TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 opened at Moscone West in San Francisco, bringing together more than 10,000 startup founders, investors, and technology leaders. Day 1 includes Startup Battlefield pitches on the built environment and sustainability, alongside sessions on AI, company-building, and energy systems.
Startup Battlefield and six industry stages cover scaling, AI, fintech, climate tech, and more, with more than 250 speakers across over 200 sessions. In-person registration runs from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Level 1 lobby of Moscone West, and the Expo Hall is open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The registration desk also hands out scannable badges. The badge uses Klik technology to exchange contact information when one attendee scans another’s badge. Those contacts remain accessible in the event app after the conference.
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Startups pitch climate and built-world ideas
More than 300 startups are exhibiting in the Expo Hall. At the back of the hall, the Pitch Showcase Stage hosts rapid-fire, one-minute pitches from startups representing their home countries and regions.
The Startup Battlefield 200’s Built World category features early-stage companies tackling challenges in real estate, construction, architecture, smart cities, and infrastructure. Its Sustainability category focuses on environmental and climate challenges, including renewable energy, carbon capture, circular-economy platforms, sustainable agriculture, and clean-water solutions. Founders in the category have two minutes to make the case for businesses that aim to pair profitability with environmental impact.
Startup Battlefield, which TechCrunch calls its “World Series of pitch competitions,” is also holding its main competition. After vetting thousands of applicants, TechCrunch selected 20 early-stage startups to pitch in front of some of the world’s most seasoned VCs. They’re competing for a $100,000 equity-free prize and the Disrupt Cup.
Sessions put company-building questions beside AI
The day’s sessions cover physical AI and intelligent systems, as well as fundraising, hiring, and scaling. The program includes a live recording of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, “The Startup Stories Shaping 2026.” The Equity team will break down current startup, venture, and technology stories and what they mean for founders and investors heading into 2027.
Other Builders Stage sessions examine what happens when OpenAI ships a company’s roadmap, the lessons of agentic AI for hardware founders, and how companies compete for AI talent through pay, equity, and retention. Speakers will also discuss what founders need to win in the agentic era, warning signs of product-market fit, how product decisions change as a company grows from an MVP to billions of users, and hiring when AI is a co-founder. “When Machines Clock In,” hosted by NYSE Wired, brings together Brian Baumann of the New York Stock Exchange, Dr. Adam Campbell of Gatik, Samir Menon of Dexterity AI, and Sankaet Pathak of Foundation Future Industries, Inc. The Builders Stage also features “The Rise of Agentic AI: Lessons for Hardware Founders,” with Ziad Asghar of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Florence Ion of PCMag; “The Builder’s Playbook: What Founders Need to Win the Agentic Era,” with Stephan Bitton of Google Cloud; “PMF Red Flags: How to Tell If You Really Have It,” with Anu Bharadwaj of Iconiq, Rajeev Dham of Sapphire Ventures, and Rahul Vohra of Superhuman; “From MVP to Billions of Users: How Product Decisions Must Change at Scale,” with Robby Stein of Google; and “Hiring When AI Is a Co-founder,” with Michelle Johnson of Insight Partners, John Koelliker of Leland, and Josh Reeves of Gusto.
On the Disrupt Stage, Startup Battlefield pitches cover space and physical AI, as well as energy and manufacturing. The judges for the Space and Physical AI pitches are Anu Bharadwaj of Iconiq, Sara Deshpande of Maven Ventures, Benjamin Narasin of Tenacity Venture Capital, Aatish Nayak of Kleiner Perkins, and Michael Palank of MaC Venture Capital. The Energy and Manufacturing judges are Caleb Appleton of Bison Ventures, Feyza Haskaraman of Felicis, Sho Sho Leigha Ho of General Catalyst, and Leah Solivan of Precedent.vc. Other sessions include Rivian’s RJ Scaringe on “Building the Impossible,” Cerebras Systems’ Andrew Feldman on “Can AI Keep Scaling?,” and Science Corporation’s Max Hodak on “Beyond Screens.”
The Smart Money stage explores money movement in the agentic economy, trust and verification in financial services, and winning the modern financial consumer. Speakers include Nikhil Chandhok of Circle, Rodney Robinson of TabaPay, Inc., and Carlotta (Lotti) Siniscalco of Emergence Capital on money movement; Hannah Bozian of American Express, Pedro Sanzovo of Plaid, and Victoria Zuo of QED Investors on trust and verification; and Abhishek Fatehpuria of Robinhood on financial consumers.
The Smart Systems program covers AI infrastructure, energy systems, fusion, and electricity-grid upgrades. Ben Longmier of Ambrosia Energy and Bill Thayer of Bloom Energy will discuss where the AI infrastructure boom is creating winners. Deepak Garg of SEW.AI and Paul Lau of SMUD will examine what vertical AI delivers at scale. Other sessions cover how Twilio founder Jeff Lawson is tackling the power problem; bringing fusion to the grid with David Kirtley of Helion and Brandon Sorbom of Commonwealth Fusion Systems; and rewiring the grid for the electric age with Apoorv Bhargava of Weave Grid, Inc., Kristin Eberhard of Rewiring America, and Tim Heidel of VEIR.
Breakout sessions at the end of the Expo Hall pair topic experts with time for attendees to ask questions. The day’s subjects include physical AI, data teams providing context to AI, quantum technology, Taiwan’s role in the next AI revolution, trusted AI, and the economics of AI inference. Speakers include Susan Schofer of SOSV HAX, Parikshit Sharma of SOSV SF, Duncan Turner of SOSV HAX, and Pae Wu of SOSV SF on “What Is Physical AI, Anyway?”; George Fraser of Fivetran + dbt Labs on “The New Job of the Data Team Is Providing Context to AI”; Andrew Dzurak of Diraq on “The Quantum Revolution: What Investors and Builders Need to Know”; Michelle Chan of Phison Electronics USA, BoGaun Chen, Erica Lin, and Mingche Wang of ITRI International on “Taiwan Powering the Next AI Revolution: Connect, Invest & Scale”; Robbie Goldfarb of Forum AI on “How to Build AI We Can Trust”; and Hagay Lupesko of Cerebras Systems and Ali Mahmoud of Glasswing Ventures on “The Inference Economy: Why AI’s Next Trillion Dollars Won’t Look Like Its First.”
Roundtables offer small-group discussions on topics ranging from data challenges in physical AI and finance for IPO-ready companies to modernizing legacy industries, commerce AI, healthcare technology adoption, and taking agentic AI from pilot to enterprise production. The listed sessions include “Arm Wrestling Your Data: The Physical AI Challenge,” with Radha Basu of iMerit; “Can AI Take You Public? The New Playbook for IPO-Ready Finance,” with Eléonore Crespo of Pigment and Sofia Fatakhova of Chime; “AI’s Next Frontier: Modernizing Legacy Industries,” with Rob Biederman of Asymmetric Capital Partners; “Atoms vs. Bits: Physical AI for the Physical World,” with Jackson Feder of MetaProp; “Beyond Inventory: The Commerce AI Playbook for the Intent Era,” with Srishti Chaudhary of Walmart eCommerce; “Healthcare Took 40 Years to Adopt EHRs, Then Adopted Generative AI in Three. What Comes Next?,” with Brian Butler of Questa Capital; and “From Pilot to Production at Scale: Provable, Trusted Agentic AI for the Enterprise,” with Dr. Maha Achour of Kodamai, Pankaj Kedia of 2468 Ventures, and Yasser Shaaban of Humain.
Other roundtables cover “Specialty Post-Training Data: Powering the Next Wave of AI,” with Dani London of Base10 Partners; “The Science of Powerful Introductions: How to Be Remembered in an AI World,” with Cal Amir of Introduction Lab; “Beyond the Demo: Building Physical AI That Actually Works,” with Logan Farrell of Rugged Robotics and Austin Yount of Brick & Mortar Ventures; “Labs or Factory Floors: Who Will Win Physical AI?,” with Matt Burns of Insight Media Group and Roman Hölzl of RobCo; “Beyond the Term Sheet: How to Architect a Great Fundraise,” with Weston Moyer of MVP Ventures; and “Brutal Truth: 12 Critical Mistakes That Nearly Derailed My CISO Career,” with Stephen Ward of Brightmind Partners. Attendees must pre-register through the event app to join a roundtable.
Networking opportunities
The Networking Lounge, powered by Signify Business Cash World Elite Mastercard® by Wells Fargo, is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Attendees can use the event app to schedule meetings with potential co-founders, investors, or mentors, or meet people spontaneously.
The Deal Flow Café opens at 9:00 a.m. and is reserved for founders and investors, providing a quiet place to make deals over coffee.
Company-hosted Disrupt 2026 Side Events are taking place around San Francisco this week. Tonight’s listed events are The Irish Shark Tank, hosted by Enterprise Ireland; SafetyWing Happy Hour at Harrington’s, hosted by SafetyWing; and Born2Global Founder Networking Night, hosted by WayFounder. Attendees can RSVP and view the full lineup on the Side Events page.
Disrupt 2026 runs October 13–15. Tickets are available on the event’s ticket page.
