Live only at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: Why most founders are already behind on raising a Series A in 2027

If you’re planning to raise a Series A in the next 12 to 24 months, the rules you think you’re playing by may already be outdated.

Three days.

If you’re planning to raise a Series A in the next 12 to 24 months, the rules you think you’re playing by may already be outdated.
Series A isn’t just harder — it’s slower, more selective, and increasingly unforgiving. The bar has shifted, and many founders are still optimizing for a version of the market that no longer exists.
At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, taking place October 13-15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, one session on the Builders Stage cuts directly into that gap, led by some of the VCs shaping the next funding cycle: The Series A in 2027.
This isn’t a retrospective. It’s a forward-looking breakdown of what it will actually take to raise in the next funding cycle and who will get left behind. Get your passes to Disrupt and join this session live. This offer to buy one, get one at 50% off ends tonight at 11:59 p.m. PT.
Image Credits:TechCrunch
Get ahead of Series A changes
The window between building and raising has stretched. Metrics that once signaled readiness are being questioned. Teams that would have been fundable two years ago are now getting passed over. And in many cases, founders don’t realize it until they’re already in the market.
This session is designed to correct that before it costs you time, leverage, or your round.
What “fundable” actually means now
The definition of a “fundable” company is being rewritten in real time. In this session, you’ll get a direct view of how top investors are recalibrating:
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What traction actually signals readiness, and what no longer does
How expectations around growth, efficiency, and capital have changed
What product and GTM milestones matter heading into a raise
Where AI is raising the bar and where it’s distorting signals
This is practical information you can use right away. It reveals how decisions are being made right now and how they’ll be made when you go out to raise. Secure your ticket to Disrupt to learn what it takes (now) to raise.
Who you’re hearing from onstage
This Builders Stage session brings together investors who are actively shaping the next funding cycle — not commenting on the last one.
Nina Achadjian, Partner at Index Ventures
Nina Achadjian invests across seed to growth in AI, robotics, and vertical SaaS. She works closely with companies like Anthropic, Gong, and ServiceTitan, and brings both operator experience from Google and early-stage investing insight.
Image Credits:Index Ventures
Janelle Teng Wade, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners
Janelle Teng Wade focuses on early-stage AI/ML, data infrastructure, and developer platforms. She co-authors Bessemer’s widely referenced State of the Cloud Report and helps define their frameworks for scaling to $100 million+ in revenue.
Shailendra Singh, Managing Director, Peak XV
Shailendra Signh has been part of a firm that has backed 500+ companies and category leaders like CRED, Pine Labs, and Druva. The firm’s portfolio has produced 30+ IPOs and dozens of $100 million+ revenue companies.
Image Credits:Lionel Ng/Bloomberg / Getty Images
These are investors defining what the next wave of venture-backed companies needs to look like — through the companies they fund, the frameworks they build, and the standards they apply. Register for Disrupt to access this session and 250+ others.
What you’ll walk away with
The goal of this session is simple: clarity. You’ll leave with a sharper understanding of:
What metrics you should actually be building toward.
How to structure your team ahead of a raise.
What signals investors are prioritizing — and what they’re ignoring.
How to position your company in a more selective market.
And just as importantly, you’ll learn what to stop optimizing for. Because in this environment, doing the wrong things well doesn’t help; it sets you back. Buy your pass to Disrupt before prices increase.
Image Credits:Slava Blazer Photography / Flickr (opens in a new window)
Where this fits at Disru

Today is the last day. At 11:59 p.m. PT, the 50% off second pass offer for TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 ends. After that, prices go up, and the option to bring a partner, co-founder, or colleague with you at half the cost disappears.
Register now to lock in your savings. Save up to $410 on your pass and get 50% on a second pass.
You don’t just miss a discount, you lose a second perspective
Disrupt isn’t a single-track experience. It’s multiple conversations happening at once. Sessions overlap. Introductions lead to something else an hour later. Patterns only become clear after you’ve seen the same idea from different angles.
When you go alone, you see only part of it. When you bring someone, you see more, and more importantly, you understand more. You compare notes in real time, challenge assumptions, and make decisions while the context is still fresh. Get a discounted second pass now.
Image Credits:Slava Blazer Photography
You and your plus-one will have access to:
Startup Battlefield 200 pitch competition.
Expo Hall, where all 10,000 converge.
A direct line to founders, VCs, and operators.
20,000+ curated networking meetings.
Deal Flow Café and investor-founder networking.
That’s not a small difference. It’s the difference between leaving with ideas and leaving with direction for your next steps. And after tonight, that second perspective costs more. This is your last day to save 50% on a second pass. Choose your tickets.
You don’t just miss access, you fall behind on the conversations
From October 13–15 in San Francisco at Disrupt, the startup world will be in the same place at the same time, turning conversations into capital, ideas into companies, and connections into trajectories. They’ll be trading signals, testing assumptions, and deciding what matters based on what they’re seeing in real time.
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When you act now to secure your pass — and a second at 50% off — you’ll be in the room while those decisions (and discussions) are taking shape.
Across 250+ sessions, you’ll explore real-world playbooks (not theory), covering:
AI.
Scaling and growth strategy.
Venture capital and fundraising.
Fintech.
Climate tech.
Hardware and emerging technologies.
Image Credits:Slava Blazer Photography
Those conversations don’t pause when the event ends. They carry forward into follow-ups, deals, partnerships, and decisions made in the weeks that follow.
If you’re not there, you’re not just missing the event. You’re reacting later to conclusions other people reached sooner. Buy a pass to Disrupt today and get a second one for 50% off to be a part of the conversations.
You don’t just miss clarity, you extend uncertainty
Knowing you have a strong idea isn’t enough. You need clarity on where to take it, who to partner with, and how to fund it. Without that clarity, decisions stall. Roadmaps stretch. Opportunities sit just long enough to lose momentum.
Disrupt compresses that uncertainty. You see how decisions get made — onstage, in roundtables, and in conversations that build on each other over three days.
Image Credits:Eric Slomonson, The Photo Group
Better outcomes come from:
Accelerated fundraising.
Faster decision-making.
Product validation.
Hiring and partnerships.
Deal flow.
Miss that window, and you’re back to piecing together secondhand insight, slower feedback loops, and decisions made without the same level of context.
This is your final day to get a second pass for 50% off. Register now before prices increase at 11:59 p.m. ET tonight.
You don’t just miss this offer, you change how you show up
After tonight, you can still attend Disrupt. But you’re more likely to go alone — and that changes the experience.
It means choosing between sessions instead of covering more ground. Processing everything yourself instead of testing it in real time. Following up later instead of leaving with shared clarity.
That’s the real cost. Not just paying more,

After years of hints and preparation, the Uber-backed electric bike and scooter rental startup Lime has filed for an initial public offering.
The company, which is incorporated as Neutron Holdings Inc., has eyed the public markets for at least five years. CEO Wayne Ting last spoke told TechCrunch in 2023 about the prospect of an IPO, noting at the time that Lime had the the economics, the growth, and the profitability to take the startup public. All that was required was proper market conditions.
That day has apparently arrived.
The company intends to list on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “LIME.” Lime did not share terms of the offering, which was filed Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Lime’s IPO filing shows a company with growing revenue, but not yet profitability. The company generated $521 million in revenue in 2023, $686.6 million in 2024, and $886.7 million last year.
Its net losses were $122.3 million in 2023, but that line item has narrowed the past two years. Lime reported net losses of $33.9 million in 2024 and $59.3 million in 2025. Lime also reported it had free cash flow the past three years; its free cash flow was $104 million in 2025, nearly double from the previous year due to an increase in cash provided by operating activities
Lime, which was founded in 2017, has deep ties to Uber. The ride-hailing and delivery giant led Lime’s $170 million funding round in 2020. As part of that deal, Lime acquired Jump, the electric bike and scooter division that Uber bought back in 2018 for around $200 million. After the acquisition Jump’s name disappeared and its assets were absorbed by Lime. In the years since, Lime has integrated more closely with Uber.After the acquisition Jump’s name disappeared and its assets were absorbed by Lime. In the years since, Lime has integrated more closely with Uber.
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The acquisition also propelled Lime’s expansion. The company, which lets users rent scooters and ebikes through its app, is now in 230 cities and 29 countries.
Lime’s relationship with Uber has also been a steady tailwind for the business. Under its exclusive relationship, Lime vehicles are featured as a ride option within the Uber app in nearly all of its shared markets. A chunk of Lime’s revenue — about 14.3% last year — came through its partnership with Uber, the SEC document shows.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
Kirsten Korosec is a reporter and editor who has covered the future of transportation from EVs and autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility and in-car tech for more than a decade. She is currently the transportation editor at TechCrunch and co-host of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. She is also co-founder and co-host of the podcast, “The Autonocast.” She previously wrote for Fortune, The Verge, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review and CBS Interactive.
You can contact or verify outreach from Kirsten by emailing kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at kkorosec.07 on Signal.
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Startup Battlefield 200 applications are open, but only for three more weeks. Apply by May 27 for your shot at VC access, global visibility, TechCrunch coverage, $100K equity-free, and more opportunities for major scaling impact.
Pre-Series A founders — and anyone who knows a startup worth backing — this is your reminder: the deadline is approaching fast, and the strongest contenders are already entering the arena. If your startup has been nominated, don’t wait. Complete your application now before the window closes.
Know a startup that deserves to step into the spotlight? Nominate them now to give them time to complete the application by the deadline.
Image Credits:TechCrunch /
Global visibility that’ll launch your startup
This is not just another pitch competition. Startup Battlefield 200 puts you on the main stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 in front of 10,000+ attendees, top-tier investors, media, and the global TechCrunch audience. You are competing live, getting direct VC feedback, and proving your company belongs among the next breakout startups.
Waiting until the last minute is the fastest way to lose your edge. Early applicants have more time to prepare, more opportunities to stand out to the TechCrunch editorial team, and a stronger chance to make an impact before the competition intensifies. Nominate your startup, then finish the job and apply.
Image Credits:TechCrunch
Who should apply?
We’re looking for ambitious early-stage startups building innovative, potentially category-defining products. Applications are open globally across every industry. Most selected companies are pre-Series A, though select Series A startups may qualify case by case. A functional MVP and clear product demo are required. Most importantly, we’re looking for founders building with vision, execution, and real market impact.
This is the same launchpad where companies like Dropbox, Discord, Fitbit, Trello, and Mint gained early momentum. Thousands apply every year. Only 200 are selected. Just 20 finalists pitch live on the Disrupt Stage. One startup takes the crown.
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October 13-15, 2026
What selected startups receive
Selected startups receive one of the highest ROI opportunities available to early-stage founders. It’s free to apply, and the potential return — from investor exposure to media coverage and customer growth — can create real scaling impact.
Image Credits:Kimberly White / Getty Images
Global exposure across TechCrunch’s audience
Free exhibit table for all 3 days
4 all-access Disrupt passes
Featured startup profile in the event app
Press list access and lead generation opportunities
Exclusive founder masterclasses
A chance to pitch live on the Disrupt Stage
Direct feedback from top VCs
A shot at $100,000 in equity-free funding
Apply before May 27
Applications close May 27. The founders who break through are not waiting until the final hour — they are already making their move.
If you are building something category-defining, or know a founder who is, now is the time to step forward. Nominate your startup — or one that deserves the spotlight — and complete your application before the deadline runs out.
Image Credits:Kimberly White / Getty Images When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

You can spend months trying to get in front of the right people. Or you can show up where they’re already looking. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, more than 10,000 founders, investors, and operators will gather at Moscone West from October 13–15.
And at the center of it all — where deals start, conversations accelerate, and new companies get discovered — is the Expo Hall.
If startup visibility, traction, and real conversations matter, you should be on the Disrupt exhibit floor, not on the sidelines. Get your exhibit table at Disrupt before your competitor does.
Image Credits:Slava Blazer Photograpy
Why exhibiting at Disrupt works
Disrupt isn’t a passive audience; it’s an active ecosystem. Investors, operators, and decision-makers don’t just walk the floor. They show up with intent. They’re there to:
Find products to invest in.
Evaluate tools they can use immediately.
Meet startups worth backing.
Identify companies to partner with or hire.
Image Credits:Eric Slomonson, The Photo Group
That intent is what makes the Exhibitor Program work. Instead of waiting to be discovered, you’re positioned directly in the path of:
Investors sourcing deal flow.
Founders building and buying.
Operators solving real problems.
This isn’t just visibility. It’s proximity to opportunity. Exhibit tables are limited. Find out how to reserve an exhibit table.
What you actually get (and how it helps)
An exhibit table at Disrupt is the entry point, but the value comes from everything around it.
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For $12,500, your team is set up for three full days in the Expo Hall, the highest-traffic area of Disrupt, with a fully branded 6’ table, signage, and seating included.
More importantly, you’re equipped to operate beyond the booth.
Your Disrupt exhibit package includes:
5 all-access Exhibitor–Partner passes.
5 Expo+ passes.
Additional tickets are available at 50% off.
That means your team isn’t limited to one spot; you’re moving through the event, joining conversations, and meeting people where decisions are actually made.
Image Credits:TechCrunch
You also get:
Advanced lead capture through the Disrupt mobile app.
Access to the TechCrunch press list.
Branding across the website, app, signage, and sponsor listings.
Along with:
Silver Tier sponsor designation.
Inclusion in select TechCrunch coverage.
Closing ceremony acknowledgment.
Everything is set up to make sure you’re visible, credible, and easy to find. Reserve your exhibit table at Disrupt.
Why startups keep coming back
Startups return to exhibit at Disrupt year after year because the results are tangible: qualified foot traffic, high-value conversations, and real opportunities.
Image Credits:Silkroad (opens in a new window)
Startups come to:
Launch products in front of the right audience.
Generate qualified leads quickly.
Get in front of media that amplifies their story.
Build relationships that turn into funding and partnerships.
And they’re doing it inside a highly concentrated environment:
20,000+ curated meetings across the event
300+ startups actively showcasing
Thousands of decision-makers looking for solutions
That level of density changes the timeline. Conversations that might take months to initiate can start — and move — within days. Don’t be the last to reserve an exhibit table. See what you get as an exhibitor.
This is where discovery happens
The Expo Hall at Disrupt brings opportunity into clear view. This is where:
Investors find their next portfolio company.
Founders discover tools that accelerate growth.
Operators identify solutions they can deploy immediately.
Ideas move quickly here, from introduction to conversation to opportunity.
If your company is building something real, this is where it gets seen. Reserve an exhibit table while you still can.
Who should exhibit?
The Exhibitor Program at Disrupt is open to startups at any stage and across any industry. It’s most valuable for

Two days. That’s all that’s left to lock in your place — with your partner, co-founder, or colleague — at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.
Right now, you can buy one pass and get 50% off a second of the same ticket type, but that offer ends May 8 at 11:59 p.m. PT. After that, prices go up, and the opportunity to show up with more perspective, more context, and more clarity disappears with it.
At this stage, the advantage comes down to how quickly you leave with a clear sense of what to do next, which is why securing your pass now and deciding who to bring with you matters more than waiting.
Image Credits:Slava Blazer Photography / Flickr (opens in a new window)
Disrupt is where you get clarity on leveling up
Success in the startup ecosystem depends on knowing what to do next — and moving on it with confidence. Across founders, investors, and operators, the challenge isn’t a lack of ideas. It’s clarity.
There are too many signals, too many opinions, and too many possible directions. Product decisions stall. Investment timing stretches. Execution slows, not because the path isn’t there, but because it isn’t obvious.
Disrupt compresses that uncertainty into three days of high-impact programming, unparalleled networking, and real-time insight from the people actively shaping the market, giving you access to clarity that’s difficult to replicate elsewhere, and even harder to access if you wait past the May 8 deadline to secure your second pass for 50% off.
You’ll hear directly from leaders like:
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Nina Achadjian, Partner, Index Ventures
Rajeev Dham, Managing Director, Sapphire Ventures
Josh Reeves, CEO and Co-founder, Gusto
Grant Lee, CEO and Co-founder, Gamma
Shailendra Singh, Managing Director, Peak XV
See who else is speaking in the growing lineup.
Image Credits:Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch
See how waves in the industry get made
One of the biggest advantages of being at Disrupt is witnessing how decisions actually happen.
Startup Battlefield 200 makes that clear. As founders pitch live in front of seasoned VC judges and a global audience, you’re not just watching — you’re seeing what gets challenged, what resonates, and what ultimately stands out.
That level of transparency is hard to replicate elsewhere, which is exactly why being in the room — and locking in your pass while you can still bring someone with you for 50% off — matters more than trying to piece these signals together after the fact.
Clarity comes from comparison, not isolation
What makes Disrupt different isn’t any one session — it’s how patterns emerge across them. You hear one perspective, test it in a roundtable, and see it reinforced — or challenged — in conversation later that day. Over time, the signal becomes clear.
For founders, that might mean refining product direction. For investors, spotting what stands out. For operators, pressure-testing how to build and scale.
Bringing a co-founder, operator, or partner accelerates that clarity. You compare interpretations in real time, challenge assumptions, and make better decisions while the context is still fresh — an advantage you can only lock in by securing your place before the 50% off a second pass offer ends.
Image Credits:Eric Slomonson, The Photo Group
Find your ticket match
All passes are eligible for the buy one, get one 50% off discount — so you can bring someone in your role or a complementary one and get more out of every conversation. But only if you act by May 8.
Founder Pass — Made for startup builders. Access investor meetings, the Deal Flow Café, curated networking, and programming on scaling, fundraising, and growth.
Investor Pass — Designed for VCs and angels. Connect directly with founders, access curated deal flow, and participate in investor-focused sessions and networking.
Attendee Pass — Ideal for operators and builders. Full access to stages, breakouts, roundtables, and networking to understand

Lachy Groom, one of Silicon Valley’s most closely watched solo investors, decided to back Indian startup Pronto just 20 minutes into his first meeting with its 24-year-old founder.
The meeting, which took place in February through a mutual connection, led to Groom investing $20 million in Pronto as an extension of its Series B round, valuing the startup at $200 million after the investment — double its valuation just over two months earlier, as TechCrunch had previously reported. The deal came together within weeks, bringing the solo investor on board as the Bengaluru-based startup expands to meet growing demand for on-demand home services in India.
Groom said he was drawn to Pronto’s ambition to build what he called the world’s largest platform for organizing domestic labor, starting with India’s vast and largely unstructured workforce. “The work underneath that is genuinely hard, and most attempts in adjacent categories have struggled with the operational discipline,” he said, adding that Pronto founder Anjali Sardana (pictured above) and her team were operating “at a level I haven’t seen elsewhere in this space.”
Before founding Pronto in 2025, Sardana worked at Bain Capital and venture firm 8VC, where she gained early exposure to investing and high-growth startups. The startup connects households with workers for everyday tasks such as cleaning and basic home services.
The introduction was arranged through Paul Hudson, founder of Glade Brook Capital, who connected Groom and Sardana during her trip to San Francisco earlier this year. Glade Brook has backed startups founded by both: Pronto, which Sardana leads, and Physical Intelligence, where Groom is a co-founder. Hudson and Groom have also backed Indian quick-commerce startup Zepto.
Sardana said Groom’s investment approach is heavily founder-driven. “He indexes two things. One is the founder, and that’s 95% of it. If he loves the founder, then he will invest,” she told TechCrunch, adding that the rest comes down to the scale and potential of the business.
Groom’s bet comes as a clutch of startups in India race to build instant home services platforms, a category that is seeing rapid adoption among urban households as more consumers turn to on-demand help for everyday tasks.
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The opportunity is significant. A recent Bank of America note, reviewed by TechCrunch, estimates the instant home services market in India could grow into a $15 billion to $18 billion industry by the end of the decade, as companies including Pronto, Snabbit, and Urban Company’s InstaHelp compete for share in the fast-growing category.
Competition is intensifying, with heavy capital inflows and aggressive pricing, particularly to attract first-time users. Bank of America estimates that Snabbit and Urban Company’s InstaHelp each account for about 40% of the market, while Pronto has around a 20% share, even as it scales rapidly. The category is expected to remain “burn-heavy” over the next two to three years.
Despite trailing larger rivals, Pronto has been scaling rapidly, growing from around 18,000 bookings a day to 26,000 in just over a month. The startup is focused on driving repeat usage, betting that turning occasional demand into frequent, habit-driven usage will be key to winning the category, with its top 10% of users accounting for about 40% of bookings.
This growth has also brought challenges, particularly in building out supply. Pronto has expanded its network of service workers to 6,500, up from 1,440 in January. But Sardana said demand continues to outpace supply, making forecasting and capacity management key challenges as the startup grows. When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
Jagmeet covers startups, tech policy-related updates, and all other major tech-centric developments from India for TechCrunch. He previously worked as a pr

The year keeps moving swiftly, and so is all of our planning for TechCrunch Disrupt 2026! We have an exciting new panel in store for founders in need of merger and acquisition advice … but first, we have a limited-time ticket offer to share.
Disrupt will once again be held in San Francisco’s Moscone West from October 13–15, and for a limited time, attendees can also bring a colleague, co-founder, investor, or teammate for less! You can buy one Disrupt 2026 pass here, and get 50% off a second pass of the same ticket type with a limited-time offer that ends May 8 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
As for the kind of programming that’ll keep you locked in during Disrupt’s three days, let’s dive into our newest panel that will be on the Builders Stage.
Image Credits:TechCrunch
Hear at Disrupt how M&A is now an early-stage strategy
If you’ve been following our recent coverage, acquisitions and acqui-hires remain in vogue, especially within the AI scene. Whether it’s OpenAI buying Hiro, Anthropic acquiring Vercept, Google taking the team behind Hume AI, or Databricks pulling in two startups just for its security product, it’s been a busy year!
And being acquired is far from being the end of a long road for founders; it can be part of their early-stage journey. And with those, and many other acquisitions in mind, we’ve gathered an expert panel to help equip founders with what they need to know about all the M&A options that lie before them.
Their perspectives will equip you with a playbook for creating optionality for potentially selling, ways to make your startup more enticing to buyers, and the realities of going through the acquisition process. And for some background on our panel, let’s learn more about our industry leaders.
Aklil Ibssa, Head of Corporate Development and M&A, Coinbase
Image Credits:Coinbase
Aklil Ibssa brings a buyer-side perspective from one of the biggest companies in crypto, as he leads the company’s acquisition strategy and execution, helping identify where Coinbase should buy, invest, partner, or build. He’s overseen more than 14 acquisitions and nearly 50 early- and later-stage investments, and as one of the first hires on Coinbase’s corporate development team, he contributed to an M&A program that’s become among the most active in crypto, with more than 40 total completed acquisitions.
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Most importantly for founders, he’s seen firsthand how strategic buyers evaluate young companies: whether for technology, talent, licenses, product velocity, and beyond. And he’ll be able to speak to acquisitions, including Deribit, Liquifi, and Echo, and prominent investments in startups like Kalshi.
Lindsey Mignano, Founder, Mignano Law Group
Image Credits:S72 Business Portraits
Lindsey Mignano brings the legal and structural expertise that often determines whether an early-stage M&A deal can actually get to the finish line. As founder of Mignano Law Group, she represents emerging technology companies, SMEs, venture-backed startups, and venture firms as outside general counsel. Her practice spans everything from SAFE notes, priced rounds, and bridge financings to buy-side and sell-side acquisitions, acqui-hires, and everything else you can bring to mind.
That uniquely equips her to educate founders without insight into how early M&A readiness can begin. Many of her clients are seed through Series B companies, including enterprise SaaS, PaaS, and AI startups — exactly the kinds of companies now facing strategic interest, and she’ll be able to ground the conversation in the realities of cap tables, contracts, asset sales, and the necessary work for acquisitions to happen.
Karl Alomar, Managing Partner, M13
Image Credits:Tanya Gillogley
Now it’s time for an investor and operator to join the conversation. As managing partner at M13, Karl Alomar backs seed and Series A software founders across infrastructure, fintech, developer productivity, and other categories, fee
Three days. That’s all that’s left to decide, not just whether you’ll be at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, but also who you’ll show up with from October 13 to 15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West — and how much credibility you gain from the opportunity.
Right now, you can buy one pass and get 50% off a second of the same ticket type. That offer ends May 8 at 11:59 p.m. PT. After that, prices go up — and so does the cost of showing up without the coverage, visibility, and presence that actually make the experience count.
Because at a certain point, what determines how quickly a company moves is whether it is seen, understood, and taken seriously by the people who can influence what happens next.
You only have three days left to act. Who will you bring to Disrupt? Choose your ticket type and lock in your 50% savings.
Gain visibility across every interactive session
Most founders don’t struggle to generate attention. There are more channels than ever to get in front of people, and more ways to create surface-level visibility. What’s harder, and far more important, is earning credibility.
Investors don’t respond to visibility alone; they respond to confidence. Partners don’t engage based on awareness; they engage based on trust. Even early customers are making decisions about what feels established, what feels validated, and what feels worth their time.
Across six industry stages, Disrupt is designed to show how companies earn trust at every phase of growth — by putting founders, investors, and operators in environments where credibility is built in real time in these practical, hands-on sessions.
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Builders Stage
Builders and operators break down how companies actually scale. Learning from founders who’ve done it, and applying those frameworks, helps you speak with more authority when discussing growth, fundraising, and execution.
Image Credits:Slava Blazer Photography / Flickr (opens in a new window)
AI Stage
Explore how leading companies are applying AI in practice. Hearing directly from builders and investors working at the frontier helps founders anchor their approach in what’s proven — not just what’s promised, strengthening credibility with both technical and business audiences.
AI in the real world
Beyond software, AI is reshaping the physical world. Hear from founders and operators building trusted, scalable systems in robotics, biotech, and edge environments where real-world constraints define success.
Smart money
Money is being rebuilt in real time. Explore how founders are shaping the future of finance through stablecoins, payments, and fintech infrastructure — cutting through hype to reveal what’s actually working in a digital economy.
Smart systems
Software is transforming energy, climate, and industrial systems. Explore how founders are rebuilding infrastructure — from data center power to grid bottlenecks — while deploying smarter, scalable systems for a more resilient future.
Disrupt Stage
The main stage where top founders, investors, and operators define what matters next. Being part of these conversations and referencing them positions you within the broader narrative of where the market is heading.
Image Credits:Kimberly White / Getty Images
Bringing a partner, co-founder, or colleague means you’re not just attending, but you’re also reinforcing that credibility across more conversations, more contexts, and more interactions.
For the next three days, you can buy one pass and get a second for 50% off.
Why bringing someone strengthens your impact
From October 13–15 in San Francisco, Disrupt brings together 10,000+ founders, investors, and operators in one concentrated environment built for evaluation and discovery.
Across 250+ sessions, roundtables, and discussions — and with 300+ startups showcasing — companies aren’t just seen once; they’re seen repeatedly, in front of the same investors, partners, and media.
That repetition is what t
4 days left: Get 50% off a second TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 pass to make more deals faster Yahoo Tech
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