Thousands of applications. Multiple reviews. We’ve spent hundreds of hours evaluating startups around the world. Now comes the part everyone has been waiting for.
The Startup Battlefield 200 is just around the corner, and with today’s announcement, the judging panel is almost complete. In just a few weeks, 200 carefully selected startups will gather at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 to showcase, meet investors, and compete for one of the startup world’s most coveted opportunities. Only a select group will advance to a live competition, where they will pitch in front of thousands of founders, investors, media and customers, and face questions from some of the sharpest minds in technology.
Today’s judges bring decades of experience building companies, supporting founders, and discovering transformative ideas before they become obvious. They will help determine which startups will continue their journey to the Startup Battlefield finals and ultimately who will have a chance to hoist this year’s trophy. If you want to see tomorrow’s industry leaders before the rest of the world, there’s no better place than TechCrunch Disrupt.
The only way to be on the front lines of the Disrupt Stage and witness this year’s ultimate pitch competition is to register for TechCrunch Disrupt. Pick up your pass and bring your co-founder, partner, or colleague for 50% off. Want to bring a community of 4 or more people? Save up to 30% on passes.
Introducing the next Startup Battlefield judge
Visit the Disrupt agenda to learn about the 20 judges announced so far. Please look forward to the final announcement. There, five judges will be announced who will evaluate the finalists and decide who will take home the $100,000 non-stock prize and the coveted Disrupt Cup.
Caleb Appleton, Partner, Bison Ventures
Caleb Appleton is a partner at Bison Ventures, investing in physical AI across technobio, robotics, and real-world intelligence. A biomedical engineer by training, his investments include Cobot, Vivodyne, Passkey, Sleuth, Inner Logic, Cosmon, and Grid Aero. Previously, Appleton invested in frontier technologies at Innovation Endeavors and spent several years as an operator at TuneIn, with experience spanning early stage science, venture investing, and scaling technology businesses.
Sara Deshpande, General Partner, Maven Ventures
Sara Deshpande is a general partner at Maven Ventures, where she invests in seed-stage companies built around emerging consumer behaviors and trends. She focuses on consumer software across consumer applications in digital health and AI. Mr. Deshpande joined Maven as its first employee in 2014 and spent 10 years in venture capital. She received her MBA from Stanford University and currently teaches courses on startups and entrepreneurship.
Aatish Nayak, Kleiner Perkins Partner
Aatish Nayak joined Kleiner Perkins as a partner in May 2026 and is focused on partnering with AI-native founders with deep expertise across all verticals.
Prior to joining Kleiner Perkins, Nayak served as Harvey’s first PM and Vice President of Product, where he helped build the company’s initial product, design, marketing, analytics, and support teams. Previously, he was an early product lead at Scale AI, working on e-commerce, early NLP (GPT-2), and autonomous vehicle data infrastructure. And before that, at Shield AI, he worked on the core knowledge stack for life-saving robotic defense systems.
Jason Risch, Partner at Greylock
Jason Risch is a partner at Greylock, investing in enterprise security, AI and ML infrastructure, data platforms, and developer tools. His portfolio includes Onehouse, a cloud-native managed lakehouse platform, and Baseten, an ML model delivery toolkit for data science teams. Prior to Greylock, Risch worked in business operations at Opendoor, as a management consultant in McKinsey’s Bay Area office, and as a startup builder at AI Fund. He studied mathematics and computational science at Stanford University.
Mark Xu, Partner, Index Ventures
Mark Xu is a partner at Index Ventures, where he invests in all stages of cybersecurity, infrastructure, and AI. He has supported companies building on the forefront of AI, including Fireworks, Parallel, 7AI, Simile, and Flapping Airplanes, and previously worked as a growth investor at Lightspeed, supporting companies such as Wiz, Glean, and Grafana. Xu is looking for highly skilled founders who combine domain expertise, hard work, and customer obsession.
Get the Disrupt Pass and don’t miss Startup Battlefield
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will be held from October 13th to 15th at Moscone West in San Francisco, bringing together more than 10,000 technology leaders, venture capitalists, and founders to meet the next generation of breakout startups, connect with leaders who can change the trajectory of startups, and get a front-row seat to where the industry is headed.
Register now to save up to $100 before Disrupt’s doors open and get a 50% off second pass to co-founders, colleagues, and colleagues. Join us to experience everything Disrupt has to offer, from six industry stages, roundtables, and breakout sessions to the startups and connections shaping what’s next in the tech industry.
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