TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: Full Founder Guide — SkimNews
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- TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 runs October 13-15 at San Francisco's Moscone West, with 200+ expert sessions across six editorially curated stages built around the question of how to build an enduring company in the AI era.
- Startup Battlefield selected its 200 competing startups on August 20, with applications now closed; the winner takes a $100,000 prize, and TechCrunch says it is expanding the competition to more international markets for 2027.
- Confirmed speakers include RJ Scaringe (Rivian), Panos Panay (Amazon), Paolo Ardoino (Tether), Toni Schneider and Rose Wang (Bluesky), Amjad Masad (Replit), and Andrew Feldman (Cerebras), with additional names to be announced closer to the event.
- Six stages — Builders, Disrupt, AI, Real World AI, Smart Money, and Smart Systems — cover fundraising, agents and infrastructure, robotics and healthcare AI, fintech, and the chip/compute stack underlying AI companies.
- Past founder outcomes include one startup that hit a 3x oversubscription rate and 100+ investor inbounds after its Startup Battlefield confirmation, and another that ran nearly 30 back-to-back investor meetings after an onstage pitch.
- Ticket promotions offer founders 50% off a second ticket for a teammate and a limited $75 Expo+ Pass for attendees impacted by layoffs, with prices rising as the event approaches.
Why it matters: With 200 startups competing for a $100,000 Battlefield prize and founders citing 3x oversubscription rates and 100+ investor inbounds from past Disrupts, the October 13-15 gathering remains a concentrated funnel for early-stage capital and talent matching that smaller regional conferences can't replicate.
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