TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
October 28 – 30, 2024 — San Francisco
Speakers
New speakers added daily.
Mary Barra
Chair and CEOGeneral Motors
A.C. Charania
Agency Chief TechnologistNASA
Denise Dresser
Chief Executive OfficerSlack from Salesforce
Sara Foster
General Partner / Co-FounderOversubscribed Ventures / Favorite Daughter
Colin Kaepernick
Founder and CEOLumi and Super Bowl QB
Vinod Khosla
FounderKhosla Ventures
Ashton Kutcher
Co-Founder and General PartnerSound Ventures
Matt Mullenweg
Co-Founder / Founder and CEOWordPress / Automattic
Assaf Rappaport
Co-Founder and CEOWiz
Medha Agarwal
General Partnerdefy.vc
Imran Ahmed
CEOCenter of Countering Digital Hate
Jane Alexander
PartnerCapitalG
Alessandra Andrenacci
Head of PartnershipsDropbox DocSend
Jessica Archibald
General PartnerTop Tier Capital Partners
Jessica Arnold
VP, Global Velocity Sales and Sales DevelopmentAmplitude
Ziad Asghar
Senior Vice President & General Manager of XRQualcomm Incorporated
Sahab Aslam
PrincipalSukun Ventures
Casey Aylward
PartnerAccel
Bogomil Balkansky
PartnerSequoia Capital
Jyoti Bansal
CEO & Co-FounderHarness
Talia Baruch
CEO, CofounderGlobalSake
Nikhil Basu Trivedi
Co-Founder & General PartnerFootwork
Peter Beck
Founder & CEORocket Lab
Mariane Bekker
Managing PartnerFounders Bay
Morgan Beller
General PartnerNFX
Wassym Bensaid
Chief Software OfficerRivian
Aeva Black
Section Chief, Open Source SecurityU.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
Marianna Bonanome
Head of AI Strategy and PartnershipsSandboxAQ
Nick Borenstein
General ManagerThe Webby Awards
Marc Boroditsky
Former President of RevenueCloudflare
Cody Bronkar
VC & Strategic PartnershipsSpaceWERX
Po Bronson
General Partner, SOSV & Managing Director, IndieBio SFSOSV
Alice Brooks
PartnerKhosla Ventures
Clayton Bryan
Partner and Head of Accelerator500 Global
Robhy Bustami
CEO & Co-FounderBioticsAI
Bianca Caban
Vice PresidentHSBC Innovation Banking
Christina Cacioppo
Co-Founder and CEOVanta
Matt Carbonara
Head of Enterprise Tech InvestingCiti Ventures
Mike Carter
FounderVooma
Martin Casado
General PartnerAndreessen Horowitz
Navin Chaddha
Managing PartnerMayfield
Wesley Chan
Co-Founder and Managing PartnerFPV Ventures
Jeni Chang
Managing DirectorFounder Institute
Tanguy Chau
CEOPaxton AI
Anna Chen
InvestorMadrona
Roman Chernin
Co-Founder and CBONebius
Swati Choksi
Senior Leader, Solutions ArchitectureAWS
Aury Cifuentes
InvestorHow Women Invest
Beezer Clarkson
PartnerSapphire Partners
Tobi Coker
PartnerFelicis
Josh Constine
Venture PartnerSignalFire
Mark Crane
PartnerGeneral Catalyst
Dr. Tom Cwik
CTOJet Propulsion Laboratory
Itai Damti
Co-Founder & CEOUnit
Jai Das
Co-Founder, President, and PartnerSapphire Ventures
Sheeba Dawood
CEOMinerva Lithium
Rodrigo De Paula
VP Digital Partnerships & Ventures LACVisa
Sara Deshpande
General PartnerMaven Ventures
Scott Dietzen
CEOAugment Computing
James Ding
CEO and Co-FounderDraftWise
Sofia Dolfe
PartnerIndex Ventures
Angela Du
PartnerSoftBank Investment Advisers
Kevin Dunlap
Co-Founder and Managing PartnerCalibrate Ventures
Andy Dunn
CEOPie
Pegah Ebrahimi
Co-Founder and Managing PartnerFPV Ventures
Dr. Debra L. Emmons
Vice President and CTOThe Aerospace Corporation
Effie Epstein
Managing PartnerSound Ventures
Christine Esserman
PartnerAccel
Tony Fadell
PrincipalBuild Collective
Ali Farhadi
CEOAllen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2)
Chris Farmer
CEO, Partner, and Co-FounderSignalFire
Justin Fiaschetti
CEO and Co-FounderInversion
Erin Foster
General Partner / Co-FounderOversubscribed Ventures / Favorite Daughter
George Fraser
CEOFivetran
Jörgen Fredman
CEO & Co-FounderWaya Finance & Technology
Avi Freedman
CEO and Co-FounderKentik
Ben Fu
PartnerOMERS Ventures
Rohan Ganesh
PartnerObvious Ventures
Heather Gantt-Evans
CISOMarqeta
Div Garg
Co-Founder, Chairman of the Board & Chief VisionaryMultiOn
Emilie Gerber
Founder & CEOSix Eastern
Rebecca Gevalt
Managing PartnerDcode Capital
Dayna Grayson
Co-founder & Managing PartnerConstruct Capital
Darren Gruber
Technical Advisor in the Office of Security and TrustMongoDB
Harsha Gundala
Co-FounderMoonshine
Topher Haddad
Co-Founder and CEOAlbedo
Rashid Haddadin
Co-Founder & CEOGamerG
Aaron Hall
Founder, CEOIntropic Materials
Erin Harkless Moore
Managing Director, InvestmentsPivotal Ventures
Peter Hazlehurst
CEO & Co-FounderSynctera
Troy Helming
Founder & CEOEarthGrid
Kelly Hennig
Chief Operating OfficerStoke Space
Katelin Holloway
Founding PartnerSeven Seven Six
Kevin Hu
Co-Founder & CEOMetaplane
Haomiao Huang
Founding PartnerMatter Venture Partners
Austin Hughes
Co-Founder & CEOUnify
Lauren Illovsky
Talent PartnerCapitalG
Dr. Galym Imanbayev
PartnerLightspeed Venture Partners
Steve Isakowitz
President and CEOThe Aerospace Corporation
Amy Jain
CEOSwipeFund
Amit Jain
CEO & Co-founderLuma
Margaret Johnson
Chief Creative Officer & PartnerGoodby, Silverstein & Partners
Scott Johnston
CEODocker, Inc.
Myriam Joire
Host & FounderMobile Tech Podcast
Lewis Jones
Investment VPGeneration Space
Jon Jones
Vice President and Global Head of Startups at AWSAmazon Web Services
Steve Jones
EVP – Data Driven Business & GenAICapgemini
Gargi Kand
Co-Founder & CPOVently
Chet Kapoor
VP, Security Services & ObservabilityAmazon Web Services
Eylul Kayin
PartnerGradient Ventures
Hasan Kazmi
Vice President, Head of Strategic Partnerships and VenturesVisa, Inc.
Amy Kelly
CEO and Co-FounderMiri AI
Elizabeth Kelly
Director, U.S. AI Safety InstituteNational Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Department of Commerce
Haseeb Khan
Vice President, Technologytkxel
Monica Khan
Creator Community Executive & StrategistBay Area Creator Economy
Nick Khonaysser
CEOVently
Chris Klayko
Senior Vice President of SalesDatabricks
Kai Kloepfer
Founder + CEOBiofire
Justin Krauss
Head of Applied Tech, Innovation EconomyJPMorgan
Madhukar Kumar
Chief Developer Evangelist & CMOSingleStore Inc.
Shronit Ladhani
Co-Founder & CEOLearnTube
Paul Lambert
Founder & CEOQuilt
Vanessa Larco
Co-FounderPremise
Nicholas Larson
FounderSilicon Zombies
Michelle Lawson
Founder and EducatorComputer Science Girlies
Eti Lazarian
Family Office PrincipalElle Family Office
Victor Lazarte
General PartnerBenchmark
Marcelo Lebre
President and Co-FounderRemote
Bruce Lee
CEO & FounderKeebeck Wealth Management
Eugene Lee
PartnerOMERS Ventures
Roger Lee
CEOComprehensive.io
Aileen Lee
Founder & Managing PartnerCowboy Ventures
Bastian Lehmann
CEO & FounderTiptop
Jesse Levinson
CTO and Co-FounderZoox
Ana Leyva
GTMPear VC
Qi Li
Physician ExecutiveInterSystems
Jia Li
Co-Founder, President & Chief AI OfficerLiveX AI
Lori Lizotte
Chief Revenue OfficerWomenTech Network
Dan Lorenc
Co Founder & CEOChainguard
Areeb Malik
Co-Founder & CTOGlacier
Siddharth Mall
VP ProductTELUS Digital
Kartik Mani
Head of Retail Services and Global Connected CommerceCiti
Brian Manning
CEOXona Space Systems
Toby Mao
CTO and Co-FounderTobiko Data
Patrick Maroney
Principal, High Tech IndustrySAP
Lindsey Martin
Head of EngineeringCheck
Kira McCroden
VP of CommunicationsForerunner
Ian McDiarmid
Strategy DirectorTELUS Digital
Luke McGartland
Founder and CEOSequence
Nicolas Meader
PrincipalLioncrest Ventures
Bridgit Mendler
Co-Founder & CEONorthwood Space
Marten Mickos
CEOHackerOne
Nik Milanovic
General PartnerThe Fintech Fund
Ben Milne
Founder & CEOBrale
Nicholai Mitchko
Manager, Solution Partner Sales EngineerInterSystems
Ann Miura-Ko
Co-founding PartnerFloodgate
SC Moatti
Managing PartnerMighty Capital
David Mogensen
VP, Global MarketingUber
Lisa Morales-Hellebo
Founder & Managing GPREFASHIOND Ventures
Troy Morris
Co-Founder & CEOKall Morris Inc (KMI)
Brent Murri
PartnerM13
Sarah Myers West
Executive DirectorAI Now Institute
Gurinder Nagra
CEOFurno Materials
Shravan Narayan
PartnerIVP
Jessica Newman
DirectorUC Berkeley AI Security Initiative
Khanh Ngo
Global Monetization Strategy and OperationsTikTok
Marily Nika
Founder, AI Product Academy & Gen AI Product, GoogleMeta
Brandie Nonnecke
Director, CITRIS Policy Lab; Host, TecHype; & Assoc. Research Professor, Goldman SchoolUC Berkeley
Jordan Noone
Co-FounderEmbedded Ventures
Turner Novak
Chief Meme OfficerBanana Capital
Will Nuelle
General Partner, VenturesGalaxy
Roeland Nusselder
CEO and Co-FounderPlumerai
Brigid O'Brien
Managing Partner, Planetary HealthRA Capital Management
Guy Oseary
Chairman, Maverick, Co-founder, Sound VenturesSound Ventures
Lee Ott
VP of AI ProductsHP
Justin Ouyang
PrincipalOMERS Ventures
Jeremiah Owyang
General PartnerBlitzscaling Ventures
Kaushik PS
Senior Director of ProductTELUS Digital
Alex Pall
Producer, The Chainsmokers & Partner and Co-FounderMANTIS Venture Capital
Natalie Pan
COOWomen Founders Bay
Sheetal Parikh
General Counsel, Chief Compliance OfficerTreasury Prime
Heloisa Passos
CEO & FounderTrexx
Chris Pearson
CEOAgile Space Industries
Aleksandra Pedraszewska
AI SafetyElevenLabs
Carl Pei
CEO and FounderNothing
Alexander Peng
Growth EngineerSingleStore Inc.
Anand Babu (AB) Periasamy
Co-CEOMinIO
Rick Prostko
Senior Managing Director, Teachers' Venture GrowthOntario Teachers' Pension Plan
Iliana Quinonez
Director, Customer Engineering, Google Cloud StartupsGoogle
Renata Quintini
Co-Founder and Managing DirectorRenegade Partners
Haseeb Qureshi
Managing PartnerDragonfly
Jack Randall
Head of CommunicationsAetherflux
Karthik Ranganathan
Co-Founder & Co-CEOYugabyte
Naveen Rao
VP of AIDatabricks
Josh Reeves
CEO and Co-founderGusto
Corinne Riley
PartnerGreylock
Elliott Robinson
PartnerBessemer Venture Partners
Meredith Roemer
Head of North AmericaGrow with SAP for Scaleups
Andrew Roettger
Founder & CEOCatalyst Financial Group
Even Rogers
CEO and Co-FounderTrue Anomaly
Jaime Roldan
CEO & Co-FounderQuqo
Lee Rosen
Co-Founder & CEOThinkOrbital Inc.
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Managing DirectorInsight Partners
Kirsty Roth
Chief Operating OfficerThomson Reuters
Brian Rothenberg
Partnerdefy.vc
Pamela San Martin
Co-ChairOversight Board
Prukalpa Sankar
Co-FounderAtlan
Gayatri Sarkar
CEOAdvaita Capital
Andrew Schoen
PartnerNEA
Phil Schwarz
Advisor, Oversubscribed VenturesPartner, Corazon Capital
Mike Seckler
CEOJustworks
Rudina Seseri
Founder and Managing PartnerGlasswing Ventures
Megs Shah
CEO and Chief Product OfficerThe Parasol Cooperative
Deena Shakir
General PartnerLux Capital
Cuy Sheffield
Head of CryptoVisa, Inc.
Dane Sherrets
Senior Solutions ArchitectHackerOne
Will Shulman
VP, ProductMongoDB
Michael Shulman
Co-Founder and CEOSuno
Harpinder (Harpi) Singh
PartnerInnovation Endeavors
Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan
Head of Data Clean RoomsSnowflake
Spenser Skates
CEO and Co-FounderAmplitude
Chad Sniffen
Senior Technology Safety SpecialistNational Network to End Domestic Violence
Irene Solaiman
Head of Global PolicyHugging Face
Tim Solms
CEOSlingshot Aerospace
Mark Solomon
Co-FounderStealth Startup
Natalie Sportelli
DirectorBullish
Aravind Srinivas
Co-Founder & CEOPerplexity
Aishwarya Srinivasan
Head of AI Developer RelationsFireworks AI
Kakul Srivastava
CEOSplice
Andy Steuerman
Vice ChairGolub Growth
Karthik Subramanian
Managing Director, Technology Investment BankingGoldman Sachs
Hyuk-Jeen Suh
General PartnerSkyRiver Ventures
Kate Sullivan
FounderUncracked, Inc.
Iris Sun
Global Investment Team500 Global
Daniel Svonava
CEO and Co-FounderSuperlinked
Drew Taggart
Producer, The Chainsmokers & Partner and Co-FounderMANTIS Venture Capital
Harry Tannenbaum
Co-Founder and PresidentMill
Jordan Taylor
CEOVizcom
Bret Taylor
Co-FounderSierra
Chelcie Taylor
InvestorNotable Capital
Delores Terry
Consumer Fintech Business Development LeadVisa, Inc.
Dharmesh Thakker
General PartnerBattery Ventures
Jordan Tigani
CEO and Co-Founder
Atul Todi
Founder & CEO10Times
Rowan Trollope
CEORedis
Ari Tuchman
CEOQuantifind
Hans Tung
Managing PartnerNotable Capital
Tomasz Tunguz
General Partner and FounderTheory Ventures
Duncan Turner
General Partner, SOSV & Managing Director, HAXSOSV
April Underwood
Managing DirectorAdverb
Nirmal Utwani
Dir. of Engineering, GrowthAmplitude
Jake Vacovec
Co-FounderFlyCode
Priyanka Vergadia
Senior Director Developer EngagementMicrosoft
Luis Villa
General Counsel and Co-FounderTidelift
Hira Virdee
CEOLumi Space
Julianna Vitolo
PrincipalOMERS Ventures
Vladislav Voroninski
CEO and FounderHelm.ai
Marcie Vu
PartnerGreycroft
Colin Walsh
Founder and CEOVaro Bank
Christopher Wan
VPBessemer Venture Partners
Pascal Weinberger
Co-Founder and CEOBardeen.ai
Adam Weiss
President North AmericaAwin
Dr. Jen Welter
NFL's first female coachDr. Jen Welter LLC
Scott Wiener
California SenatorCalifornia Senate
Jason Wilk
CEODave
Jai Williams
COOOptiGenix
Rodney Williams
https://www.linkedin.com/company/solo-funds/SoLo Funds
Sharon Winter
Vice PresidentAtomic
Shane Witnov
Privacy and Policy DirectorMeta
Allison Wolff
CEOVibrant Planet
Pae Wu
General Partner, SOSV & CTO, IndieBioSOSV
Tamar Yehoshua
President of Product and TechnologyGlean
Christine Yen
CEOHoneycomb.io
Elizabeth Yin
Co-Founder & General PartnerHustle Fund
Jerry Yue
Founder and CEOBrain.ai
Sangeen Zeb
General PartnerGV (Google Ventures)
Jingna Zhang
Founder & CEOCara
Colin Zima
CEO and Co-FounderOmni
Mary Barra is chair and chief executive officer of General Motors. She was elected chair of the GM Board of Directors in 2016 and has served as CEO of GM since 2014. Under Barra’s leadership, GM envisions a world with zero crashes, to save lives; zero emissions, so future generations can inherit a healthier planet; and zero congestion, so customers get back a precious commodity — time. She is focused on creating the best customer experience and strengthening GM’s core vehicle and services business, while also working to deliver transformative technologies such as electrification, autonomous driving, and software. Prior to becoming CEO, Barra served as GM executive vice president, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain, and as senior vice president, Global Product Development. In these roles, Barra and her teams were responsible for the design, engineering, and quality of GM vehicle launches worldwide. Previously, she served as vice president, Global Human Resources; vice president, Global Manufacturing Engineering; plant manager, Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly; and in several other executive engineering and staff positions. Barra began her career with GM in 1980 as a General Motors Institute (Kettering University) co-op student at the Pontiac Motor Division. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1985, followed by a Master of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1990. Barra serves on the Board of Directors of the Walt Disney Company, the Duke University Board of Trustees, and the Detroit Economic Club.
Mary's Sessions
How Mary Barra is Shaping GM’s Tech Future
Over her decade-long tenure, Chairman and CEO Mary Barra has pushed to transform General Motors into a technological powerhouse — and one that will lead in electrification, software and autonomous driving though their self-driving subsidiary Cruise. We’ll take stock of her progress — including the unexpected speed bumps along the way — and dig into her plans for the future, including where GM is investing capital.
As the Agency Chief Technologist, A.C. Charania serves as principal advisor to NASA’s administrator on technology policy and programs. He also leads technology innovation at the agency and aligns NASA’s agency-wide technology investments with mission needs across the six mission directorates. Charania oversees technology collaboration with other federal agencies and the private sector while coordinating with external stakeholders. Charania is an experienced leader in entrepreneurial space and aviation ventures, whose private sector work also includes projects under contract for NASA, the Air Force, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). His breadth of experience spans multiple areas, including launch vehicles, hypersonics, human/robotic exploration, lunar landers, planetary defense, small satellites, and aviation autonomy. Before joining NASA, he served as vice president of product strategy at Reliable Robotics.
A.C.'s Sessions
Cislunar: The Next Frontier
Cislunar space – the region from Earth out to the Moon – is quickly becoming the next frontier for commercial space activity and a gateway for future space exploration. This panel will explore how the convergence of cutting-edge technology, innovative business models, and strategic partnerships is turning bold visions for the Moon – from space stations to sustainable lunar infrastructure – into reality. Industry leaders will discuss the opportunities and challenges of building a thriving lunar ecosystem and how the commercial sector is positioning itself at the heart of this new era of exploration.
Denise Dresser is the CEO of Slack. For over 20 years, Denise has spearheaded business transformations within many of the world’s largest and most innovative companies. At Slack and as a part of Salesforce, Denise leads the team of Slack technologists, product innovators, marketers, communicators, and customer success professionals who are grounded in Slack’s mission to make people’s working lives simpler, more pleasant, and more productive. Denise previously served as President of Accelerated Industries Sales at Salesforce, leading the distribution and go-to-market strategy for some of Salesforce’s most strategic accounts and for the company’s industry-leading cloud solutions. Prior to Salesforce, she was a sales leader at Oracle. Denise graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is a member of the Ad Council Board of Directors, a passionate mentor to future women leaders and top talent, and the executive sponsor for ALSForce, a Salesforce equality group focused on raising awareness about ALS. Denise is based in San Francisco and is the mom to two amazing teenage boys.
Denise's Sessions
Embracing Slack’s Evolution Under Salesforce and Vision for the Future
Join us for a one-on-one chat with Slack CEO Denise Dresser, who is approaching her one year anniversary while leading her organization through a time of AI-driven change and continued questions about the return to office. During this session, learn how Slack is innovating with agents to empower teams to work smarter, faster, and more efficiently, and get a glimpse into Slack’s next chapter of innovation and growth in this new era of work.
Sara Foster is the co-founder of clothing and lifestyle brand Favorite Daughter, now with two of its own stores and sold at Moda Operandi, Nordstrom, and Saks. Sara is also an executive producer on “Nobody Wants This,” a Netflix show to be released in September 2024, starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody. Her and her sister Erin have also launched Oversubscribed Ventures, a venture capital firm aimed at investing in consumer brands and tech. Sara and Erin also have a weekly podcast called The World’s First Podcast, which discusses dating, bettering yourself, and the fights they get into. Sara also has an extensive personal portfolio, investing in companies like Summersalt and Rowan.
Sara's Sessions
Consumer, Culture, and Creators with Erin and Sara Foster
Two of the industry’s most famous sisters sit down alongside business partner Phil Schwarz to talk about consumer investing, culture curation, and what it means to be a creator in the modern age.
Colin Kaepernick is the founder and CEO of Lumi, a groundbreaking platform that empowers creators by providing them with the tools needed to independently create, publish, and merchandise their stories both digitally and physically. In 2016, he took a knee during “The Star Spangled Banner” to bring attention to systemic oppressions against Black and Brown people, and quickly became known as one of America’s foremost civil rights activists. As an NFL player, Colin led the San Francisco 49ers to Super Bowl XLVII and is the holder of the all-time NFL record for most rushing yards in a game by a quarterback. He has been awarded a number of prestigious honors, including Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope honor, GQ magazine’s “Citizen of the Year,” the NFL’s Len Eshmont Award, the Sports Illustrated Muhammad Ali Legacy Award, the ACLU’s Eason Monroe Courageous Advocate Award, and the Puffin/Nation Institute’s Prize for Creative Citizenship. Since 2016, he has founded and helped to fund three organizations — Know Your Rights Camp, Kaepernick Media, and Kaepernick Publishing — that together advance the liberation of Black and Brown people through storytelling, systems change, and political education. In 2019, Kaepernick helped Nike win an Emmy for its “Dream Crazy” commercial. In 2021, Colin released Colin in Black & White, a six-episode limited series on Netflix exploring his high school years, which won two NAACP Image Awards. In 2022, he became a New York Times bestselling author for his acclaimed children’s picture book, “I Color Myself Different.” He will release his next children’s book, “We Are Free, You and Me” in October 2024, co-authored with his wife Nessa and published in partnership with Scholastic.
Colin's Sessions
Colin Kaepernick Helps Creators Own Their Story
If anyone knows a thing or two about losing control of your own narrative, it’s Colin Kaepernick. Now the former NFL quarterback and civil rights activist runs an AI storytelling platform, Lumi, to help creators tell and own their stories. We’ll chat about the media landscape, how AI can empower storytellers, and biases in today’s AI models.
Vinod Khosla is an entrepreneur, investor, and technology fan. He is the founder of Khosla Ventures, focused on impactful technology investments in software, AI, robotics, 3D printing, healthcare and more. Mr. Khosla was a co-founder of Daisy systems and founding CEO of Sun Microsystems where he pioneered open systems and commercial RISC processors. One of Mr. Khosla’s greatest passions is being a mentor to entrepreneurs, assisting entrepreneurs and helping them build technology-based businesses. Mr. Khosla is driven by the desire to make a positive impact through technology to reinvent societal infrastructure and multiply resources. He is also passionate about Social Entrepreneurship. Vinod holds a Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from IIT, New Delhi, a Master’s in Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Vinod's Sessions
Vinod Khosla Looks into the Past to See the Future of AI
Join legendary investor Vinod Khosla for an electrifying fireside chat on the future of AI. Khosla will share his perspective on the groundbreaking opportunities AI unlocks — along with the seismic disruptions it will unleash. Given Khosla’s penchant for straight talk and his proven ability over the years to see around corners, you won’t want to miss this conversation.
Ashton is an entrepreneur, technology investor, actor, and philanthropist. Ashton has been investing in tech for nearly two decades and has co-founded two VC firms, A-Grade Investments in 2010 and Sound Ventures in 2015 alongside Guy Oseary. Ashton’s overarching investment philosophy is to invest in “enduring happiness,” a strategy that has proven to be highly successful. With more than $1 billion under management and 300 portfolio companies, Ashton and his partners have been at the helm of six top quartile venture funds. A-Grade and Sound Ventures’ investments include Affirm (NASDAQ: AFRM), Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB), Airtable, Anthropic, Brex, Duolingo (NASDAQ: DUOL), Gitlab (NASDAQ: GTLB), Hugging Face, OpenAI, SentinelOne (NYSE: S), and Uber (NYSE: UBER). He is an active and sought-after technology investor with proven expertise in product and user experience. Ashton was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and was on the cover of Forbes’ Midas List issue for Tech’s Top Investors. He was also included in Vanity Fair’s “New Establishment List,” which identifies the top 50 of an innovative new breed of buccaneering visionaries, engineering prodigies and entrepreneurs. Ashton studied biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa.
Ashton's Sessions
Making Sound Investments with Ashton Kutcher
Join Sound Ventures partners Ashton Kutcher, Effie Epstein and Guy Oseary on their firm’s big bet on AI, the influence of celebrity status, and the trends they are tracking right now.
Matt Mullenweg is co-founder of the open source publishing platform WordPress, which now powers over 40% of all sites on the web. He is the founder and CEO of Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Tumblr, WPVIP, Day One, Beeper, and Pocket Casts. Additionally, Matt runs Audrey Capital, an investment and research company. He has been recognized for his leadership by Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, Inc. Magazine, TechCrunch, Fortune, Fast Company, Wired, University Philosophical Society, and Vanity Fair. Matt is originally from Houston, Texas, where he attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and studied jazz saxophone. In his spare time, Matt is an avid photographer. He currently splits his time between Houston and San Francisco.
Matt's Sessions
Matt Mullenweg: The Future of WordPress and the Web
Matt Mullenweg is co-founder of WordPress, the ubiquitous open source platform powering much of the web. He’s also CEO of Automattic, which was valued at $7.5 billion in its most recent funding round. Mullenweg will join us to discuss his founder journey and where WordPress and the web go next.
Assaf Rappaport is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wiz, the world’s fastest-growing startup securing everything organizations build and run in the cloud. Wiz serves over 40% of the Fortune 100 and has raised over $1.9 billion at a $12 billion valuation in just four years, with investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Cyberstarts, Howard Schultz, and others. Before founding Wiz, Assaf was the founder and CEO of the security company Adallom, which was acquired by Microsoft for $320 million in 2015. He then served as Microsoft’s youngest-ever General Manager, overseeing the company’s Cloud Security Group and Israeli R&D Center.
Assaf's Sessions
Assaf Rappaport: from Zero-Day to Hero
Fresh off a $1 billion funding round, Wiz has shot to fame as one of the fastest-growing, impactful cloud security startups ever. And one of the most sought after: earlier this year it rebuffed a $23 billion M&A offer from Google. Come hear its CEO talk about his journey as a founder and the challenges (and opportunities) ahead.
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
Successfully Raising Your Seed or Series A in 2024
In today’s fundraising environment, securing seed or Series A funding requires a solid strategy, a compelling pitch, and a deep understanding of current market dynamics. This session from two former founders turned VCs will provide startup founders with actionable insights on what investors are looking for in 2024, from market fit to financial metrics, and guide you toward raising capital successfully.
Successfully Raising Your Seed or Series A in 2024 (encore)
In today’s fundraising environment, securing seed or Series A funding requires a solid strategy, a compelling pitch, and a deep understanding of current market dynamics. This session from two former founders turned VCs will provide startup founders with actionable insights on what investors are looking for in 2024, from market fit to financial metrics, and guide you toward raising capital successfully.
Imran Ahmed is the founder and CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate US/UK. He is an authority on social and psychological malignancies on social media, such as identity-based hate, extremism, disinformation, and conspiracy theories. He regularly appears on the media and in documentaries as an expert in how bad actors use digital spaces to harm others and benefit themselves, as well as how and why bad platforms allow them to do so. He advises politicians around the world on policy and legislation. Imran was inspired to start the Center after seeing the rise of antisemitism on the left in the United Kingdom and the murder of his colleague, Jo Cox MP, by a white supremacist, who had been radicalized in part online, during the EU Referendum in 2016. He holds an MA in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge. Imran lives in Washington DC, and tweets at @Imi_Ahmed.
Imran's Sessions
How Generative AI is Flooding the Web with Disinformation
As generative AI tools become more widely available – and become cheaper, or even free, to use – they’re being abused by an array of actors, including state actors, to create deepfakes and sow disinformation online. In this session, we’ll hear from experts about the types of deepfakes now circulating the web and some possible ways to combat the threat.
Jane is an investment partner at Alphabet’s independent growth fund, CapitalG, where she focuses on enterprise software. She brings over fifteen years of operating experience and a passion for company building to her role. Jane has spent her career building and scaling go-to-market teams. Before joining CapitalG, Jane was the CMO of Carta where she led marketing, channel sales, and product-led-growth (PLG). Prior to that, she led sales teams at Salesforce and RelateIQ. Jane attended Stanford Business School and Harvard University.
Jane's Sessions
The Future of Go To Market in the AI Era
From auto-generated outbound messages to AI-written blog posts, AI is fundamentally changing the way that companies go to market. Come discuss the tension between AI-powered automation and human creativity with the founders building these products and the leading practitioners who use them.
Alessandra is a marketing and business development leader with over a decade of experience building and managing partnership functions across tech companies of all sizes. She currently leads Field, Channel, and Partner Marketing at Dropbox, overseeing multiple teams focused on partnerships and go-to-market. She’s deeply passionate about the startup ecosystem, and was the architect of DocSend’s Startup Program in addition to serving as an advisor and mentor for founders and their startups.
Alessandra's Sessions
The Art of the AI Pitch: Winning Over Investors in 2025
How do you capture investor attention when you’ve only got 2.5 minutes? Join Dropbox DocSend’s Alessandra Andrenacci as she dives into the evolving dynamics of AI startup pitches with top founders and VCs. Discover how AI is changing fundraising expectations and what startups need to command the right balance in their AI winning deck —and how the right storytelling can make or break your pitch. Backed by DocSend data and real-world insights, this session will unpack what investors are really looking for, and the pitfalls AI startups must avoid. Whether you’re refining your deck or crafting your first pitch, you’ll leave equipped to stand out in the fiercely competitive 2025 AI landscape.
Jessica is a General Partner and member of the Investment Committee at Top Tier Capital Partners (Top Tier). She is co-lead of the Funds team and participates extensively in the capital formation efforts of the Firm. Jessica was the driving force behind establishing the Investment Team’s database, The Mine, and the Firm’s data analytics team.
Jessica's Sessions
StrictlyVC @ Disrupt
This year, TechCrunch joined forces with StrictlyVC to create smaller, more intimate evenings for our readers. Already this year, we’ve hosted these nights in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and London. Now you can join us at TechCrunch Disrupt for a special StrictlyVC event, delivering exclusive, insider content while facilitating meaningful connections among leading investors, entrepreneurs and executives. Attendees can anticipate engaging discussions, thought-provoking insights and ample opportunities to forge new connections.
– Investor Pass required
Jessica has been leading sales teams for over 15 years. She specializes in recruiting and promoting talent, identifying and aligning motivations and building coalitions across functions.
Jessica's Sessions
The Future of Go To Market in the AI Era
From auto-generated outbound messages to AI-written blog posts, AI is fundamentally changing the way that companies go to market. Come discuss the tension between AI-powered automation and human creativity with the founders building these products and the leading practitioners who use them.
Ziad Asghar serves as Senior Vice President & General Manager of XR at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., where he spearheads the company’s global XR business unit. Ziad’s responsibilities include product management, P&L, market entry strategies, technology & strategic planning, as well as mergers and acquisitions. Additionally, he handles ecosystem development, partnerships, and business development for XR products that span virtual, augmented, and mixed reality segments, as well as the broader spatial computing ecosystem.
Ziad's Sessions
How AI and XR Will Revolutionize All of Your Devices
Join us for an engaging panel session where Ziad Asghar, SVP & GM, XR, Qualcomm, will explore the transformative potential of on-device AI and XR technologies in creating a unified and immersive experience across all your personal tech devices. Discover how the integration of smartphones, smartwatches, AR glasses, and PCs can elevate your daily digital interactions to unprecedented levels. Leveraging Qualcomm’s advanced AI capabilities, these devices will offer superior performance and efficiency, enhancing productivity, entertainment, and everyday tasks through seamless connectivity and smart technology integration.
Asghar will delve into how AI and XR are not just enhancing device interaction but are revolutionizing it by allowing for more natural and intuitive user experiences. With XR glasses, for instance, users can interact with their environment in real-time, receive proactive suggestions, and access a wealth of information without ever looking at a screen. This integration promises to keep users fully engaged in the real world while simultaneously enjoying the benefits of digital augmentation.
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how the synergy between AI and XR is setting the stage for a future where digital and physical realms seamlessly converge, transforming our digital lives and how we interact with technology.
Sahab Aslam is a Principal at Sukun Ventures, driven by a passion for empowering early-stage health and wellness startups. With over 10 years of experience in data science, product management, and software engineering at both startups and Fortune 50 companies, like Merck and Prudential, Sahab has a deep understanding of global regulations and best practices for implementing solutions using data and technology. After serving as Head of Data Science & AI at Myriad Genetics, Sahab saw firsthand the complexities of the US healthcare system and the need for innovative solutions to address its challenges. She believes startups are uniquely positioned to drive this innovation rapidly by bringing efficiency and scalability to clinical and administrative operations. As an AI practitioner, Sahab recognizes the importance of responsible innovation and guides startups in navigating the complex landscape of data privacy, enterprise governance, and industry best practices. She works with them to apply established ethical frameworks, stay up-to-date with technical safeguards, and mitigate risks that, if left unaddressed, can hurt users, irreversibly damage a company’s brand, and even jeopardize funding from investors. Sahab is deeply committed to ensuring her portfolio companies deliver impactful solutions with speed and integrity in the rapidly evolving world of AI capabilities and regulations. A dedicated educator, Sahab also teaches data science at UC Berkeley and actively contributes to the entrepreneurial ecosystem through her involvement with Berkeley SkyDeck, Techstars, and HBS Alumni Angels.
Sahab's Sessions
Safety, Trust, and Profit: Anticipating Misuse to Build Safer Products and Attract Investment
In today’s startup world, one data breach or safety failure can destroy your reputation and growth. For founders, the challenge is how to scale while ensuring user safety, privacy, and security, all within budget. VCs are focusing on startups with strong ESG practices, prioritizing those that address safety early. Failing to comply with data laws, such as COPPA, can result in penalties up to $170 million.
Casey Aylward joined Accel in 2022 and focuses on early-stage investments in cloud-native infrastructure, open-source software, and security companies. Prior to joining Accel, Casey worked at Costanoa Ventures, an early-stage enterprise fund, where she led and incubated several investments in developer tools, data infrastructure, and security. Before investing, Casey was a software engineer at Pinterest where she worked on commerce, collaboration, and core products. Casey joined Pinterest via an acquisition of a former Accel portfolio company, URX, where she was also a software engineer. Casey graduated from Dartmouth College and is from Palm Beach, FL.
Casey's Sessions
What's Next in Open Source as a Business Model?
Open source has become the default business model for many tech startups. But the success of the movement hasn’t been without challenges as businesses now try to balance the ideals of open source with the realities of running a business in an ever-changing competitive environment. Join us to hear industry leaders discuss how they navigate these complexities and what the future holds for open source as a sustainable business model
Bogomil Balkansky is a partner at Sequoia where he focuses on infrastructure technologies, cloud, and SaaS investments. Bogomil is a director of Bigeye, Chainguard, Cortex, Mutiny, Oasis Security, Release, Salt Security, and Temporal, and works closely with companies including Apex Security, Coana, Chkk, Cyera, Infracost, Pydantic, Wiz, Zafran, and Zeet. Bogomil has more than twenty years of high-tech industry experience spanning infrastructure software to SaaS business apps. Prior to Sequoia, Bogomil held executive leadership positions at Siebel Systems, VMware and most recently Google Cloud. Earlier, he worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company. Bogomil holds a BA in Mathematics from Cornell University and an MBA from Stanford University.
Bogomil's Sessions
Free but Not Cheap, the Open-Source Dilemma
Open-source software is everywhere, and in everything. Many startups are pursuing explicitly open-source business models. But every company out there that builds software has at least some dependency on open-source code. Recent security issues, however, have made it plain that open-source software is a target for state-level hackers. So, how can we keep building and using code that is built communally, but without the risk of backdoors and other security holes?
Jyoti Bansal is a serial entrepreneur who believes passionately in software’s ability to change the world for the better. He co-founded Harness in 2017 to automate and simplify all software delivery processes, and serves as CEO. In 2018, he co-founded Traceable, the leading API security platform, and venture capital firm Unusual Ventures. In 2008, Jyoti founded application intelligence company AppDynamics, which he led to a $3.7B acquisition by Cisco in 2017. The recipient of multiple leadership awards, Jyoti has been named Forbes’ “Best Cloud Computing CEO to Work for,” San Francisco Business Times’ “Best CEO,” Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year™ for Northern California,” and more. Jyoti received his B.S. in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Prior to founding AppDynamics, he worked at several Silicon Valley startups as a software engineer and architect. Jyoti is the lead inventor on over 20 U.S. patents.
Jyoti's Sessions
From Seed to Success: What VCs Want to See from Early Stage Founders
Every startup begins with a founder with a germ of an idea. How does it mature into an actual business? Venture capitalists have to sort through pitches every day to find the gems that will become successful companies. We’ll speak to a trio of investors to find out what they look for in early stage companies.
Talia Zur Baruch is a Global-Ready Product and Growth Executive, with over 20 years of experience leading International Expansion at Google, LinkedIn, and SurveyMonkey/Momentive AI. She helps companies maximize durable adoption in new markets, making products discoverable, usable, and valuable for the diverse populations and use cases of the world. Talia is also the Founder of GlobalSaké and The LocLearn Upskill School, training professionals in skills of the future for cross-functional global-perspective leadership impact. Talia was the International Expansion Product Advisor at Google’s Accelerator for Applied Machine Learning innovation technologies in Emerging Markets, training Google’s portfolio startups. She is also former Adjunct Professor, teaching the Executive MBA programs at Hult International Business School, at San Francisco State University, and at CEDIM Graduate Design School in Mexico City. She is a Keynote speaker at tech conferences worldwide. Talia’s Mission statement: “I believe that creative and innovative solutions to big global problems come when people connect across functions, cultures, and borders, leveraging the diverse perspectives and complementing skillsets.”
Talia's Sessions
Visa Everywhere Initiative: The Ultimate Fintech Pitch Competition
Fintech startups inspire—Visa enables. Join us at the Visa Emerging Innovators (VEI) program, where we celebrate the next generation of fintech pioneers. This year, we are thrilled to announce that we are doubling the prize to an incredible $100K! Visa has carefully selected five visionary startups from around the world, each poised to pitch their groundbreaking solutions to a distinguished panel of fintech industry leaders. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness the future of payments in action and discover how you can be part of the fintech revolution.
Nikhil Basu Trivedi is Co-Founder & General Partner at Footwork, an early-stage focused venture firm in San Francisco investing its first $175M fund. Nikhil was previously a Managing Director at Shasta Ventures, where he led the firm’s investments in Athelas, Canva, ClassDojo, Color, Frame.io, Imperfect Foods, Lattice, and The Farmer’s Dog. He started his career on the investing team at Insight Partners and on the founding team at Artsy. Nikhil graduated from Princeton University with a degree in molecular biology, and serves on the board of trustees of his high school alma mater, Menlo School.
Nikhil's Sessions
How to Raise in 2025 if You’ve Taken a Flat, Down, or Extension Round
Old ideas like you need $100 million worth of trailing revenue to go public, and $1 million worth of annual recurring revenue to raise a Series A are so old that they are practically perched atop Abe Lincoln’s head. In today’s market, what a startup needs to raise depends on its sector, founder profile, and, yes, momentum. So what do you need to raise that Series A?
Peter Beck is the founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Engineer of Rocket Lab, a Nasdaq-listed leading launch and space systems company opening access to space to improve life on Earth. Rocket Lab’s capabilities span the space economy, including satellite design and manufacture, industry-leading spacecraft software and components, and reliable launch services. Under Mr. Beck’s leadership, Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle has become the most successful small launch vehicle globally and Rocket Lab satellite subsystems have featured on more than 1,700 missions. Rocket Lab technology enables some of humanity’s most ambitious space missions, including complex interplanetary science missions, national security programs, and vast commercial constellations. Since founding the company in 2006, Mr. Beck has grown Rocket Lab into a global organization of 1,800 people across the United States, Canada and New Zealand. Today, Rocket Lab’s launch vehicles, satellites and space systems are relied upon by a range of global mission partners including NASA, the United States Space Force, DARPA, the National Reconnaissance Office, and a broad range of commercial satellite and constellation operators.
Peter's Sessions
Peter Beck Takes the Space Industry by the Fins
As the founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, Peter Beck is a familiar face to anyone in the space industry. But the company’s ambitions go far beyond its popular Electron launch vehicle: Beck believes that to thrive, perhaps even to survive, space companies will have to become fully integrated one-stop shops. Hear how Rocket Lab is pursuing this ambitious goal.
Mariane is a tech executive with over a decade of experience in building high-performing engineering teams. She is currently the Managing Partner at Founders Bay, where she connects 80,000 founders and VCs with events, virtual workshops, and fundraising resources. She also runs Women Founders Bay, one of the largest communities of female tech entrepreneurs in the Bay Area, providing vital resources, mentorship, and networking opportunities to empower women founders.
Mariane's Sessions
Navigating the Funding Landscape for Women
Join us for an exciting panel discussion featuring three leading females in Tech from Founders Institute, Women Founders Bay and How Women Invest. This session will provide you with essential insights into the funding world, focusing on the latest trends, what investors look for, and effective strategies for women founders to stand out.
Morgan is a General Partner at NFX, a seed-stage venture capital fund. Most recently, Morgan was at Facebook where she originally joined as part of the Corporate Development team in May 2017. Her main project was trying to answer the question “how should Facebook be thinking about blockchain?” This evolved into the creation of the dedicated blockchain team which later became Diem and Novi. Morgan was Head of Strategy for Facebook’s Novi. Prior to Facebook, Morgan ran Corporate Development at Medium where she led the Embedly acquisition and helped develop the subscription strategy. Before that, Morgan was on the Deal Team at Andreessen Horowitz. For the latter half of her time there, she was solely focused on the early stage ecosystem.
Morgan's Sessions
The 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.
Finding the Consensus of Crypto VC
In the crypto space, it’s time to scale. All signs point toward a period of growth with high market prices, a more favorable regulatory landscape and a large ecosystem of scaling solutions that work. So let’s talk with investors who have backed some of the most influential protocols, exchanges and decentralized apps. What’s the next big thing and what has been the biggest surprise in their investment portfolio?
Wassym is driving the creation of a vertically integrated software stack at Rivian. He oversees the design of Rivian’s network architecture, security, data and analytics, battery management system and vehicle controls. In Rivian vehicles and in the cloud, these are the systems that make our products smart, safe and intuitive to use. Since joining Rivian in 2019, he’s been building a multi-disciplinary and cross-functional team to meet the complex challenge and unique opportunity of building new vehicles from scratch. Wassym is a leader in software and systems engineering with rich experience in consumer, semiconductor, internet of things and automotive industries. He started his career in wireless with NXP Semiconductors and Motorola and led the execution of research and development programs at Freescale and Intel. Most recently, Wassym held senior engineering leadership positions at Intel and Silver Spring Networks, which was acquired by Itron.
Wassym's Sessions
How to Build Tech That Wins Over Customers
Rivian’s chief software officer Wassym Bensaid knows a thing or two about building a product from scratch in a high-stakes environment. The software and systems engineering veteran played a central role in Rivian’s recent push to drive down costs, while improving its EVs. It was a massive and existential effort that led the EV maker to rework the guts of the vehicles, including the electrical architecture and a redesigned software user interface. It wasn’t always easy. Bensaid, who has led R&D programs at Freescale and Intel and most recently held a senior engineering leadership position at Silver Spring Networks, has been in this spot before. Learn from Bensaid what it takes to build a product from scratch, including how to navigate conflict and challenges — an essential tool for any startup founder.
Aeva Black is the Section Chief for Open Source Security at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and an open source hacker and international public speaker with 25 years of experience building digital infrastructure and leading open source projects at technology companies. She has previously served on the OpenSSF Technical Advisory Committee, OpenStack Technical Committee, Kubernetes Code of Conduct Committee, and led open source security strategy within the Microsoft Azure Office of the CTO. In her spare time, Aeva serves on the Board of the Open Source Initiative and enjoys riding motorcycles and supporting her local LGBTQ+ community.
Aeva's Sessions
Free but Not Cheap, the Open-Source Dilemma
Open-source software is everywhere, and in everything. Many startups are pursuing explicitly open-source business models. But every company out there that builds software has at least some dependency on open-source code. Recent security issues, however, have made it plain that open-source software is a target for state-level hackers. So, how can we keep building and using code that is built communally, but without the risk of backdoors and other security holes?
Before joining SandboxAQ as the Head of Education Outreach, Marianna was an Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at the New York City College of Technology, CUNY. She is also a co-founder, and formerly CEO, of Rationarium, a blockchain edtech startup. She is an open source advocate and is an executive board member and Community Manager of the non-profit: The WeBWorK Project (TWP). While at CUNY, she was a co-director of a Title V Department of Education collaborative grant and founded and led an open source university-wide initiative. She received a B.S. in mathematics with a minor in physics from NYU Tandon School of Engineering and both her master’s and doctoral degrees from the Graduate School and University Center of CUNY in mathematics. Marianna has been teaching since 2003 and has a passion for mathematics, physics and teaching pedagogy and so actively researches and publishes in the areas of combinatorial group theory, quantum computation and education.
Marianna's Sessions
Next-Gen Medicine: AI Simulation Generating New Data to Accelerate Drug Discovery
AI models require huge amounts of data to complete a given task – but what if this data doesn’t exist? SandboxAQ Head of AI Strategy and Partnerships, Marianna Bonanome, will discuss how AI & quantum-powered simulation generate the missing data AI models need to accelerate drug discovery – leading to breakthroughs for challenging conditions like Alzheimer’s, while reducing the time, cost and risk of developing new drugs. Marianna will showcase how UCSF, Riboscience and other biopharma researchers are using simulation to turn molecules into medicine, and recent findings showing how simulation data is performing beyond our wildest expectations.
Next-Gen Medicine: AI Simulation Generating New Data to Accelerate Drug Discovery (encore)
AI models require huge amounts of data to complete a given task – but what if this data doesn’t exist? SandboxAQ Head of AI Strategy and Partnerships, Marianna Bonanome, will discuss how AI & quantum-powered simulation generate the missing data AI models need to accelerate drug discovery – leading to breakthroughs for challenging conditions like Alzheimer’s, while reducing the time, cost and risk of developing new drugs. Marianna will showcase how UCSF, Riboscience and other biopharma researchers are using simulation to turn molecules into medicine, and recent findings showing how simulation data is performing beyond our wildest expectations.
As General Manager of The Webby Awards, Nick leads strategic development, partnerships and industry relations to continue the Webbys’ mission of honoring excellence online. Nick is an award-winning producer, filmmaker, and content executive with a diverse background in film, television, audio, and digital. After roles at Topic Studios, Hud:sun Media, and Participant Media, he founded Brumor Films to create original content and manage events & partnerships for clients like The Gotham Film & Media Institute, Screen Australia, and the Consulate General of Canada. Notable credits include the Emmy-nominated series AKA WYATT CENAC, Webby Award-winning podcast MISSING RICHARD SIMMONS, and collaborations with filmmakers Sharon Horgan and Robert Kirkman.
Nick's Sessions
Webby Talks: It's Giving Brainrot, How Chronically Online Culture Is Taking Us from the Niche to the Nonsensical—and Why That Can Be a Good Thing
In The Webby Awards’ annual thought leadership series focused on the trends and consumer insights shaping the internet, this year, the leading award for internet excellence will explore how brands, marketers, digital creatives, and technologists are embracing chronically online culture to forge more creative and sustainable connections with audiences. The presentation, titled “it’s giving brainrot: how chronically online culture is taking us from the niche to the nonsensical—and why that can be a good thing,” will be led by The Webby Awards General Manager Nick Borenstein and will feature insights and social listening data from Meltwater, along with trends from over 13,000 submissions to the 28th Annual Webby Awards.Following the presentation, Margaret Johnson (Chief Creative Officer, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners), David Mogensen (VP of Global Marketing, Uber), and Monica Khan (Co-Founder, Bay Area Creator Economy) will join for a fireside chat to share their insights into this cultural moment.
Marc has started and scaled B2B software companies for over 35 years. He’s built global businesses from idea to $4B in revenue across all segments and models. Most recently, he turned around GTM at Cloudflare as President of Revenue, before that he delivered 7x revenue growth as CRO at Twilio. He’s founded four companies with successful exits of Passlogix to Oracle and Authy to Twilio. Today, Mark is an outside director for Trustle, SVT Robotics, OneSpan, and an advisor for Browserstack and Glasswing Ventures as well as an active angel investor.
Marc's Sessions
How to Stand Out Amongst the AI Wave: Strategies for Success in Enterprise Sales
Companies worldwide are actively investing in AI deployments across a wide range of use cases, and thousands of startups have emerged to fill these needs. This breakout session features Rudina Seseri, Founder and Managing Partner of Glasswing Ventures, and Marc Boroditsky, President of Revenue at Cloudflare, who explore how AI has created a new paradigm shift in selling to enterprises, what the largest companies are using as criteria when considering their purchases, and how to avoid false indications of interest. Attendees will learn how to optimize scarce time and resources to build a truly valuable and viable product.
Cody Bronkar is an active duty Captain managing the VC engagements and strategic partnerships for SpaceWERX. Cody has an active role in merging government stakeholders, companies, and private capital providers to accelerate and scale the initiatives in support of the NDS. A previous graduate of the Air Force Academy and later a cyber professional in both the Air and Space Forces at the operator and headquarters levels, he brings a technical prowess to understanding how tech is able to merge into all levels of the Space Force. Cody works with the Program Executive Officers and Operators throughout the Space Force on how each are wanting to strategically expend their budgets, as well as investors and company’s on how to strategically align and deliver capability to government organizations. While managing the strategic partnerships and VC landscape, he has helped source hundreds of millions of private capital dollars to SBIR-funded efforts and companies to deliver at scale. Cody serves as the primary Mentor for various world-class accelerator programs across the US. His role has been to solely consult, guide, and facilitate relationships on behalf of the the Space Force with companies and investors – all to fulfill warfighter gaps. His previous experience within both AFWERX and SpaceWERX allows for a unique ability to realize how to connect entities throughout the ecosystem to deliver utility to the warfighter at speed.
Cody's Sessions
Future of Space Operations Challenge
This open call pitch-off will present startups across robotics, autonomous systems, AI/ML, Vision Systems, Propulsion and Navigation. Five finalists will pitch to Aerospace judges and one winner will get access to expert lead feedback sessions with The Aerospace Corporation, government experts, and commercial space leadership.
Since 2018, Po has been Managing Director of IndieBio. He is passionate about reconceptualizing complex challenges into more elegant forms in order to broaden understanding and highlight priorities. Po is a longtime science journalist honored with nine national awards, and author of seven bestselling books that are available in 28 languages worldwide. His work has been cited in 185 academic journals and 503 books. His background is in Economics. He learned finance at Credit Suisse and consulting at a division of Arthur Andersen. Prior to IndieBio he spent four years as a Futurist with Attention Span Media, consulting corporate innovation efforts for globally recognized brands. Most recently, Po is the author of Decoding the World: A Roadmap for the Questioner, published by Twelve Books, a division of the Hachette Publishing Group.
Po's Sessions
Deep Tech in Winter: How to Win Investors in 2024
Venture’s deep chill has been extra frigid for deep tech startups due to their reputation for long timelines and big capital needs. But investors are still game for deep tech startups that are smart about balancing product scope and time to market. Vertical integration and industrial scale ups are out; selling innovation into existing supply chains, now that’s smart. SOSV General Partners Duncan Turner, Dr. Pae Wu, and Po Bronson help oversee the launch of about 75 deep tech startups a year and work with hundreds of deep tech co-investors. They will discuss what’s getting investors to “yes” for deep tech investments now, and take questions from the audience.
Alice is a Partner at Khosla Ventures interested in sustainability, food, agriculture, and manufacturing/supply chain. She has worked with multiple startups in robotics, IoT, retail, consumer, and STEM education, and has run mechanical, electrical, and app development teams in the U.S. and Asia. She has also established and managed manufacturing operations at factories in China and Taiwan. Prior to KV, Alice was founder and CEO of Roominate, a STEM education company helping girls learn engineering concepts through play. She has a B.S. from MIT and M.S. from Stanford, both in mechanical engineering; she also has an MBA from Harvard.
Alice's Sessions
The 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.
Clayton Bryan is an early stage venture investor and operator. Currently a Partner at 500 Global, Clayton has spent time at some of the most innovative companies in Silicon Valley. He has built expansive online communities, scaled marketplace businesses, and facilitated million dollar deals. At Yahoo he worked on award winning products. Later, at Payvment, he helped a team pioneer a new set of tools that started the social commerce movement. With Diversity as a guiding principle, Clayton has spent the entirety of his career within venture capital focused on supporting underrepresented founders. In 2016, Clayton and four others launched a non-profit organization, Transparent Collective, tasked with coaching and connecting underrepresented founders with investors. Companies to have gone through Transparent Collective’s program have raised tens of millions of dollars in early stage financings. Clayton has invested in over 30 companies, including Printify, Public Goods, Silk+Sonder, Blue Wire, Fintor, Neon Financial, Hamama, EcoCart, JusticeText, Pariti, and Kiira. He Received a Bachelors of Arts in Political Economy from The University of California, Berkeley and his Masters of Business Administration from The Stern School of Business at New York University.
Clayton's Sessions
Scaling Startups with Strong Leadership – Developing a Founding Team that Thrives
As the startup ecosystem grows increasingly competitive with AI democratizing startup creation and increased investor due diligence, the need for strong leadership extends beyond the CEO to the entire founding team. This roundtable explores the critical role that leadership development plays in scaling successful startups. Learn from seasoned investors and entrepreneurs who have cultivated the right leadership qualities across their teams, creating a foundation for sustained growth and innovation. We’ll discuss the strategies and resources available to help a founding team develop the skills needed to navigate challenges, inspire their teams, and drive long-term success.
Scaling Startups with Strong Leadership – Developing a Founding Team that Thrives (encore)
As the startup ecosystem grows increasingly competitive with AI democratizing startup creation and increased investor due diligence, the need for strong leadership extends beyond the CEO to the entire founding team. This roundtable explores the critical role that leadership development plays in scaling successful startups. Learn from seasoned investors and entrepreneurs who have cultivated the right leadership qualities across their teams, creating a foundation for sustained growth and innovation. We’ll discuss the strategies and resources available to help a founding team develop the skills needed to navigate challenges, inspire their teams, and drive long-term success.
Raised in a family of obstetricians in the San Francisco Bay Area, Robhy developed a keen awareness of the challenges in maternal care. Excelling rapidly in his career as a data and AI engineer, he led product development and built a division of over 120 engineers at IBM Cloud & Watson. During his tenure at IBM, a family member’s maternal care complications, exacerbated by an ultrasound misdiagnosis, motivated him to address these critical issues. Partnering with engineers and obstetricians from Kaiser Permanente, UC Berkeley, and the University of Pennsylvania, Robhy embarked on a mission to revolutionize prenatal diagnosis through AI.
Robhy'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.
Bianca Caban is a Vice President at HSBC Innovation Banking, the startup banking arm of HSBC, a $3 trillion global institution. Previously, she was a pre-seed and seed investor, mostly recently with AIX Ventures, an AI-focused venture firm co-founded by former Salesforce Chief Scientist, Richard Socher. Her foray into AI investing began as a Principal at Heartland Ventures, a venture capital firm with a network of strategic LPs in the Midwest, where she invested in AI applications in construction, supply chain, and manufacturing. Before her time in venture capital, she was one of the first ten employees at Republic, an AngelList spin-off and now fintech unicorn, where she held various leadership positions including Head of Partnerships, and CEO of SheWorx, which was acquired by Republic in 2019. Earlier in her career, Bianca worked for nearly a decade in financial services including at firms, Credit Suisse, BlackRock, and Atlas Merchant Capital, which sought investment in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Bianca is an alum of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers and Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle. She founded the annually held Harvard Latina Empowerment and Development Conference in 2007, and has served on the Harvard High School Interviewing Committee since 2010. Bianca received a B.A. from Harvard College and an MBA from Columbia University. Originally from NYC, Bianca now resides in the Oakland Hills, where she enjoys local hikes with her husband and identical twin daughters.
Bianca's Sessions
Visa Everywhere Initiative: The Ultimate Fintech Pitch Competition
Fintech startups inspire—Visa enables. Join us at the Visa Emerging Innovators (VEI) program, where we celebrate the next generation of fintech pioneers. This year, we are thrilled to announce that we are doubling the prize to an incredible $100K! Visa has carefully selected five visionary startups from around the world, each poised to pitch their groundbreaking solutions to a distinguished panel of fintech industry leaders. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness the future of payments in action and discover how you can be part of the fintech revolution.
Christina Cacioppo is the CEO and co-founder of Vanta, a leading security and compliance trust management platform backed by Sequoia Capital, Craft Ventures, Goldman Sachs Ventures, J.P. Morgan Ventures, Y Combinator, and the venture arms of Atlassian, CrowdStrike, HubSpot, and Workday. Over 8,000 companies, including Intercom, Icelandair, Miro, and ZoomInfo rely on Vanta to build, maintain, and demonstrate their trust — all in a way that’s real-time and transparent. Prior to founding Vanta, Christina led product management for Dropbox Paper and was a member of the investment team for Union Square Ventures. Christina received her B.A. in Economics and an M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.
Christina's Sessions
Scaling Trust to Unicorn Status with Vanta’s Christina Cacioppo
SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001, GDPR — few people want to deal with them, but to be even considered for a deal, many B2B startups now need to comply with one or more compliance frameworks. Vanta, which became a unicorn in 2022, has become somewhat of a standard of its own for helping businesses automate large parts of their initial and recurring audits. We’ll talk to Vanta CEO and co-founder Christina Cacioppo about what it has been like to build and scale a trust management startup, and how AI and other new technologies are shaping its future.
Matt is a Managing Director at Citi Ventures and works out of the Palo Alto office. He specializes in working with entrepreneurs innovating in Enterprise IT, Cybersecurity, Customer Experience, and Marketing. Matt strives to create win-win scenarios that provide customer engagement and product feedback for high-potential startups while motivating innovation and business transformation for both Citi and its clients. Prior to Citi Ventures, Matt was at Cisco, where he led investments and acquisitions in the areas of enterprise networking, collaboration and IoT as well as in the country of Israel. He also has investment experience from Comcast Ventures and TeleSoft Partners. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Matt was employee 10 at Terayon Communication Systems, a Sequoia and Lightspeed-backed startup that went public, where he initially architected and designed application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) before moving into product marketing and product management. Matt received his B.S. summa cum laude and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University. Outside of investing, he enjoys basketball, golf (one hole-in-one), wakesurfing, and coaching his two daughters in sports.
Matt's Sessions
Bringing The Outside In: Connecting Startups With Large Banks to Power the Future of Finance
The future of finance will hinge on collaboration between traditional institutions and agile startups. Led by Matt Carbonara (Citi Ventures), Ari Tuchman (Quantifind), and Kartik Mani (Citi Retail Services), this session will delve into Citi Ventures’ pioneering approach to bridging the gap between large banks and the startup ecosystem. Attendees will gain insights into fostering innovation while managing risk, unlocking the potential for groundbreaking advancements in fintech and beyond.
Matt, along with Citi partners and portfolio company Quantifind, will discuss Citi Ventures’ approach to working with startups and how governance and risk management are essential to responsible innovation. He will discuss how attendees can peer through their own crystal ball to predict the next big thing in tech and finance, from AI to the fintech revolution and beyond.
Mike is co-founder of Vooma, the AI agent for logistics. Previously, he built self driving trucks as a founding engineer at Kodiak Robotics, and contributed to early self-driving research programs like Uber ATG, Otto, and Stanford’s Dynamic Design Lab. Mike earned his BS and MS in engineering from Stanford. Though he now proudly calls the US home, Mike was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa
Mike's Sessions
From Experimental to Essential: Achieving Reliability with AI Agents in Mission-Critical Tasks
The “happy path” brings imagination to life, but it’s the “unhappy path” that makes the product. AI agents promise to revolutionize nearly every industry, yet the journey to reliability in real-world applications is fraught with challenges. Errors can snowball when agents make multiple decisions in sequence, especially in mission-critical real-world tasks where consistency is non-negotiable. In this session, Mike Carter, founder of Vooma, will lead a discussion of practical approaches for building AI agents that excel in the edge cases. Drawing from his experience launching the AI agent for logistics and building self-driving vehicles, Mike will explore strategies to overcome technical hurdles, enhance agent reliability, and ensure AI agents make correct decisions when the wrong ones are costly.
From Experimental to Essential: Achieving Reliability with AI Agents in Mission-Critical Tasks (encore)
The “happy path” brings imagination to life, but it’s the “unhappy path” that makes the product. AI agents promise to revolutionize nearly every industry, yet the journey to reliability in real-world applications is fraught with challenges. Errors can snowball when agents make multiple decisions in sequence, especially in mission-critical real-world tasks where consistency is non-negotiable. In this session, Mike Carter, founder of Vooma, will lead a discussion of practical approaches for building AI agents that excel in the edge cases. Drawing from his experience launching the AI agent for logistics and building self-driving vehicles, Mike will explore strategies to overcome technical hurdles, enhance agent reliability, and ensure AI agents make correct decisions when the wrong ones are costly.
Martin Casado is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he leads the firm’s $1.25 billion infrastructure practice. He first joined the firm in 2016 and currently serves on the boards of ActionIQ, Ambient.ai, Astranis, Coactive, Convex, dbt Labs, DeepMap.ai, Defined Networking, Distributional, Fivetran, Ideogram, Imply, Isovalent, Kong, Material Security, Metronome, Netlify, Orbit, Parsec Gaming, Pindrop Security, Preset, Rasa, Tabular, Tackle, Tecton, and Truffle. Martin was previously the cofounder and chief technology officer at Nicira, which was acquired by VMware for $1.26 billion in 2012. While at VMware, Martin was a fellow and served as a senior vice president and general manager of the networking and security business unit, which he scaled to a $600 million run-rate business by the time he left VMware in 2016. Martin started his career at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where he worked on large-scale simulations for the Department of Defense before moving over to work with the intelligence community on networking and cybersecurity. These experiences inspired his work at Stanford where he created the software-defined networking (SDN) movement, leading to a new paradigm of network virtualization. While at Stanford he also cofounded Illuminics Systems, an IP analytics company, which was acquired by Quova Inc. in 2006. For his work, Martin was awarded both the ACM Grace Murray Hopper award and the NEC C&C award, and he’s an inductee of the Lawrence Livermore Lab’s Entrepreneur’s Hall of Fame. He holds both a PhD and Masters degree in Computer Science from Stanford University.
Martin's Sessions
Why AI Regulation is Every Startup's Business
Andreessen Horowitz’s Martin Casado has lived the experience that every founder dreams of. He invented a new technology that radically altered the way computer networks are built and sold his startup for $1.26 billion when it was barely out of stealth (the second startup he sold). He’s since gone on to have an influential career as a VC at a16z, leading its infrastructure investment practice. He’s now sounding the alarm on AI regulation saying that startups, in particular, need to get involved.
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
The Startup Battlefield Final
The grand final of TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition. Watch the final 5 teams from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Wesley Chan is an early investor in five $10B+ Decacorns and 20+ $1B+ Unicorns, including Canva, Guild, Dialpad, & AngelList. He was first check into Flexport, Robinhood, Plaid, & Gusto. Founders want to work with Wesley given his product-led growth expertise that he developed when he founded Google Analytics and Google Voice during his 14 year career at Google. He also holds 17 patents for his work on building Google’s early Ads system.
Wesley's Sessions
StrictlyVC @ Disrupt
This year, TechCrunch joined forces with StrictlyVC to create smaller, more intimate evenings for our readers. Already this year, we’ve hosted these nights in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and London. Now you can join us at TechCrunch Disrupt for a special StrictlyVC event, delivering exclusive, insider content while facilitating meaningful connections among leading investors, entrepreneurs and executives. Attendees can anticipate engaging discussions, thought-provoking insights and ample opportunities to forge new connections.
– Investor Pass required
How to Pick a Unicorn
Wesley Chan is known in the industry as a unicorn-spotter, with early investments in winners like AngelList, Canva, Flexport, Plaid, Ring, and Robinhood. Formerly of Google Ventures and Felicis Ventures, he’s now a co-founder and managing partner at FPV Ventures, where he oversees a $450 million fund. In this panel, he’ll tell you what he looks for and how to recognize a big winner — or become one.
We’re barely scratching the surface at uncovering the deeper drivers of human motivation & visceral reactions. Why we think, feel and act the way we do, when we do – fueling the choices we make both consciously (and unconsciously). Jeni is currently focused on the intersection of behavioral psychology & physiology. Especially in the age of AI, what happens when we channel that into accelerating growth. Her journey has been unconventional. She’s a geneticist by education, mgmt. consultant for Fortune 500 companies, was tricked into startups, helps founders and invests and now is shooting for the moon with a new project.
Jeni's Sessions
Navigating the Funding Landscape for Women
Join us for an exciting panel discussion featuring three leading females in Tech from Founders Institute, Women Founders Bay and How Women Invest. This session will provide you with essential insights into the funding world, focusing on the latest trends, what investors look for, and effective strategies for women founders to stand out.
Dr. Tanguy Chau is the founder and CEO of Paxton AI, an AI legal agent for legal research, drafting, and document review. Prior founding Paxton, Dr. Chau was a venture capital investor with Formation 8 where he led investments in multiple legal tech companies including Ironclad. Dr. Chau obtained is M.S., Ph.D. in Engineering and M.B.A. from MIT, and was elected to serve on the MIT Board of Trustees.
Tanguy's Sessions
How AI is Supercharging Tools for Knowledge Workers
Advancements in AI are enabling new tooling that will 10x the productivity of knowledge workers by reducing monotonous, repetitive tasks. These advances have also unlocked opportunities for more creativity and experimentation. This panel explores the latest in professional services tooling and explores how companies can maximize performance and productivity. We will also explore the future of tooling for knowledge workers and how emerging breakthroughs might be applied. Let’s explore the future of work.
Anna joined Madrona in 2024. As part of the Madrona investment team, she focuses on sourcing and evaluating new investment opportunities across Madrona’s investment themes, with a concentration on acceleration stage companies, and supports the growth and strategy of current portfolio companies. Anna is based out of Madrona’s Palo Alto office. Prior to joining Madrona, Anna was an associate in the technology group at General Atlantic, a growth equity firm in NYC. Prior to GA, Anna was an investment banking analyst at J.P. Morgan, focusing on technology M&A.
Anna's Sessions
The Art of the AI Pitch: Winning Over Investors in 2025
How do you capture investor attention when you’ve only got 2.5 minutes? Join Dropbox DocSend’s Alessandra Andrenacci as she dives into the evolving dynamics of AI startup pitches with top founders and VCs. Discover how AI is changing fundraising expectations and what startups need to command the right balance in their AI winning deck —and how the right storytelling can make or break your pitch. Backed by DocSend data and real-world insights, this session will unpack what investors are really looking for, and the pitfalls AI startups must avoid. Whether you’re refining your deck or crafting your first pitch, you’ll leave equipped to stand out in the fiercely competitive 2025 AI landscape.
Roman is a co-founder of Nebius and currently oversees the company’s business strategy. With over 20 years of experience in the technology sector, his career began at Naumen as a software developer, eventually rising to head the business division. In 2011, Roman joined Yandex, one of Europe’s largest technology companies, initially leading the Search platform before becoming CEO of the Geoservices business unit in 2016. Since 2023, Roman has been spearheading Nebius’s AI-centric cloud business.
Roman's Sessions
The AI Clouds Race: What's Behind the Scenes
The fast-growing AI market is not only giving rise to new AI startups but also fostering the emergence of specialist vendors. Competition among cloud providers in the AI space is fierce. Roman will share how Nebius is navigating this race, what is driving the company’s rapid growth, and what it takes to support AI disruptors.
Swati Choksi is a Senior Leader in Solutions Architecture for Data, Analytics, and GenAI ISVs at AWS, where she has been instrumental in delivering innovative solutions since January 2021. With over 20 years of experience, she has a strong background in analytics, business consulting, and product management. Previously, as Vice President of Analytics and Machine Learning Research at Guavus, Swati built a global analytics team and successfully delivered over 100 proof-of-concept solutions across multiple industries. Her leadership roles at DecisionCraft Analytics and Oracle further solidified her expertise in developing data-driven strategies. Swati is known for her customer-focused approach and results-oriented leadership, thriving at the intersection of technology and business. Her passion for machine learning and data visualization drives her commitment to empowering organizations to excel in a digital landscape.
Swati's Sessions
Building Enterprise AI Apps with Multi-Agent RAG Systems (MARS)
Join SingleStore to explore a live Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) application that combines real-time streaming data with vast amounts of point-in-time data, achieving near-zero latency in AI interactions. We’ll discuss how Multi-Agent Retrieval-Augmented Generation Systems (MARS) can facilitate the development of effective real-time AI applications, utilizing AWS Bedrock and SingleStore. Gain valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities of building enterprise-grade AI, along with a real-life example of a customer support co-pilot that leverages real-time AI to enhance user experience. If you are a developer, architect, or business leader interested in implementing Enterprise AI applications using MARS architecture, don’t miss this session.
As an investor, Aury leverages her knowledge as a former fintech operator and manager when evaluating startups impacting people and large enterprises. Before joining the venture capital industry, she was a manager at Bloomberg in New York City. She focused on scaling a product catering to Delta One trading desks across major financial institutions. Aury began her venture capital career at Plug & Play, focusing on B2B SaaS startups in commerce, retail, and media. Today, she is an investor at How Women Invest, a game-changing venture fund that invests in female-led startups Seed through Series B across the areas of climate, health, and the future of work.
Aury's Sessions
Navigating the Funding Landscape for Women
Join us for an exciting panel discussion featuring three leading females in Tech from Founders Institute, Women Founders Bay and How Women Invest. This session will provide you with essential insights into the funding world, focusing on the latest trends, what investors look for, and effective strategies for women founders to stand out.
Beezer leads Sapphire Partners‘ investments in venture funds domestically and internationally. Beezer began her career in financial services over 20 years ago at Morgan Stanley in its global infrastructure group. Since, she has held various direct and indirect venture investment roles. Prior to joining Sapphire in 2012, Beezer managed the day-to-day operations of the Draper Fisher Jurvetson Global Network, which then had $7 billion under management across 16 venture funds worldwide. In 2016, Beezer led the launch of OpenLP, an effort to help foster greater understanding in the entrepreneur-to-LP tech ecosystem. Beezer earned a bachelor’s in government from Wesleyan University, where she served on the board of trustees and currently serves as an advisor to the Wesleyan Endowment Investment Committee. She is currently serving on the board of the NVCA and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Beezer's Sessions
StrictlyVC @ Disrupt
This year, TechCrunch joined forces with StrictlyVC to create smaller, more intimate evenings for our readers. Already this year, we’ve hosted these nights in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and London. Now you can join us at TechCrunch Disrupt for a special StrictlyVC event, delivering exclusive, insider content while facilitating meaningful connections among leading investors, entrepreneurs and executives. Attendees can anticipate engaging discussions, thought-provoking insights and ample opportunities to forge new connections.
– Investor Pass required
Tobi Coker is a Partner on the Investment team at Felicis. He works with the investment team to source and evaluate investments, conduct diligence, and work with existing portfolio companies. Previously, Tobi was an investor at The Production Board (TPB), a Bay Area-based early-stage venture firm, where he helped found and seed six companies in life sciences and human health. Before TPB, Tobi started his career in the Investment Banking and Capital Markets division at Morgan Stanley, providing coverage to healthcare and biotechnology companies. Currently, he is a Kauffman Fellow, class of 28, and an active member of BLCK VC. Tobi received a B.S. degree in Biology, with a minor in Economics from Georgetown University.
Tobi's Sessions
Scaling Technical Startups: Navigating Growth, Positioning, and Competitive Pressure
It’s a challenging time to scale a technical or data-focused startup— competition for customers, fundraising, and top talent continues to increase. This session will break down unique, timely challenges for technical founders and teams, and provide actionable advice to thrive in this highly competitive market. Attendees will take away best practices in product development, open source vs. closed source strategies, and how to position and message effectively—especially in pre-revenue stages for investor appeal. Technical founders will learn how to navigate the complexities of fundraising, with a focus on raising Series A for data-driven businesses, and why scaling technical or infrastructure companies requires a different playbook compared to traditional SaaS startups.
Josh Constine is a Venture Partner at ~$3 billion AUM early-stage VC fund SignalFire where he invests in pre-seed startups with a focus on consumer. He teaches startup pitch writing and fundraising strategy as a recurring lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School Of Business, and with accelerators like Z Fellows, Inception Studios, and Stanford ASES. Previously, Constine was Editor-At-Large for TechCrunch where he wrote 4000 articles and was ranked the #1 most cited tech journalist in the world from 2016-2020 by Techmeme. Constine has led 300+ on-stage interviews and keynotes in 18 countries with luminaries including Mark Zuckerberg and the CEOs of Shopify, DoorDash, Snapchat, Instagram, and more. Constine graduated from Stanford University with a Master’s degree he designed in Cybersociology, and wrote his thesis in 2008 on why remixable memes would be the future of marketing. He has been quoted in the NYT and WSJ, is regularly featured on CNN for his thoughts on AI and Silicon Valley, and advises startups on PR, fundraising, and organic growth.
Josh's Sessions
Winning at Startup PR Without Paying for an Agency, with ex-TechCrunch editor Josh Constine
Sick of emailing reporters with no response and don’t want to cough up $15K per month for a PR agency? Lesson One: It’s about what audiences want to hear, not what you want to say. With the right mix of concise storytelling and data-driven content, you can learn to pitch press by yourself. In this roundtable session led by former TechCrunch editor-at-large turned VC Josh Constine, you’ll get the playbook for how to teach readers something while you boost your fundraising, recruiting, and sales. Ask your biggest questions about how PR works, and hear what red flags are getting your pitches deleted.
Winning at Startup PR Without Paying for an Agency, with ex-TechCrunch editor Josh Constine (encore)
Sick of emailing reporters with no response and don’t want to cough up $15K per month for a PR agency? Lesson One: It’s about what audiences want to hear, not what you want to say. With the right mix of concise storytelling and data-driven content, you can learn to pitch press by yourself. In this roundtable session led by former TechCrunch editor-at-large turned VC Josh Constine, you’ll get the playbook for how to teach readers something while you boost your fundraising, recruiting, and sales. Ask your biggest questions about how PR works, and hear what red flags are getting your pitches deleted.
Mark Crane is a partner at General Catalyst, a venture capital firm that works with seed to endurance-stage founders to help build companies that can withstand the test of time. He focuses on sourcing and investing in later-stage investment opportunities such as AuthZed, Bugcrowd, Resilience and TravelPerk. Prior to joining General Catalyst, Mark was a vice president at Cove Hill Partners in Massachusetts. Previously, he was a senior associate at JMI Equity and an associate at North Bridge Growth Equity. When away from the office, Mark enjoys playing or watching soccer games and exploring new restaurants. Mark is a graduate of Amherst College, earning a B.A. in History.
Mark's Sessions
The 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.
Dr. Tom Cwik is Chief Technologist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In this role he provides strategic leadership for research in advanced technology and serves as the focal point for technology interactions with NASA, companies, universities and the external research community. He is responsible for guiding the infusion of new technology into the Laboratory mission portfolio. Tom has been a co-founder of a startup company, consults, and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Washington. He was named a distinguished alum at the University of Illinois, is an Associate Fellow of the AIAA and a Fellow of the IEEE.
Tom's Sessions
Future of Space Operations Challenge
This open call pitch-off will present startups across robotics, autonomous systems, AI/ML, Vision Systems, Propulsion and Navigation. Five finalists will pitch to Aerospace judges and one winner will get access to expert lead feedback sessions with The Aerospace Corporation, government experts, and commercial space leadership.
Itai is the CEO and co-founder of Unit with over 10+ years of experience as a fintech operator. Prior to Unit, he was the co-founder and VP of Product at Leverate where he led the company’s international expansion. In 2017, Itai joined 500 Startups as Fintech Entrepreneur in Residence and worked closely with 10+ startups in payments, investing, lending, banking infrastructure & more. He also served as Entrepreneur in Residence at HAX, the world’s most active hardware VC and a mentor at Barclays Techstars (Israel), Founder Institute (Hong Kong), and Yodlee / Envestnet (US). Itai is also a Special Advisor to Ion Pacific, a Hong Kong based investment bank, alongside Mr. David Adelman (formerly the 15th US Ambassador to Singapore) and Mr. John Tsang (formerly the longest-serving Financial Secretary of HK).
Itai's Sessions
BaaS in a Post-Synapse Meltdown World
The bankruptcy of banking-as-a-service (BaaS) fintech Synapse shows just how treacherous things are for the often-interdependent fintech world when one key player hits trouble. Synapse’s problems have hurt and taken down a number of other startups and affected millions of consumers all over the country. Many believe regulatory clarity is needed moving forward. One analyst says the case of Synapse underscores the need for fintech companies to maintain high operational and compliance standards. This panel looks at the potential impacts the Synapse collapse will have on the future of BaaS.
Jai is President, Partner and Co-Founder at Sapphire Ventures. He invests in startups that he believes are developing ground-breaking products and are on their way to becoming Companies of Consequence. He has more than 15 years of investment experience and has helped multiple companies innovate their product and marketing strategies in order to become market leaders. Jai’s current investments include Glean, Netskope, Cohesity, Huntress, ThoughtSpot, Defense Unicorns, Clari, CircleCI, DataRobot, JumpCloud, Simpplr, Blockdaemon, and UJET. Fifteen of his investments have IPO’ed, including MuleSoft, Jfrog, Five9, Nutanix, Alteryx, Square, ExactTarget, Apigee, Box, and SumoLogic, while twenty-four of his investments have been acquired.
Jai's Sessions
IPO or Bust? Tactical Approaches for Late-Stage Success
With rising interest rates and stricter regulatory scrutiny on acquisitions, many growth and late stage companies that once secured billions in funding are struggling to achieve a successful outcome. In this session, two experienced investors will debate the state of late-stage venture, what they’re seeing in terms of deal activity, if this market is actually coming back as significantly as some are reporting, and where they see the landscape headed in 2025. As part of this, they will dig into what’s going on with IPO markets, whether/when they will open back up, and how this is impacting exit strategies for founders.
Sheeba Dawood is a recognized leader in the critical minerals industry, serving as the CEO and co-founder of Minerva Lithium. With a strong background in sustainable technologies, she spearheads innovative approaches to lithium extraction, recycling, and refining, driving advancements in the North American supply chain. Her leadership and expertise have earned her accolades such as Top CEO in the mineral space, recognition by the Triad Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, and a win at TechCrunch Disrupt. Sheeba’s work focuses on advancing environmentally responsible solutions for the energy transition through cutting-edge sorbent and hydrometallurgy technologies.
Sheeba'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.
Rodrigo Barros de Paula is the Regional Head of Digital Partnerships & Ventures for Visa Latin America and the Caribbean. De Paula is a leader with more than 25 years of experience in the financial services and digital payments industry. As the fintech alliance leader for Latin America and the Caribbean, he is responsible for identifying and managing partnerships, commercial agreements and strategic investments with fintech players throughout the region. His focus over the past few years has been on finding new, innovative and effective ways to provide digital payment solutions to fintechs, enablers, issuers and acquirers in Latin America. He began his career in Brazil with Itaú, where he served in various roles, including legal, core products, loyalty and co-brands. He holds a law degree with a master’s degree in Corporate and Economic Law from the Getulio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo, and a MBA from Insper in Brazil.
Rodrigo's Sessions
Visa Everywhere Initiative: The Ultimate Fintech Pitch Competition
Fintech startups inspire—Visa enables. Join us at the Visa Emerging Innovators (VEI) program, where we celebrate the next generation of fintech pioneers. This year, we are thrilled to announce that we are doubling the prize to an incredible $100K! Visa has carefully selected five visionary startups from around the world, each poised to pitch their groundbreaking solutions to a distinguished panel of fintech industry leaders. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness the future of payments in action and discover how you can be part of the fintech revolution.
Sara Deshpande is a General Partner at Maven Ventures, a seed stage venture firm investing in tech companies addressing emerging consumer behavior and trends. Maven identifies and backs bold founders with a vision worth fighting for then helps founders unlock their potential to change the world, leading to iconic brands like Zoom and Cruise. Sara invests in emerging consumer trends including digital health and personalized medicine, consumer applications of AI, consumer climate, family tech, and other high-growth consumer software. Sara was the first employee at Maven and has built her career investing in early stage, ambitious founders. Over the last decade since joining Maven nearly at inception, she has worked alongside Maven founder, Jim Scheinman, to grow AUM from $5M to nearly $200M, returning multiple funds, and advancing from a Senior Associate to a General Partner. Early in her VC career at Maven, Sara’s contributions were highlighted by sourcing deals such as Embark (EMBK) and May Mobility (Series D). She has gone on to spearhead Maven’s theses in focus areas like Digital Health and Alternative Protein, leading the firm’s investments in Hello Heart, Carrot Fertility, Wildtype, and more. Sara has worked with startups around the globe for over 15 years, including at The Idea Village in New Orleans where she ran an early stage tech incubator in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. There, Sara developed a love for helping founders articulate and achieve a bold vision against all odds. For five years, Sara has been a Lecturer in Management at the Stanford GSB where she teaches a popular MBA elective course on startups. Earlier in her career, Sara was a management consultant in the Healthcare Strategy practice at Deloitte. Sara holds a BS in Finance from Xavier University in her hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio and an MBA from Stanford.
Sara's Sessions
Consumer AI Startups
Maven Ventures general partner Sara Deshpande has been investing in the consumer tech space for a decade. Join me to discuss the current consumer landscape, novel startup ideas, fundraising, and why it’s a great time to be building in Consumer AI.
Consumer AI Startups (encore)
Maven Ventures general partner Sara Deshpande has been investing in the consumer tech space for a decade. Join me to discuss the current consumer landscape, novel startup ideas, fundraising, and why it’s a great time to be building in Consumer AI.
“Dietz” is CEO of Augment. Prior to Augment, he served as CEO of Pure Storage. Under his leadership, Pure grew from 0 to >$1B in revenues and from 15 to thousands of employees, as well as went public. Dietzen is a four-time successful entrepreneur with WebLogic, Zimbra and Transarc as well as Pure. He earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science with an emphasis on Machine Learning from Carnegie Mellon University.
Scott's Sessions
How AI is Supercharging Tools for Knowledge Workers
Advancements in AI are enabling new tooling that will 10x the productivity of knowledge workers by reducing monotonous, repetitive tasks. These advances have also unlocked opportunities for more creativity and experimentation. This panel explores the latest in professional services tooling and explores how companies can maximize performance and productivity. We will also explore the future of tooling for knowledge workers and how emerging breakthroughs might be applied. Let’s explore the future of work.
James is CEO and co-founder of DraftWise, an AI contract drafting, review & negotiation platform grounded in legal precedent. Prior to founding DraftWise, he led teams at Palantir developing big data AI solutions and has invented multiple patents in data security, machine learning, and cloud computing. For fun, he loves to bake bread and play tennis.
James's Sessions
The Future of High-Growth Tech: Beyond the Apple App Store
As the tech landscape evolves, the next wave of high-growth, high-impact companies may not emerge from the Apple app store, but rather from the Microsoft app store. This shift signals a broader transformation in historically slow-moving industries like legal tech, where innovative solutions are challenging the status quo. Buyers in these sectors are increasingly open to embracing change, paving the way for a new era of technological advancement. Join our panel of experts as we explore how AI and other emerging technologies are driving this evolution, and what it means for the future of knowledge work in industries traditionally resistant to rapid change.
Sofia partners with founders who leverage their unique perspective, and personal understanding of a problem, to create businesses that lead to behavioural shifts, powerful network effects, and the reshaping of entire industries, from grocery and ecommerce, to financial services and healthcare. Sofia is also one of Index’s gaming leads, working with some of the top gaming companies in Europe, creating the next generation of iconic gaming titles. She spends most of her time in the Nordics, but works with entrepreneurs across the continent. Before joining Index in 2018, Sofia worked as an investor at EQT Ventures in Stockholm and a consultant at EY-Parthenon in London and Paris. She also took part in the European Union Delegation to the OECD. Sofia is a graduate of the London School of Economics (M.Sc. Management) and of the University of Edinburgh (M.A.), where she graduated at the top of her class.
Sofia's Sessions
The Future of High-Growth Tech: Beyond the Apple App Store
As the tech landscape evolves, the next wave of high-growth, high-impact companies may not emerge from the Apple app store, but rather from the Microsoft app store. This shift signals a broader transformation in historically slow-moving industries like legal tech, where innovative solutions are challenging the status quo. Buyers in these sectors are increasingly open to embracing change, paving the way for a new era of technological advancement. Join our panel of experts as we explore how AI and other emerging technologies are driving this evolution, and what it means for the future of knowledge work in industries traditionally resistant to rapid change.
The 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.
Pitch Deck Teardown
An articulate, alluring pitch presentation is a big part of successfully fundraising, and yet it’s relatively uncommon for founders to get candid feedback on how they communicated the problem, their solution, and their path to success. During the Pitch Deck Teardown, VCs will offer their live feedback on decks submitted by audience members.
Angela is a Partner Softbank Investment Advisors and leads the firm’s consumer x AI technology investing practice. She has helped lead investments and is active in companies such as Uber, Alphasense, Berkshire Grey, Aurora, Devoted Health, and Human Interest. She sits on the Board / is a Board Observer at Bytedance, ezCater, Misfits Market, Papa, Weee!, LTK, and Andela. Angela has spent over fifteen years across public, private, growth and late stage investing. Prior to joining Softbank, Angela worked at Parnassus Investments, an ESG focused mutual fund. Prior to Parnassus, Angela worked at TPG Capital as part of the North America Buyouts Group and in the TMT investment banking team at Goldman Sachs. She has an MBA from The Wharton School and a BS in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford.
Angela's Sessions
Evolution of a Consumer AI Startup
The metric for startup success has shifted, and the debate has grown around topics such as which metrics matter, and balancing growth and profitability. Join SoftBank Vision Fund partner and LTK and Misfits Market board member Angela Du for a lively discussion on the key challenges that consumer AI startups are facing, including evaluating product-market fit, scalability and monetization, and how to run the new playbook that startups need to succeed in today’s market.
Evolution of a Consumer AI Startup (encore)
The metric for startup success has shifted, and the debate has grown around topics such as which metrics matter, and balancing growth and profitability. Join SoftBank Vision Fund partner and LTK and Misfits Market board member Angela Du for a lively discussion on the key challenges that consumer AI startups are facing, including evaluating product-market fit, scalability and monetization, and how to run the new playbook that startups need to succeed in today’s market.
Kevin Dunlap is co-founder and managing partner of Calibrate Ventures. He has been collaborating with exceptional founders for over 20 years, guiding their businesses from initial concepts to successful billion-dollar exits. Kevin provides strategic operational guidance and access to an extensive network of operators, investors, and partners. Kevin started his career as an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he developed a deep understanding of automation and AI technologies. His passion lies in helping founders transform their innovations into profitable companies that revolutionize industries and impact lives. Prior to co-founding Calibrate, Kevin previously served as managing director at Shea Ventures, where he supported companies such as Ring, Solar City, and Chegg. He is a board member at Realized and Soft Robotics, and a board observer at GrayMatter Robotics, Parallel Domain, Rangeview, and Trellis. Outside of work, Kevin enjoys spending time at the beach with his wife and two young children. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University at Buffalo and an MS in Financial Engineering from the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University.
Kevin's Sessions
AI Outlook: Where VCs are Placing their Bets in AI today – and Where we go Next
After more than a year of frenzied investment into AI, investors are recalibrating. Instead of throwing money at any startup that claims to be AI, VCs are tightening their belts. Hear from a leading early-stage AI investor about what VCs are looking for in AI startups today. Find out why applied AI – “putting AI to work – is the next frontier in investment, with VCs looking for companies that can prove their technology can scale to disrupt established industries such as manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and financial services. Walk away with practical tips to get your AI startup funded!
AI Outlook: Where VCs are Placing Their Bets in AI Today – and Where We Go Next (encore)
After more than a year of frenzied investment into AI, investors are recalibrating. Instead of throwing money at any startup that claims to be AI, VCs are tightening their belts. Hear from a leading early-stage AI investor about what VCs are looking for in AI startups today. Find out why applied AI – “putting AI to work – is the next frontier in investment, with VCs looking for companies that can prove their technology can scale to disrupt established industries such as manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and financial services. Walk away with practical tips to get your AI startup funded!
Andy Dunn is an entrepreneur, author, and investor. Dunn co-founded the menswear ecommerce brand Bonobos in 2007, and served as the company’s CEO for its first ten years, pioneering the digitally native brand movement. Bonobos was the first American brand launched to scale using e-commerce. The company’s inventory-free store model, called guideshops, redefined what an offline retail experience can be in the digital era. A decade after its founding, Bonobos was acquired for $310 million. In 2022, Dunn published a memoir. In it, he lifts the veil on the mental health demons he’d been privately battling as he built Bonobos. Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind chronicles his journey at the intersection of entrepreneurship and bipolar disorder. Published by Penguin Random House, the book was named one of the most anticipated books of the year by Forbes and was an Amazon Editor’s Choice in 2022. Dunn’s latest venture is called Pie. Currently in beta, the mantra of the company is “more social, less media.” As an angel investor and a founder of Red Swan, a seed stage venture capital fund, Dunn has backed over 100 startups, including Warby Parker, Coinbase and Hinge. Dunn chairs the board of Monica + Andy, an organic baby apparel brand, and serves on the board of RaisedBy.Us, a social giving not-for-profit. Dunn received his B.A. at Northwestern University and M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He lives between Chicago and Rio de Janeiro with his wife and their son. He is a Cubs fan.
Andy's Sessions
How to Build a Company While Protecting your Mental Health
Everyone knows that it is stressful to build a company. And it’s just as commonly known that endless chronic work can lead to burnout. So, why don’t we talk more about founder mental health? Now that our culture is more comfortable discussing mental health in general, it’s time we brought the topic to Disrupt for a thorough interrogation.
Pegah Ebrahimi is an advisor to or investor in many category defining startups, including Snyk, Canva, Guild, Applyboard, PsiQuantum and DataRobot. Founders want to work with Pegah because of her world class go-to-market expertise, which she developed during her tenure as COO of Morgan Stanley’s Technology Investment Banking, COO of Cisco’s multi-billion dollar Collaboration business, and the youngest global CIO of Morgan Stanley Bank.
Pegah's Sessions
Don’t Be a Lemming: the Anti-hype Panel
What’s the difference between true opportunity and hype? Answering that question correctly is the difference between success and failure and the tech industry. And it’s a far more difficult question than it might appear. When everyone is convinced a specific tech is the future, founders – and even VCs – tend to pursue that tech en mass. But as anyone who’s been through a Valley boom and bust cycle knows, collective excitement – hype – isn’t the best indicator.
Dr. Debra L. Emmons is vice president and chief technology officer (CTO) at The Aerospace Corporation. In this role, she is responsible for providing vital leadership for determining and executing the company’s technology strategy and investments. Emmons leads four offices: eLab, responsible for setting the technical investment strategy and priorities; xLab, responsible for developing, building, and operating prototypes; Commercial Space Futures (CSF) office, responsible for driving the harnessing of commercial solutions for government missions to advance U.S. space; and the new Solution Accelerator, responsible for delivering independent and innovative solutions with speed and national impact. She also manages the company’s $60M+ internal research and development program and the Aerospace Technical Fellows program, with the company’s top engineers and scientists. Emmons most recently served as chairperson of the CTO Roundtable with federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) and university affiliated research centers (UARCs) to develop and maintain relationships with government and other defense-related research laboratories to identify technology priorities, future requirements, and emerging opportunities.
Debra's Sessions
Startups in Dual-use
Government and defense are relying more and more on commercial services, but startups face a real challenge entering this highly regulated and formal side of the industry. How can young, lean companies compete for contracts and attention with primes and more established organizations – and how can investors help?
Future of Space Operations Challenge
This open call pitch-off will present startups across robotics, autonomous systems, AI/ML, Vision Systems, Propulsion and Navigation. Five finalists will pitch to Aerospace judges and one winner will get access to expert lead feedback sessions with The Aerospace Corporation, government experts, and commercial space leadership.
Effie is the Managing Partner of Sound Ventures, an LA-based venture capital firm founded by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary. She joined Sound Ventures in 2016 and has brought a multi-disciplinary approach to the firm. In her role, Effie leads investing, strategy and the day-to-day management of the firm. With more than $1 billion under management and 200 portfolio companies, Effie and her partners have been at the helm of six top quartile funds. Prior to Sound, Effie led Global Strategy at Marsh, a multi-billion dollar division of financial services firm Marsh & McLennan (NYSE: MMC). She’s also held leadership positions across media, tech and financial services. Effie was an SVP at iHeartMedia, as well as Head of Business Development and Strategy at CLEAR. Earlier in her career, Effie was part of Merrill Lynch’s Global Energy and Power Investment Banking group as well as the Global Strategy team at NYSE Euronext. Effie earned her BA from University of Texas in Austin and her MBA from Harvard Business School.
Effie's Sessions
Making Sound Investments with Ashton Kutcher
Join Sound Ventures partners Ashton Kutcher, Effie Epstein and Guy Oseary on their firm’s big bet on AI, the influence of celebrity status, and the trends they are tracking right now.
Christine Esserman joined Accel in 2017 and focuses on software, internet, and mobile technology companies. Since joining Accel, Christine has help lead Accel’s investments in Blackpoint Cyber, Linear, Merge, ThreeFlow, Bumble, Remote, Dovetail, Ethos, Guru, and Headway. Prior to Accel, Christine worked in product and operations roles at a number of startups. Christine is from the Bay Area and graduated from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in finance and operations.
Christine's Sessions
The 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.
Tony Fadell is an active investor and entrepreneur with a 30+ year history of founding companies and designing products that profoundly improve people’s lives. He is the Principal at Build Collective, an investment and advisory firm coaching deep tech startups. Currently, Build Collective is coaching over 200+ startups innovating game-changing technologies. He is the founder and former CEO of Nest, the company that pioneered the “Internet of Things.” Tony was the SVP of Apple’s iPod Division and led the team that created the first 18 generations of the iPod and the first three generations of the iPhone. Throughout his career Tony has authored more than 300 patents. In May 2016, TIME named the Nest Learning Thermostat, the iPod and the iPhone three of the “50 Most Influential Gadgets of All Time.” He is a NYT best-selling author of BUILD: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making (Harper Business; May 3, 2022).
Tony's Sessions
Smaller, Faster, Smarter: How Tiny AI is Democratizing AI Technology Starting with the Smart Home Camera
Nest founder, former SVP of Apple’s iPhone and iPod teams, and Principal at Build Collective Tony Fadell joins Plumerai’s Co-founder and CEO Roeland Nusselder to discuss how Tiny AI is democratizing AI. By making AI smaller, efficient, and cost-effective, Tiny AI is paving the way for widespread adoption across industries, fostering innovation, and putting the power of AI into the hands of many. Tiny AI is shaping a future where intelligence is embedded all around us, enhancing our daily lives in ways we’ve only dreamed of. The future is here, and it’s smaller than you think!
Building the Next Generation of Deep Tech Startups with Tony Fadell
Tony Fadell is best known as the founder of Nest and SVP of Apple’s iPhone and iPod teams. These days, he coaches some of the most innovative deep tech startups as the Principal of Build Collective. Fadell will discuss some of the future’s most promising innovations.
Ali Farhadi is the CEO of the Allen Institute for AI (AI2) and a Professor at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. Ali has been a professor at the UW Allen School since 2012. He first joined AI2 in 2015 to lead the institute’s computer vision research team with a focus on visual common-sense reasoning and the role of actions and interactions in visual understanding. While at AI2, he co-founded Xnor.ai, the first on-device deep learning startup that was acquired by Apple in 2020. Ali led Apple’s next-generation machine learning efforts until 2023 when he rejoined AI2 as CEO in July. Ali’s research impact has been globally recognized with several best paper awards at CVPR, NeruIPS, AAAI, NSF Career Award, and the Sloan Fellowship, and he was named one of Forbes’s Top 5 AI Entrepreneurs in 2018.e
Ali's Sessions
The Advantages of "Open" AI
There’s increasing support in the AI industry for “open” AI models — models released under permissive licenses that can be repurposed for a range of applications. Standing in contrast to models gated behind paid services, open models are shaking up the AI status quo. The panel will discuss the specific ways how — and what the future might hold.
Chris Farmer is the CEO, Partner, and co-founder of venture fund SignalFire, a $2.1 billion AI-native early-stage venture firm. A decade ago, Farmer pioneered the use of data and AI would let VCs source better investments while scalably helping portfolio companies. So Farmer built Beacon, SignalFire’s in-house AI platform, with the help of Google veterans, Stanford AI PhDs, and feedback from 500 founders on what they really needed. Now Beacon crunches a half trillion data points to rank over 650 million people in the tech ecosystem on talent and hireability to assist portfolio companies with recruiting and go-to-market. At SignalFire, Farmer has led investments in companies like Grammarly, Frame.io, ClassDojo, and Stampli. The firm writes lead checks from seed to Series B with a focus on sectors including health and life sciences tech, developer tools, cybersecurity, and vertical AI SAAS. Previously, Farmer was a successful entrepreneur, spearheading the turnaround of wireless-enabled SaaS company Skybitz, preparing it for its acquisition by Telular Corporation. Farmer built one of the first technologies for startup investment sourcing while at Bessemer Venture Partners in 2007 to track the new Apple App Store. He then joined General Catalyst, where he led seed investing in iconic companies like Alation, Coinbase, Discord, Fivetran, Getaround, Segment, Stripe, and Zapier. Most recently, Farmer launched SignalFire’s AI Lab to handpick high-potential founders and partner them with top corporations in their sector as design partners, pilot customers, and training data providers.
Chris's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield Final
The grand final of TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition. Watch the final 5 teams from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Justin Fiaschetti is Co-Founder and CEO of Inversion, which enables precision delivery on-demand from space to anywhere on Earth. Inversion’s fully autonomous re-entry vehicles deliver goods and gear to the planet’s toughest spots – remote islands, uninhabitable mountains, or the middle of the ocean – in less than an hour, within 20 feet (6 meters). The company is backed by Spark Capital, Y Combinator, and Adjacent. Justin studied Mechanical Engineering at Boston University, and co-founded Inversion after working on propulsion systems at SpaceX and Relativity Space. He was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 for his vision, expertise, and commitment to shaping the space industry’s future.
Justin's Sessions
There and Back Again: Solving Orbital Delivery
Humanity has (mostly) mastered cargo delivery here on Earth, but what about in space? A new wave of startups are trying to bring to the market a never-been-done-before capability: responsive, ultra-precise delivery to and from orbit. This type of responsive logistics could change the game for how the military and commercial companies plan their logistics, and these startup founders are determined to make it a reality.
Erin Foster is the co-founder of clothing and lifestyle brand Favorite Daughter, now with two of its own stores and sold at Moda Operandi, Nordstrom, and Saks. Erin also created, wrote, and executive produced “Nobody Wants This,” a Netflix show to be released in September 2024, starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody. Her and her sister Sara have also launched Oversubscribed Ventures, a venture capital firm aimed at investing in consumer brands and tech. Sara and Erin also have a weekly podcast called The World’s First Podcast, which discusses dating, bettering yourself, and the fights they get into.
Erin's Sessions
Consumer, Culture, and Creators with Erin and Sara Foster
Two of the industry’s most famous sisters sit down alongside business partner Phil Schwarz to talk about consumer investing, culture curation, and what it means to be a creator in the modern age.
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 New Data Pipeline
The rise of modern AI applications has put a renewed emphasis on the importance of the data that underpins them. But simply having data isn’t enough, you also need the tools to manage it, secure it and build the pipelines to let it flow between applications. In this session, we’ll talk to some of the companies that are building the tools to make that happen.
Jörgen Fredman, CEO & Cofounder of Waya Finance & Technology, a End-to-End B2B platform for automating accounts receivable and integrating payments
Jörgen's Sessions
Visa Everywhere Initiative: The Ultimate Fintech Pitch Competition
Fintech startups inspire—Visa enables. Join us at the Visa Emerging Innovators (VEI) program, where we celebrate the next generation of fintech pioneers. This year, we are thrilled to announce that we are doubling the prize to an incredible $100K! Visa has carefully selected five visionary startups from around the world, each poised to pitch their groundbreaking solutions to a distinguished panel of fintech industry leaders. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness the future of payments in action and discover how you can be part of the fintech revolution.
Avi Freedman is co-founder and CEO of Kentik. As a leading technologist and executive in networking, Avi Freedman was previously at Akamai for over a decade, as VP of Network Infrastructure and then Chief Network Scientist. Prior to that, Avi Freedman started Philadelphia’s first ISP (netaxs) in 1992, later running the network at AboveNet and serving as CTO for ServerCentral.
Avi's Sessions
Cloud Doesn't Have to Mean Compromise
Join us as we discuss the multi-cloud landscape and learn how Kentik leverages AI and network visibility to help you run cloud – and your entire hybrid estate – in the most cost-efficient way possible. Hear about Kentik’s partnership with Golub Growth, which is driving innovation and enhancing their platform, and learn more about the latest trends and gain practical tips to boost your organization’s IT agility and flexibility.
Ben Fu is a Partner at OMERS Ventures. Ben brings together engineering, sales, and investment expertise to discover and support early revenue startups. He believes in the tremendous value of deep domain expertise, independent thinking, conviction through data but never forgetting the big picture, and hustling harder than the competition. A seeker of truth. Ben also believes that being a good investor means being a trusted partner to the CEO and adding meaningful value to portfolio companies. Passionate about AI, Data, Infrastructure, and SaaS. Prior to OMERS Ventures, Ben was a Partner at NewView Capital. Before NewView, Ben was a General Partner at NextWorld Capital and a Principal with Scale Venture Partners. At Scale Venture Partners, Ben originated Scale’s investments in Box and Applause, and worked closely with HubSpot, BrightRoll, RingCentral and Jaspersoft. Prior to Scale Venture Partners, he was a Senior Sales Engineer at Symantec and IMlogic, and worked in technical sales roles at Akamai Technologies. He holds an MEng and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Ben's Sessions
AI Infra, DevOps and the Backend Tooling Stack of the Next Generation of B2B Software Winners
This roundtable explores investment strategies in AI infrastructure software, DevOps, and B2B infrastructure. As AI continues to reshape industries, the demand for robust, scalable infrastructure has never been greater. Participants will discuss emerging trends in cloud computing, containerization, and edge computing tailored for AI workloads. The conversation will delve into the challenges of developing and deploying AI models at scale, examining how DevOps practices are evolving to meet these demands. Additionally, the roundtable will address the growing market for B2B infrastructure software that enables AI integration across various sectors. By analyzing current gaps in the ecosystem and projecting future needs, this discussion aims to identify key areas for strategic investment that will shape the next generation of AI infrastructure.
AI infra, DevOps and the Backend Tooling Stack of the Next Generation of B2B Software Winners (encore)
This roundtable explores investment strategies in AI infrastructure software, DevOps, and B2B infrastructure. As AI continues to reshape industries, the demand for robust, scalable infrastructure has never been greater. Participants will discuss emerging trends in cloud computing, containerization, and edge computing tailored for AI workloads. The conversation will delve into the challenges of developing and deploying AI models at scale, examining how DevOps practices are evolving to meet these demands. Additionally, the roundtable will address the growing market for B2B infrastructure software that enables AI integration across various sectors. By analyzing current gaps in the ecosystem and projecting future needs, this discussion aims to identify key areas for strategic investment that will shape the next generation of AI infrastructure.
Rohan is a Partner at Obvious Ventures where he invests in companies at the intersection of science, technology, and healthcare. He supports several companies as a board director or observer including Inceptive, Inato, Pi Health, Gandeeva Therapeutics, Anagenex, LabGenius. Prior to joining Obvious, he led venture investments in healthcare technology, biotech and diagnostics at Verily Life Sciences, a Google spinout, and at Northpond Ventures, a multi-billion-dollar science-driven venture firm. He worked as product manager for CompuGroup Medical (leading EMR company in Europe) and in Verily’s computer-aided disease detection and machine learning team.
Rohan's Sessions
The 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.
Heather Gantt-Evans is Marqeta’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), responsible for the cybersecurity of Marqeta’s products and business technology resources. Heather brings 15 years of cybersecurity and risk management expertise. She is known for her ability to clearly define and execute hyper-growth, transformative strategies while maintaining a strong people focus. She also lends her expertise to multiple advisory boards as well as Envision Radiology’s cybersecurity committee, which she chairs. Heather Gantt-Evans most recently served as the CISO at SailPoint, the leading Identity Security software provider, as well as deputy CISO at The Home Depot. Earlier, Gantt-Evans spent 5 years consulting with Ernst and Young to transform numerous Fortune 100 cybersecurity programs across multiple industry verticals. Here she developed a strong affinity for the Financial and Technology verticals. She is a veteran who served in the U.S. Army Reserves as an all-source threat intelligence analyst. She also supported Air Force Cyber Command as a contractor, focusing on cyber threat intelligence and integration of intelligence into security operations. Heather is based in Austin, TX but enjoys traveling to beaches, mountains, and forests with her husband and three children.
Heather's Sessions
So, You're Going to Get Hacked: Advice from the Front-lines
Cyberattacks are inevitable, but disasters are avoidable. Hear from experienced security defenders who have built and grown security teams, and what you need to know to get ahead of cyberattackers before they strike.
Div Garg is the Co-Founder, Chairman of the Board & Chief Visionary of MultiOn, an AI company developing the best consumer agents across desktop and mobile. Div dropped out from his Stanford University AI PhD program to start MultiOn. At Stanford, his research focused on Large Language Models (LLMs) and Reinforcement Learning, applying them to projects like AI Agents capable of winning top prizes in video game competitions, robots that could be controlled using language, and state-of-the-art autonomous driving systems with wide media coverage. He has dedicated his career to building autonomous AI systems and left his mark at tech giants like Apple, Google, and Nvidia. Most recently, he was leading AI at a general-purpose robotics startup – Collaborative Robotics – as the first founding engineer. He is enthralled with building intelligent systems and has worked on various high-impact AI projects, ranging from self-driving cars, robotic control & Minecraft AI agents. He also created and teaches CS 25, the Transformers class at Stanford. Div dropped out from his Stanford University AI PhD program to start MultiOn. At Stanford, his research focused on Large Language Models (LLMs) and Reinforcement Learning, applying them to projects like AI Agents capable of winning top prizes in video game competitions, robots that could be controlled using language, and state-of-the-art autonomous driving systems with wide media coverage. He has dedicated his career to building autonomous AI systems and left his mark at tech giants like Apple, Google, and Nvidia. Most recently, he was leading AI at a general-purpose robotics startup – Collaborative Robotics – as the first founding engineer. He is enthralled with building intelligent systems and has worked on various high-impact AI projects, ranging from self-driving cars, robotic control & Minecraft AI agents. He also created and teaches CS 25, the Transformers class at Stanford.
Div's Sessions
Founder Mode: AI Startups in Learning, Health, and Autonomous Agents
Learn how today’s top founders are using AI to solve real-world problems. The panel experts will include: MultiOn who creates AI agents on the web to solve a variety of problems such as booking flights, shopping, and internet research; Miri.ai, which offers health and wellness AI coaches; and LearnTube, which uses generative AI to create instant learning courses, curriculum, quizzes, and certifications. Panel discussion, Q&A, on how to launch, build, grow, and fund an AI startup.
Emilie Gerber is the founder & CEO of Six Eastern, a PR agency that has worked with over 100 tech companies, from stealth startups to publicly traded companies, including Perplexity, Webflow, ClickUp, and Nubank. Before starting her own firm, she worked at Uber where she led PR for the business development team and B2B products. Prior to that, she worked at Box on product communications. She currently lives in San Francisco, the city where she was born and raised!
Emilie's Sessions
Secrets to Actually Being Good at Startup PR in 2024
The communications and PR landscape has dramatically shifted in recent years: new mediums (Substack, podcasts) have spiked in influence and popularity, fueling new strategies (“going direct”) for shaping and amplifying public perceptions — all while an increasingly critical media landscape continues to hold all types of industry stakeholders accountable. How can early and growing companies responsibly navigate these changes *and* be successful in building an inspiring brand? This roundtable will dissect the growing breadth and importance of different comms functions: the under-appreciated, consequential nature of internal comms, the increasingly indispensable need for owned channels, the pros and cons of political takes amidst an election year, and how to actually get meaningful press coverage for a company. The tech communications industry has arguably never been more dynamic.
Rebecca Gevalt is Managing Partner at Dcode Capital which invests alongside leading venture firms in commercially-successful, high-growth technology companies that can dramatically improve the US government. The venture fund launched from Dcode, the partners’ affiliated advisory firm based in Washington, DC, that aims to create a technologically superior federal government. Previously as Dcode’s tech Managing Director, Rebecca built and operated the stage-agnostic accelerator program, scaling venture-backed tech into the federal market. She also launched Dcode’s government business to teach government stakeholders how to find and contract with nontraditional tech companies. Prior to Dcode, Rebecca worked at the CIA for more than a decade, and for some of those years, she worked with In-Q-Tel to bring novel tech startups into the national security space. She holds a BS from Tulane University.
Rebecca's Sessions
The Boom in National Interest Startups
One fascinating trend these days is an area that has a number of names: national-interest startups, American Dynamism, New World. These startups are creating technologies in areas that are meant to be built, used, and create jobs in the country of origin, like the US. They cover everything from aerospace and critical infrastructure to government, manufacturing and national safety. This panel will dig into how far — and how fast — Silicon Valley can rebuild a nation’s foundations.
Dayna Grayson is Co-founder and General Partner of Construct Capital, an early stage venture firm that invests in extraordinary founders building technology to transform the most foundational industries of our economy from manufacturing to mobility. Dayna was one of the first venture capitalists to turn her attention to transforming these sectors of our economy through software based models. She backed companies creating new advances in manufacturing, automation, and vertically integrated consumer brands. During her time as a partner at NEA (2012-2020), she was the lead investor from the earliest stages and was on the board of companies including Desktop Metal (2015 – today), Tulip (2017 – 2020), Onshape (acqd by PTC) (2013-2019), and Framebridge (acqd by Graham Holdings) (2014-2020) among others. She also led investments in Guideline, Formlabs, Evenly and Neuralmagic. At Construct, along with her co-founder Rachel Holt, Dayna is exclusively focused on early stage investments and investing behind the accelerating changes in foundational industries that together make up half our economy’s GDP are failing to meet customer expectations. Some of their investments include Copia, Veho, Hadrian, The Rounds, and Verve Motion. Dayna started her career in product development and led design efforts at Blackbaud [BLKB], the leading global provider of software to nonprofit organizations, as the company grew to over $130 million in revenue and completed a successful public offering and was an investor at North Bridge Venture Partners from 2007-2012. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia (Systems Engineering) and Harvard Business School, where she serves as a venture partner today
Dayna's Sessions
How to Raise in 2025 if You’ve Taken a Flat, Down, or Extension Round
Old ideas like you need $100 million worth of trailing revenue to go public, and $1 million worth of annual recurring revenue to raise a Series A are so old that they are practically perched atop Abe Lincoln’s head. In today’s market, what a startup needs to raise depends on its sector, founder profile, and, yes, momentum. So what do you need to raise that Series A?
The Startup Battlefield Final
The grand final of TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition. Watch the final 5 teams from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Darren Gruber is a Technical Advisor at MongoDB, where he provides strategic guidance and technical leadership on the company’s most critical security initiatives. Reporting directly to MongoDB’s CISO, Darren has served as the incident commander for multiple high-stakes security events, directing threat hunting efforts and coordinating with critical stakeholders during critical situations. Currently Darren is leading MongoDB’s generative AI security research, leading efforts to both assess emerging threats and to develop comprehensive internal policies to ensure gen AI’s safe and responsible use across MongoDB. In addition to MongoDB, Darren has almost 20 years of experience across diverse regulated industries, including pharmaceuticals (Pfizer), healthcare (Flatiron Health), biometric identity (CLEAR), and HR technology (ADP, Namely). He is also experienced in cloud security architecture and scaling containerized workloads.
Darren's Sessions
So, You're Going to Get Hacked: Advice from the Front-lines
Cyberattacks are inevitable, but disasters are avoidable. Hear from experienced security defenders who have built and grown security teams, and what you need to know to get ahead of cyberattackers before they strike.
Harsha and Ganesh met in class at UC Berkeley, bonding over their love for making videos. Both grew up in the Bay Area and spent countless late nights editing videos together, but grew frustrated with how complicated today’s editing tools were. With Moonshine, Harsha and Ganesh are making video editing as intuitive as writing a story — turning a fun idea into a full-fledged startup.
Harsha's Sessions
Berkeley Connect: Experience the World’s #1 Startup Ecosystem
Join us for an exclusive opportunity to engage with the innovative minds behind UC Berkeley’s top-ranked startup ecosystem. Recently named #1 by PitchBook for producing the most venture-backed companies and female founders, UC Berkeley is shaping the future of entrepreneurship. At this interactive Roundtable, visionary students from the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) will showcase their cutting-edge ventures in rapid demo pitches. Explore the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship (BMoE), SCET’s unique, journey-based approach to fostering entrepreneurial success, and discover the ‘secret sauce’ that propels Berkeley’s entrepreneurial leaders to the forefront of innovation.
Berkeley Connect: Experience the World’s #1 Startup Ecosystem (encore)
Join us for an exclusive opportunity to engage with the innovative minds behind UC Berkeley’s top-ranked startup ecosystem. Recently named #1 by PitchBook for producing the most venture-backed companies and female founders, UC Berkeley is shaping the future of entrepreneurship. At this interactive Roundtable, visionary students from the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) will showcase their cutting-edge ventures in rapid demo pitches. Explore the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship (BMoE), SCET’s unique, journey-based approach to fostering entrepreneurial success, and discover the ‘secret sauce’ that propels Berkeley’s entrepreneurial leaders to the forefront of innovation.
Topher is the cofounder/CEO of Albedo, the first space company to commercialize the new orbit regime of VLEO (very low earth orbit). Albedo’s satellites will capture imagery at a resolution that today can only be obtained by planes/drones, enabling applications across defense/intelligence, utilities, agriculture, insurance, and energy industries. Prior to Albedo, Topher was an engineer at Lockheed Martin working on national security space programs.
Topher's Sessions
The Boom in National Interest Startups
One fascinating trend these days is an area that has a number of names: national-interest startups, American Dynamism, New World. These startups are creating technologies in areas that are meant to be built, used, and create jobs in the country of origin, like the US. They cover everything from aerospace and critical infrastructure to government, manufacturing and national safety. This panel will dig into how far — and how fast — Silicon Valley can rebuild a nation’s foundations.
Co-Founder @ GamerG | 👾 Competitive Gaming Platform
Rashid's Sessions
Visa Everywhere Initiative: The Ultimate Fintech Pitch Competition
Fintech startups inspire—Visa enables. Join us at the Visa Emerging Innovators (VEI) program, where we celebrate the next generation of fintech pioneers. This year, we are thrilled to announce that we are doubling the prize to an incredible $100K! Visa has carefully selected five visionary startups from around the world, each poised to pitch their groundbreaking solutions to a distinguished panel of fintech industry leaders. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness the future of payments in action and discover how you can be part of the fintech revolution.
Aaron Hall is the visionary Founder and CEO of Intropic Materials, a pioneering startup at the forefront of sustainable materials technology. Aaron leads his team in developing cutting-edge enzyme-stabilizing nanotechnology that enables self-degrading plastics, clean chemical manufacturing, and much more. Aaron’s journey to entrepreneurship is marked by a unique blend of scientific expertise and business acumen. He holds a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from UC Berkeley and a BS in Chemistry from UC Santa Cruz. His professional experience spans roles in green chemistry research, food science R&D, and entrepreneurial fellowships, including time at the prestigious Cyclotron Road program. Under Aaron’s leadership, Intropic Materials has garnered significant attention in the cleantech and materials science sectors. The company’s innovative approach has attracted partnerships with major industry players and secured them substantial funding from both venture capital firms and government grants. A thought leader in sustainable materials and circular economy principles, his insights on the intersection of nanotechnology, enzymatic processes, and environmental sustainability continue to shape discussions on the future of plastic waste solutions and beyond.
Aaron'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.
Erin Harkless Moore is the Managing Director of Investment for Pivotal Ventures, a Melinda French Gates company created to accelerate social progress. As a member of Pivotal’s Executive Leadership Team, Erin leads the organization’s fund and direct investment decisions, overseeing a diverse portfolio of investments that drive breakthrough innovations. With nearly 20 years of investment experience in building and managing customized portfolios for endowed institutions and family offices, Erin’s commitment to discovering and cultivating relationships with leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, and founders has been a driving force behind her success. Prior to joining Pivotal, Erin served as Managing Director for global investment firm Cambridge Associates, where she sourced and conducted diligence on investment managers across asset classes, with a particular focus on private markets and early-stage venture capital. She currently serves on the Board and Investment Committee for Builders Initiative and is an at-large member of the Alumni Board of Governors for her alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis. A native Texan, she resides on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. with her husband and two children. When not chasing after her kids, Erin enjoys exploring new restaurants, spending time with friends, traveling, reading, and fiction writing.
Erin's Sessions
The 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.
Peter Hazlehurst, CEO and co-founder of Synctera, is a global FinTech entrepreneur and philanthropist with nearly 30 years of experience creating financial products for banks, FinTechs, and large tech companies. In 1993 he built core banking technology for Phoenix, which still powers companies today. More recently, Peter served as Head of Uber Money, Chief Operating Officer at Postmates, Senior Director of Product Management at Google, CEO and Board Member of Google Payments Corporation, and Chief Product Officer at Yodlee. Peter also led Product at Nokia for Enterprise Mobility and Mobile email and has served as a CTO and consultant at several startups.
Peter's Sessions
BaaS in a Post-Synapse Meltdown World
The bankruptcy of banking-as-a-service (BaaS) fintech Synapse shows just how treacherous things are for the often-interdependent fintech world when one key player hits trouble. Synapse’s problems have hurt and taken down a number of other startups and affected millions of consumers all over the country. Many believe regulatory clarity is needed moving forward. One analyst says the case of Synapse underscores the need for fintech companies to maintain high operational and compliance standards. This panel looks at the potential impacts the Synapse collapse will have on the future of BaaS.
Troy Helming is a Unicorn Founder (with 6 company exits) and a modern-day industrialist. He’s an inventor (60+ patent claims), an elite athlete, an author (1 book + 100s of articles), and a clean energy executive. He’s founded companies that have generated more than $30 Billion of economic impact, and he serves on numerous boards. He’s a longtime wellness practitioner & yogi.
Troy's Sessions
Powering Ahead: The Future of Energy & Infrastructure
Join us for ‘Powering Ahead: The Future of Energy & Infrastructure’ featuring Troy Helming, a visionary leader in renewable energy and successful entrepreneur. In our breakout session, we’ll dive into the latest innovations shaping the energy sector, including advancements in renewable technologies, grid modernization, and sustainable infrastructure development. We’ll also share best practices for building a startup, offering practical advice drawn from Troy’s experiences. Attendees will gain insights into how these trends are transforming the way we produce, distribute, and consume energy, and how to capitalize on emerging opportunities. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from an industry expert about the challenges and prospects that lie ahead in the quest for a cleaner, more efficient energy future.
Kelly Hennig, COO, Stoke Space Before joining Stoke as COO, Kelly Hennig held both executive and engineering roles at Raytheon, as well as multiple engineering, program management and strategy roles at Northrop Grumman. Kelly’s rich experience leading development programs, including proposing, capturing and executing major contracts, has earned her a clear and respected reputation in aerospace. Kelly has been awarded 10 Patents and 5 Trade Secrets as well as multiple awards and distinctions for innovation and engineering. She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers as well as a MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan. As COO of Stoke, Kelly strategically guides the company creating efficiency and process while preparing to scale.
Kelly's Sessions
There and Back Again: Solving Orbital Delivery
Humanity has (mostly) mastered cargo delivery here on Earth, but what about in space? A new wave of startups are trying to bring to the market a never-been-done-before capability: responsive, ultra-precise delivery to and from orbit. This type of responsive logistics could change the game for how the military and commercial companies plan their logistics, and these startup founders are determined to make it a reality.
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
Riding the Wave: The Future of Space Investing
Private investments in commercial space companies has exploded over the past few years, but investor appetite has been tempered more recently by higher interest rates, turbulent space stock performance and geopolitical uncertainties. In this talk, we’ll discuss the future of space tech investing, which areas are oversaturated or undervalued, and whether this year will be make-it-or-break-it for space startups.
Kevin Hu is co-founder and CEO of Metaplane, a data observability platform helping teams prevent, detect, and resolve data quality issues — all before a stakeholder pings them about a broken dashboard. Having raised more than $22 million to date and backed by Tier 1 investors, Metaplane serves hundreds of companies ranging from growing startups like Ramp to enterprises like Bose. Previously, Kevin researched machine learning and data visualization at MIT, where his research was published in top computer science venues and featured in The New York Times and The Economist.
Kevin's Sessions
Scaling Technical Startups: Navigating Growth, Positioning, and Competitive Pressure
It’s a challenging time to scale a technical or data-focused startup— competition for customers, fundraising, and top talent continues to increase. This session will break down unique, timely challenges for technical founders and teams, and provide actionable advice to thrive in this highly competitive market. Attendees will take away best practices in product development, open source vs. closed source strategies, and how to position and message effectively—especially in pre-revenue stages for investor appeal. Technical founders will learn how to navigate the complexities of fundraising, with a focus on raising Series A for data-driven businesses, and why scaling technical or infrastructure companies requires a different playbook compared to traditional SaaS startups.
Haomiao is a robotics researcher turned founder turned investor. He is particularly passionate about companies bringing digital innovation into physical economy businesses, with a focus on sectors like logistics, manufacturing, and transportation and on advanced technologies like robotics and AI. Haomiao spent 4 years investing in HardTech alongside Wen at Kleiner Perkins. Prior to that he founded the smart home security startup Kuna, built self-driving cars at Caltech and, as part of his Ph.D. research at Stanford, pioneered the aerodynamics and control of multi-rotor UAVs. Kuna was part of YCombinator’s Winter 14 batch. Haomiao was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at Stanford and received his M.S., Ph.D in Aeronautics & Astronautics. He graduated from Caltech B.S. (with honors) in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Control and Dynamical Systems.
Haomiao's Sessions
The 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.
Austin Hughes is the Co-Founder & CEO at Unify, a go-to-market technology platform built to scale revenue teams’ creativity. Unify is backed by OpenAI, Thrive Capital, Emergence Capital, Neo, Abstract VC, 20Sales, Altcap and more. Hundreds of companies, including Justworks, Lattice, Guru and Airbyte use Unify to power warm and automated outbound. Before starting Unify, Austin was an early employee and leader on the growth and growth product teams at Ramp. Austin received his B.A. in Mathematical Economic Analysis from Rice University.
Austin's Sessions
The Future of Go To Market in the AI Era
From auto-generated outbound messages to AI-written blog posts, AI is fundamentally changing the way that companies go to market. Come discuss the tension between AI-powered automation and human creativity with the founders building these products and the leading practitioners who use them.
Lauren Illovsky leads Talent at CapitalG. She partners with portfolio companies on all aspects of their talent strategy from executive recruiting and organizational development to hiring independent board directors. She was formerly at Accel and Andreessen Horowitz. Lauren holds a BA in Economics from Pomona College. She lives in the East Bay with her husband and two kids.
Lauren's Sessions
How to Hire in 2025
Gone are the days when recruiters seemed more plentiful than leaves in the wind; employees in nearly every startup function are therefore facing a more conservative labor market. How can founders capitalize on their increased labor buying power, while also treating their staff with respect and retaining key talent? Founders, take note, this one is for you.
Galym Imanbayev is a Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners where he focuses on healthtech and services investments. Galym’s interest in health is rooted in his childhood experiences growing up in Kazakhstan following his father on rural medical trips. Galym serves as a board member or board observer on Abridge, Aledade, Ancora, Fathom, Soda Health and Wheel. Galym also spent time as an investor at Martis Capital. He completed his BA, MD and MBA degrees at Stanford University where he served as the graduate representative on the Stanford University Board of Trustees. In his free time, Galym prioritizes spending time with family, loves to play pickup basketball, mentors students with disabilities as part of the Lime Connect Network, and serves on the board of the Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance.
Dr. Galym's Sessions
The 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.
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
Cislunar: The Next Frontier
Cislunar space – the region from Earth out to the Moon – is quickly becoming the next frontier for commercial space activity and a gateway for future space exploration. This panel will explore how the convergence of cutting-edge technology, innovative business models, and strategic partnerships is turning bold visions for the Moon – from space stations to sustainable lunar infrastructure – into reality. Industry leaders will discuss the opportunities and challenges of building a thriving lunar ecosystem and how the commercial sector is positioning itself at the heart of this new era of exploration.
Announcing the Aerospace Space Challenge Award Winners
The judges deliberations are in, and the Honorable Steve Isakowitz will announce the winners of the Space Challenge pitch off competition.
Amy Jain is the founder and CEO of SwipeFund, a crowdfunding platform democratizing early-stage startup investing by connecting retail investors to university-born ventures. She has a foundation in fintech from experiences at JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, where she sharpened her skills in finance and product management. She has previously built ventures like Ovobox, a Berkeley SkyDeck-backed femtech startup using AI to solve gaps in women’s healthcare, and Fifty Squared, a nonprofit recognized by the United Nations for advancing women’s empowerment. As a Venture Fellow at Pear VC, she now contributes to startups valued at over $1 billion.
Amy's Sessions
Berkeley Connect: Experience the World’s #1 Startup Ecosystem
Join us for an exclusive opportunity to engage with the innovative minds behind UC Berkeley’s top-ranked startup ecosystem. Recently named #1 by PitchBook for producing the most venture-backed companies and female founders, UC Berkeley is shaping the future of entrepreneurship. At this interactive Roundtable, visionary students from the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) will showcase their cutting-edge ventures in rapid demo pitches. Explore the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship (BMoE), SCET’s unique, journey-based approach to fostering entrepreneurial success, and discover the ‘secret sauce’ that propels Berkeley’s entrepreneurial leaders to the forefront of innovation.
Berkeley Connect: Experience the World’s #1 Startup Ecosystem (encore)
Join us for an exclusive opportunity to engage with the innovative minds behind UC Berkeley’s top-ranked startup ecosystem. Recently named #1 by PitchBook for producing the most venture-backed companies and female founders, UC Berkeley is shaping the future of entrepreneurship. At this interactive Roundtable, visionary students from the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) will showcase their cutting-edge ventures in rapid demo pitches. Explore the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship (BMoE), SCET’s unique, journey-based approach to fostering entrepreneurial success, and discover the ‘secret sauce’ that propels Berkeley’s entrepreneurial leaders to the forefront of innovation.
Amit Jain is the CEO and Co-Founder of Luma AI, a research lab developing multimodal foundation models to enable “universal imagination.” Under his leadership, Luma has scaled from a 3D-capture pioneer to a leader in generative video, recently raising a $900M Series C following the success of its Dream Machine and Ray video-reasoning models. By 2026, Amit has steered the company into massive infrastructure projects, including Project Halo – a 2-gigawatt AI supercluster – to build the next generation of “world models” capable of simulating physical reality. Prior to Luma, Amit was a Systems and Machine Learning Engineer at Apple. He led the development of the Passthrough feature for the Apple Vision Pro and was instrumental in integrating the first LiDAR sensors into the iPhone, foundational work that paved the way for modern spatial computing.
Amit's Sessions
But is it Art? Generative AI's Evolving Role in Music and Video Production
Generative AI is increasingly capable of creating video, music, and other media on demand. But who actually wants it, and why? This panel of AI startups will discuss the growing markets for generative media, and how they can be served without harming or displacing the artists they claim to empower.
Margaret is a 25-year veteran of GS&P and leads the agency’s creative department, a position she assumed in 2015 after being named a partner in 2012. In 2016 she was named the agency’s first chief creative officer. Under her leadership, Fast Company named GS&P #36 Most Innovative Company in the World and the Most Innovative Ad Agency of the Year, and Campaign magazine named GS&P Agency of the Year. Over the years she has been named one of the industry’s top chief creative officers by Ad Age, Forbes, Business Insider, Adweek and The Drum
Margaret's Sessions
Webby Talks: It's Giving Brainrot, How Chronically Online Culture Is Taking Us from the Niche to the Nonsensical—and Why That Can Be a Good Thing
In The Webby Awards’ annual thought leadership series focused on the trends and consumer insights shaping the internet, this year, the leading award for internet excellence will explore how brands, marketers, digital creatives, and technologists are embracing chronically online culture to forge more creative and sustainable connections with audiences. The presentation, titled “it’s giving brainrot: how chronically online culture is taking us from the niche to the nonsensical—and why that can be a good thing,” will be led by The Webby Awards General Manager Nick Borenstein and will feature insights and social listening data from Meltwater, along with trends from over 13,000 submissions to the 28th Annual Webby Awards.Following the presentation, Margaret Johnson (Chief Creative Officer, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners), David Mogensen (VP of Global Marketing, Uber), and Monica Khan (Co-Founder, Bay Area Creator Economy) will join for a fireside chat to share their insights into this cultural moment.
Scott Johnston leads Docker, the company behind the open-source Docker project and the global container ecosystem of people, products, platforms, and partners revolutionizing how modern apps are built, shared, tested, and run. Scott joined Docker in 2014 as its first product manager and went on to serve as COO and CPO before being named CEO in November 2019. Scott began his career as a software engineer and subsequently served in operational and leadership roles in product, business development, operations, and marketing with industry-leading companies such as Sun Microsystems, Cisco, Netscape, Puppet, and Loudcloud (parent of Opsware). Scott lives in Palo Alto with his wife and three children and holds degrees in engineering and business from Stanford University.
Scott's Sessions
What's Next in Open Source as a Business Model?
Open source has become the default business model for many tech startups. But the success of the movement hasn’t been without challenges as businesses now try to balance the ideals of open source with the realities of running a business in an ever-changing competitive environment. Join us to hear industry leaders discuss how they navigate these complexities and what the future holds for open source as a sustainable business model
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
How AI and XR Will Revolutionize All of Your Devices
Join us for an engaging panel session where Ziad Asghar, SVP & GM, XR, Qualcomm, will explore the transformative potential of on-device AI and XR technologies in creating a unified and immersive experience across all your personal tech devices. Discover how the integration of smartphones, smartwatches, AR glasses, and PCs can elevate your daily digital interactions to unprecedented levels. Leveraging Qualcomm’s advanced AI capabilities, these devices will offer superior performance and efficiency, enhancing productivity, entertainment, and everyday tasks through seamless connectivity and smart technology integration.
Asghar will delve into how AI and XR are not just enhancing device interaction but are revolutionizing it by allowing for more natural and intuitive user experiences. With XR glasses, for instance, users can interact with their environment in real-time, receive proactive suggestions, and access a wealth of information without ever looking at a screen. This integration promises to keep users fully engaged in the real world while simultaneously enjoying the benefits of digital augmentation.
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how the synergy between AI and XR is setting the stage for a future where digital and physical realms seamlessly converge, transforming our digital lives and how we interact with technology.
Lewis is Vice President at Generation Space LLC and was previously an associate at Seraphim Space Manager LLP. Lewis holds a first-class Aeronautics and Astronautics MEng degree from the University of Southampton, specialising in Spacecraft Engineering. Previously, he worked as a Thermal Analyst in the Rotatives department at Rolls-Royce, primarily focusing on the safety aspects of jet engines on Civil Aircraft.
Lewis's Sessions
Riding the Wave: The Future of Space Investing
Private investments in commercial space companies has exploded over the past few years, but investor appetite has been tempered more recently by higher interest rates, turbulent space stock performance and geopolitical uncertainties. In this talk, we’ll discuss the future of space tech investing, which areas are oversaturated or undervalued, and whether this year will be make-it-or-break-it for space startups.
Jon Jones is the Vice President and Global Head of Startups at AWS, where he leads the teams that help companies in all startup stages maximize the benefits of AWS Services. He also leads the relationships AWS has with venture capital firms that support startups across the world. He previously led the global AWS Go-to-Market and Specialist teams, including Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning, Containers, Serverless, Outposts, High Performance Computing, Networking, Autonomous Vehicles, Spot, Quantum Computing. Prior to Amazon, Jon built Google’s first U.S.-based startup Accelerator as part of the Google Developer Launchpad program and is a two-time startup founder. Before joining the startup ranks, Jon spent over ten years leading Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and Business Development teams for global infrastructure companies. Jon is very passionate about leveraging technology for good. He has spoken about this topic globally, including at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he discussed the importance of getting technology into the hands of entrepreneurs and organizations who can help us solve the world’s biggest challenges. Jon has an MBA from Wharton and is based in Seattle, Washington.
Jon's Sessions
Visa Everywhere Initiative: The Ultimate Fintech Pitch Competition
Fintech startups inspire—Visa enables. Join us at the Visa Emerging Innovators (VEI) program, where we celebrate the next generation of fintech pioneers. This year, we are thrilled to announce that we are doubling the prize to an incredible $100K! Visa has carefully selected five visionary startups from around the world, each poised to pitch their groundbreaking solutions to a distinguished panel of fintech industry leaders. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness the future of payments in action and discover how you can be part of the fintech revolution.
Steve Jones is the EVP for Data Driven Business at Capgemini. He was the initial leader of Capgemini’s group efforts on SaaS, Cloud, MDM and Big Data, which now represent a significant proportion of the group’s revenues and two of the groups fundamental pillars. A published author on how businesses need to be designed for a digital world, he has also written for multiple journals from the Financial Times to Wired, as well as multiple academic publications and an international standard for data architectures. He has worked as an advisor to several of the largest technology firms, and is currently living in his 5th different country, this time America. For the last few years his focus has been on helping businesses get ready for the coming Data & AI driven transformation, from business strategy to execution, including leading the implementation of some of the largest hyperscale data infrastructures and digital operating model transformations for several global brands, as part of this he has been helping clients on Generative AI from early GAN efforts to today’s LLM driven changes.
Steve's Sessions
The Future of AI's Data Infrastructure: Unlocking the Power of Gen AI with MongoDB and Capgemini
The next generation of business applications will have AI as a user – powering AI agents for customer services, recommendations for online shoppers, anomaly detection for business analysts, etc. This means that businesses must re-architect their applications to be AI-native. To effectively deploy and leverage AI in these applications, businesses need to optimize for data accuracy and bring together structured and unstructured data. This talk will cover how Capgemini and MongoDB are helping accelerate this next generation of data-powered applications.
Gargi Kand is the Co-Founder and CPO of Vently, a consumer social network for making plans, meeting new people, and bringing friends together offline. She is also a Founder in Residence at Stanford’s Accelerator, StartX. At Vently, Gargi has led collaborations with brands like NBA’s Golden State Warriors, Adidas, and leading Gen Z communities, bridging culture, tech, and real-life connection. Previously, she led the Conversational AI team at AT&T, the company’s second most-funded innovation project, reaching over 100 million customers. She also served as COO of Women Founders Bay, a network of 500+ female founders closing the gender funding gap, and is a founding member of Bay Area Run Club, the largest run club in San Francisco. Her work focuses on building technology that sparks real-world community and reimagining how Gen Z forms meaningful connections beyond the screen.
Gargi's Sessions
Consumer Social Network Effects with Vently
This session will highlight the network effects driving consumer social platforms. After scaling Fizz and Nearby to 14 million users, a key insight emerged: communities are using a fragmented stack of tools—WhatsApp for communication, Partiful for event notifications, Venmo for payments, and Instagram for updates. Vently solves this by being the all-in-one platform that unifies these functions. It enables communities to engage, grow, and monetize in a single space, creating seamless experiences for both hosts and participants. Now, Vently is raising capital to scale these efforts and redefine how communities manage and engage. Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the future of consumer social networks and the potential of Vently to redefine social commerce.
Consumer Social Network Effects with Vently (encore)
This session will highlight the network effects driving consumer social platforms. After scaling Fizz and Nearby to 14 million users, a key insight emerged: communities are using a fragmented stack of tools—WhatsApp for communication, Partiful for event notifications, Venmo for payments, and Instagram for updates. Vently solves this by being the all-in-one platform that unifies these functions. It enables communities to engage, grow, and monetize in a single space, creating seamless experiences for both hosts and participants. Now, Vently is raising capital to scale these efforts and redefine how communities manage and engage. Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the future of consumer social networks and the potential of Vently to redefine social commerce.
Chet Kapoor is Vice President of Search, Security, and Observability at Amazon Web Services. With more than two decades in enterprise technology, he has led companies through some of the industry’s most consequential platform shifts — from APIs and open source to cloud and AI — building and scaling businesses through periods of rapid growth, transformation, acquisition, and IPO. He brings a builder’s mindset, deep operational experience, and a strong customer orientation to helping organizations adopt emerging technologies securely and at scale.
Chet's Sessions
The New Data Pipeline
The rise of modern AI applications has put a renewed emphasis on the importance of the data that underpins them. But simply having data isn’t enough, you also need the tools to manage it, secure it and build the pipelines to let it flow between applications. In this session, we’ll talk to some of the companies that are building the tools to make that happen.
Eylul is a Partner at Gradient Ventures. Prior to Gradient, Eylul was an investor with NEA and Softbank, where she supported a number of category defining companies including Brex, Cato, Chime, Claroty, Digits, Eargo (NASDAQ: EAR), Ethos, Flexport, Material Bank, Neotract (acquired by Teleflex) and Revelle Aesthetics (incubation). Eylul started her career at Morgan Stanley and has a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Mathematics from Columbia University. Outside of work, Eylul can be found mastering the slopes on her skis, experimenting with Mediterranean cooking or hosting a monthly poker game.
Eylul's Sessions
The 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.
Mr. Hasan M. Kazmi is the Vice President and Head of Digital Partnerships for Visa in the CEMEA region, covering over 85 countries. He has a MBA from Columbia University in New York, and a Masters and Bachelors Degree in Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in the USA. Prior to joining Visa, Mr. Hasan was the Global Head of Client Strategy at Barclays in New York and before that was the Head of Partnerships and Strategy at Citi Private Bank (NY) and Citi Ventures (NY). In addition he has worked in Samsung’s Global Strategy team in Seoul and the Boston Consulting Group in New York.
Hasan's Sessions
Visa Everywhere Initiative: The Ultimate Fintech Pitch Competition
Fintech startups inspire—Visa enables. Join us at the Visa Emerging Innovators (VEI) program, where we celebrate the next generation of fintech pioneers. This year, we are thrilled to announce that we are doubling the prize to an incredible $100K! Visa has carefully selected five visionary startups from around the world, each poised to pitch their groundbreaking solutions to a distinguished panel of fintech industry leaders. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness the future of payments in action and discover how you can be part of the fintech revolution.
Amy Kelly is a visionary leader in behavioral health, with over a decade of experience driving innovation. As a serial health entrepreneur, Amy has launched ventures focused on transforming wellness. At Miri, co-founded with former Lyft CTO Boris Korsunsky, she is leading the charge in revolutionizing coaching with AI. Miri empowers wellness experts and organizations to build scalable, 24/7 personalized coaching apps, enhancing client engagement, reducing costs, and democratizing access to high-quality wellness coaching.
Amy's Sessions
Founder Mode: AI Startups in Learning, Health, and Autonomous Agents
Learn how today’s top founders are using AI to solve real-world problems. The panel experts will include: MultiOn who creates AI agents on the web to solve a variety of problems such as booking flights, shopping, and internet research; Miri.ai, which offers health and wellness AI coaches; and LearnTube, which uses generative AI to create instant learning courses, curriculum, quizzes, and certifications. Panel discussion, Q&A, on how to launch, build, grow, and fund an AI startup.
Elizabeth Kelly is director of the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute. As director, she is responsible for providing executive leadership, management, and oversight of the AI Safety Institute and coordinating with other AI policy and technical initiatives throughout the Department of Commerce, NIST and across the government. Prior to joining NIST, Elizabeth served as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the White House National Economic Council, where she helped lead the Administration’s efforts on financial regulation and technology policy, including artificial intelligence. Elizabeth was a driving force behind the domestic components of the AI executive order, spearheading efforts to promote competition, protect privacy, and support workers and consumer, and helped lead Administration engagement with allies and partners on AI governance. She previously served as a senior policy advisor on the Biden-Harris Transition Team and in the Obama White House. In the private sector, Elizabeth was Senior Vice President of Growth for Capital One Investing, which acquired United Income, a fintech start-up that she helped grow as SVP of Operations. Elizabeth holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, an MSc in Comparative Social Policy from the University of Oxford, and a B.A. from Duke University. She is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Elizabeth's Sessions
What does AI Governance Look like Today, Tomorrow, and Beyond?
AI development continues at a breakneck pace, but how fast is too fast? In this fireside, U.S. AI Safety Institute Director Elizabeth Kelly and California state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), the architect of California’s controversial AI safety bill SB 1047, talk about the need to balance AI innovation with safeguards.
As the Founding Member and Vice President of Technology at tkxel, Haseeb Khan is committed to empowering seasoned leaders by enhancing their teams to drive development efficiency, streamline resource complexities, and reduce time to market. With over 20 years of experience in the software development industry, Haseeb has led the creation of custom software solutions across cloud, web, and mobile platforms, alongside high-end games and enterprise-scale systems that are deployed globally. An expert in Software Architecture, Haseeb has established foundational structures for enterprise-class solutions through innovative design, development, and deployment, adhering to best practices.
Haseeb's Sessions
Building Hybrid Teams of Tomorrow
1. Best practices for building and managing remote and hybrid teams 2. Leveraging AI for recruitment and performance management 3. How hybrid models are reshaping company culture and employee engagement 4. The future of workforce collaboration tools and platforms
Building Hybrid Teams of Tomorrow (encore)
1. Best practices for building and managing remote and hybrid teams 2. Leveraging AI for recruitment and performance management 3. How hybrid models are reshaping company culture and employee engagement 4. The future of workforce collaboration tools and platforms
Monica Khan is a seasoned executive and strategist in the creator economy. She is currently exploring new opportunities through which she can harness creator partnerships and community building to drive measurable growth for digital-first creators and organizations supporting creators. In the last 15 years, Monica led high-performing teams to establish the Spotter Creator Community for leading YouTube creators, launch first-of-its-kind monetization features for Facebook Groups, and at YouTube helped partners build and grow some of today’s most popular channels. Her efforts have been recognized by Fast Company and Forbes, and she has spoken at major creator events like VidCon and SXSW. Most recently, she co-founded the Bay Area Creator Economy to foster community among creators and creator economy industry professionals who reside in the region.
Monica's Sessions
Webby Talks: It's Giving Brainrot, How Chronically Online Culture Is Taking Us from the Niche to the Nonsensical—and Why That Can Be a Good Thing
In The Webby Awards’ annual thought leadership series focused on the trends and consumer insights shaping the internet, this year, the leading award for internet excellence will explore how brands, marketers, digital creatives, and technologists are embracing chronically online culture to forge more creative and sustainable connections with audiences. The presentation, titled “it’s giving brainrot: how chronically online culture is taking us from the niche to the nonsensical—and why that can be a good thing,” will be led by The Webby Awards General Manager Nick Borenstein and will feature insights and social listening data from Meltwater, along with trends from over 13,000 submissions to the 28th Annual Webby Awards.Following the presentation, Margaret Johnson (Chief Creative Officer, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners), David Mogensen (VP of Global Marketing, Uber), and Monica Khan (Co-Founder, Bay Area Creator Economy) will join for a fireside chat to share their insights into this cultural moment.
I’ve been connecting communities for years — from serving as President at the nation’s largest public university (ASU) to mentoring Stanford founders with high-growth accelerators like StartX, to working with fast-moving startups like Fizz early. Community has always been second nature. I believe technology should bring people closer together, not pull them apart.
Nick's Sessions
Consumer Social Network Effects with Vently (encore)
This session will highlight the network effects driving consumer social platforms. After scaling Fizz and Nearby to 14 million users, a key insight emerged: communities are using a fragmented stack of tools—WhatsApp for communication, Partiful for event notifications, Venmo for payments, and Instagram for updates. Vently solves this by being the all-in-one platform that unifies these functions. It enables communities to engage, grow, and monetize in a single space, creating seamless experiences for both hosts and participants. Now, Vently is raising capital to scale these efforts and redefine how communities manage and engage. Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the future of consumer social networks and the potential of Vently to redefine social commerce.
Chris Klayko brings a wealth of senior sales experience from both Fortune 500 companies and high-growth startups. Chris joined Databricks 2yrs ago as Senior Vice President of Sales. Prior to joining Databricks, Chris led the Americas at UiPath, where he was responsible for all go-to-market functions, playing a pivotal role in the company’s successful IPO—one of the largest in enterprise tech. Before UiPath, he served as the head of the Americas business for Google Cloud, where he scaled the operation from generating tens of millions in revenue to a multi-billion-dollar business in just four years. Chris has also held global leadership roles at SAP, serving as the global vice president of sales for its emerging solutions division, after joining SAP through the acquisition of Virsa Systems. He previously held the Chief Revenue Officer position at Hara Software, a cloud-based platform for energy and sustainability management. Chris resides in Los Altos Hills, California, with his wife and three boys
Chris's Sessions
The Future of Go To Market in the AI Era
From auto-generated outbound messages to AI-written blog posts, AI is fundamentally changing the way that companies go to market. Come discuss the tension between AI-powered automation and human creativity with the founders building these products and the leading practitioners who use them.
Kai Kloepfer is the Founder & CEO of Biofire, a leading defense technology company dedicated to building the future of firearms. Biofire is the first company to successfully integrate software and hardware to create a next-generation firearm with potential applications well beyond personal security. Biofire’s unique technology has a vast amount of applications, not only for consumers in the US, but also for security services, law enforcement and defense agencies in service of America and its allies.
Kai's Sessions
Found Live with Kai Kloepfer from Biofire
Senior reporters Becca Szkutak and Dominic-Madori Davis will sit down with Kai Kloepfer, the founder and CEO of Biofire, a startup building a biometrically-authenticated handgun that instantly unlocks for users authorized by its owner, but remains locked for all others. They’ll discuss how he navigates everything from building the product, to raising funding and hiring a team. Found is the Techcrunch podcast that gets the stories behind the startups with the people who are building them.
The Boom in National Interest Startups
One fascinating trend these days is an area that has a number of names: national-interest startups, American Dynamism, New World. These startups are creating technologies in areas that are meant to be built, used, and create jobs in the country of origin, like the US. They cover everything from aerospace and critical infrastructure to government, manufacturing and national safety. This panel will dig into how far — and how fast — Silicon Valley can rebuild a nation’s foundations.
Justin Krauss is a Managing Director and the Head of Applied Technology for J.P. Morgan’s Innovation Economy business. Justin leads a team of bankers fostering early-stage, venture-backed applied technology companies across AI, robotics, space tech, and more, providing deep industry expertise, solutions and services to best serve client needs. Justin joined J.P. Morgan in 2016 to help build Middle Market banking in the Western Pennsylvania region. Prior to joining the firm, he held roles at PNC Bank and Credit Suisse.
Justin's Sessions
Future of Space Operations Challenge
This open call pitch-off will present startups across robotics, autonomous systems, AI/ML, Vision Systems, Propulsion and Navigation. Five finalists will pitch to Aerospace judges and one winner will get access to expert lead feedback sessions with The Aerospace Corporation, government experts, and commercial space leadership.
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
Building Enterprise AI Apps with Multi-Agent RAG Systems (MARS)
Join SingleStore to explore a live Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) application that combines real-time streaming data with vast amounts of point-in-time data, achieving near-zero latency in AI interactions. We’ll discuss how Multi-Agent Retrieval-Augmented Generation Systems (MARS) can facilitate the development of effective real-time AI applications, utilizing AWS Bedrock and SingleStore. Gain valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities of building enterprise-grade AI, along with a real-life example of a customer support co-pilot that leverages real-time AI to enhance user experience. If you are a developer, architect, or business leader interested in implementing Enterprise AI applications using MARS architecture, don’t miss this session.
Shronit Ladhani is the co-founder and CEO of LearnTube, an AI-powered platform revolutionizing career acceleration for 1.8 million global learners. His innovative approach to education has transformed the way youth upskill, democratising access to personalised & interactive learning experiences that lead to real-world career outcomes. A passionate advocate for tech-driven impact, Shronit also co-founded Tykee Capital Partners in 2015, which made him one of the youngest angel investors in India at that time. With a background in engineering, Shronit has led global teams of 200+ globally and spoken at numerous events, including two TEDx talks, where he shared his vision for the future of education and entrepreneurship. He has been featured on platforms like Entrepreneur & CNBC, won various global awards & recognition in prestigious lists such as 30 Under 30 and 40 Under 40. Outside of his professional pursuits, Shronit is an adventurer and endurance athlete, having traveled to 43 countries and completed the grueling Ironman Ultra-Triathlon. His commitment to pushing boundaries is evident both in his career and his personal life, as he continuously strives to explore the potential of AI, drive impact initiatives, and challenge conventional limits. Shronit will be sharing his insights on scaling AI-driven platforms and the future of personalized education at TechCrunch.
Shronit's Sessions
Founder Mode: AI Startups in Learning, Health, and Autonomous Agents
Learn how today’s top founders are using AI to solve real-world problems. The panel experts will include: MultiOn who creates AI agents on the web to solve a variety of problems such as booking flights, shopping, and internet research; Miri.ai, which offers health and wellness AI coaches; and LearnTube, which uses generative AI to create instant learning courses, curriculum, quizzes, and certifications. Panel discussion, Q&A, on how to launch, build, grow, and fund an AI startup.
Paul founded Quilt after committing himself to designing a company that he could spend the rest of his life on. A breakthrough came in 2022 when he realized the answer was working on whatever problem was most threatening to the next generation of humans; that the problem today is climate change. Paul built his first internet business as a teenager, founded Learndot, an education platform, and was a Partner at Google’s Area 120. He prefers to sleep at a cool 65F.
Paul's Sessions
How to Launch a New Product Against Entrenched Incumbents
Founders seldom have the luxury of entering a completely empty market, but what happens when the incumbents are unusually entrenched? What does it take to start a company in an industry dominated by big players and technologies that have barely changed in recent years? Hear from two founders and an investor about the trials of taking on multinational conglomerates while building hardware and preparing for scale.
Vanessa Larco is the cofounder of Premise. She is a former partner for the investment firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with a background in product management and leadership. She has worked in tech since 2008 and previously worked as the director of product management for mobile and web at Box. Larco specializes in providing strategic guidance to founders and management teams. She holds a bachelor’s in computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Vanessa's Sessions
The New Data Pipeline
The rise of modern AI applications has put a renewed emphasis on the importance of the data that underpins them. But simply having data isn’t enough, you also need the tools to manage it, secure it and build the pipelines to let it flow between applications. In this session, we’ll talk to some of the companies that are building the tools to make that happen.
Bay Area native with a passion for people, innovation, and surfing. As a serial founder, Nick has started and scaled mission-driven companies like Willow (AI social media platform; investors like Google, Green Park Ventures; now worth $200M+), OnePiece Work (Co-Working/Accelerator, scaled to 12 locations; invested by UpHonest Capital). Named one of the 25 most influential people in communications technology by PRWeek in 2021. Host of Silicon Zombies, a live show and community that demystifies emerging technology and features the best brains (50+ countries, top 5% of podcasts on Spotify, 100k+ views/month). Angel investments include: Skunklock, SidePocket, Agrisonix, Palmia, and others. Awarded LinkedIn “Top Voice” distinction (given to 300 people per year).
Nicholas's Sessions
Powering Ahead: The Future of Energy & Infrastructure
Join us for ‘Powering Ahead: The Future of Energy & Infrastructure’ featuring Troy Helming, a visionary leader in renewable energy and successful entrepreneur. In our breakout session, we’ll dive into the latest innovations shaping the energy sector, including advancements in renewable technologies, grid modernization, and sustainable infrastructure development. We’ll also share best practices for building a startup, offering practical advice drawn from Troy’s experiences. Attendees will gain insights into how these trends are transforming the way we produce, distribute, and consume energy, and how to capitalize on emerging opportunities. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from an industry expert about the challenges and prospects that lie ahead in the quest for a cleaner, more efficient energy future.
Michelle Lawson is a Top Voice in Educational Technology recognized by LinkedIn. With over 150,000 followers across various social media platforms, she has established herself as a leading figure in the field. An accomplished author, Michelle has written multiple books that use fashion and makeup-themed metaphors to make complex computer science concepts more engaging. As an undergraduate researcher, she has published papers with the American Society of Engineering Education, focusing on Computer Science education. Michelle also curates a strong collection of educational resources designed to help students succeed in their STEM degrees.
Michelle's Sessions
Harnessing the Power of Gen Z: Online Community Strategies for Startups
In today’s digital landscape, Gen Z holds unprecedented influence over market trends and online engagement. How can startups effectively connect with this savvy generation to drive growth and brand loyalty? Join us for an insightful roundtable led by the founder of Computer Science Girlies, a thriving online community that has successfully tapped into the Gen Z zeitgeist. We’ll explore proven strategies for building and leading online communities that resonate with Gen Z users.
Discover how to leverage platforms like TikTok and Instagram to create authentic connections, foster active engagement, and expand your startup’s reach. Attendees will gain actionable insights into cultivating a loyal Gen Z user base, enhancing brand presence, and fueling sustainable growth through community-driven initiatives.
Harnessing the Power of Gen Z: Online Community Strategies for Startups (encore)
In today’s digital landscape, Gen Z holds unprecedented influence over market trends and online engagement. How can startups effectively connect with this savvy generation to drive growth and brand loyalty? Join us for an insightful roundtable led by the founder of Computer Science Girlies, a thriving online community that has successfully tapped into the Gen Z zeitgeist. We’ll explore proven strategies for building and leading online communities that resonate with Gen Z users.
Discover how to leverage platforms like TikTok and Instagram to create authentic connections, foster active engagement, and expand your startup’s reach. Attendees will gain actionable insights into cultivating a loyal Gen Z user base, enhancing brand presence, and fueling sustainable growth through community-driven initiatives.
Eti Lazarian learned leadership skills early in life completing her mandatory service in the Israel Defense Forces where she rose to become a Staff Sergeant in the Givati Brigade, an elite infantry unit. She followed that by completing both her BA (in finance) and her MBA at the University of Derby in the United Kingdom. Several years later, Eti moved to the United States to become a G.O.D.- General Operations Director for insignia, LLC where she oversees a variety of real estate projects that the firm handles. As well as being involved in Insignia, Eti, as a family office principal, overseas family investments in other asset categories. One of her interests is the evolution of EV technologies and she directs investments into various projects around that space. One of her deepest passions in life is philanthropy, a passion she has passed on to her daughters involving them in projects from food distribution during the Covid crises to arranging small suitcases for children in shelters, a passion that continues with new projects each and every day under a simple philosophy of “Be Kind”.
Eti's Sessions
Family Offices Want Startup Exposure, but What Are They Looking For?
Family offices have gotten increasingly active in investing in startups both directly and through their VC investors. But what are they looking for? While no two family offices are the same, this session will dig into family office investing trends and where they have been spending time in the startup ecosystem. We’ll also dive into what kind of risk these investors are looking to take on and what makes a startup a good fit for this category of backer.
Victor Lazarte is a General Partner at Benchmark, where he focuses on a variety of investment areas including AI, gaming and fintech. Victor co-founded Wildlife Studios in 2010 and built it into one of the largest mobile gaming companies in the world, engaging billions of players around the globe. From 2010 to 2023, Victor served as the co-founder and CEO of the company, before transitioning to Chairman of the Board in June of 2023. Victor has also served as a Board Member of Brex since 2018. He received his degree in Industrial Engineering from École Centrale de Paris and Universidade de São Paulo, and is a native of Brazil.
Victor's Sessions
The 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.
Marcelo is the co-founder and President of Remote. Marcelo was previously VP of Engineering at Unbabel and has held several CTO positions. He frequently speaks at events about leadership and managing remote teams. Marcelo is also a startup advisor and mentor to entrepreneurs. He is a passionate engineer, proud dad, and sci-fi nerd.
Marcelo's Sessions
Future of Work
Software is eating the world, and companies are hiring global talent more frequently than ever. They want to be able to hire talent in foreign countries and retain employees who want to move abroad. That’s why a new wave of global HR startups are helping companies hire people all around the world with local contracts. But can they replace local subsidiaries?
Bruce is the Founder of Keebeck Wealth Management, and the source of its namesake. Keebeck, Bruce’s given name by his first-generation US immigrant parents, means “to ascend.” As a Wealth Advisor, Bruce draws on his extensive knowledge of multi-generational wealth creators to determine the role an advisor can serve in a client relationship. With 35 years of investment experience alongside some of the world’s largest financial institutions. Bruce leads Keebeck Wealth Management with a vision of empowering clients through a transition of being the CEO of their company to becoming CEO of their capital. In the past, Bruce was named to the Barron’s “Top 100 Financial Advisors” list every year since 2007, the Barron’s “Top 1,200 Financial Advisors” list in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 and the Financial Times’ “Top 400 Financial Advisors” in 2014. While working with Credit Suisse from 2004 through 2011, Bruce also served as a member and participant on the Global Products and Services Committee representing the Americas.
Bruce's Sessions
Family Offices Want Startup Exposure, but What Are They Looking For?
Family offices have gotten increasingly active in investing in startups both directly and through their VC investors. But what are they looking for? While no two family offices are the same, this session will dig into family office investing trends and where they have been spending time in the startup ecosystem. We’ll also dive into what kind of risk these investors are looking to take on and what makes a startup a good fit for this category of backer.
Operator turned investor. Current board member at Postal (offline marketing automation), WorkRamp (learning engine), and Klue (competitive enablement), an investor in Crunchbase (prospecting for private companies). Experienced professional with demonstrated ability in business, financial and sales operations, general management (GM), business development, growth, online marketing, sales, M&A, and strategy for both Fortune 500 companies and venture backed start-ups. Significant exposure/interactions with business unit leaders, executive management and board members. Direct experience with consumer, commerce, and SaaS platforms.
Eugene's Sessions
AI Infra, DevOps and the Backend Tooling Stack of the Next Generation of B2B Software Winners
This roundtable explores investment strategies in AI infrastructure software, DevOps, and B2B infrastructure. As AI continues to reshape industries, the demand for robust, scalable infrastructure has never been greater. Participants will discuss emerging trends in cloud computing, containerization, and edge computing tailored for AI workloads. The conversation will delve into the challenges of developing and deploying AI models at scale, examining how DevOps practices are evolving to meet these demands. Additionally, the roundtable will address the growing market for B2B infrastructure software that enables AI integration across various sectors. By analyzing current gaps in the ecosystem and projecting future needs, this discussion aims to identify key areas for strategic investment that will shape the next generation of AI infrastructure.
AI infra, DevOps and the Backend Tooling Stack of the Next Generation of B2B Software Winners (encore)
This roundtable explores investment strategies in AI infrastructure software, DevOps, and B2B infrastructure. As AI continues to reshape industries, the demand for robust, scalable infrastructure has never been greater. Participants will discuss emerging trends in cloud computing, containerization, and edge computing tailored for AI workloads. The conversation will delve into the challenges of developing and deploying AI models at scale, examining how DevOps practices are evolving to meet these demands. Additionally, the roundtable will address the growing market for B2B infrastructure software that enables AI integration across various sectors. By analyzing current gaps in the ecosystem and projecting future needs, this discussion aims to identify key areas for strategic investment that will shape the next generation of AI infrastructure.
“Roger is the CEO of Comprehensive.io, a compensation management startup. He is also the creator of Layoffs.fyi. Previously, Roger co-founded Human Interest, a digital 401(k) provider used by over 20,000 businesses.”
Roger's Sessions
How to Hire in 2025
Gone are the days when recruiters seemed more plentiful than leaves in the wind; employees in nearly every startup function are therefore facing a more conservative labor market. How can founders capitalize on their increased labor buying power, while also treating their staff with respect and retaining key talent? Founders, take note, this one is for you.
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
StrictlyVC @ Disrupt
This year, TechCrunch joined forces with StrictlyVC to create smaller, more intimate evenings for our readers. Already this year, we’ve hosted these nights in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and London. Now you can join us at TechCrunch Disrupt for a special StrictlyVC event, delivering exclusive, insider content while facilitating meaningful connections among leading investors, entrepreneurs and executives. Attendees can anticipate engaging discussions, thought-provoking insights and ample opportunities to forge new connections.
– Investor Pass required
Bastian Lehmann Founder & CEO of Tiptop Bastian is the co-founder and CEO of Tiptop, a company building a better way to pay using the power of trade in. Bastian previously co-founded on-demand delivery company Postmates in 2011. After he turned it into a household name, Uber purchased the company for $2.65B in 2020.
Bastian's Sessions
With Tiptop, Postmates Founder Bastian Lehmann is Hungry for More
After selling Postmates to Uber for $2.65 billion, Bastian Lehmann is back with Tiptop, a startup that wants to unlock the monetary value of things you already own. Tiptop is building an instant trade-in program that is available at checkout. Retailers can integrate Tiptop as a payment option and Tiptop handles everything from quotes to payouts and fraud prevention. After revolutionizing the modern delivery economy and the food industry, can Bastian Lehmann change how we buy (and sell) things?
Jesse Levinson co-founded Zoox in 2014 and is the company’s Chief Technical Officer (CTO). He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and completed his Computer Science Ph.D. and Postdoc under Sebastian Thrun at Stanford University, where he developed algorithms for the $1M-winning entry in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge and went on to lead the self-driving car team for five years. Levinson also co-created Pro HDR, the first HDR photography app for smartphones, which sold more than a million copies.
Jesse's Sessions
AI on Wheels with Zoox
Before generative AI took center stage, the burgeoning autonomous vehicle technology industry was where many machine learning and AI experts played. Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson , who has been in the thick of it for a decade, is now preparing the Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company for its next big adventure.
Ana leads the go-to-market team at Pear VC. With a rich background in enterprise sales from companies like Vanta, ServiceTitan, and Box, she is passionate about helping early stage founders build high-performing sales motions. An entrepreneur herself, she founded and served as the CEO of the ed-tech startup, Lelu. Ana holds an AB from Princeton University in International Relations and Public Policy and an MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University.
Ana's Sessions
The 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.
Qi Li Physician Executive, InterSystems Qi Li, M.D. is physician executive at InterSystems and lead several innovation efforts for product development and business strategy. Dr. Li has held various product leadership roles at Harris Healthcare, Partners Healthcare, and several startup companies in healthcare IT.
Qi's Sessions
Leverage Data Standards to Accelerate Your Startup
What is big deal with standards like FHIR? Why should I care when I am trying so hard to build an innovative solution and look for early customers? What would investors think? Does it allow my competitors to copy my offering easily? These are important questions for the healthcare startups. InterSystems have been supporting global data standards for decades. We will share our experience to help you answer these questions and leverage the standards to your advantage, not just technically, but also sales and marketing.
Leverage Data Standards to Accelerate Your Startup (encore)
What is big deal with standards like FHIR? Why should I care when I am trying so hard to build an innovative solution and look for early customers? What would investors think? Does it allow my competitors to copy my offering easily? These are important questions for the healthcare startups. InterSystems have been supporting global data standards for decades. We will share our experience to help you answer these questions and leverage the standards to your advantage, not just technically, but also sales and marketing.
Jia is the Co-Founder, President, and Chief AI Officer of LiveX AI, which delivers AI Agents for Happy, Loyal Customers. She has been elected as an IEEE Fellow for Leadership in Large Scale AI. She has taught AI classes, such as the Future of AI Agents, at Stanford University, where she served multiple roles including Adjunct Professor. She was the Founding Global Head of R&D at Google Cloud AI, overseeing the full stack of AI products. She is the Co-founder and Chairperson of HealthUnity Corporation. She served briefly at Accenture as a part-time Chief AI Fellow. She has served as Mentor and Professor-in-Residence at StartX, advising founders and companies from Stanford.
Jia's Sessions
Beyond the Hype: Building AI that Means Business
Join Iliana Quiñonez, Director of North America Startups Customer Engineering, in a thought-provoking conversation with a visionary founder navigating the frontier of AI. Together, they’ll explore the pivotal growth milestones that define successful startups. This insightful discussion will uncover the transformative potential and power of AI, offering valuable insights for leaders looking to stay at the forefront of the curve.
Lori Lizotte is an accomplished leader with extensive experience in SaaS, sales, and revenue operations. At ADP, she has spearheaded strategic initiatives, driving operational excellence and significant revenue growth. Her leadership has empowered cross-functional teams to achieve their targets, implementing best practices in sales operations, customer retention, and scalable processes. Lori’s collaborative and results-driven approach ensures success in both day-to-day operations and long-term strategic goals. As a founding team member at CPNL, Lori demonstrated her ability to navigate the complexities of early-stage start-ups. She played a crucial role in building the company’s foundation, leading key projects to scale operations and secure business growth. In addition to her professional achievements, Lori is deeply committed to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion. As a DEI leader with WomenTech Network, she advocates for gender equity and greater representation in tech, leading initiatives that empower underrepresented groups. Her influence extends beyond her corporate roles; she mentors emerging leaders through Upnotch, providing guidance and support to the next generation of leaders. Lori also serves on the board of Seaside Sustainability, a non-profit focused on environmental conservation, where she helps drive the organization’s mission to promote sustainable practices. With a passion for leadership, innovation, and community impact, Lori continues to inspire teams and lead transformative change.
Lori's Sessions
Creating Inclusive Hiring Practices in Fast-Growing Companies
In the fast-paced and dynamic tech industry, establishing inclusive hiring practices is essential for fostering innovation, enhancing team performance, and reflecting the diverse user base. This roundtable discussion will delve into strategies for attracting diverse talent, methods to remove bias from the recruitment process, and the role of technology in inclusive hiring.
Creating Inclusive Hiring Practices in Fast-Growing Companies (encore)
In the fast-paced and dynamic tech industry, establishing inclusive hiring practices is essential for fostering innovation, enhancing team performance, and reflecting the diverse user base. This roundtable discussion will delve into strategies for attracting diverse talent, methods to remove bias from the recruitment process, and the role of technology in inclusive hiring.
Dan Lorenc is co-founder and CEO of Chainguard, a leading software supply chain security company. Dan has been working on and worrying about containers since 2015 as an engineer and manager at Google. He started projects like Minikube, Skaffold, and Kaniko to make containers easy and fun, then got so worried about the state of OSS supply-chains he helped found the Tekton and Sigstore projects to make it easier to build and use containers securely; as well as SLSA a leading framework for software security and supply chain integrity. He has been involved with the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, chaired the Continuous Delivery Foundation technical oversight committee, and sits on the governing board for the Open Source Security Foundation.
Dan's Sessions
How the Chainsmokers Bring Value Beyond their Celebrity Status
While a lot of celebrities invest in startups, the Chainsmokers are different. Instead of angel investing, Drew Taggart and Alex Pall launched a formal fund, Mantis Venture Capital, invest out of a formal closed-end fund, and back companies in industries their celebrity prowess can’t always help in, like security startups and analytics platforms. In this session, Taggart and Pall will be joined by Dan Lorenc, the founder of Chainguard, to talk about how they are an asset to their B2B startups.
Areeb is the co-founder & CTO of Glacier, a San Francisco based company that’s building robotics and AI to improve our circular economy. He has been recognized as one of the foremost thought leaders in circular economy technology and AI, and has led Glacier to become a nationally regarded partner for recycling facilities and brands alike. Prior to founding Glacier, Areeb was a Senior Software Engineer and Tech Lead at Facebook, where he built out numerous complex and high-value products such as Facebook Marketplace and Facebook’s enterprise-level ads management platform. He left Facebook to make a profound impact in our society’s fight against climate change, identifying recycling and waste management as a critical focus area with tremendous potential to change our planet for the better.
Areeb's Sessions
How Startups Can Save the World
Startup work and venture capital investing are usually judged through the lens of their financial results. The bigger a startup gets, the more it’s worth. But some upstart tech companies are also working on making the world better, while making money. So we want to know how far the ‘doing good’ can go while not giving up on the critical ‘making money’ side of building tech companies.
Siddharth Mall, VP Product @ TELUS Digital ($TIXT), is a visionary product/business leader and passionate building/scaling technology businesses. Before this, Sid cofounded Playment, a fullstack AI labelling startup funded by YCombinator, Elevation & Samsung acquired by TELUS Digital in 2021. He started his career as a product manager at Flipkart post graduating from IIT in 2013.
Siddharth's Sessions
Refining Pre and Post-Training Data Strategy for LLM Success
LLMs have revolutionized AI, but their success hinges on the quality and strategy of the data used.
This roundtable dives deep into the critical role of data throughout the LLM lifecycle.
Join us to explore best practices for:
1. Pre-training: Learn how to curate diverse, high-quality datasets that fuel robust and unbiased LLMs.
2. Post-training: Discover techniques like reinforcement learning and active learning to continually enhance LLM performance and address limitations.
3. Ethical considerations: Navigate the complex landscape of data privacy, bias, and fairness in LLM development.
Whether you’re building foundational models or leveraging LLMs for specific applications, this session offers insights to optimize your data strategy and unlock the full potential of these powerful AI tools.
Refining Pre and Post-Training Data Strategy for LLM Success (encore)
LLMs have revolutionized AI, but their success hinges on the quality and strategy of the data used.
This roundtable dives deep into the critical role of data throughout the LLM lifecycle.
Join us to explore best practices for:
1. Pre-training: Learn how to curate diverse, high-quality datasets that fuel robust and unbiased LLMs.
2. Post-training: Discover techniques like reinforcement learning and active learning to continually enhance LLM performance and address limitations.
3. Ethical considerations: Navigate the complex landscape of data privacy, bias, and fairness in LLM development.
Whether you’re building foundational models or leveraging LLMs for specific applications, this session offers insights to optimize your data strategy and unlock the full potential of these powerful AI tools.
Kartik Mani is the Head of Retail Services at Citi, a tentpole business for U.S. Personal Banking which includes Citi’s private label and co-branded credit cards with leading retailers, and connected commerce solutions. In this role, he is responsible for driving the strategy and end-to-end performance of a business with $6.6 billion in annual revenues and more than 40 million active clients. In addition, he leads the development of Citi’s Consumer Connected Commerce propositions globally. He also has oversight across the Cards and Lending businesses in Hong Kong, Singapore and United Arab Emirates. Prior to his current role, Kartik held the position of CEO of Citi’s Consumer Bank across APAC & EMEA. In this role, he was responsible for all consumer banking activities including Deposits, Citi Banking Propositions such as Citigold & Citi Private Client, Bancassurance, Credit Cards, Personal Loans, and Mortgages. He was also responsible for driving the divestiture strategy and implementation across all 13 APAC & EMEA markets. Prior to joining Citi, Kartik was the Global Head of Credit Card and Lending at American Express, and has held senior leadership roles across Capital One, Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC, and Standard Charted Bank.
Kartik's Sessions
Bringing The Outside In: Connecting Startups With Large Banks to Power the Future of Finance
The future of finance will hinge on collaboration between traditional institutions and agile startups. Led by Matt Carbonara (Citi Ventures), Ari Tuchman (Quantifind), and Kartik Mani (Citi Retail Services), this session will delve into Citi Ventures’ pioneering approach to bridging the gap between large banks and the startup ecosystem. Attendees will gain insights into fostering innovation while managing risk, unlocking the potential for groundbreaking advancements in fintech and beyond.
Matt, along with Citi partners and portfolio company Quantifind, will discuss Citi Ventures’ approach to working with startups and how governance and risk management are essential to responsible innovation. He will discuss how attendees can peer through their own crystal ball to predict the next big thing in tech and finance, from AI to the fintech revolution and beyond.
Brian Manning is the co-founder and CEO of Xona Space Systems – a San Francisco-based company that is building the the first direct to device precision navigation service to enable modern technologies across the globe such as autonomy and robotics to reach their full scale and impact. Prior to starting Xona, Brian was as engineer at SpaceX where he was responsible for major components of the Falcon 9 thrust structure. Brian also brings experience from the automotive manufacturing world where he started his career developing alternative fuel engine systems. Brian holds a BS in mechanical engineering and MS in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University, as well as an MBA from the London Business School.
Brian's Sessions
Future of Space Operations Challenge
This open call pitch-off will present startups across robotics, autonomous systems, AI/ML, Vision Systems, Propulsion and Navigation. Five finalists will pitch to Aerospace judges and one winner will get access to expert lead feedback sessions with The Aerospace Corporation, government experts, and commercial space leadership.
Toby is the co-founder and CTO at Tobiko Data, the company behind SQLMesh, an intelligent data transformation framework designed to scale. Prior to Tobiko, he led Analytics Infrastructure at Airbnb where he helped create their semantic layer Minerva as well as architected Netflix’s experimentation platform. He also created SQLGlot, a popular open source Python SQL framework. Outside of Tobiko, he enjoys smoking meats, is a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and the former world record holder for solving a Rubik’s Cube.
Toby's Sessions
Beyond Snowflake and Databricks: Insights from the Frontlines of Data Transformation Disruption
By 2025 our global data volume will reach 175 zetabytes, a figure that is 50% more than 2023. But while the wealth of data grows, it remains unwieldy to use. Poor data quality costs organizations an average of $12.9M annually. As organizations grapple with the exponential growth of data, they need better data transformation solutions to process it.
The worldwide spending on such digital transformation solutions is forecasted to reach $3.9 trillion by 2027. In other words, the market is ripe for challenging the status quo, even despite the continued growth of data darlings Snowflake and Databricks.
Tomasz can speak to the future of data in the context of SF and DB’s direct competition, and how startups are tackling these challenges head-on amidst the acceleration of two industry giants.
For over 30 years, Patrick Maroney has been working with the management teams of leading companies on improving their lines of business processes and in support of high value business transformations. He joined SAP 16 years ago where he is currently a Principal on the High Tech Industry Executive Advisory Team, working with leading High Tech organizations helping to drive process improvements and leading business transformation initiatives. Prior to SAP he has held various management roles in Software, Consulting, and Strategy Management sectors.
Patrick's Sessions
Visionary Companies Embrace Innovation to Thrive in the Fast-Paced Economy
In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, forward-thinking companies are leveraging innovation and modernization to stay competitive. By embracing new tools, trends, and strategies, they position themselves to lead in the fast-paced global economy, setting new benchmarks for efficiency, customer engagement, and sustainable growth. Join this session to learn how these visionary organizations are leveraging technological advancements to compete in today’s market and driving transformative changes across industries.
Visionary Companies Embrace Innovation to Thrive in the Fast-Paced Economy (encore)
In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, forward-thinking companies are leveraging innovation and modernization to stay competitive. By embracing new tools, trends, and strategies, they position themselves to lead in the fast-paced global economy, setting new benchmarks for efficiency, customer engagement, and sustainable growth. Join this session to learn how these visionary organizations are leveraging technological advancements to compete in today’s market and driving transformative changes across industries.
Lindsey is currently the Head of Engineering at Check. Over the past three years building payroll businesses at Check, Lindsey has managed nearly every engineering vertical at Check directly as well as functioned as the GM for Payroll Setup across both R&D and Operations.
Lindsey's Sessions
Future of Work
Software is eating the world, and companies are hiring global talent more frequently than ever. They want to be able to hire talent in foreign countries and retain employees who want to move abroad. That’s why a new wave of global HR startups are helping companies hire people all around the world with local contracts. But can they replace local subsidiaries?
Kira is the VP of Communications at Forerunner, the consumer-focused venture capital firm with over $2B in assets under management. At Forerunner, Kira supports the firm with marketing efforts and portfolio companies with a range of branding and PR programs. Prior to joining Forerunner, Kira led Communications and Brand for Modern Fertility (a Forerunner portfolio company), joining at the seed stage and navigating multiple stages of growth before leading the company through its $225M acquisition (and then some). Before Modern Fertility, Kira led communications and marketing at Social Capital, as well as at various startups across several stages and industries — from fintech to b2b software, food tech and more. After 10+ years of leading corporate, consumer, and internal communications through multiple market dips, twists and turns — Kira has, what she calls, “a very high pain tolerance.”
Kira's Sessions
Secrets to Actually Being Good at Startup PR in 2024
The communications and PR landscape has dramatically shifted in recent years: new mediums (Substack, podcasts) have spiked in influence and popularity, fueling new strategies (“going direct”) for shaping and amplifying public perceptions — all while an increasingly critical media landscape continues to hold all types of industry stakeholders accountable. How can early and growing companies responsibly navigate these changes *and* be successful in building an inspiring brand? This roundtable will dissect the growing breadth and importance of different comms functions: the under-appreciated, consequential nature of internal comms, the increasingly indispensable need for owned channels, the pros and cons of political takes amidst an election year, and how to actually get meaningful press coverage for a company. The tech communications industry has arguably never been more dynamic.
Ian is a product innovation and strategy leader who brings his product-led, user centered approach to transform legacy businesses into innovation leaders through excellent, delightful, and differentiated digital experiences.
Ian's Sessions
Refining Pre and Post-Training Data Strategy for LLM Success
LLMs have revolutionized AI, but their success hinges on the quality and strategy of the data used.
This roundtable dives deep into the critical role of data throughout the LLM lifecycle.
Join us to explore best practices for:
1. Pre-training: Learn how to curate diverse, high-quality datasets that fuel robust and unbiased LLMs.
2. Post-training: Discover techniques like reinforcement learning and active learning to continually enhance LLM performance and address limitations.
3. Ethical considerations: Navigate the complex landscape of data privacy, bias, and fairness in LLM development.
Whether you’re building foundational models or leveraging LLMs for specific applications, this session offers insights to optimize your data strategy and unlock the full potential of these powerful AI tools.
Refining Pre and Post-Training Data Strategy for LLM Success (encore)
LLMs have revolutionized AI, but their success hinges on the quality and strategy of the data used.
This roundtable dives deep into the critical role of data throughout the LLM lifecycle.
Join us to explore best practices for:
1. Pre-training: Learn how to curate diverse, high-quality datasets that fuel robust and unbiased LLMs.
2. Post-training: Discover techniques like reinforcement learning and active learning to continually enhance LLM performance and address limitations.
3. Ethical considerations: Navigate the complex landscape of data privacy, bias, and fairness in LLM development.
Whether you’re building foundational models or leveraging LLMs for specific applications, this session offers insights to optimize your data strategy and unlock the full potential of these powerful AI tools.
Lucas McGartland is the Founder and CEO of Sequence Arts & Technologies, Inc. Under his leadership, Sequence is pioneering the future of video production software, integrating innovative tools and multiplayer workflows that redefine how filmmakers push their vision from script to screen. Lucas graduated from the University of Southern California as part of the inaugural class of the Jimmy Iovine & Andre Young (Dr. Dre) Academy for Arts, Technology, and the Business of Innovation. This unique program, known for its interdisciplinary approach and emphasis on creativity and entrepreneurship, equipped Lucas with a diverse skill set and a forward-thinking mindset. His innovative work at the intersection of arts and technology continues to shape the future of digital media production. He is also an avid Swiftie and film photography/Polaroid enthusiast.
Luke's Sessions
How AI is Supercharging Tools for Knowledge Workers
Advancements in AI are enabling new tooling that will 10x the productivity of knowledge workers by reducing monotonous, repetitive tasks. These advances have also unlocked opportunities for more creativity and experimentation. This panel explores the latest in professional services tooling and explores how companies can maximize performance and productivity. We will also explore the future of tooling for knowledge workers and how emerging breakthroughs might be applied. Let’s explore the future of work.
Nicolas Meader is a Principal at Lioncrest Ventures, where he invests across a wide range of sectors. Before joining Lioncrest, Nicolas was an Investor at Grayhawk Capital, joining the firm right after college, following the successful acquisition of his software company in late 2022. He has built a reputation as a savvy tech angel investor, recognized by New York Weekly for his impressive track record in some of Silicon Valley’s hottest startups. He sits on the board of Vently, a social platform for local events, while also serving as an advisor to multiple venture-backed companies. Nicolas received his undergraduate degree from Ohio State University, and paused his postgraduate education at Columbia University to focus on investing.
Nicolas's Sessions
Consumer Social Network Effects with Vently
This session will highlight the network effects driving consumer social platforms. After scaling Fizz and Nearby to 14 million users, a key insight emerged: communities are using a fragmented stack of tools—WhatsApp for communication, Partiful for event notifications, Venmo for payments, and Instagram for updates. Vently solves this by being the all-in-one platform that unifies these functions. It enables communities to engage, grow, and monetize in a single space, creating seamless experiences for both hosts and participants. Now, Vently is raising capital to scale these efforts and redefine how communities manage and engage. Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the future of consumer social networks and the potential of Vently to redefine social commerce.
Bridgit Mendler is the co-founder and CEO of Northwood. Northwood is building proliferated ground infrastructure to address fundamental data transmission bottlenecks impacting the space industry. Designed from the ground up, Northwood’s ground network is built to rapidly scale capacity for satellite communication. Prior to founding Northwood, Bridgit ran two companies in television and music. She served as leading actress on multiple series including Disney’s Good Luck Charlie and she was a platinum songwriter and recording artist. During her time at the FCC while at Harvard, Bridgit focused on satellite licensing frameworks and regulatory policy development, working directly with industry stakeholders to address technical and legal challenges in the rapidly evolving commercial space sector. As a Director’s Fellow and Researcher at the MIT Media Lab, she contributed to projects at the intersection of technology, communication, and social impact, exploring innovative approaches to global connectivity challenges. Bridgit has earned a Masters from MIT and a JD from Harvard.
Bridgit's Sessions
Bridgit Mendler on Moving from Disney Star to Startup Founder
Former Disney Channel star Bridgit Mendler wants to transform one of the least sexy segments of the space industry: ground stations. In this fireside, we’ll learn more about how Northwood Space will build out a data highway between Earth and orbit.
Marten Mickos has been the CEO of HackerOne since 2015. Previously, he was CEO at Eucalyptus, a cloud software company acquired by Hewlett-Packard, where he then served as the SVP of the cloud division. Before that, he was CEO of MySQL, an open-source database company. Marten has served on the boards of Nokia and other technology companies. He holds an M.Sc. degree in engineering from Helsinki University of Technology and an honorary doctorate from Aalto University.
Marten's Sessions
Is Your AI Deployment an Advantage or an Embarrassment? Here’s How to Know
Rushed AI deployments can translate to embarrassing incidents, reputational damage, and financial loss. Brands like Adobe, Snap, and Anthropic have joined a growing list of companies embracing AI red teaming to deploy AI responsibly and find emerging threats before bad actors. HackerOne will share tales from the front lines of AI safety and security, so you know how to avoid AI embarrassments — from the circumvention of AI guardrails to harmful content generation. You’ll learn how top companies use AI red teaming and actionable ways to reduce AI risk that extend your AI advantage.
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
Stablecoins: The Future of Fintech
Why are stablecoins beginning to take off as a payments product? What are the most interesting examples and use cases? What technology will they replace – and where do they go from here?
Ben Milne is the Founder and CEO of Brale, a technology platform that reduces the barrier to launching a stablecoin from $100M to a few dollars. He is also well known as the founder of Dwolla, whose technology has become an integral part of the US FinTech ecosystem. He holds various patents for cutting-edge payment technologies focused on shepherding real-time access and communication between internet-connected systems that maintain and protect value. Milne serves on the boards of industry groups, financial institutions, and as an advisor to venture funds. He also serves the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a member of its Technology Advisory Committee, alongside industry leaders from CME, IBM, Circle, U.S. Department of the Treasury, and the Brookings Institution.
Ben's Sessions
Stablecoins: The Future of Fintech
Why are stablecoins beginning to take off as a payments product? What are the most interesting examples and use cases? What technology will they replace – and where do they go from here?
Nicholai Mitchko Manager, Solution Partner Sales Engineer, InterSystems Nicholai Mitchko is the manager of OEM sales engineering at InterSystems supporting pre and post commercial data initiatives and software solutions. Nicholai’s background is in machine learning and marketing.
Nicholai's Sessions
Leverage Data Standards to Accelerate Your Startup
What is big deal with standards like FHIR? Why should I care when I am trying so hard to build an innovative solution and look for early customers? What would investors think? Does it allow my competitors to copy my offering easily? These are important questions for the healthcare startups. InterSystems have been supporting global data standards for decades. We will share our experience to help you answer these questions and leverage the standards to your advantage, not just technically, but also sales and marketing.
Leverage Data Standards to Accelerate Your Startup (encore)
What is big deal with standards like FHIR? Why should I care when I am trying so hard to build an innovative solution and look for early customers? What would investors think? Does it allow my competitors to copy my offering easily? These are important questions for the healthcare startups. InterSystems have been supporting global data standards for decades. We will share our experience to help you answer these questions and leverage the standards to your advantage, not just technically, but also sales and marketing.
Known for her inception stage investments that range from marketplaces to highly technical companies, Ms. Miura-Ko’s investments have earned her repeat appearances on the Forbes Midas List and The New York Times list of top twenty venture capitalists worldwide. At Stanford University—where she received her Ph.D. for her work on mathematical modeling of cybersecurity—she is a lecturer in engineering, teaching on topics from blockchain to intelligent growth for startups. In addition, she is a co-director of the Stanford Mayfield Fellows Program, which helps train undergraduates to become technology leaders. Ms. Miura-Ko is a co-founding member of AllRaise, an organization dedicated to increasing the success and prevalence of female funders and founders. Ms. Miura-Ko received a B.S. in electrical engineering from Yale. As an alumna, she has served on the School of Engineering & Applied Science Leadership Council and as a non-trustee member of the Corporation Committee on Investments. She was elected an alumni fellow in 2019.
Ann's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield Final
The grand final of TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition. Watch the final 5 teams from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
SC Moatti is the Founding Managing Partner of Mighty Capital, a Silicon Valley venture firm, and chairs the Board of Products That Count, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that helps everyone build great products and inspires 500,000+ product managers. SC earned her reputation as a product visionary and technology investor during the mobile era, when she built products that billions of people use at Meta/Facebook and Nokia, won industry awards and nominations from the Wall Street Journal and the Emmy’s, and wrote an award-winning bestseller on what makes a great product. She has been called “a genius at making products people love” and named a Top Voice in venture capital on LinkedIn. SC frequently speaks to product and investing trends, including a recent keynote at TheNextWeb, a fireside chat at Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, featured articles in the Harvard Business Review and TechCrunch, and interviews on NPR (Tech Nation) and CNBC (Closing Bell.) She serves on the boards of public and private companies, lectured on product and investing at the executive programs of Stanford and Columbia Universities, earned a master’s in electrical engineering and a Stanford MBA, and is a Kauffman Fellow and member of YPO. For more information, visit Mighty.Capital.
SC's Sessions
Enterprise GTM is Broken – Here’s How to Fix It
The old tactics don’t work anymore. In an era where machines are bombarding inboxes with emails thousands of times a week, how do you break through the noise to make sure the right decision makers are getting the message at a target enterprise company? Based on expertise and learnings from helping over half a million product leaders hone their GTM strategy, SC Moatti will lead this collaborative session exploring the challenges and opportunities of the enterprise GTM space. Founders and operators will walk away with the tools they need to start making real headway towards their enterprise ambitions.
Enterprise GTM is Broken – Here’s How to Fix It (encore)
The old tactics don’t work anymore. In an era where machines are bombarding inboxes with emails thousands of times a week, how do you break through the noise to make sure the right decision makers are getting the message at a target enterprise company? Based on expertise and learnings from helping over half a million product leaders hone their GTM strategy, SC Moatti will lead this collaborative session exploring the challenges and opportunities of the enterprise GTM space. Founders and operators will walk away with the tools they need to start making real headway towards their enterprise ambitions.
David Mogensen brings more than 20 years of marketing experience to Uber, where he leads global marketing. In his role, David oversees a team of marketers responsible for building the Uber and Uber Eats brands and businesses by engaging consumers, earners, and merchants across more than 70 countries. His team is committed to advancing Uber’s mission to reimagine the way the world moves for the better. David was recently named one of Forbes’ 50 most entrepreneurial CMOs. Prior to his current role, David led Marketing for Uber in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Before that, he held various leadership positions at Google, including leading marketing for Northern Europe and global B2B product marketing at YouTube, helping to grow YouTube into the multi-billion dollar business it is today. Earlier in his career David spent a decade at BMW of North America, where he oversaw BMW’s brand positioning and advertising in the US. David lives in the SF Bay Area with his wife, two children, and a bashful English Cocker Spaniel.
David's Sessions
Webby Talks: It's Giving Brainrot, How Chronically Online Culture Is Taking Us from the Niche to the Nonsensical—and Why That Can Be a Good Thing
In The Webby Awards’ annual thought leadership series focused on the trends and consumer insights shaping the internet, this year, the leading award for internet excellence will explore how brands, marketers, digital creatives, and technologists are embracing chronically online culture to forge more creative and sustainable connections with audiences. The presentation, titled “it’s giving brainrot: how chronically online culture is taking us from the niche to the nonsensical—and why that can be a good thing,” will be led by The Webby Awards General Manager Nick Borenstein and will feature insights and social listening data from Meltwater, along with trends from over 13,000 submissions to the 28th Annual Webby Awards.Following the presentation, Margaret Johnson (Chief Creative Officer, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners), David Mogensen (VP of Global Marketing, Uber), and Monica Khan (Co-Founder, Bay Area Creator Economy) will join for a fireside chat to share their insights into this cultural moment.
Lisa has 28 years in tech, design and systems thinking, entrepreneurship, and community building, and has recently added VC to her list of titles as Founder & Co-Managing GP at REFASHIOND Ventures: the Industrial Transformation Fund — a NY-based venture fund that invests as the first institutional check in early-stage startups refashioning industrial value chains across Data & AI, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing, and Next Generation Logistics; defensible through economic moats. She has always been obsessed with how things are made and pioneered mass-customization, personalization, and on-demand micromanufacturing for P&G in Silicon Valley in 1999 at a company called Reflect.com. Lisa is catalyzing the paradigm shift to localized demand chains as CEO and Founder of REFASHIOND OS (rOS), which is deploying a unified Data Layer & Control Tower across manufacturing value chains. She is also a founder of The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation, an organization that is changing how supply chain professionals learn about, collaborate, and adopt early-stage supply chain innovation around the world. Lisa is a Carnegie Mellon University alum with University Honors, Techstars alum, founded & built the New York Fashion Tech Lab, serves on the board of 3 other accelerators, has been featured in numerous publications along with 2 books, and has been the recipient of several awards; including Supply & Demand Chain Executive Magazine’s Top Woman in Supply Chain 2022, Top 100 Women in Supply Chain 2020, 2021, 2022, & 2023; and WWD’s Most Influential ESG Leaders 2023.
Lisa's Sessions
The 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.
Troy M. Morris, as a Co-Founder & CEO, leads business development, compliance, communications, and organization, from success in academia with his degree in Psychology/Behavior Analysis, where he met his now co-founders at Northern Michigan University (NMU), and having led multistate business units at Snap-on Tools to $17M annual revenue in critical industries. At Kall Morris Inc (KMI), he has overseen the growth from bootstrapping co-founders to a startup small business with over $5M in funding in 2023, a hardware demonstration launching to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX-31, and working with 20+ expert personnel and advisors. Presenting and publishing technical publications in multiple disciplines, he is sought as a speaker, commenter, and advocate across industry, academia, and government.
Troy's Sessions
Future of Space Operations Challenge
This open call pitch-off will present startups across robotics, autonomous systems, AI/ML, Vision Systems, Propulsion and Navigation. Five finalists will pitch to Aerospace judges and one winner will get access to expert lead feedback sessions with The Aerospace Corporation, government experts, and commercial space leadership.
Brent Murri is a Partner at M13 where he leads early-stage investments in software and marketplaces. Brent joined M13 from Battery Ventures where he focused on growth-stage enterprise software investments. Prior to Battery, he worked in strategy & business development for Samsung NEXT, where he developed and executed strategies around Samsung’s mobile software and services initiatives.
Brent's Sessions
Maximizing Prospective + Existing Investor Relationships
This panel dives into the often-underutilized dynamics between founders and investors, debunking myths that can undermine these relationships. We’ll discuss how founders can filter the flood of advice, position themselves to best utilize board and investor resources and create partnerships that fuel long-term success. Leading the conversation is Brent Murri, partner at M13, who brings a sharp perspective on venture.
Maximizing Prospective + Existing Investor Relationships (encore)
This panel dives into the often-underutilized dynamics between founders and investors, debunking myths that can undermine these relationships. We’ll discuss how founders can filter the flood of advice, position themselves to best utilize board and investor resources and create partnerships that fuel long-term success. Leading the conversation is Brent Murri, partner at M13, who brings a sharp perspective on venture.
Sarah has spent the last fifteen years interrogating the role of technology companies and their emergence as powerful political actors on the front lines of international governance. Sarah brings this depth of expertise to policymaking in her current role co-directing AI Now, with a focus on addressing the market incentives and infrastructures that shape tech’s role in society at large and ensuring it serves the interests of the public. Her forthcoming book, Tracing Code (University of California Press) draws on years of historical and social science research to examine the origins of data capitalism and commercial surveillance. Sarah’s award-winning research is featured in leading academic journals and prominent media platforms including the Washington Post, the Atlantic, the Financial Times, Nature and the Wall Street Journal. She regularly advises members of Congress, the White House, European Commission, UK Government, Consumer Financial Protection Board and other US and international regulatory agencies and the City of New York, and has testified before Congress on issues including artificial intelligence, competition and data privacy. She recently completed a term as a Senior Advisor on AI at the Federal Trade Commission, where she advised the Agency on the role of artificial intelligence in shaping the economy by working on competition and consumer protection matters. She currently serves on the OECD’s AI Futures Working Group, and has affiliations as a Visiting Research Scientist at the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University and at Cornell University’s Citizens and Technology Lab. She holds Doctoral and Masters Degrees from the University of Southern California, where she was the Wallis Annenberg Graduate Research Fellow, and has received Google Policy and New America Cybersecurity Fellowships, as well as a Foreign Language and Area Studies Scholarship.
Sarah's Sessions
Navigating AI's Legal and Ethical Minefield
AI’s meteoric rise has created new ethical dilemmas and exacerbated old ones, while lawsuits drop left and right. This threatens both new and established AI companies, and the creators and workers whose labor feeds the models. A panel of experts in AI, copyright, and ethics take on this complex and fast-moving problem space.
As founder & CEO of Furno Materials, Gurinder and his colleagues are working to re-envision energy-efficient and zero-emission cement production by leveraging novel combustion to re-designing the cement plant to be compact and modular. Born in India and raised in rural Australia, Gurinder received a Bachelor of Advanced Science from University of New South Wales, Sydney and a Master of Science in Earth System Science from Stanford University. He expresses himself by devoting his full efforts taking on big, audacious mental and physical challenges.
Gurinder's Sessions
How to Launch a New Product Against Entrenched Incumbents
Founders seldom have the luxury of entering a completely empty market, but what happens when the incumbents are unusually entrenched? What does it take to start a company in an industry dominated by big players and technologies that have barely changed in recent years? Hear from two founders and an investor about the trials of taking on multinational conglomerates while building hardware and preparing for scale.
Shravan Narayen is a partner at IVP who invests primarily in enterprise infrastructure and applications built by opinionated founders solving deep technical problems. Shravan’s investments include Perplexity, Baseten, Chainguard, Cortex, Eightfold, and Glean. Prior to IVP, Shravan has worked across all phases of a startup’s lifecycle from pre-PMF to IPO, most recently in product at Snowflake. He strives to bring that context as he partners with founders building the next generational companies. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School and his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University in Mathematical and Computational Science with honors.
Shravan's Sessions
The 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.
Jessica Newman is the Director of the AI Security Initiative, housed at the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity. She is also the Co-Director of the UC Berkeley AI Policy Hub. Through these programs, she leads research efforts in partnership with the public and private sector, supports graduate student researchers, facilitates university events, and publishes and speaks widely on the governance, policy, and security implications of artificial intelligence. She serves on several AI governance and standards bodies including the OECD Expert Group on AI Risk & Accountability, the U.S. AI Safety Institute Consortium, and the World Economic Forum AI Governance Alliance.
Jessica's Sessions
What does AI Governance Look like Today, Tomorrow, and Beyond?
AI development continues at a breakneck pace, but how fast is too fast? In this fireside, U.S. AI Safety Institute Director Elizabeth Kelly and California state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), the architect of California’s controversial AI safety bill SB 1047, talk about the need to balance AI innovation with safeguards.
I am a Vietnamese Canadian tech strategy, sales & marketing, business planning, and operations leader with over 12 years of experience in the tech and consulting industry across multiple geographies, including the Canada, US, UK, and APAC. I have a strong background in strategy, business development, project management, data science, financial modeling, and business analysis, having received an MBA from Northwestern Kellogg, an MSc in Finance from Boston College, and a BSc with focus on Philosophy and Finance from Babson College. Currently, I lead special projects for the business planning, strategy, and operations functions for TikTok’s APAC and MEA regions, where I oversee the monetization strategy initiatives for TikTok’s Ads business.
Khanh's Sessions
Shoppertainment 2024: The Future of Consumer and Commerce
Uncover new insights that decode consumer behaviour. What this means for businesses & how you can thrive in this USD 1 Trillion Shoppertainment space?
Shoppertainment 2024: The Future of Consumer and Commerce (encore)
Uncover new insights that decode consumer behaviour. What this means for businesses & how you can thrive in this USD 1 Trillion Shoppertainment space?
Based in Silicon Valley, Dr. Nika is the founder of AI Product Academy that offers AI Product certifications. Marily currently works for Google as a Gen AI Product Manager with 12+ years of experience and has been named one of the world’s top AI educators. Marily earned a PhD in machine learning and is also an author, TED AI speaker, fortune 40 under 40 recipient and fellow at Harvard Business School, She writes about AI at https://marily.substack.com/.
Marily's Sessions
Building AI Agents – For Product Leaders & Founders
This is a live, hands-on workshop tailored for product leaders, aimed at providing a practical introduction to Agentic products. You’ll gain a clear understanding of what AI agents are, how they function, and where they fit into product strategies. The workshop will guide you step by step through the process of building two AI agents from scratch, giving you a strong grasp of how to apply these tools to solve business problems, automate processes, and enhance user experiences.Bring your laptops to this interactive workshop!
Brandie Nonnecke, PhD is Founding Director of the CITRIS Policy Lab, headquartered at UC Berkeley. She is an Associate Research Professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy (GSPP) where she directs the Tech Policy Initiative, a collaboration between CITRIS and GSPP to strengthen tech policy education, research, and impact. Brandie is the Director of Our Better Web, a program that supports empirical research, policy analysis, training, and engagement to address the rise of online harms. She serves as co-director at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology at Berkeley Law and the UC Berkeley AI Policy Hub. Brandie is the host of TecHype, a groundbreaking video and audio series that debunks misunderstandings around emerging technologies and the laws and policies that shape them. Her research has been featured in Science, Wired, NPR, BBC News, MIT Technology Review, Buzzfeed News, among others. Her research articles, op-eds, and presentations are available at nonnecke.com.
Brandie's Sessions
How Generative AI is Flooding the Web with Disinformation
As generative AI tools become more widely available – and become cheaper, or even free, to use – they’re being abused by an array of actors, including state actors, to create deepfakes and sow disinformation online. In this session, we’ll hear from experts about the types of deepfakes now circulating the web and some possible ways to combat the threat.
Jordan Noone is the Co-Founder, CTO, and General Partner at Embedded Ventures, the skunkworks of deep tech venture capital. Launched with his Co-Founder Jenna Bryant. Jordan is Relativity’s Co-Founder and founding CTO – as of 2020, Relativity is the world’s second most valuable private space company. As Relativity’s CTO, Jordan focused on technical direction and engineering design, including: developing printing technology, launch vehicle design, propulsion design, software development, infrastructure development, and government affairs. Jordan also led many Relativity initiatives including: expansion of Relativity’s Stargate Factory into the rest of aerospace manufacturing, Relativity’s strategy for expanding printing technology off-planet; and the ability of Relativity’s factory flexibly scale to a wide range of rocket sizes. Jordan has had a lifelong interest in aerospace, including the design and build of spaceflight hardware at the age of 18 while at the University of Southern California, and becoming the first student and youngest individual in the world to get Federal Aviation Administration clearance to fly a rocket to space (150 kilometer altitude) while leading USC’s Rocket Propulsion Lab. In 2015 he started Relativity when 22 years old. He has been chosen for “30 Under 30” by Forbes, Business Insider, and Inc. Magazine. He received a BS in Aerospace Engineering, and dropped out of a BS in Biophysics, both from University of Southern California. Outside of Relativity, Jordan is active in promoting STEM education worldwide with the US Department of State.
Jordan's Sessions
Riding the Wave: The Future of Space Investing
Private investments in commercial space companies has exploded over the past few years, but investor appetite has been tempered more recently by higher interest rates, turbulent space stock performance and geopolitical uncertainties. In this talk, we’ll discuss the future of space tech investing, which areas are oversaturated or undervalued, and whether this year will be make-it-or-break-it for space startups.
Turner is the founder of Banana Capital.
Turner's Sessions
Secrets to Actually Being Good at Startup PR in 2024
The communications and PR landscape has dramatically shifted in recent years: new mediums (Substack, podcasts) have spiked in influence and popularity, fueling new strategies (“going direct”) for shaping and amplifying public perceptions — all while an increasingly critical media landscape continues to hold all types of industry stakeholders accountable. How can early and growing companies responsibly navigate these changes *and* be successful in building an inspiring brand? This roundtable will dissect the growing breadth and importance of different comms functions: the under-appreciated, consequential nature of internal comms, the increasingly indispensable need for owned channels, the pros and cons of political takes amidst an election year, and how to actually get meaningful press coverage for a company. The tech communications industry has arguably never been more dynamic.
Will focuses on early-stage investments in protocol layer infrastructure, DeFi applications, and software products. Before leading investments, Will supported the firm’s research function and built quantitative risk software for the trading business. Prior to joining the firm, he worked on data science for the Ethereum protocol FOAM. He holds a B.S. in Mathematics and Architecture from Stanford University. Will has led several investments for Galaxy since 2019, including Aleo, Axelar, Celestia, Centrifuge, Gensyn, and Risc Zero.
Will's Sessions
Finding the Consensus of Crypto VC
In the crypto space, it’s time to scale. All signs point toward a period of growth with high market prices, a more favorable regulatory landscape and a large ecosystem of scaling solutions that work. So let’s talk with investors who have backed some of the most influential protocols, exchanges and decentralized apps. What’s the next big thing and what has been the biggest surprise in their investment portfolio?
Roeland Nusselder is the CEO and Co-founder of Plumerai, with offices in London and Amsterdam. Plumerai offers a full AI solution for intelligent cameras, from People Detection and Vehicle Detection to Familiar Face & Stranger Identification and Multi-camera Re-identification. Plumerai’s AI software is deployed on millions of cameras in the field and can be found in products on the shelves of Walmart and Best Buy. Thanks to its capability to run AI on-device with unmatched accuracy it has won several major US-based home and enterprise security companies as customers like Chamberlain Group. Roeland has been researching energy-efficient AI for years, which then led him to found Plumerai. Plumerai’s investors include Tony Fadell, Principal at Build Collective, Dr. Hermann Hauser KBE, Founder of Arm, and LocalGlobe.
Roeland's Sessions
Smaller, Faster, Smarter: How Tiny AI is Democratizing AI Technology Starting with the Smart Home Camera
Nest founder, former SVP of Apple’s iPhone and iPod teams, and Principal at Build Collective Tony Fadell joins Plumerai’s Co-founder and CEO Roeland Nusselder to discuss how Tiny AI is democratizing AI. By making AI smaller, efficient, and cost-effective, Tiny AI is paving the way for widespread adoption across industries, fostering innovation, and putting the power of AI into the hands of many. Tiny AI is shaping a future where intelligence is embedded all around us, enhancing our daily lives in ways we’ve only dreamed of. The future is here, and it’s smaller than you think!
Brigid a Managing Partner, Planetary Health, at RA Capital. Brigid’s primary responsibility at RA is to lead investments in private companies that are developing innovative solutions to address climate change and environmental sustainability. Prior to joining RA, Brigid was the Head of Venture Investments for BHP Ventures, the internal venture capital unit within the world’s largest mining company, where her investment mandate was to help the decarbonization of BHP’s operations and to improve the sustainability of resource extraction. Brigid was responsible for starting the venture fund and led investments in multiple sectors, including advanced analytics platforms, biomining and bioremediation, novel chemical leaching, long-duration energy storage, traceability of products, carbon removal, and green steel. Prior to BHP, Brigid was at In-Q-Tel (IQT), the strategic investment arm of the CIA and the US Intelligence Community; she co-founded IQT’s Australian subsidiary, served as its Managing Director, and built an international program to support a global innovation initiative through investing in the Asian-Pacific region. Brigid holds a BS in Chemistry (Hons) from the Commonwealth Honors College at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (2002) and a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Johns Hopkins University (2009).
Brigid's Sessions
How to Launch a New Product Against Entrenched Incumbents
Founders seldom have the luxury of entering a completely empty market, but what happens when the incumbents are unusually entrenched? What does it take to start a company in an industry dominated by big players and technologies that have barely changed in recent years? Hear from two founders and an investor about the trials of taking on multinational conglomerates while building hardware and preparing for scale.
Guy is an accomplished entrepreneur, technology investor, and talent manager. He launched his career in the music industry as a teenager, working for Madonna as a talent scout for Maverick Records. Guy quickly climbed the ranks, ultimately becoming Chairman of Maverick, where the label sold over 100 million albums under his leadership. Throughout his career, he has managed a range of A-list artists, including Madonna and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In 2022, Guy was named Variety’s Music Mogul of the Year. For the last two decades, Guy has been investing and brand-building in the technology ecosystem first through his personal investments and then through co-founding A-Grade Investments in 2010 and Sound Ventures in 2015, both with co-founder Ashton Kutcher. With more than $1 billion under management and 300 portfolio companies, Guy and his partners have been at the helm of six top quartile venture funds. A-Grade and Sound Ventures’ early-stage investments include: Affirm (NASDAQ: AFRM), Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB), Airtable, Anthropic, Brex, Duolingo (NASDAQ: DUOL), Gitlab (NASDAQ: GTLB), Hugging Face, OpenAI, SentinelOne (NYSE: S) and Uber (NYSE: UBER).
Guy's Sessions
Making Sound Investments with Ashton Kutcher
Join Sound Ventures partners Ashton Kutcher, Effie Epstein and Guy Oseary on their firm’s big bet on AI, the influence of celebrity status, and the trends they are tracking right now.
Lee is the VP of AI Products at HP, where he is driving the creation of new AI-enabled product categories. Lee is an experienced product executive, has extensive background leading zero-to-one product initiatives at Palm, Skype, and Yahoo!, and is also a repeat entrepreneur. He has introduced numerous ground-breaking and award-winning products, coined the phrase “mobile first” when leading the Advanced Products Group at Yahoo!, and holds numerous patents.
Lee's Sessions
Architecting the Future: Building Hardware for an AI-Native World
AI-driven hardware is transforming enterprise operations. This panel discussion will address the complexities of building AI-native ecosystems, the role of generative AI in reshaping enterprise technology, and the practical implications for developing scalable AI solutions. Our moderator Lee Ott from HP’s AI Innovation team will be joined by Carl Pei (Nothing phone), Jerry Yue (Brain.ai) and Mark Solomon (Co-Founder, Stealth Startup), who will provide insights into the next generation of AI-powered hardware and its potential to drive business innovation.
Justin is an investor at OMERS Ventures, a global early-stage tech fund. Based in the Bay Area, he specializes in SaaS. He serves as a board observer for WorkRamp, Postal, Falkon, and Occupier. Justin has spent a number of years operating at both small and large technology companies across sales, customer success, and business operations. Prior to joining OMERS Ventures, Justin was Director of Sales Strategy and Operations at Slack.
Justin's Sessions
AI Infra, DevOps and the Backend Tooling Stack of the Next Generation of B2B Software Winners
This roundtable explores investment strategies in AI infrastructure software, DevOps, and B2B infrastructure. As AI continues to reshape industries, the demand for robust, scalable infrastructure has never been greater. Participants will discuss emerging trends in cloud computing, containerization, and edge computing tailored for AI workloads. The conversation will delve into the challenges of developing and deploying AI models at scale, examining how DevOps practices are evolving to meet these demands. Additionally, the roundtable will address the growing market for B2B infrastructure software that enables AI integration across various sectors. By analyzing current gaps in the ecosystem and projecting future needs, this discussion aims to identify key areas for strategic investment that will shape the next generation of AI infrastructure.
AI infra, DevOps and the Backend Tooling Stack of the Next Generation of B2B Software Winners (encore)
This roundtable explores investment strategies in AI infrastructure software, DevOps, and B2B infrastructure. As AI continues to reshape industries, the demand for robust, scalable infrastructure has never been greater. Participants will discuss emerging trends in cloud computing, containerization, and edge computing tailored for AI workloads. The conversation will delve into the challenges of developing and deploying AI models at scale, examining how DevOps practices are evolving to meet these demands. Additionally, the roundtable will address the growing market for B2B infrastructure software that enables AI integration across various sectors. By analyzing current gaps in the ecosystem and projecting future needs, this discussion aims to identify key areas for strategic investment that will shape the next generation of AI infrastructure.
VC Investor at Blitzscaling Ventures leading early-stage AI investments. Founder of the Llama Lounge AI startup event series.
Jeremiah's Sessions
Founder Mode: AI Startups in Learning, Health, and Autonomous Agents
Learn how today’s top founders are using AI to solve real-world problems. The panel experts will include: MultiOn who creates AI agents on the web to solve a variety of problems such as booking flights, shopping, and internet research; Miri.ai, which offers health and wellness AI coaches; and LearnTube, which uses generative AI to create instant learning courses, curriculum, quizzes, and certifications. Panel discussion, Q&A, on how to launch, build, grow, and fund an AI startup.
Kaushik P S is the Senior Director for Product Management at TELUS Digital, spearheading the “Data for AI” charter. He leads a portfolio of products focused on delivering high-quality, high-quantum datasets crucial for advancing AI and machine learning technologies. Kaushik brings a unique blend of cross-functional expertise and business leadership to drive innovation in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. His decade+ experience spans B2B software, management consulting, customer success and more. Prior to his current stint, Kaushik was a founding team member at Goodera, where he played a pivotal role in building and scaling the business. He is currently based in the Bay Area.
Kaushik's Sessions
Refining Pre and Post-Training Data Strategy for LLM Success
LLMs have revolutionized AI, but their success hinges on the quality and strategy of the data used.
This roundtable dives deep into the critical role of data throughout the LLM lifecycle.
Join us to explore best practices for:
1. Pre-training: Learn how to curate diverse, high-quality datasets that fuel robust and unbiased LLMs.
2. Post-training: Discover techniques like reinforcement learning and active learning to continually enhance LLM performance and address limitations.
3. Ethical considerations: Navigate the complex landscape of data privacy, bias, and fairness in LLM development.
Whether you’re building foundational models or leveraging LLMs for specific applications, this session offers insights to optimize your data strategy and unlock the full potential of these powerful AI tools.
Refining Pre and Post-Training Data Strategy for LLM Success (encore)
LLMs have revolutionized AI, but their success hinges on the quality and strategy of the data used.
This roundtable dives deep into the critical role of data throughout the LLM lifecycle.
Join us to explore best practices for:
1. Pre-training: Learn how to curate diverse, high-quality datasets that fuel robust and unbiased LLMs.
2. Post-training: Discover techniques like reinforcement learning and active learning to continually enhance LLM performance and address limitations.
3. Ethical considerations: Navigate the complex landscape of data privacy, bias, and fairness in LLM development.
Whether you’re building foundational models or leveraging LLMs for specific applications, this session offers insights to optimize your data strategy and unlock the full potential of these powerful AI tools.
Grammy® Award-winning and Billboard Chart topping artist/producer duo, The Chainsmokers, have evolved into a dominating musical force with a diverse repertoire of songs that have led them to become one of music’s hottest recording artists. Comprised of Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, their signature sound deftly reaches across indie, progressive and pop realms and has seen them develop some of the biggest breakthrough songs over the course of the last few years. Now in 2020, The Chainsmokers are currently working on their next chapter of music for their fourth full length album while simultaneously focusing on charitable and business ventures. From donating 20,000 N95 masks to hospitals in New York City and Las Vegas at the peak need for PPE during the pandemic to donations for charities aiding in wildfire relief in Australia and fighting for equal rights across the globe, Alex and Drew are always looking for ways to give back to causes that hit close to home. Most recently, The Chainsmokers were featured on the cover of Forbes for their entrepreneurial achievements as well as being named by Forbes as the highest paid DJs in the world. Using their ability to identify trends, Drew and Alex have built a track record as seasoned angel investors. Following their passion for supporting other brilliant entrepreneurs, they joined forces with a seasoned investment team, led by tech investors and entrepreneurs Milan Koch and Jeffrey Evans, to form a new venture capital firm called Mantis. Mantis Venture Capital invests in Seed & Series A consumer companies within the industries of Media & Entertainment, Fintech, and Health & Wellness that focuses on the Gen Z and Millennial population.
Alex's Sessions
How the Chainsmokers Bring Value Beyond their Celebrity Status
While a lot of celebrities invest in startups, the Chainsmokers are different. Instead of angel investing, Drew Taggart and Alex Pall launched a formal fund, Mantis Venture Capital, invest out of a formal closed-end fund, and back companies in industries their celebrity prowess can’t always help in, like security startups and analytics platforms. In this session, Taggart and Pall will be joined by Dan Lorenc, the founder of Chainguard, to talk about how they are an asset to their B2B startups.
StrictlyVC @ Disrupt
This year, TechCrunch joined forces with StrictlyVC to create smaller, more intimate evenings for our readers. Already this year, we’ve hosted these nights in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and London. Now you can join us at TechCrunch Disrupt for a special StrictlyVC event, delivering exclusive, insider content while facilitating meaningful connections among leading investors, entrepreneurs and executives. Attendees can anticipate engaging discussions, thought-provoking insights and ample opportunities to forge new connections.
– Investor Pass required
Natalie Pan is an engineering leader turned Executive Coach and COO of Women Founders Bay, the largest female founders’ community in the Bay Area. Natalie built high-impact teams and over the last five years empowered hundreds of women in tech. Natalie now helps founders navigate the rocky early stages, supporting them through challenges so they can create legacy businesses. Passionate about empowering individuals to uncover and embrace their authentic expression, Natalie combines technical expertise with a commitment to personal growth. Through coaching, storytelling workshops, and masterminds, she provides founders with the clarity, resilience, and community they need to thrive.
Natalie's Sessions
Navigating the Funding Landscape for Women
Join us for an exciting panel discussion featuring three leading females in Tech from Founders Institute, Women Founders Bay and How Women Invest. This session will provide you with essential insights into the funding world, focusing on the latest trends, what investors look for, and effective strategies for women founders to stand out.
With over 19 years experience practicing law in the financial services regulatory landscape, Sheetal works with Treasury Prime’s bank and fintech clients on product development, commercial negotiations and to develop compliance solutions and support them on regulatory compliance matters. Prior to joining Treasury Prime, Sheetal led the Legal and Compliance teams at Synapse where she oversaw legal analysis on new product development and product construct, commercial and vendor agreements and regulatory compliance. Previously, she served as Senior Director of Compliance and Regulatory Counsel for PLS Financial Services, as Vice President of Legal & Compliance for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, and as part of the Securities and Commodities litigation group at Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP. Sheetal has a B.A. in South Asian languages from the University of Chicago, and a J.D. from the Case Western Reserve School of Law.
Sheetal's Sessions
BaaS in a Post-Synapse Meltdown World
The bankruptcy of banking-as-a-service (BaaS) fintech Synapse shows just how treacherous things are for the often-interdependent fintech world when one key player hits trouble. Synapse’s problems have hurt and taken down a number of other startups and affected millions of consumers all over the country. Many believe regulatory clarity is needed moving forward. One analyst says the case of Synapse underscores the need for fintech companies to maintain high operational and compliance standards. This panel looks at the potential impacts the Synapse collapse will have on the future of BaaS.
Helo Passos is a 2nd time Founder, Forbes 30U30 Brazil, MIT Innovator U35, and one of the 10 most influential people in blockchain in Brazil by the Brazil Crypto Report. Graduated in Management in Creative Economy, and founder and CEO of Trexx, a gaming Fintech
Heloisa's Sessions
Visa Everywhere Initiative: The Ultimate Fintech Pitch Competition
Fintech startups inspire—Visa enables. Join us at the Visa Emerging Innovators (VEI) program, where we celebrate the next generation of fintech pioneers. This year, we are thrilled to announce that we are doubling the prize to an incredible $100K! Visa has carefully selected five visionary startups from around the world, each poised to pitch their groundbreaking solutions to a distinguished panel of fintech industry leaders. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness the future of payments in action and discover how you can be part of the fintech revolution.
Chris is CEO of Agile and has more than 25 years of experience in the space industry working at the component, spacecraft and mission level in the US and Europe. Chris gained large organization experience through senior positions at Airbus, Moog and Redwire as well as startup experience successfully leading two Colorado-based startups through periods of high growth, commercialization and onto acquisition (ABSL Space Products by Enersys in 2011 and Roccor by Redwire in 2020). Originally from the UK, Chris became a naturalized citizen in 2016 and now lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife, two daughters and two badly behaved dogs. Chris holds a Bachelors in Mathematics from the University of Manchester, Masters degrees in Space Engineering and Control Engineering from Cranfield University and Imperial College respectively as well as an Executive MBA from the University of Colorado.
Chris's Sessions
Future of Space Operations Challenge
This open call pitch-off will present startups across robotics, autonomous systems, AI/ML, Vision Systems, Propulsion and Navigation. Five finalists will pitch to Aerospace judges and one winner will get access to expert lead feedback sessions with The Aerospace Corporation, government experts, and commercial space leadership.
Aleksandra Pedraszewska leads AI Safety operations at ElevenLabs – the most realistic AI audio tool for generating speech, voices and dubbing of content in 30+ languages, with over 1 million users (including TIME, HarperCollins, nvidia) and $1.1bn valuation. She is responsible for ensuring that ElevenLabs’ systems are developed, deployed, and used in a safe way, maximising audio AI’s transformative potential. Aleksandra has extensive operational experience, having directed a venture-backed deep tech company for 7 years, and holds an MPhil in Technology Policy and a BA from the University of Cambridge.
Aleksandra's Sessions
Navigating AI's Legal and Ethical Minefield
AI’s meteoric rise has created new ethical dilemmas and exacerbated old ones, while lawsuits drop left and right. This threatens both new and established AI companies, and the creators and workers whose labor feeds the models. A panel of experts in AI, copyright, and ethics take on this complex and fast-moving problem space.
Carl Pei is a prominent tech entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of OnePlus and the current CEO and co-founder of Nothing, a consumer technology company focused on minimalist design and innovative hardware products. Born in China and raised in Sweden, Pei has been recognized for his strategic thinking and consumer-focused approach to product development. Pei is known for his forward-thinking approach to product design, emphasizing the importance of user experience, community engagement, and transparency. His leadership at Nothing reflects his mission to challenge the status quo in consumer technology and push the boundaries of how hardware can blend seamlessly into people’s lives.
Carl's Sessions
Making Something of Nothing
Disrupting the top-heavy mobile industry once is hard enough. Carl Pei has done it twice. Following the success of OnePlus, Pei founded Nothing. The London-based hardware firm aims to make the stodgy world of smartphones fun again.
Architecting the Future: Building Hardware for an AI-Native World
AI-driven hardware is transforming enterprise operations. This panel discussion will address the complexities of building AI-native ecosystems, the role of generative AI in reshaping enterprise technology, and the practical implications for developing scalable AI solutions. Our moderator Lee Ott from HP’s AI Innovation team will be joined by Carl Pei (Nothing phone), Jerry Yue (Brain.ai) and Mark Solomon (Co-Founder, Stealth Startup), who will provide insights into the next generation of AI-powered hardware and its potential to drive business innovation.
Alex Peng is a Growth Engineer at SingleStore, specializing in product-led growth initiatives. With a background in computer science focused on AI, Alex is passionate about immersive human-computer interfaces and the transformative power of technology. Before joining SingleStore, he contributed to growth strategies at Meta and DevRev, where he honed his skills in product management. Alex has also taken on leadership roles at Stanford ASES, directing initiatives to inspire youth in tech. His diverse experiences across tech startups and established companies highlight his commitment to innovation and community engagement in the tech space.
Alexander's Sessions
Building Enterprise AI Apps with Multi-Agent RAG Systems (MARS)
Join SingleStore to explore a live Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) application that combines real-time streaming data with vast amounts of point-in-time data, achieving near-zero latency in AI interactions. We’ll discuss how Multi-Agent Retrieval-Augmented Generation Systems (MARS) can facilitate the development of effective real-time AI applications, utilizing AWS Bedrock and SingleStore. Gain valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities of building enterprise-grade AI, along with a real-life example of a customer support co-pilot that leverages real-time AI to enhance user experience. If you are a developer, architect, or business leader interested in implementing Enterprise AI applications using MARS architecture, don’t miss this session.
AB Periasamy is the co-founder and CEO of MinIO, an open source provider of high performance, object storage software. AB is one of the leading proponents and thinkers on the subject of open source software – articulating the difference between the philosophy and business model and the future of AI infrastructure. In addition to this role, AB is an active investor and advisor to a wide range of technology companies, from H2O.ai and Manetu where he serves on the board to advisor or investor roles with Humio, Isovalent, Starburst, Yugabyte, Tetrate, Postman, Storj, Procurify, and Helpshift. AB holds a Computer Science Engineering degree from Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India.
Anand Babu (AB)'s Sessions
The Age of Technical Engineering Founders: How they are Driving AI Innovation
In the evolving AI landscape, innovation is being powered by solutions to deeply technical problems that require leaders to take on a much more hands-on, technical approach. We have moved away from the business founder/CEOs of the past and into a new age where engineering-founders are increasingly more common. This panel, composed of leaders from Honeycomb, MinIO, Atlan and Yugabyte will discuss why engineering skills are critical for the modern leader’s role. They will share specific examples of important skill sets, and how founders can position themselves for long-term success as technology leaders in the future.
Rick Prostko leads the direct investing program for Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG) in North America. Rick joined TVG in 2021, bringing nearly two decades of direct venture capital and growth equity investment experience from institutional and strategic funds. Most recently, Rick served as a Managing Director at Comcast Ventures. Prior to that, he held investment roles at VantagePoint and Summit Partners. Rick manages the North American investment team from our offices in San Francisco, coordinating investment execution and supporting collaboration between TVG’s portfolio and the broader set of asset classes at OTPP. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University.
Rick's Sessions
StrictlyVC @ Disrupt
This year, TechCrunch joined forces with StrictlyVC to create smaller, more intimate evenings for our readers. Already this year, we’ve hosted these nights in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and London. Now you can join us at TechCrunch Disrupt for a special StrictlyVC event, delivering exclusive, insider content while facilitating meaningful connections among leading investors, entrepreneurs and executives. Attendees can anticipate engaging discussions, thought-provoking insights and ample opportunities to forge new connections.
– Investor Pass required
Iliana Quiñonez, Director of North America Startups Customer Engineering, leads a team dedicated to accelerating startups’ success through cloud technology. She focuses on empowering her team to deliver innovative solutions for a wide range of clients, from early-stage startups to IPO-bound companies. With over 25 years of industry experience, including advisory roles with startups, accelerators, and VCs, Iliana emphasizes customer empathy, technical leadership, and creative thinking to build high-performing teams. Her ability to foster meaningful connections across ecosystems has been pivotal in establishing her team as a trusted partner in the North American startup ecosystem
Iliana's Sessions
Beyond the Hype: Building AI that Means Business
Join Iliana Quiñonez, Director of North America Startups Customer Engineering, in a thought-provoking conversation with a visionary founder navigating the frontier of AI. Together, they’ll explore the pivotal growth milestones that define successful startups. This insightful discussion will uncover the transformative potential and power of AI, offering valuable insights for leaders looking to stay at the forefront of the curve.
Renata is a venture capitalist, futurist, and co-founder of Renegade Partners. Over the past 15 years, she has invested in founding teams transforming the trajectory of humanity through technology. Prior to launching Renegade with Roseanne Wincek in 2020, Renata specialized in early-stage deep technology investments as a Partner at Lux Capital. She previously served as General Partner at Felicis Ventures, where she worked closely with companies unlocking new markets and business models, including Dollar Shave Club ($1B acquisition by Unilever), Bonobos (acquired by Walmart), Planet (micro satellites), and Cruise Automation ($1B acquisition by GM). Before becoming a venture capitalist, Renata helped manage Stanford University’s endowment, investing in both private equity and venture capital funds. She earned her MBA and LL.M (Master of Law in Law, Science, and Technology) degrees from Stanford University, and her JD law degree from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. She is a CFA charterholder. Renata is also a three-time state champion black belt in karate, Bossa Nova guitar player, and Brazilian immigrant.
Renata's Sessions
What You Need to Raise a Series A (and Beyond) Today
If you aren’t building the next foundation model AI company, raising a Series A today is likely harder than it has been in some time. So, to help founders building at the Seed-stage prepare for their first lettered-round, we’ve rounded up investors to explain what they – and their firms – are looking for in their next Series A deals.
Haseeb is Managing Partner at Dragonfly and is a longtime technology-focused crypto investor. Haseeb was previously a General Partner at Metastable Capital (now acquired by Dragonfly). Prior, Haseeb founded a stablecoin startup, was a blockchain engineer at Earn.com (acquired by Coinbase), an anti-fraud engineer at Airbnb, and was previously a top 10 globally ranked professional poker player. He has taught a class on web3 Entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley and is widely recognized for his technical expertise in crypto.
Haseeb's Sessions
Finding the Consensus of Crypto VC
In the crypto space, it’s time to scale. All signs point toward a period of growth with high market prices, a more favorable regulatory landscape and a large ecosystem of scaling solutions that work. So let’s talk with investors who have backed some of the most influential protocols, exchanges and decentralized apps. What’s the next big thing and what has been the biggest surprise in their investment portfolio?
Jack is the Head of Communications at Aetherflux, a new space solar company started by Robinhood’s co-founder. He previously led Communications at OpenStore, and Robinhood for over 6 years before that. Jack is also an angel investor and advises founders on communications and marketing.
Jack's Sessions
Secrets to Actually Being Good at Startup PR in 2024
The communications and PR landscape has dramatically shifted in recent years: new mediums (Substack, podcasts) have spiked in influence and popularity, fueling new strategies (“going direct”) for shaping and amplifying public perceptions — all while an increasingly critical media landscape continues to hold all types of industry stakeholders accountable. How can early and growing companies responsibly navigate these changes *and* be successful in building an inspiring brand? This roundtable will dissect the growing breadth and importance of different comms functions: the under-appreciated, consequential nature of internal comms, the increasingly indispensable need for owned channels, the pros and cons of political takes amidst an election year, and how to actually get meaningful press coverage for a company. The tech communications industry has arguably never been more dynamic.
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
The Age of Technical Engineering Founders: How they are Driving AI Innovation
In the evolving AI landscape, innovation is being powered by solutions to deeply technical problems that require leaders to take on a much more hands-on, technical approach. We have moved away from the business founder/CEOs of the past and into a new age where engineering-founders are increasingly more common. This panel, composed of leaders from Honeycomb, MinIO, Atlan and Yugabyte will discuss why engineering skills are critical for the modern leader’s role. They will share specific examples of important skill sets, and how founders can position themselves for long-term success as technology leaders in the future.
Naveen Rao, PhD is the Vice President of Generative AI at Databricks and a recognized leader in the generative AI field. Naveen was formerly the CEO and co-founder of MosaicML, an AI company acquired by Databricks in 2023 that enables organizations to develop state-of-the-art large AI models with their own data. Before founding MosaicML, Naveen was the CEO and co-founder of Nervana Systems, the first hardware startup for modern deep learning. After Nervana was acquired by Intel Corporation in 2016, Naveen became Intel’s Head of AI and led Intel’s AI program, which he then grew into its own division. Prior to Nervana, Naveen held various AI research, design, and architecture roles. He holds a PhD in Computational Neuroscience from Brown University and a BSEE in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Duke University.
Naveen's Sessions
When to Cash Out, When to Keep Fighting
Startup founders are often presented with the chance to sell their companies before they reach full maturity. In today’s world with IPOs often delayed past historical norms, it may be tempting for founders to look for a parent company for their startups. But when does it make sense to sell, when should a founder keep blazing their own path?
Josh Reeves is the CEO and co-founder of Gusto, helping 500,000 companies nationwide with payroll, health insurance, compliance, employee onboarding, HR, retirement savings, and more. By combining the power of AI with more than a decade of experience supporting small businesses, Gusto exists to power builders – giving them the capabilities, confidence, and technology to start, hire, pay, and grow. Josh leads the company on its mission to grow the small business economy with technology and heart, so that anyone can turn ambition into action, build a meaningful business on their own terms, and be successful doing it.
Josh's Sessions
Future of Work
Software is eating the world, and companies are hiring global talent more frequently than ever. They want to be able to hire talent in foreign countries and retain employees who want to move abroad. That’s why a new wave of global HR startups are helping companies hire people all around the world with local contracts. But can they replace local subsidiaries?
Corinne partners with early-stage founders who are creating data and AI products at the infrastructure and application layers. She works with companies like Adept, Baseten, Braintrust, Common Room, Opal, and WarpStream. Corinne built Greylock’s Edge program, which is a company-building program where we seek out promising founders and ideas at the earliest stages, and work with them to get those ideas off the ground. She also launched Greylock’s Scout program, through which we invite top angel investors to form a special relationship with Greylock.
Corinne's Sessions
What You Need to Raise a Series A (and Beyond) Today
If you aren’t building the next foundation model AI company, raising a Series A today is likely harder than it has been in some time. So, to help founders building at the Seed-stage prepare for their first lettered-round, we’ve rounded up investors to explain what they – and their firms – are looking for in their next Series A deals.
The 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.
Elliott Robinson is a Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners where he leads the growth investment practice and is primarily focused on cloud software investments. He is currently a board member for Coactive AI, Databook, Hinge Health, Hyperscience, Imply Data, Netlify and Render.
Elliott's Sessions
How to Raise in 2025 if You’ve Taken a Flat, Down, or Extension Round
Old ideas like you need $100 million worth of trailing revenue to go public, and $1 million worth of annual recurring revenue to raise a Series A are so old that they are practically perched atop Abe Lincoln’s head. In today’s market, what a startup needs to raise depends on its sector, founder profile, and, yes, momentum. So what do you need to raise that Series A?
Meredith Roemer is the Interim Head of North America for Grow with SAP for scale-ups and also serves as the Global Head of Business Development and Sales for the same initiative. With a focus on scaling businesses, Meredith plays a pivotal role in driving SAP’s growth strategy, particularly in the cloud ERP sector. Her leadership is instrumental in helping fast-growing companies adopt comprehensive SAP solutions, enhancing their sales processes, and operational efficiencies. Meredith’s expertise lies in leveraging innovative technologies to optimize business outcomes and foster sustainable growth. Her dual role underscores her commitment to expanding SAP’s market presence and delivering value to scale-up enterprises worldwide.
Meredith's Sessions
Visionary Companies Embrace Innovation to Thrive in the Fast-Paced Economy
In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, forward-thinking companies are leveraging innovation and modernization to stay competitive. By embracing new tools, trends, and strategies, they position themselves to lead in the fast-paced global economy, setting new benchmarks for efficiency, customer engagement, and sustainable growth. Join this session to learn how these visionary organizations are leveraging technological advancements to compete in today’s market and driving transformative changes across industries.
Visionary Companies Embrace Innovation to Thrive in the Fast-Paced Economy (encore)
In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, forward-thinking companies are leveraging innovation and modernization to stay competitive. By embracing new tools, trends, and strategies, they position themselves to lead in the fast-paced global economy, setting new benchmarks for efficiency, customer engagement, and sustainable growth. Join this session to learn how these visionary organizations are leveraging technological advancements to compete in today’s market and driving transformative changes across industries.
Andrew Roettger is the founder and director of the Catalyst Group of companies, a diverse conglomerate spanning finance, investment, energy, technology, and telecommunications. As the Founder and CEO of Catalyst Financial, Inc., a tax and financial consultancy based in San Francisco and New York with offices in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and London, he has orchestrated several successful IPOs, ICOs, M&A deals, and other complex financial transactions. He serves as Managing Director of the Catalyst Investment Fund, an international public and private investment firm headquartered in San Francisco, Los Altos, and New York, overseeing assets under management of $1.2 billion. Additionally, he leads the Catalyst Opportunity Fund Zone, a Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund investing across the United States, and Catalyst Energy Partners, a renewable energy and transition company with a unique investment strategy based in San Francisco and Dallas. As Founder and Chairman of Catalyst Networks Inc., Andrew has expanded international broadband services across the southern United States, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. He also founded Catalyst Crypto Clearing, producing securitized structured products, clearing derivatives, and offering security tokens—all compliant with SEC and CFTC regulations. Andrew is an investor and director at ProFinda Ltd. (London), a resource allocation and skills ontology platform, and FortfID (Mountain View), a fintech data privacy platform utilizing MIT’s OPAL technology to ensure financial data privacy. A founding member of the London International Financial Futures Exchange and the European Options Exchange, he consulted for the European Systemic Risk Board during the European Debt Crisis. He has been a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, the CBOE, and the Pacific Stock Exchange. Mr. Roettger attended the Executive MBA program at the MIT Sloan School of Management, studied at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and holds a Bachelor of Science from the Boston University Marine Program.
Andrew's Sessions
Powering Ahead: The Future of Energy & Infrastructure
Join us for ‘Powering Ahead: The Future of Energy & Infrastructure’ featuring Troy Helming, a visionary leader in renewable energy and successful entrepreneur. In our breakout session, we’ll dive into the latest innovations shaping the energy sector, including advancements in renewable technologies, grid modernization, and sustainable infrastructure development. We’ll also share best practices for building a startup, offering practical advice drawn from Troy’s experiences. Attendees will gain insights into how these trends are transforming the way we produce, distribute, and consume energy, and how to capitalize on emerging opportunities. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from an industry expert about the challenges and prospects that lie ahead in the quest for a cleaner, more efficient energy future.
Even establishes True Anomaly’s strategic objectives and aligns resources for their execution. Prior to co-founding True Anomaly, Even served as an Air Force officer, leading interdisciplinary teams of space operators, scientists, and engineers to develop and evaluate the performance of military systems and tactics designed to protect U.S. and allied space assets. Even is the author of six seminal texts that serve as foundational doctrine and training for U.S. military space operations. He was a major contributing author of the U.S. Space Force’s inaugural Spacepower: Doctrine for Space Forces. He has held leadership positions in space system developmental and operational test, training, spacecraft operations, and joint fires. In these roles, he provided key insights into the practices needed to successfully deploy space security satellites and supporting infrastructure. Even was also a Service Chiefs Fellow at DARPA and a rendezvous and proximity operations intern with NASA’s Johnson Space Center. He graduated with honors from Virginia Military Institute and holds an M.A. from The University of Chicago in Social Sciences.
Even's Sessions
Startups in Dual-use
Government and defense are relying more and more on commercial services, but startups face a real challenge entering this highly regulated and formal side of the industry. How can young, lean companies compete for contracts and attention with primes and more established organizations – and how can investors help?
Jaime is a seasoned entrepreneur hailing from Colombia, boasting a remarkable 17-year journey in the dynamic world of startups. With an impressive track record of building 7 ventures, he has achieved an extraordinary trifecta of 3 major exits, collectively valued at over US$200 million. Originally steeped in a technical background, Jaime assumed pivotal leadership roles, including CTO positions, in his earlier startups. In his latest and current Southeast Asia-based venture, Quqo, he helms the position of CEO.
Jaime's Sessions
Visa Everywhere Initiative: The Ultimate Fintech Pitch Competition
Fintech startups inspire—Visa enables. Join us at the Visa Emerging Innovators (VEI) program, where we celebrate the next generation of fintech pioneers. This year, we are thrilled to announce that we are doubling the prize to an incredible $100K! Visa has carefully selected five visionary startups from around the world, each poised to pitch their groundbreaking solutions to a distinguished panel of fintech industry leaders. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness the future of payments in action and discover how you can be part of the fintech revolution.
Colonel (Ret.) Lee Rosen served over 23 years with the US Air Force where he was a commander, space operator, engineer and DoD certified acquisition officer, including tours at the Pentagon, National Reconnaissance Office and Air Force Space Command. As a former SpaceX VP of Mission and Launch Ops, and Customer Operations & Integration with more than 200 space launch missions completed successfully, Lee brings extensive experience with operations, engineering, program management and government relations. During his 10+ years at SpaceX, he led the build of 3 Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch pads, was responsible for operations & mission management of all military, civil and commercial missions, and the team that flew cargo & crew Dragon spacecraft, as well as Astronaut training. In 2022 he co-founded ThinkOrbital where he serves as President & Chief Executive Officer building large, scalable, affordable, autonomously assembled infrastructure and tools in space to ignite the new space economy and provide Space Domain Awareness. Lee’s been married for 30+ years, has 2 lovely daughters, and is an avid runner, cyclist, surfer, outdoorsman and brewer.
Lee's Sessions
Future of Space Operations Challenge
This open call pitch-off will present startups across robotics, autonomous systems, AI/ML, Vision Systems, Propulsion and Navigation. Five finalists will pitch to Aerospace judges and one winner will get access to expert lead feedback sessions with The Aerospace Corporation, government experts, and commercial space leadership.
Outside of work, Jon plays soccer in NYC intramural leagues, enjoys reading, struggles to learn guitar, and is an unabashed Philadelphia sports fan.
Jonathan's Sessions
The 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.
As Chief Operations and Technology Officer, Kirsty oversees Thomson Reuters drive for a superior customer and employee experience, leveraging the company’s engineering, technology, operations, procurement, and real estate teams as well as our Print Business. Since joining Thomson Reuters, in 2020, Kirsty led our Change program, leading to increased revenue and margins and a much-improved customer experience, introducing digital, improving in-product experience and our support processes. Prior to joining Thomson Reuters, Kirsty was Global Head of Operations at HSBC, where she led a transformation of the bank’s technology, processes and innovation capability, including developing industry-first machine learning solutions for payment screening and scaling robotics to speed up customer processes and improve sustainability. She has also held roles at Credit Suisse, driving change across Finance, Technology and Operations, and at Deloitte as a consulting partner.
Kirsty's Sessions
Speeding Ahead: Lessons for the GenAI Evolution
GenAI has super charged the speed of change. Companies around the world, whether they are startups or global enterprises, are struggling with the question of how they can move faster and take advantage of the incredible opportunities this technology offers. This discussion outlines how Thomson Reuters transformed itself from a content company into a nimble, engineering-focused technology company that now releases updates to more than 85% of its products weekly rather than quarterly – and how it was able to launch seven new generative AI product releases in the past year. This session will discuss the lessons learned, both the successes and failures, of Thomson Reuters evolution to become a leader in the commercialization of GenAI solutions.
I’m an investment partner at defy. As a former founder, operator, and scaler from startup creation through IPO, I understand and deeply appreciate all of the ups and downs along the entrepreneurial journey. I thrive at the intersection of strategy, product, growth and analytics, with an emphasis on how we lead and empower our people to drive the best outcomes. I love working in support of the incredible entrepreneurs who make this happen, defying all reasonable expectations to create a new reality from unique insight and vision. Before joining defy, I spent more than 6 years scaling Eventbrite from a startup into the world’s largest event technology platform and marketplace for live experiences. As Eventbrite’s first VP of Growth, CMO and VP/GM of the company’s largest revenue segment, I helped to scale the business from a small startup to millions of users, $300M in revenue, and through our IPO (NYSE: EB) with a nearly $3B market cap. To stay close to the early-stage as Eventbrite outgrew its startup roots, I spent years advising and investing in dozens of startups independently and through First Round Capital’s Angel Track & Expert Network, Sequoia Capital’s Scout program, and YC’s Growth Council. Prior to Eventbrite I co-founded SkillSlate, a VC-backed local services marketplace, building the business through our acquisition by TaskRabbit (later acquired by IKEA). I joined Yahoo! in its first ten years, helping to build several of Yahoo!’s early businesses as the company’s youngest Product Manager. I started my first business from my USC dorm room—an early online ticket brokerage company called EventTicketsNow. At USC, I studied entrepreneurship and marketing and played for USC’s lacrosse team as two-time team captain and president, defensive MVP, and two-time recipient of the team’s “Trojan of the Year” award for leadership and positive impact on the overall program. I was also honored to play for Team USA West, representing our country in the 2004 International Games. Afterwards, I earned my MBA in finance and general management from NYU’s Stern School of Business. As a fourth-generation San Franciscan, I love building our life here with my wife Kelly, our children Chase, Charlie, Brooks and Taylor and our dog Rosie. On nights and weekends, you’ll find me coaching our kids’ sports, enjoying good food and red wine, snowboarding, playing guitar, or grinding through CrossFit workouts. One truism I’ve found holds over time: it’s all about the people. I’m truly honored to be part of this special defy team, and to be a coach, confidant, and partner to a phenomenal group of entrepreneurs.
Brian's Sessions
Successfully Raising Your Seed or Series A in 2024
In today’s fundraising environment, securing seed or Series A funding requires a solid strategy, a compelling pitch, and a deep understanding of current market dynamics. This session from two former founders turned VCs will provide startup founders with actionable insights on what investors are looking for in 2024, from market fit to financial metrics, and guide you toward raising capital successfully.
Successfully Raising Your Seed or Series A in 2024 (encore)
In today’s fundraising environment, securing seed or Series A funding requires a solid strategy, a compelling pitch, and a deep understanding of current market dynamics. This session from two former founders turned VCs will provide startup founders with actionable insights on what investors are looking for in 2024, from market fit to financial metrics, and guide you toward raising capital successfully.
Pamela San Martín is a member of Meta’s Oversight Board, which reviews content policy decisions for Facebook, Instagram and Threads. She is lawyer from Mexico City who has dedicated her career to advancing human rights, freedom of expression and democratic institutions. Between 2014 and 2020, she served as one of 11 Electoral Councilors at Mexico’s National Electoral Institute – the highest position in the country’s electoral management body. There, she worked on organizing peaceful elections and managing key issues of campaign regulation and freedom of speech and information. As Electoral Councilor, she played a central role in developing policies to guarantee minority rights in democratic processes including trans and disability rights and quotas for indigenous people. She has also sat on the editorial board of one of Mexico’s most widely circulated newspapers. Prior to her time at the Electoral Institute, San Martin worked at Mexico City’s Human Rights Commission for almost a decade. She is currently an international consultant on elections, democracy, and human rights, particularly in countries facing polarization and violence, and has participated as an expert in international observation missions.
Pamela's Sessions
How Generative AI is Flooding the Web with Disinformation
As generative AI tools become more widely available – and become cheaper, or even free, to use – they’re being abused by an array of actors, including state actors, to create deepfakes and sow disinformation online. In this session, we’ll hear from experts about the types of deepfakes now circulating the web and some possible ways to combat the threat.
Prukalpa Sankar is the Co-founder of Atlan. Atlan is a modern data collaboration workspace (like Github for engineering or Figma for design). By acting as a control plane for data assets ranging from tables and dashboards to models & code, Atlan enables teams to create a single source of truth for all their data assets, and collaborate across the modern data stack through deep integrations with tools like Slack, BI tools, data science tools and more. A pioneer in the space, Atlan was recognized as the top right Leader in Forrester’s most recent Wave for Enterprise Data Catalogs for Data Ops. Atlan recently raised a $105M Series C investment round as revenues ballooned more than 7x in the last 2 years. Prukalpa previously co-founded SocialCops, a world leading data for good company (New York Times Global Visionary, World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer). SocialCops is behind landmark data projects including India’s National Data Platform and SDGs global monitoring in collaboration with the United Nations.
Prukalpa's Sessions
The Age of Technical Engineering Founders: How they are Driving AI Innovation
In the evolving AI landscape, innovation is being powered by solutions to deeply technical problems that require leaders to take on a much more hands-on, technical approach. We have moved away from the business founder/CEOs of the past and into a new age where engineering-founders are increasingly more common. This panel, composed of leaders from Honeycomb, MinIO, Atlan and Yugabyte will discuss why engineering skills are critical for the modern leader’s role. They will share specific examples of important skill sets, and how founders can position themselves for long-term success as technology leaders in the future.
Gayatri Sarkar is the owner of Advaita Capital, one of the few/only growth VC fund in the US owned by a woman-POC. We are investing in generative AI, deep tech and decarbonization advancing the human race. Our checks are $10-50M+ and it can go $100M+ for co-invetsment startegies, and we have invested in top names like Stripe, Epic Games, Neuralink, Cohere and other top generative ai companies as well. Awarded Global Leader under 40 for championing $100B+ combined capital in gender advocacy through She-VC podcast. Former Federal Reserve Bank Manager- managed US Treasury’s assets for the US Military/ Navy, including managing big banks like JPM, PNC, G&D, and VISA. Founder of a consulting firm where US Treasury was first client. Founder of career networking tech startup, built at Harvard i-lab when Gayatri was a Harvard graduate student. Started her career as a data architect at HP, IBM, Goldman Sachs. Former GP of a TMT fund (acquired). Physics Honors, Math minor. Economics and Finance Major at Harvard. She completed 6years end of term as Board of Directors of Harvard Kennedy School NEA. She is also a crown patron of Princess Grace Foundation, USA, now Under The High Patronage of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, Princess’s Grace’s son and ruling Prince of Monaco, is dedicated to the enduring legacy of his mother and the important mission of excellence in the arts. Advaita Capital is also official nominator of Earthshot Prize, created by Prince William Foundation, which grants 1M pounds to top 5 category climate tech startups through annual prize. Bloomberg media trained for their new voice program, to be featured as Expert guest in Bloomberg TV, Media, Podcast and Print sections of Bloomberg. About Advaita Capital: We are a US based deeptech growth equity VC firm, investing in Series C/D with a strategy in AI, ML, chip/silicon, robotics, energy transition/decarbonization. We are a team of Harvard and MIT PhDs, Yale and Wharton engineers, the former COO of Invest Corp, Goldman Sachs, Federal Reserve Bank managing US Treasury’s tech assets for US military and US navy, and Google Deepmind research scientists.
Gayatri's Sessions
Is LLM the Future to AGI? Where VCs Can Look for Meaningful Investments?
Detailed discussion on LLM, future of AI is human, how cognitive science and reasoning will play a big role in finding the right founders for strong ROI. What is the role for VC funds, especially growth equity to scale such frontier tech?
Is LLM the Future to AGI? Where VCs Can Look for Meaningful Investments? (encore)
Detailed discussion on LLM, future of AI is human, how cognitive science and reasoning will play a big role in finding the right founders for strong ROI. What is the role for VC funds, especially growth equity to scale such frontier tech?
Andrew Schoen joined NEA in 2014 and is currently a Partner on the Technology Investing Team focused on AI/ML, fintech, frontier tech, infrastructure software, technically differentiated SaaS and security. Andrew serves on the Board of Directors for Aigen, Clarifai, Dandelion, Super, ThreatQ, and Wispr; he also works closely with several other NEA portfolio companies, and plays an integral role in the firm’s Asia investing practice. Prior to NEA, he was a member of Blackstone’s M&A Group. Prior to Blackstone, he founded Flicstart, a digital media startup that provided on-demand movie screenings. Andrew serves on the Cornell University Council, the Advisory Council for Entrepreneurship at Cornell, and is President Emeritus of the Cornell Venture Capital Club. He earned his master’s degree as a Schwarzman Scholar and his bachelor’s degree in economics and science of earth systems in engineering at Cornell.
Andrew's Sessions
The 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.
Phil Schwarz is a Partner at Corazon Capital, an early stage venture fund based in Chicago and Los Angeles. Phil leads investments in early stage technology companies and works closely with Corazon’s portfolio, including serving on a variety of Boards of Directors. Phil and Corazon Capital also partnered with Erin & Sara Foster to support their creation of Oversubscribed Ventures, an early stage venture fund focused on consumer-touching technology and product companies. The two firms enjoy a close working relationship and Phil serves as an advisor to Oversubscribed as well as on its Investment Committee. From 2014-2016, Phil served as Chief Marketing Officer of Tinder, overseeing the company’s brand, growth and retention marketing efforts worldwide to drive a period of hypergrowth and global expansion, including through the IPO of Match Group (NASDAQ: MTCH) in late 2015. Phil’s prior roles include Vice President of Growth Initiatives at Match Group as well as Executive Director at Kaplan and Kaplan Ventures, where Phil co-founded the Kaplan/Techstars EdTech Accelerator, whose graduates have raised more than $155 million in funding. Phil also previously served as an Associate Director at UBS Investment Bank, and prior to that led numerous technology product development efforts for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Vitria Technology and BP Amoco, and served as Management Consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Phil lectures periodically on Startup Marketing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he also earned his MBA with honors. Phil also earned a Bachelor of Business Administration, cum laude, from Ohio University’s College of Business.
Phil's Sessions
Consumer, Culture, and Creators with Erin and Sara Foster
Two of the industry’s most famous sisters sit down alongside business partner Phil Schwarz to talk about consumer investing, culture curation, and what it means to be a creator in the modern age.
Mike Seckler is the President & CEO of Justworks. His tenure at Justworks began in 2015 as its first independent board member. After four and a half years serving in this capacity, he transitioned from the Board and joined the company as its first Chief Operating Officer in 2019. In June 2021, the Board promoted Mike to serve as President & COO and later to President & CEO in November 2022. Before getting involved with Justworks, Mike co-founded Employease in 1996, an HR SaaS company he built for over a decade before its acquisition by ADP. After serving as a division vice president at ADP, he co-founded Euclidean Technologies, an investment management firm specializing in machine learning and long-term equity investing. Mike holds a dual Bachelor’s Degree in Geology and History from Williams College. He lives in New York City with his wife and three daughters.
Mike's Sessions
How to Build and Run Your Board
Join Justworks’ CEO, Mike Seckler, for a discussion on how to build and run a high-performing board of directors. For many founders, board meetings can feel like a massive suck of time, focus, and resources. What if your board gave you energy instead? As a founder, you have the opportunity to set a foundation and approach that leads to more productive board conversations that make you and your company better. Participants will leave this session with multiple ideas for building a high-performing board from Mike’s experience as a two-time founder, board member, and from his own journey at Justworks (early investor/board member to CEO).
How to Build & Run Your Board (encore)
Join Justworks’ CEO, Mike Seckler, for a discussion on how to build and run a high-performing board of directors. For many founders, board meetings can feel like a massive suck of time, focus, and resources. What if your board gave you energy instead? As a founder, you have the opportunity to set a foundation and approach that leads to more productive board conversations that make you and your company better. Participants will leave this session with multiple ideas for building a high-performing board from Mike’s experience as a two-time founder, board member, and from his own journey at Justworks (early investor/board member to CEO).
Rudina Seseri is Founder and Managing Partner of Glasswing Ventures, leading the firm’s investments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled enterprise software as a service (SaaS), cloud, Information Technology (IT) software, and vertical markets. Rudina has led investments and/or served on the Board of Directors of Reprise, Verusen, ChaosSearch, Basetwo, Inrupt, FeatureByte, Plannuh (acquired by Planful), Zylotech (acquired by Terminus), Celtra (acquired by STG), CrowdTwist (acquired by Oracle), and Navigant Consulting (acquired by Veritas), among others. Rudina has 19 years of investing and operational experience in high-growth AI and Frontier Technology companies. Before venture capital, She was a Senior Manager in the Corporate Development Group at Microsoft Corporation, where she led several successful transactions and investments. Rudina was appointed as an Executive Fellow within the faculty and staff at Harvard Business School (HBS) following four consecutive years of being chosen by the Dean of HBS to serve as the Entrepreneur-In-Residence for the Business School. Rudina was honored as a member of the inaugural group of Rock Venture Capital Partners at HBS and appointed to the Board of Directors of the New England Venture Capital Association. Rudina serves on the boards of M&T Bank and MSC Industrial Supply and is a member of the Governor of Massachusetts’ Artificial Intelligence Strategic Task Force. Recognized by Business Insider as a 2024 Top Woman Early-Stage Investor and one of the most important VCs in Boston, she has also been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top 100 Women Entrepreneurs and Venture Capital Journal’s Women of Influence. Rudina graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Economics and International Relations and holds an MBA from HBS.
Rudina's Sessions
From Seed to Success: What VCs Want to See from Early Stage Founders
Every startup begins with a founder with a germ of an idea. How does it mature into an actual business? Venture capitalists have to sort through pitches every day to find the gems that will become successful companies. We’ll speak to a trio of investors to find out what they look for in early stage companies.
How to Stand Out Amongst the AI Wave: Strategies for Success in Enterprise Sales
Companies worldwide are actively investing in AI deployments across a wide range of use cases, and thousands of startups have emerged to fill these needs. This breakout session features Rudina Seseri, Founder and Managing Partner of Glasswing Ventures, and Marc Boroditsky, President of Revenue at Cloudflare, who explore how AI has created a new paradigm shift in selling to enterprises, what the largest companies are using as criteria when considering their purchases, and how to avoid false indications of interest. Attendees will learn how to optimize scarce time and resources to build a truly valuable and viable product.
Megs Shah, Founder and CEO of The Parasol Cooperative, leads a nonprofit dedicated to building #Tech2Protect and empowering organizations and survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, and gender-based violence. With over 20 years of experience in technology, data, analytics, and AI, Megs blends her professional expertise from working at various Fortune 100 companies with a personal mission as a survivor. Under her leadership, Parasol has launched trauma-informed, tech-driven solutions like SafeConnect and Ruth, an AI tool that combats tech-enabled abuse, ensuring a safety-first mindset in every product. Recognized for her innovative approach to integrating AI and social justice, Megs has been featured by UN Women, Forbes, and Euronews. She is a sought-after speaker known for her insights on AI ethics, online safety, and data privacy as well as survivor-centered technology design. Megs frequently advises tech startups on building secure, ethical products and speaks at conferences on how tech can protect vulnerable populations. As an expert in both technology and social impact, Megs is booked for speaking engagements, panel discussions, and media inquiries. In addition to running Parasol Cooperative, Megs also serves as the Global Head of Data and Analytics Capability for Commercial at CSL, applying her skills in data, analytics, and AI strategy to the biotechnology sector.
Megs's Sessions
Safety, Trust, and Profit: Anticipating Misuse to Build Safer Products and Attract Investment
In today’s startup world, one data breach or safety failure can destroy your reputation and growth. For founders, the challenge is how to scale while ensuring user safety, privacy, and security, all within budget. VCs are focusing on startups with strong ESG practices, prioritizing those that address safety early. Failing to comply with data laws, such as COPPA, can result in penalties up to $170 million.
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
Pitch Deck Teardown
An articulate, alluring pitch presentation is a big part of successfully fundraising, and yet it’s relatively uncommon for founders to get candid feedback on how they communicated the problem, their solution, and their path to success. During the Pitch Deck Teardown, VCs will offer their live feedback on decks submitted by audience members.
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
Stablecoins: The Future of Fintech
Why are stablecoins beginning to take off as a payments product? What are the most interesting examples and use cases? What technology will they replace – and where do they go from here?
Dane is a Senior Solutions Architect at HackerOne, who applies his vast experience from bug bounty hunting to help organizations manage AI-focused bug bounty engagements. Dedicated to the safety and security of disruptive technologies, Dane guides customers through enhancing their security practices across various industries. His role at HackerOne involves strategic oversight and the practical application of security solutions, ensuring the robust and safe deployment of emerging technologies.
Dane's Sessions
Is Your AI Deployment an Advantage or an Embarrassment? Here’s How to Know
Rushed AI deployments can translate to embarrassing incidents, reputational damage, and financial loss. Brands like Adobe, Snap, and Anthropic have joined a growing list of companies embracing AI red teaming to deploy AI responsibly and find emerging threats before bad actors. HackerOne will share tales from the front lines of AI safety and security, so you know how to avoid AI embarrassments — from the circumvention of AI guardrails to harmful content generation. You’ll learn how top companies use AI red teaming and actionable ways to reduce AI risk that extend your AI advantage.
Will Shulman is a VP of Product at MongoDB. With close to 30 years of technology and entrepreneurial experience, Will has built innovative software platforms and products for a number of respected companies. Prior to MongoDB, he co-founded and served as the CEO of mLab, a cloud database service for MongoDB, which was later acquired by MongoDB. His extensive experience includes founding Merced Systems, where he held key roles as CTO and Chief Architect, and serving as Interim CTO and VP of Engineering at eMag Solutions. William also held leadership positions at BabyCenter and began his career as a software engineer at Network Computer Inc. A Stanford University graduate with a degree in Computer Science, William brings a wealth of technical expertise and visionary leadership to the field of database technologies.
Will's Sessions
The Future of AI's Data Infrastructure: Unlocking the Power of Gen AI with MongoDB and Capgemini
The next generation of business applications will have AI as a user – powering AI agents for customer services, recommendations for online shoppers, anomaly detection for business analysts, etc. This means that businesses must re-architect their applications to be AI-native. To effectively deploy and leverage AI in these applications, businesses need to optimize for data accuracy and bring together structured and unstructured data. This talk will cover how Capgemini and MongoDB are helping accelerate this next generation of data-powered applications.
Mikey Shulman is the cofounder and CEO of Suno, the leading music AI company. Prior to founding Suno Mikey was the first machine learning engineer and head of machine learning at Kensho technologies, which was acquired by S&P Global for over $500 million. Mikey received a Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics from Columbia University and a PhD in Physics from Harvard university. In his spare time Mikey is a lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and an aspiring mediocre musician and athlete.
Michael's Sessions
But is it Art? Generative AI's Evolving Role in Music and Video Production
Generative AI is increasingly capable of creating video, music, and other media on demand. But who actually wants it, and why? This panel of AI startups will discuss the growing markets for generative media, and how they can be served without harming or displacing the artists they claim to empower.
Harpinder (Harpi) is a partner at Innovation Endeavors and an experienced entrepreneur. He has spent nearly two decades building products for emerging industries at the intersection of mobile, data, and deep tech. He founded two technology companies that were successfully acquired — both of which he co-founded with Innovation Endeavors Partner, Scott Brady. Harpi led investments in Panther, a threat detection and response platform powered by a highly scalable security data lake and detection-as-code; and Gatik, which provides self-driving solutions for urban logistics. Prior to joining Innovation Endeavors, Harpi was co-founder and CEO at Slice Technologies (acquired by Rakuten), a data and analytics company that provides market insights about eCommerce to the world’s largest consumer brands. He previously co-founded FiberTower (acquired by First Avenue Networks), the largest independent provider of backhaul to wireless carriers. Harpi earned a BS in computer science at the IIT-BHU in Varanasi. He immigrated to the US to attend Indiana University Bloomington, where he earned an MS in computer science and, later, an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In addition to investing, Harpi is a lecturer in management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Harpinder's Sessions
How AI is Supercharging Tools for Knowledge Workers
Advancements in AI are enabling new tooling that will 10x the productivity of knowledge workers by reducing monotonous, repetitive tasks. These advances have also unlocked opportunities for more creativity and experimentation. This panel explores the latest in professional services tooling and explores how companies can maximize performance and productivity. We will also explore the future of tooling for knowledge workers and how emerging breakthroughs might be applied. Let’s explore the future of work.
Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan serves as Snowflake’s Head of Data Clean Rooms where she leads the vision and strategy for Snowflake’s clean room initiatives. She is the co-founder and former CEO of Samooha, a data collaboration company that was acquired by Snowflake in 2023. A repeat founder, her previous company Drawbridge was acquired by LinkedIn in 2019 where she led the integration and identity charter for LinkedIn Marketing Solutions until 2021. Prior to founding Drawbridge, Kamakshi was a Senior Research Scientist at AdMob, which was acquired by Google in 2010. She serves on the Board of Overseers at Boston University and has served on the Board of Directors at iHeartMedia since 2018. She received her Ph.D. in Information Theory and Algorithms from Stanford University.
Kamakshi's Sessions
When to Cash Out, When to Keep Fighting
Startup founders are often presented with the chance to sell their companies before they reach full maturity. In today’s world with IPOs often delayed past historical norms, it may be tempting for founders to look for a parent company for their startups. But when does it make sense to sell, when should a founder keep blazing their own path?
Spenser Skates is the CEO and co-founder of digital analytics leader Amplitude (Nasdaq: AMPL). He co-founded the company in 2012 to help organizations build better products through data, taking the company public via a direct listing in September 2021. Skates previously worked as an algorithmic trader at DRW Trading Group and graduated with a B.S. in Bioengineering from MIT where he was the back-to-back champion of Battlecode, MIT’s largest programming competition.
Spenser's Sessions
How to Find, and Keep, Product-Market Fit
Every startup knows that they need to find product market fit. But once they do find true resonance between what they are offering and what there is demand for, how should a startup ensure that they do not lose the product-market fit that they have gained? Finding PMF is one thing; maintaining it is another.
Chad Sniffen is a Senior Technology Safety Specialist for the National Network to End Domestic Violence’s (NNEDV) Safety Net project. Safety Net focuses on the intersection of technology and gender-based violence and works to address the impact of technology on the safety, privacy, accessibility, and civil rights of survivors. Chad has worked or volunteered in the movements against domestic and sexual violence as a prevention educator, survivor advocate, researcher, women’s self-defense instructor, and board member since 1999. He has worked for community domestic violence and rape crisis programs in California and Arizona; for campus programs at the University of Arizona and the University of California, Davis; and for state and national programs in California, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC. He earned a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Arizona in 2007.
Chad's Sessions
Safety, Trust, and Profit: Anticipating Misuse to Build Safer Products and Attract Investment
In today’s startup world, one data breach or safety failure can destroy your reputation and growth. For founders, the challenge is how to scale while ensuring user safety, privacy, and security, all within budget. VCs are focusing on startups with strong ESG practices, prioritizing those that address safety early. Failing to comply with data laws, such as COPPA, can result in penalties up to $170 million.
Irene Solaiman is the Head of Global Policy at AI company Hugging Face, where she leads public policy and conducts social impact research. She serves on the Partnership on AI’s Policy Steering Committee and the Center for Democracy and Technology’s AI Governance Lab Advisory Committee. Irene also advises responsible AI initiatives at OECD and IEEE. Irene formerly initiated and led bias and social impact research at OpenAI, where she also led public policy. She also previously built AI policy at Zillow Group. Irene’s research includes release strategies, value alignment, social impact, and combating misuse and malicious use. She was recently named one of MIT Tech Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35 in Artificial Intelligence in 2023 for her research.
Irene's Sessions
The Advantages of "Open" AI
There’s increasing support in the AI industry for “open” AI models — models released under permissive licenses that can be repurposed for a range of applications. Standing in contrast to models gated behind paid services, open models are shaking up the AI status quo. The panel will discuss the specific ways how — and what the future might hold.
Tim Solms is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Slingshot Aerospace, a leader in satellite tracking, space traffic coordination, and space modeling and simulation. The company’s mission-critical space data and insights help satellite operators, space agencies, and defense agencies improve spaceflight safety and optimize their orbital operations. In the role of CEO, Tim oversees the company’s overall strategy and operations, ensuring that Slingshot continues to deliver world-class data and insights while bringing new and innovative capabilities to market that serve the ever-evolving missions of Slingshot’s customers. Solms is an 18-year United States Army veteran who also brings more than 20 years of executive leadership experience with a focus on optimizing businesses for growth and profitability. Solms led the transformational growth of the defense and government divisions of multiple global corporations, including serving as General Manager at Microsoft overseeing the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) business, managing all DoD and NATO business for VMware Federal, and heading Dun & Bradstreet’s Public Sector business. Most recently Solms was at Dun & Bradstreet, the leading global provider of business decisioning data and analytics, where he served as Executive Vice President and General Manager overseeing all U.S. federal, state, and local government, and Canadian government business. Tim graduated from The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. He and his wife Lynne have five daughters. Tim enjoys sailing and flying and is a volunteer pilot for Angel Flight and Veterans Airlift Command – an organization that flies wounded soldiers to and from home and other activities.
Tim's Sessions
Startups in Dual-use
Government and defense are relying more and more on commercial services, but startups face a real challenge entering this highly regulated and formal side of the industry. How can young, lean companies compete for contracts and attention with primes and more established organizations – and how can investors help?
Mark Solomon is a visionary Co-Founder at a stealth startup, where he is building advancements at the intersection of Generative AI and wearables. He is an entrepreneurial product builder and designer with 200+ patents and multiple design awards across consumer, mobile, edtech, AI, and XR categories for big tech and startups. His previous roles include Co-CEO Osmo and VP Hardware Product and Design at Pebble where he built first-of-its-kind products at Google, Palm, Beats, Dreamworks, HP, Disney and Amazon.
Mark's Sessions
Architecting the Future: Building Hardware for an AI-Native World
AI-driven hardware is transforming enterprise operations. This panel discussion will address the complexities of building AI-native ecosystems, the role of generative AI in reshaping enterprise technology, and the practical implications for developing scalable AI solutions. Our moderator Lee Ott from HP’s AI Innovation team will be joined by Carl Pei (Nothing phone), Jerry Yue (Brain.ai) and Mark Solomon (Co-Founder, Stealth Startup), who will provide insights into the next generation of AI-powered hardware and its potential to drive business innovation.
Natalie Sportelli is a Director at Bullish, an early-stage consumer venture capital firm and brand consultancy based in New York. Before investing at Bullish, she was employee number four at Thingtesting, a discovery and review platform for consumer brands backed by Forerunner Ventures. She has worked in journalism as an Associate Editor at Forbes editing the Under 30 franchise, and also served as a Director at early-stage venture capital firm Lerer Hippeau.
Natalie's Sessions
Don’t Be a Lemming: the Anti-hype Panel
What’s the difference between true opportunity and hype? Answering that question correctly is the difference between success and failure and the tech industry. And it’s a far more difficult question than it might appear. When everyone is convinced a specific tech is the future, founders – and even VCs – tend to pursue that tech en mass. But as anyone who’s been through a Valley boom and bust cycle knows, collective excitement – hype – isn’t the best indicator.
Aravind Srinivas is the CEO of Perplexity, the conversational “answer engine” that provides precise, user-focused answers to queries — with in-line citations. Aravind co-founded the company in 2022 after working as a research scientist at OpenAI, Google, and DeepMind. To date, Perplexity has raised over $165 million from investors including Jeff Bezos, Nat Friedman, Elad Gil, and Susan Wojciki. He has a PhD in computer science from UC Berkeley and a Bachelors and Masters in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. You can find him on Twitter/X and LinkedIn.
Aravind's Sessions
From Search Engines to Knowledge Engines: Perplexity's Rush Toward an AI-curated Web
Perplexity’s AI-powered search engine might be the next stage of interacting with the web and knowledge in general – or not. But the company is certainly risking it all to manifest that future, even if it ruffles a few feathers along the way. Hear from the CEO how the company plans to take on all comers in this new category of tech.
Aishwarya currently leads the Developer Relations at Fireworks AI. She was previously at Microsoft for Startups as a Senior AI Advisor to help Y Combinator startups build machine learning solutions, leveraging core Microsoft/ OpenAI products. Prior to this, Aishwarya was working as a Data Scientist in Google Cloud and before that an AI & ML Innovation Leader at IBM Data & AI. She holds a post-graduate in Data Science from Columbia University.
Aishwarya's Sessions
AI Innovation, Product-Market-Fit, and GTM Best Practices in Startups
Join me for an open and interactive discussion focused on the real challenges and opportunities of building AI-driven startups. We’ll dive into how founders are applying AI in innovative ways, tackling scalability issues, and navigating the ethical considerations that come with it. We’ll also explore the journey to finding the right product-market fit, along with practical go-to-market strategies that have worked for other startups. Whether you’re a founder or an AI professional, this roundtable is a chance to share experiences, learn from each other, and spark new ideas.
AI Innovation, Product-Market-Fit, and GTM Best Practices in Startups (encore)
Join me for an open and interactive discussion focused on the real challenges and opportunities of building AI-driven startups. We’ll dive into how founders are applying AI in innovative ways, tackling scalability issues, and navigating the ethical considerations that come with it. We’ll also explore the journey to finding the right product-market fit, along with practical go-to-market strategies that have worked for other startups. Whether you’re a founder or an AI professional, this roundtable is a chance to share experiences, learn from each other, and spark new ideas.
Kakul is the CEO of Splice, the music creation platform serving a global community of producers, innovators, and musicians, and home to the industry’s highest-quality, royalty-free sound sample library. Kakul has served on Splice’s Board since 2021 and joined as CEO in 2022 from Adobe, where she was Vice President of Creative Cloud Experience and Engagement. Kakul has spent her career building companies that leverage technology to help creators thrive, grow communities, and create great customer experiences. Prior to Adobe, Kakul was the Vice President of Product & Marketing at GitHub, helping empower the world’s largest community of coders while building a high-growth enterprise business. Earlier in her career, Kakul helped build some of the most iconic consumer tech products, including Adobe’s Photoshop line of software, Flickr, Yahoo! Mail, and WeWork Commons. She was also the founder and CEO of Tomfoolery, Inc., a venture-backed start-up dedicated to improving how teams work, which was bought by Yahoo in 2014.
Kakul's Sessions
But is it Art? Generative AI's Evolving Role in Music and Video Production
Generative AI is increasingly capable of creating video, music, and other media on demand. But who actually wants it, and why? This panel of AI startups will discuss the growing markets for generative media, and how they can be served without harming or displacing the artists they claim to empower.
Andy is Vice Chair of Golub Growth. He also serves as Vice Chair of Direct Lending for Golub Capital. He is a member of Golub Capital’s Investment and Watchlist committees, oversees the Firm’s Special Situations team, manages the Golub Growth business and spearheads strategic initiatives. Andy joined Golub Capital in 2004. Andy was previously Head of Middle Market Lending and Golub Growth (formerly known as Late Stage Lending) at Golub Capital. Prior to joining the Firm, Andy was a Managing Director at Albion Alliance, where he originated, executed and supervised subordinated debt and equity investments for two private partnerships. Prior to this position, he worked as a Vice President at Bankers Trust Alex Brown, and was formerly a member of New York Life Insurance Company’s Private Equity group, managing leveraged senior loans, mezzanine investments, private equity securities and limited partnership assets. Mr. Steuerman earned his BBA degree in Finance from Pace University. He received an MBA in Finance from St. John’s University.
Andy's Sessions
Cloud Doesn't Have to Mean Compromise
Join us as we discuss the multi-cloud landscape and learn how Kentik leverages AI and network visibility to help you run cloud – and your entire hybrid estate – in the most cost-efficient way possible. Hear about Kentik’s partnership with Golub Growth, which is driving innovation and enhancing their platform, and learn more about the latest trends and gain practical tips to boost your organization’s IT agility and flexibility.
Karthik leads Goldman Sachs’ Infrastructure Software Investment Banking practice within the Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) group. He advises a range of public and private software companies, venture capital and private equity firms on transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, equity and debt capital raising and activism defense. Karthik has nearly 15 years of advisory experience. He earned a Bachelors degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Karthik's Sessions
IPO or Bust? Tactical Approaches for Late-Stage Success
With rising interest rates and stricter regulatory scrutiny on acquisitions, many growth and late stage companies that once secured billions in funding are struggling to achieve a successful outcome. In this session, two experienced investors will debate the state of late-stage venture, what they’re seeing in terms of deal activity, if this market is actually coming back as significantly as some are reporting, and where they see the landscape headed in 2025. As part of this, they will dig into what’s going on with IPO markets, whether/when they will open back up, and how this is impacting exit strategies for founders.
Hyuk-Jeen Suh is the General Partner of SkyRiver Ventures, a deep tech and digital health focused venture capital fund investing in frontier technologies. He is the cofounder of ven^x, a collaborative VC hub in Boston to foster cooperation, syndication, and knowledge sharing among deeptech VCs. He brings 25 years of experience in the consumer electronics, biotech, finance and semiconductor industries. Prior to SkyRiver Ventures, Hyuk-Jeen created and was the Head of Samsung Ventures America East Coast office. Before joining Samsung, he worked at J.P. Morgan investment banking in the Technology, Media, and Telecom group. Prior to J.P. Morgan, he was the global Senior Business Development and Marketing Manager at MEMSIC, a semiconductor startup. Before MEMSIC, Hyuk-Jeen was a Senior Research Engineer at Sequenom, a biotech startup, where he designed DNA biochips. He began his career at Intel Corporation as a process engineer. Hyuk-Jeen advises startup companies and is a mentor at various startup accelerators in the U.S., Canada, and Asia. He serves as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Yale University, startup mentor for the Blackstone Launchpad at Cornell University, and National Science Foundation i-Corp venture mentor at Northeastern University. Hyuk-Jeen earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He earned his MBA from Yale School of Management. He holds a BS in mechanical engineering, BA in economics, and ME in electrical engineering, all from Cornell University.
Hyuk-Jeen's Sessions
How Startups Can Save the World
Startup work and venture capital investing are usually judged through the lens of their financial results. The bigger a startup gets, the more it’s worth. But some upstart tech companies are also working on making the world better, while making money. So we want to know how far the ‘doing good’ can go while not giving up on the critical ‘making money’ side of building tech companies.
Kate Sullivan career’s purpose is to improve our nation’s food system, specifically related to quality and sustainability. Currently, she served as the founder of a San Francisco food-tech company, Uncracked, Inc. Kate is a UC Berkeley graduate, where she studied nutritional sciences with a focus on dietetics. Since the age of 15, Kate has held a wide variety of positions in all aspects of the food industry, ranging from food safety + quality associate at HelloFresh, marketing + sales at large domestic brands such as GT’s Living Foods and Halal Guys, in addition to nutrition data analysis at an ai nutrition start up, Heali. Kate dropped out of graduate school in Boston to pursue Uncracked, a project emerging from UV Berkeley’s alt Meat lab and winner of 2023 Collider Cup. In spare time, Kate is a violinist, and accredits her leadership skills to many years of sitting concertmaster for high school and all district orchestras, meanwhile participating as a section member of UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. Kate leverages her prior experiences in addition to passion for nutrition and innovative product design at Uncracked. She is best described as charismatic, tenacious, resourceful.
Kate's Sessions
Berkeley Connect: Experience the World’s #1 Startup Ecosystem
Join us for an exclusive opportunity to engage with the innovative minds behind UC Berkeley’s top-ranked startup ecosystem. Recently named #1 by PitchBook for producing the most venture-backed companies and female founders, UC Berkeley is shaping the future of entrepreneurship. At this interactive Roundtable, visionary students from the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) will showcase their cutting-edge ventures in rapid demo pitches. Explore the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship (BMoE), SCET’s unique, journey-based approach to fostering entrepreneurial success, and discover the ‘secret sauce’ that propels Berkeley’s entrepreneurial leaders to the forefront of innovation.
Berkeley Connect: Experience the World’s #1 Startup Ecosystem (encore)
Join us for an exclusive opportunity to engage with the innovative minds behind UC Berkeley’s top-ranked startup ecosystem. Recently named #1 by PitchBook for producing the most venture-backed companies and female founders, UC Berkeley is shaping the future of entrepreneurship. At this interactive Roundtable, visionary students from the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) will showcase their cutting-edge ventures in rapid demo pitches. Explore the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship (BMoE), SCET’s unique, journey-based approach to fostering entrepreneurial success, and discover the ‘secret sauce’ that propels Berkeley’s entrepreneurial leaders to the forefront of innovation.
Iris Sun began her career as an investment banker at Citi before joining Alibaba as a Product Manager, where she led the delivery of e-commerce products used by over 30 million daily active users. Iris then moved to TSVC, a venture fund known for seed investments in Zoom, Carta, and Ginkgo Bioworks. At TSVC, Iris focuses on the data economy sector and has led investments in companies like Angle Health,d-Matrix, Kubit, Mammoth Cyber, and Ridge Security. As a founding member of Thrasio’s M&A team, Iris helped expand the largest Amazon aggregator’s presence in the US through strategic acquisitions. Driven by a passion for global change, Iris has held leadership roles at the Milken Institute. With her diverse expertise in M&A, product management, and industry relationships, she is committed to empowering founders and companies to reach their full potential. Iris earned her bachelor’s degree from Sichuan International Studies University and a master’s in quantitative risk management from Columbia University.
Iris's Sessions
The Art of the AI Pitch: Winning Over Investors in 2025
How do you capture investor attention when you’ve only got 2.5 minutes? Join Dropbox DocSend’s Alessandra Andrenacci as she dives into the evolving dynamics of AI startup pitches with top founders and VCs. Discover how AI is changing fundraising expectations and what startups need to command the right balance in their AI winning deck —and how the right storytelling can make or break your pitch. Backed by DocSend data and real-world insights, this session will unpack what investors are really looking for, and the pitfalls AI startups must avoid. Whether you’re refining your deck or crafting your first pitch, you’ll leave equipped to stand out in the fiercely competitive 2025 AI landscape.
➡️ Building a compute framework for turning data into vector embeddings. 🤗 Connect your data infrastructure to your vector database with Superlinked.
Daniel's Sessions
Beyond Snowflake and Databricks: Insights from the Frontlines of Data Transformation Disruption
By 2025 our global data volume will reach 175 zetabytes, a figure that is 50% more than 2023. But while the wealth of data grows, it remains unwieldy to use. Poor data quality costs organizations an average of $12.9M annually. As organizations grapple with the exponential growth of data, they need better data transformation solutions to process it.
The worldwide spending on such digital transformation solutions is forecasted to reach $3.9 trillion by 2027. In other words, the market is ripe for challenging the status quo, even despite the continued growth of data darlings Snowflake and Databricks.
Tomasz can speak to the future of data in the context of SF and DB’s direct competition, and how startups are tackling these challenges head-on amidst the acceleration of two industry giants.
Grammy® Award-winning and Billboard Chart topping artist/producer duo, The Chainsmokers, have evolved into a dominating musical force with a diverse repertoire of songs that have led them to become one of music’s hottest recording artists. Comprised of Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, their signature sound deftly reaches across indie, progressive and pop realms and has seen them develop some of the biggest breakthrough songs over the course of the last few years. Now in 2020, The Chainsmokers are currently working on their next chapter of music for their fourth full length album while simultaneously focusing on charitable and business ventures. From donating 20,000 N95 masks to hospitals in New York City and Las Vegas at the peak need for PPE during the pandemic to donations for charities aiding in wildfire relief in Australia and fighting for equal rights across the globe, Alex and Drew are always looking for ways to give back to causes that hit close to home. Most recently, The Chainsmokers were featured on the cover of Forbes for their entrepreneurial achievements as well as being named by Forbes as the highest paid DJs in the world. Using their ability to identify trends, Drew and Alex have built a track record as seasoned angel investors. Following their passion for supporting other brilliant entrepreneurs, they joined forces with a seasoned investment team, led by tech investors and entrepreneurs Milan Koch and Jeffrey Evans, to form a new venture capital firm called Mantis. Mantis Venture Capital invests in Seed & Series A consumer companies within the industries of Media & Entertainment, Fintech, and Health & Wellness that focuses on the Gen Z and Millennial population.
Drew's Sessions
How the Chainsmokers Bring Value Beyond their Celebrity Status
While a lot of celebrities invest in startups, the Chainsmokers are different. Instead of angel investing, Drew Taggart and Alex Pall launched a formal fund, Mantis Venture Capital, invest out of a formal closed-end fund, and back companies in industries their celebrity prowess can’t always help in, like security startups and analytics platforms. In this session, Taggart and Pall will be joined by Dan Lorenc, the founder of Chainguard, to talk about how they are an asset to their B2B startups.
StrictlyVC @ Disrupt
This year, TechCrunch joined forces with StrictlyVC to create smaller, more intimate evenings for our readers. Already this year, we’ve hosted these nights in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and London. Now you can join us at TechCrunch Disrupt for a special StrictlyVC event, delivering exclusive, insider content while facilitating meaningful connections among leading investors, entrepreneurs and executives. Attendees can anticipate engaging discussions, thought-provoking insights and ample opportunities to forge new connections.
– Investor Pass required
Harry Tannenbaum is the Cofounder and President of Mill, where he has built an entirely new system to prevent waste, starting with food. Mill makes it easy to prevent food waste at home with an innovative new kitchen experience and pathways that keep food out of landfills. Prior to Mill, Harry led the centralized analytics group and ecommerce business at Nest, which launched the first learning thermostat and became the leading brand for the connected home. During his time at Nest, Harry helped to scale the business to more than $1B in annual revenue. Following Nest’s acquisition by Google, he was a director in Google’s hardware organization focused on ecommerce and subscription offerings. Before Nest, Harry briefly worked at an investment bank, before deciding he wanted to work in climate. He received his bachelor’s degree in Economics from UCLA. Harry is a surfer, and was raised in San Francisco.
Harry's Sessions
Don’t Be a Lemming: the Anti-hype Panel
What’s the difference between true opportunity and hype? Answering that question correctly is the difference between success and failure and the tech industry. And it’s a far more difficult question than it might appear. When everyone is convinced a specific tech is the future, founders – and even VCs – tend to pursue that tech en mass. But as anyone who’s been through a Valley boom and bust cycle knows, collective excitement – hype – isn’t the best indicator.
Jordan Taylor is the co-founder and CEO of Vizcom, a software company that leverages artificial intelligence to enhance and accelerate the industrial design process
Jordan's Sessions
The Future of High-Growth Tech: Beyond the Apple App Store
As the tech landscape evolves, the next wave of high-growth, high-impact companies may not emerge from the Apple app store, but rather from the Microsoft app store. This shift signals a broader transformation in historically slow-moving industries like legal tech, where innovative solutions are challenging the status quo. Buyers in these sectors are increasingly open to embracing change, paving the way for a new era of technological advancement. Join our panel of experts as we explore how AI and other emerging technologies are driving this evolution, and what it means for the future of knowledge work in industries traditionally resistant to rapid change.
Bret is Co-Founder of Sierra. Most recently, he served as Co-CEO of Salesforce. Prior to Salesforce, Bret founded Quip and was CTO of Facebook. He started his career at Google, where he co-created Google Maps. Bret serves on the board of OpenAI.
Bret's Sessions
From Salesforce to Sierra: Bret Taylor’s Journey in Tech Innovation
Former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, who recently co-founded Sierra, a new startup building a customer experience AI agent, will join us to talk about why he thinks AI agents are going to transform enterprise software. We’ll also chat about what it’s like going from a big company like Salesforce to a brand new startup – and his life as a mover and shaker in Silicon Valley, including being board chair of several high-profile companies including Twitter and OpenAI.
Chelcie Taylor is an investor on Notable Capital’s Investment team, where she focuses on application software, including enterprise, vertical SaaS, SMBTech, and AI. She currently holds six board observer roles, including Arteria AI, Heard, Realm, Stream, Pinwheel, and Mindee. In addition to her leadership of Notable’s AI application initiative, Chelcie oversees the firm’s annual SMBTech 50 list, showcasing the most promising private companies building for SMBs. Chelcie’s contributions extend to the broader VC ecosystem—most notably with AllRaise and BLCK VC, organizations that provide resources to support the advancement of underrepresented investors. In 2024, Chelcie was selected as one of five recipients of the National Venture Capital Association’s Rising Star Award. Chelcie started her career in strategic and operating roles at Google, CBS, and MediaLink before pivoting to investing. She received a B.A. in Political Science from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Chelcie's Sessions
From Seed to Success: What VCs Want to See from Early Stage Founders
Every startup begins with a founder with a germ of an idea. How does it mature into an actual business? Venture capitalists have to sort through pitches every day to find the gems that will become successful companies. We’ll speak to a trio of investors to find out what they look for in early stage companies.
Delores Terry serves on Visa’s North American and Global Digital Partnerships team, heading Business Development for Consumer Fintech platforms. Beyond her engagement with early-stage fintechs, she spearheads initiatives to support diverse founders in fintech through Visa’s Inclusive Client Partnerships. Her team is committed to forging and developing partnerships with mission-driven fintech companies striving for a more equitable financial system. They dedicate efforts to dismantling barriers within the payments ecosystem that minority founders frequently encounter, such as funding challenges and limited community access. Prior to her current role, Delores held various positions at Visa, including issuer sales, product management, and business strategy and planning. Delores is a proud graduate of Howard University and currently resides in Washington, D.C
Delores's Sessions
Visa Everywhere Initiative: The Ultimate Fintech Pitch Competition
Fintech startups inspire—Visa enables. Join us at the Visa Emerging Innovators (VEI) program, where we celebrate the next generation of fintech pioneers. This year, we are thrilled to announce that we are doubling the prize to an incredible $100K! Visa has carefully selected five visionary startups from around the world, each poised to pitch their groundbreaking solutions to a distinguished panel of fintech industry leaders. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness the future of payments in action and discover how you can be part of the fintech revolution.
Dharmesh joined Battery Ventures in 2015 and focuses on early-stage and growth investments in areas including cloud infrastructure, big data/AI, security and next-generation enterprise applications. His investment style is shaped by his experiences as an immigrant and entrepreneur, and he supports visionary founders building impactful businesses globally. Dharmesh is actively involved with Battery portfolio companies Arize, Collibra, Contrast Security, Cypress.io, Databricks, Galileo, Gong.io, Guardsquare, InfluxData, LinearB, Machinify, Matillion, Narvar, Neuron7, Normalyze, Opal Security, Ordr, Orkes, Postman, Styra, Theta Lake, and Weaviate. Dharmesh also previously backed Bionic (Acquired by CrowdStrike), Bridgecrew (acquired by Palo Alto Networks), Confluent (NASDAQ: CFLT), Fungible (acquired by Microsoft), JASK (acquired by Sumo Logic), JFrog (NASDAQ: FROG), Sensu (acquired by Sumo Logic), StreamSets (acquired by Software AG), Sumo Logic (NASDAQ: SUMO) and Reflektion (acquired by Sitecore). Prior to Battery, Dharmesh was a managing director at Intel Capital, and before that spent almost a decade in product management and go-to-market roles with enterprise-software companies like Keynote Systems (Nasdaq: KEYN), Manhattan Associates (Nasdaq: MANH) and two other startups leading to their acquisition. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where he received a BS in electrical engineering, Dharmesh also holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.
Dharmesh's Sessions
When to Cash Out, When to Keep Fighting
Startup founders are often presented with the chance to sell their companies before they reach full maturity. In today’s world with IPOs often delayed past historical norms, it may be tempting for founders to look for a parent company for their startups. But when does it make sense to sell, when should a founder keep blazing their own path?
Jordan is a co-founder and CEO of MotherDuck, an early-stage startup that has raised $100M from A16z, Felicis, and Redpoint. He helped create Google BigQuery, wrote two books on it, and led first the engineering team then the product team through its first $1B or so in revenue. More recently, as SingleStore’s Chief Product Officer, Jordan helped them build a cloud-native SaaS business. Jordan has also worked at Microsoft Research and at a handful of star-crossed startups. He has an undergraduate degree from Harvard and a Master’s from the University of Washington. When not working, Jordan can often be found rowing or walking around Seattle.
Jordan's Sessions
Beyond Snowflake and Databricks: Insights from the Frontlines of Data Transformation Disruption
By 2025 our global data volume will reach 175 zetabytes, a figure that is 50% more than 2023. But while the wealth of data grows, it remains unwieldy to use. Poor data quality costs organizations an average of $12.9M annually. As organizations grapple with the exponential growth of data, they need better data transformation solutions to process it.
The worldwide spending on such digital transformation solutions is forecasted to reach $3.9 trillion by 2027. In other words, the market is ripe for challenging the status quo, even despite the continued growth of data darlings Snowflake and Databricks.
Tomasz can speak to the future of data in the context of SF and DB’s direct competition, and how startups are tackling these challenges head-on amidst the acceleration of two industry giants.
Atul Todi, founder of 10Times, drives global innovation in event tech. With 40M+ users, 10Times connects professionals at the right time and place. On a mission to create a billion opportunities by connecting humans in the real-world.
Atul's Sessions
Unlocking Human Intelligence via Events
In a world dominated by digital interactions, in-person events are key to unlocking human intelligence. This session explores how face-to-face connections build trust, capture attention, and influence behavior, highlighting the growing role of events in driving meaningful engagement.
Unlocking Human Intelligence via Events (encore)
In a world dominated by digital interactions, in-person events are key to unlocking human intelligence. This session explores how face-to-face connections build trust, capture attention, and influence behavior, highlighting the growing role of events in driving meaningful engagement.
Rowan is a recognized Silicon Valley leader and has a depth of experience in software development and cloud innovation. He began his career building software in both the consumer and enterprise spaces in the 1990s, and holds a number of patents in computer security and operating systems. Rowan became Redis CEO in February 2023 after serving for four and a half years as CEO of Five9, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVN). As CEO, Rowan built Five9 into a billion dollar business, and quadrupled revenue while expanding the company’s profitability. Prior to joining Five9 he was SVP and General Manager of Cisco’s Applications Group and an executive leadership team member. Previously Rowan developed and built Symantec’s SaaS strategy as Group President of sales, marketing, and product development. In addition to being a CEO and industry leader, Rowan remains an active software developer having taught himself to code on a Commodore 64 when he was 11 years old.
Rowan's Sessions
What's Next in Open Source as a Business Model?
Open source has become the default business model for many tech startups. But the success of the movement hasn’t been without challenges as businesses now try to balance the ideals of open source with the realities of running a business in an ever-changing competitive environment. Join us to hear industry leaders discuss how they navigate these complexities and what the future holds for open source as a sustainable business model
Ari Tuchman is an atomic physicist and serial entrepreneur. His PhD and subsequent work at Yale and Stanford focused on precision measurement with quantum states. This led to the launch of Entanglement Technologies, a quantum metrology company which builds chemical sensors to detect trace amounts of toxic gases in the environment. Ari then launched Quantifind, an artificial intelligence company that explores billions of records to discover risk signals for combating financial crimes, money laundering, supply chain risk and foreign malign influence. Quantifind leverages performant AI language models to power enterprise scale risk screening and automate decisioning at Tier-1 banks and financial services as well as for Defense and Intelligence applications for the US government.
Ari's Sessions
Bringing The Outside In: Connecting Startups With Large Banks to Power the Future of Finance
The future of finance will hinge on collaboration between traditional institutions and agile startups. Led by Matt Carbonara (Citi Ventures), Ari Tuchman (Quantifind), and Kartik Mani (Citi Retail Services), this session will delve into Citi Ventures’ pioneering approach to bridging the gap between large banks and the startup ecosystem. Attendees will gain insights into fostering innovation while managing risk, unlocking the potential for groundbreaking advancements in fintech and beyond.
Matt, along with Citi partners and portfolio company Quantifind, will discuss Citi Ventures’ approach to working with startups and how governance and risk management are essential to responsible innovation. He will discuss how attendees can peer through their own crystal ball to predict the next big thing in tech and finance, from AI to the fintech revolution and beyond.
Hans Tung is a Managing Partner at Notable Capital, and have invested in early-stage investments across the global digital economy. He has partnered with top founders from everywhere in ecommerce and fintech where US is a key end user market. Hans’ consumer internet portfolio has included notable companies like Airbnb, Coinbase, Ibotta, Peloton, Poshmark, Quince, StockX, and TikTok. a dedicated fintech and related AI applications investor, Hans has invested in over 14 fintech firms worldwide, including Affirm, Aven, Novo, ADDI, Clara, Rupeek, Slope, and Stori. He and his team launched the FintechInnovation 50 List with NASDAQ in early 2023, highlighting emerging leaders in fintech. Globally recognized, Hans has been on the Forbes Midas list for 12 years, consistently in the top 10 for five years, and is among the Top 100 Asian Americans by Gold House. Originally from Taiwan and raised in Los Angeles, Hans earned a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Stanford. His career spans Wall Street in New York, Silicon Valley startups, and eight years of investing in Asia before coming back to Silicon Valley in 2013 and joining Notable Capital.
Hans's Sessions
The Startup Battlefield Final
The grand final of TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition. Watch the final 5 teams from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
Tomasz Tunguz is the founder of Theory Ventures, investing in early-stage AI, data, and blockchain companies. Previously, Tomasz was an MD at Redpoint and a product manager at Google, managing a billion dollar business unit on the AdSense team. As an investor, he’s worked with nine unicorns predominantly in data and data infrastructure, including Looker, Monte Carlo, Dremio, Hex, Omni, Mother Duck. He writes a blog at tomtunguz.com that drives millions of page visits per month, featuring his analyses of GTM strategies, earnings, and trends across private and public technology companies.
Tomasz's Sessions
Beyond Snowflake and Databricks: Insights from the Frontlines of Data Transformation Disruption
By 2025 our global data volume will reach 175 zetabytes, a figure that is 50% more than 2023. But while the wealth of data grows, it remains unwieldy to use. Poor data quality costs organizations an average of $12.9M annually. As organizations grapple with the exponential growth of data, they need better data transformation solutions to process it.
The worldwide spending on such digital transformation solutions is forecasted to reach $3.9 trillion by 2027. In other words, the market is ripe for challenging the status quo, even despite the continued growth of data darlings Snowflake and Databricks.
Tomasz can speak to the future of data in the context of SF and DB’s direct competition, and how startups are tackling these challenges head-on amidst the acceleration of two industry giants.
Duncan is a General Partner at SOSV, and the Global Managing Director of HAX, the world’s first and largest VC-backed program for hard tech. He has invested in over 100 hard tech companies and serves on multiple boards in the climate, industrial and healthcare sectors. Duncan has an extensive entrepreneurial background and deep experience fundraising and growing businesses across the globe. He has taken numerous technologies to market in various industries. Before joining SOSV, he led design and engineering strategy projects for Fortune 500 companies at the global innovation firm IDEO. Duncan obtained his Master’s from the Royal College of Art & Imperial College. His design and engineering work has won multiple awards and is included in the permanent collection at The Museum of Modern Art. He has a deep passion for new technologies and engineering breakthroughs that can benefit our planet.
Duncan's Sessions
Deep Tech in Winter: How to Win Investors in 2024
Venture’s deep chill has been extra frigid for deep tech startups due to their reputation for long timelines and big capital needs. But investors are still game for deep tech startups that are smart about balancing product scope and time to market. Vertical integration and industrial scale ups are out; selling innovation into existing supply chains, now that’s smart. SOSV General Partners Duncan Turner, Dr. Pae Wu, and Po Bronson help oversee the launch of about 75 deep tech startups a year and work with hundreds of deep tech co-investors. They will discuss what’s getting investors to “yes” for deep tech investments now, and take questions from the audience.
April Underwood is co-founder and Managing Director of Adverb Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage technology startups launched in 2023. In addition, April is a member of the boards of directors for Zillow Group and Eventbrite, and a co-founder of the #ANGELS angel investing collective through which she backed over 50 companies as an angel investor. April brings 20 years of experience building software to her role as an investor. Until 2019, April was the first Chief Product Officer at Slack Technologies, Inc, where she led Product, Platform, Design, and Research as the company scaled 10X to IPO-ready in less than 4 years. Prior to joining Slack in 2015, April was director of product at Twitter from 2010 to 2015 from through its IPO. Previously, April has held product, partnerships, and engineering roles at Google, Travelocity, and Intel. April has also been a founder: in 2020, She founded Nearby, an e-commerce marketplace composed of local retailers backed by GV, Obvious Ventures, Redpoint, and many prominent operator angel investors, and her team was acquired by Twitter in 2021. April holds a B.B.A. in Management Information Systems and Business Honors from The University of Texas at Austin (2001), and an M.B.A. from The University of California at Berkeley (2007).
April's Sessions
How to Find, and Keep, Product-Market Fit
Every startup knows that they need to find product market fit. But once they do find true resonance between what they are offering and what there is demand for, how should a startup ensure that they do not lose the product-market fit that they have gained? Finding PMF is one thing; maintaining it is another.
Nirmal was the third hire at Amplitude and the first engineer on the team. He has been with Amplitude for over 10 years. Currently, he is the Director of Growth Engineering and oversees the Amplitude offerings catered to Startups, like the Plus and Scholarship plans. Nirmal has experienced almost all of Amplitude’s journey, having joined 4 months after the company’s pivot from its original iteration as a Y Combinator-backed AI-voice startup called (Sonalight) into what ultimately became a publicly traded Analytics company. Nirmal is a graduate of the University of Pennslyvania, and he lives in SF and Amsterdam.
Nirmal's Sessions
StrictlyVC @ Disrupt
This year, TechCrunch joined forces with StrictlyVC to create smaller, more intimate evenings for our readers. Already this year, we’ve hosted these nights in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and London. Now you can join us at TechCrunch Disrupt for a special StrictlyVC event, delivering exclusive, insider content while facilitating meaningful connections among leading investors, entrepreneurs and executives. Attendees can anticipate engaging discussions, thought-provoking insights and ample opportunities to forge new connections.
– Investor Pass required
Jake is the cofounder of FlyCode, a payment optimization platform designed to help subscription businesses maximize payment acceptance and boost revenue. Jake and his team launched FlyCode after participating in Y Combinator’s program, onboarding their first customers in late 2023. At FlyCode, Jake leads revenue growth, the product roadmap, and customer-facing analytics. Before FlyCode, Jake was the VP of Product at Behalf, where he built their API platform and introduced one of the first Buy Now, Pay Later products for B2B eCommerce and cross-border payments, facilitating over $1 billion in loans. He was also responsible for new product go-to-market, platform partnerships, and enterprise implementations. With over a decade of experience in fintech, Jake is a strong believer that nearly every company can benefit from being a fintech company. He is a graduate of Middlebury College where he studied economics and statistics. Outside of FlyCode, Jake enjoys skiing and cooking.
Jake's Sessions
Visa Everywhere Initiative: The Ultimate Fintech Pitch Competition
Fintech startups inspire—Visa enables. Join us at the Visa Emerging Innovators (VEI) program, where we celebrate the next generation of fintech pioneers. This year, we are thrilled to announce that we are doubling the prize to an incredible $100K! Visa has carefully selected five visionary startups from around the world, each poised to pitch their groundbreaking solutions to a distinguished panel of fintech industry leaders. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness the future of payments in action and discover how you can be part of the fintech revolution.
Priyanka Vergadia currently leads Developer Engagement Strategy at Microsoft, previously she led Developer Advocacy at Google and is the author of the #1 best selling book “Visualizing Google Cloud”. She specializes in the breadth of Google Cloud and putting together solutions that span across different cloud tools including Generative AI. You might recognize her from the Google Cloud Tech YouTube channel. She builds highly engaging and uniquely visual content for developers and technical practitioners. She has created more than 500 pieces of content across videos, blogs and tutorials. She is one of the top visual storytellers with 100K+ followers across social media platforms. She marries her artist skills with the technical expertise to create sketches for folks to learn from. She is an author who has combined her technical knowledge with visual storytelling into her book “”Visualizing Google Cloud””. You can also find her video on Cloud concepts on her Youtube channel The Cloud Girl and her website thecloudgirl.dev. Priyanka Vergadia is also a lecturer at University of Pennsylvania where she teaches a Cloud Computing course.
Priyanka's Sessions
Generative AI: Beyond the Hype – Building Real-World Applications
Join this interactive session to explore the practical applications of generative AI. We’ll break down the different types of generative models, discuss their strengths and limitations, and showcase inspiring use cases across various industries.
Luis Villa is co-founder at Tidelift and board member at Creative Commons and OpenET. During his career, he has been a top open source lawyer, a programmer, and a community leader. In previous roles, he has worked in the legal departments at the Wikimedia Foundation and Mozilla, and served on community-elected boards at the Open Source Initiative and GNOME Foundation.
Luis's Sessions
Free but Not Cheap, the Open-Source Dilemma
Open-source software is everywhere, and in everything. Many startups are pursuing explicitly open-source business models. But every company out there that builds software has at least some dependency on open-source code. Recent security issues, however, have made it plain that open-source software is a target for state-level hackers. So, how can we keep building and using code that is built communally, but without the risk of backdoors and other security holes?
Hira is working to solve the space debris problem. He founded Lumi Space to conduct satellite laser ranging: the most precise method of locating satellites and space debris for improved space surveillance and tracking. Hira has a background in space situational awareness, including a PhD sponsored by USAF/AFRL modeling the natural forces and torques on debris in orbit. He is also currently a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University looking at the commercialisation of engineering and physics research for space.
Hira's Sessions
Future of Space Operations Challenge
This open call pitch-off will present startups across robotics, autonomous systems, AI/ML, Vision Systems, Propulsion and Navigation. Five finalists will pitch to Aerospace judges and one winner will get access to expert lead feedback sessions with The Aerospace Corporation, government experts, and commercial space leadership.
Julianna Vitolo’s journey from Russian studies to tech investing exemplifies her diverse talents and unconventional approach. After honing her skills in investment banking and M&A, Julianna found her true calling in venture capital at Initialized. She specializes in Series A to C investments, bringing a unique blend of financial rigor and visionary optimism to her work. Julianna is passionate about nurturing founders with non-traditional backgrounds and fresh perspectives. Beyond her professional pursuits, she’s an accomplished tenor saxophonist, half-marathon runner, and Russian literature enthusiast. Julianna’s multifaceted background allows her to offer founders not just capital, but a genuine partnership built on understanding and shared vision for technological innovation.
Julianna's Sessions
AI Infra, DevOps and the Backend Tooling Stack of the Next Generation of B2B Software Winners
This roundtable explores investment strategies in AI infrastructure software, DevOps, and B2B infrastructure. As AI continues to reshape industries, the demand for robust, scalable infrastructure has never been greater. Participants will discuss emerging trends in cloud computing, containerization, and edge computing tailored for AI workloads. The conversation will delve into the challenges of developing and deploying AI models at scale, examining how DevOps practices are evolving to meet these demands. Additionally, the roundtable will address the growing market for B2B infrastructure software that enables AI integration across various sectors. By analyzing current gaps in the ecosystem and projecting future needs, this discussion aims to identify key areas for strategic investment that will shape the next generation of AI infrastructure.
AI infra, DevOps and the Backend Tooling Stack of the Next Generation of B2B Software Winners (encore)
This roundtable explores investment strategies in AI infrastructure software, DevOps, and B2B infrastructure. As AI continues to reshape industries, the demand for robust, scalable infrastructure has never been greater. Participants will discuss emerging trends in cloud computing, containerization, and edge computing tailored for AI workloads. The conversation will delve into the challenges of developing and deploying AI models at scale, examining how DevOps practices are evolving to meet these demands. Additionally, the roundtable will address the growing market for B2B infrastructure software that enables AI integration across various sectors. By analyzing current gaps in the ecosystem and projecting future needs, this discussion aims to identify key areas for strategic investment that will shape the next generation of AI infrastructure.
Vladislav Voroninski (“Vlad”) is the co-founder and CEO of Helm.ai, an AI software company pioneering the next generation of AI technology for ADAS, autonomous driving, and robotic automation. Under his leadership, Helm.ai has become a leader in scalable AI-first solutions for autonomous systems, attracting the attention of global automakers, including Honda Motor Company, and raising $102M in venture capital to date. Before founding Helm.ai, Vlad served as the founding chief scientist at Sift Security, a machine learning cybersecurity startup later acquired by Netskope. He holds a BS and MA in applied mathematics from UCLA and a PhD in mathematics from UC Berkeley. He also served as a faculty member in the math department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his research career, Vlad published over 20 papers in applied mathematics and computer science, earning multiple awards, including the SIAM Outstanding Paper Prize and a top-30 placement at NeurIPS (out of 5,000 submissions).
Vladislav's Sessions
StrictlyVC @ Disrupt
This year, TechCrunch joined forces with StrictlyVC to create smaller, more intimate evenings for our readers. Already this year, we’ve hosted these nights in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and London. Now you can join us at TechCrunch Disrupt for a special StrictlyVC event, delivering exclusive, insider content while facilitating meaningful connections among leading investors, entrepreneurs and executives. Attendees can anticipate engaging discussions, thought-provoking insights and ample opportunities to forge new connections.
– Investor Pass required
Marcie Vu is a partner at Greycroft. She joined in 2023 based in San Francisco, and focuses on software investments for the firm. Her investments include Contextual AI, Coactive AI, Reken, and Whatnot. Prior to Greycroft, Marcie was a Partner at Qatalyst, where she helped build the Consumer Tech M&A Group and advised on strategic M&A transactions including the sales of LinkedIn to Microsoft, Honey to PayPal, OpenTable to Booking Group, Orbitz to Expedia and Glassdoor to Recruit. Prior to Qatalyst, Marcie was Head of Consumer Internet Banking at Morgan Stanley where she helped build that team and led some of the most significant IPOs, including Alibaba.com, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Pandora, and Zynga. Additionally, Marcie has served as an independent board director for both private and public growth companies, including thredUP, Scopely, and Blockchain.com.
Marcie's Sessions
Pitch Deck Teardown
An articulate, alluring pitch presentation is a big part of successfully fundraising, and yet it’s relatively uncommon for founders to get candid feedback on how they communicated the problem, their solution, and their path to success. During the Pitch Deck Teardown, VCs will offer their live feedback on decks submitted by audience members.
Colin Walsh is the founder and CEO of Varo Bank, the first all-digital, nationally-chartered U.S. consumer techbank built from the ground up with a focus on the needs of every day Americans, often living paycheck to paycheck and striving to make ends meet. Varo’s mission is financial inclusion and opportunity for all. Colin is uniquely positioned to lead the digital bank revolution building on his years of experience in consumer banking at large global financial institutions. He led Europe’s largest credit and charge card business as an Executive Vice President at American Express. Colin also led the UK’s Lloyds Banking Group mortgage and savings businesses, and served as Managing Director for the firm’s retail bancassurance, credit, debit and merchant acquiring businesses.
Colin's Sessions
How These Neobanks Grew During Challenging Times
While there have been a number of digital bank shutdowns in recent years, there are some players that are not only doing well, but thriving. Neobanks Dave and Varo Bank each have millions of customers, growing despite a challenging macroeconomic environment and an increasing number of competitors. What are these companies doing to help them grow during challenging times? And what should we expect from them in the future? We’ll talk to execs to find out.
Christopher Wan is a vice president in the San Francisco office, where he focuses primarily on early-stage deep technologies. Before joining Bessemer, Chris was at In-Q-Tel and Tusk Ventures, investing in companies at the intersection of technology and government. Chris was also part of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, where he researched and wrote policy proposals on artificial intelligence. He began his career as a software engineer on Facebook’s News Credibility team. Chris earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Yale University, where he helped lead and found a few hackathons. He is a member of the California State Bar and is an alum at Stanford Law School and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Christopher's Sessions
The 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.
Pascal is the co-founder and CEO of Bardeen.ai, a leading AI company focused on automating repetitive and manual workflows across web apps. Previously, Pascal built and scaled other ventures leveraging AI and machine learning for industrial applications and the AI team at Telefonica Alpha, Europe’s first moonshot factory. Pascal is also an active angel investor in AI and deep-tech companies globally.
Pascal's Sessions
The Art of the AI Pitch: Winning Over Investors in 2025
How do you capture investor attention when you’ve only got 2.5 minutes? Join Dropbox DocSend’s Alessandra Andrenacci as she dives into the evolving dynamics of AI startup pitches with top founders and VCs. Discover how AI is changing fundraising expectations and what startups need to command the right balance in their AI winning deck —and how the right storytelling can make or break your pitch. Backed by DocSend data and real-world insights, this session will unpack what investors are really looking for, and the pitfalls AI startups must avoid. Whether you’re refining your deck or crafting your first pitch, you’ll leave equipped to stand out in the fiercely competitive 2025 AI landscape.
Joining Awin and ShareASale as President, North America in February 2024, Adam is an experienced leader with 20+ years in online marketing and advertising. A prominent figure in the affiliate and performance marketing industry, he excels in driving vision, roadmap development, client relations, building high-performing teams, and strategic direction to deliver budget and sales goals.
Adam's Sessions
Tackle Every Challenge Head on with Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is just bottom-of-the-funnel, discount-focused, spammy content sites, right? Wrong. With an influx of innovative strategic partners and ecommerce technologies emerging in the channel, online brands can solve any marketing challenge far beyond that traditional advertising funnel. Need to drive more traffic to your store? Want to convert more shoppers into buyers? Looking to encourage repeat business and referrals? There’s an affiliate solution for these obstacles and more. We will discuss how today’s affiliate channel offers a kaleidoscope of partners helping online brands to enhance their sales and marketing efforts.
Tackle Every Challenge Head On with Affiliate Marketing (encore)
Need to drive more brand awareness and traffic to your store? There’s an affiliate solution for that.
Want to convert more shoppers into buyers? There’s an affiliate solution for that.
Looking to encourage repeat business and referrals? There’s an affiliate solution for that.
Learn how affiliate marketing has transformed into a gateway for novel advertising solutions and e-commerce technologies. We will discuss how this marketing channel is incredibly powerful, diverse, and a technology gateway for online brands to enhance their sales and marketing efforts.
Dr. Jen Welter is a pioneering force in sports and leadership, celebrated as the first female coach in the NFL and in Madden, a two time Gold Medalist with Team USA, a four time Champion in women’s tackle football, the first woman to have played men’s pro football as a non-kicker, founder of Grrridiron Girls, and a trailblazer who continually breaks barriers. Her powerful keynote speeches, which inspired her TV show “First & Goals,” captivate audiences by drawing from her groundbreaking experiences, bestselling book Play Big, and authentic style. Known for her relatability, Dr. Welter seamlessly weaves personal stories with wit and humor, while addressing themes of authentic leadership, resilience, diversity, and the celebration of uniqueness. She also champions the rise of women in sports and advocates for equity in football and life. Dr. Welter’s engaging presentations leave a lasting impact, empowering individuals and organizations to redefine what’s possible and achieve greatness in their own fields.
Jen's Sessions
Visa Everywhere Initiative: The Ultimate Fintech Pitch Competition
Fintech startups inspire—Visa enables. Join us at the Visa Emerging Innovators (VEI) program, where we celebrate the next generation of fintech pioneers. This year, we are thrilled to announce that we are doubling the prize to an incredible $100K! Visa has carefully selected five visionary startups from around the world, each poised to pitch their groundbreaking solutions to a distinguished panel of fintech industry leaders. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness the future of payments in action and discover how you can be part of the fintech revolution.
Senator Scott Wiener represents San Francisco and northern San Mateo County in the California State Senate. Elected in 2016, Senator Wiener focuses extensively on housing, transportation, civil rights, criminal justice reform, clean energy, and alleviating poverty. He chairs the Senate Budget Committee and is Co-Chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus. He is a past Chair of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus and the Senate Housing Committee. Before his election to the Senate, Senator Wiener served as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, representing the district previously represented by Harvey Milk.
Scott's Sessions
What does AI Governance Look like Today, Tomorrow, and Beyond?
AI development continues at a breakneck pace, but how fast is too fast? In this fireside, U.S. AI Safety Institute Director Elizabeth Kelly and California state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), the architect of California’s controversial AI safety bill SB 1047, talk about the need to balance AI innovation with safeguards.
Jason Wilk is the co-founder and has served as Chief Executive Officer of Dave since May 2016. Jason has over 15 years of experience building digital companies. In April 2010, Jason founded WriteyBoard, an international whiteboard and furniture solution for startup companies and small businesses, where he still acts as current advisor. Prior to WriteyBoard, from January 2010 to July 2016, Jason founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of AllScreen.TV, a technology platform that enabled large media outlets to syndicate their digital content to over 500 publishers. Jason began his career as the founder and Chief Executive Officer of 1DaySports.com, which was acquired in 2008.
Jason's Sessions
How These Neobanks Grew During Challenging Times
While there have been a number of digital bank shutdowns in recent years, there are some players that are not only doing well, but thriving. Neobanks Dave and Varo Bank each have millions of customers, growing despite a challenging macroeconomic environment and an increasing number of competitors. What are these companies doing to help them grow during challenging times? And what should we expect from them in the future? We’ll talk to execs to find out.
Jai Williams, co-founder of OptiGenix, is a Berkeley Haas Alum and former Division 1 NCAA student-athlete at Cal. As a member of the California Track and Field Team, Jai was a two-time podium finisher in the Pac-12 Conference of Champions and earned a place in the top 10 all-time high jumpers at Cal. OptiGenix was born out of a class at UC Berkeley, where Jai and his co-founder, Gabe Abbes, leveraged their experiences as athletes and the knowledge gained from their studies at Haas. Their personal struggles to maintain peak performance drove them to create OptiGenix, a company that provides athletes with personalized supplement solutions tailored to their unique biological needs and athletic goals, using at-home genetic and blood testing. Jai also holds certificates in Entrepreneurship and Start-Up Management from the Berkeley Extension and in Entrepreneurship and Technology from SCET.
Jai's Sessions
Berkeley Connect: Experience the World’s #1 Startup Ecosystem
Join us for an exclusive opportunity to engage with the innovative minds behind UC Berkeley’s top-ranked startup ecosystem. Recently named #1 by PitchBook for producing the most venture-backed companies and female founders, UC Berkeley is shaping the future of entrepreneurship. At this interactive Roundtable, visionary students from the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) will showcase their cutting-edge ventures in rapid demo pitches. Explore the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship (BMoE), SCET’s unique, journey-based approach to fostering entrepreneurial success, and discover the ‘secret sauce’ that propels Berkeley’s entrepreneurial leaders to the forefront of innovation.
Berkeley Connect: Experience the World’s #1 Startup Ecosystem (encore)
Join us for an exclusive opportunity to engage with the innovative minds behind UC Berkeley’s top-ranked startup ecosystem. Recently named #1 by PitchBook for producing the most venture-backed companies and female founders, UC Berkeley is shaping the future of entrepreneurship. At this interactive Roundtable, visionary students from the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) will showcase their cutting-edge ventures in rapid demo pitches. Explore the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship (BMoE), SCET’s unique, journey-based approach to fostering entrepreneurial success, and discover the ‘secret sauce’ that propels Berkeley’s entrepreneurial leaders to the forefront of innovation.
Rodney Williams is the Co-founder of SoLo Funds, the largest community finance platform in the US. SoLo has surpassed 1.5M loans funded and redefined access to capital and returns for over 2 million users. As the U.S.’s only Black led Certified B Corp fintech, SoLo continues its leadership, but grounded in the same hope and mission: to build a community that enables financial autonomy for all. Prior to SoLo, Rodney founded LISNR and led the company to over $40M in funding, numerous awards and partnership across retail and financial services. Rodney’s career started at Procter & Gamble where he was a critical catalyst in the company’s digital strategy. Rodney has won awards including Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 in 2012; Cannes Gold Lion award in 2015; and CNBC Disruptor 50 List in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2023.
Rodney's Sessions
Visa Everywhere Initiative: The Ultimate Fintech Pitch Competition
Fintech startups inspire—Visa enables. Join us at the Visa Emerging Innovators (VEI) program, where we celebrate the next generation of fintech pioneers. This year, we are thrilled to announce that we are doubling the prize to an incredible $100K! Visa has carefully selected five visionary startups from around the world, each poised to pitch their groundbreaking solutions to a distinguished panel of fintech industry leaders. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness the future of payments in action and discover how you can be part of the fintech revolution.
Sharon is a serial entrepreneur and company builder at venture studio Atomic specializing in the critical 0-1 phase of startup development. Her superpower is taking ideas and transforming them into successful companies. At Atomic, Sharon has been instrumental in ideating over 100 businesses, and building over a dozen companies to series A, leveraging her expertise working with engineering, design, growth, and business operations. Before joining Atomic, Sharon founded eight profitable companies across diverse industries, including entertainment, media, gaming, CPG, and SaaS, achieving two successful exits. Her background in industrial and robotics design and human-computer interaction from Carnegie Mellon University has equipped her with the skills to quickly understand and adapt to various markets. Sharon’s goal is to achieve product-market fit faster, making her a vital force in Atomic’s mission to build the next generation of market leading companies.
Sharon's Sessions
The 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.
Shane Witnov is the Privacy and Policy Director at Meta, where he leads a team of experts shaping Meta’s approach to AI. He collaborates closely with AI and policy experts, as well as internal product teams, to ensure the safe and responsible development of Meta’s AI products and to address novel data and AI challenges. He holds a J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law, as well as an M.S. in Computer Science and a B.A. in Philosophy and Religious Studies from Stanford University.
Shane's Sessions
The Advantages of "Open" AI
There’s increasing support in the AI industry for “open” AI models — models released under permissive licenses that can be repurposed for a range of applications. Standing in contrast to models gated behind paid services, open models are shaking up the AI status quo. The panel will discuss the specific ways how — and what the future might hold.
Allison worked with eBay, Google, and Meta for 20 years on corporate and product strategy, customer experience design, marketing, and movement building focused on sustainability, climate change solutions, and social impact. With growing concern about the rapid increase in catastrophic wildfire and its impact on communities and nature based climate solutions, Allison cofounded Vibrant Planet PBC in November 2020 to accelerate wildfire and climate resilience. Allison and her team of top scientists, and artificial intelligence (AI) engineers, and product developers have built a platform that combines applied AI to map nature and wildfire and climate risks at high resolution plus applied science and powerful analytics to “game out” where risk mitigation and ecological treatments can maximize wildfire and climate resilience, adaptively in rapidly changing conditions. Vibrant Planet’s platform is applicable in the half of land on earth that evolved with low intensity wildfire and where catastrophic wildfire is now rapidly increasing. The company serves the USDA Forest Service, CALFIRE, NGOs working on conservation and wildfire resilience building, utilities, counties, fire districts, and indigenous peoples. Vibrant Planet is backed by impact focused investors, including Ecosystem Integrity Fund, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Citi Impact Fund, Earthshot, Elemental Excelerator, SIG Climate, Meta CPO Chris Cox, among others.
Allison's Sessions
How Startups Can Save the World
Startup work and venture capital investing are usually judged through the lens of their financial results. The bigger a startup gets, the more it’s worth. But some upstart tech companies are also working on making the world better, while making money. So we want to know how far the ‘doing good’ can go while not giving up on the critical ‘making money’ side of building tech companies.
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
Deep Tech in Winter: How to Win Investors in 2024
Venture’s deep chill has been extra frigid for deep tech startups due to their reputation for long timelines and big capital needs. But investors are still game for deep tech startups that are smart about balancing product scope and time to market. Vertical integration and industrial scale ups are out; selling innovation into existing supply chains, now that’s smart. SOSV General Partners Duncan Turner, Dr. Pae Wu, and Po Bronson help oversee the launch of about 75 deep tech startups a year and work with hundreds of deep tech co-investors. They will discuss what’s getting investors to “yes” for deep tech investments now, and take questions from the audience.
Tamar Yehoshua oversees product strategy and development, design, and research at Slack. Previously, Tamar was a Vice President at Google holding product and engineering leadership roles on Google’s most important products, including Search, Identity and Privacy. Prior to that, Tamar was the Vice President of Advertising Technologies at Amazon’s A9. Tamar has a BA in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MSc in Computer Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Tamar's Sessions
How to Find, and Keep, Product-Market Fit
Every startup knows that they need to find product market fit. But once they do find true resonance between what they are offering and what there is demand for, how should a startup ensure that they do not lose the product-market fit that they have gained? Finding PMF is one thing; maintaining it is another.
Christine is co-founder and CEO of Honeycomb.io, the observability platform that enables engineering teams to find and solve problems they couldn’t before. Christine delights in being a developer in a room full of ops folks. Before founding Honeycomb, she built analytics products at Parse/Facebook, and loved writing software to separate signal from noise.
Christine's Sessions
The Age of Technical Engineering Founders: How they are Driving AI Innovation
In the evolving AI landscape, innovation is being powered by solutions to deeply technical problems that require leaders to take on a much more hands-on, technical approach. We have moved away from the business founder/CEOs of the past and into a new age where engineering-founders are increasingly more common. This panel, composed of leaders from Honeycomb, MinIO, Atlan and Yugabyte will discuss why engineering skills are critical for the modern leader’s role. They will share specific examples of important skill sets, and how founders can position themselves for long-term success as technology leaders in the future.
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
What You Need to Raise a Series A (and Beyond) Today
If you aren’t building the next foundation model AI company, raising a Series A today is likely harder than it has been in some time. So, to help founders building at the Seed-stage prepare for their first lettered-round, we’ve rounded up investors to explain what they – and their firms – are looking for in their next Series A deals.
Jerry Yue is the founder and CEO of Brain.ai. He is co-inventor of the first consumer generative interface and pioneered many new methods of one-shot learning NLP, which is the foundation of LLMs such as GPT. Prior to Brain, Jerry co-founded one of the largest grocery delivery apps in Asia at age 20, with 3000 employees and US$1 billion in revenue. He started coding at age 7 and was named “30 under 30” by Forbes in 2022.
Jerry's Sessions
Architecting the Future: Building Hardware for an AI-Native World
AI-driven hardware is transforming enterprise operations. This panel discussion will address the complexities of building AI-native ecosystems, the role of generative AI in reshaping enterprise technology, and the practical implications for developing scalable AI solutions. Our moderator Lee Ott from HP’s AI Innovation team will be joined by Carl Pei (Nothing phone), Jerry Yue (Brain.ai) and Mark Solomon (Co-Founder, Stealth Startup), who will provide insights into the next generation of AI-powered hardware and its potential to drive business innovation.
Sangeen is a general partner at GV, focusing on high-growth AI and enterprise investments. He works with both early and late-stage startups. Sangeen is part of the boards at Harvey, OpenEvidence, and Vercel. His other AI investments include Thinking Machines and Hebbia. Before joining GV in 2021, Sangeen was an investor with Founders Circle Capital, where he helped lead the firm’s investments in Databricks, Robinhood (IPO), Confluent (IPO), Segment (acquired by Twilio), UiPath (IPO), Cohesity, Algolia and Attentive. He spent over five years at Centerview Capital, where he sourced investments in Affirmed Networks (acquired by Microsoft) and Sauce Labs (acquired by TPG), and began his investment career at Summit Partners.
Sangeen's Sessions
The 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.
Jingna Zhang is the founder and CEO of Cara, a social and portfolio sharing app for artists and fans with more than one million users in its MVP. Prior to Cara, Jingna was a fashion and fine art photographer for magazines like Vogue, Elle, and Harper’s Bazaar, the founder of an esports team, and a Singapore Olympic team candidate in air rifle. She is a strong advocate for copyright protection for all creatives, and believes that the future of our internet will be built upon a strong desire for authentic content, connections, and communities. In her free time, Jingna is directing an indie anime short film.
Jingna's Sessions
Navigating AI's Legal and Ethical Minefield
AI’s meteoric rise has created new ethical dilemmas and exacerbated old ones, while lawsuits drop left and right. This threatens both new and established AI companies, and the creators and workers whose labor feeds the models. A panel of experts in AI, copyright, and ethics take on this complex and fast-moving problem space.
Colin is the CEO and co-founder of Omni, a data tool for everyone from spreadsheet users to SQL experts and data modelers. Colin has decades of experience leading product and data teams at Looker, Google, and HotelTonight. Colin’s been applying data since he wrote his college thesis on in-game NFL sports betting.
Colin's Sessions
Beyond Snowflake and Databricks: Insights from the Frontlines of Data Transformation Disruption
By 2025 our global data volume will reach 175 zetabytes, a figure that is 50% more than 2023. But while the wealth of data grows, it remains unwieldy to use. Poor data quality costs organizations an average of $12.9M annually. As organizations grapple with the exponential growth of data, they need better data transformation solutions to process it.
The worldwide spending on such digital transformation solutions is forecasted to reach $3.9 trillion by 2027. In other words, the market is ripe for challenging the status quo, even despite the continued growth of data darlings Snowflake and Databricks.
Tomasz can speak to the future of data in the context of SF and DB’s direct competition, and how startups are tackling these challenges head-on amidst the acceleration of two industry giants.
