The Builders Stage, to be held as part of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, will bring together entrepreneurs, startup executives and investors to discuss building and scaling companies. The event will take place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on October 13-15 and will host more than 10,000 founders, investors, startup executives and technology leaders. Participants can save up to $330 by registering before ticket prices increase.
One of the six industry-specific stages at Disrupt 2026, the Builders Stage will cover fundraising, hiring, go-to-market strategies, AI, product management, revenue growth and operational decisions. Speakers include Gamma CEO and co-founder Grant Lee, Precedent.vc founder and general partner Leah Solivan, Google Vice President of Product Robby Stein, Gusto CEO and co-founder Josh Reeves, Reddit Director of Product Maria Angelidou-Smith and Blackstone N1 Global Chairman Jas Khaira. More speakers and sessions are expected to be announced as the event approaches.
The program will cover topics including how companies that are not focused on AI can stand out through efficient growth, customer retention, revenue quality and disciplined execution; how AI startups can build defensibility while competing with major companies such as OpenAI or Anthropic; and how fast-growing startups can manage their capital needs and attract and retain AI talent. It will also discuss the trust signals investors look for in founders at the pre-product and pre-revenue stage, the metrics required for a Series A investment in 2027, and ways to accelerate revenue in the first 90 days.
Sessions will also address cost and reliability management for AI products that work with multiple models, the role of AI agents in companies, the difference between genuine product-market fit and temporary excitement, winning the first customers through founder-led efforts, and the psychological effects of high growth. Some talks will examine the transition from a single product to a multiproduct growth engine, turning viral growth into lasting customer retention, and preparing early for potential acquisitions.
Startup Battlefield judges will also assess investor expectations, the characteristics of successful founders, investability criteria, and the critical 12-month period following a major launch or funding round. The final judges will answer audience questions about the team, market opportunity, growth, presentation and risk signals.
Why it matters
The scope of the program shows that the entrepreneurship agenda is shifting away from developing only new products toward the quality of growth and the resilience of companies. This framework creates common ground for discussion, particularly for founders seeking capital, executives building teams and investors evaluating early-stage companies; customer retention, revenue quality, talent management and operational discipline come together under the same heading. For AI startups, meanwhile, the cost and reliability of multiple models, as well as the challenge of building defensibility while competing with major companies, stand out. The open question is which trust signals investors will consider decisive at the pre-product and pre-revenue stage, which metrics they will regard as decisive for a Series A in 2027, and how these criteria will be applied to different types of companies.
Background
TechCrunch is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: over the past 90 days, we published a news story in which the name appeared; that article is dated September 4, 2026.