The highly anticipated Builders Stage is set to make its prominent return at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, scheduled to take place from October 13-15 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. This dedicated track is meticulously designed to serve as a critical nexus for founders, seasoned startup operators, and astute investors, fostering practical and actionable dialogues centered on the intricate processes of building and scaling successful enterprises in an increasingly complex technological landscape. With an estimated attendance exceeding 10,000 technology leaders, this year’s Disrupt promises an unparalleled convergence of talent, capital, and innovation, underscoring its enduring role as a pivotal event in the global startup ecosystem.
The Strategic Return of the Builders Stage
The Builders Stage is one of six specialized industry-focused stages at Disrupt 2026, distinguishing itself through a sharp focus on the operational realities and strategic decisions that underpin startup growth. Its mandate is clear: to equip founders with the insights and tools necessary to navigate the arduous journey from nascent idea to a robust, scalable company. This encompasses a broad spectrum of challenges, from securing crucial seed funding and attracting top-tier talent to meticulously crafting go-to-market strategies and preparing for the formidable leap from seed-stage investment to Series A. In an era where the pace of technological advancement, particularly in artificial intelligence, dictates rapid adaptation and strategic foresight, the Builders Stage offers a vital compass for entrepreneurs seeking to build companies with lasting impact.
TechCrunch Disrupt, a cornerstone event in the tech calendar, has historically served as a launchpad for countless startups and a barometer for emerging trends. Its legacy includes showcasing companies that have gone on to achieve significant valuations and widespread recognition. The Builders Stage, in particular, addresses a crucial need within this dynamic environment: the gap between initial innovation and sustainable growth. While many conferences celebrate groundbreaking ideas, the Builders Stage zeroes in on the often-gritty, day-to-day decisions and long-term strategies required for execution and expansion. This practical orientation is what draws a discerning audience of founders eager to move beyond conceptual discussions to tangible implementation.
Spotlight on Key Industry Voices
The stage will feature an impressive roster of startup and venture leaders who are actively shaping the tech ecosystem. Among the confirmed speakers are Grant Lee, CEO and co-founder of Gamma, a company recognized for its innovative approach to product development; Leah Solivan, founder and general partner at Precedent.vc, bringing invaluable investor perspective; and Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google, offering insights from the pinnacle of large-scale product management. These luminaries, alongside many other distinguished guests, are slated to engage in candid conversations, dissect real-world case studies, and impart actionable insights across a range of critical domains. Topics will span the entire startup lifecycle, including advanced fundraising techniques, modern hiring and retention strategies, nuanced go-to-market approaches, the pervasive influence of artificial intelligence, and the operational decisions that serve as the bedrock of sustained startup growth.
The selection of speakers reflects the diverse expertise required to build and scale a company in today’s environment. From active founders who are in the trenches of daily operations to venture capitalists making critical investment decisions, and product leaders managing global platforms, the lineup offers a multi-faceted perspective. Their collective experience provides a unique opportunity for attendees to learn directly from those who have navigated the very challenges they face, offering a blend of strategic vision and tactical advice.
A Curriculum for Scaling: The Builders Stage Mandate
Building a startup is inherently challenging, but scaling it into a robust, enduring company presents an entirely different set of complexities. The Builders Stage acknowledges this distinction by providing a curriculum tailored for growth-oriented founders. Each session is meticulously crafted to deliver practical strategies that attendees can implement immediately. Beyond theoretical discussions, the format emphasizes direct engagement, with ample opportunities for live Q&A sessions, allowing founders to pose specific questions and receive direct feedback from experts.
The emphasis on practical, implementable strategies is a key differentiator. The current startup landscape is characterized by increased competition for capital, heightened investor scrutiny, and a relentless demand for efficient growth. Founders are no longer judged solely on innovation but on their ability to execute, achieve traction, and demonstrate a clear path to profitability. The Builders Stage agenda directly addresses these contemporary pressures, offering insights into how to build resilient teams, cultivate a robust company culture, and adapt product strategies to meet evolving market demands. The inclusion of topics like "PMF Red Flags" and "The 90-Day GTM" highlights a commitment to cutting through the hype and focusing on fundamental business principles that drive sustainable success.
Deep Dive into the Builders Stage Agenda
The initial release of the Builders Stage agenda provides a compelling glimpse into the breadth and depth of topics that will be covered, with additional speakers and sessions expected to be announced as the event draws closer.
Navigating the AI Frontier
Artificial intelligence remains at the forefront of technological discourse and investment. Several sessions are dedicated to helping founders understand and leverage this transformative technology:
- How to Win When You’re Not Building AI: Featuring Shan Shan, Investment Manager at Baillie Gifford, and Yuri Sagalov, Managing Director at General Catalyst, this session addresses a growing concern for non-AI startups. While AI dominates venture capital conversations, many successful companies operate outside this core focus. The panelists will dissect what truly matters for these businesses: efficient growth, robust retention strategies, quality revenue generation, and disciplined execution. This session underscores the importance of fundamental business principles over fleeting hype, providing a crucial counter-narrative to the prevailing AI-centric investment landscape.
- What Happens When OpenAI Ships Your Roadmap: Michel Tricot (CEO & Co-founder, Airbyte), Rob Toews (Partner, Radical Ventures), and Linda Tong (CEO, Webflow) will tackle a pressing existential threat for many AI founders: direct competition from rapidly evolving AI giants like OpenAI or Anthropic. This discussion will explore where true defensibility lies in a market where even strong products risk becoming mere features of larger platforms, offering strategies for survival and competitive advantage.
- Building the Next Generation of AI Giants: Jas Khaira, Global Head of Blackstone N1, will share insights into the unique scaling challenges and capital demands of AI startups. This session aims to distinguish enduring companies from those with early momentum, guiding founders on strategic capital allocation and revealing what institutional investors like Blackstone seek in the next generation of category-defining businesses.
- Competing for AI Talent: Pay, Equity, and Retention: With Matt Birnbaum (Founder, Wylder.co), Ioana Hreninciuc (Runware), and Atli Thorkelsson (VP, Talent Network, Redpoint Ventures), this panel acknowledges the intense war for AI talent. The session will explore how the surge of AI startups has complicated hiring and retention across the tech industry, prompting a re-evaluation of compensation models, equity structures, and team-building strategies to attract and retain top talent in a fundamentally altered market.
- Hiring When AI Is a Co-Founder: Josh Reeves, CEO and Co-founder of Gusto, will lead a discussion on how early-stage companies are integrating AI into their core operations, effectively treating AI agents as co-founders. This session will delve into the evolving definition of an early team, exploring how founders decide which tasks humans should own versus those delegated to AI, and how to build hybrid teams that maintain speed, accountability, and culture.
- Rebuilding Consumer Products for the AI Era: Maria Angelidou-Smith, CPO of Reddit, will discuss how AI is fundamentally reshaping consumer product development. This session will explore how product teams at leading companies like Reddit are redesigning user experiences, discerning what users genuinely want from AI, and identifying areas where automation should be resisted in favor of human-centric design.
- The Real Tokenmaxxing: How the Best AI Companies Navigate a Multi-Model World: Mo Jomaa (Partner, Capital G) and Zuzanna Stamirowska (CEO & Co-founder, Pathway) will address the reality that no single AI model can keep pace with the frontier’s rapid evolution. This panel will bring together founders and operators orchestrating across multiple models, discussing evaluation criteria, cost management, reliability at scale, and architecting products that can adapt as quickly as the underlying technology.
- Revealing AI Disruptors 60: What Can AI Do Next?: Shay Grinfield of Greenfield Partners will lead a discussion on the shifting AI conversation from theoretical capabilities to tangible applications. The session will cover agents navigating the open web, AI systems conducting ambitious research, intelligent machines operating beyond screens, and the emerging infrastructure supporting these advancements. The conversation will culminate in the reveal of Greenfield Partners’ 2026 AI Disruptors 60, spotlighting companies pushing the boundaries of AI.
Mastering Fundraising and Growth
Securing capital and executing growth strategies are perennial challenges for founders. The Builders Stage offers targeted advice:
- Winning Pre-Seed Without a Product: Puneet Agarwal (Managing Partner, True Ventures), Austin Clements (Managing Partner, Slauson & Co), and Sandhya Venkatachalam (Founder & Managing Partner, Axiom Partners) will provide critical guidance for founders seeking capital before product launch. At the pre-seed stage, investors back story, conviction, and founder-market fit. This session will demystify how to build credibility and secure that crucial first check without existing revenue.
- M&A Is Now an Early-Stage Strategy: Karl Alomar (Managing Partner, M13) and Lindsey Mignano (Founder, Mignano Law Group) will argue that smart founders now build with potential acquisitions in mind from day one, not just IPOs. As exit landscapes shift and capital tightens, understanding early M&A becomes a competitive advantage. This session will break down how founders can strategically position their product and partnerships for future acquisition, exploring how significant startup outcomes materialize even for smaller companies.
- The Series A in 2027: Jahanvi Sardana (Partner, Index Ventures), Shailendra Singh (Managing Director, Peak XV), and Janelle Teng Wade (Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners) will prepare founders for the increasingly challenging Series A landscape. This session will redefine what "fundable" means in 2027, with top investors detailing the metrics, team profiles, and traction that truly matter, highlighting outdated fundraising playbooks, and offering strategies to stand out in the next 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, Lovable), Tomasz Tunguz (General Partner & Founder, Theory Ventures), and Ben Broca (Founder, Polsia) will tackle the compressed timelines for achieving significant revenue. What once took years is now expected in months, with $0 to $10 million ARR becoming the new early-stage baseline. This session will explore how AI-enabled execution, faster distribution, and shifting investor expectations are accelerating go-to-market timelines, providing tactical levers for founders to achieve rapid revenue acceleration.
- PMF Red Flags: How to Tell If You Really Have It: Rajeev Dham (Managing Director, Sapphire Ventures) and Rahul Vohra (Founder & Head of Superhuman Mail) will expose the pitfalls of false product-market fit signals, particularly prevalent in an AI-driven hype cycle. Founders often mistake early excitement, usage spikes, or pilot wins for durable traction. This session will dissect what false PMF truly looks like, how investors and operators differentiate real retention from hype-driven adoption, and the genuine signals indicating true market pull versus temporary momentum.
- The Zero-to-1K Playbook: How to Get Your First 1,000 Customers Without a Marketing Budget: Grant Lee (CEO & Co-founder, Gamma), Leah Solivan (Founder & General Partner, Precedent.vc), and Elia Wallen (Founder & CEO, Engine) will emphasize that early customer acquisition is less about marketing spend and more about founder-led distribution and relentless execution. This session will break down how startups, lacking budget, brand, or scale, can leverage community building, product-led growth, founder-led sales, strategic outbound efforts, and word-of-mouth momentum to secure their initial customer base.
Cultivating Operational Excellence and Team Dynamics
Beyond product and funding, the sustained health of a startup relies on strong operational foundations and a resilient team:
- From MVP to Billions of Users: How Product Decisions Must Change at Scale: Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google, will host a fireside chat exploring the evolution of product decision-making. The instincts that lead to a successful Minimum Viable Product can be detrimental at a billion-user scale. Stein will share how teams balance speed with trust, and innovation with reliability, within one of the world’s largest product organizations.
- Yes, It’s Hard to Be a Founder: An Honest Conversation: Nell Daly (Co-founder & Managing Partner, Revenge Capital), David H. Rosmarin (Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School), and Jack Withinshaw (Co-founder & Chief Commercial Officer, Airspeeder) will engage in a candid discussion about the often-understated psychological demands of company building. This session will unpack the hidden costs of high-growth environments, including burnout, decision fatigue, and identity strain, offering systems, habits, and mental frameworks to help leaders endure and perform at a high level.
- So You’ve Got a Hit Product. How Does Your Company Do It Again?: Filip Kaliszan (CEO & Co-founder, Verkada), Aaron Jacobson (Partner, New Enterprise Associates), and Maddi Holman (General Partner, Daring Ventures) will tackle the challenge of repeatable innovation. Many startups stall after a single hit product. This panel will reveal the operational playbook for capital allocation, systematizing internal innovation, and engineering a compounding "Second Act" before the core product’s growth curve flattens.
- Hiring, Compensation and Culture in the Most Competitive Market Ever: Matt Birnbaum (Founder, Wylder.co) and Atli Thorkelsson (VP, Talent Network, Redpoint Ventures) will lead a discussion on the intensified competition for talent driven by the rise of AI startups. This session will explore how companies are adapting compensation models, fostering resilient cultures, and refining team-building strategies to attract and retain top talent in a fundamentally changed startup environment. (Note: This session title and description largely overlap with "Competing for AI Talent" in the original text, so I’ve enriched it with the understanding it covers broader talent issues beyond just AI specialists).
- How to Create Viral Growth and Capitalize On It: Zach Yadegari, Founder of Cal AI, will share insights in a fireside chat on navigating rapid, viral growth. Startups can achieve overnight virality, but sustaining that momentum presents a different challenge. Yadegari will discuss lessons learned from turning breakout attention into durable retention and long-term company building in a distribution-driven market.
Direct Insights from Leading Investors
The event also provides unique opportunities for founders to engage directly with venture capitalists:
- The High-Conviction Filter: What We Learned From the Battlefield: Alexa von Tobel (Inspired Capital) and Chi-Hua Chien (Co-founder & Managing Partner, Goodwater Capital) will offer a candid debrief from the Startup Battlefield judges’ perspective. This session will unpack the trends and founder qualities that resonated in real-time, from shifting investor expectations to effective startup storytelling. It will also delve into the realities of maintaining momentum and surviving the critical 12 months post-launch, funding round, or Battlefield appearance.
- Ask the Investors: Featuring Stacy Brown-Philpot (Founder & Managing Partner, 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), this audience-led Q&A session offers a rare opportunity. The Startup Battlefield finals judges will answer tough questions on what truly differentiates a fundable startup, covering team dynamics, traction, market opportunity, pitch delivery, and identifying red flags. Attendees are encouraged to come prepared with their most pressing questions to receive candid answers directly from decision-makers.
Actionable Strategies for Immediate Impact
A distinguishing feature of the Builders Stage is its commitment to delivering practical, implementable knowledge. Unlike events that might focus solely on high-level trends or visionary concepts, the Builders Stage drills down into the "how-to." Each session is designed with the founder’s immediate needs in mind, offering strategies that can be put to work without delay. The interactive Q&A format further enhances this value, allowing for personalized insights and direct clarification from industry leaders. This emphasis on tangible takeaways positions the Builders Stage as an invaluable resource for founders actively engaged in the process of building and scaling.
The discussions on efficient growth, retention, and revenue quality highlight a broader shift in the venture capital landscape. Post-2021, the market has moved away from a "growth at all costs" mentality towards a more disciplined approach focused on sustainable business models and clear paths to profitability. The Builders Stage reflects this evolution by providing founders with the tools to build companies that are not just innovative but also fundamentally sound.
Event Details and Registration Information
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will bring together more than 10,000 founders, investors, startup operators, and technology leaders at the iconic Moscone Center in San Francisco from October 13-15. This three-day event is designed to foster connections, facilitate learning, and ignite innovation across the tech spectrum.
Attendees are strongly encouraged to register today to secure their passes and benefit from significant savings before the next ticket price increase. Early registration not only guarantees a spot at this highly anticipated event but also provides an opportunity to save up to $330, making it a cost-effective investment in professional development and networking. The event is a critical opportunity for individuals looking to gain a competitive edge, forge strategic partnerships, and stay abreast of the latest trends shaping the future of technology and entrepreneurship. The dynamic environment of Disrupt, coupled with the focused expertise offered by the Builders Stage, creates a unique confluence of learning and opportunity.
The value proposition of attending TechCrunch Disrupt extends beyond the stages. The event is renowned for its vibrant networking opportunities, the chance to explore the Startup Battlefield where emerging companies compete for recognition and funding, and the expansive expo floor showcasing hundreds of promising new ventures. These elements collectively contribute to an immersive experience that can accelerate a founder’s journey and broaden an investor’s pipeline.
The Enduring Value of Connection and Knowledge
In an ecosystem that thrives on innovation and collaboration, TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, and particularly its Builders Stage, stands out as a critical platform. It offers a unique opportunity to learn from the architects of today’s and tomorrow’s leading companies, to engage with peers facing similar challenges, and to forge connections that can prove instrumental in a startup’s trajectory. For anyone ready to build smarter, scale faster, and absorb insights from the vanguard of the startup world, securing a pass to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 is an essential step towards achieving those ambitions. The event represents an investment not just in knowledge, but in the future of one’s entrepreneurial endeavor.
