Five Venture Founders to Judge Startup Battlefield 2026

Summary

Thousands applied; 200 reached Startup Battlefield, 20 pitch at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 from October 13 to 15 in San Francisco, and five investment-firm founders choose one champion. They then hold a Builders Stage AMA. The gathering spans six industry stages, roundtables and breakouts, with 10,000 plus attendees, 250 plus leaders and 200 plus sessions. Before October 13, buyers can save $100, get a second pass 50% off or groups of four plus save 30%; laid-off attendees can buy a $75 Expo+ pass.

Stacy Brown-Philpot leads Cherryrock Capital, a Series A and B software fund for Black and Latinx founders; holdings are Coactive AI and Vitable Health. The Stanford MBA formerly ran TaskRabbit through IKEA’s acquisition after 10 plus years at Google. Goodwater Capital co-founder Chi-Hua Chien invests exclusively in US and Asian consumer mobile, fintech, e-commerce, digital health and AI; holdings include 17 plus unicorns and Spotify, Chime, Monzo, TikTok/Musical.ly, Coupang, Toss and Udemy, after Kleiner Perkins and Accel. Construct Capital co-founder Dayna Grayson backs technology for manufacturing, logistics, transportation, supply chains and defense from Washington, D.C.; holdings include Veho, Hadrian, Copia Automation, Arkestro and Verve Motion. The Virginia systems engineer and Harvard MBA led NEA’s early Desktop Metal investment before its NYSE listing. M13 co-founder Carter Reum manages $1.9 billion for seed to Series B consumer technology in work, commerce, health and money; its 200 plus investments, with 15 unicorns, include Lyft, Pinterest, Ring, Daily Harvest and Tonal. He co-founded VEEV Spirit, acquired in 2016, co-wrote Shortcut Your Startup and holds a Columbia BA. Inspired Capital founder Alexa Von Tobel, co-founder with Penny Pritzker, has backed nine unicorns plus MosaicML, acquired by Databricks, Chief, Finix and Dandy. The certified financial planner and New York Times bestselling author founded LearnVest, acquired by Northwestern Mutual.