TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Unveils Comprehensive Builders Stage Agenda for Scaling Startups

The Builders Stage is poised for its highly anticipated return to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, creating an essential forum for founders, startup operators, and investors. This dedicated stage focuses on fostering practical conversations and delivering actionable insights crucial for building and scaling successful companies in today’s dynamic technology landscape. Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the strategies and operational decisions that fuel sustainable startup growth.

The event, scheduled for October 13-15 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, promises to unite over 10,000 founders, investors, startup operators, and technology leaders. It offers an unparalleled opportunity for networking, learning, and collaboration within the global tech ecosystem. The agenda features an impressive lineup of startup and venture leaders who are actively shaping the future of technology. Among the distinguished speakers are Grant Lee, CEO and co-founder of Gamma; Leah Solivan, founder and general partner at Precedent.vc; and Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google. These experts, alongside many others, will lead candid conversations and present real-world case studies, sharing invaluable insights across critical areas such as fundraising, hiring, go-to-market strategy, the pervasive influence of artificial intelligence, and the day-to-day operational decisions that underpin long-term success. Prospective attendees are encouraged to register today to secure their passes and benefit from early-bird savings before the next ticket price increase.

Building a startup from an initial idea is a significant achievement, but transforming that startup into a company capable of sustained growth and scaling presents an entirely different set of challenges. The Builders Stage is meticulously crafted to address these advanced hurdles. As one of six specialized, industry-focused stages at Disrupt 2026, it is specifically dedicated to guiding founders through the intricate journey of growth. This includes navigating the complexities of raising subsequent rounds of capital, attracting and retaining top-tier talent, developing robust go-to-market engines, and strategically preparing for the pivotal leap from seed-stage funding to a successful Series A round. Each session on the Builders Stage is designed to deliver immediate, practical strategies that attendees can implement within their own ventures. Furthermore, the format encourages direct engagement with speakers through live Q&A segments, ensuring that participants can delve into specific challenges and receive personalized advice. Securing a pass to Disrupt 2026 now offers a substantial saving of up to $330, an incentive for founders and operators ready to invest in their company’s future before rates escalate.

The Builders Stage agenda promises a rich array of topics, reflecting the most pressing issues confronting startups today:

How to Win When You’re Not Building AI
This session, featuring Shan Shan, Investment Manager at Baillie Gifford, and Yuri Sagalov, Managing Director at General Catalyst, tackles the prevailing AI obsession within the venture capital world. It acknowledges that while AI dominates headlines and investment, many truly enduring companies will emerge outside the direct development of AI models or agents. Tailored for founders vying for attention in an AI-saturated market, panelists will dissect what truly matters in this environment: achieving efficient growth, ensuring strong customer retention, cultivating high-quality revenue streams, and maintaining disciplined execution. The discussion will underscore why fundamental business principles, rather than fleeting hype cycles, remain the bedrock for building breakout businesses.

What Happens When OpenAI Ships Your Roadmap
Michel Tricot, CEO and Co-founder of Airbyte; Rob Toews, Partner at Radical Ventures; and Linda Tong, CEO of Webflow, will confront a common anxiety among AI founders: the risk of major players like OpenAI or Anthropic launching competing products. This session will explore how even strong, innovative products are vulnerable to becoming mere features within larger platforms. Panelists will delve into strategies for establishing and maintaining defensibility in a rapidly evolving AI landscape, offering insights on how founders can protect their innovations and thrive amidst formidable competition.

Building the Next Generation of AI Giants
Jas Khaira, Global Head of Blackstone N1, will share crucial perspectives on the accelerated scaling trajectory and increased capital demands characteristic of today’s AI startups. Khaira will illuminate the distinguishing factors between companies with early momentum and those built for long-term endurance. The session will guide founders on strategic capital management as they scale and reveal what Blackstone actively seeks when identifying and backing the next generation of category-defining AI businesses.

Competing for AI Talent: Pay, Equity, and Retention
With Matt Birnbaum, Founder of Wylder.co; Ioana Hreninciuc of Runware; and Atli Thorkelsson, VP of Talent Network at Redpoint Ventures, this panel will address the intense competition for talent exacerbated by the AI boom. The growth of AI startups has made hiring and retention significantly more challenging across the entire tech industry. Founders are compelled to re-evaluate the human infrastructure of their companies, from competing for specialized AI talent to navigating secondary sales. This session will explore how companies are adapting their compensation structures, fostering robust cultures, and refining team-building strategies to attract and retain top talent in a fundamentally altered market landscape where incentives and employee expectations are rapidly evolving.

Winning Pre-Seed Without a Product
Puneet Agarwal, Managing Partner at True Ventures; Austin Clements, Managing Partner at Slauson and Co; and Sandhya Venkatachalam, Founder and Managing Partner at Axiom Partners, will guide founders through the nuances of securing pre-seed capital without a fully developed product. In this early stage, investors primarily back the founder’s compelling story, unwavering conviction, and strong founder-market fit. This session will provide a comprehensive breakdown of how to build credibility and demonstrate potential before revenue streams exist, thereby persuading investors to write that crucial first check.

From MVP to Billions of Users: How Product Decisions Must Change at Scale
In a fireside chat, Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google, will offer an intimate look at the dramatic shift in product decision-making when scaling from a minimum viable product (MVP) to a platform serving billions of users. The instincts that prove successful in early development can become detrimental at massive scale. Stein will share how teams balance the imperative for speed with the necessity of user trust, and how innovation must coexist with reliability within one of the world’s largest product organizations.

Hiring When AI Is a Co-Founder
Josh Reeves, CEO and Co-founder of Gusto, will lead a discussion on a groundbreaking shift in early-stage company building. Beyond simply utilizing AI, companies are now effectively "hiring" it as a co-founder. As AI agents increasingly take on roles in engineering, support, and operations, the very definition of an early team is being fundamentally rewritten. This session will explore how founders are strategically deciding which responsibilities humans should retain and which can be delegated to AI, and how high-growth startups are constructing hybrid teams without compromising speed, accountability, or company culture.

Rebuilding Consumer Products for the AI Era
Maria Angelidou-Smith, CPO of Reddit, will join other leaders from companies like Square and Uber to discuss how AI is not merely adding features but fundamentally compelling product teams to rethink core user behaviors across search, discovery, communication, travel, and decision-making. The session will explore how these leaders are redesigning products used by millions, what users genuinely seek from AI, and where product leaders must resist the temptation to automate every aspect of the user experience.

M&A Is Now an Early-Stage Strategy
Karl Alomar, Managing Partner at M13, and Lindsey Mignano, Founder of Mignano Law Group, will highlight a critical evolution in startup strategy. Today’s astute founders are not solely building for future IPOs; they are also strategically developing their companies with potential acquisitions in mind from day one. As exit opportunities shift and capital access tightens, an early understanding of M&A dynamics has become a significant competitive advantage. This session will dissect how founders can cultivate the possibility of an early exit through proactive product strategy and strategic partnerships, revealing the mechanics behind significant startup outcomes, even for smaller companies.

The Series A in 2027
Jahanvi Sardana, Partner at Index Ventures; Shailendra Singh, Managing Director at Peak XV; and Janelle Teng Wade, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, will provide a forward-looking analysis of the Series A funding landscape. With venture capitalists becoming increasingly demanding, securing a Series A round is growing more challenging. For founders aiming to raise capital in the next one to two years, this session will clarify what "fundable" will truly signify in 2027. Attendees will learn how leading investors are redefining the essential metrics, team compositions, and traction indicators that matter now, identify outdated fundraising playbooks that no longer work, and discover strategies for companies to differentiate themselves in the upcoming funding cycle.

The 90-Day GTM: Why $0–$10M ARR Is the New Baseline (and How to Actually Get There)
Ryan Meadows, Chief Revenue Officer at Lovable; Tomasz Tunguz, General Partner and Founder at Theory Ventures; and Ben Broca, Founder at Polsia, will address the dramatically altered definition of traction in the startup world. What once took years to achieve is now expected in a matter of months, with $0 to $10 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) increasingly becoming the new early-stage baseline. This session will break down how AI-enabled execution, accelerated distribution channels, and shifting investor expectations are compressing go-to-market timelines. Founders will gain insight into the tactical levers they need to pull within the first 90 days to rapidly accelerate revenue and stand out in a crowded market.

The Real Tokenmaxxing: How the Best AI Companies Navigate a Multi-Model World
Mo Jomaa, Partner at Capital G, and Zuzanna Stamirowska, CEO and Co-founder of Pathway, will lead a discussion on the evolving reality of AI development. The frontier of AI is advancing at a pace no single model can consistently match. Consequently, the most successful AI product teams are increasingly orchestrating solutions across multiple models rather than solely relying on one. This panel will convene founders and operators at the forefront of this shift to discuss their methodologies for evaluating new models, managing cost and reliability at scale, and architecting products that can adapt as swiftly as the underlying technology evolves.

Revealing AI Disruptors 60: What Can AI Do Next?
Shay Grinfield of Greenfield Partners will explore the critical shift in the AI conversation from what models can say to what they can actually do. This session will delve into the emergence of agents capable of navigating the open web and completing tasks, AI systems undertaking increasingly ambitious research, intelligent machines operating beyond digital screens, and the new infrastructure layer making this all possible at scale. Grinfield will engage with founders building in these nascent areas to differentiate current realities from future possibilities, pinpointing where the most significant new opportunities are taking shape. The conversation will culminate in the unveiling of Greenfield Partners’ 2026 AI Disruptors 60 list, spotlighting companies that Greenfield and TechCrunch believe are pushing AI into unprecedented territories.

PMF Red Flags: How to Tell If You Really Have It
Rajeev Dham, Managing Director at Sapphire Ventures, and Rahul Vohra, Founder and Head of Superhuman Mail, will provide crucial guidance on discerning genuine product-market fit (PMF) from misleading signals. In the current AI hype cycle, PMF indicators are more susceptible to fabrication and harder to trust. Founders may mistakenly interpret early excitement, temporary usage spikes, and successful pilot programs as durable traction. This session will meticulously break down the characteristics of false PMF, offering insights into how investors and operators differentiate authentic retention from hype-driven adoption, and identify the true signals that indicate a company possesses genuine market pull rather than transient momentum.

The Zero-to-1K Playbook: How to Get Your First 1,000 Customers Without a Marketing Budget
Grant Lee, CEO and Co-founder of Gamma; Leah Solivan, Founder and General Partner at Precedent.vc; and Elia Wallen, Founder and CEO of Engine, will share actionable strategies for early customer acquisition that prioritize founder-led distribution and relentless execution over substantial marketing spend. Most startups in the zero-to-one phase lack significant budget, established brand recognition, or scale, relying instead on urgency and creative problem-solving. This session will detail how founders are successfully acquiring their initial customers through effective community building, product-led growth initiatives, direct founder-led sales, targeted strategic outbound efforts, and cultivating powerful word-of-mouth momentum.

Yes, It’s Hard to Be a Founder: An Honest Conversation
Nell Daly, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Revenge Capital; David H. Rosmarin, Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School; and Jack Withinshaw, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Airspeeder, will engage in a candid discussion about the often-understated psychological demands of company building. Beyond the strategic challenges, the entrepreneurial journey is intensely taxing. This session will unpack the hidden costs of high-growth environments, including burnout, decision fatigue, and the identity strain imposed by sustained pressure. Panelists will share vital systems, habits, and mental frameworks that enable leaders to endure and perform at a high level amidst these challenges.

So You’ve Got a Hit Product. How Does Your Company Do It Again?
Filip Kaliszan, CEO and Co-founder of Verkada; Aaron Jacobson, Partner at New Enterprise Associates; and Maddi Holman, General Partner at Daring Ventures, will address a common pitfall for startups: stalling after developing a single successful product instead of establishing a repeatable multi-product engine. This session will reveal the precise operational playbook for sustained innovation, covering strategic capital allocation, systematizing internal innovation processes, and engineering a compounding "Second Act" before the core product’s growth curve begins to flatten.

Hiring, Compensation and Culture in the Most Competitive Market Ever
Matt Birnbaum, Founder of Wylder.co, and Atli Thorkelsson, VP, Talent Network, Redpoint Ventures, will expand on the unprecedented challenges in talent acquisition and retention across the tech industry. The rapid growth of AI startups has intensified competition, making it more difficult for all companies to attract and keep top talent. From navigating fierce bidding wars for AI expertise to managing secondary sales of equity, founders are fundamentally re-evaluating their human infrastructure. As hiring practices, incentive structures, and employee expectations undergo rapid evolution, this session will delve into how companies are innovatively adapting their compensation packages, fostering resilient cultures, and refining team-building strategies to secure and retain leading talent in a fundamentally changed startup environment.

How to Create Viral Growth and Capitalize On It
Zach Yadegari, Founder of Cal AI, will share insights in a fireside chat on the dual challenge of achieving viral growth and sustaining that momentum. While startups can explode into popularity overnight, capitalizing on that initial surge and translating it into long-term success is a distinct hurdle. Yadegari will recount Cal AI’s journey through rapid growth, intense product pressure, and the realities of building in a distribution-driven market. Attendees will learn the critical lessons behind converting fleeting breakout attention into durable customer retention and foundational company building.

The High-Conviction Filter: What We Learned From the Battlefield
Alexa von Tobel of Inspired Capital and Chi-Hua Chien, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Goodwater Capital, will offer a candid debrief from their experience as Startup Battlefield judges. This session will explore what truly distinguishes breakout companies from the rest at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Judges will unpack the emerging trends and founder qualities that resonated most in real-time, from shifting investor expectations to the narratives that captivated attention. The conversation will also delve into how startup storytelling is evolving and, critically, what transpires after the spotlight fades, including the realities of maintaining momentum and surviving the crucial 12 months following a major launch, funding round, or Startup Battlefield appearance.

Ask the Investors
A distinguished panel including Stacy Brown-Philpot, Founder & Managing Partner at Cherryrock Capital; Chi-Hua Chien, Co-founder & Managing Partner, Goodwater Capital; Dayna Grayson, Construct Capital; Carter Reum, Co-founder and Managing Partner, M13; and Alexa Von Tobel, Inspired Capital, will host an audience-led Q&A. This unique session offers a direct line to Startup Battlefield finals judges, allowing attendees to pose their toughest questions on what truly differentiates a fundable startup. Topics will cover team dynamics, demonstrable traction, market opportunity assessment, pitch delivery efficacy, identifying red flags, and more. Attendees are encouraged to come prepared with questions to receive candid answers directly from the investors making critical funding decisions.

For founders, operators, and investors eager to build smarter, scale faster, and learn directly from the visionary leaders shaping the future of startups, securing a pass to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 today is an essential step. The event provides an unparalleled platform for invaluable conversations, strategic insights, and critical connections within the global tech community.