TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will once again feature the Builders Stage, bringing together founders, startup executives, and investors for practical conversations about what it takes to build and scale successful companies.
Hear from startup and venture leaders shaping the technology ecosystem, including Grant Lee, CEO and co-founder of Gamma. Leah Solivan, Founder and General Partner of Precedent.vc. Robbie Stein, Vice President of Product, Google. And so on. Through candid conversations and real-world case studies, speakers will share practical insights on funding, recruiting, go-to-market strategies, AI, and operational decisions that drive startup growth.
Join over 10,000 founders, investors, startup executives, and technology leaders October 13-15 at Moscone Center in San Francisco. Register now and save up to $330 before ticket prices increase.
Built for founders ready to scale up
Building a startup is one thing. Building a company that can scale is an entirely different challenge. The Builders Stage is one of six industry-focused stages at Disrupt 2026, dedicated to helping founders navigate growth challenges, from raising capital and hiring top talent to building a go-to-market engine and preparing to jump from seed to Series A.
All sessions will provide you with practical strategies you can put into practice right away, as well as the opportunity to interact directly with the speakers during live Q&A. Secure your pass to Disrupt 2026 now and save up to $330 before prices increase.
Without further ado, here’s our first look at the Builders Stage agenda. More speakers and sessions will be announced as the event approaches.
Builders Stage Agenda
How to win when you’re not building AI
With investment manager Baillie Gifford’s Xiang Xiang. Yuri Sagalov, Managing Director of General Catalyst
AI may dominate the venture world, but many surviving companies will not be those selling AI models or agents. This session is aimed at founders competing for attention in an AI-obsessed market. Panelists will analyze what really matters today, including efficient growth, retention, quality of earnings, disciplined execution, and why fundamentals, not hype, are still building breakthrough businesses.
What happens when OpenAI ships a roadmap?
With Airbyte CEO and co-founder Michelle Torico. Rob Toews, Partner, Radical Ventures, and Linda Tong, CEO of Webflow
Almost every AI founder has the same worries these days. What if OpenAI or Anthropic launches a product that competes with mine? Even a strong product runs the risk of becoming a hallmark of a large company. This session explores where the defenses lie and what founders can do when faced with competition from rapidly evolving AI giants.
Get pre-seed without product
With Puneet Agarwal, Managing Partner of True Ventures. Austin Clements, Managing Partner, Slauson and Co. and Sandhya Venkatachalam, Founder and Managing Partner of Axiom Partners.
Founders are increasingly expected to compete for capital even before they have a product. At the pre-seed stage, investors are betting on the story, beliefs, and market fit with the founders. This session details how to build credibility before revenue is generated so investors can skip the initial check.
From MVP to billions of users: Product decisions need to change at scale
With Robby Stein, Vice President of Product at Google
If your instincts get the better of you when you first build a minimum viable product, it can become dysfunctional at a billion user scale. In this Fireside, Robbie Stein shares how product decisions change when every update impacts billions of users. Hear how our team balances speed and trust, innovation and reliability at one of the world’s largest product organizations.
Hiring when AI is a co-founder
Josh Reeves, CEO and Co-Founder of Gusto, and other speakers to be announced
Early-stage companies are no longer just building with AI. They’re hiring it. The initial definition of a team is being rewritten as AI agents take over engineering, support, and operations roles. This session explores how founders decide what humans should own and what they should delegate to AI, and how high-growth startups are building hybrid teams without losing speed, responsibility, and culture.
M&A is now an early stage strategy
With Karl Alomar, Managing Partner of M13. Aklil Ibssa, Head of Corporate Development and M&A at Coinbase. and Lindsay Mignano, Founder, Mignano Law Group
Today’s smartest founders aren’t just building companies for an IPO. They’re also building with acquisition potential in mind from day one. As exits change and capital tightens, understanding M&A early has become a competitive advantage. This session details how founders can create the potential for such options through product strategy and partnerships. We take a deep dive into how big-budget outcomes actually happen in startups, even for small businesses.
Series A in 2027
Jahanvi Sardana, Partner, Index Ventures; Shailendra Singh, Managing Director, Peak XV. and Bessemer Partner Janelle Ten Weid.
Series A is becoming increasingly difficult and VCs are becoming more and more demanding. For founders planning to raise money in the next year or two, this session will break down what “fundable” actually means in 2027. Hear how top investors are currently redefining the metrics, teams, and traction that matter, how outdated funding strategies are no longer working, and how companies can separate themselves from the crowd in the next funding cycle.
90 Day GTM: Why $0-$10M ARR is the new baseline (and how to actually get there)
With Ryan Meadows, Chief Revenue Officer, Lovable. Tomasz Tunguz, General Partner and Founder, Theory Ventures. More speakers to be announced
The definition of traction has changed. What once took years can now be expected in months, with $0 to $10 million ARR becoming the new early-stage baseline. In this session, we’ll discuss how AI-powered execution, faster delivery, and changing investor expectations are compressing GTM timelines, and the tactical steps founders need in their first 90 days to accelerate revenue and stand out quickly.
Real Tokenmaxxing: How the best AI companies navigate a multi-model world
With Capital G Partner Mo Jamma. Zuzanna Stamilovska, Pathway CEO and co-founder. More speakers to be announced
The frontier is moving faster than any single model can keep up, and the teams building the most successful AI products are increasingly orchestrating across many models rather than betting on just one. This panel brings together the founders and operators at the center of that change to discuss how to evaluate new models, manage cost and reliability at scale, and design products that can evolve as quickly as the underlying technology.
PMF red flags: How to tell if you’re really infected
With Rajeev Dham, Partner at Sapphire Ventures. Rahul Vohra, Founder and Head of Superhuman Mail. More speakers to be announced
In the AI hype cycle, signals about product-market fit are easy to fake and difficult to trust. Founders mistake early excitement, spikes in usage, and pilot wins for lasting traction. In this session, we’ll dive into what a fake PMF actually looks like, how investors and executives can differentiate between real retention and hyped adoption, and the signals that indicate whether a company has real attraction or just a passing momentum.
The Zero to 1,000 Handbook: How to Get Your First 1,000 Customers with No Marketing Budget
Grant Lee, CEO and Co-Founder of Gamma, and Leah Solivan, Founder and General Partner of Precedent.vc.
Early customer acquisition is not a marketing expense. It’s founder-driven distribution and relentless execution. Most zero-first startups have no budget, brand, or scale, only urgency and creativity. This session details how founders are acquiring their first customers through community building, product-led growth, founder-led sales, strategic outbound, and word-of-mouth momentum.
Yes, being a founder is tough: An honest conversation
With Nell Daly, co-founder and managing partner of Revenge Capital. David H. Rosmarin, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School. and Jack Withinshaw, co-founder and chief commercial officer of Airspeeder.
Starting a company is both strategic and psychologically demanding, and most founder stories underestimate that reality. In this candid conversation, founders and mental performance experts uncover the hidden costs of high-growth environments, from burnout and decision fatigue to identity strains due to sustained pressure, and share the systems, habits, and mental frameworks that help leaders endure and perform at high levels.
Thus, a hit product was born. How will your company make it happen again?
With Filip Kaliszan, CEO and co-founder of Verkada. More speakers to be announced
Most startups stall because they build a single great product rather than a repeatable multi-product engine. Join a venture capitalist and two founders as they uncover precise operational strategies for allocating capital, codifying internal innovation, and designing a composite “Second Act” before the core product growth curve flattens.
Hiring, compensation and culture in the most competitive market in history
With Matt Birnbaum, founder of Wylder.co. Atli Thorkelsson, VP of Talent Networks, Redpoint Ventures, more speakers to be announced
There is no doubt that the growth of AI startups is making recruitment and retention more difficult for all technology companies. From competing for AI talent to secondary sales, founders are rethinking their startup’s human infrastructure. As recruitment, incentives, and employee expectations rapidly evolve, this session explores how companies are adapting compensation, culture, and team-building strategies to attract and retain top talent in a fundamentally changed startup environment.
How to generate and exploit viral growth
With Cal AI founder Zach Yadegali
Startups can go from zero to viral overnight, but maintaining that momentum is a whole other challenge. In this hearth, Zach Yadegari shares how Cal AI navigated the realities of rapid growth, product pressures, and distribution-driven market building. Hear the lessons behind turning explosive attention into lasting retention and long-term company building.
High Confidence Filter: What We Learned from the Battlefield
Alexa Von Tobel, Inspired Capital and other speakers to be announced
What separated the companies that rose to prominence at Disrupt 2026 from the rest? In this candid report, Battlefield judges unravel the trends and founder qualities that stood out in real time, from shifting investor expectations to the stories that resonated most this year. The conversation also explores how startup storytelling is evolving and what happens after being in the spotlight, including the realities of maintaining momentum and surviving a critical 12 months after a big launch, funding round, or appearance on Battlefield.
Join the conversation and make connections with Disrupt
If you’re ready to build smarter, scale faster, and learn from the leaders who are shaping the future of startups, secure your pass to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 now and save up to $330 before prices increase.
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