diversity, and we’re equally keen to hear what you’re implementing, or thinking about trying. Let’s riff off of each other’s experiences and brainstorm ways to better support both people and the planet as we scale.
Eric is the co-founder and CEO of Ramp (http://ramp.com), the only finance automation platform that helps businesses spend less time and money. He previously co-founded Paribus, a digital tool that automates price protection and shipping guarantees at online retailers (acq. in 2016 by Capital One). Eric is an active New York-based angel investor. He graduated from Harvard with a BA in Economics and East Asian Studies, and was raised in Las Vegas.
Eric's Sessions
How To Compete Without Losing Your Mind Or Runway When Cash Is Expensive
We love a competitive startup category here at TechCrunch. Watching startups go head to head is fascinating and illuminating. But for startups in hot sectors with big markets, competing can be very expensive. So how should startups that have incumbents to take on, other startups to best, or both, approach the balance between growth and spend this year? We’re gathering Anthemis Partner Ruth Foxe Blader, Ramp Co-founder & CEO Eric Glyman and Airbase Founder & CEO Thejo Kote to help guide more early-stage founders.
Meet the Speaker: How to Operate at Scale
Join this small group discussion with select speakers in the TechCrunch+ Lounge. *You must have a current TC+ annual or 2-year subscription to access the TechCrunch+ Lounge*
Jennifer Granick fights for civil liberties in an age of massive surveillance and powerful digital technology. As the surveillance and cybersecurity counsel with the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, she litigates, speaks, and writes about privacy, security, technology, and constitutional rights. Granick is the author of the book American Spies: Modern Surveillance, Why You Should Care, and What To Do About It, published by Cambridge Press and winner of the 2016 Palmer Civil Liberties Prize.
Jennifer's Sessions
Surveillance in Startup Land
Google’s Maddie Stone and ACLU’s Jennifer Granick join us for a crash course in the surveillance state — from spyware makers to location data brokers. Find out what the changing cybersecurity threat and legal landscape means for today’s data-hungry startups.
Draymond Green is a professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Green, who plays primarily at the power forward and point forward positions, is a four-time NBA champion, a four-time NBA All-Star, a two-time member of the All-NBA Team, a five-time member of the All-Defensive Team and a two-time Olympic gold medalist. In 2017, he won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year and led the league in steals. Green grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, and he played college basketball for Michigan State University, where he led the Spartans to two Final Four appearances. Green also led the team to a Big Ten Tournament championship in 2012. Throughout his four-year college career, Green earned conference and national honors, including Big Ten Conference Sixth Man of the Year as a sophomore and consensus All-American and NABC National Player of the Year honors as a senior. He was drafted 35th overall in the 2012 NBA draft by the Golden State Warriors and later played a key role on the Warriors’ 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022 championship teams. Green’s off-the-court career rose to new heights as he was the first ever active NBA player to sign a broadcasting deal with TNT in 2022. His podcast, “The Draymond Green Show,” has grown into a massive hit with A-List guests and real-talk from Green. Also, he regularly appears as talent, a guest on a variety of programs, a voice over artist, and as an executive producer of multiple entertainment endeavors. Green starts in Prime Video’s “The Sessions: Draymond Green,” “Throwing Bones,” and TNT’s “Opening Night.”
Draymond's Sessions
From Court to Cast
Basketball stars are no strangers to diversifying their portfolios. For four-time NBA champion and Golden State Warriors power forward, Draymond Green, that’s meant going front court to behind the mic. He joins us to discuss his successes on and off the court, including The Draymond Green Show podcast and the Prime Video special, The Sessions: Draymond Green.
Kirsten Green is the Founder and Managing Partner of Forerunner, the consumer-driven venture capital partnering with ambitious founders and companies redefining industries. Combining an unconventional and powerful blend of professional experiences and acquired investment expertise, Kirsten launched San Francisco-based Forerunner in 2012, and has since led the firm to raise nearly $3 billion in assets under management. Kirsten’s 25+ years of evaluation and investment success stem from a combination of product savvy, consumer insight, research, and a thesis-driven approach that has been the basis of all her investments — from pre-revenue startups to multi-billion-dollar enterprises. Her early investor and board member roles span Faire, Hims&Hers, Chime, Ritual, Daydream, Decagon, Warby Parker, Wonder, and Balance, among others. She is also on the Board of the National Venture Capital Association, and has been part of both the Forbes Midas List and Forbes World’s 100 Most Powerful Women List for the past nine years.
Kirsten's Sessions
Founder Fireside: Curated and Forerunner Ventures
The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it a boom in e-commerce. That explosion in online commerce has since tempered, with more folks going to shops than they did during the 2020-2021 period. Does that mean that e-commerce startups are out of fashion? Perhaps not. Curated is taking on online shopping with a mix of curation and guidance that could help it dodge a slowing e-commerce market more generally. We’re sitting down with series founder Eddie Vivas to talk about not only how Curated came to be, but also how the company is adapting to a market that is no longer being shoved in its direction by external forces. Silicon Valley venture hotshot Kirsten Green is joining the fireside to bring the investor perspective into the mix. Don’t miss this conversation!
A pioneer of deep learning applied to life science problems, Peyton has developed computational, statistical, and AI/ML techniques to model, understand, and optimize biological sequences in academia and industry. Peyton was an inaugural Schmidt Science Fellow, a computational biologist at the Broad Institute, a scientific founder of Valis, and holds a PhD from Stanford University (Accel Innovation Scholar), an MPhil in Computational Biology from Cambridge University (Herchel Smith Scholar), and a BA in Applied Math from Harvard
Peyton's Sessions
Tech Driven Biology and Chemistry: Solving Science’s Hardest Problems at Scale @ Breakout Session #2
Join leaders in the AI-Driven Drug Discovery market for a fireside chat exploring how to build the next-generation of digital biotech. BigHat Biosciences, Terray Therapeutics and AWS will discuss topics including company building, science fact vs. fiction and the future of medicine. Understand how the intersection of biology and chemistry is enabling new techniques to develop novel therapeutics through the lens of technology. Walk away with insights from startup founders about building and running a startup that are applicable across all industries.
Alka is a tech entrepreneur, venture investor, and former fortune 500 exec with experience in digital transformation, fintech, identity, and marketplaces. She has been at the beginning of some of the most significant disruptions and platforms including blockchain, payments, ecommerce, mobile, and search at both early stage and public companies. Alka has operated and built revenue in B2B and B2C market across more ten countries in Asia, Europe, and Latin America building an understanding of internationalization and localization success strategies and tactics. She currently serves on the board of directors for MoneyGram (Nasdaq: MGI,) National Bank Holding Corporation (Nyse: NBHC,) and Digital Frontiers (Vice Chair.) She is also a Venture Partner at Fin Capital, a $1.2B fintech B2B focused global fund and Co- Founder & former President of GlobaliD, a venture-backed identity platform leveraging the blockchain. She has held senior management and product roles at eBay/PayPal, Retrevo (Acq. BN,) and Lycos (Acq.: TEF.) Alka has a commitment to democratization of access and empowering populations via technology. She holds an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. (cum laude) from Case Western Reserve University.
Alka's Sessions
The Great Expectations of Crypto and Blockchain @ Breakout Session #1
The “crypto winter” has sparked debate about the real-world use cases of crypto and blockchain. For the technology to reach its full potential and become truly transformational for consumers and businesses, we need to focus on building useful solutions with viable business models and prioritizing interoperability, transparency, accessibility, user experience and inclusion.Join the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) and MoneyGram in an important conversation around the current challenges and opportunities in the crypto and blockchain space, as well as a first-of-its-kind solution that creates a bridge between the cash and crypto economies through a global on/off-ramp service for digital wallets.
Arvind Gupta co-leads Mayfield’s engineering biology practice and is founder and venture adviser at IndieBio. He is the co-author of “Decoding the World,” published by Hachette.
Arvind's Sessions
Saving the World: The Playbook for Building Planetary Health Unicorns @ Roundtable #7
Arvind Gupta is the most successful seed stage planetary health investor with unicorns such as NotCo, Upside Foods, Geltor, and rising stars like MycoWorks and New Culture. When he partnered with the founders of those companies, they were at the stage of being powered by their dreams to save the planet. After investing in 150+ companies with over $6 billion in enterprise value, he has developed a playbook of key steps from inception to a breakout planetary health company. Attend a candid conversation with him to ask your questions and to hear what he looks for when he writes that first check. – How do you build an efficient business that has to move atoms;– How do you grow from scientist to company builder;– How do you turn science into products people love;– How do you evaluate and pick the right business model;– How do you inspire investors to support your idea.
Dan is the Co-head of the West Coast for JP Morgan’s Technology and Disruptive Commerce Group based in San Francisco. Dan joined JP Morgan after 9 years with Silicon Valley Bank where he worked with software and consumer internet companies in the Bay Area. He’s worked with hundreds of companies from Series A through IPO and beyond.
Dan's Sessions
How to Evolve Your Business Through Recurring Revenue @ Breakout Session #2
With subscription offerings coming to nearly every vertical from fast food to car manufacturing, it’s clear that subscriptions are more than fad; they’re an evolutionary step every business should consider. Employing an innovative recurring revenue model offers a differentiated customer experience and revenue predictability, thereby increasing business resiliency, which is especially important in uncertain times. Regardless of where you are on your company’s journey, from a startup seeking financing to a late-stage business seeking valuation, your revenue model should be an important part of any business strategy.
Anu Hariharan is managing director of YC Continuity. She led Y Combinator’s later-stage investments in Brex, Convoy, Faire, OpenSea, Groww, Gusto, Whatnot, Instacart, Monzo, Rappi, Boom and Vouch, and sits on the boards of Brex, Convoy, Faire, Groww, Gusto, Monzo, Vouch, RevenueCat, and Whatnot. Previously, she was an investment partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where she worked with the management teams of companies including Airbnb, Instacart, Medium, OfferUp, and Udacity. Before that, Anu was a principal in BCG’s private equity practice, and a senior software engineer at Qualcomm. Anu has an MS in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech and an MBA from Wharton.
Anu's Sessions
Speaker Q&A: How to Get into Y Combinator
Come with your questions for Anu Hariharan of YC to talk about the giant accelerator.
Founder Fireside with Brex and Y Combinator
Brex rolled into the corporate card market with a bang, blanketing San Francisco in advertising and leveraging small-city network effects to get founders to sign up other founders. But since its launch, the corporate card space has evolved into the incredibly competitive corporate spend market. How is Brex working to stay ahead of its rivals? We’ll chat with co-founder and CEO Henrique Dubugras and one of his backers, Y Combinator’s Anu Hariharan, to learn more.
Brett Harrison is former President of FTX US, a US-regulated cryptocurrency exchange. In less than a year under Brett’s tenure FTX US has become the 3rd largest crypto exchange in the US by valuation. Prior to joining FTX US, Brett was Head of Semi-Systematic Technology at Citadel Securities, where he managed technology for the firm’s Options, ETF, OTC, and ADR trading globally. He spent the majority of his career at Jane Street, where he led the firm’s algorithmic trading system development. He previously worked at Headlands Technologies as a senior software developer. Brett received his M.S. and B.A. in Computer Science from Harvard.
Brett's Sessions
Structure, Regulation, and Markets: The Road Ahead for Crypto Startups
From DAOs and altcoins to L2-chains, NFTs, tokens, and figuring out just what the heck a security is, the crypto market is under the spotlight — and under scrutiny. TechCrunch will sit down with FTX’s Brett Harrison, Uniswap Labs’ Mary-Catherine Lader and Visa’s Cuy Sheffield to get a better handle on how they are navigating constant evolution, the new opportunities that the blockchain economy has on offer, and where they see the future taking their market.
Meet the Speaker: Structure, regulation and markets: the road ahead for crypto startups
Join this small group discussion with select speakers in the TechCrunch+ Lounge. *You must have a current TC+ annual or 2-year subscription to access the TechCrunch+ Lounge*
Emmy & Grammy nominated Kevin Hart was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he launched his career as a comedian during an amateur night at a local comedy club. Over the years Hart has become Hollywood’s box office powerhouse, opening eleven films at number one at the box office and grossing more than in $4.23 billion global revenue. Hart has also become a successful Entrepreneur; he is Chairman of HARTBEAT; a global, multi-platform media company creating entertainment at the intersection of comedy and culture with a mission to keep the world laughing together. The next generation media company unites Hartbeat Productions’ best-in-class TV & film production capabilities with Laugh Out Loud’s expansive distribution network, along with its marketing, sales, experiential, branded content, digital and social capabilities. Hart is also the Founder of HartBeat Ventures. Hart continues to develop, star, and produce feature films, television, and podcasts via HARTBEAT for his various partners which include Netflix, Peacock, Sirius XM and Audible. Hart is currently touring nationally with his eighth hour of stand-up material; the tour is titled “The Reality Check” Tour. Kevin is a New York Times Best Selling author twice over and his first Audible original, “The Decision,” was nominated for an Audie award for “Best Original Audiobook in 2021.” Kevin is a founding partner the premium tequila brand Gran Coramino, and plant based quick serve restaurant Hart House. Kevin’s brand partnerships include Fabletics Men, Chase J.P Morgan, Hydrow, NutraBolt, Sam’s Club, Old Spice, Brüush, Tommy John and Therabody.
Kevin's Sessions
The Art of Inclusivity with Kevin Hart
Financial inclusion is multifaceted: you’re fighting up against homogenous networks, deceptive warm intros and the basic need for more fluency across different demographics. There’s an art to it. Comedian and actor Kevin Hart, alongside Mike Elanjian of Capital Connect by JP Morgan and Robert Roman of Hartbeat Ventures, are joining us to talk about these very complexities. Hartbeat Ventures will also chat about their work investing in the likes of Fabletics, C4, Hydrow and Therabody, while JP Morgan will give us a look at how institutions are breaking down barriers.
Tess Hatch hopes to travel to space. In the meantime, she is a venture investor at Bessemer Venture Partners who invests in frontier tech.
Tess's Sessions
After the Boom: What’s Next for the Space Economy
An unprecedented decade of growth and investment has carried the space industry to ever greater heights. Today, the changed funding landscape and uncertain global economic outlook pose new challenges for space operators looking to turn their innovative technologies and concepts into sustainable businesses.Join space leaders from the across the industry as they discuss what lies on the other side of this economic turbulence and the role government can play as a non-equity investor supporting development of critical technologies in the national interest.
Chris Herd is the Founder & CEO of Firstbase. Firstbase is an all-in-one provisioning platform for remote teams. Their platform lets companies set up, supply, maintain, manage and retrieve all the physical equipment remote workers need to do great work at home as a monthly subscription.
Chris's Sessions
How To Secure Those Hard To Find Hires
Hiring is not easy even in the best of times. With a tight tech talent market and an increasingly remote-friendly — and therefore globally competitive — corporate landscape, founders have never had more places to hire from and more competitors to measure up against. So we’re going to have Chris Herd from Firstbase who is an advocate for remote work and Emil Yeargin, VP of Talent at Gusto, which is not only hiring itself but also helps other companies manage their staff. And Janine O’Neill from Sequoia who knows a thing or not about hiring for startups. We’ll go deep on hiring today with an especial focus on hard-to-fill roles.
Speaker Q&A: How to Secure Those Hard To Find Hires
Come with your questions for these expert speakers. With these two we’ll go deep on hiring, with a special focus on hard-to-fill roles.
Jomayra is a Partner at Reach Capital, an early-stage venture firm focused on investing in education technology and the future of work. She started her career as an operator at an ed tech startup called BloomBoard and eventually started a career in venture capital first at Emerson Collective, Laurene Powell Jobs’ family office. Before Reach Capital, she was at Cowboy Ventures, where spent a lot of her time working with consumer internet and marketplace companies. At Cowboy and Emerson Collective, Jomayra championed investments in Contra, Career Karma, Handshake, Guild Education, and other companies.
Jomayra's Sessions
How To Raise First Dollars In A More Difficult Market, The Venture Perspective
It is clear by now that the venture market has changed this year. That means that founders looking to raise first capital for their startup can’t follow last year’s playbook and expect results. So what do founders need to know, and how can they best snag investor attention in a market where the rules are changing? We’re bringing together Annie Case of Kleiner Perkins, Reach Captial’s Jomayra Herrera and Sheel Mohnot of Better Tomorrow Ventures to share the real nuts and bolts of early fundraising in 2022.
Alex Hersham is Co-founder and CEO of Zencargo, the digital freight forwarder enabling organisations, from FTSE 100 businesses to fast-growing startups, to make smarter decisions through a real-time overview of their supply chain. Based in London, Zencargo is relied upon by companies like Vivienne Westwood, Swoon Furniture, Farfetch, and Soho Home. In May 2021 Zencargo raised £30M in Series B financing, enabling the company to significantly grow its team and further expand internationally. Zencargo has to date raised a total of £42M, and is targeting revenues of £100m for 2021, and over £200m for 2022.
Alex's Sessions
The Value of Flat Wins @ Roundtable #3
Founding a business can be one of the most rewarding and gratifying things a person does, but there will always be difficult challenges that need overcoming. By adopting the concept of flat wins – celebrating when you find a solution and returning to where you started after a period of difficulty – within your operations, you can stay on track and push through the obstacles you’re facing. In this roundtable session, Alex Hersham, CEO and Co-Founder of Zencargo, will lead a discussion about how flat wins have shaped his mentality and created resilience in his mindset as a founder. – What a flat win is, and the psychology behind them – Examples of how flat wins have shaped his career and the success of his company – How flat wins can create resilience not just in founders, but across entire companies – How flat wins can drive value for your business
The Value of Flat Wins @ Roundtable #3
Founding a business can be one of the most rewarding and gratifying things a person does, but there will always be difficult challenges that need overcoming. By adopting the concept of flat wins – celebrating when you find a solution and returning to where you started after a period of difficulty – within your operations, you can stay on track and push through the obstacles you’re facing. In this roundtable session, Alex Hersham, CEO and Co-Founder of Zencargo, will lead a discussion about how flat wins have shaped his mentality and created resilience in his mindset as a founder. – What a flat win is, and the psychology behind them – Examples of how flat wins have shaped his career and the success of his company – How flat wins can create resilience not just in founders, but across entire companies – How flat wins can drive value for your business
Erik Hersman is the CEO of BRCK, which creates rugged wireless WiFi devices designed and engineered in Kenya for use throughout the emerging markets. BRCK has a free public WiFi network called Moja that sits on top of the BRCK hardware that creates an affordable model for internet in emerging markets. In 2010 Erik founded the iHub, Nairobi’s innovation hub for the technology community, bringing together entrepreneurs, hackers, designers and the investment community. He is also a co-founder of Ushahidi, the free and open source software for crowdsourcing crisis information, and also established afrigadget.com and whiteafrican.com as key online communities promoting creative solutions entrepreneurship and development challenges across Africa. He is also a general partner in the Savannah Fund, and sits on the boards of Gearbox, Akirachix, the Kijabe Forest Trust, PopTech, and the Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative (WPDI).
Erik's Sessions
Web3, Crypto, Blockchain – Unlocking Prosperity for Tech and Creative Industries in Africa @ Roundtable #7
Crypto adoption is highest in Africa than any other continent. What are the drivers, insights and opportunities for crypto in the region?Kenya, Nigeria, SouthAfrica, Togo are among top 10 economies using crypto according to Chainalysis’ Global Crypto Adoption Index. What does this mean for growth on the continent? How can the core value proposition of cryptocurrency and blockchain – decentralization, trust systems, immutability and programmatic nature be used to create and unlock value in Africa and for Africa? How does it increase cross-border trade, help creatives monetize more, and allow self-governing systems to remove current inefficiencies in African markets?In the same vein, how can we preserve value for crypto adopters in Africa – especially for the poorest people on the continent. What safeguards need to be put in place? This is a roundtable discussion – come share your thoughts and learn from others.
Mar is Pear’s Founding Managing Partner. After earning a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, Mar developed a groundbreaking technique of optimizing the design of analog semiconductors. Since then, she has accrued over 13 years of founder experience, co-founding three startups in mobile/ecommerce, enterprise software and semiconductor industries and has registered 14 separate patents. As Pear’s co-founder and managing partner, Mar brings operational and technical expertise to the Investment Team. She is in currently a Lecturer for Stanford University, teaching Lean Launchpad, one of the premier entrepreneurship classes at Stanford. Prior to that, she was a Consulting Professor at Stanford teaching the introductory course in Analog Circuit Design for nearly a decade. Mar serves on the board of trustees of Harvey Mudd College and the Advisory Board of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Carnegie Mellon University. She is a founder of Equity Summit, the premier conference for connecting URM Venture Capital GPs to LPs, and an initial founding member of All Raise. She has been recognized by MIT Technology Review as a Top Innovator Under 35, named a Champion of Innovation by Fast Company, awarded the Digital Automation Conference’s Marie R. Pistil Achievement Award, and recognized on the Forbes Midas List in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Mar's Sessions
TechCrunch Startup Battlefield FINAL
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Chris Hewish, President of Xsolla, is an award-winning and well-respected Interactive Executive and Studio Head with experience driving operations and go-to-market strategies across all segments of the video game industry. Having directly designed and produced over 50 games generating more than $1B in sales, Chris displays a rare and successful combination of creative and business acumen in an ever-changing industry. An avid gamer, Chris leveraged that passion into a successful career making games.
Chris's Sessions
Expand To New Platforms and Take your Games Direct-to-Consumer
Many of the industry’s top video game companies are putting more resources into going direct-to-consumers. The benefits are great, but so are the obstacles. Walled gardens are evolving, user acquisition costs are rising, and the value proposition of platforms is changing against this challenging backdrop. Whether you’re looking to expand your own video game business or simply curious about what lies ahead for the business of games, then this session will provide some valuable bits of information supported by real-world data and examples.
Arman Hezarkhani is the Founder and CEO of Parthean, the modern way to learn about and manage personal finances. Parthean personalizes learning by integrating with a user’s financial accounts, building tools to help them manage those accounts, and delivering custom micro-courses right when the user needs them. Before Parthean, Arman founded Ahez Inc, a marketing agency that specialized in technical education campaigns. Ahez Inc worked with clients like Google Cloud, Android, and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to teach over 1M people. He’s also served as an Adjunct Professor at CMU, teaching a popular full-stack web development course, and an Engineering Intern at Google, where he gave one of the most popular tech talks in the company’s history. Arman holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Arman's Sessions
How To Raise Dollars When Investors Are More Cautious, The Founder Perspective
While it’s always good to hear from venture capitalists when it comes to dollars and cents, how founders are navigating the capital market is just as important. So we’re gathering Amanda DoAmaral of Fiveable, Sara Du of Alloy Automation and Arman Hezarkhani of Parthean to talk us through what worked for them and how their perspective has been updated in light of the changing economy.
Speaker Q&A: How to Raise Your First Dollars When Investors Are More Cautious: The Founder Perspective
Come with your questions for these expert speakers to chat about what worked for them, and how their perspective has been updated in light of the changing economy.
Jamison Hill joined Base10 as a partner to lead the Advancement Initiative after spending seven years at Bain Capital Ventures, leading growth investments into marketplace businesses Cameo and Wonolo and working with leading software companies, FourKites and ShipBob, and fintech companies, Finix and Flywire. Prior to Bain Capital Ventures, Jamison was an early employee at Bonobos, the first digitally native men’s apparel brand, building out the brand’s analytical capabilities across finance, retail, and marketing. Jamison started his career as a management consultant at Bain & Company in Boston, advising clients on growth strategy and digital transformation. Jamison graduated from Harvard with a degree in History and Literature and wrote his honors thesis on the representation of racial violence in early photography. He was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2016 and Venture Capital Journal’s Rising Stars in 2021. He currently serves on the board of Hope In a Box, a program that supports educators in building LGBTQ-inclusive classrooms.
Jamison's Sessions
Startup Battlefield – Session 3
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Katelin Holloway is Founding Partner at Alexis Ohanian’s early-stage venture capital firm, 776. A seasoned investor with over 20 years of operational experience at companies like Pixar and Reddit, Katelin backs transformative startups across diverse sectors. She invests in solutions that push the boundaries of human potential and resilience—advancing health, exploring new frontiers, driving sustainability, fostering creativity, and enriching the human condition. At 776, Katelin combines her operational expertise with a deep commitment to supporting founders as they navigate early-stage challenges and scale their visions. Katelin is dedicated to reshaping venture capital by empowering generational entrepreneurs to tackle humanity’s biggest challenges while driving exceptional returns.
Katelin's Sessions
Founder Fireside: Metafy and Seven Seven Six
Metafy is bringing video game coaching to the masses, and it’s not only for gamers who may want to go pro. As digital gaming has become one of the most important international pastimes, consumers are more willing than perhaps ever to spend on their hobby. TechCrunch will sit down with Metafy founder and CEO Josh Fabian and his venture capital backer, Katelin Holloway of Seven Seven Six, to dig more deeply into the company, its market, and how it is working to grow even faster.
Speaker Q&A: How to Build the Best Founder-VC Partnership
Come with your questions for these expert speakers to chat about how to find the right investor for your startup.
Alex Holmes is chairman and CEO of MoneyGram International, the global leader in the evolution of digital P2P payments.
Alex's Sessions
The Great Expectations of Crypto and Blockchain @ Breakout Session #1
The “crypto winter” has sparked debate about the real-world use cases of crypto and blockchain. For the technology to reach its full potential and become truly transformational for consumers and businesses, we need to focus on building useful solutions with viable business models and prioritizing interoperability, transparency, accessibility, user experience and inclusion.Join the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) and MoneyGram in an important conversation around the current challenges and opportunities in the crypto and blockchain space, as well as a first-of-its-kind solution that creates a bridge between the cash and crypto economies through a global on/off-ramp service for digital wallets.
Leading Advertising Teams in the U.S. for LinkedIn Ads focused on Startups and early advertisers. Passionate About coaching, mentoring & learning.
Dan's Sessions
Delivering Value & Driving Pipeline: How B2B Marketers Can Tackle Both @ Roundtables #5, 6, 7, and 8
Continuing the conversation from the main stage, join us for an open discussion about the challenges startup marketers face while accelerating growth for their business. The forum will dive deep into topics like how marketers can deliver value to stakeholders, why sales and marketing alignment is critical for scaling, and why audience analysis is now a key competency for marketers. We’ll talk about finding your customers, establishing credibility, differentiating your company, and most importantly, driving pipeline growth.
Dr. Xiaodi Hou co-founded TuSimple in San Diego, California in 2015 after earning a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology. Xiaodi serves as the CEO of TuSimple and is a world-renowned expert in AI and machine learning and holds more than 30 patents in the field of autonomous vehicles. In the field of computer vision, Xiaodi has developed leading theories in computational models for visual saliency. Xiaodi also serves as a member of the Forbes technology council and as the reviewer of more than ten major computer vision journals and conferences.
Xiaodi's Sessions
Solving the Supply Chain Crisis with Autonomous Trucks
From pandemics to worker shortages to seized-up ports, global disruptions have exposed the fragility of the supply chain. Transforming a centuries-old industry isn’t easy and doesn’t happen overnight but TuSimple is building a new kind of supply chain, called the Autonomous Freight Network (AFN) to help us get the food, medicine, and gadgets we need safely, with a lower carbon footprint, and at a lower cost. Learn how your startup can benefit from integrating your technology into the AFN or by using autonomous freight capacity to help mitigate impact to your business against outside forces.
Steve Isakowitz is a recognized leader across the government, commercial, space and technology sectors, who has worked tirelessly throughout his career on behalf of the public good in space. He currently serves as the President and CEO of The Aerospace Corporation, a leading architect for the nation’s space programs, where he heads up efforts to outpace threats to the country’s national security while nurturing the innovative technologies needed to further a new era of space commercialization and exploration. With his guidance, Aerospace’s national workforce of more than 4,600 employees provides objective technical expertise and thought leadership to solve the hardest problems in space and assure mission success for space systems and space vehicles. He is also a driving force behind Space Workforce 2030, a collaborative effort launched in 2022 bringing together nearly 30 companies to advance diversity and representation across the space industry. Over the course of his more than 30-year career, Isakowitz has made impactful contributions across a number of prominent roles, including at Virgin Galactic, NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Steve's Sessions
After the Boom: What’s Next for the Space Economy
An unprecedented decade of growth and investment has carried the space industry to ever greater heights. Today, the changed funding landscape and uncertain global economic outlook pose new challenges for space operators looking to turn their innovative technologies and concepts into sustainable businesses.Join space leaders from the across the industry as they discuss what lies on the other side of this economic turbulence and the role government can play as a non-equity investor supporting development of critical technologies in the national interest.
Kevin Issadore is Marqeta’s Head of Business Development for North America, overseeing the company’s customer acquisition and sales strategy. He previously led sales for Marqeta’s rapidly growing enterprise and digital banking segment after joining the company in June 2020. Prior to Marqeta, he was a sales director at Quid, and started his career at FactSet, serving various roles in business development and sales during his seven years at the company. Kevin holds a BA with honors from University of Vermont.
Kevin's Sessions
Finding True Love in Tech Partnerships: The Dos and Don’ts @ Breakout Session #2
In a world with thousands of specialized start-ups and companies, how do you select the ones that will best complement your needs, and support your business as it scales? Join us as Stash, Mambu, Marqeta, Mastercard, Stride, and Alloy share tips for finding reliable partners, fostering strong collaboration, and creating dynamic environments for innovation.
Daniel is a serial entrepreneur and early stage investor. Daniel is currently CEO and Co-Founder of ZaiNar. ZaiNar is a Positioning, Navigation, and Timing company building solutions that power smarter supply chains and advance modern technology. ZaiNar is the leading location technology that can track the real time location of any device that emits a radio signal on a known protocol to within a meter in 3D. ZaiNar is compatible with Rel 16 of 5G and powers real time positioning of all connected 5G devices without retrofitting or battery drain including phones, cars, drones, and loT devices. ZaiNar is backed by leading VCs and Strategics including Future Ventures, Softbank, AME Cloud, Samsung, and others. Daniel is also a Co-Founder and General Partner in Magic City. Magic City is a seed fund focused on investing brilliant founders with defensible tech, unique insights, and billion+ dollar TAMs. We predominantly invest in Stanford Graduate students who are pursuing their startup full time. Daniel is also an advisor to multiple startups and is an active mentor in StartX, Alchemist, and Plug & Play Accelerators. Daniel holds an MBA from Stanford University.
Daniel's Sessions
From Capital and Counsel, to Partnerships and Profits: How to Maximize Your Investor Relationships
In today’s market, capital is critical for startups to scale, but founders can also look to investors to open doors to the right partners, and help provide operational services to get you in the right place to build. Hear from Samsung Next alongside one of Entrepreneur’s 100 Powerful Women, a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer, and serial entrepreneur about how to turbo-charge post-investment support and services.
Rehan Jalil is currently the CEO of Securiti. He was the SVP and GM for Cloud Security at Symantec, leading research and development for Cloud Security Products. Rehan came into Symantec with $4.7B acquisition of Bluecoat, where he ran cloud security. He came into BlueCoat via the $280M acquisition of Elastica, that he founded and ran as CEO. Elastica innovated CASB and drove it to become an important security category. Prior to that, he was the founder and chief executive officer of WiChours, an innovator in deep packet inspection centered packet core, which was used to deploy some of the earliest 4G networks. WiChorus was acquired by Tellabs for $180M. Previously, he was Chief Architect at Aperto and helped innovate multicore processors at Sun Microsystems. He was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur finalist in 2010 and Top 25 Disruptor in 2015. He holds an AMP from Harvard Business School, an MSEE from Purdue University and a BS from NED University.
Rehan's Sessions
A Serial Software Entrepreneur Shares the Playbook for Building Breakout Companies @ Roundtable #7
Rehan Jalil has built an enviable 20 year career in tech, as founder of three breakout enterprise companies in cybersecurity, 4G and a unified data controls platform. Along the way, he has raised capital from top tier investors including Mayfield, Accel, Redpoint and General Catalyst; built a capital efficient business model; and served customers from the world’s largest enterprises. In this session, he will share lessons learned including:How to raise capital in a downturn;How to sell to large enterprises as a small startup;How bold marketing can make your dollars go far;How to institutionalize a winning culture;How to make new mistakes and avoid old patterns.
As LinkedIn Marketing’s first-ever startups specialist, Ruby has deep expertise helping high-growth companies design productive marketing strategies. Now leading a team within the LinkedIn Marketing for Startups group, she also focuses on partnering with Venture Capital firms to enable their portfolio companies to adopt best-in-class demand generation and sales & marketing approaches. Ruby lives in San Francisco with her husband, and enjoys surfing and yoga.
Ruby's Sessions
All Weather Marketing: How to Weather the Storm and Win Market Share
Marketers have always needed to make good decisions, but marketers especially in today’s environment. They are being told to cut, pause, or change advertising campaigns…but is there any data to support those recommendations? We believe the short answer is “no” and there is strong evidence to the contrary. In this session, we will arm you with research and approaches to make the case for driving growth in any economic situation. Plus, we’ll have a fireside chat on how startups and founders are capitalizing on the growth opportunity.
Delivering Value & Driving Pipeline: How B2B Marketers Can Tackle Both @ Roundtables #5, 6, 7, and 8
Continuing the conversation from the main stage, join us for an open discussion about the challenges startup marketers face while accelerating growth for their business. The forum will dive deep into topics like how marketers can deliver value to stakeholders, why sales and marketing alignment is critical for scaling, and why audience analysis is now a key competency for marketers. We’ll talk about finding your customers, establishing credibility, differentiating your company, and most importantly, driving pipeline growth.
Nicole is Partner at Forerunner. She pays close attention to entrepreneurs with unbridled, around-the-clock passion for whatever they’re building. Armed with a background in Psychology, she loves to dig into the consumer psyche to uncover why we do what we do, the way we interact with the world, and identify what drives consumer behavior. Nicole originally joined the Forerunner team late 2013 as an Investment Analyst and team member #3. Her investments include Calibrate, CoProcure, Dutch, Nécessaire, Neighborhood Goods, The Expert, Thingtesting, and Stadium Goods (exited). Prior to Forerunner, Nicole worked with SapientNitro, a leading brand and digital strategy consultancy where she supported Fortune 500 retailers on their global retail strategies. Nicole graduated cum laude from Princeton University and was named Forbes 30 under 30, Venture Capital in 2016.
Nicole's Sessions
Startup Battlefield – Session 4
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Myriam Joire (tnkgrl) was born wearing combat boots and holding a keyboard. Moments later she picked up a soldering iron. She’s been stomping, tyxping, and hacking ever since. After spending years being a code-monkey in the video game industry, she joined Engadget as Senior Mobile Editor and later Pebble as Chief Evangelist. Today she hosts the weekly Mobile Tech Podcast, makes videos on YouTube, writes about tech for several publications, and advises startups on product/media strategy. She’s based in San Francisco.
Myriam's Sessions
Where Matters: Building On The Location Layer Of The Internet
Years of pandemic living have made us appreciate ‘IRL’ experiences more than ever before. Recent advances in geospatial technology can meaningfully enhance those experiences – powering personalized push notifications, surfacing rich context about relevant points of interest, recommending top places nearby, and so much more. Join Foursquare’s CEO Gary Little in a sit down with Myriam Joire to discuss the future and best practices of geospatial technology to improve user experiences while preserving consumer privacy.
Kristin Kallergis Rowland is the Global Head of Alternative Investments for J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, overseeing $140 billion in assets under supervision with some of the leading private equity, private credit, real estate, and hedge fund firms globally. Kristin and her team are responsible for advising private clients, family offices, and endowments & foundations on alternative investments portfolios. Kristin has been with the firm since 2008 and joined the Alternative Investments team in 2013. Kristin relocated to New York in late 2017 after spending four years in London as the Head of Alternative Investments for Europe and the Middle East. Prior to relocating to London, Kristin spent three years in New York where she worked closely with the Global Investments Leadership team, the Global Head of Capital Markets Solutions and the U.S. Head of Investments to execute strategic initiatives designed to grow the business. Kristin began her career as a Credit Analyst in the Chicago Private Bank office, working with both private clients and the clients of the Special Credits Workout Group. Kristin holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. Kristin was the captain of her Division I Women’s Golf Team at the University of Illinois. She currently lives in Greenwich, CT with her husband and daughter.
Kristin's Sessions
Famously Overlooked: How Underestimated Founders Survive and Thrive in a Competitive Market @ Breakout Session #1
It has been proven time and again that it is harder for diverse founder and funders to ‘make-it’ in venture. Hear from those who have beaten the odds and succeeded–what it took, how they feel about their success today and what they are doing to lift up others.
A LinkedIn veteran of 12 years, Kate O’Leary Kamel has helped its Marketing Solutions evolve and scale to a multi-billion dollar business. She has previously created go-to-market plans for emerging industries like healthcare and travel and currently leads a sales organization supporting LinkedIn’s fastest-growing customers. Chief among them are Series B+ startups and SaaS companies. Kate is a Detroit native residing in the Bay Area with her husband and nearly 1-year old son.
Kate's Sessions
Delivering Value & Driving Pipeline: How B2B Marketers Can Tackle Both @ Roundtables #5, 6, 7, and 8
Continuing the conversation from the main stage, join us for an open discussion about the challenges startup marketers face while accelerating growth for their business. The forum will dive deep into topics like how marketers can deliver value to stakeholders, why sales and marketing alignment is critical for scaling, and why audience analysis is now a key competency for marketers. We’ll talk about finding your customers, establishing credibility, differentiating your company, and most importantly, driving pipeline growth.
Lindsay Kaplan is the Co-Founder of Chief, the private network built to drive more women into positions of power and keep them there. She is an award-winning startup marketer and brand strategist who previously served as VP of Communications and Brand at Casper. Lindsay was named a New YorkTimes DealBook Groundbreaker and one of Business Insider’s Most Innovative CMOs in the World.
Lindsay's Sessions
Yes, Chief
Chief’s stamp of approval has an obvious allure. The professional network is dedicated exclusively to driving more women into positions of power and keeping them there, charging thousands for a private membership (if you’re lucky enough to get accepted). It’s a pitch that has landed over 15,000 members and, most recently, a billion dollar valuation as of March 2022. At Disrupt, co-founders Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan will speak to what’s propelled Chief’s growth in just three years, the challenges along the way, and how to strategize something as subjective and elusive as community.
Ayanna is an Operations and Finance professional with over 5 years of experience working for Investment Banks. Prior to joining Precursor, Ayanna worked at Credit Suisse as a COO in the IT department and later as a COO within Prime Services. Ayanna, also, spent time working at Bank of Montreal in the Financial Sponsors Group. Ayanna graduated from Baruch College with a Bachelors in Finance.
Ayanna's Sessions
Navigating Silicon Valley. – OG advice for African founders. @ Roundtable #6
Great product, great traction. New to the Bay Area and looking to raise? Let’s discuss how to navigate creating relationships and building your own network in Silicon Valley.A key part of unlocking funding for underrepresented founders is building relationships and networks. Many still have challenges doing this optimally. What should an ambitious founder from Africa do? Is the experience different from what other founders have been through? Let’s have a very open transparent discussion on how to show up, and build authentic and powerful approaches to Silicon Valley networking. This is a roundtable discussion – come share your thoughts and learn from other perspectives too!
As Chief Growth and Innovation Officer, Jamal Khan leads multiple teams across several areas, including: internal efficiencies and automation; new products and services; brand equity, demand generation, and digital engagement; and data and eCommerce. Khan also oversees all aspects of Connection’s international operations. Khan is an industry expert with years of engineering expertise in the areas of Trading Systems, eCommerce, and Cyber Security. He is a Guest Lecturer at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, on the subject of Artificial Intelligence. He is also an inventor of six approved patents related to human-machine interface design, data orchestration, and machine learning, and has been actively involved in technology startups as both an investor and mentor. Mr. Khan joined Connection through the company’s 2016 acquisition of GlobalServe Inc., where he served as Chief Executive Officer. Prior to GlobalServe, Mr. Khan worked in leadership capacities at Instinet, VeriSign, Arpatech, and Merck Medco.
Jamal's Sessions
From Point A to Point Unbelievable: How Buoy Health Scaled From Idea to Unbelievable A.I. Success Story.
Scaling a startup is undoubtedly the most amazing ride any entrepreneur can take—a journey filled with humor, challenges, and hard-fought wins. Join this session for an interactive conversation on what it takes to scale a startup. Andrew Le, CEO, Buoy Health will reflect on how he took his company from an inspiring idea (aka Point A) to a massive AI success with more than 30 million users seeking healthcare advice through the Buoy platform (aka Point Unbelievable). This promises to be a fun, lively discussion you won’t want to miss!
The Connection IT Superhero Ultimate Winner Award Announcement
IT professionals keep the lights on—and all their hard work deserves more than just a pat on the back. It deserves an award. Now, beyond serving as your IT department’s IT department, Connection celebrate all the IT Superheroes with the 2022 Ultimate IT Superhero Award, presented live on the Main Stage. Who of the 5 category winners announced this morning will win? Join Jamal Khan, Chief Growth and Innovation Officer for Connection immediately before the Startup Battlefield winners are announced. Everyone in IT deserves recognition for their efforts. Our teams see IT professionals stepping up and going the extra mile every day—that’s why we’re proud to be giving these superheroes the awards they so richly deserve.
Mark is an experienced technology leader with a demonstrated history of success in the information technology and software engineering services industry. He is skilled in internet scale data management, data analytics/business intelligence, data and software architecture, and cloud computing.
Mark's Sessions
The Secrets of Managing Data for 5,000 Companies @ Breakout Session #1
As a data movement company that powers analytics and operational systems for some of the world’s most innovative brands (like Square, Okta, JetBlue), Fivetran offers a bird’s-eye view into real-world data management challenges. In this session, Fivetran will be joined by a Fortune 500 customer to discuss simple, actionable insights on building a solid data foundation that enables teams and organizations to be more efficient and grow revenue.
Avlok Kohli is the CEO of AngelList. Prior to AngelList, Avlok founded and sold two companies; FastBite a food delivery company that was acquired by Square in 2015 and Fairy a provider of high-frequency house-cleaning services.
Avlok's Sessions
What Does Product-Market Fit Mean When Hype Tanks?
Reddit Chief Product Officer Pali Bhat, AngelList CEO Avlok Kohli and Calendly Chief Product Officer Annie Pearl are coming to Disrupt to help founders hone their definitions of product-market fit. The concept, often shortened to PMF, is tricky as it’s not easily defined for all startups at once. But one thing that happens when market sentiment takes a dive is that definitions tighten. So how should founders measure PMF in a more difficult market, from both a fundraising and customer perspective? We’ll find out.
A 30-year Fintech veteran, Kevin has had a key role helping startups and enterprise firms drive growth and client loyalty, with his firm principles of servant leadership. Kevin started his career in financial services, but quickly pivoted to lead sales at a niche data and analytics provider, playing a key role in developing its first web-based client portals. This led to the company’s acquisition by Thomson Reuters, where Kevin went on to continue to deliver growth in sales and leadership positions in New York and London. After this Kevin went back to his startup roots, helping firms both develop go-to-market strategies, expand into new markets, and grow globally, and was a key member of a founder led company’s team leading to their eventual acquisition in 2015. In his current role, Kevin leads FIS’ Global Vertical Market teams focusing on Fintech and Healthcare firms, helping them achieve scale, add adjacent capabilities, and lower operating expense.
Kevin's Sessions
Fintechs Walking the Line: Ecosystems, Symbiotic Relationships With Banks, and What’s Next @ Breakout Session #1
We’ve reached the third wave of Fintech. First came competing with the banks to disrupt the market and deliver better financial services. Then with fintech 2.0 banks wanted to utilize, invest and even purchase innovators who could add value to their customer experience. Now we’re walking into the world of ecosystems, symbiotic relationships between banks, fintechs and the fintech giants. As a startup or growing fintech company, join us at this discussion to find out which relationships really matter and what support you should be expecting from the ecosystem – which arguably is built around you.
Jeff Kolovson is the co-founder and Chief Operations Officer of Faire. A founding partner of Faire, Jeff rejoined the company as COO after a period leading growth and operations at Opendoor. Prior to co-founding Faire, Jeff held various leadership roles at Square, where he worked in product, business development, marketing, analytics and business operations. In college, Jeff launched Evolving Vox, a furniture rental company, which he sold for a profit after two years of operations. He holds a B.A. in economics and political science from Dartmouth College.
Emily leads communications at Samsung Next and advises portfolio companies on their communications and PR strategies across media, content, and social. A firm believer in the power of communications to create value for any organization, Emily is energized by the process of discovery in developing the clearest and sharpest stories. Prior to Next, Emily led agency teams consulting to a mix of Fortune 500 companies and early stage technology startups.
Emily's Sessions
From Capital and Counsel, to Partnerships and Profits: How to Maximize Your Investor Relationships
In today’s market, capital is critical for startups to scale, but founders can also look to investors to open doors to the right partners, and help provide operational services to get you in the right place to build. Hear from Samsung Next alongside one of Entrepreneur’s 100 Powerful Women, a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer, and serial entrepreneur about how to turbo-charge post-investment support and services.
Thejo realized he needed to move to the epicenter of the tech startup world after his first company’s software thrived in India but ultimately failed to break through globally. So Thejo chose to pick himself up and go again and his decision to move to the United States, get a master’s degree from UC Berkeley, then start another company in 2011 proved to be the right one. Automatic, which he co-founded, was sold to SiriusXM for $110 million. Thejo’s experience at Automatic revealed that widespread inefficiencies of accounting and finance in small to midsize companies can actually curtail a company’s growth. The most inefficient area he saw was non-payroll spend – no one had designed a fully articulated, consolidated software solution to fix this broken process. So he did; he started Airbase. Airbase was founded in 2017, and so far has raised $101 million in venture funding from leading VC firms including Menlo Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, First Round Capital – and from others, including the former CFO of Netsuite and co-founder of Okta, Airbase has gone on to become the world’s leading spend management platform.
Thejo's Sessions
How To Compete Without Losing Your Mind Or Runway When Cash Is Expensive
We love a competitive startup category here at TechCrunch. Watching startups go head to head is fascinating and illuminating. But for startups in hot sectors with big markets, competing can be very expensive. So how should startups that have incumbents to take on, other startups to best, or both, approach the balance between growth and spend this year? We’re gathering Anthemis Partner Ruth Foxe Blader, Ramp Co-founder & CEO Eric Glyman and Airbase Founder & CEO Thejo Kote to help guide more early-stage founders.
Speaker Q&A: How to Compete without Losing Your Mind and Runway When Cash is Expensive
Come with your questions for these experts speakers to chat about how should startups that have incumbents to take on, other startups to best, or both, approach the balance between growth and spend this year?
Brandon Krieg is Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Stash, the pioneering fintech company that he and Ed Robinson founded in 2015 with the belief that all Americans deserve the advice, tools, and opportunity to invest in themselves, starting with just $5. Most recently, Brandon led the launch of StashWorks as well as Stash’s AI Money Coach. Brandon also serves as CEO of Stash Capital, the company’s broker-dealer. Prior to Stash he co-founded Edge Trade, one of the first and largest agency trade execution and software firms (later acquired by Knight Capital Group), and served as Head of Electronic Execution at Macquarie Securities Group.
Brandon's Sessions
Finding True Love in Tech Partnerships: The Dos and Don’ts @ Breakout Session #2
In a world with thousands of specialized start-ups and companies, how do you select the ones that will best complement your needs, and support your business as it scales? Join us as Stash, Mambu, Marqeta, Mastercard, Stride, and Alloy share tips for finding reliable partners, fostering strong collaboration, and creating dynamic environments for innovation.
Madhukar Kumar is the Chief Marketing Officer at SingleStore, where he has been instrumental in driving growth and brand strategy since January 2023. With over 15 years of experience in marketing and product leadership, he has built and led teams at top tech companies, including DevRev, Nutanix, and Redis Labs. At DevRev, he spearheaded the creation of a Growth team and successfully launched key campaigns such as “Humans of DevRev.” His tenure at Nutanix saw a 10x growth in product adoption through innovative PLG strategies. Madhukar’s expertise spans product marketing to developer advocacy, with a proven track record in scaling marketing functions and driving results for startups and Fortune 100 companies.
Madhukar's Sessions
How to Achieve Product Market Fit (PMF)? @ Breakout Session #2
Nine out of ten startups fail, a significant amount due to a lack of Product Market Fit (PMF). In this session, serial entrepreneur Dheeraj Pandey (former Nutanix CEO and Adobe Board member) and the founding members of the DevRev team will discuss achieving PMF with today’s tools and technology. Every attendee will also get free access to DevRev and resources for attaining PMF with examples and live walkthroughs. Reserve your seat early before space runs out.
Mary-Catherine (MC) Lader is the Chief Operating Officer of Uniswap Labs, a developer of foundational web3-based products and applications. In this role, she oversees the company’s growth efforts, strategic initiatives, and operations. Previously, she held various leadership roles at BlackRock, including as the Global Head of the firm’s digital sustainability business, Chief Operating Officer of the firm’s digital wealth business, and leader of the firm’s strategic fintech investments and blockchain activities. MC began her career as an investor in Goldman Sachs’ Special Situations Group. She received her J.D. and M.B.A. degrees at Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School, respectively, and her B.A. at Brown University.
Mary-Catherine's Sessions
Structure, Regulation, and Markets: The Road Ahead for Crypto Startups
From DAOs and altcoins to L2-chains, NFTs, tokens, and figuring out just what the heck a security is, the crypto market is under the spotlight — and under scrutiny. TechCrunch will sit down with FTX’s Brett Harrison, Uniswap Labs’ Mary-Catherine Lader and Visa’s Cuy Sheffield to get a better handle on how they are navigating constant evolution, the new opportunities that the blockchain economy has on offer, and where they see the future taking their market.
Meet the Speaker: Structure, regulation and markets: the road ahead for crypto startups
Join this small group discussion with select speakers in the TechCrunch+ Lounge. *You must have a current TC+ annual or 2-year subscription to access the TechCrunch+ Lounge*
As CEO of Yahoo, Jim Lanzone oversees a global media and tech company that reaches nearly 900 million people around the world and is the third largest property on the Internet. He is focused on delivering trusted products, content and tech across finance, sports, news, gaming and e-commerce. Yahoo also provides a full-stack platform for businesses to amplify growth and drive more meaningful connections across advertising, search and media. Jim draws from over 20 years of leadership and entrepreneurial experience in the technology and media space, driving growth and innovation. He is the former CEO of Tinder, the world’s most popular app for meeting new people. Tinder has been downloaded by more than 400 million people and is available in 190 countries and 40+ languages. Prior to Tinder, Jim spent a decade as President and CEO of CBS Interactive, a top 10 global Internet company with brands ranging from CBS All Access to CNET. He joined CBS Interactive in 2011 when CBS Corporation purchased Cicker Media, an Internet video search and programming guide, where he was founder and CEO. Before founding Clicker, Jim served as CEO of Ask.com (formerly Ask Jeeves), a top 10 consumer Internet property and leading search engine owned by IAC/InterActiveC Jim resides in Northern California with his wife and three children. He holds a B.A. from UCLA and a J.D./M.B.A. from Emory University.
Jim's Sessions
TechCrunch Startup Battlefield FINAL
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Dave Latham has spent the last 20 years building software to improve the consumer experience around car buying. He has lead product, design and engineering organizations for multiple automotive SaaS businesses from high-growth startups to large public companies. Dave was an early product leader at Jumpstart Automotive Group (acquired by Hearst) where he ran digital products for legendary publications Car and Driver and Road & Track. He ran user experience and greenfield product development at online car marketplace TrueCar both in its pre- and post-IPO lifecycle. Most recently he ran product development for Roadster — a leader in omnichannel commerce for car dealers — which was acquired by CDK Global in June of 2021.
Dave's Sessions
Turning Start-Up Acquisitions into Success for Legacy Business
Hear from leaders at CDK Global — a standard-bearer of automotive retail software — on why the need to look outside a company for new ideas should be seen as a clear benefit and not a detractor to its core business…and employees. Legacy businesses have deep roots in their respective industries, but acquisitions allow new branches of service and product to sprout in new directions. How can you identify a partner that will allow your start-up to fuel similar growth?
Gloria is the co-founder and CEO of Alpha Medical, with a mission to improve access to women’s healthcare needs. She has over a decade of experience in data science and machine learning, ranging from small startups to public companies like LinkedIn and Google. She is a consulting faculty at Stanford Engineering. She has an MS and PhD from Stanford, and a BS from UCLA.
Gloria's Sessions
From Capital and Counsel, to Partnerships and Profits: How to Maximize Your Investor Relationships
In today’s market, capital is critical for startups to scale, but founders can also look to investors to open doors to the right partners, and help provide operational services to get you in the right place to build. Hear from Samsung Next alongside one of Entrepreneur’s 100 Powerful Women, a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer, and serial entrepreneur about how to turbo-charge post-investment support and services.
Sofia Laurell is the Co-CEO & Co-Founder of Tiny Organics, an early childhood nutrition, and wellness company that introduces babies and toddlers to their first 100 flavors via organic, plant-based, fresh-frozen meals.
Sofia's Sessions
Changing Consumer Behavior & Turning Customers into Advocates @ Roundtable #4
We’re in the third wave of a pandemic and products that have gained product-market fit (or product-market love!) are aggressively looking to scale acquisitions profitably. The emotional connection the best brands out there have developed is through a distinct brand identity and a clear value, but what are some of the underrated growth opportunities? This roundtable discussion will talk about sectors that haven’t changed in almost seven decades and why loyalty programs can improve the status quo. You’ll learn about tried and tested growth strategies for exponential growth, how you can lean into first-party data and differentiated acquisition channels, and why products that fulfill a specific niche can help diversify versus dilute a brand. We’ll discuss when the timing is right to move into other product offerings that can also help scale customer acquisition and growth.
Changing Consumer Behavior & Turning Customers into Advocates @ Roundtable #4
We’re in the third wave of a pandemic and products that have gained product-market fit (or product-market love!) are aggressively looking to scale acquisitions profitably. The emotional connection the best brands out there have developed is through a distinct brand identity and a clear value, but what are some of the underrated growth opportunities? This roundtable discussion will talk about sectors that haven’t changed in almost seven decades and why loyalty programs can improve the status quo. You’ll learn about tried and tested growth strategies for exponential growth, how you can lean into first-party data and differentiated acquisition channels, and why products that fulfill a specific niche can help diversify versus dilute a brand. We’ll discuss when the timing is right to move into other product offerings that can also help scale customer acquisition and growth.
Mélanie Lavoie is one of very few VP’s who has been able to navigate the ins and outs of a pandemic-stricken economy with exceptional precision and charm. She has not only weathered the current storm but actively reshaped the future resilience and profitability of VOSKER. Witnessing her ability to straddle both the company’s economic and talent-based needs is truly that of pure genius as Lavoie set up numerous communication processes – all within her first week at VOSKER. She created a groundbreaking training program for leaders within the company and had an active hand in over 200 hires and integrations. The organizational agility that Lavoie possesses has quickly become the holy grail to which many refer when discovering how to respond to rapidly changing markets. Mélanie not only understands corporate ambitions but concisely turns those goals into tangible wins for VOSKER. She is further recognized for her transformational leadership based, among other things, on her ability to listen, and communicate with impact, her collaborative approach, and her passion for talent development. Mélanie Lavoie is living proof that leaning into uncertainty and the threats of instability will yield rare skills and allow you to access immense power which makes for better employees, leaders, and executives.
Mélanie's Sessions
Scaling Your Business During a Recession
In the past few years, we have faced the sudden consequences of a pandemic and now have the threat of recession looming overhead. With this background, the speakers will be explaining how they could achieve 582% growth for VOSKER in just 2 years between 2019 and 2021- especially considering the pandemic and global-chip shortage. VOSKER was established in 2018 and is a fast-growing company looking to be the next global technology leader. In this session, the main takeaways would be how to successfully pivot and adapt during unexpected challenges and use uncertain times as an opportunity to innovate. This will give participants key insights into how they can scale their business even during a recession.
Since founding Buoy out of Harvard Innovation Labs in 2014, Andrew has led the company through two successful funding rounds, raising over $67 million, with prominent healthcare investors including Optum, Cigna, Humana, WR Hambrecht + Co., and F-Prime. In 2020, Andrew was named by Business Insider as one of 30 healthcare leaders under 40 to watch, a Digital Innovator by Employee Benefits News, one of Boston Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 leaders, and recognized as a TEDMED Hive Innovator. Andrew holds a doctorate of medicine from Harvard Medical School and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College.
Andrew's Sessions
From Point A to Point Unbelievable: How Buoy Health Scaled From Idea to Unbelievable A.I. Success Story.
Scaling a startup is undoubtedly the most amazing ride any entrepreneur can take—a journey filled with humor, challenges, and hard-fought wins. Join this session for an interactive conversation on what it takes to scale a startup. Andrew Le, CEO, Buoy Health will reflect on how he took his company from an inspiring idea (aka Point A) to a massive AI success with more than 30 million users seeking healthcare advice through the Buoy platform (aka Point Unbelievable). This promises to be a fun, lively discussion you won’t want to miss!
Aileen is the founder of Cowboy Ventures, a leading seed-stage focused venture firm investing in enterprise and consumer software including companies like Dollar Shave Club, Drata Security, Guild and Ironclad Software. Prior to Cowboy, Aileen was a partner at Kleiner Perkins for over a decade, founding CEO of digital media company RMG Networks and worked at Gap Inc in operating roles. Aileen is also known for coining the business term “unicorn” and is a co-founder of All-Raise, a non-profit to accelerate success for women in the tech ecosystem. She has been included on the Forbes Midas List, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women, Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people. She has degrees from MIT and HBS, is a mom of 3 and wife to a startup founder. Aileen is also known for coining the business term “unicorn” and co-founding All-Raise, a non-profit to accelerate success for women in the tech ecosystem. She has been included on the Forbes Midas List, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women, Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people. Prior to Cowboy, Aileen was a partner at Kleiner Perkins for over a decade, founding CEO of digital media company RMG Networks and worked at Gap Inc in operating roles. She has degrees from MIT and HBS, and is mom of 3 and wife to a startup founder.
Aileen's Sessions
TechCrunch Startup Battlefield FINAL
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Jeremy Legg, Chief Technology Officer – AT&T oversees the technology organizations for Business, Consumer, Data & Analytics, IT & Cloud, Network Architecture & AT&T Labs, Security and New Product Development. Jeremy’s AT&T Technology Services (ATS) organization is helping AT&T modernize its legacy IT infrastructure and migrate as much of it as possible to the cloud while retiring outdated systems. In addition, Jeremy’s team also includes business and consumer technology platforms as well as experts developing new products and services built on AT&T’s leading-edge 5G and fiber connectivity. Prior to joining AT&T in June 2020, Jeremy was executive vice president and CTO for WarnerMedia, responsible for all technology strategy, development and operations, as well as the technology development of the video streaming platform HBO Max.
Jeremy's Sessions
Framing Innovation Through Collaborations Big and Small
Connectivity isn’t a nice-to-have for innovation. It’s mandatory, and collaboration between AT&T and startups at all stages could push the world forward and provide the framework for innovation. Join this session with AT&T CTO Jeremy Legg and a special guest panelist as they discuss the key elements your startup needs to drive tomorrow’s next connectivity innovation breakthrough.
Peter Levine is a general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz where he focuses on enterprise investing. Peter joined Citrix in 2007 through its $500 million acquisition of XenSource where he served as CEO. Prior to XenSource, Peter was a general partner at the Mayfield Fund. Before Mayfield, he was an early employee of VERITAS Software. During his 11-year tenure with the company, he helped to grow the organization to over 5,000 employees and more than $1.5 billion in revenue. Peter holds a BS in Engineering from Boston University and attended the Sloan School of Management at MIT. Peter serves on the board of Alluxio Inc., Apollo, D2iQ, DigitalOcean ($DOCN), Labelbox, Mixpanel, People.ai, PlanetScale, Shield AI, and Udacity. Additionally, he led the firm’s investment in Figma and GitHub (acquired by Microsoft). He is also on the Dean’s Advisory board for the MIT School of Engineering.
Peter's Sessions
The End of Apps
The incentive structures that determine how companies design apps are broken. Instead of putting user experience and innovative use cases first, they’re often driven by company goals, growth metrics and revenue streams. But, that’s about to change. We’re moving into a new era, beyond apps, where people can connect directly with the services they need in the cloud, without an app acting as a middleman. In this session, we’ll hear how flexible app development architectures and user-driven design tools like low-code / no-code will trigger a paradigm shift where utility and user demand will guide experiences instead of the business needs of centralized platforms, as well as the massive opportunities this will create for users and markets alike.
Hongyi leads an experimental team of engineers, designers, and product managers who build technology for the public good. Projects they’ve worked on include Parking.sg – an app to replace parking coupons, Go.gov.sg – the official government link shortener used to help fight phishing, and RedeemSG – a digital voucher system used for the latest CDC Voucher programme. Amidst Covid-19, he has also led the team to rapidly develop systems to support testing, quarantine, and vaccination rollout nation-wide. He believes in working on real problems, building for the user, and pushing for change.
Hongyi's Sessions
How to Build a Tech Team to Hack Government Bureaucracy @ Roundtable #2
Open Government Products (OGP) is an experimental team within the Singapore Government that is built like a modern tech company but works on public sector problems. We’ve managed to eliminate paper forms in the Singapore Government, enabled a 96% vaccination rate for 5.8 million residents, and facilitated the distribution of over 240 million dollars worth of relief aid to citizens. We’ve achieved this impact through rapid prototyping and exploiting bureaucratic vulnerabilities. We’ll discuss the designs and tactics used to shepherd products through bureaucratic obstacles, and how to structure a team to maximize creativity and impact in a constrained environment. The most important problems in our society are often the most bureaucratically defended, but all systems have vulnerabilities. To solve the most important problems we need to learn how to hack this bureaucracy for the public good.
How to Build a Tech Team to Hack Government Bureaucracy @ Roundtable #4
Open Government Products (OGP) is an experimental team within the Singapore Government that is built like a modern tech company but works on public sector problems. We’ve managed to eliminate paper forms in the Singapore Government, enabled a 96% vaccination rate for 5.8 million residents, and facilitated the distribution of over 240 million dollars worth of relief aid to citizens. We’ve achieved this impact through rapid prototyping and exploiting bureaucratic vulnerabilities. We’ll discuss the designs and tactics used to shepherd products through bureaucratic obstacles, and how to structure a team to maximize creativity and impact in a constrained environment. The most important problems in our society are often the most bureaucratically defended, but all systems have vulnerabilities. To solve the most important problems we need to learn how to hack this bureaucracy for the public good.
Melissa Li is a 19-year-old tech investor and startup mentor, passionate about growing information and network access for underrepresented young founders. Melissa is Head of Community and Managing Partner at Dorm Room Fund, the original student-run venture fund focused on backing university-based founders in their earliest days. In her role, Melissa has delivered education that demystifies the fundraising process for student entrepreneurs in emerging tech hub cities. She’s excited to witness how narrowing information asymmetries will transform the landscape of venture-backed businesses over the next decade. Outside of Dorm Room Fund, Melissa is concentrated on early-stage investments in web3 and the next phase of the internet economy. Previously, Melissa has previously advised founders building Gen-Z consumer products on community and growth. She continues to mentor pre-seed cohorts including Founder Institute, Envision Accelerator and the DayOne Fellowship, where she helps teams find more confidence in their storytelling skills, fundraising approach and execution.
Melissa's Sessions
Starting Early: The How-tos of Investing in Student Founders @ Roundtable #4
Melissa will be speaking about the importance of investing in student founders to rescue the future of tech — namely: closing the persistent gender and diversity gap, geographic inequalities and network asymmetries facing founders. At this roundtable we’ll discuss: – Why universities are a crucial touchpoint for transforming representation and diversity & inclusion across VC and startups;– Ways to structure university-based or alumni-focused mentoring programs and accelerators/incubators, to uplift diverse founders and promote a range of business types;– Ways to structure campus-first initiatives like seed funds, alumni angel groups or crowdfunded small business loan programs, to place emerging tech hub cities and growing local ecosystems on the map.
Starting Early: The How-tos of Investing in Student Founders @ Roundtable #3
Melissa will be speaking about the importance of investing in student founders to rescue the future of tech — namely: closing the persistent gender and diversity gap, geographic inequalities and network asymmetries facing founders. At this roundtable we’ll discuss: – Why universities are a crucial touchpoint for transforming representation and diversity & inclusion across VC and startups;– Ways to structure university-based or alumni-focused mentoring programs and accelerators/incubators, to uplift diverse founders and promote a range of business types;– Ways to structure campus-first initiatives like seed funds, alumni angel groups or crowdfunded small business loan programs, to place emerging tech hub cities and growing local ecosystems on the map.
Sam Liang is the Founder and CEO of Otter.ai, based in Mountain View, California. Otter.ai is the world’s leading meeting transcription and team collaboration tool. Teams connect Otter to their calendars and video conferencing apps to capture, store and even collaborate using their notes from every meeting. The company is backed by early investors in Google, DeepMind, Zoom and Tesla. Before Otter, he was the CEO and co-founder of Alohar Mobile which created the first mobile location context platform. Before that, Sam was the lead on Google’s Map Location Platform and API team. Previously, Sam was the CEO and Co-Founder of Alohar Mobile Inc in Palo Alto, California, which created world’s first mobile location context platform. Alohar was later successfully acquired by Alibaba. Before that, Sam was the lead of Google Map Location Platform & API for four years. Sam got his Ph.D in EE from Stanford University, specialized in large scale distributed Internet systems.
Sam's Sessions
Using AI to Cut Meeting Costs and Time @ Roundtable #8
Research shows that the immense time we spend in meetings and the lack of tools we have to make them productive is making almost a third of all meetings employees attend “unnecessary”. In the current economic environment wasted meeting time places unnecessary strain on companies’ financials and their employees. This interactive session will highlight strategies organizations can use to save money and time spent on meetings by using AI powered tools.
Rebecca is co-founder and CEO at Saga, a protocol for launching the next 1000 chains in the multiverse. Prior to Saga, she was a co-founder, Advisor and former COO at Skuchain, a currency agnostic blockchain for global trade and a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer for 2019. She is currently Advisor to Sommelier Protocol, where she is designing their DAO to optimize for governance, platform growth & regulatory compliance. She was a member of President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, advising on China, technology and Asia economic policy. She also served on Secretary Clinton’s foreign policy team for her 2016 presidential campaign, responsible for Asia trade and economic policy. Prior to Skuchain, Rebecca was Director of Business Development and Head of Asia at Globality, Inc., a Softbank-backed B2B unicorn for AI-powered procurement of professional services.
Rebecca's Sessions
From Capital and Counsel, to Partnerships and Profits: How to Maximize Your Investor Relationships
In today’s market, capital is critical for startups to scale, but founders can also look to investors to open doors to the right partners, and help provide operational services to get you in the right place to build. Hear from Samsung Next alongside one of Entrepreneur’s 100 Powerful Women, a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer, and serial entrepreneur about how to turbo-charge post-investment support and services.
Prior to becoming CEO of Foursquare, Gary was MD of Raine, leading the technology practice with a focus on advisory assignments and principal investments in consumer internet, enterprise software and emerging technology.
Gary's Sessions
Where Matters: Building On The Location Layer Of The Internet
Years of pandemic living have made us appreciate ‘IRL’ experiences more than ever before. Recent advances in geospatial technology can meaningfully enhance those experiences – powering personalized push notifications, surfacing rich context about relevant points of interest, recommending top places nearby, and so much more. Join Foursquare’s CEO Gary Little in a sit down with Myriam Joire to discuss the future and best practices of geospatial technology to improve user experiences while preserving consumer privacy.
Kevin Liu is head of portfolio capital at Techstars and helps manage the global investment portfolio of over 2500 companies. As of 2022, Techstars has $1B in AUM in investment funds, 50 Accelerator programs, and Techstars portfolio companies have gone on to raise more than $21B in venture capital. In addition to Techstars, Kevin is a pre-seed and seed investor in over 40 companies including Retool, Vise, Culture Biosciences, Causal, Certn, Seldon, and Level. Kevin is based in San Francisco.
Kevin's Sessions
Negotiating Your First Term Sheet
It’s always a good time to sit down and chat about the mechanics of term sheets and the give and take between investors and founders. It’s an especially good time now as the balance of power between founders and investors has shifted from a period in which founders never had great ability to demand friendly terms to an era in which it feels like investors have more power than in recent history. So we’ll get the latest from All Raise CEO Mandela SH Dixon, Techstars Head of Portfolio Capital & Investments Kevin Liu and Black Operator Ventures General Partner James Norman on term sheets, negotiations and terms to help founders navigate the current climate.
Speaker Q&A: Negotiating Your First Term Sheet
Come with your questions for these expert speakers to chat about and the give and take between investors and founders.
Marc Lore is Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Wonder Group, a company that’s reinventing the at-home dining experience. Wonder is led by a team of proven entrepreneurs, some of the world’s greatest chefs and culinary experts, talented innovators from every area of the business, and backed by top-tier venture capitalists. Lore is also the newest NBA owner having purchased the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx in 2021 with his friend and business partner, Alex Rodriguez. Lore is the lead and largest investor in Archer, an aerospace company building an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft focused on improving mobility in cities. He is also Co-Founder and investor of Wizard, a company transforming e-commerce with conversational AI, and Mojo, a sports stock market, where fans can use their knowledge to invest in sports like never before. Telosa is Lore’s legacy project – a city he is building from scratch to test a new model for society, called Equitism. The city will eventually house five million residents and plans to set the global standard for urban living and expand human potential by becoming a blueprint for future generations. Prior to this, Lore started and sold four companies, most recently, Jet.com which was acquired by Walmart in 2016 for $3.3 billion. Until 2021, Lore served as the president and CEO of Walmart U.S. eCommerce. Lore was also the co-founder and CEO of Quidsi, the parent company of e-commerce websites Diapers.com, Soap.com, Wag.com, and more. The company was sold to Amazon in 2011 for $550 million. He graduated from Bucknell University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in business management and economics.
Marc's Sessions
Marc’s Lore
Billionaire Marc Lore sold his startup to an everything store, twice. After inking deals with Amazon and Walmart, the Quidsi and Jet.com co-founder has launched Wonder, tackling a common problem, food delivery, in an unconventional way.
Michael Machado leads the global Product team at DevRev and is based out of Palo Alto, California. Previously, Michael led multiple product teams at Salesforce having joined in 2016 after the acquisition of MetaMind. At Salesforce Michael founded its Applied AI Research team and the Einstein product portfolio across Einstein Chatbots, Einstein Language & Vision, Einstein Voice Assistant, and Voice App Services. Before joining DevRev, he created Salesforce Anywhere, as the product lead at Quip, which helped spearhead his passion for combining AI, collaboration, and design to build transformative end user experiences.
Michael's Sessions
How to Achieve Product Market Fit (PMF)? @ Breakout Session #2
Nine out of ten startups fail, a significant amount due to a lack of Product Market Fit (PMF). In this session, serial entrepreneur Dheeraj Pandey (former Nutanix CEO and Adobe Board member) and the founding members of the DevRev team will discuss achieving PMF with today’s tools and technology. Every attendee will also get free access to DevRev and resources for attaining PMF with examples and live walkthroughs. Reserve your seat early before space runs out.
Karena Man, based in San Francisco, leads the Data practice and the West Coast Tech Officers practice. Her clients call upon her deep expertise in technology infrastructure, software development, cybersecurity, and ML/AI in recruiting and assessing engineering leadership talent, active in the Firm’s Sports Practice, as well as on developing and scaling up capabilities in emerging technologies. Before becoming a consultant with Egon Zehnder, Karena was a leader in Facebook’s engineering executive search team. Prior to that she recruited engineering leaders, CTOs, and CIOs as an Engagement Leader for the firm. Previously, she was part of the IT practice at Bain and Company, working on IT optimization and transformation, IT cost reduction, and technology road map assignments for clients across all industries. Before that, she was IT Project Manager at an insurance company based in San Francisco. Karena began her career in technology as an analyst in the electronics and high-tech practice of Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). Karena earned a BA in political science from the University of California at Berkeley and is currently studying for an MA in government at Harvard University. Married with two children, she roots for the San Francisco Giants, enjoys international travel, and volunteers with organizations that serve homeless children.
Karena's Sessions
The CPO-to-CEO Pipeline @ Roundtable #8
The product function has never been as important as it is today. As we see it continuously evolve and expand in importance, are product leaders poised to develop into the next generation of CEOs? Join a discussion with advisors who offer their expertise in evaluating future CEOs, hearing how other product leaders have made this transition. Additionally, compare notes with others on what this trend, along with the expanding mandate of the product role, could mean for the function.
Rewiring Founders to Hire for Tomorrow @ Roundtable #6
It’s not news that founders face a lot of pressure to surround themselves with the right talent from day one. But high-growth companies face rapidly evolving needs for talent, and founders may not have received the right kind of training on how to interview candidates or what to look for. How can you ensure that you are hiring not just for right now but also for the future? Two leadership advisors with expertise in executive search for tech start-ups will give insight into the framework they use to evaluate talent as a company scales. As they shed insight on the right strategies for evaluating for a candidate’s future potential, they are also eager to hear from founders: what are your biggest hiring concerns? What do founders feel search firms don’t really “get” about the hiring process?
Rewiring Founders to Hire for Tomorrow @ Roundtable #8
It’s not news that founders face a lot of pressure to surround themselves with the right talent from day one. But high-growth companies face rapidly evolving needs for talent, and founders may not have received the right kind of training on how to interview candidates or what to look for. How can you ensure that you are hiring not just for right now but also for the future? Two leadership advisors with expertise in executive search for tech start-ups will give insight into the framework they use to evaluate talent as a company scales. As they shed insight on the right strategies for evaluating for a candidate’s future potential, they are also eager to hear from founders: what are your biggest hiring concerns? What do founders feel search firms don’t really “get” about the hiring process?
Trust as the New Currency in Tech @ Roundtable #9
“Trust dies, but mistrust blossoms.” -SophoclesThe conversation around data privacy has evolved to one that includes the concept of trust, and today’s start-ups have the benefit of hindsight when it comes to avoiding the mistakes that big tech made in years past when prioritizing growth over customer privacy. How do you learn from the mistakes and missteps of tech pioneers who have not kept trust at the forefront of their mission? How do you build trust into your processes from the beginning and then maintain it as an important pillar of your mission as you scale and grow?Our leadership advisory team wants to hear from attendees passionate about data security about how the conversation needs to change. What future challenges could there be to data privacy in your industry that you should be planning for today? And how you engage with your customers. How do you make things right with customers when things go wrong?
Martin is a technologist with a history of solving problems at the largest scale in the world and is passionate about helping enterprises use cloud native observability and open source technologies to succeed on their cloud native journey. He’s now the Co-Founder & CEO of Chronosphere, a Series C startup with $255M in funding, backed by Greylock, Lux Capital, General Atlantic, Addition, and Founders Fund. He was previously at Uber, where he led the development and SRE teams that created and operated M3. Previously, he worked at AWS, Microsoft, and Google. He and his family are based in the Seattle area, and he enjoys playing soccer and eating meat pies in his spare time.
Martin's Sessions
How to Supercharge Growth, Utilize Cloud, and Reduce Burn @ Breakout Session #2
Building and running a startup has become even more daunting and challenging. How can you build fast while also managing your burn in the current investment landscape? Come hear from successful startups as they discuss:– Personal stories and battle scars in the journey to accelerate scale– Managing volatility and the unknown in a changing investment landscape– The importance of metrics and being smart about how and where you build– Solutions for Bootstrap, Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A startups and how you can get support and scale up
Kanyi serves as Managing Partner at Kindred Ventures. He focuses his investment and formation work in theme areas including frontier technology, digital health, e-commerce, financial technology, supply-chain/logistics. He currently serves a number of startups as a lead investor, including Adyton, Basis Theory, Faircraft, Cloudtrucks, Goldfinch, and Tala. He previously led or participated in the earliest stages of investments including Outschool, Just, Impossible Foods, Upstart (NASDAQ: UPST), Reddit (NYSE: RDDT), Mural, Hellosign (acquired by Dropbox), and Earnest (acquired by Navient). As an entrepreneur and operator, Kanyi is a co-founder at Heartbeat Health, the largest virtual heart health platform in the United States. He previously served as a Partner at Collaborative Fund. Early in his career before venture, Kanyi ran growth at One Block Off the Grid (acquired by NYSE: NRG for $120 million) and was an early employee at Doostang (acquired by Universum Global). Kanyi has also served as an Adjunct Professor at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, a curriculum adapted from his time as a student at Stanford University, where he studied Philosophy.
Kanyi's Sessions
TechCrunch Startup Battlefield – Session 1
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
At the age of 18, Diego Mariscal started “Limitless Prepa Tec” a disability education program for students in Monterrey Mexico. To this day, Limitless continues to be one of the largest youth-led programs in Monterrey Mexico, working to educate students about disabilities. In 2015, Diego founded 2Gether-International (2GI) a not-for-profit accelerator that supports entrepreneurs with disabilities and moves us closer to a world where disability is recognized and valued as an asset for business and entrepreneurship. In his role as CEO and Chief Disabled Officer, Diego has collaborated with multinational organizations such as the U.S. Department of State, and corporate companies like Google, Blackboard and McKinsey to help them better understand disability as an asset for startups. In 2017, Diego became the first entrepreneur with a disability, from the US delegation, to participate in the Global Entrepreneurship Summit held in Hyderabad, India. Diego also received the Global Leadership in Equitable Development Award from the World Trade Credit & Risk Summit in Washington, DC. Born with Cerebral Palsy in New Orleans but raised in Monterrey, Mexico, Diego also represented Nuevo Leon in the Mexican National Paralympics from 2004-2009.
Diego's Sessions
Accessibility in Startups – What does being inclusive really mean? @ Breakout Session #1
People with disabilities face unique barriers and deal with systemic discrimination akin to other underrepresented groups, creating the greatest untapped resource globally. Yet the lived experiences of people with disabilities make them innately adept entrepreneurs and team members, with diverse perspectives that foster innovation and inclusion at startups. In this session, we will address the following questions and more: How can we create opportunities to harness the innate entrepreneurial skills of disabled people? Why is it important to include board/team members with disabilities? Why is it critical for startups to consider accessibility and inclusion when developing their products and services?
Caryn Marooney is general partner at Coatue Management and sits on the boards of Zendesk and Elastic. In prior roles she oversaw communications for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus and co-founded The OutCast Agency, which served clients like Salesforce.com and Amazon.
Caryn's Sessions
State of VC in 2022
VCs have never had so much capital socked away — with $100 billion more in so-called dry powder than the end of last year, according to Preqin — but with a tightening exit market, many are ‘slowing their roll’ and asserting more control over deals after years of feverish dealmaking. What new terms are they introducing into deals? Where are they forging ahead — and pulling back — and why? What do founders need to know for their startups to survive and thrive in 2023 and beyond? For a clearer understanding of what’s happening on the ground right now, this will be a must-see conversation.
Amy Jo is the author of New York Times best-seller Renegades Write the Rules, host of the top-ranked Why Not Now? Podcast and an angel investor. She was named the third most powerful woman on Twitter by Forbes. She has worked closely with world-renowned brands such as Hilton Worldwide, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Nike, Shaquille O’Neal and many others.
Amy Jo's Sessions
How to Use Your “Perfect Pitch” to Gain Partnerships and Grow Your Startup.
What are your priorities as a startup founder? You’re probably thinking- “find money & grow!”. You’re not wrong but how do you make that happen? Come listen as two successful founders discuss How to Use Your “Perfect Pitch” to Gain Partnerships and Grow Your Startup.
Edna Martinson is the co-founder of Boddle Learning— a gamified learning platform that helps K-6 teachers deliver engaging and adaptive math practice & assessments using gameplay and AI. Boddle’s award winning platform has served over 2.5million+ students and supports thousands of classrooms across the US. Originally from Ghana, West Africa, Edna came to the US to pursue her Bachelors of Science in International Business at the age of 16. She also holds an MBA from the University of Missouri— Kansas City. A Forbes Next 1000 recipient, Edna has always been a big believer in the importance of education and a solid foundation at a young age, and this passion to help young kids succeed academically has fueled her passion for the edtech space. Her bold and visionary leadership stems from a strong background in building business relationships, executing on growth hacking strategies, and building strong teams.
Edna's Sessions
Framing Innovation Through Collaborations Big and Small
Connectivity isn’t a nice-to-have for innovation. It’s mandatory, and collaboration between AT&T and startups at all stages could push the world forward and provide the framework for innovation. Join this session with AT&T CTO Jeremy Legg and a special guest panelist as they discuss the key elements your startup needs to drive tomorrow’s next connectivity innovation breakthrough.
Alton has been with J.P. Morgan for over 20 years and was recently announced the Co-Head of the Technology & Disruptive Commerce Group in the Middle Market Specialized Industries (MMBSI). Previously, he was a Managing Director in the Financial Institutions Group (FIG) in Corporate Client Banking & Specialized Industries (CCBSI). In his role as the Co-Head of the Technology & Disruptive Commerce Group, he is responsible for defining and shaping a national group that is dedicated to serving early stage companies, particularly those with steep growth trajectories and disruptive product and service offerings in categories such as software, semiconductors, food, health and wellness, home and lifestyle and apparel. Prior to joining CCBSI, Alton was a Managing Director in the Debt Capital Markets (DCM) group, leading a banking team focused on the Diversified Industrials, Aerospace and Defense, Automotive and Paper & Packaging sectors. Alton also worked in the Telecom Media and Technology group as a Media banker working on M&A, IPO and High Yield transactions. Outside the firm, Alton is a current board member of Mission Squash, which brings the game of squash to inner city middle school students in Houston and aims to help each student reach their academic, athletic and personal potential. Previously, he was a board member of The Harlem School of the Arts and a mentor with Student Sponsor Partners, which provides financial support and mentorship to New York City high school students. Alton graduated from the University of Houston and received an MBA from Columbia Business School in New York City.
Alton's Sessions
Accessibility in Startups – What does being inclusive really mean? @ Breakout Session #1
People with disabilities face unique barriers and deal with systemic discrimination akin to other underrepresented groups, creating the greatest untapped resource globally. Yet the lived experiences of people with disabilities make them innately adept entrepreneurs and team members, with diverse perspectives that foster innovation and inclusion at startups. In this session, we will address the following questions and more: How can we create opportunities to harness the innate entrepreneurial skills of disabled people? Why is it important to include board/team members with disabilities? Why is it critical for startups to consider accessibility and inclusion when developing their products and services?
Chintan Mehta is the Chief Information Officer and head of Digital Technology and Innovation for Wells Fargo. He is also a member of the Wells Fargo Technology executive leadership team. Chintan is responsible for building an effective and efficient customer feedback led digital ecosystem of experiences and capabilities, which are safe, secure, resilient, and highly responsive. He and his team continue to evolve Wells Fargo’s digital platforms and enhance integration of the innovation pipeline into our customer-facing capabilities. As a visionary leader, Chintan looks at things from the customer’s perspective and develops creative long-term strategies to reinvent what their banking looks like and how they will bank into the future – focusing on Smart Content Management, Robotics & Intelligent Automation, Distributed Ledger Technology, Advanced Artificial Intelligence, and Quantum Computing.
Chintan's Sessions
How Banks and Fintech Startups Can Effectively Co-Thrive @ Breakout Session #2
More than ever before, the future of banking will rely on strategic relationships to create value for customers across a variety of ecosystems. In this session, you’ll hear about a model for engagement that propels speed-to-market and regulatory compliance, ultimately saving fintech startups time and money.
Nik Milanovic has spent 13 years in fintech. He is the Founder of This Week in Fintech and General Partner of The Fintech Fund.
Nik's Sessions
How To Build Your Early VC Network: Turning Social Capital Into Financial Capital
If you haven’t heard of Nik, Josh or Gefen, where have you been? They are founders that are not only building very interesting companies but have taken a forward approach toward making noise on social media. We want to dive into how being a public person can help founders build a future public company. This should be a panel that will be not only informative but also lots of fun.
Meet the Speaker: How to Build Your Early VC network
Join this small group discussion with select speakers in the TechCrunch+ Lounge. *You must have a current TC+ annual or 2-year subscription to access the TechCrunch+ Lounge*
Neal Moawed is the Global Head of Industry Research at InterSystems. He received his MBA in Health Sector Management from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business and has over 10 years of experience in healthcare technology.
Neal's Sessions
Breaking Into the Healthcare Monolith: Strategies for working with Payors and Providers @ Roundtable #5
How do you build a health-tech startup that can achieve high growth? What can startups do to make their technologies more compelling to the biggest players in healthcare: payors and health systems? In this session we will discuss the pain points of getting into healthcare, as well as strategies to open doors to these organizations for pilots and sustainable revenue. You’ll leave this round table discussion with a list of best practices from InterSystems’ 40+ years in the healthcare industry.
What the heck is Interoperability Anyways? @ Roundtable #5
In a world where data is commonly available at a coder’s fingertips, why is it so hard to connect to some customers? Doesn’t everyone have APIs we can use to get to data? What is interoperability anyways? Can cloud technologies and data fabrics solve our problems? How can our startups be better prepared to enter the data ecosystems in industries like healthcare, financial services, or supply chain? This round table will give you an overview of what interoperability is, why these established industries interface the way they do, and strategies to make this process less painful as you develop your products.
What The Heck Is Interoperability Anyways? @ Roundtable #5
In a world where data is commonly available at a coder’s fingertips, why is it so hard to connect to some customers? Doesn’t everyone have APIs we can use to get to data? What is interoperability anyways? Can cloud technologies and data fabrics solve our problems? How can our startups be better prepared to enter the data ecosystems in industries like healthcare, financial services, or supply chain? This round table will give you an overview of what interoperability is, why these established industries interface the way they do, and strategies to make this process less painful as you develop your products.
Breaking Into the Healthcare Monolith: Strategies for working with Payors and Providers @ Roundtable #9
How do you build a health-tech startup that can achieve high growth? What can startups do to make their technologies more compelling to the biggest players in healthcare: payors and health systems? In this session we will discuss the pain points of getting into healthcare, as well as strategies to open doors to these organizations for pilots and sustainable revenue. You’ll leave this round table discussion with a list of best practices from InterSystems’ 40+ years in the healthcare industry.
Sheel is a co-founder of Better Tomorrow Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund investing in fintech companies globally. His own startup experience includes 2 successful fintech exits — a payments company and a high-stakes auction company — and he’s GP of the 500 Fintech fund. He formerly worked as a financial services consultant at BCG and started his fintech career at the non-profit p2p lender, Kiva.
Sheel's Sessions
How To Raise First Dollars In A More Difficult Market, The Venture Perspective
It is clear by now that the venture market has changed this year. That means that founders looking to raise first capital for their startup can’t follow last year’s playbook and expect results. So what do founders need to know, and how can they best snag investor attention in a market where the rules are changing? We’re bringing together Annie Case of Kleiner Perkins, Reach Captial’s Jomayra Herrera and Sheel Mohnot of Better Tomorrow Ventures to share the real nuts and bolts of early fundraising in 2022.
Meet the Speaker: How to Raise First Dollars in a More Difficult Market
Join this small group discussion with select speakers in the TechCrunch+ Lounge. *You must have a current TC+ annual or 2-year subscription to access the TechCrunch+ Lounge*
Tim Montgomery is senior vice president, North America Digital Partnerships at Mastercard. In his role, Tim leads a team working with digital players and fintechs large and small to engage, innovate and accelerate digital payments at scale. Through a consultative approach, Tim and his team work hand-in-hand with its partners in the U.S. and around the globe – from e-commerce marketplaces to neobanks to crypto exchanges to enablers and more – to build best-in-class solutions tapping Mastercard technology and services. Tim joined Mastercard in 2010 and has held several roles across the organization. He has spent the majority of his career focusing on elevating and accelerating digital partners, in turn innovating for the future of commerce. Tim lives in San Francisco with his wife and daughter. He holds a B.S. in Finance & International Business from New York University. When he is not working you can find him outside either hiking, trail running or mountain biking.
Tim's Sessions
Finding True Love in Tech Partnerships: The Dos and Don’ts @ Breakout Session #2
In a world with thousands of specialized start-ups and companies, how do you select the ones that will best complement your needs, and support your business as it scales? Join us as Stash, Mambu, Marqeta, Mastercard, Stride, and Alloy share tips for finding reliable partners, fostering strong collaboration, and creating dynamic environments for innovation.
Katie Moussouris is the founder and CEO of Luta Security, a company that creates and manages sustainable bug bounty and vulnerability disclosure programs. She advises companies and governments on emerging trends in AI and cybersecurity and how the dynamics are shifting between attack, defense, national security, and human expertise adaptation and co-evolution. Ms. Moussouris is the co-author and co-editor of ISO standards 29147 vulnerability disclosure and ISO 30111 vulnerability handling processes. During her tenure with Microsoft, Ms. Moussouris started Microsoft Vulnerability Research as well as Microsoft’s first bug bounty program. She served as a technical advisor to the US Wassenaar delegation to help renegotiate clarifications to export control of intrusion software and technology. Ms. Moussouris led the launch of the U.S. government’s first bug bounty program, “Hack the Pentagon.” She also served as a member of DHS’s Cyber Safety Review Board and NIST’s Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board. Ms. Moussouris currently serves as a member of the U.S. Commerce Department’s Information Systems Technical Advisory Committee.
Katie's Sessions
Winning The War On Ransomware
Ransomware attacks are escalating at an alarming rate. We’ll hear from experts about what winning the war on ransomware looks like and how startups can play their part.
Meet the Speaker: How to Create Robust Security Programs for Your Startup
Join this small group discussion with select speakers in the TechCrunch+ Lounge. *You must have a current TC+ annual or 2-year subscription to access the TechCrunch+ Lounge*
Mr. Pete Muend is the Director of the National Reconnaissance Office’s Commercial Systems Program Office (CSPO) where he leads the NRO’s strategy for full integration of multiple commercial imagery sources. Prior to establishing CSPO, Mr. Muend served as the NRO’s director for the Commercial GEOINT Activity (CGA), a joint initiative between the NRO and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) established to position both agencies to take full advantage of existing and emerging commercial GEOINT capabilities. Prior to CGA, Mr. Muend was the Assistant Deputy Director of the National Intelligence for Acquisition where he was responsible for overseeing Major Systems Acquisitions across the Intelligence Community. Mr. Muend also served as the NRO Chief of Staff and in a number of other positions within the NRO and Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.
Pete's Sessions
After the Boom: What’s Next for the Space Economy
An unprecedented decade of growth and investment has carried the space industry to ever greater heights. Today, the changed funding landscape and uncertain global economic outlook pose new challenges for space operators looking to turn their innovative technologies and concepts into sustainable businesses.Join space leaders from the across the industry as they discuss what lies on the other side of this economic turbulence and the role government can play as a non-equity investor supporting development of critical technologies in the national interest.
GV General Partner Dave Munichiello leads the firm’s digital investing team, spanning its consumer, enterprise, and frontier practice areas. He prioritizes time spent building long-term relationships with technologists who peak in curiosity, drive, and vision. Dave is himself deeply curious about data platforms, data science, developer tools, infrastructure, and enterprise software. His investments include Bugsnag (sold to SmartBear), Cockroach, CoreOS (sold to RedHat), DeterminedAI (sold to HPE), GitLab (IPO Nasdaq: GTLB), Jet.com (sold to Walmart), Lattice.io (sold to Apple), Modular, Pixie (sold to NewRelic), Plaid, RedPanda, SambaNova, Segment (sold to Twilio), Slack (IPO, then sold to Salesforce), Snorkel, Upbound, and Wonder. Before GV, Dave built and led enterprise software product, sales, and operations teams for highly-technical products under pressure in rapidly-changing markets. As an early executive at Kiva Systems, he helped grow its enterprise-enabling robotics and software platform from pre-PMF to $120 million in annual revenue before it was purchased by Amazon and became Amazon Robotics. Dave is a combat veteran and former paratrooper who served as a Captain in the U.S. military’s most elite units before his startup career. Dave’s military leadership roles ranged from running an Air Force technology organization; to serving as an Aide de Camp to the Four Star General running U.S. and NATO Air Forces; to deploying with elite special operations teams worldwide, ensuring they were enabled by the world’s most advanced technologies. Dave holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. from Emory University in mathematics and computer science.
Dave's Sessions
Startup Battlefield – Session 3
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Yorick Naeff is the CEO and co-founder of one of Europe’s fastest growing neobrokers, BUX, headquartered in Amsterdam and backed by prominent international Venture Capital firms such as Prosus Ventures and Tencent. From day one, Yorick was responsible for the mobile broker’s operations and during this time he designed a business made to scale at a fast pace. Thanks to his expertise, BUX is the only neobroker that has expanded to 7 different European markets.
Yorick's Sessions
The Fintech Scaling Dilemma: When to Expand Across Continents @ Roundtable #4
A growing number of US tech investors are moving into Europe to capitalise on the continent’s startups. While European startups are catching up fast and are starting to close the gap with Silicon Valley, both sides still are looking to crack the code of effective scaling. What can we learn from both perspectives, Silicon Valley and Europe alike? How can you effectively scale your company across countries or even continents? In this session we’ll discuss the scaling dilemma that many fintechs are facing.
The Fintech Scaling Dilemma: When to Expand Across Continents @ Roundtable #3
A growing number of US tech investors are moving into Europe to capitalise on the continent’s startups. While European startups are catching up fast and are starting to close the gap with Silicon Valley, both sides still are looking to crack the code of effective scaling. What can we learn from both perspectives, Silicon Valley and Europe alike? How can you effectively scale your company across countries or even continents? In this session we’ll discuss the scaling dilemma that many fintechs are facing.
Tashi Nakanishi is the Managing Partner of HartBeat Ventures and CEO of XPV Group. Prior to HartBeat and XPV, Mr. Nakanishi founded and served as Managing Partner of Dreamers VC, an early-stage venture capital fund, alongside Keisuke Honda and Will Smith. In 2016, he launched KSK Angel Fund with Keisuke Honda, creating the category of influencer Angel investor in Japan, which led to investments in Makuake (seed) and Kyash (series A).
Tashi's Sessions
Famously Overlooked: How Underestimated Founders Survive and Thrive in a Competitive Market @ Breakout Session #1
It has been proven time and again that it is harder for diverse founder and funders to ‘make-it’ in venture. Hear from those who have beaten the odds and succeeded–what it took, how they feel about their success today and what they are doing to lift up others.
Madhu Narasimhan is Executive Vice President and head of Innovation, R&D and Operations. Madhu oversees teams that deliver customer-centric digital products and services, along with the foundational business infrastructure and management routines to enable a high performing SDI organization. Her team is also responsible for leading enterprise-wide innovation initiatives and research and development that will enable growth and drive better customer experiences. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Narasimhan led virtual channels and analytics for Kaiser Permanente Care Delivery. She previously worked at fintech startup organizations as the head of engineering and architecture. She has led product, technology and implementation to deliver cross-channel, integrated technologies and experiences. Based in the Bay Area, Narasimhan is passionate about mentoring and promoting women in technology. She also actively volunteers to promote science awareness and inspiration in elementary schools and is a founding member of the non-profit Bay Area Elementary Science Olympiad Foundation established in 2007.
Madhu's Sessions
How Banks and Fintech Startups Can Effectively Co-Thrive @ Breakout Session #2
More than ever before, the future of banking will rely on strategic relationships to create value for customers across a variety of ecosystems. In this session, you’ll hear about a model for engagement that propels speed-to-market and regulatory compliance, ultimately saving fintech startups time and money.
As a Super Bowl champion, entrepreneur, media personality, and seasoned tech investor—Ryan Nece has cultivated a unique community of professional athletes, GPs, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and investors. To leverage this powerful ecosystem, he co-founded Next Play Capital in 2014. With $500M in assets under management, Next Play Capital invests in top-tier funds and venture-backed companies across consumer, fintech, and IT/SaaS verticals—including Hippo, Brandless, ByteDance (TikTok), Flexport, Hims, Impossible Foods, Peloton, Rubrik, and Walker & Co.
Ryan's Sessions
Making Venture More Accessible @ Roundtable #2
Has the actual flow of capital and the make-up of teams at VC funds caught up to the press releases and sound bites? Despite increased awareness about the inequities in venture funding, many barriers remain for both women-and POC-led startups seeking financing— and for job seekers hoping to land a coveted opportunity at a VC firm. And while a record number of VCs have shared their intentions to better support underrepresented founders, VC remains an exclusive insider’s club. Meanwhile, as the trend of athlete VCs continues to rise, many of these often diverse investors are leading by example by backing diverse founders and teams. We’ll discuss: – Steps for change– The best ways to vet opportunities.– A playbook for investing in diversity
Making Venture More Accessible @ Roundtable #3
Has the actual flow of capital and the make-up of teams at VC funds caught up to the press releases and sound bites? Despite increased awareness about the inequities in venture funding, many barriers remain for both women-and POC-led startups seeking financing— and for job seekers hoping to land a coveted opportunity at a VC firm. And while a record number of VCs have shared their intentions to better support underrepresented founders, VC remains an exclusive insider’s club. Meanwhile, as the trend of athlete VCs continues to rise, many of these often diverse investors are leading by example by backing diverse founders and teams. We’ll discuss: – Steps for change– The best ways to vet opportunities.– A playbook for investing in diversity
Thomas Nguyen-Lien is not only a name that easily rolls off the tongue but it’s a name that will soon become the gold standard for global customer care. Holding the title of General Manager – Customer Advisory Service at VOSKER, Thomas has been instrumental in revolutionising traditional consumer-centric philanthropies. He has not only optimised existing customer pillars but implemented highly successful processes within his department which have allowed them to efficiently utilise the power of the technology to better serve all customers on any given platform. By progressively articulating a more comprehensive vision for the institution via bold, strategic and inspirational actions, one would describe his movements as simply pioneering. The focal point for all of Thomas’s strategies has been to ensure that the needs, wishes and desires of all consumers are not only met but greatly exceeded. In order to flesh out this notion, Thomas has actively customized all company metrics and led all internal consumer-facing hypergrowth in terms of calls and requests. He continues to improve all processes while teaching his teams to deliver with excellence. His rejection of top-down mandates and adoration for collaborative efforts ensures that success is a shared commodity amongst his peers and coworkers. By highlighting the increasing gap between clients and organisations and easily correcting these missteps, Thomas is VOSKER’s secret weapon when it comes to satisfying both the needs of the business and those of their audience in an authentic and reliable manner – no matter the industry or environment.
Thomas's Sessions
Scaling Your Business During a Recession
In the past few years, we have faced the sudden consequences of a pandemic and now have the threat of recession looming overhead. With this background, the speakers will be explaining how they could achieve 582% growth for VOSKER in just 2 years between 2019 and 2021- especially considering the pandemic and global-chip shortage. VOSKER was established in 2018 and is a fast-growing company looking to be the next global technology leader. In this session, the main takeaways would be how to successfully pivot and adapt during unexpected challenges and use uncertain times as an opportunity to innovate. This will give participants key insights into how they can scale their business even during a recession.
Jordan Nof is a Co-founder and Managing Partner at Tusk Venture Partners L.P. and is a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. He has led many of the firm’s investments including Lemonade, Bird, Coinbase, Alma, Sunday, and Wheel. He currently serves on the board of directors of Alma, Sunday, and Wheel. Prior to Tusk Venture Partners, Jordan spent six years as a Director at Blackstone, where he focused on the development of the firm’s corporate venture capital portfolio. During that time, Jordan focused on investing in early-stage technology companies that could accelerate operations across Blackstone and the firm’s underlying portfolio companies. Before joining Blackstone, Jordan spent four years in the institutional investment management division at AllianceBernstein. During that time, he worked with many of the firm’s largest global institutional sub-advisory relationships. Jordan received an M.B.A. from Rollins Graduate School of Business and is a graduate of Florida State University where he received a B.S. in Finance. He is based out of the firm’s New York office.
Jordan's Sessions
TechCrunch Startup Battlefield – Session 1
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
James Norman is a serial entrepreneur who at age 16 built his first online company. His current venture, Pilotly, is the first market research platform built for creative content, servicing Amazon, NBCUniversal and others. Outside of media, he’s passionate about social equity, which led him to co-found Black Operator Ventures, the first seed fund for and by Black founders. James earned his BSE in Electrical Engineering from University of Michigan. He’s a founding partner at Transparent Collective, the non-profit that accelerated the most Black tech founders to funding, and a Board Advisor at Zoo Labs music accelerator.
James's Sessions
Negotiating Your First Term Sheet
It’s always a good time to sit down and chat about the mechanics of term sheets and the give and take between investors and founders. It’s an especially good time now as the balance of power between founders and investors has shifted from a period in which founders never had great ability to demand friendly terms to an era in which it feels like investors have more power than in recent history. So we’ll get the latest from All Raise CEO Mandela SH Dixon, Techstars Head of Portfolio Capital & Investments Kevin Liu and Black Operator Ventures General Partner James Norman on term sheets, negotiations and terms to help founders navigate the current climate.
Speaker Q&A: Negotiating Your First Term Sheet
Come with your questions for these expert speakers to chat about and the give and take between investors and founders.
Kara Nortman is a partner at Upfront Ventures.
Kara's Sessions
Taking the BS Out of Your TAM
A common refrain from venture capitalists last year was that software valuations weren’t too high, as the TAM, or total addressable market for tech companies, was simply larger than folks had originally thought. Sure, but some of those startups are now stuck comparing high burn rates with future TAM. So how should founders and their backers really think about TAM to avoid fooling themselves or their colleagues? Upfront Ventures’ Kara Norton, Felicis’ Aydin Senkut and Lux Captial’s Deena Shakir will tell us.
Bryan joined Index in 2018 and focuses on enterprise investments with an emphasis on design. He is particularly interested in the consumerization of enterprise and the use of design to improve the approachability of highly technical products. He is one of the hosts of Index Venture’s new podcast series “Hands On.” Bryan began his career at Palantir Technologies, where he worked as an engineer and product manager on work that spanned federated search, data ingestion, data collaboration, and access control. Following Palantir, Bryan worked as product manager at MemSQL, where he focused on deployability and user interfaces. Bryan graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in computer science, focusing on artificial intelligence.
Bryan's Sessions
TechCrunch Startup Battlefield – Session 1
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Joshua Ogundu is the co-founder and CEO of Campfire, a photo-sharing app that lets you tell the story behind the pictures you have taken or give your thoughts on the ones you have seen on the internet. Before Campfire, Ogundu worked at TikTok as a lead on the global product operations team across Trust & Safety and TikTok For Good. Prior to that he worked across communication and media in product management.
Joshua's Sessions
How To Build Your Early VC Network: Turning Social Capital Into Financial Capital
If you haven’t heard of Nik, Josh or Gefen, where have you been? They are founders that are not only building very interesting companies but have taken a forward approach toward making noise on social media. We want to dive into how being a public person can help founders build a future public company. This should be a panel that will be not only informative but also lots of fun.
Meet the Speaker: How to Build Your Early VC network
Join this small group discussion with select speakers in the TechCrunch+ Lounge. *You must have a current TC+ annual or 2-year subscription to access the TechCrunch+ Lounge*
Navigating Silicon Valley. – OG advice for African founders. @ Roundtable #6
Great product, great traction. New to the Bay Area and looking to raise? Let’s discuss how to navigate creating relationships and building your own network in Silicon Valley.A key part of unlocking funding for underrepresented founders is building relationships and networks. Many still have challenges doing this optimally. What should an ambitious founder from Africa do? Is the experience different from what other founders have been through? Let’s have a very open transparent discussion on how to show up, and build authentic and powerful approaches to Silicon Valley networking. This is a roundtable discussion – come share your thoughts and learn from other perspectives too!
Janine is a Talent Director at Sequoia, where she leads executive recruiting across GTM functions for portfolio companies and supports founders in their journey to scale their organizations. Her work includes identifying and introducing independent board members to late stage pre-IPO companies. Prior to Sequoia, Janine was Head of People at Mellon Capital and also spent eight years at Blackrock in multiple roles, leading global investment recruiting and HR for iShares. Early in her career she learned executive search at Spencer Stuart recruiting executives for a variety of functions and industries. She has an undergraduate degree from Vassar College and a MBA from University of California Berkeley Haas. Janine is a certified integral coach from NVW, focused on helping leaders develop. She enjoys spending quality time with her husband, two children, and labrador, as well as traveling, skiing and grounding herself in nature and friendship.
Janine's Sessions
How To Secure Those Hard To Find Hires
Hiring is not easy even in the best of times. With a tight tech talent market and an increasingly remote-friendly — and therefore globally competitive — corporate landscape, founders have never had more places to hire from and more competitors to measure up against. So we’re going to have Chris Herd from Firstbase who is an advocate for remote work and Emil Yeargin, VP of Talent at Gusto, which is not only hiring itself but also helps other companies manage their staff. And Janine O’Neill from Sequoia who knows a thing or not about hiring for startups. We’ll go deep on hiring today with an especial focus on hard-to-fill roles.
Uriridiakoghene “Ulili” Onovakpuri is a Partner at Kapor Capital, an early stage, social impact venture capital firm that invests in gap-closing startups. At Kapor Capital, she leads healthcare and people operations practice as well as the firm’s Summer Associate program. Prior to her role at Kapor, Ulili served as Director of Global Programs at Village Capital, a global accelerator program and venture capital firm. While at Village Capital she worked side by side with entrepreneurs from around the world helping them grow their ideas into marketable businesses. Ulili received her MBA with a concentration in Health Sector Management from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. She is a native San Franciscan and a proud UC Berkeley Alum.
Ulili's Sessions
TechCrunch Startup Battlefield – Session 1
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Shirin is the founder and CEO of Next Step, an award-winning Behavioral Design Agency based in San Francisco. She’s also a guest lecturer at Stanford University and NYU. Her work applying Behavioral Science in marketing & product is regularly featured on Forbes, INC and has helped both early stage startups as well as established tech giants like GitHub & Credit Karma increase demand for their products. She has a degree in engineering from UC Berkeley, as well as accreditations in Behavioral Science and Positive Psychology from Duke.
Shirin's Sessions
Design and scale using behavioral science @ Roundtable #1
We are building technology for the future, but have forgotten that our users still rely on a brain that hasn’t changed in 40,000 years. To design and scale successful products, learn how to leverage the power of behavioral science, and cater to the ancient decision maker inside all of us.
Design and Scale Using Behavioral Science @ Roundtable #4
We are building technology for the future, but have forgotten that our users still rely on a brain that hasn’t changed in 40,000 years. To design and scale successful products, learn how to leverage the power of behavioral science, and cater to the ancient decision maker inside all of us.
Deidre Paknad is the CEO and co-founder of WorkBoard, the leading Strategy Execution Platform powering the digital operating rhythm for companies around the globe. Deidre has founded and led three tech companies, a high-growth business as an executive at IBM, and has 17 patents granted/pending in her name. She has been twice recognized with the Computer World Smithsonian Award. At WorkBoard, Deidre works with senior leadership at some of the world’s largest companies, including AstraZeneca, Ford, Humana, Walmart, and Zendesk to clarify, align, and drive strategic priorities with greater speed and agility. WorkBoard ranked No.162 on the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ list and number 6 on the list of companies led by female CEOs.
Deidre's Sessions
How To Manage Staff In A Remote, Asynchronous Reality
Companies big and small are figuring out how they are going to distribute and manage their workforces in 2022. After a few years when even the most traditional company was forced to go remote, startups are now having to choose between remote setups, hybrid teams or a return to the office. But no matter what they choose, all companies are going to have more remote staff than ever before. To help founders understand how to manage those staffers, Trail Run Capital’s Allison Barr Allen, Mural’s Adriana Roche and WorkBoard’s Deidre Paknad are joining us to talk about what works.
Meet the Speaker: How to Manage Staff in a Hybrid & Remote Asynchronous Reality
Join this small group discussion with select speakers in the TechCrunch+ Lounge. *You must have a current TC+ annual or 2-year subscription to access the TechCrunch+ Lounge*
Dheeraj Pandey is the founder and former CEO of Nutanix (Nasdaq: NTNX), a global leader in enterprise cloud software and hyperconverged infrastructure solutions, and a current board member of Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE). Dheeraj founded Nutanix in 2009 and helped it grow from $0 to $1.8 Billion in revenue with 17,000+ customers and over 6,000 employees by 2020 when he stepped down to found his latest venture – DevRev. Nutanix was one of the largest tech IPOs when it debuted on Wall Street in 2016.
Dheeraj's Sessions
Why nine out of ten startups fail @ Roundtable #7
Two-time entrepreneur Dheeraj Pandey (former co-founder and CEO of Nutanix and current CEO and co-founder of DevRev) will talk about what he learned from founding a company and taking it to a successful IPO, plus the top reasons why startups fail. He will also share his framework around strategy for founders to attain Product Market Fit (PMF).
How to Achieve Product Market Fit (PMF)? @ Breakout Session #2
Nine out of ten startups fail, a significant amount due to a lack of Product Market Fit (PMF). In this session, serial entrepreneur Dheeraj Pandey (former Nutanix CEO and Adobe Board member) and the founding members of the DevRev team will discuss achieving PMF with today’s tools and technology. Every attendee will also get free access to DevRev and resources for attaining PMF with examples and live walkthroughs. Reserve your seat early before space runs out.
Ursheet is a Partner at Mayfield and invests in Human & Planetary Health and Infrastructure Software. His investments in human & planetary health include Mammoth Biosciences (CRISPR), Mission Bio (Single Cell Sequencing, Oncology), Qventus (Healthcare AI), Endpoint Health (Precision Immunology), Mirvie (predict and prevent pregnancy complications for moms and babies), GraphWear (Continuous Non-invasive Glucose Monitoring), Chemix (AI-powered next gen EV battery technologies) and Foodsmart (reverse metabolic disease). His investments in the enterprise sector include Versa Networks (Security and SD-WAN), Qwiet (Application Security), Rancher Labs (Cloud Computing platform acquired by SUSE), CloudGenix (SD-WAN platform acquired by Palo Alto Networks) and Netsil (Application Observability platform acquired by Nutanix). Prior to Mayfield, Ursheet had an operating career as a repeat entrepreneur and executive at Cisco and Microsoft. Ursheet was co-founder & CEO of StorSimple – the leading cloud-integrated storage company that was acquired by Microsoft in 2012. Ursheet holds an MBA from the Wharton School and a Bachelors in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, from which he received the Young Alumni Achiever award in 2015.
Ursheet's Sessions
Speaker Q&A: How to Recession Proof Your Company
Come with your questions for our expert speakers. Mayfield Fund Partner Ursheet Parikh talks about what he learned from multiple financial downturns as an investor and a founder.
Annie Pearl is the Chief Product Officer at Calendly, where she oversees the product vision, strategy, and roadmap for Caledly’s product. Annie is responsible for leading and scaling the product management and UX teams to deliver best-in-class scheduling experiences for users. Annie brings nearly 15 years of experience at startups and enterprise organizations, most recently as Chief Product Officer at Glassdoor overseeing the product, UX, and content moderation teams. Before that, she led Enterprise Product Management teams at Box both before and after the company’s IPO. Earlier in her career, she was the VP of Product and a founding member of Xpert Financial. She is a Board Member of WorkRamp, Well Health, and holds several advisory roles. Annie has a Juris Doctor from Santa Clara University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from Claremont McKenna College. She is a recipient of the 2019 San Francisco Business Times Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business.
Annie's Sessions
What Does Product-Market Fit Mean When Hype Tanks?
Reddit Chief Product Officer Pali Bhat, AngelList CEO Avlok Kohli and Calendly Chief Product Officer Annie Pearl are coming to Disrupt to help founders hone their definitions of product-market fit. The concept, often shortened to PMF, is tricky as it’s not easily defined for all startups at once. But one thing that happens when market sentiment takes a dive is that definitions tighten. So how should founders measure PMF in a more difficult market, from both a fundraising and customer perspective? We’ll find out.
Meet the Speaker: What Does Product-Market Fit Mean When Hype Tanks?
Join this small group discussion with select speakers in the TechCrunch+ Lounge. *You must have a current TC+ annual or 2-year subscription to access the TechCrunch+ Lounge*
Roxanne Petraeus is the CEO and co-founder of Ethena, a compliance training platform for modern teams, and she is a former Army combat veteran.
Roxanne's Sessions
What The Startup World is Really Like For Underrepresented People
EBIT margins for companies with diverse management teams were nearly 10% higher than for companies with below-average management diversity. So how can we support diverse founders? From VC investments to building management teams, what should your approach to diversity and inclusion be? This panel will offer insights based on real experiences as under-represented founders and investors.
Vieje Piauwasdy is the director of equity strategy at Secfi, an equity planning platform for startup executives and employees.
Archana Prasad is a VP of Product Management, leading banking and global money movement products that enable digital banking and embedded finance experiences at Marqeta. She is a thought leader in the payments and financial services industry with over 17 years of experience in building payments, banking and money-movement products at global scale. Her prior experience includes Visa, Silicon Valley Bank, Capital One and Capgemini Financial Services.
Erin is an early-stage technology investor focused on enterprise software and AI, with an emphasis on data, infrastructure, security, and automation. She is especially interested in products and technologies that increase resilience, foster collaboration and creativity, and support data-driven decision making throughout organizations. Before joining Index, Erin was Head of Product for Palantir’s data analytics and machine learning platform. She holds an MSc from Oxford in Mathematics and Computer Science, where she focused on applications of algebraic topology to machine learning and computer science, and a BS in Engineering from Stanford University.
Erin's Sessions
Building Companies with Longer Time Horizons
Not every startup can generate revenue from day one. From hardware to hard science, some startups take more time to build income streams. How can founders get around revenue concerns in a more conservative funding market? And how do investors weigh risk when it comes to bets that may take longer to pull off? For growing startup categories like robotics and climate, these are not idle questions. We’re bringing Sila’s Gene Berdichevsky, Index Ventures’ Erin Price-Wright and The Engine’s Milo Werner together to share the real nuts and bolts of early fundraising in 2022.
Speaker Q&A: Building Companies with Longer Time Horizons
Come with your questions for these experts speakers to chat about the real nuts and bolts of early stage fundraising in 2022.
Chelsea Puckett is the Senior Vice President of Strategic Payments Systems at Stride Bank, National Association. In her 10+ years at Stride Bank, she has been a dynamic leader and passionate innovator in her role directing the Payments Division and Operations department. She has been a linchpin in the implementation and scaling of strategic FinTech partnerships through which the Bank increased transaction volume by more than 50x and deposits by 3x in just two years’ time. Chelsea specializes in real-time payments, NACHA, platform banking, FinTech partnerships, relationship management, debit/credit/prepaid card processing, and operational efficiencies. Chelsea graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science from Northwestern Oklahoma State University. In addition to her role at Stride, she serves as an advisor on the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City 10J Payments Advisory Group (JPAG).
Chelsea's Sessions
Finding True Love in Tech Partnerships: The Dos and Don’ts @ Breakout Session #2
In a world with thousands of specialized start-ups and companies, how do you select the ones that will best complement your needs, and support your business as it scales? Join us as Stash, Mambu, Marqeta, Mastercard, Stride, and Alloy share tips for finding reliable partners, fostering strong collaboration, and creating dynamic environments for innovation.
Connie Qian is a vice president at Forgepoint Capital. She focuses on early-stage enterprise software companies in security and adjacent sectors, including AI/ML, infrastructure software, and fintech.
Connie's Sessions
Speaker Q&A: Raising a Series A vs. Early Stage Rounds – How to Build Your Later Stage Investor Network
Come with your questions for our expert speakers. Forgepoint Capital Partner Connie Qian hosts a Q&A session about that all important VC network and how to build one.
Katie Rae is the founding CEO & Managing Partner of The Engine, a venture capital firm spun out of MIT with more than $670M assets under management. The Engine invests in early- stage companies solving the world’s biggest problems through the convergence of breakthrough science, engineering and leadership. She has served in this role since March 2017. Katie serves as a Board Member at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Form Energy, Via Separations, Lilac Solutions, Boston Metal, Sublime Systems and VEIR. She founded Project 11 Ventures in 2014 and served as Managing Director. Prior to that, Katie held leadership roles at Techstars Boston, serving as Managing Director from 2011-2014 and Chairman until 2016. She has advised hundreds of founders and invested in more than 100 companies at the earliest stages of formation. Key investments include Flywire, Pillpack (acquired by Amazon for $1 billion), Bevi, GrabCad, and Synack. Katie founded Equity Summit in 2018, an annual event bringing together female and underrepresented minority fund managers and world leading Limited Partners. She serves as the organization’s President. In addition to her extensive investing career, Katie has more than fifteen years of experience in senior management and product positions at Microsoft, Eons, AltaVista, RagingBull, Zip2, and Mirror Worlds. She holds an MBA from Yale University and a BA in Biology from Oberlin College.
Kamini Ramani’s mission is to deliver on the Mayfield brand promise to entrepreneurs and to provide a range of support to portfolio companies. Prior to Mayfield, she was a messaging and corporate communications counselor to the leaders of emerging and established technology companies in Silicon Valley for three decades. These included companies from the client-server and internet waves, with a highlight of providing public relations counsel to Steve Jobs at NeXT in 1995. She holds a Masters in Communications from Stanford University, a Masters in English Literature from Yale University, and a Bachelors in English Literature from Bombay University.
Karthik received his BS and MS in CS from IIT-M and UT Austin. Karthik was one of the original database engineers at Facebook responsible for building distributed databases such as Cassandra and HBase. He is an Apache HBase committer, and also an early contributor to Cassandra, before it was open-sourced by Facebook. He is now a Co-Founder & Co-CEO at Yugabyte, the company behind the open source YugabyteDB project that is bringing together NoSQL and SQL in a single globally distributed database.
Karthik's Sessions
How to Supercharge Growth, Utilize Cloud, and Reduce Burn @ Breakout Session #2
Building and running a startup has become even more daunting and challenging. How can you build fast while also managing your burn in the current investment landscape? Come hear from successful startups as they discuss:– Personal stories and battle scars in the journey to accelerate scale– Managing volatility and the unknown in a changing investment landscape– The importance of metrics and being smart about how and where you build– Solutions for Bootstrap, Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A startups and how you can get support and scale up
Geoff Schmidt is the co-founder and CEO of Apollo GraphQL, the leader in open source and commercial GraphQL technologies. The company has raised more than $170 million to build toward its mission of helping app developers help the world. Apollo’s open-source GraphQL client, server, and gateway are downloaded more than 17 million times per month and used in production by more than 30 percent of the Fortune 500. Prior to Apollo, Geoff was the co-founder of Meteor Development Group, the company that developed Meteor.js, an open-source framework for building and deploying web, mobile, and desktop applications in Javascript or TypeScript. At the time, Meteor.js was one of the most popular open source projects in the world, and is still the easiest and fastest way to build full-stack JavaScript apps. Geoff also created Monument, an affordable live/work art event space in downtown San Francisco.
Geoff's Sessions
The End of Apps
The incentive structures that determine how companies design apps are broken. Instead of putting user experience and innovative use cases first, they’re often driven by company goals, growth metrics and revenue streams. But, that’s about to change. We’re moving into a new era, beyond apps, where people can connect directly with the services they need in the cloud, without an app acting as a middleman. In this session, we’ll hear how flexible app development architectures and user-driven design tools like low-code / no-code will trigger a paradigm shift where utility and user demand will guide experiences instead of the business needs of centralized platforms, as well as the massive opportunities this will create for users and markets alike.
Alison Rapaport Stillman is a Founding General Partner at Serena Ventures, overseeing portfolio management and sourcing new investments. In addition to growing the reach and impact of the SV portfolio, Alison is the person founders turn to when they need pointed advice, detailed feedback, and tough love. She holds a BS from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is a CFA charterholder.
Alison's Sessions
Acing Venture
Serena Williams is the greatest to ever play the game of tennis, and she’s already made a name for herself as a VC in the tech world. At Disrupt, Williams and her Serena Ventures partner Alison Rapaport will join us to discuss the next chapter of Serena’s career, swapping out the racket for several (hundred) inbound pitch-decks. We’ll talk about their investment thesis, her plans to bring more diversity into tech, and what she brings to the table as a VC.
Startup Battlefield – Session 4
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Alexandre Robicquet is co-founder and CEO of Crossing Minds, an AI-powered recommendation platform for e-commerce and content. An experienced Stanford AI scholar, he holds three Master’s degrees in mathematics, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Alexandre's Sessions
How to Approach Personalization in a Post-cookie World @ Roundtable #4
The personalization industry is long overdue for an overhaul and a change of direction. Between lackluster “personalized” product recommendations and rising concerns about data privacy, customers are losing faith that online businesses have their best interests at heart. At the same time, businesses are trying to figure out the best way to meet these high customer expectations, while also selling their products. Join Alexandre Robicquet as he shares his fresh perspective on how to approach personalization in a way that helps customers find their next favorite products – allowing both consumers and businesses to walk away happy.
How to Approach Personalization in a Post-cookie World @ Roundtable #2
The personalization industry is long overdue for an overhaul and a change of direction. Between lackluster “personalized” product recommendations and rising concerns about data privacy, customers are losing faith that online businesses have their best interests at heart. At the same time, businesses are trying to figure out the best way to meet these high customer expectations, while also selling their products. Join Alexandre Robicquet as he shares his fresh perspective on how to approach personalization in a way that helps customers find their next favorite products – allowing both consumers and businesses to walk away happy.
Jeremiah Robison is the Founder and CEO of CIONIC, an innovative company that builds lightweight and durable bionic clothing driven by powerful algorithms that adapt in real time to each individual’s mobility needs. He started the company in 2018 after his daughter was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and he was frustrated at the lack of effective technology available to help improve her mobility. Four years later, CIONIC introduced the breakthrough, FDA-cleared Cionic Neural Sleeve, the first product to combine sensing, analysis and augmentation into a wearable garment. Prior to CIONIC, Jeremiah spent twenty years at the intersection of data, algorithms, and the human body, driving innovation in sensing and machine learning at Apple, Openwave Systems, Slide, and Jawbone. Jeremiah has a BS and MS in Computer Science from Stanford University.
Jeremiah's Sessions
My Daughter the Cyborg @ Roundtable #3
In a world of self-driving cars and reusable rockets, we have the technological capability to step-change human health. Marrying human to machine is the next great technological frontier, and for CIONIC Founder Jeremiah Robison a mission that is driven by his daughter’s mobility disability. CIONIC is a bionic clothing company revolutionizing human augmentation, and has created a soft, wearable robot that looks and feels like an athletic legging. It uses AI and Functional Electrical Stimulation to literally move someone’s leg for them. Participants at this roundtable will learn where to begin when innovating at the frontier of human and machine, how to scale a product that’s never before existed, and peek into the future of augmented human mobility.
My daughter the Cyborg @ Roundtable #1
In a world of self-driving cars and reusable rockets, we have the technological capability to step-change human health. Marrying human to machine is the next great technological frontier, and for CIONIC Founder Jeremiah Robison a mission that is driven by his daughter’s mobility disability. CIONIC is a bionic clothing company revolutionizing human augmentation, and has created a soft, wearable robot that looks and feels like an athletic legging. It uses AI and Functional Electrical Stimulation to literally move someone’s leg for them. Participants at this roundtable will learn where to begin when innovating at the frontier of human and machine, how to scale a product that’s never before existed, and peek into the future of augmented human mobility.
Adriana Roche is the Chief People Officer at MURAL, a collaborative intelligence company employing a global team of 900+ working remotely across 29 countries. She leads a team responsible for recruiting, growth, and team member development as the company continues its strategic expansion plans. She most recently served as Vice President of People and Places at Segment in San Francisco where she led a team who, over the course of nearly five years, grew the company’s headcount by 10x and earned multiple awards for best companies to work. Previously, Roche held recruiting positions at Google, Salesforce.com and Dropbox demonstrating her extensive experience in managing distributed SaaS teams undergoing a steep growth curve. She is fluent in English, Spanish and French and holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Psychology from NYU.
Adriana's Sessions
How To Manage Staff In A Remote, Asynchronous Reality
Companies big and small are figuring out how they are going to distribute and manage their workforces in 2022. After a few years when even the most traditional company was forced to go remote, startups are now having to choose between remote setups, hybrid teams or a return to the office. But no matter what they choose, all companies are going to have more remote staff than ever before. To help founders understand how to manage those staffers, Trail Run Capital’s Allison Barr Allen, Mural’s Adriana Roche and WorkBoard’s Deidre Paknad are joining us to talk about what works.
Meet the Speaker: How to Manage Staff in a Hybrid & Remote Asynchronous Reality
Join this small group discussion with select speakers in the TechCrunch+ Lounge. *You must have a current TC+ annual or 2-year subscription to access the TechCrunch+ Lounge*
Robert Roman is the Co-Founder of HartBeat Ventures. Over the years Mr. Roman has invested in notable companies such as AirBnB, Hydrow, and Beyond Meat. Mr. Roman is known as a leading financial advisor in the entertainment and sports industries. His holistic service model is focused on creating and maintaining efficiencies within his clients’ finances. Robert has over 20 years of experience in wealth management providing financial services to families through multi-generational forward-thinking solutions. In 2011 he founded Legacy Private Client Group where he built a platform that facilitated holistic solutions. Legacy PCG quickly became one of the fastest growing wealth management firms in California and the US. In 2016 he partnered with MGO to plug in the infrastructure he built as a Registered Investment Advisor IA to further develop his holistic vision and service model.
Robert's Sessions
The Art of Inclusivity with Kevin Hart
Financial inclusion is multifaceted: you’re fighting up against homogenous networks, deceptive warm intros and the basic need for more fluency across different demographics. There’s an art to it. Comedian and actor Kevin Hart, alongside Mike Elanjian of Capital Connect by JP Morgan and Robert Roman of Hartbeat Ventures, are joining us to talk about these very complexities. Hartbeat Ventures will also chat about their work investing in the likes of Fabletics, C4, Hydrow and Therabody, while JP Morgan will give us a look at how institutions are breaking down barriers.
Who is Aaron Ronquillo? Like many entrepreneurs, I am juggling a lot of things – maybe too many things. I am primarily a sales & business development executive, advisor, investor, and a co-founder of a subscription base merch company called Nakoshi.com. I am also working on a mobile app stealth startup with a mission in enabling local restaurants with a tool to create a predictable revenue stream to ensure they maximize their resources. In addition, I enjoy paying it forward through local volunteering, mentoring, & sponsorship. Most importantly, in my spare time (weekends) I make sure this is well spent making memories with my wife and daughters.
Aaron's Sessions
How to Use Your “Perfect Pitch” to Gain Partnerships and Grow Your Startup.
What are your priorities as a startup founder? You’re probably thinking- “find money & grow!”. You’re not wrong but how do you make that happen? Come listen as two successful founders discuss How to Use Your “Perfect Pitch” to Gain Partnerships and Grow Your Startup.
Andy Rooks is the founder of Price Theory, a tool that helps business find their optimal price and pricing strategy. Previous positions include Chief Growth Officer at CorralData, and Chief Marketing Officer of Just Salad, where he specialized in product positioning and go-to-market strategy. He also led startup growth workshops through his consulting company, Theory Marketing Partners. Andy received an MBA from NYU Stern and is an active mentor at NYC-based accelerators (ERA, Antler).
Andy's Sessions
Pricing for Competitive Advantage @ Roundtable #3
Price is a startup’s most important tool for positioning and growth, yet 85% of companies (even the big ones) have sub-optimal pricing strategies. In this session we’ll discuss how to approach value-based pricing and answer your questions about how to price a startup for competitive advantage and growth.
Pricing for Competitive Advantage @ Roundtable #4
In this session we’ll discuss how to approach value-based pricing and answer your questions about how to price a startup for competitive advantage and growth.
Ali Rosenthal is the Managing Partner of Leadout Capital, which she founded in 2018. Leadout is an early stage venture capital firm backing founders with world-class customer expertise who build software-solutions for underserved, and large end markets. Ali was a founding member of the Facebook mobile team. Her operating career includes executive roles in consumer software, social, mobile and fintech companies including Wealthfront, as VP of Strategic Partnerships. Ali began her career at Goldman Sachs (M&A) and worked in growth equity at General Atlantic. From 2012-2013, she was an EIR with Greylock, and has been angel investing since 2011. From 2011-2019, Ali was an independent director at AutoNation. She is a graduate of Brown University and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she teaches a course in entrepreneurship. She was a professional cyclist from 2009-2011 and lives in the Bay Area with her family.
Ali's Sessions
Famously Overlooked: How Underestimated Founders Survive and Thrive in a Competitive Market @ Breakout Session #1
It has been proven time and again that it is harder for diverse founder and funders to ‘make-it’ in venture. Hear from those who have beaten the odds and succeeded–what it took, how they feel about their success today and what they are doing to lift up others.
Christina is a two-decade finance veteran, most recently a venture-backed CFO, building finance teams in high growth environments. Before her stints at Rent the Runway, Criteo, and Eyeview, Christina ran global Finance at GE and served as a Finance Transformation leader at Deloitte Consulting managing large scale technology projects for the Office of the CFO. After growing frustrated with the manual nature of FP&A and from an implementation of a leading solution gone wrong, Christina set out to build the next generation of FP&A technology. Founded in 2018, Cube now serves hundreds of Finance teams around the globe, helping companies graduate from numbers to narrative in record time.
Christina's Sessions
How Startups Can Survive The Downturn With Financial Planning @ Roundtable #7
Whether you’re out looking for your first check or figuring out how to extend your latest funding round, the fundraising landscape has changed dramatically and holistic financial planning is more important than ever. Join Christina Ross, 3x CFO turned Co-founder & CEO of FP&A platform Cube, and Mayfield partner Rajeev Batra for a candid conversation on what startups need to survive today, including the key metrics investors are looking at, finding the balance between growth and operational efficiency, and more.
Thomas Rouffiac is the cofounder and COO of EV battery component leader Natrion. Having founded multiple startups, he leverages his experience and network to maximize Natrion’s efficiency, lead its capital raising efforts, and handle day-to-day operations. Thomas’s passion for renewable energy and entrepreneurship started when working under Laura di Bonaventura for the new sustainable initiatives and solar roof installations in 2016. He studied Finance, Computer Science, and Mathematics at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.
Thomas's Sessions
Traction vs. Funding: The Chicken-or-egg problem for Deep Tech Startups @ Roundtable #3
Amid the funding slowdown, EV battery component maker Natrion raised a $2m oversubscribed seed round in a high-risk, high-competition industry. But it was their third attempt at fundraising: they initially struggled to prove to investors that their technology worked when they needed the capital upfront to actually build it first. Ultimately, they succeeded in not only gaining the backing of industry investors, but high profile investors like Mark Cuban, and they learned some critical lessons about how (and how not to) walk this tightrope. How can deep tech startups differentiate themselves, prove their tech with limited resources, and ultimately still secure strategic investors and partners? Natrion COO Thomas Rouffiac will share the hacks they learned to get their eventual funding, and lead discussions about how other R&D-dependent startups can do the same.
Traction vs. Funding: The Chicken-or-egg Problem for Deep Tech Startups @ Roundtable #3
Amid the funding slowdown, EV battery component maker Natrion raised a $2m oversubscribed seed round in a high-risk, high-competition industry. But it was their third attempt at fundraising: they initially struggled to prove to investors that their technology worked when they needed the capital upfront to actually build it first. Ultimately, they succeeded in not only gaining the backing of industry investors, but high profile investors like Mark Cuban, and they learned some critical lessons about how (and how not to) walk this tightrope. How can deep tech startups differentiate themselves, prove their tech with limited resources, and ultimately still secure strategic investors and partners? Natrion COO Thomas Rouffiac will share the hacks they learned to get their eventual funding, and lead discussions about how other R&D-dependent startups can do the same.
Sophie Ruddock is VP, GM North America at Multiverse, a tech startup focused on high-quality education and training through professional apprenticeships.
Sophie's Sessions
Talent Has Changed Forever: A CEOs Playbook to Building and Retaining Tomorrow's Distributed Workforce
The modern workforce is in the middle of one of its biggest shifts since the industrial revolution. Businesses have encountered the rise of global talent pools and entirely new sets of jobs and skills needed to grow. Now, they need to completely rethink how they source, train, equip, motivate, and reward workers.In this session, we will explore strategies, systems and tools around building the ‘human enterprise” in this decade. Global VC firm General Catalyst will reveal the technology innovation needed to create successful and enduring businesses that promote thriving cultures in the new global, remote working world.Quentin Clark, General Catalyst Managing Director and former Dropbox CTO will discuss the needs of the modern hybrid workforce with Sophie Ruddock, VP and GM North America at Multiverse. They will explore a world in which the Chief Human Resource Officer is becoming the new Chief Growth Officer and talent retention is as critical as customer retention. A whole new era of innovation around workforce transformation is just beginning. We’ll explore what work in the human enterprise looks like in 2030.Talent Has Changed Forever. Attendees will take away a playbook to build and retain tomorrow’s distributed workforce.
Kristina is the CEO of Etalon, a Marin-based posture apparel company. In addition, she is a STOTT-certified Pilates instructor and leader of the Elpha women’s community in San Francisco.
Kristina's Sessions
Women of Disrupt Breakfast powered by Elpha Bay Area Meetup
Join the women attending Disrupt for networking and a panel discussion on Advocating for yourself and uplifting othersFIRST COME, FIRST SERVED – OPEN TO ALL WOMEN & THOSE WHO IDENTIFY AS WOMEN
Gyanda Sachdeva is Vice President of Product Management at LinkedIn, where she leads the development of the company’s advertising solutions. She previously oversaw the company’s Premium, Commerce, Marketplace, and Small Business product efforts. She is an Aspen Institute First Movers Fellow and the co-founder of LinkedIn’s Women in Product Organization, which empowers women to build careers in Product Management, User Design, Business Development, Editorial and Content Creation. Prior to joining LinkedIn, Gyanda spent her early career in Investment Banking at Thomas Weisel Partners and Merrill Lynch. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University and a master’s degree in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. She lives in Mountain View, CA.
Gyanda's Sessions
All Weather Marketing: How to Weather the Storm and Win Market Share
Marketers have always needed to make good decisions, but marketers especially in today’s environment. They are being told to cut, pause, or change advertising campaigns…but is there any data to support those recommendations? We believe the short answer is “no” and there is strong evidence to the contrary. In this session, we will arm you with research and approaches to make the case for driving growth in any economic situation. Plus, we’ll have a fireside chat on how startups and founders are capitalizing on the growth opportunity.
Maryanna Saenko is an early-stage venture capitalist with an interest in robotics, quantum computing, blockchain, aerospace, and the future of food. Previously she was at Khosla Ventures, and prior to that at DFJ, where she worked with Steve Jurvetson (Co-Founder of Future Ventures) to focus on frontier technology investments. She was also an investment partner at Airbus Ventures where she led a series of venture investments strategically aligned with Airbus’ future-of-aerospace initiatives. Before Airbus, Maryanna was a consultant at Lux Research and a research engineer at Cabot Corporation. Maryanna graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a BS in BioMedical Engineering and a BS and MS in Materials Science and Engineering.
Maryanna's Sessions
Startup Battlefield – Session 4
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Andrej Safundzic is the CEO and co-founder of Lumos. Before starting Lumos and doing his MBA and MSCS at Stanford as a Knight-Hennessy Fellow, Andrej sold a government startup to the German White House after successfully pitching it in front of Chancellor Merkel and her whole cabinet personally. He is originally from Croatia and Germany and loves reading fiction!
Andrej's Sessions
How Will I Know? How to Pick the Right Time (and Way) to Launch From Stealth Mode @ Roundtable #2
So, you have a product (or an idea), you’ve got Angels and some early customers, and now you’re thinking about launching. When? And, how? It’s tempting to want to launch ASAP, and lots of companies take that plunge. We took a different approach to launch. We went against the grain by challenging ourselves to be storytellers, building a culture we could be proud of, and selling while in stealth mode. The world shifted in 2020 and so did our strategy. Like lots of early-stage companies, we had to think fast and place some early bets on our go-to-market strategy. We’ll talk about the lessons we learned, how we set goals, built infrastructure, and thought about growing from a 4-person company to a 40-person company, and what we would do differently. Join us for a roundtable discussion with fellow Founders who went against the grain and took a different approach to launch their companies from stealth mode.
How Will I Know? How to Pick the Right Time (and Way) to Launch from Stealth Mode @ Roundtable #1
So, you have a product (or an idea), you’ve got Angels and some early customers, and now you’re thinking about launching. When? And, how? It’s tempting to want to launch ASAP, and lots of companies take that plunge. We took a different approach to launch. We went against the grain by challenging ourselves to be storytellers, building a culture we could be proud of, and selling while in stealth mode. The world shifted in 2020 and so did our strategy. Like lots of early-stage companies, we had to think fast and place some early bets on our go-to-market strategy. We’ll talk about the lessons we learned, how we set goals, built infrastructure, and thought about growing from a 4-person company to a 40-person company, and what we would do differently. Join us for a roundtable discussion with fellow Founders who went against the grain and took a different approach to launch their companies from stealth mode.
David Samuel is an experienced executive, serial entrepreneur, and Internet pioneer in software & media. Today, Dave is co-founder of Freestyle.vc, a seed stage venture capital firm, with over $565M under management & investments in over 150 startups. Freestyle has led the seeds in Airtable, Patreon, Betterup, Narvar and Snapdocs. Prior to Freestyle, in 2004, Dave co-founded Crackle, an Internet video platform, acquired by Sony for $65 million in 2006. In 1996, he founded Spinner, the first Internet radio service, acquired by AOL for $320 million in 1999. Dave graduated from MIT with a degree in Electrical Engineering, and enjoys wakeboarding, snowboarding, mountain biking and lives in Marin with his wife & 5 teenagers.
Dave's Sessions
TechCrunch Startup Battlefield – Session 2
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
RJ started Rivian to combine his love for cars with his desire to leave the world better for the generations who inherit it. He is unrelenting in his mission to build an organization focused on collaboration, products created with thoughtfulness and a future that is as exciting as it is carbon neutral. As founder and CEO, RJ began with no capital, no team, no partnerships and no roadmap. He has since led the company to develop its vertically integrated technology platforms, built a multi-program development organization, established key partnerships, and developed the strategic and tactical plans to establish market leadership in both the consumer and commercial markets. RJ graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute before obtaining his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
RJ's Sessions
Rivian Grows Up
Rivian emerged from stealth in 2018 with a pair of vehicles that helped it become the buzziest EV automaker since Tesla. The company landed high-profile investors and partners, including Amazon and Ford, and is now publicly traded. Hear from founder and CEO RJ Scaringe about the company’s challenges with production bottlenecks, supply chain constraints, and layoffs as he leads the company into the electric future.
An original super angel turned multi-stage investor, Aydin has been named on the Forbes Midas List for the past ten years (2014-2023) as well as the New York Times Top 20 Venture Capitalists list for four consecutive years (2016-2019). Before starting Felicis, he was the first product manager at Google and helped launch their first ten international sites. He received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with Honors from Boston University, an MBA in Marketing from the Wharton School, and a master’s degree in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Aydin currently sits on the Graduate Board of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Aydin's Sessions
Taking the BS Out of Your TAM
A common refrain from venture capitalists last year was that software valuations weren’t too high, as the TAM, or total addressable market for tech companies, was simply larger than folks had originally thought. Sure, but some of those startups are now stuck comparing high burn rates with future TAM. So how should founders and their backers really think about TAM to avoid fooling themselves or their colleagues? Upfront Ventures’ Kara Norton, Felicis’ Aydin Senkut and Lux Captial’s Deena Shakir will tell us.
Meet the Speaker: Taking the BS out of your TAM
Join this small group discussion with select speakers in the TechCrunch+ Lounge. *You must have a current TC+ annual or 2-year subscription to access the TechCrunch+ Lounge*
Chipper Cash is a venture-capital-backed Financial technology company that builds software to enable free and instant cross border peer-to-peer money transfers; as well as solutions for businesses and merchants to process online and in-store payments.
Ham's Sessions
Navigating Silicon Valley. – OG advice for African founders. @ Roundtable #6
Great product, great traction. New to the Bay Area and looking to raise? Let’s discuss how to navigate creating relationships and building your own network in Silicon Valley.A key part of unlocking funding for underrepresented founders is building relationships and networks. Many still have challenges doing this optimally. What should an ambitious founder from Africa do? Is the experience different from what other founders have been through? Let’s have a very open transparent discussion on how to show up, and build authentic and powerful approaches to Silicon Valley networking. This is a roundtable discussion – come share your thoughts and learn from other perspectives too!
Aravinda is the Founding Partner of Venturous Counsel, a uniquely mission-driven firm dedicated to exclusively representing underestimated startups and investors who are also committed to prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion in their own organizations, as well as assisting such business to find the right legal partner, to help level the playing field for these startups and investors in terms of access to quality legal counsel. As a part of that work, she actively maintains and expands her network of diverse-led law firms and diverse attorneys to whom she can refer startups and investors needing the right legal partner. To this end, she has initiated a series of Diversity Referral events, organized to give diverse lawyers in various specialty areas the opportunity to showcase their practices to other attorneys, particularly those in large law firms, in-house and government positions, to broaden networks and facilitate community support across the board. She is the chair of the Solo/Small Firms committee of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area. She also participates in various technology and legal forums that focus on women and women of color, advising accelerators with diverse cohorts and judging startup pitch events at UC Hastings. Aravinda has been named a Super Lawyers Rising Star every year since 2015. She was previously a Partner at Silicon Legal Strategy in San Francisco, before which, she was a corporate associate in the startup practice of Hogan Lovells in Palo Alto. She started her career in Orrick’s Emerging Companies Group in Menlo Park. Aravinda received her law degree with distinction from Stanford University Law School and her undergraduate degree with honors in Language and Mind from New York University. She has represented a broad range of startups, entrepreneurs, venture capital firms and public companies, working directly with high-level executives and directors, advising companies and investors in various equity financing structures, M&A transactions, licensing and strategic partnerships, as well as day-to-day counseling. She has worked with companies from formation through financing rounds to acquisition or public offering and been primarily responsible for SEC reporting obligations thereafter.
Aravinda's Sessions
Women of Disrupt Breakfast powered by Elpha Bay Area Meetup
Join the women attending Disrupt for networking and a panel discussion on Advocating for yourself and uplifting othersFIRST COME, FIRST SERVED – OPEN TO ALL WOMEN & THOSE WHO IDENTIFY AS WOMEN
Manuela Seve is co-founder and CEO of Alpha’a & alphaa.io through which she is changing the way we think of asset ownership by connecting the physical and digital realms via: blockchain certification, licensing and dropshipping. She has been in the tech and art sector for the past 8 years successfully raising funds from industry leaders such as: Metaprop vc, EOS VC, Chingona Ventures, Gaingels among other funds. With a background in finance, Manuela worked as an equity analyst at Gávea Investments, one of Brazil’s most reputable investment management firms.
Manuela's Sessions
NFTs for Real World Problems @ Roundtable #1
NFTs are still associated to digital files, but in reality they can be used to solve problems around: authenticity, resale and community engagement across art, fashion and even real estate. In this roundtable, we’ll chat about real use cases being developed through alphaa.io for art and luxury goods certification. Including POS integrations for legacy brands shifting paper certificates of authenticity to NFTs, building utility and generating resale royalties. Also how exclusive digital environments and products can be offered through NFTs to loyal followers and fund the production of physical objects and experiences. Creating a tool to empower creators across the board to retain control of their work and fund any project.
NFTs for Real World Problems @ Roundtable #1
NFTs are still associated to digital files, but in reality they can be used to solve problems around: authenticity, resale and community engagement across art, fashion and even real estate. In this roundtable, we’ll chat about real use cases being developed through alphaa.io for art and luxury goods certification. Including POS integrations for legacy brands shifting paper certificates of authenticity to NFTs, building utility and generating resale royalties. Also how exclusive digital environments and products can be offered through NFTs to loyal followers and fund the production of physical objects and experiences. Creating a tool to empower creators across the board to retain control of their work and fund any project.
Mahesh Shah is responsible for driving product innovation, research and development, building and testing, as well as outlining a roadmap for existing and future portfolios at CDK Global. Prior to CDK Global, Mahesh was the general manager and vice president, Acquisition and Divestiture, IT Consulting Services at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). Mahesh held various roles throughout his 16-year tenure at HPE including chief information officer, Enterprise Services and Software and vice president, Product R&D and IT as well as several other executive roles in IT automation and cloud engineering. Mahesh earned his Bachelor of Commerce degree, specializing in management information systems from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, and his Master of Business Administration degree from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. He also serves on the board of advisors for several technology startups.
Mahesh's Sessions
Turning Start-Up Acquisitions into Success for Legacy Business
Hear from leaders at CDK Global — a standard-bearer of automotive retail software — on why the need to look outside a company for new ideas should be seen as a clear benefit and not a detractor to its core business…and employees. Legacy businesses have deep roots in their respective industries, but acquisitions allow new branches of service and product to sprout in new directions. How can you identify a partner that will allow your start-up to fuel similar growth?
Shaival Shah is the CEO and co-founder of Ribbon, a real estate software company simplifying the home buying process. Shaival’s passion for creating a level playing field for buyers, sellers and realtors combined with his own personal experiences in the home-buying process led him to create Ribbon in 2017. Prior to creating Ribbon, Shaival was SVP, Platform at Managed By Q, a workplace management platform.
Deena’s investments span stages and sectors, and include women’s health, digital health infrastructure, health equity, foodtech, and fintech. Above all, she seeks out extraordinary, often underdog, founders on a mission. Prior to Lux, Deena was a Partner at GV (formerly Google Ventures), led product partnerships at Google for health, search, and AI/ML, and directed social impact investments at Google.org. Deena also served as a Presidential Management Fellow at The U.S. Department of State under Secretary Clinton, where she helped launch President Obama’s first Global Entrepreneurship Summit. Deena self-funded her undergraduate degree at Harvard (Social Studies and Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations) and MA at Georgetown through a variety of merit scholarships and side hustles, including co-founding and selling her first company while in college. She is a Lecturer in Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a Board Director for the National Venture Capital Association, and a member of Kauffman Fellows, Aspen Finance Fellows, and The Council on Foreign Relations. Deena is a frequent speaker and commentator and has been featured in print and television on Bloomberg, CNBC and NBC, in print in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, Techcrunch, Marie Claire, STAT, and more, and has delivered keynote addresses at major industry conferences. She was named a “Top 30 Under 40 in Healthcare” by Business Insider and “Top Senior Woman to Watch in Venture Capital” by the Wall Street Journal in 2021, “Top 50 in Digital Health” by Rock Health and 40 Under 40 by Fortune Magazine in 2022.
Deena's Sessions
Taking the BS Out of Your TAM
A common refrain from venture capitalists last year was that software valuations weren’t too high, as the TAM, or total addressable market for tech companies, was simply larger than folks had originally thought. Sure, but some of those startups are now stuck comparing high burn rates with future TAM. So how should founders and their backers really think about TAM to avoid fooling themselves or their colleagues? Upfront Ventures’ Kara Norton, Felicis’ Aydin Senkut and Lux Captial’s Deena Shakir will tell us.
Meet the Speaker: Taking the BS out of your TAM
Join this small group discussion with select speakers in the TechCrunch+ Lounge. *You must have a current TC+ annual or 2-year subscription to access the TechCrunch+ Lounge*
Erin Sharoni is the chief product officer (CPO) of FOXO Technologies Inc., a technology startup using the science of AI and epigenetics to reinvent the life insurance industry. Erin has more than 15 years of experience building products and brands in molecular health, media and finance. Prior to joining FOXO, she served at InsideTracker as a creative director. Erin’s previous television career as a television host and journalist included roles on NBC Sports Network, CNBC, CBS Sports and Showtime. She also sat on Ray Dalio’s Core Management Team at Bridgewater as a management associate. Her multidisciplinary approach to problem-solving is driven by a lifelong commitment to the intersection of science and art, and she is passionate about disruptive technology that improves the human experience. She holds a Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies. Additionally, Erin holds a master’s degree in biology from Harvard and a bachelor’s degree with honors in studio art from Wesleyan University. She is currently a Master of Bioethics degree candidate at Harvard Medical School.
Erin's Sessions
How to Disrupt Any Industry with Longevity Science: No PhD Required
What is the key to changing the world and invigorating a lagging business? Longevity science. Enhancing human flourishing and the technology that enables it should be a key consideration of any company. The industries that don’t take this to heart are ripe for disruption.Erin Sharoni, Chief Product Officer of FOXO Technologies, will outline why it’s critical for every industry to look at their business through a longevity lens, share the economic and ethical impacts of longevity on all life on the planet, and provide insights for founders, startups and entrepreneurs—regardless of industry—on how businesses can incorporate longevity science into their technology and products. She will be poised to answer questions regarding how longevity science can be used in many industries to enhance the human experience, as well as how FOXO is using it to disrupt the life insurance industry (and who is taking note of their efforts).
Emmalyn is a co-founder and managing partner of Flourish Ventures, an early-stage global venture capital firm that invests in mission-driven entrepreneurs and industry influencers working towards a fair financial system. Emm leads the firm’s US investment team. Her current portfolio of disruptive fintech companies includes Brigit, Chime, Clerkie, Cushion.ai, EarnUp, Jetty, Kin, Mantl, Propel, Skipify, Steady, TrueBiz and Unit. Emm is an industry thought leader and advocate for transforming the US financial system to help create better financial health. She is a believer in working with marginalized communities and leads her firm’s DEIJ+ efforts. Emm has 23 years of tech investing experience from her roles as a Partner at Omidyar Network and a Venture Partner with Oak Investment Partners. She started her career as a tech investment banker with Morgan Stanley. Emm holds an MBA degree from Wharton and a BA degree from UC-Berkeley where she graduated summa cum laude.
Emmalyn's Sessions
Startup Battlefield – Session 3
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Cuy Sheffield is VP and Head of Crypto at Visa, leading the global crypto product team within the fintech product organization. Cuy is a fellow at the Visa Economic Empowerment Institute, a co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Cryptocurrencies and a member of the advisory group for the Digital Dollar Project. Before Visa, Cuy worked on business development and partnerships for TrialPay, a fintech startup that Visa acquired in 2015.
Cuy's Sessions
Structure, Regulation, and Markets: The Road Ahead for Crypto Startups
From DAOs and altcoins to L2-chains, NFTs, tokens, and figuring out just what the heck a security is, the crypto market is under the spotlight — and under scrutiny. TechCrunch will sit down with FTX’s Brett Harrison, Uniswap Labs’ Mary-Catherine Lader and Visa’s Cuy Sheffield to get a better handle on how they are navigating constant evolution, the new opportunities that the blockchain economy has on offer, and where they see the future taking their market.
Ash Shehryar is Co-Founder and Chief Design Officer of Pronto, a SaaS video creation tool that uses AI to enable users to create videos quickly and economically. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Ash was an award-winning creative director for several global marketing agencies. Her data-driven creative solutions resulted in 66 award-winning campaigns. Inspired by the consistently overlapping lines of marketing and technology, Ash is a distinctive leader with an original perspective, particularly on the user experience. She infuses the conceptual with the scientific, delivering real connections between audiences and brands while cultivating collaborative relationships with her clients and her team. Ash is passionate about what “could be” and immerses herself in technologies like AI, Blockchain, and AR/VR. Her time spent living in four countries, speaking three different languages, translates into a heightened understanding of diverse, global audiences.
Ash's Sessions
How to Supercharge Growth, Utilize Cloud, and Reduce Burn @ Breakout Session #2
Building and running a startup has become even more daunting and challenging. How can you build fast while also managing your burn in the current investment landscape? Come hear from successful startups as they discuss:– Personal stories and battle scars in the journey to accelerate scale– Managing volatility and the unknown in a changing investment landscape– The importance of metrics and being smart about how and where you build– Solutions for Bootstrap, Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A startups and how you can get support and scale up
Robert Siegel is a Lecturer in Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a general partner at XSeed Capital.
Robert's Sessions
How Banks and Fintech Startups Can Effectively Co-Thrive @ Breakout Session #2
More than ever before, the future of banking will rely on strategic relationships to create value for customers across a variety of ecosystems. In this session, you’ll hear about a model for engagement that propels speed-to-market and regulatory compliance, ultimately saving fintech startups time and money.
A veteran technology entrepreneur/investor based in Hong Kong, Yat Siu is the co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, a global leader in blockchain and gaming with the mission to deliver digital property rights to the world’s gamers and Internet users, thereby creating a new asset class, play-to-earn economies, and a more equitable digital framework contributing to the building of the open metaverse. Yat began his career at Atari Germany in 1990. In 1995 he moved to Hong Kong to establish Hong Kong Cybercity/Freenation, the first free web page and email provider in Asia. In 1998 he set up Outblaze, an award-winning pioneer of multilingual white label web services. In 2009, he sold Outblaze’s messaging unit to IBM, and pivoted Outblaze to become an incubator of projects and companies to develop digital entertainment services and products. Yat is a director for TurnOut Ventures, a partnership between Outblaze and Turner Entertainment that brought to prominence the hugely popular emoticon character Tuzki. In 2017 he set up the Dalton Learning Lab, an afterschool digital lab for skills not emphasized by most education systems, including divergent thinking and design thinking. He is the founder of ThinkBlaze, the research arm of Outblaze investigating socially meaningful issues in technology. Since 2018, Yat has been an early advocate for the use of blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the gaming industry, which will allow gamers to enjoy true ownership of their own game assets, data, and, consequently, time. With a clear vision of the potential of decentralized apps and assets, Yat quickly steered Animoca Brands, at the time an established game developer and publisher, to focus on blockchain technology and NFTs. Since 2018, Animoca Brands has launched a series of NFT-centric products and invested in over 100 blockchain-related companies, developing one of the largest blockchain portfolios in the world.
Yat's Sessions
How to Thrive During a Crypto Winter
Animoca Brands is defying all odds. This summer, the Hong Kong-based web3 conglomerate and investment powerhouse raised hundreds of millions of dollars even though crypto prices and NFT transactions are dropping. With hundreds of active investments in popular web3 companies like OpenSea, Dapper Labs and Axie Infinity, as well as its own gaming hits like The Sandbox and Revv Racing, Animoca Brands seems ready to double down and raise the stakes.
Gefen Skolnick is a first generation immigrant, proud queer woman, and coffee lover. She started Couplet in order to bring the love and joy of great-tasting, specialty coffee to the masses. Couplet’s goal is to make more coffee fun and approachable by skipping the pretentiousness of specialty coffee and getting right to delicious coffee. Not only has Gefen worked as the co-director of technology for the largest women’s hackathon in the U.S., but she also built her own apps and participated in multiple fellowship programs. She became a lead partner at a venture fund backed by the founders of Tesla, Reddit, and Twitch before creating her own coffee brand and locking in funding using just Twitter. And did we mention that she did all this by the age of 23! Gefen had planned to bootstrap her company – funding from Twitter was never in question. As fate would have it, however, her persistence to advocate for underrepresented minorities helped her grab the attention of not one but 30 angel investors pre launch. When the brand’s first check came from Jen Rubio, it pushed Gefen to work on Couplet Coffee full-time directly after graduating college. Her passion for being an advocate stems from seeing first hand how community college graduates are extremely under-resourced. Through Twitter, Gefen built a community for underrepresented founders that reached 1,000 members in days, currently at almost 3,000.
Gefen's Sessions
How To Build Your Early VC Network: Turning Social Capital Into Financial Capital
If you haven’t heard of Nik, Josh or Gefen, where have you been? They are founders that are not only building very interesting companies but have taken a forward approach toward making noise on social media. We want to dive into how being a public person can help founders build a future public company. This should be a panel that will be not only informative but also lots of fun.
Meet the Speaker: How to Build Your Early VC network
Join this small group discussion with select speakers in the TechCrunch+ Lounge. *You must have a current TC+ annual or 2-year subscription to access the TechCrunch+ Lounge*
Rachel leads the Pilot Program for the AWS Investment Team to design and test experiments that assess enhancements to drive startup acquisition. Rachel’s focus at AWS is on Seed -Series B startups and AWS Venture Capital partners. Prior to Amazon, Rachel led investment and operational verticals as Chief of Staff at Kindred Ventures, a seed stage venture capital fund. Prior to Kindred, Rachel was an early employee at Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund, a growth stage team – partnering with their Accelerator and Series A teams and building out the Growth Stage program from inception. Previously, Rachel worked at North Run Capital, a Boston-based long short event driven hedge fund. Rachel began her investment career at Audax Group, a private equity firm focusing on middle market companies with an emphasis on add-on acquisitions.
Rachel's Sessions
Women of Disrupt Breakfast powered by Elpha Bay Area Meetup
Join the women attending Disrupt for networking and a panel discussion on Advocating for yourself and uplifting othersFIRST COME, FIRST SERVED – OPEN TO ALL WOMEN & THOSE WHO IDENTIFY AS WOMEN
Christine Spang is the Co-Founder and CTO of Nylas where she leads Nylas’ technical strategy and the development and delivery of cutting-edge productivity-driven products and experiences for software developers and technical teams. As a female founder and CTO, Christine is a strong advocate of diversity within the developer and broader tech communities through organizations such as Lesbians Who Tech, Dev Color, and Women Who Code. Christine holds a degree in computer science from MIT.
Christine's Sessions
Harnessing Data and Culture at Scale @ Roundtable #1
At the end of the day, great businesses serve two groups. Their customers, and their people. For companies pursuing growth, operational scale, and transformational product innovation, these two groups must be in sync and woven into the fabric of the company and how it makes strategic decisions. At this roundtable, Nylas Co-Founder & CTO Christine Spang will discuss with participants how founders and business leaders can harness the power of their data and their culture in order to make the best decisions possible for their customers and their people.
Harnessing Data and Culture at Scale @ Roundtable #2
At the end of the day, great businesses serve two groups. Their customers, and their people. For companies pursuing growth, operational scale, and transformational product innovation, these two groups must be in sync and woven into the fabric of the company and how it makes strategic decisions. At this roundtable, Nylas Co-Founder & CTO Christine Spang will discuss with participants how founders and business leaders can harness the power of their data and their culture in order to make the best decisions possible for their customers and their people.
Maddie Stone is a Security Researcher on Google Project Zero where she focuses on 0-day exploits actively used in-the-wild. Previously, she was a reverse engineer and team lead on the Android Security team, focusing predominantly on pre-installed and off-Google Play malware. Maddie holds a Bachelors of Science, with a double major in Computer Science and Russian, and a Masters of Science in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University.
Maddie's Sessions
Surveillance in Startup Land
Google’s Maddie Stone and ACLU’s Jennifer Granick join us for a crash course in the surveillance state — from spyware makers to location data brokers. Find out what the changing cybersecurity threat and legal landscape means for today’s data-hungry startups.
Sam is passionate about building products at the intersection of finance and machine learning. He is currently the Director of Product Management, Pricing & Machine Learning Products. Sam played an integral part in developing the Opendoor Valuation Model (OVM) which is a core piece of pricing infrastructure. In addition, Sam has helped develop many downstream pricing applications including home offers, how Opendoor values its portfolio and assesses risk and what decisions to make when reselling a home. Prior to Opendoor, he was a co-founder and product manager at Ansaro, a SaaS startup using data science and machine learning to help companies improve hiring decisions. Sam holds degrees in Math and International Relations from Stanford and an MBA from Harvard.
Sam's Sessions
Expanding applications of AI Across Real Estate and Beyond @ Roundtable #1
While buying a home is often one of the largest financial decisions one can make, the process went unchanged for decades until Opendoor rebuilt every part of the transactional experience to be digital, on-demand, and more accessible. Pricing systems are core to Opendoor’s DNA and by developing different machine learning model types and leveraging data science, they’ve been able to ensure a high level of accuracy, coverage and functionality of Opendoor’s in-house suite of pricing systems. Drawing from Sam’s expertise in AI, machine learning and data science, this roundtable will focus on finding ways to develop a data-first approach to finance, the integration of algorithms and humans, and how to improve AI from better data.
Expanding Applications of AI Across Real Estate and Beyond @ Roundtable #1
While buying a home is often one of the largest financial decisions one can make, the process went unchanged for decades until Opendoor rebuilt every part of the transactional experience to be digital, on-demand, and more accessible. Pricing systems are core to Opendoor’s DNA and by developing different machine learning model types and leveraging data science, they’ve been able to ensure a high level of accuracy, coverage and functionality of Opendoor’s in-house suite of pricing systems. Drawing from Sam’s expertise in AI, machine learning and data science, this roundtable will focus on finding ways to develop a data-first approach to finance, the integration of algorithms and humans, and how to improve AI from better data.
Alain is the Founder and CEO of SYLVAIN, a strategy and design consultancy that provokes progress for companies, people and society at large. Clients include Masterclass, Google, American Express, Spotify, Airbnb, Blackrock, Amazon, Diageo, GM, the NBA, UBER, New York Times, Nike, Apple and others. Founded in 2010, the company is headquartered in NYC, with offices in Amsterdam and Richmond, VA.
Alain's Sessions
HypeFeast: How Hype Fuels the Economy and the Unique Opportunity Startups Have to Take Advantage @ Roundtable #1
We can’t escape “hype.” When we look to the past 30+ years, to the likes of the Beanie Baby craze, the anticipation surrounding Y2K, and our obsession with crypto and NFTs, it’s clear that we’ve become obsessed. And startups especially are known for tapping into our penchant for hype, using techniques like manufactured scarcity to stimulate desire for products. But have companies inflated “hype” to be bigger than the products themselves? At what cost? Is there a better way to harness the power of hype? At this roundtable SYLVAIN Founder and CEO Alain Sylvain, will argue that consumers are the ones who create the hype — brands and their founders just plant the seeds. He’ll discuss a framework for cultivating consumer hype in effective and sustainable ways. And through open discussion, founders will be encouraged to share their experiences with the highs and lows of hype in order to learn from each other.
HypeFeast: How Hype Fuels the Economy and the Unique Opportunity Startups Have to Take Advantage @ Roundtable #3
We can’t escape “hype.” When we look to the past 30+ years, to the likes of the Beanie Baby craze, the anticipation surrounding Y2K, and our obsession with crypto and NFTs, it’s clear that we’ve become obsessed. And startups especially are known for tapping into our penchant for hype, using techniques like manufactured scarcity to stimulate desire for products. But have companies inflated “hype” to be bigger than the products themselves? At what cost? Is there a better way to harness the power of hype? At this roundtable SYLVAIN Founder and CEO Alain Sylvain, will argue that consumers are the ones who create the hype — brands and their founders just plant the seeds. He’ll discuss a framework for cultivating consumer hype in effective and sustainable ways. And through open discussion, founders will be encouraged to share their experiences with the highs and lows of hype in order to learn from each other.
As a first-generation American born in Los Angeles, Emir Talu grew up in Istanbul, Turkey. After launching his first company Oprena, an interactive media studio at 24 years old, Emir joined Reshape Ventures in NYC as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. His time in Reshape landed him a Founding Team role at Blank Street, a small-format coffee chain with 40+ locations backed by VC’s such as Base10, General Catalyst, Left Lane Capital and more. During his time at Blank Street, Emir focused on analyzing the shifting consumer trends and how to position the brand’s products and services based on the next generation’s needs. Given his passion for empowering the next generation, Emir co-founded Pentas Ventures— an early stage venture capital fund based in NYC that invests in consumer tech products and platforms built for Gen-Z. Since its launch in July 2021, Pentas Ventures invested in 20+ companies alongside VC’s such as Sequoia, First Round Capital, Greycroft, GV, Forerunner and more. Besides Venture Capital, Emir is a big fan of music and co-founded the music business podcast ‘Came a Long Way’ which hosted label execs from Def Jam, Atlantic Records, Roc Nation, Epic Records, Warner Records, Columbia Records to name a few.
Emir's Sessions
Gen-Z: Adapting to the Next Generation of Consumers @ Roundtable #1
This roundtable discussion will aim to provide useful insights on Gen-Z consumer trends to have a better understanding on how startups need to position themselves to prioritize the next generation’s needs. As a Gen-Z consumer tech investor, Emir Talu will go over how Gen-Z consumers are responding to emerging industries and how they challenge the established ones to reinvent themselves. Attendees will get to share their own experiences/perspectives on Gen-Z consumer trends and participate in the discussion on which companies they think are doing a good job adapting vs. failing to tailor to Gen-Z’s needs.
Gen-Z: Adapting to the Next Generation of Consumers @ Roundtable #4
This roundtable discussion will aim to provide useful insights on Gen-Z consumer trends to have a better understanding on how startups need to position themselves to prioritize the next generation’s needs. As a Gen-Z consumer tech investor, Emir Talu will go over how Gen-Z consumers are responding to emerging industries and how they challenge the established ones to reinvent themselves. Attendees will get to share their own experiences/perspectives on Gen-Z consumer trends and participate in the discussion on which companies they think are doing a good job adapting vs. failing to tailor to Gen-Z’s needs.
Clarence Tan is a co-founder of Boddle Learning — a kids gaming platform that makes learning seriously fun both in and outside the classroom that is used by over 2.5 million kids. Clarence has more than 10 years of experience designing games and UX in the kids and learning space, and is also a speaker on classroom gamification at educational conferences such as ISTE, KCPT(PBS), SXSWEDU, and LearnFest. He has dedicated his work to creating engaging experiences that improve student outcomes in the K-12 space.
Clarence's Sessions
Framing Innovation Through Collaborations Big and Small
Connectivity isn’t a nice-to-have for innovation. It’s mandatory, and collaboration between AT&T and startups at all stages could push the world forward and provide the framework for innovation. Join this session with AT&T CTO Jeremy Legg and a special guest panelist as they discuss the key elements your startup needs to drive tomorrow’s next connectivity innovation breakthrough.
For more than two decades, Adam Tesan has led growth and revenue operations at public and private companies and possesses a unique talent for driving high growth in SaaS and Digital Marketing businesses. He is directly responsible for maximizing all of Chargebee’s revenue streams, including sales strategies, customer success and partnerships.
Adam's Sessions
How to Evolve Your Business Through Recurring Revenue @ Breakout Session #2
With subscription offerings coming to nearly every vertical from fast food to car manufacturing, it’s clear that subscriptions are more than fad; they’re an evolutionary step every business should consider. Employing an innovative recurring revenue model offers a differentiated customer experience and revenue predictability, thereby increasing business resiliency, which is especially important in uncertain times. Regardless of where you are on your company’s journey, from a startup seeking financing to a late-stage business seeking valuation, your revenue model should be an important part of any business strategy.
David Tisch is the Managing Partner of BoxGroup, an NYC-based seed stage venture capital firm that has invested in over 400 seed-stage startups, including Plaid, Ro, PillPack, Ramp, Amplitude, Airtable, Flatiron Health, Stripe, Warby Parker, Harry’s, Oscar, Flexport, Classpass, Vine, GroupMe and more. David is the Chairman of GoodDog, a marketplace to find pets online. He is the co-founder of TechStars NYC and serves on the board of Friends of Hudson River Park. He is a Rock Fellow at Harvard Business School and on the Entrepreneur Board at New York University. David is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and New York University Law School. David lives in NYC with his wife Zara and three kids and three dogs.
David's Sessions
TechCrunch Startup Battlefield FINAL
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Lo is the Founding Managing Partner of Plexo Capital, which he incubated and spun out from GV (Google Ventures), based on a strategy to increase access to early-stage deal flow. Plexo Capital invests in emerging seed-stage VCs (led by diverse managers) and invests directly into companies sourced from the portfolios of VCs where Plexo Capital has an investment. Investors in Plexo Capital funds include Alphabet/Google, Intel Capital, Cisco Investments, RBC, Southern New Hampshire University, Home Depot, Hearst Corporation, Hampton University Endowment, JIMCO + Ford Foundation. His expertise includes investing into areas such as enterprise infrastructure, cybersecurity, financial technology, marketplaces, e-commerce, gaming + technology enabled consumer. In addition to managing Plexo Capital, Lo is a CNBC Contributor providing his expertise on financial markets and technology companies on a regular basis. Prior to founding Plexo Capital, Lo was a Partner on the investing team at GV, where he focused on marketplaces, mobile, and consumer products. Lo received his M.B.A from the Haas School of Business (University of California at Berkeley), where he completed the Management of Technology program, a joint curriculum program with the College of Engineering. Lo received his B.S from Hampton University in Virginia.
Lo's Sessions
TechCrunch Startup Battlefield – Session 2
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Christine Tsai is the CEO and founding partner of 500 Global.
Christine's Sessions
Speaker Q&A: The Bear Market Playbook
Come with your questions for 500 Global’s Christine Tsai, to chat through what should founders be thinking about when fundraising or considering an accelerator program in today’s economic climate
Alan Tu is a portfolio manager for the Global Technology Strategy at T. Rowe Price. The fund invests in private and public companies across the technology landscape, with key areas of focusing including enterprise software, consumer internet, semiconductors, and fintech. Prior to joining T. Rowe Price, Alan received his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth and his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Alan is a Northern California native and enjoys being with nature and pickle ball.
Alan's Sessions
Expanding the Ecosystem: How to Get Institutional Investors Invested in You @ Breakout Session #1
Hear from institutional investors about their growing interest in private markets. They’ll share their thoughts on what makes a good investment and how to get their attention.
Kelvin is the Co-founder & CEO of Bumpa which is billed as the Shopify of Africa and backed by Fast Forward Venture Studio, Google Black Founders Fund, Plug and Play, Sahil Lavigna and Base 10. Previously he founded Consonance – a 7000+ software developer community and managed programs at Co-creation Hub in Lagos Nigeria, which was the first incubator/accelerator in Nigeria.
Kelvin's Sessions
Why African Tech Needs Venture Studios @ Roundtable #9
Could venture studios deliver superior results when it comes to providing entrepreneurial solutions to hard problems in Africa?Entrepreneurship is about risk. The Venture Studio model claims to reduce that risk and maximize the learnings and may be even important in emerging markets where uncertainty is higher and a deep understanding of context and people is necessary. Studios around the world are getting a 34% exit rate VS 21% for Accelerators and 19% for the average venture industry. Is Africa ripe for venture studios, given the increase in back-able and experienced operators who are looking to launch companies. Let’s discuss how this model can be utilized for rapid introduction of new market models and opportunities. This is a roundtable discussion – come share your thoughts and learn from others.
Sandhya is a Silicon Valley veteran operator and investor who has been building with and investing in AI since 2011. She sold her first company to Cisco for $1.5bn, and was VP of Product at Skype when it was acquired by Microsoft for $8.5bn. She was a GP at Social Capital and Khosla Ventures and led the first investment into Groq, recently acquired by Nvidia for ~$20 billion. Other notable investments include FirefliesAI (Unicorn status), ForethoughtAI (acquired by Zendesk), GalileoAI (acquired by Google), and Codegen (acquired by ClickUp). Sandhya currently runs Axiom, an early-stage venture firm that brings together the best AI practitioners in-market today to invest in founders using AI to change the world tomorrow. She believes in AI for the Real World, and backs visionaries that are building insanely useful and usable products for 8 billion people around the world, not just the elite 80 million. Sandhya holds an A.B. with Honors from Harvard University and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Sandhya's Sessions
Speaker Q&A: How to Build Customer-centric Products
Come with your questions for our expert speakers. Khosla Ventures’ Sandhya Venkatachalam is chatting about how startups can keep their focus on the product.
In his current role, Mike is focused on bringing great games to Netflix members since Netflix started providing games as part of members’ subscriptions in Nov 2021. That means working with internal studios and external developers to create and deliver games in a variety of genres that can be enjoyed by Netflix members around the world. Most recently, Mike served as Vice President of Content for Facebook Reality Labs (now Meta), overseeing Oculus Studios as well as the teams bringing second and third party AR/VR games and apps to Oculus VR headsets Oculus Quest and Quest II. Prior to Facebook, Mike worked at large and small companies, in roles ranging from game production to running studio organizations to overseeing large businesses. Mike ran most of EA’s mobile gaming studios as SVP, EA Mobile, and was President of Studios at Kabam after joining that company through the acquisition of his mobile game start-up TapZen. He was also Chief Creative Officer and Co-President of Games for Zynga, after leading EA’s Los Angeles Studio working on RTS and FPS games.
Mike's Sessions
Can Game Streaming Go Mainstream?
As Netflix fights to maintain dominance in the increasingly competitive streaming market, they’re also looking to expand their media ambitions. The streaming giant has tapped former Facebook Gaming head Mike Verdu to charge ahead in the world of mobile game streaming. We look forward to discussing Verdu’s efforts inking publisher deals, testing ideas and looking to make a dent in an unproven market.
Eduardo Vivas is the Co-Founder and CEO of Curated, a place where Real Experts help you find exactly what you’re looking for by providing unbiased advice and product recommendations — for free. Curated is supported by leading investors such as Forerunner Ventures, Greylock Partners and Alphabet’s CapitalG,. Previously, he served as LinkedIn’s Head of Talent Solutions following the acquisition of his startup, Bright. Eddie also serves on the board of AppLovin and still has not finished high school.
Eduardo's Sessions
Founder Fireside: Curated and Forerunner Ventures
The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it a boom in e-commerce. That explosion in online commerce has since tempered, with more folks going to shops than they did during the 2020-2021 period. Does that mean that e-commerce startups are out of fashion? Perhaps not. Curated is taking on online shopping with a mix of curation and guidance that could help it dodge a slowing e-commerce market more generally. We’re sitting down with series founder Eddie Vivas to talk about not only how Curated came to be, but also how the company is adapting to a market that is no longer being shoved in its direction by external forces. Silicon Valley venture hotshot Kirsten Green is joining the fireside to bring the investor perspective into the mix. Don’t miss this conversation!
Lucy Wang is an Managing Director in the Technology Equity Capital Markets (ECM) group based in San Francisco. Lucy provides equity capital raising advisory services for global Tech clients accessing the U.S. market. She has led more than 150 Technology IPOs and follow-ons in the 15 years at J.P. Morgan representing $100bn raised. In her current role, she is responsible for the origination and execution of IPOs and follow-on offerings for companies in all verticals within Technology and has a focus in Enterprise Software, having led 45 Software IPOs in the last 6 years. Lucy began her career at J.P. Morgan in 2007 in Technology Investment Banking Group. Lucy received her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Bachelor of Art in International Relations from the University of Southern California.
Lucy's Sessions
Expanding the Ecosystem: How to Get Institutional Investors Invested in You @ Breakout Session #1
Hear from institutional investors about their growing interest in private markets. They’ll share their thoughts on what makes a good investment and how to get their attention.
Parilee Edison Wang is the Head of Product at Alloy, the identity platform for fraud and risk decisions. She has spent the last 15 years working in product and fintech, driven by the opportunity to help solve interesting problems without obvious answers. Prior to Alloy, Parilee led product at Bread and was a part of the product team at OnDeck. Parilee received her bachelor’s degree in international relations from Stanford University in 2008 and a master’s in business administration from Harvard Business School in 2013.
Parilee's Sessions
Finding True Love in Tech Partnerships: The Dos and Don’ts @ Breakout Session #2
In a world with thousands of specialized start-ups and companies, how do you select the ones that will best complement your needs, and support your business as it scales? Join us as Stash, Mambu, Marqeta, Mastercard, Stride, and Alloy share tips for finding reliable partners, fostering strong collaboration, and creating dynamic environments for innovation.
Milo Werner is a General Partner at The Engine. She serves as a Board Member for Mori, Atlantic Quantum and Foundation Alloy. Previously, she was at Ajax Strategies where she was a Partner, leading mid-stage investments across energy, transportation, agriculture and industrial applications. Milo joined Tesla in 2007, at a critical stage in the company’s trajectory, where she led New Production Introduction, launching Model S powertrain (battery, drive unit, and all the stuff in between), dual motor, drivers assist and, most importantly, Model X. The company grew from 200 to 12,000 during her tenure. In addition to Tesla, Milo ran New Product Introduction at Fitbit, launching four factories in China and transitioning the company to fully automated production, and led engineering and product for micro-grid company Zola, a startup providing distributed energy to over a million families in Sub Saharan Africa. Milo earned a B.S. in Geology and Civil & Environmental Engineering from the University of Vermont, as well as a MS in Civil Engineering and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She sits on the boards of the UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, AxelHire, Infinitum Electric and is a Board Observer for Lime.
Milo's Sessions
Building Companies with Longer Time Horizons
Not every startup can generate revenue from day one. From hardware to hard science, some startups take more time to build income streams. How can founders get around revenue concerns in a more conservative funding market? And how do investors weigh risk when it comes to bets that may take longer to pull off? For growing startup categories like robotics and climate, these are not idle questions. We’re bringing Sila’s Gene Berdichevsky, Index Ventures’ Erin Price-Wright and The Engine’s Milo Werner together to share the real nuts and bolts of early fundraising in 2022.
Startup Battlefield – Session 3
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Ted Westhelle is the Senior Manager, North American Digital Sales for Mambu. His goal is to provide data-driven strategy, sales processes, and enablement to the organization. Ted is a driven and self-directed business development executive with comprehensive accomplishments leading sales, marketing, product development, investment services, innovation and cross-functional teams to ensure success and achieved goals. Known as an innovative thinker with strong marketing, research, analysis, technology and strategic planning acumen, he has demonstrated success developing and seamlessly executing plans in fast-paced organizations. His expertise includes managing multi-million dollar sales goals and advising C-level executives and investors.
Ted's Sessions
Finding True Love in Tech Partnerships: The Dos and Don’ts @ Breakout Session #2
In a world with thousands of specialized start-ups and companies, how do you select the ones that will best complement your needs, and support your business as it scales? Join us as Stash, Mambu, Marqeta, Mastercard, Stride, and Alloy share tips for finding reliable partners, fostering strong collaboration, and creating dynamic environments for innovation.
As a world-class athlete, businesswoman, philanthropist and mother, Serena Williams knows what it takes to win. She has persevered to become one of the top tennis players in history with 23 Grand Slam titles. Serena began actively investing nine years ago when she saw the impact that startups had on everyday lives; in building Serena Ventures, she has been able to multiply that effort with over $110M in investment capital.
Serena's Sessions
Acing Venture
Serena Williams is the greatest to ever play the game of tennis, and she’s already made a name for herself as a VC in the tech world. At Disrupt, Williams and her Serena Ventures partner Alison Rapaport will join us to discuss the next chapter of Serena’s career, swapping out the racket for several (hundred) inbound pitch-decks. We’ll talk about their investment thesis, her plans to bring more diversity into tech, and what she brings to the table as a VC.
Rich Wong joined Accel as a partner in 2006. Rich led Accel’s investments and currently serves on the Boards of Atlassian (TEAM), UiPath (PATH), Checkr, Instabug, Pyn, Process St, Middesk, and Qwilt. Rich also served on the National Venture Capital Association Board of Directors. Rich previously led Accel’s investments in AirWatch (acquired by VMware), Angry Birds/Rovio (ROVIO.HE), MoPub (acquired by Twitter), AdMob (acquired by Google), Dealer.com (acquired by Cox), Osmo (acquired by BYJUs), Parature (acquired by Microsoft), ServiceChannel (acquired by Fortive), Sunrun (RUN), SwiftKey (acquired by Microsoft), and 3LM (acquired by Motorola). Rich previously worked as an operator as EVP/GM of Products for mobile pioneer, Openwave Systems and CMO of Covad Communications. Rich started his career as a brand manager at Procter & Gamble and at McKinsey.
Rich's Sessions
How To Raise In 2022 If You Are Not Located In A Major Hub
Sure, you no longer have to be located in Silicon Valley — let alone California — to build a startup or raise money. But there are still areas where there are more venture capitalists per square mile and areas where there are fewer. To get to grips on raising outside of traditional startup hubs, we’re bringing together VCs who either live and invest, or simply invest in more up-and-coming geographies. Mike Asem of M25, Rich Wong of Accel, and Hustle Fund’s Elizabeth Yin are joining us for this particular chat. It’s going to rock.
TechCrunch Startup Battlefield FINAL
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Sam is CEO of FundableStartups.com, a startup training academy that also provides idea validation and pitch development services to help entrepreneurs build healthy, fundable companies BEFORE they start fundraising. Sam served as CEO, CTO, or technical VP for five startups, resulting in three acquisitions and has also advised two other startups that were acquired. Sam is the author of 21 Secrets of Successful Startups, a book about startup execution. Sam has been featured in Fortune Magazine, served as a pitch judge dozens of times, and has spoken at conferences including TechCrunch Disrupt, The Lean Startup Conference, The Houston Tech Rodeo, and San Diego Startup Week.
Sam's Sessions
Startup Exits: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly @ Roundtable #2
Startup founders and investors work for years to reach a successful exit. After going through five exit opportunities culminating in four acquisitions, Sam has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. One exit died at the 11th hour. One deal closed but ended up being a bust financially. One deal resulted in five offers. Do you choose the buyer offering tons of stock, or the one offering all cash? Another deal resulted in a 9-figure acquisition, but probably left money on the table. Sam also just acquired a company, so he’s seen both buy-side and sell-side. We’ll discuss salability, due diligence, and the inside story of what worked and what didn’t in order to help entrepreneurs position themselves for the best possible exit.
Startup Exits: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly @ Roundtable #2
Startup founders and investors work for years to reach a successful exit. After going through five exit opportunities culminating in four acquisitions, Sam has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. One exit died at the 11th hour. One deal closed but ended up being a bust financially. One deal resulted in five offers. Do you choose the buyer offering tons of stock, or the one offering all cash? Another deal resulted in a 9-figure acquisition, but probably left money on the table. Sam also just acquired a company, so he’s seen both buy-side and sell-side. We’ll discuss salability, due diligence, and the inside story of what worked and what didn’t in order to help entrepreneurs position themselves for the best possible exit.
Pae is a General Partner at SOSV and CTO at IndieBio, where she is responsible for portfolio management and technical oversight. Prior to joining IndieBio, Pae served as the Scientific Director of Telefónica’s moonshot factory, Alpha (in Barcelona). She was Science Director at the US Office of Naval Research – Global (out of Singapore), and technical consultant at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Her whole career, Pae has been investing in high-risk solutions to intractable problems for national defense, humanity, and the planet. She is especially passionate about bridging engineered materials and systems to biology. Pae earned her PhD at Duke in Electrical Engineering and her BSE from Princeton.
Pae's Sessions
Startup Battlefield – Session 4
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Ryan Wyatt is Chief Executive Officer of Polygon Studios, leading the business team working to help advance the Polygon ecosystems across our various products. Prior to Polygon, Ryan spent almost 8 years at Google, where he created and built YouTube’s gaming vertical into the video platform’s second-biggest business. A 14-year game industry veteran, Ryan ran tournament operations at Major League Gaming and built Machinima’s partnership network, helping transform esports into a global phenomenon. Ryan joined YouTube as the Global Head of Gaming at 27. A New York Times Best Selling Author, Ryan was named to Forbes 30 under 30, The Hollywood Reporter’s 35 Rising Executives 35 and Under, and Fortune’s 40 under 40 lists. When Ryan isn’t gaming or collecting NFTs, he enjoys spending time with his two sons and wife in San Diego, California.
Ryan's Sessions
Demystifying Web3
Digital ownership is important, especially to the generation of users who are digital natives; however we are still on a journey to create the right set of structures for digital ownership on the internet. At Polygon, we’re building the infrastructure for the next wave of dapps to experiment and unlock digital ownership to users and creators. In this keynote, Ryan Wyatt – CEO, Polygon Studios presents a pragmatic view of web3 and real-world blockchain use cases while debunking some common misconceptions about the space.
Stephane leads all strategic investments and inorganic business building in innovative early-stage startups, venture capital firms, and venture studio partners at FIS. Prior to FIS, Stephane was most recently SVP of Global Retail Innovation at Mastercard where he built and led a function that deployed innovative new technology solutions across artificial intelligence, frictionless commerce, and virtual/augmented reality with leading merchants such as Dunkin, Circle K, Neiman Marcus, and Inspire Brands. He also founded and led MasterCard’s global early-stage startup engagement and strategic investment efforts including Start Path and Commerce. Innovated. Stephane has over 18 years in Fintech and Commerce with extensive experience enabling large corporates to innovate successfully and build deep strategic partnerships with early-stage startups.
Stephane's Sessions
Fintechs Walking the Line: Ecosystems, Symbiotic Relationships With Banks, and What’s Next @ Breakout Session #1
We’ve reached the third wave of Fintech. First came competing with the banks to disrupt the market and deliver better financial services. Then with fintech 2.0 banks wanted to utilize, invest and even purchase innovators who could add value to their customer experience. Now we’re walking into the world of ecosystems, symbiotic relationships between banks, fintechs and the fintech giants. As a startup or growing fintech company, join us at this discussion to find out which relationships really matter and what support you should be expecting from the ecosystem – which arguably is built around you.
Anatoly Yakovenko is the CEO of Solana Labs and a co-founder of Solana, an open, interoperable and decentralized high performance blockchain network powering internet capital markets, payments, and crypto applications. Prior to founding Solana, he spent over a decade at Qualcomm. Anatoly has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Anatoly's Sessions
Speeding Up Crypto
Launched in 2020, Solana gained worldwide renown for being one of the fastest blockchains with a rapidly growing developer ecosystem. It’s arguably the best-known of the “Ethereum Killers” because of its speed and low transaction cost, but its rise has not been without hurdles. Hear from its creator Anatoly Yakovenko about the opportunities and challenges ahead as Solana seeks to take web3 to mobile devices in a push for mass adoption.
Dmitriy Yakubov is the Head of Partnerships for Checkout.com, working with companies to establish the future direction for their business and solve challenging problems through payment innovation and partnership. With more than 15 years of experience in Business Development, Partnerships, Product Management and Strategy, he is building a strong ecosystem of network partners to enable businesses and their communities to thrive in the digital economy.
Dmitriy's Sessions
How to Evolve Your Business Through Recurring Revenue @ Breakout Session #2
With subscription offerings coming to nearly every vertical from fast food to car manufacturing, it’s clear that subscriptions are more than fad; they’re an evolutionary step every business should consider. Employing an innovative recurring revenue model offers a differentiated customer experience and revenue predictability, thereby increasing business resiliency, which is especially important in uncertain times. Regardless of where you are on your company’s journey, from a startup seeking financing to a late-stage business seeking valuation, your revenue model should be an important part of any business strategy.
Emil Yeargin is the vice president of talent at Gusto where he is working to transform the recruiting strategy and the candidate experience. Prior to joining Gusto, Emil served as the director of technical recruiting at Lyft. Before Lyft, Emil also led recruiting teams at Okta and Zenefits.
Emil's Sessions
How To Secure Those Hard To Find Hires
Hiring is not easy even in the best of times. With a tight tech talent market and an increasingly remote-friendly — and therefore globally competitive — corporate landscape, founders have never had more places to hire from and more competitors to measure up against. So we’re going to have Chris Herd from Firstbase who is an advocate for remote work and Emil Yeargin, VP of Talent at Gusto, which is not only hiring itself but also helps other companies manage their staff. And Janine O’Neill from Sequoia who knows a thing or not about hiring for startups. We’ll go deep on hiring today with an especial focus on hard-to-fill roles.
Speaker Q&A: How to Secure Those Hard To Find Hires
Come with your questions for these expert speakers. With these two we’ll go deep on hiring, with a special focus on hard-to-fill roles.
Elizabeth Yin is a founder and general partner of Hustle Fund, a pre-seed venture capital fund that invests in hilariously early software startups across the U.S., Canada and Southeast Asia.
Elizabeth's Sessions
How To Raise In 2022 If You Are Not Located In A Major Hub
Sure, you no longer have to be located in Silicon Valley — let alone California — to build a startup or raise money. But there are still areas where there are more venture capitalists per square mile and areas where there are fewer. To get to grips on raising outside of traditional startup hubs, we’re bringing together VCs who either live and invest, or simply invest in more up-and-coming geographies. Mike Asem of M25, Rich Wong of Accel, and Hustle Fund’s Elizabeth Yin are joining us for this particular chat. It’s going to rock.
Guled is a product manager and angel investor who’s been involved in blockchain and web3 through its nascent stages. He’s led crypto products at Defi Pulse and Okcoin. Prior to crypto, Guled worked on projects focused space and national security.
Guled's Sessions
Web3, Crypto, Blockchain – Unlocking Prosperity for Tech and Creative Industries in Africa @ Roundtable #7
Crypto adoption is highest in Africa than any other continent. What are the drivers, insights and opportunities for crypto in the region?Kenya, Nigeria, SouthAfrica, Togo are among top 10 economies using crypto according to Chainalysis’ Global Crypto Adoption Index. What does this mean for growth on the continent? How can the core value proposition of cryptocurrency and blockchain – decentralization, trust systems, immutability and programmatic nature be used to create and unlock value in Africa and for Africa? How does it increase cross-border trade, help creatives monetize more, and allow self-governing systems to remove current inefficiencies in African markets?In the same vein, how can we preserve value for crypto adopters in Africa – especially for the poorest people on the continent. What safeguards need to be put in place? This is a roundtable discussion – come share your thoughts and learn from others.
Adewale Yusuf is a visual storyteller with a lifelong passion for technology, ecosystem building and democratizing opportunity. He is the cofounder and CEO of AltSchool, a college for in-demand skills. Previously he founded an African leading technology media platform, Techpoint Africa.
Adewale's Sessions
Exit Pathways for Africa Startups @ Roundtable #7
As funding continues to grow on the African continent, we need to start understanding the paths to exit.We have seen a string of $50m+ African exits in the last 2 years; DPO to Network International, Paystack to Stripe, Sendwave to World Remit, Capricorn Digital to MFS Africa. We have also seen an IPO – Jumia. What should investors expect going forward? Sub $500m exits or IPOs? Who are these acquirers – global firms or African giants? Should founders be mindful of these trends and what should they do about it? This is a roundtable discussion – come share your thoughts and learn from others.
Kathy is the CTO and technical co-founder of Queenly, a ML-driven search engine for formalwear. As a University of Pennsylvania Computer Science graduate and former full-stack engineer at Pinterest, she had single-handedly built and launched the Queenly iOS app, web app, Android app, and backend search and recommendations infrastructure. She has grown Queenly from an idea to platform which now boasts over half a million app downloads, and she is currently on the Forbes 30 Under 30 2022 list.
Kathy's Sessions
Democratizing Retail with AI-powered Marketplaces @ Roundtable #3
On the heels of a global pandemic and economic downturn, the fashion and retail industry has demonstrated more than ever a need to be disrupted. Gone are the days of individual brick and mortar stores, with indie designers and small business owners are struggling to adapt to SEO and social media driven growth tactics as consumers live more and more of their shopping online. Queenly’s CTO and cofounder Kathy Zhou will walk the audience through how she’s built a centralized managed marketplace to solve these problems for the growing formal wear industry, including personalized recommendations, domain-specific search engines, as well as creating a tailoring CV and ML data pipeline for a formerly offline industry.
Democratizing retail with AI-powered marketplaces at Roundtable #1
On the heels of a global pandemic and economic downturn, the fashion and retail industry has demonstrated more than ever a need to be disrupted. Gone are the days of individual brick and mortar stores, with indie designers and small business owners are struggling to adapt to SEO and social media driven growth tactics as consumers live more and more of their shopping online. Queenly’s CTO and cofounder Kathy Zhou will walk the audience through how she’s built a centralized managed marketplace to solve these problems for the growing formal wear industry, including personalized recommendations, domain-specific search engines, as well as creating a tailoring CV and ML data pipeline for a formerly offline industry.
John Zimmer is the co-founder and President of Lyft. John’s mission is to improve people’s lives by creating transportation and cities that are more affordable, sustainable, and community-oriented. As the world shifts to transportation-as-a-service, Lyft is at the forefront of this massive societal change. Its transportation network includes the largest shared mobility network in the United States, with rideshare, bikes, scooters, car rentals, and transit. John first grew interested in transportation during a college class on sustainable cities, where he learned that cars remain parked 95% of the time. After graduating from Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, John spent two years at Lehman Brothers. In 2008, he left Lehman to rideshare his way from New York to San Francisco, where he joined co-founder Logan Green to launch Zimride and eventually Lyft. John serves on the board of CuldeSac, the first car-free neighborhood in the United States. You can follow John on Twitter and LinkedIn.
John's Sessions
Steering Towards an Autonomous Future?
A decade ago, Lyft launched in San Francisco as the friendly pink mustache-wearing ride-hailing service. Today, the company is the second-largest ride-hailing service in the U.S., runs a bike share business, acquired and created and then sold a self-driving car unit — all while facing rival Uber, regulatory headwinds, lawsuits and the public market. Co-founder John Zimmer will talk about how it aims to remain competitive, what inflation and regulatory pressures may bring and where the next wave of growth will come from.
Eric Zimmerman is part of the startup and venture capital business development team at Amazon Web Services (AWS) focusing on healthcare and life sciences. He also works in product management for open source, pre-competitive tools to make conducting science on AWS easier. Prior to AWS, Eric was a venture capitalist investing in biotech and healthcare companies.
Eric's Sessions
Tech Driven Biology and Chemistry: Solving Science’s Hardest Problems at Scale @ Breakout Session #2
Join leaders in the AI-Driven Drug Discovery market for a fireside chat exploring how to build the next-generation of digital biotech. BigHat Biosciences, Terray Therapeutics and AWS will discuss topics including company building, science fact vs. fiction and the future of medicine. Understand how the intersection of biology and chemistry is enabling new techniques to develop novel therapeutics through the lens of technology. Walk away with insights from startup founders about building and running a startup that are applicable across all industries.
Will Edwards is the co-founder and CEO of Firehawk Aerospace, a hybrid rocket engine design and manufacturing firm. Firehawk’s rocket engines are powered by their patented 3D printed rocket fuel. By 3D printing their fuel Firehawk can build rocket engines for space and defense applications that are lower cost, far safer, and can significantly outperform traditional solid rocket motors in terms of both fuel performance and with its ability to throttle. Will Edwards is from Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a graduate of the University of Arkansas. Prior to Firehawk he founded MetKnow, an HR software solution, in Santa Monica, California. Will was name Forbes 30 under 30 in 2021.
Will's Sessions
Startup Battlefield Alumni Update
Battlefield startups from the past return to the stage to tell us what they’ve been up to since they competed for the Disrupt Cup.
Vihari Kanukollu is the Co-Founder, An Ag-tech startup which aims to create solutions to the solve food security market possibilities for farmers. Featured in Forbes 30 under 30 & is Management Accountant by profession. His passion for farming, food security led to his interest in UrbanKissan
Vihari's Sessions
Startup Battlefield Alumni Update
Battlefield startups from the past return to the stage to tell us what they’ve been up to since they competed for the Disrupt Cup.
Peter A. Boyce II is the Founder & Managing Partner of Stellation Capital, an early stage venture capital firm headquartered in Brooklyn. Prior to this, Peter spent eight years as a Partner at General Catalyst, an $8B venture capital firm that invests in powerful, positive change that endures. In addition to his work at GC, he co-founded & advises Rough Draft Ventures: a funding platform to support technology entrepreneurship on university campuses. Peter is a graduate of Harvard University, earning a B.A. in Applied Mathematics and a Secondary in Computer Science. He grew up in New York City, where he graduated from Stuyvesant High School. He is proud to be a Ron Brown Scholar. Outside of his time investing, Peter serves as a non-profit board member to support communities he is passionate about: The Shed, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The New Museum, NEW INC, Code Nation, and the Harvard College Fund. He serves as a Rock Venture Capital Partner at Harvard Business School, Program Advisor for the HBS MS/MBA Program, and an MIT Sandbox Board Member.
Peter A's Sessions
Startup Battlefield – Session 4
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. He invests in people over product at the earliest stage of their entrepreneurial journey. Under his leadership, Precursor has raised four funds and has $250+ million under management. He has invested in 400+ companies and has supported 450+ founders, including the teams behind Bobbie Baby, Carrot, Incredible Health, Juniper Square, Modern Health, Pair Eyewear, Rad AI, and The Athletic (sold to the NY Times for $525 million in 2022). Prior to founding Precursor, Charles was a Partner at Uncork Capital where he focused on identifying investment opportunities in mobile infrastructure, applications, and marketplaces and supported their portfolio companies on business and corporate development matters. He was also the Co-founder and CEO of Bionic Panda Games, an Android-focused mobile games startup. Charles is an active member of the VC community. He was the 2023-2024 Chair of the NVCA Board of Directors, a board member at Venture Forward, on the investment committee for Screendoor, and is on the Path Ahead Ventures Advisory Board. He is also an advisor and mentor to a number of emerging managers. Charles holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Economics and Spanish from Stanford. He maintains close connections with his alma mater and was awarded the 2021-22 Governors’ Award in honor of his volunteer service to the university as a board member and volunteer. Charles is also a co-instructor for the Entrepreneurship from Diverse Perspectives course in the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Charles's Sessions
Startup Battlefield – Session 3
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Ysbrant Marcelis has been an operating executive in the financial services and commerce industries for 15 years. Prior to joining Commerce Ventures, Ysbrant led enterprise strategy and business at Vantiv (now Worldpay). Prior to that, he led initiatives focused on mobile payments, global payments infrastructure, consumer digital and digital governance for Citigroup. He also brings advisory and consulting experience from his roots with Booz & Company where he advised clients across US, Europe and Middle East. Ysbrant was also a co-founder of OpenRevolution, created to expand access to financial services via mobile across 25 countries and 5 continents.
Ysbrant's Sessions
Fintechs Walking the Line: Ecosystems, Symbiotic Relationships With Banks, and What’s Next @ Breakout Session #1
We’ve reached the third wave of Fintech. First came competing with the banks to disrupt the market and deliver better financial services. Then with fintech 2.0 banks wanted to utilize, invest and even purchase innovators who could add value to their customer experience. Now we’re walking into the world of ecosystems, symbiotic relationships between banks, fintechs and the fintech giants. As a startup or growing fintech company, join us at this discussion to find out which relationships really matter and what support you should be expecting from the ecosystem – which arguably is built around you.
Dylan Massey is a co-founder and CEO of Interchecks, a payout platform focused on transaction speed and choice. Prior to Interchecks, Dylan was an analyst at Goldman Sachs where he managed risk for structured products, mortgage trading, commodity trading and digital finance. Dylan earned his BA in Economics from the University of Chicago in 2014.
Dylan's Sessions
Fintechs Walking the Line: Ecosystems, Symbiotic Relationships With Banks, and What’s Next @ Breakout Session #1
We’ve reached the third wave of Fintech. First came competing with the banks to disrupt the market and deliver better financial services. Then with fintech 2.0 banks wanted to utilize, invest and even purchase innovators who could add value to their customer experience. Now we’re walking into the world of ecosystems, symbiotic relationships between banks, fintechs and the fintech giants. As a startup or growing fintech company, join us at this discussion to find out which relationships really matter and what support you should be expecting from the ecosystem – which arguably is built around you.
Vieje Piauwasdy is the director of Equity Strategy at Secfi, an equity planning platform for startup executives and employees.
Vieje's Sessions
From IPO Frenzies to Delays: What’s Changing with Equity @ Roundtable #6
The cooling IPO market and changing workforce have founders reshaping their views on how to structure equity compensation plans, provide liquidity to employees, and use equity to attract and retain talent. We’ll have an honest discussion about the shifting dynamics, today’s challenging environment, and ways to address it head-on.
From IPO frenzies to Delays: What’s Changing with Equity @ Roundtable #7
The cooling IPO market and changing workforce have founders reshaping their views on how to structure equity compensation plans, provide liquidity to employees, and use equity to attract and retain talent. We’ll have an honest discussion about the shifting dynamics, today’s challenging environment, and ways to address it head-on.
From IPO Frenzies to Delays: What’s Changing with Equity @ Roundtable #6
The cooling IPO market and changing workforce have founders reshaping their views on how to structure equity compensation plans, provide liquidity to employees, and use equity to attract and retain talent. We’ll have an honest discussion about the shifting dynamics, today’s challenging environment, and ways to address it head-on.
From IPO Frenzies to Delays: What’s Changing with Equity @ Roundtable #6
The cooling IPO market and changing workforce have founders reshaping their views on how to structure equity compensation plans, provide liquidity to employees, and use equity to attract and retain talent. We’ll have an honest discussion about the shifting dynamics, today’s challenging environment, and ways to address it head-on.
