The Builders Stage brings practical strategies for scaling startups to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

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The Builders Stage is returning to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, bringing unneurotic founders, startup operators, and investors for applicable conversations connected what it takes to physique and standard palmy companies.

Hear from startup and task leaders shaping the tech ecosystem, including Grant Lee, CEO and co-founder of Gamma; Leah Solivan, laminitis and wide spouse astatine Precedent.vc; Robby Stein, VP of Product astatine Google; and more. Through candid conversations and real-world lawsuit studies, speakers volition stock actionable insights connected fundraising, hiring, go-to-market strategy, AI, and the operational decisions that substance startup growth.

Join more than 10,000 founders, investors, startup operators, and exertion leaders at Moscone Center in San Francisco connected October 13-15. Register contiguous and save before our adjacent summons price increase.

Built for founders who are acceptable to scale

Building a startup is 1 thing. Building a institution that tin standard is different situation entirely. The Builders Stage is one of six industry-focused stages at Disrupt 2026, dedicated to helping founders navigate the challenges of growth, from raising superior and hiring apical endowment to gathering go-to-market engines and preparing for the leap from effect to Series A.

Every league delivers applicable strategies you tin enactment to work immediately, positive opportunities to prosecute straight with speakers during unrecorded Q&A. Secure your walk to Disrupt 2026 today and prevention up to $330 earlier rates increase.

Without further ado, here’s your archetypal look astatine the Builders Stage agenda, with more speakers and sessions to beryllium announced arsenic we get person to the event.

Builders Stage agenda

How to Win When You’re Not Building AI

With Shan Shan, Investment Manager, Baillie Gifford; and Yuri Sagalov, Managing Director astatine General Catalyst

AI whitethorn predominate the satellite of venture, but galore enduring companies won’t be those that merchantability AI models oregon agents. This league is for founders competing for attention in an AI-obsessed market. Panelists interruption down what actually matters now: businesslike growth, retention, gross quality, and disciplined execution, and wherefore fundamentals, not hype, inactive physique breakout businesses.

What Happens When OpenAI Ships Your Roadmap

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

Nearly all AI founders person the aforesaid interest these days: What if OpenAI oregon Anthropic launches a merchandise that competes with mine? Even beardown products are astatine hazard of becoming features of the larger players. This league explores wherever defensibility exists and what founders tin bash if they bash look contention from rapidly evolving AI giants.

Building the Next Generation of AI Giants

With Jas Khaira, Global Head, Blackstone N1

AI startups are scaling faster, and demanding much capital, than immoderate procreation earlier them. Jas Khaira, Global Head of Blackstone N1, shares what separates enduring companies from aboriginal momentum, however founders should deliberation astir superior arsenic they scale, and what Blackstone looks for erstwhile backing the adjacent procreation of category-defining businesses.

Competing for AI Talent: Pay, Equity, and Retention

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

The maturation of AI startups has made hiring and retention much hard for each tech company. From competing for AI endowment to navigating secondary sales, founders are rethinking the quality infrastructure of their startups. As incentives and worker expectations rapidly evolve, this league explores however companies are adapting compensation, culture, and team-building strategies to pull and clasp apical endowment successful a fundamentally changed market.

Winning Pre-Seed Without a Product

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

Founders are increasingly expected to vie for superior earlier they adjacent person a product. At the pre-seed stage, investors are betting connected story, conviction, and founder-market fit. This league breaks down however to physique credibility earlier revenue exists so investors volition chopped that archetypal check.

From MVP to Billions of Users: How Product Decisions Must Change astatine Scale

With Robby Stein, VP, Product, Google

The instincts that triumph erstwhile gathering your first minimum viable product tin interruption you astatine a billion-user scale. In this fireside, Robby Stein shares however merchandise decision-making changes erstwhile each update impacts billions of users. Hear however teams equilibrium velocity with spot and innovation with reliability astatine 1 of the world’s largest merchandise organizations.

Hiring When AI Is a Co-Founder

With Josh Reeves, CEO and Co-founder, Gusto; more speakers to beryllium announced

Early-stage companies are nary longer conscionable gathering with AI; they’re hiring it. As AI agents instrumentality connected engineering, support, and operations, the explanation of an aboriginal squad is being rewritten. This league explores however founders determine what humans should ain versus what gets delegated to AI, and however high-growth startups are gathering hybrid teams without losing speed, accountability, oregon culture.

Rebuilding Consumer Products for the AI Era

With Maria Angelidou-Smith, CPO, Reddit

AI isn’t conscionable adding features, it’s forcing merchandise teams to rethink however radical search, discover, communicate, travel, and marque decisions. Leaders from Reddit, Square and Uber sermon however they’re redesigning products utilized by millions, what users really privation from AI, and wherever merchandise leaders should defy the temptation to automate everything.

M&A Is Now an Early-Stage Strategy

With Karl Alomar, Managing Partner, M13 and Lindsey Mignano, Founder, Mignano Law Group

The smartest founders today aren’t just gathering for IPOs; they’re also gathering with possible acquisitions in mind from time one. As exits displacement and superior tightens, knowing M&A aboriginal has go a competitory advantage. This league breaks down however founders tin make the anticipation of such an option through merchandise strategy and partnerships. It delves into however big-dollar startup outcomes really happen, adjacent for tiny 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

Series A is getting harder, with VCs growing more demanding. For founders readying to raise in the adjacent 1 to 2 years, this league breaks down what “fundable” volition really mean in 2027. Hear however top investors are redefining the metrics, teams, and traction that matter now, what outdated fundraising playbooks nary longer work, and however companies tin abstracted from the pack in the adjacent backing cycle.

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

With Ryan Meadows, Chief Revenue Officer, Lovable; and Tomasz Tunguz, General Partner and Founder, Theory Ventures; Ben Broca, Founder, Polsia

The explanation of traction has changed. What erstwhile took years is present expected in months, and $0 to $10 cardinal ARR is increasingly becoming the new early-stage baseline. This league breaks down however AI-enabled execution, faster distribution, and shifting investor expectations are compressing GTM timelines, and the tactical levers founders need in the first 90 days to accelerate gross and basal retired fast.

The Real Tokenmaxxing: How the Best AI Companies Navigate a Multi-Model World

With Mo Jomaa, Partner, Capital G; and Zuzanna Stamirowska, CEO and Co-founder, Pathway; more speakers to beryllium announced

The frontier is moving faster than any single model tin support up with, and the teams gathering the most palmy AI products are increasingly orchestrating crossed many models alternatively than betting on just one. This sheet brings unneurotic founders and operators astatine the halfway of that displacement to sermon however they measure new models, negociate outgo and reliability astatine scale, and designer products that tin germinate arsenic rapidly arsenic the underlying technology.

Revealing AI Disruptors 60: What Can AI Do Next?

With Shay Grinfield, Greenfield Partners

The AI speech is shifting from what models tin accidental to what they tin really do. Agents are navigating the unfastened web and completing work, AI systems are taking connected progressively ambitious research, intelligent machines are opening to run beyond the screen, and a caller infrastructure furniture is emerging to marque each of this imaginable astatine scale.

Greenfield Partners’ Shay Grinfeld sits down with founders gathering crossed these emerging areas to abstracted what’s existent contiguous from what’s coming next, and research wherever the biggest caller opportunities are taking shape. The speech volition culminate successful the uncover of Greenfield Partners’ 2026 AI Disruptors 60, spotlighting the companies Greenfield and TechCrunch judge are pushing AI into caller territory.

PMF Red Flags: How to Tell If You Really Have It

With Rajeev Dham, Managing Director, Sapphire Ventures; and Rahul Vohra, Founder and Head of Superhuman Mail; more speakers to beryllium announced

In an AI hype cycle, product-market acceptable signals are easier to fake and harder to trust. Founders are mistaking aboriginal excitement, usage spikes, and aviator wins for durable traction. This league breaks down what mendacious PMF actually looks like, how investors and operators abstracted existent retention from hype-driven adoption, and the signals that indicate whether a institution has existent propulsion oregon conscionable temporary momentum.

The Zero-to-1K Playbook: How to Get Your First 1,000 Customers Without a Marketing Budget

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

Early lawsuit acquisition is not astir marketing spend; it’s about founder-led organisation and relentless execution. Most startups astatine zero to 1 bash not person budget, brand, oregon scale, lone urgency and creativity. This league breaks down however founders are landing their archetypal customers done assemblage building, product-led growth, founder-led sales, strategical outbound, and word-of-mouth momentum.

Yes, It’s Hard to Be a Founder: An Honest Conversation

With Nell Daly, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Revenge Capital; David H. Rosmarin, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School; and Jack Withinshaw, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer, Airspeeder

Company gathering is arsenic psychologically demanding arsenic it is strategic, and most laminitis narratives understate that reality. In this candid conversation, founders and intelligence show experts unpack the hidden costs of high-growth environments, from burnout and determination fatigue to the individuality strain of sustained pressure, and stock the systems, habits, and intelligence frameworks that assistance leaders endure and execute astatine a precocious level.

So You’ve Got a Hit Product. How Does Your Company Do It Again?

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

Most startups stall retired due to the fact that they physique a single great product instead of a repeatable multi-product engine. Join a task capitalist and 2 founders arsenic they uncover the precise operational playbook for superior allocation, systemizing internal innovation, and engineering a compounding “Second Act” earlier the halfway product’s maturation curve flattens.

Hiring, Compensation and Culture in the Most Competitive Market Ever

With Matt Birnbaum, Founder, Wylder.co; and Atli Thorkelsson, VP, Talent Network, Redpoint Ventures; more speakers to beryllium announced

No question astir it, the maturation of AI startups has made hiring and retention for each tech companies more difficult. From competing for AI endowment to secondary sales, founders are rethinking the human infrastructure of their startups. As hiring, incentives, and worker expectations rapidly evolve, this league explores however companies are adapting compensation, culture, and team-building strategies to pull and retain top talent in a fundamentally changed startup environment.

How to Create Viral Growth and Capitalize on It

With Zach Yadegari, Founder, Cal AI

Startups tin spell from zero to viral overnight, but sustaining that momentum is simply a wholly antithetic challenge. In this fireside, Zach Yadegari shares however Cal AI navigated accelerated growth, merchandise pressure, and the realities of building in a distribution-driven market. Hear the lessons down turning breakout attention into durable retention and long-term company building.

The High-Conviction Filter: What We Learned From the Battlefield

With Alexa von Tobel, Inspired Capital; and Chi-Hua Chien, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Goodwater Capital; more speakers to beryllium announced

What separates the breakout companies from the remainder astatine TechCrunch Disrupt 2026? In this candid debrief, Startup Battlefield judges unpack the trends and laminitis qualities that stood out in real time, from shifting investor expectations to the narratives that resonated most this year. The speech volition besides research however startup storytelling is evolving and what happens aft the spotlight, including the realities of maintaining momentum and surviving the captious 12 months aft a large launch, backing round, oregon Startup Battlefield appearance.

Ask the Investors

With Stacy Brown-Philpot, Founder & Managing Partner astatine Cherryrock Capital; Chi-Hua Chien, Co-founder & Managing Partner, Goodwater Capital; Dayna Grayson, Construct Capital; Carter Reum, Co-founder and Managing Partner, M13; Alexa Von Tobel, Inspired Capital

What makes an capitalist accidental yes? In this audience-led Q&A, the Startup Battlefield finals judges instrumentality your toughest questions connected what separates a fundable startup from the rest: team, traction, marketplace opportunity, transportation delivery, reddish flags, and more. Come acceptable to inquire and get candid answers consecutive from the investors making the decisions.

Join the conversations and marque the connections astatine Disrupt

If you’re ready to physique smarter, standard faster, and larn from the leaders shaping the aboriginal of startups, secure your walk to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 today.