For founders, the Startup Battlefield 200 is one of the biggest moments of their careers. For everyone watching TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, this is one of the best ways to see how great companies are actually valued by VCs.
The pitch competition for this startup is as fierce as you might imagine. From October 13th to 15th at Moscone West in San Francisco, all hand-picked founders will have six minutes to make their case, but the most revealing moment often comes after the presentation ends. That’s when the judges start asking questions that every investor, customer, and prospective employee will ultimately want answers to. Can this team execute? Is the market big enough? Why now? What is defensible? These conversations are just as valuable to the thousands of founders watching from the audience as they are to the companies on stage.
That’s why we continue to build one of the strongest panels of judges in Startup Battlefield history. Today, we’re excited to introduce you to another group of five top investors who help us identify companies that have the potential to be tomorrow’s breakout success stories.
Join Startup Battlefield contestants and VC judges on the main stage with over 10,000 technology leaders attending Disrupt and watch the next generation of startups compete for a place in TechCrunch history. Register now and save up to $200 on passes before the price increases on September 25th at 11:59pm PT.
The following five VCs will decide which candidates advance to the Startup Battlefield
Now, meet the following investors who will determine which early-stage founder wins a $100,000 prize. Get to know these judges, along with the first 10 already announced on the Disrupt agenda.
Vaibhav ‘Dr.V’ Agrawal, ODDBIRD VC Co-Founder and General Partner
Dr. V is a co-founder and general partner of ODDBIRD VC, a pre-seed fund founded in 2024 to support AI companies reindustrializing in the Western world, with a focus on medical and bio, critical supply chains, and real-world automation. Mr. Agrawal, who is also a trained physician with an MBBS degree, holds an MBA from Stanford University and was previously a general partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners India, where he backed early stage startups since 2016. His current portfolio includes Anterior, a healthcare AI company that raised $64 million from NEA and Sequoia.
Anu Bharadwaj, ICONIQ Partner
Anu Bharadwaj is a partner at ICONIQ, focused on enterprise software and AI companies. Prior to joining ICONIQ, Bharadwaj served as President and COO of Atlassian for nearly 12 years, leading product, engineering, and enterprise businesses across Jira, Confluence, and Atlassian Cloud platforms as the company grew to billions in annual revenue. She previously held leadership roles at Microsoft and holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from RV College of Engineering.
Sho Sho Leigha Ho, Partner, General Catalyst
Sho Sho Leigha Ho is a partner on General Catalyst’s Seed team, investing in early-stage founders. She serves as a board observer for Together AI. She joined General Catalyst in 2024 as its youngest partner. Her public investments include Graylark, Autoscience, Standard Kernel, and Interaction Company of California (Poke), which Cognition acquired in July 2026. She received her BA from Harvard University and is based in San Francisco.
Miloni Madan Pressler, Partner, IVP
Miloni Madan Presler is a partner at IVP (Institutional Venture Partners), working with first-time founders building transitional technology companies in enterprise software, healthcare, and security from Series B to Pre-IPO. She brings a disciplined growth equity and private equity perspective to building the company, formed by her early roles at Summit Partners and Warburg Pincus. Pressler holds a degree in economics and finance from Johns Hopkins University and speaks four languages.
Aidan Madigan-Curtis, Partner at Eclipse Ventures
Aidan Madigan-Curtis is a partner at Eclipse Ventures, which invests in AI, IoT, computer vision, and software solutions for manufacturing, logistics, supply chain, and climate change. Named one of Business Insider’s 22 Investors to Know in Robotics and Physical AI, she leads Eclipse’s carbon optimization framework to track real emissions reductions across the company’s portfolio. Prior to starting his venture, Mr. Madigan-Curtis was a senior executive at Apple, where he scaled Apple Watch manufacturing from zero to millions of units per week, and served as Vice President and General Manager at Samsara, where he helped grow the company from pre-revenue to over $1 billion in ARR. She holds a BA from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford University.
Save on Disrupt tickets and don’t miss Startup Battlefield 200
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will take place October 13-15 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. You can save up to $200 on tickets before the price increases on September 25th at 11:59pm PT. Save an additional 30% when you register as a group.
If you make a purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect editorial independence.
