Builders Stage agenda revealed for Disrupt 2026

The Builders Stage is returning to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, bringing collectively founders, startup operators, and traders for sensible conversations on what it takes to construct and scale profitable firms.

Hear from startup and enterprise leaders shaping the tech ecosystem, together with Grant Lee, CEO and co-founder of Gamma; Leah Solivan, founder and common companion at Precedent.vc; Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google; and more. By candid conversations and real-world case research, audio system will share actionable insights on fundraising, hiring, go-to-market technique, AI, and the operational choices that gas startup development.

Be a part of greater than 10,000 founders, traders, startup operators, and expertise leaders at Moscone Middle in San Francisco on October 13-15. Register today and save earlier than our subsequent ticket worth enhance.

Constructed for founders who’re able to scale

Constructing a startup is one factor. Constructing an organization that may scale is one other problem completely. The Builders Stage is one of six industry-focused stages at Disrupt 2026, devoted to serving to founders navigate the challenges of development, from elevating capital and hiring prime expertise to constructing go-to-market engines and getting ready for the leap from seed to Sequence A.

Each session delivers sensible methods you possibly can put to work instantly, plus alternatives to have interaction straight with audio system throughout dwell Q&A. Secure your pass to Disrupt 2026 today and save as much as $330 earlier than charges enhance.

With out additional ado, right here’s your first take a look at the Builders Stage agenda, with more speakers and periods to be introduced as we get nearer to the occasion.

Builders Stage agenda

Methods to Win When You’re Not Constructing AI

With Shan Shan, Funding Supervisor, Baillie Gifford; and Yuri Sagalov, Managing Director at Common Catalyst

AI might dominate the world of enterprise, however many enduring firms received’t be those who promote AI fashions or brokers. This session is for founders competing for consideration in an AI-obsessed market. Panelists break down what really issues now: environment friendly development, retention, income high quality, and disciplined execution, and why fundamentals, not hype, nonetheless construct breakout companies.

What Occurs When OpenAI Ships Your Roadmap

With Michel Tricot, CEO and Co-founder, Airbyte; Rob Toews, Companion, Radical Ventures; and Linda Tong, CEO, Webflow

Almost all AI founders have the identical fear nowadays: What if OpenAI or Anthropic launches a product that competes with mine? Even sturdy merchandise are vulnerable to changing into options of the bigger gamers. This session explores the place defensibility exists and what founders can do in the event that they do face competitors from quickly evolving AI giants.

Constructing the Subsequent Technology of AI Giants

With Jas Khaira, International Head, Blackstone N1

AI startups are scaling sooner, and demanding extra capital, than any era earlier than them. Jas Khaira, International Head of Blackstone N1, shares what separates enduring firms from early momentum, how founders ought to take into consideration capital as they scale, and what Blackstone appears to be like for when backing the following era of category-defining companies.

Competing for AI Expertise: Pay, Fairness, and Retention

With Matt Birnbaum, Founder, Wylder.co, Ioana Hreninciuc, Runware, Atli Thorkelsson, VP, Expertise Community, Redpoint Ventures

The expansion of AI startups has made hiring and retention harder for each tech firm. From competing for AI expertise to navigating secondary gross sales, founders are rethinking the human infrastructure of their startups. As incentives and worker expectations quickly evolve, this session explores how firms are adapting compensation, tradition, and team-building methods to draw and retain prime expertise in a essentially modified market.

Successful Pre-Seed And not using a Product

With Puneet Agarwal, Managing Companion, True Ventures; Austin Clements, Managing Companion, Slauson and Co; and Sandhya Venkatachalam, Founder and Managing Companion, Axiom Companions

Founders are more and more anticipated to compete for capital earlier than they also have a product. On the pre-seed stage, traders are betting on story, conviction, and founder-market match. This session breaks down tips on how to construct credibility earlier than income exists so traders will reduce that first examine.

From MVP to Billions of Customers: How Product Selections Should Change at Scale

With Robby Stein, VP, Product, Google

The instincts that win when constructing your first minimal viable product can break you at a billion-user scale. On this hearth, Robby Stein shares how product decision-making modifications when each replace impacts billions of customers. Hear how groups stability pace with belief and innovation with reliability at one of many world’s largest product organizations.

Hiring When AI Is a Co-Founder

With Josh Reeves, CEO and Co-founder, Gusto; extra audio system to be introduced

Early-stage firms are now not simply constructing with AI; they’re hiring it. As AI brokers tackle engineering, help, and operations, the definition of an early workforce is being rewritten. This session explores how founders determine what people ought to personal versus what will get delegated to AI, and the way high-growth startups are constructing hybrid groups with out dropping pace, accountability, or tradition.

Rebuilding Shopper Merchandise for the AI Period

With Maria Angelidou-Smith, CPO, Reddit

AI isn’t simply including options, it’s forcing product groups to rethink how individuals search, uncover, talk, journey, and make choices. Leaders from Reddit, Sq. and Uber talk about how they’re redesigning merchandise utilized by tens of millions, what customers really need from AI, and the place product leaders ought to resist the temptation to automate all the things.

M&A Is Now an Early-Stage Technique

With Karl Alomar, Managing Companion, M13 and Lindsey Mignano, Founder, Mignano Legislation Group

The neatest founders immediately aren’t simply constructing for IPOs; they’re additionally constructing with attainable acquisitions in thoughts from day one. As exits shift and capital tightens, understanding M&A early has develop into a aggressive benefit. This session breaks down how founders can create the potential of such an choice by product technique and partnerships. It delves into how big-dollar startup outcomes really occur, even for small firms.

The Sequence A in 2027

Jahanvi Sardana, Companion, Index Ventures; Shailendra Singh, Managing Director, Peak XV; and Janelle Teng Wade, Companion, Bessemer Enterprise Companions

Sequence A is getting tougher, with VCs rising extra demanding. For founders planning to boost in the following one to 2 years, this session breaks down what “fundable” will really imply in 2027. Hear how prime traders are redefining the metrics, groups, and traction that matter now, what outdated fundraising playbooks now not work, and the way firms can separate from the pack in the following funding cycle.

The 90-Day GTM: Why $0–$10M ARR Is the New Baseline (and Methods to Really Get There)

With Ryan Meadows, Chief Income Officer, Lovable; and Tomasz Tunguz, Common Companion and Founder, Idea Ventures; Ben Broca, Founder, Polsia

The definition of traction has modified. What as soon as took years is now anticipated in months, and $0 to $10 million ARR is more and more changing into the brand new early-stage baseline. This session breaks down how AI-enabled execution, sooner distribution, and shifting investor expectations are compressing GTM timelines, and the tactical levers founders want in the primary 90 days to speed up income and stand out quick.

The Actual Tokenmaxxing: How the Finest AI Corporations Navigate a Multi-Mannequin World

With Mo Jomaa, Companion, Capital G; and Zuzanna Stamirowska, CEO and Co-founder, Pathway; extra audio system to be introduced

The frontier is transferring sooner than any single mannequin can sustain with, and the groups constructing the most profitable AI merchandise are more and more orchestrating throughout many fashions quite than betting on only one. This panel brings collectively founders and operators on the heart of that shift to debate how they consider new fashions, handle price and reliability at scale, and architect merchandise that may evolve as shortly because the underlying expertise.

Revealing AI Disruptors 60: What Can AI Do Subsequent?

With Shay Grinfield, Greenfield Companions

The AI dialog is shifting from what fashions can say to what they will really do. Brokers are navigating the open internet and finishing work, AI techniques are taking up more and more formidable analysis, clever machines are starting to function past the display, and a brand new infrastructure layer is rising to make all of this attainable at scale.

Greenfield Companions’ Shay Grinfeld sits down with founders constructing throughout these rising areas to separate what’s actual immediately from what’s coming subsequent, and discover the place the most important new alternatives are taking form. The dialog will culminate within the reveal of Greenfield Companions’ 2026 AI Disruptors 60, spotlighting the businesses Greenfield and TechCrunch imagine are pushing AI into new territory.

PMF Crimson Flags: Methods to Inform If You Actually Have It

With Rajeev Dham, Managing Director, Sapphire Ventures; and Rahul Vohra, Founder and Head of Superhuman Mail; extra audio system to be introduced

In an AI hype cycle, product-market match alerts are simpler to pretend and tougher to belief. Founders are mistaking early pleasure, utilization spikes, and pilot wins for sturdy traction. This session breaks down what false PMF really appears to be like like, how traders and operators separate actual retention from hype-driven adoption, and the alerts that point out whether or not an organization has true pull or simply non permanent momentum.

The Zero-to-1K Playbook: Methods to Get Your First 1,000 Clients And not using a Advertising and marketing Finances

With Grant Lee, CEO and Co-founder, Gamma; Leah Solivan, Founder and Common Companion, Precedent.vc; and Elia Wallen, Founder and CEO, Engine

Early buyer acquisition just isn’t about advertising spend; it’s about founder-led distribution and relentless execution. Most startups at zero to at least one wouldn’t have price range, model, or scale, solely urgency and creativity. This session breaks down how founders are touchdown their first clients by group constructing, product-led development, founder-led gross sales, strategic outbound, and word-of-mouth momentum.

Sure, It’s Laborious to Be a Founder: An Sincere Dialog

With Nell Daly, Co-founder and Managing Companion, Revenge Capital; David H. Rosmarin, Affiliate Professor, Harvard Medical College; and Jack Withinshaw, Co-founder and Chief Industrial Officer, Airspeeder

Firm constructing is as psychologically demanding as it’s strategic, and most founder narratives understate that actuality. In this candid dialog, founders and psychological efficiency specialists unpack the hidden prices of high-growth environments, from burnout and determination fatigue to the id pressure of sustained stress, and share the techniques, habits, and psychological frameworks that assist leaders endure and carry out at a excessive degree.

So You’ve Acquired a Hit Product. How Does Your Firm Do It Once more?

With Filip Kaliszan, CEO and Co-founder, Verkada; and Aaron Jacobson, Companion, New Enterprise Associates; Maddi Holman, Common Companion, Daring Ventures 

Most startups stall out as a result of they construct a single nice product as a substitute of a repeatable multi-product engine. Be a part of a enterprise capitalist and two founders as they reveal the exact operational playbook for capital allocation, systemizing inside innovation, and engineering a compounding “Second Act” earlier than the core product’s development curve flattens.

Hiring, Compensation and Tradition in the Most Aggressive Market Ever

With Matt Birnbaum, Founder, Wylder.co; and Atli Thorkelsson, VP, Expertise Community, Redpoint Ventures; extra audio system to be introduced

No query about it, the expansion of AI startups has made hiring and retention for all tech firms harder. From competing for AI expertise to secondary gross sales, founders are rethinking the human infrastructure of their startups. As hiring, incentives, and worker expectations quickly evolve, this session explores how firms are adapting compensation, tradition, and team-building methods to draw and retain prime expertise in a essentially modified startup setting.

Methods to Create Viral Development and Capitalize on It

With Zach Yadegari, Founder, Cal AI

Startups can go from zero to viral in a single day, however sustaining that momentum is a totally completely different problem. In this hearth, Zach Yadegari shares how Cal AI navigated fast development, product stress, and the realities of constructing in a distribution-driven market. Hear the teachings behind turning breakout consideration into sturdy retention and long-term firm constructing.

The Excessive-Conviction Filter: What We Discovered From the Battlefield

With Alexa von Tobel, Impressed Capital; and Chi-Hua Chien, Co-founder and Managing Companion, Goodwater Capital; extra audio system to be introduced

What separates the breakout firms from the remaining at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026? In this candid debrief, Startup Battlefield judges unpack the developments and founder qualities that stood out in actual time, from shifting investor expectations to the narratives that resonated most this yr. The dialog may even discover how startup storytelling is evolving and what occurs after the highlight, together with the realities of sustaining momentum and surviving the crucial 12 months after a significant launch, funding spherical, or Startup Battlefield look.

Ask the Traders

With Stacy Brown-Philpot, Founder & Managing Companion at Cherryrock Capital; Chi-Hua Chien, Co-founder & Managing Companion, Goodwater Capital; Dayna Grayson, Assemble Capital; Carter Reum, Co-founder and Managing Companion, M13; Alexa Von Tobel, Impressed Capital

What makes an investor say sure? On this audience-led Q&A, the Startup Battlefield finals judges take your hardest questions on what separates a fundable startup from the remaining: workforce, traction, market alternative, pitch supply, crimson flags, and extra. Come able to ask and get candid solutions straight from the traders making the selections.

Be a part of the conversations and make the connections at Disrupt

If you’re able to construct smarter, scale sooner, and study from the leaders shaping the way forward for startups, secure your pass to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 today.