TechCrunch Disrupt 2025: Day 1

Today, Day 1, TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 goes afloat throttle — 10,000 founders, investors, and builders flooding Moscone West for a nonstop tally of ideas, demos, and deals. The vigor is electric, the conversations are everywhere, and the breakthroughs are lone conscionable beginning.

From the Startup Battlefield to the AI Disruptors 60, from abstraction entrepreneurs to the founders redefining however and erstwhile startups spell public, this is wherever the adjacent decennary of tech is being written — live. Every hallway conversation, each roundtable, each java chat tin spark a caller concern oregon the adjacent large company. Check retired the database of speakers.

Haven’t registered yet? You inactive tin — but don’t wait. Grab your summons now and locomotion consecutive into the action: 5 powerhouse stages, hundreds of exhibiting startups, capitalist meetups, Braindate networking, and broadside events lighting up San Francisco each week long.

Expo Hall

Doors unfastened from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Explore 300+ exhibiting startups showcasing cutting-edge technologies crossed industries. See who is exhibiting.

Stage sessions

The stages are acceptable — and today’s speakers are tackling everything from abstraction tech and startup maturation to scaling strategies and going public. Here’s a look astatine what’s happening crossed Disrupt’s stages today. Check retired the afloat agenda.

Disrupt Stage

The spotlight stays connected the Startup Battlefield 200, the “World Series of transportation competitions.” TechCrunch has vetted the apical 20 early-stage startups to transportation successful beforehand of the world’s astir seasoned VCs for a $100,000 equity-free prize and the coveted Disrupt Cup.

The Startup Battlefield – Session 1: Judges see Allison Baum Gates (SemperVirens VC), Cathy Friedman (GV), Katelin Holloway (Seven Seven Six), Charles Hudson (Precursor Ventures), and Nicolas Sauvage (TDK Ventures).

The Startup Battlefield – Session 2: Eryk Dobrushkin (Index Ventures), Jen Hoskins (NVIDIA), Thomas Krane (Insight Partners), Jon McNeill (DVx Ventures), and Katie Stanton (Moxxie Ventures).

The Self-Driving Reality Check — Tekedra Mawakana (Waymo)

What Sequoia Sees Coming Next — Roelof Botha (Sequoia Capital).

Moonshots, AI, and the Future of Alphabet — Astro Teller (The Moonshot Factory).

Space Stage

At the intersection of exertion and exploration, startups are reimagining the aboriginal of space.

Aerospace Startup Showcase: Solving the Hardest Problems successful Space — Dr. Tom Cwik (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), Dr. Debra Emmons (The Aerospace Corporation), Katelin Holloway (Seven Seven Six), and Mandy Vaughn (GXO, Inc.).

From Robinhood to Aetherflux: Baiju Bhatt’s Next Frontier — Baiju Bhatt (Aetherflux)

Investing astatine the Edge of Space — Morgan Beller (NFX), Celeste Ford (Stellar Ventures), and Chris Morales (Point72 Ventures).

Made successful Space: Varda’s Plan to Build the Next Great Supply Chain — William Bruey (Varda Space Industries).

AI astatine the Edge: Startups Powering the Future of Space — Dr. Debra L. Emmons (The Aerospace Corporation), Dr. Lucy Hoag (Violet Labs), and Adam Maher (Ursa Space Systems).

Laying the Groundwork for a New Space Economy — Max Haot (Vast), Kelly Hennig (Stoke Space), Bridgit Mendler (Northwood Space), and Even Rogers (True Anomaly).

Going Public Stage

For founders astatine each stage, this way dives into the frameworks and strategies driving IPO readiness and post-exit success.

How Long Should a Startup Stay Private? — David George (Andreessen Horowitz)

Rethinking the Exit: Kodiak AI’s Founder connected Going Public — Don Burnette, (Kodiak AI)

What Comes After Breakout Success? — Santi Subotovsky (Emergence Capital) and Eric Yuan (Zoom).

How AI Is Forcing Late-Stage Startups to Rewire GTM — oregon Be Left Behind — Jane Alexander (CapitalG), Vanessa Larco (Premise), and Nirav Tolia (Nextdoor).

Everything You Need to Know Before an Exit — Jai Das (Sapphire Ventures), Dan Springer (Ironclad), and Roseanne Wincek (Renegade Partners).

Builders Stage

The raw, unfiltered world of startup beingness — lessons successful scaling, fundraising, and thriving done the chaos.

How to Raise a Series A successful 2026 — Thomas Krane (Insight Partners), Katie Stanton (Moxxie Ventures), and Sangeen Zeb (GV).

Flying into the Future: AI Is Fueling Aviation — Natasha Del Toro (Del Toro Productions), Tanya Eves, and Doug King (Epic Aircraft).

How Much Salary and Equity Should You Really Offer Early Employees? — Randi Jakubowitz (645 Ventures), Rebecca Lee Whiting (Epigram Legal), and Yin Wu (Pulley).

Build What’s Next: Startups, DeepMind & Google Cloud — Tulsee Dosah (Google DeepMind) and Darren Mowry (Google Cloud)

Building a GTM Engine that Actually Works — Max Altschuler (GTMfund), Marc Manara (OpenAI), and Alison Wagonfeld (Google Cloud).

Who’s Defining AI’s Future successful 2025? The AI Disruptors 60 Unveiled — Shay Grinfeld (Greenfield Partners) and Renen Hallak (Vast Data).

What VCs Really Want to Hear successful Your Pitch — Medha Agarwal (defy.vc), Jyoti Bansal (Harness), and Jennifer Neundorfer (January Ventures).

Building successful a Time of Uncertainty — Ryan Petersen, ( Flexport)

Pitch Showcase Stage

Head implicit to the Expo Hall to drawback immoderate of our exhibiting startups arsenic they contiguous their pitches.

9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.: Startup Battlefield 200 Sustainability Pitches

11:30 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.: Pavilion Pitch Session – KOSME

1:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.: Pavilion Pitch Session – Japan — JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization)

1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.: Startup Battlefield 200 Built World Pitches

3:30 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.: Pavilion Pitch Session – Korea — KOTRA (Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency)

4:15 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.: Pavilion Pitch Session – Sultanate of Oman

Breakout Stage

Engage with a sheet successful a 50-minute Q&A session. This is connected a first-come, first-served basis. All summons types are welcome. See the afloat agenda for times and league details.

The Untapped Opportunity Hidden successful Business Workflows — Umair Bashir (Signal), Umair Javed (tkxel), and Marcus Torres (Quickbase)

From Vibes to Velocity: How AI Tools Can Help You Achieve Your Development Goals — Tim Rogers (GitHub)

Build First, Fund Later: The Founder’s Guide to Bootstrapping Breakout Startups — Tarun Raisoni (Gruve)

How to Get Acquired successful Tech (Without Selling Out): M&A Tips for Founders and Builders — Yonas Beshawred (StarSling) and Aklil Ibssa (Coinbase)

Fundraising Mistakes That Will Kill Your Round, and How to Avoid Them — Kamila Khasanova (On Top Strategy), Sam Li (Thoropass), Dr. Richard Munassi (Tampa Bay Wave), and Ashley Paston (General Catalyst)

Fundraising Process Workshop with TC Editor Turned VC Josh Constine — Josh Constine (SignalFire)

AI astatine the Brink: Strategic Playbook for National Security — Daniel Hendrycks (Center for AI Safety)

Startup Lessons You Won’t Find successful a Playbook — Santi Subotovsky (Emergence Capital) and Melissa Wong (Zipline).

Roundtables

These small-group sessions springiness founders and investors the accidental to tackle real-world challenges up close. Remember: pre-registration connected the lawsuit app is required for entry.

The Future of Banking and Fintech: the AI Wave — Nnamdi Okike (645 Ventures)

Prototyping, Tuning & Scaling GenAI Applications with Open Models — Aishwarya Srinivasan (Fireworks AI)

The Winning Formula: Turning Your Business Into a Trusted, Scalable Community to Drive Growth — Tasneem Amina (Kindred) and Justine Palefsky (Kindred)

From Inception to Enterprise: Selling AI Agents that Scale — Allison Baum Gates (SemperVirens Venture Capital)

Future of Construction: The Role of AI and Data successful the Field and the Office — Austin Yount, Brick & Mortar Ventures.

Berkeley Connect: Experience the World’s #1 Startup Ecosystem — Siwen Deng (Evergreen Saponins) and Keith McAleer (UC Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology)

How to Train Your Model: Taming AI Agents Without Breaking Them — Kyla Guru (Anthropic)

Community IS the Product — Brian Hamachek (Vently), Gargi Kand (Vently), and Nick Khonaysser (Vently)

Physical AI: Designing, Funding, and Scaling the Future — Kahini Shah (Obvious Ventures)

Future of Space Economy successful the Low Earth Orbit — Abhi Kumar (UC Berkeley).

Investor Insights — Itamar Novick (Recursive Ventures) and Brian Sparkes (Silicon Valley Venture, LLC)

Future of Space Economy successful the Low Earth Orbit (encore) — Abhi Kumar (UC Berkeley)

IPO Success: Charting the Course from Private to Public — Charly Kevers (Carta) and Daniel Tay (Morgan Stanley)

Building successful the Line of Fire: What It Takes to Win successful Public Sector AI — Ross Fubini (XYZ Venture Capital) and Ben Van Roo (Legion Intelligence)

Building AI-Ready Data Infrastructure with a Lean Team — Michel Tricot (Airbyte)

Your EQ is your AI — Alex Malebranche (Cloudflare)

Networking Opportunities

Networking Lounge powered by Braindate: Open 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Find your adjacent co-founder, investor, oregon mentor done curated oregon spontaneous meetups.

Deal Flow Cafe: Opens astatine 9:00 a.m. Exclusive to founders and investors, providing a quiescent abstraction to marque deals implicit coffee.

Equity Live

From 9:00 to 9:30 a.m., commencement your greeting with Equity Live, a peculiar onstage signaling of TechCrunch’s flagship podcast. Join the TechCrunch squad for a lively dive into the concern of startups, tech, and task superior — each unfolding successful existent clip from the Builders Stage.

Disrupt 2025 Side Events

Company-hosted Side Events are happening passim San Francisco this week, extending the Disrupt vigor good beyond Moscone West. Here’s what’s happening contiguous — panels, parties, and meetups designed to link founders, investors, and innovators crossed each country of tech. Make definite to RSVP your spot to immoderate of these.

Pitch&Drink with P2S.VC: Hosted by Pre-seed to win (AltaIR Capital, Yellow Rocks!, Smart Partnership Capital, I2BF Global Ventures)

Unlock Your Investor Potential: How Tech Workers Can Become LPs Using Vested Stock Units: Hosted by Musa Capital

Future Shock Deep Tech Meetup w/ SOSV & KIAC: Hosted by SOSV

The “Unofficial TechCrunch Disrupt 2025” Afterparty astatine Werqwise SF: Hosted by Silicon Valley Venture, LLC

Exclusive Gathering of Founders beyond Seed and Series A, Accredited Investors and VCs – Side Event astatine TechCrunch Disrupt 2025: Hosted by Equity X Investments, Vataseason and Plus Ultra Capital Partners

South Asian Collective @ Disrupt Week: Hosted by American South Asian Network (ASAN)

Beyond the Hype: Voices from the Future of Humane AI – Short Film Screening & Panel: Hosted by Building Humane Tech

Ping Pong After Panels: Hosted by Scrut Automation

TechCrunch Disrupt Unofficial Welcome Party: Bullish oregon Bust? A Rooftop AI Debate with Baseten, Premji Invest, and Treble PR: Hosted by Treble PR

Founders Happy Hour and Fireside Chat: Avoiding Identity and Compliance Scope Creep 👻: Hosted by Descope & Delve

JetBrains Night successful San Francisco: Hosted by JetBrains

Night Zero: Unofficial Opening Party astatine TechCrunch Disrupt Week: Hosted by Fox Rothschild and Silicon Valley Bank

Still clip to articulation Disrupt 2025

Think it’s excessively precocious to join? Not a chance. Get your summons here. There’s inactive truthful overmuch much to acquisition astatine TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 — including much Startup Battlefield pitches, game-changing sessions, and unforgettable connections. Tickets are disposable done the last day. Secure yours present and beryllium portion of the aboriginal of tech.