18 October, 2024
Announcing more Startup Battlefield judges at Disrupt 2024
Startup Battlefield 200 is a major highlight at every Disrupt, and we’re thrilled to find out which of the thousands of startup applicants will get the chance to pitch to top-tier VCs at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Join us at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28–30 to witness the epic showdown where every contender is set to make a significant impact.
Get an insider’s view of what the judges look for in a viable company as they provide detailed feedback on their evaluation criteria. Don’t miss the chance to learn from their expert insights and discover the crucial traits that lead to startup success, only at Disrupt 2024.
We’re excited to introduce our next set of investors who will evaluate the startups and dive into each pitch with a thorough and probing Q&A session. Stay tuned for more big names coming your way soon!
Alice Brooks, Partner, Khosla Ventures
Alice is a partner at Khosla Ventures interested in sustainability, food, agriculture, and manufacturing/supply chain. She has worked with multiple startups in robotics, IoT, retail, consumer, and STEM education and has run mechanical, electrical, and app development teams in the U.S. and Asia. She has also established and managed manufacturing operations at factories in China and Taiwan. Prior to KV, Alice was founder and CEO of Roominate, a STEM education company helping girls learn engineering concepts through play.
Mark Crane, Partner, General Catalyst
Mark Crane is a partner at General Catalyst, a venture capital firm that works with seed to endurance-stage founders to help build companies that can withstand the test of time. He focuses on sourcing and investing in later-stage investment opportunities such as AuthZed, Bugcrowd, Resilience, and TravelPerk. Prior to joining General Catalyst, Mark was a vice president at Cove Hill Partners in Massachusetts. Previously, he was a senior associate at JMI Equity and an associate at North Bridge Growth Equity.
Sofia Dolfe, Partner, Index Ventures
Sofia partners with founders who leverage their unique perspective and personal understanding of a problem to create businesses that lead to behavioral shifts, powerful network effects, and the reshaping of entire industries, from grocery and e-commerce, to financial services and healthcare. Sofia is also one of Index Ventures’ gaming leads, working with some of the top gaming companies in Europe, creating the next generation of iconic gaming titles. She spends most of her time in the Nordics but works with entrepreneurs across the continent.
Christine Esserman, Partner, Accel
Christine Esserman joined Accel in 2017 and focuses on software, internet, and mobile technology companies. Since joining Accel, Christine has helped lead Accel’s investments in Blackpoint Cyber, Linear, Merge, ThreeFlow, Bumble, Remote, Dovetail, Ethos, Guru, and Headway. Prior to Accel, Christine worked in product and operations roles at a number of startups. Christine is from the Bay Area and graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in finance and operations.
Haomiao Huang, Founding Partner, Matter Venture Partners
Haomiao from Matter Venture Partners is a robotics researcher turned founder turned investor. He is particularly passionate about companies bringing digital innovation into physical economy businesses, with a focus on sectors like logistics, manufacturing, and transportation and on advanced technologies like robotics and AI. Haomiao spent four years investing in hard tech alongside Wen Hsieh at Kleiner Perkins. Prior to that he founded the smart home security startup Kuna, built self-driving cars at Caltech, and, as part of his PhD research at Stanford, pioneered the aerodynamics and control of multi-rotor UAVs. Kuna was part of Y Combinator’s Winter 14 batch.
Don’t miss it!
The Startup Battlefield winner, who will walk away with a $100,000 equity-free prize, will be announced at Disrupt 2024 — the startup epicenter. Join 10,000 attendees to witness this groundbreaking moment and see the next wave of tech innovation.
Register here and secure your seat to witness this epic startup battle.
Announcing Startup Battlefield 200 at Disrupt 2024
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, which takes place from October 28-30 at Moscone West in San Francisco, is rapidly approaching. Today we’re thrilled to announce the 200 startups selected to participate in this year’s Startup Battlefield 200 (SB 200) cohort.
TechCrunch’s editorial staff read, vetted and debated over thousands of applications. Narrowing the group down to 200 companies was a challenge, but we’re very excited about the results. Going through the vetting process reminded us, yet again, just how much creativity, innovation and talent exists within the startup community. It never fails to amaze and inspire us. We know you’ll feel the same after reading through the Startup Battlefield 200 listings.
From across the globe, these 200 companies represent innovation taking place in the following categories:
SaaS, enterprise and productivityHealthtech and biotechHardware, robotics and IoTFintech and edtechSecurity, privacy and social networkingSustainability, mobility and logistics
Each startup receives a free, VIP experience that includes master classes on building and running a startup, pitch deck teardowns, curated receptions, access to investors and international media, and more. They’re the only early-stage startups allowed to exhibit at Disrupt 2024, and you’ll find them on the expo floor for the duration of the show.
The SB 200 companies join an illustrious community of more than 1,300 Startup Battlefield alumni, including Cloudflare, Dropbox, Getaround and Discord.
And what is a TechCrunch Disrupt without the Startup Battlefield stage competition?
From the 200 companies, 20 have been selected to pitch on the Disrupt stage in front of thousands of attendees for a chance to win a $100,000 equity-free prize and the Disrupt Cup. We will announce these 20 companies on the first day of the conference. The other 180 will pitch on the Pitch Showcase Stage in the Expo Hall. Both of these are can’t miss events.
Don’t miss the show!
Disrupt 2024, which takes place from October 28-30 at Moscone West in San Francisco, is where the future of tech unfolds. Join a dynamic community of over 10,000 startup and VC leaders ready to transform the industry. Secure your Disrupt 2024 pass now and meet the groundbreaking startups competing face-to-face in Startup Battlefield 200.
Announcing Disrupt 2024 AI Stage agenda
We’re so excited to announce that we’ve added a dedicated AI Stage presented by Google Cloud to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. It joins Fintech, SaaS and Space as the other industry-focused stages — all under one big roof.
We couldn’t possibly host TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 without a huge deep dive on all things artificial intelligence. So, here is our first sneak peek at the AI Stage agenda, happening all day on Wednesday, October 30. As a classic TechCrunch stage, we have some of the nascent industry’s heavy hitters, like Alexandr Wang and Aravind Srinivas, alongside our partners like Nebius AI and others!
Check the prelim agenda below and keep checking back for updates — we have a lot more to add to the AI Stage.
The AI Stage agenda at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
From Search Engines to Knowledge Engines: Perplexity’s Rush Toward an AI-Curated Web
with Aravind Srinivas (Perplexity)
Perplexity‘s AI-powered search engine might be the next stage of interacting with the web and knowledge in general — or not. But the company is certainly risking it all to manifest that future, even if it ruffles a few feathers along the way. Hear from the CEO how the company plans to take on all comers in this new category of tech.
How Generative AI Is Flooding the Web with Disinformation
with Pamela San Martin (Oversight Board), Imran Ahmed (CCDH), and speakers to be announced
As generative AI tools become more widely available — and become cheaper, or even free, to use — they’re being abused by an array of actors, including state actors, to create deepfakes and sow disinformation online. In this session, we’ll hear from experts about the types of deepfakes now circulating the web and some possible ways to combat the threat.
Are “Open” AI Models Really Better?
with Ali Farhadi (Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence), Irene Solaiman (Hugging Face), and speakers to be announced
There’s a war brewing in the AI industry between companies in support of “open” AI models (models released under permissive licenses that can be fine-tuned and repurposed for a range of applications) and closed source models (models gated behind paid services and APIs). Is one approach better than the other? The answer isn’t as clear-cut as you might think. In this talk, we’ll investigate the differences between open and closed source models, as well as the subtle but important flavors of open-model licenses.
Navigating AI’s Legal and Ethical Minefield
with Sarah Myers West (AI Now), Jingna Zhang (Cara), and Ben Zhao (University of Chicago)
AI’s meteoric rise has created new ethical dilemmas and exacerbated old ones, while lawsuits drop left and right. This threatens both new and established AI companies, and the creators and workers whose labor feeds the models. A panel of experts in AI, copyright, and ethics take on this complex and fast-moving problem space.
But Is It Art? Generative AI’s Evolving Role in Music and Video Production
with Mikey Shulman (Suno), Amit Jain (Luma AI), and other speakers to be announced
Generative AI is increasingly capable of creating video, music, and other media on demand. But who actually wants it, and why? This panel of AI startups will discuss the growing markets for generative media and how they can be served without harming or displacing the artists they claim to empower.
About TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is where you’ll find innovation for every stage of your startup journey. Whether you’re a budding founder with a revolutionary idea, a seasoned startup looking to scale or an investor seeking the next big thing, TechCrunch Disrupt offers unparalleled resources, connections and expert insights to propel your venture forward. Over 10,000 startup leaders will be attending this year’s event on October 28-30 in San Francisco.
We can’t wait to hear from these AI leaders at this year’s show. Purchase your tickets here
Announcing Disrupt 2024 AI Stage agenda
We’re so excited to announce that we’ve added a dedicated AI Stage presented by Google Cloud to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. It joins Fintech, SaaS and Space as the other industry-focused stages — all under one big roof.
We couldn’t possibly host TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 without a huge deep dive on all things artificial intelligence. So, here is our first sneak peek at the AI Stage agenda, happening all day on Wednesday, October 30. As a classic TechCrunch stage, we have some of the nascent industry’s heavy hitters, like Alexandr Wang and Aravind Srinivas, alongside our partners like Nebius AI and others!
Check the prelim agenda below and keep checking back for updates — we have a lot more to add to the AI Stage.
The AI Stage agenda at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
From Search Engines to Knowledge Engines: Perplexity’s Rush Toward an AI-Curated Web
with Aravind Srinivas (Perplexity)
Perplexity‘s AI-powered search engine might be the next stage of interacting with the web and knowledge in general — or not. But the company is certainly risking it all to manifest that future, even if it ruffles a few feathers along the way. Hear from the CEO how the company plans to take on all comers in this new category of tech.
The Business of Labeling: A Deep Dive into Scale AI’s Massive Growth
with Alexandr Wang (Scale AI)
In 2016, when Scale AI was founded, few people could have predicted that the company, which builds tools to train, test and maintain generative AI models, would eventually grow into a $14 billion business. In hindsight, it seems almost inevitable that Scale would, well, scale quickly, given the dramatic growth many of its early customers, including OpenAI, experienced. In a conversation with Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, we’ll discuss the company’s journey so far and the role that Scale AI now plays in the generative AI ecosystem.
How Generative AI Is Flooding the Web with Disinformation
with Pamela San Martin (Oversight Board), Imran Ahmed (CCDH), and speakers to be announced
As generative AI tools become more widely available — and become cheaper, or even free, to use — they’re being abused by an array of actors, including state actors, to create deepfakes and sow disinformation online. In this session, we’ll hear from experts about the types of deepfakes now circulating the web and some possible ways to combat the threat.
Are “Open” AI Models Really Better?
with Ali Farhadi (Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence), Irene Solaiman (Hugging Face), and speakers to be announced
There’s a war brewing in the AI industry between companies in support of “open” AI models (models released under permissive licenses that can be fine-tuned and repurposed for a range of applications) and closed source models (models gated behind paid services and APIs). Is one approach better than the other? The answer isn’t as clear-cut as you might think. In this talk, we’ll investigate the differences between open and closed source models, as well as the subtle but important flavors of open-model licenses.
Navigating AI’s Legal and Ethical Minefield
with Sarah Myers West (AI Now), Jingna Zhang (Cara), and Ben Zhao (University of Chicago)
AI’s meteoric rise has created new ethical dilemmas and exacerbated old ones, while lawsuits drop left and right. This threatens both new and established AI companies, and the creators and workers whose labor feeds the models. A panel of experts in AI, copyright, and ethics take on this complex and fast-moving problem space.
But Is It Art? Generative AI’s Evolving Role in Music and Video Production
with Mikey Shulman (Suno), Amit Jain (Luma AI), and other speakers to be announced
Generative AI is increasingly capable of creating video, music, and other media on demand. But who actually wants it, and why? This panel of AI startups will discuss the growing markets for generative media and how they can be served without harming or displacing the artists they claim to empower.
About TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is where you’ll find innovation for every stage of your startup journey. Whether you’re a budding founder with a revolutionary idea, a seasoned startup looking to scale or an investor seeking the next big thing, TechCrunch Disrupt offers unparalleled resources, connections and expert insights to propel your venture forward. Over 10,000 startup leaders will be attending this year’s event on October 28-30 in San Francisco.
We can’t wait to hear from these AI leaders at this year’s show. Purchase your tickets here
Announcing Disrupt 2024 AI Stage agenda
We’re so excited to announce that we’ve added a dedicated AI Stage presented by Google Cloud to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. It joins Fintech, SaaS and Space as the other industry-focused stages — all under one big roof.
We couldn’t possibly host TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 without a huge deep dive on all things artificial intelligence. So, here is our first sneak peek at the AI Stage agenda, happening all day on Wednesday, October 30. As a classic TechCrunch stage, we have some of the nascent industry’s heavy hitters, like Alexandr Wang and Aravind Srinivas, alongside our partners like Nebius AI and others!
Check the prelim agenda below and keep checking back for updates — we have a lot more to add to the AI Stage.
The AI Stage agenda at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
From Search Engines to Knowledge Engines: Perplexity’s Rush Toward an AI-Curated Web
with Aravind Srinivas (Perplexity)
Perplexity‘s AI-powered search engine might be the next stage of interacting with the web and knowledge in general — or not. But the company is certainly risking it all to manifest that future, even if it ruffles a few feathers along the way. Hear from the CEO how the company plans to take on all comers in this new category of tech.
The Business of Labeling: A Deep Dive into Scale AI’s Massive Growth
with Alexandr Wang (Scale AI)
In 2016, when Scale AI was founded, few people could have predicted that the company, which builds tools to train, test and maintain generative AI models, would eventually grow into a $14 billion business. In hindsight, it seems almost inevitable that Scale would, well, scale quickly, given the dramatic growth many of its early customers, including OpenAI, experienced. In a conversation with Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, we’ll discuss the company’s journey so far and the role that Scale AI now plays in the generative AI ecosystem.
How Generative AI Is Flooding the Web with Disinformation
with Pamela San Martin (Oversight Board), Imran Ahmed (CCDH), and speakers to be announced
As generative AI tools become more widely available — and become cheaper, or even free, to use — they’re being abused by an array of actors, including state actors, to create deepfakes and sow disinformation online. In this session, we’ll hear from experts about the types of deepfakes now circulating the web and some possible ways to combat the threat.
Are “Open” AI Models Really Better?
with Ali Farhadi (Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence), Irene Solaiman (Hugging Face), and speakers to be announced
There’s a war brewing in the AI industry between companies in support of “open” AI models (models released under permissive licenses that can be fine-tuned and repurposed for a range of applications) and closed source models (models gated behind paid services and APIs). Is one approach better than the other? The answer isn’t as clear-cut as you might think. In this talk, we’ll investigate the differences between open and closed source models, as well as the subtle but important flavors of open-model licenses.
Navigating AI’s Legal and Ethical Minefield
with Sarah Myers West (AI Now), Jingna Zhang (Cara), and Ben Zhao (University of Chicago)
AI’s meteoric rise has created new ethical dilemmas and exacerbated old ones, while lawsuits drop left and right. This threatens both new and established AI companies, and the creators and workers whose labor feeds the models. A panel of experts in AI, copyright, and ethics take on this complex and fast-moving problem space.
But Is It Art? Generative AI’s Evolving Role in Music and Video Production
with Mikey Shulman (Suno), Amit Jain (Luma AI), and other speakers to be announced
Generative AI is increasingly capable of creating video, music, and other media on demand. But who actually wants it, and why? This panel of AI startups will discuss the growing markets for generative media and how they can be served without harming or displacing the artists they claim to empower.
About TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is where you’ll find innovation for every stage of your startup journey. Whether you’re a budding founder with a revolutionary idea, a seasoned startup looking to scale or an investor seeking the next big thing, TechCrunch Disrupt offers unparalleled resources, connections and expert insights to propel your venture forward. Over 10,000 startup leaders will be attending this year’s event on October 28-30 in San Francisco.
We can’t wait to hear from these AI leaders at this year’s show. Purchase your tickets here
Announcing Disrupt 2024 AI Stage agenda
We’re so excited to announce that we’ve added a dedicated AI Stage presented by Google Cloud to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. It joins Fintech, SaaS and Space as the other industry-focused stages — all under one big roof.
We couldn’t possibly host TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 without a huge deep dive on all things artificial intelligence. So, here is our first sneak peek at the AI Stage agenda, happening all day on Wednesday, October 30. As a classic TechCrunch stage, we have some of the nascent industry’s heavy hitters, like Alexandr Wang and Aravind Srinivas, alongside our partners like Nebius AI and others!
Check the prelim agenda below and keep checking back for updates — we have a lot more to add to the AI Stage.
The AI Stage agenda at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
From Search Engines to Knowledge Engines: Perplexity’s Rush Toward an AI-Curated Web
with Aravind Srinivas (Perplexity)
Perplexity‘s AI-powered search engine might be the next stage of interacting with the web and knowledge in general — or not. But the company is certainly risking it all to manifest that future, even if it ruffles a few feathers along the way. Hear from the CEO how the company plans to take on all comers in this new category of tech.
The Business of Labeling: A Deep Dive into Scale AI’s Massive Growth
with Alexandr Wang (Scale AI)
In 2016, when Scale AI was founded, few people could have predicted that the company, which builds tools to train, test and maintain generative AI models, would eventually grow into a $14 billion business. In hindsight, it seems almost inevitable that Scale would, well, scale quickly, given the dramatic growth many of its early customers, including OpenAI, experienced. In a conversation with Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, we’ll discuss the company’s journey so far and the role that Scale AI now plays in the generative AI ecosystem.
How Generative AI Is Flooding the Web with Disinformation
with Pamela San Martin (Oversight Board), Imran Ahmed (CCDH), and speakers to be announced
As generative AI tools become more widely available — and become cheaper, or even free, to use — they’re being abused by an array of actors, including state actors, to create deepfakes and sow disinformation online. In this session, we’ll hear from experts about the types of deepfakes now circulating the web and some possible ways to combat the threat.
Are “Open” AI Models Really Better?
with Ali Farhadi (Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence), Irene Solaiman (Hugging Face), and speakers to be announced
There’s a war brewing in the AI industry between companies in support of “open” AI models (models released under permissive licenses that can be fine-tuned and repurposed for a range of applications) and closed source models (models gated behind paid services and APIs). Is one approach better than the other? The answer isn’t as clear-cut as you might think. In this talk, we’ll investigate the differences between open and closed source models, as well as the subtle but important flavors of open-model licenses.
Navigating AI’s Legal and Ethical Minefield
with Sarah Myers West (AI Now), Jingna Zhang (Cara), and Ben Zhao (University of Chicago)
AI’s meteoric rise has created new ethical dilemmas and exacerbated old ones, while lawsuits drop left and right. This threatens both new and established AI companies, and the creators and workers whose labor feeds the models. A panel of experts in AI, copyright, and ethics take on this complex and fast-moving problem space.
But Is It Art? Generative AI’s Evolving Role in Music and Video Production
with Mikey Shulman (Suno), Amit Jain (Luma AI), and other speakers to be announced
Generative AI is increasingly capable of creating video, music, and other media on demand. But who actually wants it, and why? This panel of AI startups will discuss the growing markets for generative media and how they can be served without harming or displacing the artists they claim to empower.
About TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is where you’ll find innovation for every stage of your startup journey. Whether you’re a budding founder with a revolutionary idea, a seasoned startup looking to scale or an investor seeking the next big thing, TechCrunch Disrupt offers unparalleled resources, connections and expert insights to propel your venture forward. Over 10,000 startup leaders will be attending this year’s event on October 28-30 in San Francisco.
We can’t wait to hear from these AI leaders at this year’s show. Purchase your tickets here
AWS follows Google in announcing unrestricted free data transfers to other cloud providers
Amazon’s cloud computing subsidiary AWS has revealed that it will allow customers to transfer their data out of its ecosystem with no so-called “egress fees” attached.
The news follows some two months after Google announced similar plans, though in Google’s case as the third-biggest player in the public cloud triopoly after AWS and Microsoft, it was heavily incentivized to “lead by example” — if it’s cheaper to leave AWS or Azure entirely, then a company might just be more inclined to jump ship to Google Cloud.
However, these decisions also follow provisions set out in the European Data Act which came into force in January, designed to promote competition by allowing cloud customers to switch providers more easily — either to an entirely different cloud; through adopting a multi-cloud approach; or pulling all their data back in-house to an on-premises infrastructure.
While AWS already allowed customers to transfer up to 100GB of data per month off its servers for free, this won’t be enough to cover larger companies looking to “lift and shift” their entire data stores to another provider — and that is what is effectively changing for AWS customers as of today.
It’s also worth noting that while the European Data Act is entirely concerned with promoting competition in Europe, AWS’s move applies to its operations globally (similar to Google’s announcement earlier this year).
Companies that want to move their data off of AWS are requested to contact AWS, which will then apparently issue credits for the data being migrated. Though in a blog post announcing the changes, AWS principal developer advocate Sébastien Stormacq says that he “sincerely hopes you do not.”
Microsoft will likely follow suit now that Google and AWS have announced these plans — TechCrunch has reached out for comment, and will update when (or if) we hear back.
It’s not clear what today’s news means with regards to the U.K.’s ongoing antitrust probe into cloud lock-in practices. A major facet of that probe was on egress fees, and assuming that Microsoft joins its two rivals in making this change, then that will be one less thing to worry regulators.
That said, there are other factors at play here. Another issue identified by the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was interoperability, concerning areas where cloud companies design their products to not play nicely with rival services. Removing fees doesn’t necessarily remove “technical barriers to switching,” as the CMA calls it — so there could be some regulatory headwinds still to come.