Hundreds of functions. A number of rounds of evaluation. A whole bunch of hours spent evaluating startups from all over the world. Now comes the half everybody has been ready for.
Startup Battlefield 200 is sort of right here, and with in the present day’s announcement, the judging panel is sort of full. In simply a few weeks, 200 rigorously chosen startups will collect at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 to exhibit, meet buyers, and compete for one of the crucial coveted alternatives within the startup world. Solely a choose group will advance to the reside competitors, the place they’ll pitch in entrance of hundreds of founders, buyers, media, and clients and face questions from a number of the sharpest minds in expertise.
At the moment’s judges deliver many years of expertise constructing corporations, backing founders, and recognizing transformative concepts earlier than they develop into apparent. They’ll assist resolve which startups proceed their journey towards the Startup Battlefield finals and, finally, who has an opportunity to elevate this 12 months’s trophy. If you wish to see tomorrow’s trade leaders earlier than the remainder of the world does, there’s no higher place to be than TechCrunch Disrupt.
The one strategy to be entrance and heart on the Disrupt Stage and witness the final word pitch competitors of the 12 months is to register for TechCrunch Disrupt. Seize your move and bring your co-founder, partner, or peer for 50% off. Bringing a group of 4 or extra? Save up to 30% on passes.
Meet the subsequent wave of Startup Battlefield judges
Get to know all 20 judges revealed to this point by visiting the Disrupt agenda. Keep tuned for the ultimate announcement, the place we’ll unveil the 5 judges who will consider the finalists and decide who takes house the $100,000 equity-free prize and coveted Disrupt Cup.
Caleb Appleton, Accomplice, Bison Ventures
Caleb Appleton is a companion at Bison Ventures, the place he invests in bodily AI throughout techbio, robotics, and real-world intelligence. A biomedical engineer by coaching, his investments embody Cobot, Vivodyne, Passkey, Sleuth, Inside Logic, Cosmon, and Grid Aero. Beforehand, Appleton invested in frontier applied sciences at Innovation Endeavors and spent a number of years as an operator at TuneIn, giving him expertise spanning early-stage science, enterprise investing, and scaling a expertise enterprise.
Sara Deshpande, Normal Accomplice, Maven Ventures
Sara Deshpande is a normal companion at Maven Ventures, the place she invests in seed-stage corporations constructed round rising client behaviors and tendencies. She focuses on client software program spanning digital well being and client functions of AI. Deshpande joined Maven as its first worker in 2014 and has spent a decade in enterprise capital. She acquired her MBA from Stanford, the place she now teaches a course on startups and entrepreneurship.
Aatish Nayak, Accomplice, Kleiner Perkins
Aatish Nayak joined Kleiner Perkins as a companion in Could 2026, the place he focuses on partnering with AI native founders with deep vertical experience throughout all domains.
Previous to becoming a member of Kleiner Perkins, Narak was the primary PM and VP of Product at Harvey, the place he helped construct the early product, design, advertising, analytics, and help groups. Earlier than that, he was an early product chief at Scale AI engaged on information infrastructure for ecommerce, early NLP (GPT-2), and autonomous automobiles. And earlier than that, he was at Protect AI engaged on the core data stack for robotic protection techniques that save lives.
Jason Risch, Accomplice, Greylock
Jason Risch is a companion at Greylock, the place he invests in enterprise safety, AI and ML infrastructure, information platforms, and developer instruments. His portfolio consists of Onehouse, a cloud-native managed lakehouse platform, and Baseten, an ML mannequin serving toolkit for information science groups. Earlier than becoming a member of Greylock, Risch labored in enterprise operations at Opendoor, as a administration marketing consultant at McKinsey’s Bay Space observe, and as a startup builder on the AI Fund. He studied Mathematical and Computational Science at Stanford College.
Mark Xu, Accomplice, Index Ventures
Mark Xu is a companion at Index Ventures, the place he invests throughout levels in cybersecurity, infrastructure, and AI. He has backed corporations constructing on the frontier of AI, together with Fireworks, Parallel, 7AI, Simile, and Flapping Airplanes, and beforehand labored as a progress investor at Lightspeed, supporting corporations together with Wiz, Glean, and Grafana. Xu seems to be for deeply technical founders who mix area experience with hustle and an obsession with their clients.
Seize your Disrupt move and don’t miss Startup Battlefield
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 is occurring October 13-15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, bringing 10,000+ tech leaders, VCs, and founders collectively to fulfill the subsequent technology of breakout startups, join with leaders who may change their startup’s trajectory, and get a front-row seat to the place the trade is headed.
Register now to save lots of as much as $100 earlier than Disrupt doorways open, and bring your co-founder, colleague, or peer with a second pass for 50% off. Expertise all that Disrupt has to supply collectively, from six trade levels, roundtables, and breakout classes to the startups and connections shaping what’s subsequent in tech.
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