Disrupt 2026 reveals Builders Stage agenda
▼ Summary
– The Builders Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 focuses on practical strategies for scaling startups, featuring leaders like Grant Lee (Gamma) and Robby Stein (Google).
– Sessions cover fundraising, hiring, go-to-market strategy, and AI, with topics like winning pre-seed without a product and hiring when AI acts as a co-founder.
– The event will be held at Moscone Center in San Francisco from October 13-15, with over 10,000 attendees and early registration savings of up to $330.
– One session addresses how founders can compete for attention in an AI-dominated market by focusing on efficient growth, retention, and disciplined execution.
– Another panel explores how startups can achieve their first 1,000 customers without a marketing budget using founder-led distribution and community building.
The TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Builders Stage is officially set, offering a dedicated platform for founders, operators, and investors to dive into the gritty realities of scaling a company. This year’s agenda is packed with hard-hitting sessions on fundraising, hiring, AI strategy, and go-to-market execution, all designed to deliver actionable takeaways rather than abstract theory.
Confirmed speakers include Grant Lee (Gamma), Leah Solivan (Precedent.vc), and Robby Stein (Google), among many others. The event will take place at San Francisco’s Moscone Center from October 13-15, bringing together over 10,000 startup leaders. Early registration offers savings of up to $330 before prices go up.
The Builders Stage is one of six industry-focused tracks at Disrupt, specifically tailored for founders moving from Seed to Series A and beyond. Every session is built around real-world case studies and live Q&A, ensuring attendees leave with strategies they can implement immediately.
Here’s a first look at the agenda, with more speakers and sessions to be announced.
How to Win When You’re Not Building AI Featuring Shan Shan from Baillie Gifford and others. This panel tackles how founders can thrive in an AI-obsessed market by focusing on efficient growth, retention, and disciplined execution rather than hype.
What Happens When OpenAI Ships Your Roadmap With Michel Tricot (Airbyte), Rob Toews (Radical Ventures), and Linda Tong (Webflow). A critical session on navigating the threat of AI giants turning your product into a feature, exploring where defensibility truly lies.
Winning Pre-Seed Without a Product Puneet Agarwal (True Ventures), Austin Clements (Slauson and Co), and Sandhya Venkatachalam (Axiom Partners) break down how to build credibility and founder-market fit before you have anything to sell.
From MVP to Billions of Users: How Product Decisions Must Change at Scale Robby Stein (Google) shares how product instincts must evolve when every update impacts billions of users, balancing speed with trust and innovation with reliability.
Hiring When AI Is a Co-Founder Josh Reeves (Gusto) and others explore how startups are building hybrid teams that combine human talent with AI agents, redefining accountability and culture in a high-growth environment.
M&A Is Now an Early-Stage Strategy Karl Alomar (M13), Aklil Ibssa (Coinbase), and Lindsey Mignano (Mignano Law Group) explain why founders should think about acquisition from day one, using product strategy to create exit optionality.
The Series A in 2027 Jahanvi Sardana (Index Ventures), Shailendra Singh (Peak XV), and Janelle Teng Wade (Bessemer) decode what fundable means in the next funding cycle, revealing which outdated playbooks no longer work.
The 90-Day GTM: Why $0–$10M ARR Is the New Baseline Ryan Meadows (Lovable) and Tomasz Tunguz (Theory Ventures) share tactical levers for compressing go-to-market timelines in an era of AI-enabled execution and faster distribution.
The Real Tokenmaxxing: How the Best AI Companies Navigate a Multi-Model World Mo Jamma (Capital G) and Zuzanna Stamirowska (Pathway) discuss orchestrating across multiple AI models to manage cost, reliability, and architectural flexibility.
PMF Red Flags: How to Tell If You Really Have It Rajeev Dham (Sapphire Ventures) and Rahul Vohra (Superhuman) help founders distinguish real retention from hype-driven adoption, exposing common false signals of product-market fit.
The Zero-to-1K Playbook: How to Get Your First 1,000 Customers Without a Marketing Budget Grant Lee (Gamma) and Leah Solivan (Precedent.vc) share tactics for founder-led distribution, community building, and word-of-mouth momentum when you have no budget or brand.
Yes, It’s Hard to be a Founder: An Honest Conversation Nell Daly (Revenge Capital), David H. Rosmarin (Harvard Medical School), and Jack Withinshaw (Airspeeder) address the psychological toll of company building, offering systems for managing burnout and decision fatigue.
So You’ve Got a Hit Product. How Does Your Company Do It Again? Filip Kaliszan (Verkada) and others reveal the operational playbook for building a repeatable multi-product engine before your core product’s growth stalls.
Hiring, Compensation and Culture in the Most Competitive Market Ever Matt Birnbaum (Wylder.co) and Atli Thorkelsson (Redpoint Ventures) explore how to adapt compensation and culture to attract top talent in a market reshaped by AI startups.
How To Create Viral Growth and Capitalize On It Zach Yadegari (Cal AI) shares how to turn viral attention into durable retention and long-term company building.
The High-Conviction Filter: What We Learned from the Battlefield Alexa Von Tobel (Inspired Capital) and others debrief the founder qualities and trends that stood out at Disrupt 2026, and what happens after the spotlight fades.
If you’re ready to build smarter and scale faster, register for TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 today and save up to $330 before rates increase.
(Source: TechCrunch)