Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 is nearly right here, and the stress has by no means been increased. With $100,000 on the road, the high 20 early-stage startups know they have to ship their easiest on the Disrupt stage from October 27-29 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. In the meantime, our VC judges will deliver sharp questions, deep expertise, and a discerning eye to tell apart the promising from the actually distinctive.
Founders can acquire invaluable insights into what makes a successful pitch and a sustainable startup from these seasoned VCs. Buyers can uncover pitch-ready, impactful startups so as to add to their pipeline. Everybody else can witness the extreme startup showdown, the place the highest 20 TechCrunch-vetted startups pitch for the equity-free prize and the coveted Disrupt Cup.
Register now to look at and save as much as $444 in your cross, or deliver your workforce or buddies and save as much as 30% with bundle passes. Don’t miss this nail-biting “World Series” of pitch competitions reside.
Meet the following batch of Battlefield 200 judges
At this time, we’re excited to introduce the fourth wave of judges becoming a member of the competitors. Just one extra reveal stays. Keep tuned to the Disrupt agenda to see who the final 5 judges will be.
Allison Baum Gates, Common Companion, SemperVirens Enterprise Capital
Allison Baum Gates is a basic companion at SemperVirens, a enterprise fund investing in healthcare, fintech, and enterprise SaaS. Up to now, she has raised a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} from LPs within the US, Europe, and Asia, and has deployed capital into greater than 70 firms, together with 9 unicorns, 24 exits, and holds 10 board positions.
Gates has been featured in main publications such because the Monetary Occasions, Wall Road Journal, Forbes, and TechCrunch, and has taught a whole lot of enterprise faculty college students. She is a lecturer in administration at Stanford GSB and the creator of Breaking into Enterprise (McGraw-Hill, 2023), a complete information for navigating the VC trade. Her second ebook, Past the Pitch: The Psychology of Elevating VC Funding, might be launched subsequent yr. She holds a B.A. in Economics with Honors from Harvard College and is proficient in three languages.
Katelin Holloway, Founding Companion, 776
Katelin Holloway is a founding companion at Alexis Ohanian’s early-stage enterprise capital agency, 776. A seasoned investor with greater than 20 years of operational expertise at firms like Pixar and Reddit, Holloway backs transformative startups throughout various sectors. She invests in options that increase human potential and resilience, advancing well being, exploring new frontiers, driving sustainability, fostering creativity, and enriching the human expertise.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco
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October 27-29, 2025
At 776, Holloway combines her operational experience with a deep dedication to supporting founders as they navigate early-stage challenges and scale their visions. She is devoted to reshaping enterprise capital by empowering generational entrepreneurs to deal with humanity’s largest challenges whereas delivering distinctive returns.
Miloni Madan Presler, Companion, Institutional Enterprise Companions (IVP)
Miloni Madan is enthusiastic about partnering with companies that innovate with function — firms that resolve actual issues moderately than innovate for innovation’s sake. As a basic companion at Institutional Enterprise Companions (IVP), she focuses on supporting founders who construct merchandise and options that folks actually want, not simply need. She seeks out firms that bridge gaps in fragmented ecosystems, automate outdated processes, and ship data-driven platforms able to remodeling industries. Madan is pushed by the idea that these firms — and their impression — will endure lengthy past any single funding, and it’s this pursuit of lasting change that fuels her dedication and intentionality in each partnership.
Sara Ittelson, Companion, Accel
Sara Ittelson joined Accel in 2022 and focuses on early-stage client, enterprise, and AI firms. Earlier than Accel, she was head of strategic partnerships at Faire and beforehand labored in International Business Improvement at Uber. Ittelson is from Chico, California, and graduated from Northwestern College and Stanford.
Rinki Sethi, Founding Companion, Lockstep
Rinki Sethi is chief safety officer at Upwind Safety and founding companion at Lockstep. She beforehand served as vice president and chief data safety officer at Twitter, BILL, and Rubrik and held senior safety management roles at Palo Alto Networks, IBM, eBay, and Intuit. Sethi brings deep experience to each the non-public sector and company boards, shaping safety technique on the highest ranges.
Now’s the time to save lots of in your Disrupt cross
Don’t miss the startup pitch competitors of the yr, reside. With electrifying vitality, excessive stakes, and sharp questions, Startup Battlefield 200 has lengthy been the launchpad for early-stage startups. Manufacturers like Discord, Trello, and Mint acquired their huge break on the Disrupt stage. Register right here to affix earlier than ticket costs enhance.
