TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 runs from October 13 to 15 at Moscone West in San Francisco, hosting over 10,000 founders, investors, and operators. Tickets are available now with discounts of up to $100 and a second pass at 50% off.
Key discussions will not happen on the main stage. The breakout sessions are designed for depth, allowing you to ask direct questions to the leaders. Each 50-minute slot pairs expert insight with audience Q&A, giving space to unpack problems and challenge assumptions. Room numbers are limited and entry is first come, first served.
The agenda addresses current concerns for founders and operators. Topics include building with AI agents, where value moves as AI shifts from training to inference, the meaning of physical AI, running better fundraisers, and how AI changes company growth.
Secure a spot to get answers and make connections that could drive your next move. Discounts include up to $100 off your pass and 50% off a second ticket. Groups of four or more save further. If you have been laid off, a $75 Expo+ Pass is available for a limited time.
The complete Disrupt 2026 breakout session agenda
These sessions cover the technology and leaders shaping the event.
What Is Physical AI, Anyway?
Susan Schofer, Partner and Chief Science Officer, SOSV HAX; Duncan Turner, General Partner and Managing Director, SOSV HAX
Sponsored by SOSV
AI is moving beyond software into machines that perceive, reason, and act in unpredictable environments. Schofer and Turner explain what qualifies as physical AI, why building it requires a different approach, and what investors look for in companies defining the category.
Outnumbered Either Way: How an Engineer and an Architect Run Their Jobs on Agents
Steve Androulakis and Sachin Malhotra, Members of Technical Staff, Anthropic
This session shows what an AI-agent workflow looks like when the users build AI professionally. Androulakis and Malhotra demonstrate running multiple Claude agents in parallel, delegating real engineering work, reviewing output, recovering from errors, and integrating agents into daily jobs.
How to build AI we can trust
Robbie Goldfarb, Co-founder, Forum AI
As AI takes on more consequential work, accuracy alone is insufficient. Drawing on experience with misinformation, online safety, and foundation-model labs, Goldfarb explores how expert human judgment becomes scalable evaluations and what is needed to build systems people can rely on.
The Inference Economy: Why AI’s Next Trillion Dollars Won’t Look Like Its First
Hagay Lupesko, SVP, AI Cloud, Cerebras Systems; Rudina Seseri, Founder and Managing Partner, Glasswing Ventures
As frontier models become commoditized, economics are shifting from training to inference. The session examines where defensibility comes from when the model is not the moat, why latency is part of the product, and what changes mean for infrastructure decisions, startup economics, and future investment criteria.
Building Then vs Now
Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, CEO and Co-founder, Humane Intelligence; Payal Kadakia, Founder, ClassPass; Cassie Kozyrkov, Founder, Kozyr; Holly Ransom, CEO, Emergent
Sponsored by Signify Business Cash World Elite Mastercard by Wells Fargo
Company fundamentals may be unchanged, but tools have shifted. Leaders in AI, data, entrepreneurship, and strategy examine how founders use AI for better decisions and speed while understanding where bias, judgment, and the human side of building still matter.
Best Practices for Running a Successful Fundraise: From Preparation to Investor Engagement
Speakers to be announced
Sponsored by Fidelity Private Shares
A successful fundraise begins long before the pitch. This interactive session covers the process from both sides, including investor targeting, relationship building, outreach, maintaining momentum, cap tables, data rooms, and due diligence. Attendees leave with practical ways to run a more organised raise.
From Founder to Investor: The Next Act – What Happens After You Win?
Bruce K Lee, CEO and Founder, Keebeck Wealth Management; Abhi Tiwari, Co-founder and General Partner, Blank Ventures
Building and funding a company requires one mindset. Becoming an investor requires another. Lee and Tiwari explore what happens when entrepreneurs move from raising capital to allocating it, and why founders should consider post-exit strategy before an exit occurs.
Breaking Into Space: The AI Builder’s Opportunity
Dr. Brian Cameron, Interim Chief Technology Officer, The Aerospace Corporation; Bosco Lai, CEO, Little Place Labs; Shawn Sloan, Corporate Fellow for Artificial Intelligence, The Aerospace Corporation
Sponsored by The Aerospace Corporation
Space may be a specialist market, but its problems feel familiar to AI builders: huge data streams, autonomous decisions, real-time processing, and complex agent systems. The session maps these capabilities to real space applications and shows where new commercial and government opportunities are opening.
Fundraising Mistakes That Will Kill Your Round, and How to Avoid Them
Dr. Irena King, Founder and CEO, Surgicure Technologies; Dr. Richard Munassi, Accelerator Managing Director and Chief Strategy Officer, Tampa Bay Wave; Ashley Paston, Partner, General Catalyst; Emily Zhen, Principal, HealthQuest Capital
Sponsored by Tampa Bay Wave
Great companies can still run bad fundraising processes. The session covers mistakes that derail rounds, from positioning and preparation to investor strategy and execution. Expect practical lessons, real examples, and a framework for taking a raise from the first pitch to close.
Building a Growth Engine in the AI Era: Lessons from a Bootstrapped Unicorn
Patrick Burke, Managing Director, Hostinger
Sponsored by Hostinger
AI compresses the distance between spotting an opportunity and acting on it. Using Hostinger examples, Burke explores how startups identify underpriced distribution channels, shorten the loop between market signals and product launches, experiment faster, and use agentic marketing workflows to drive growth.
Physical AI Isn’t a Model Problem. It’s an Execution Problem.
Ethan Batraski, Partner, Venrock; Ivan Poupyrev, Founder and CEO, Archetype AI; Ian Rountree, General Partner, Cantos
The real physical AI opportunity is acting in the world, not just understanding it. Builders and investors explore the execution layer between perception, decision, action, and verification. Companies that can reliably close that loop could become some of the most durable businesses in industrial AI.
Talent as the Operating System: How High-Performance Teams Scale in the AI Era
Nomi Khedawala, Senior Technical Program Manager, Reddit
AI changes how work gets done, but companies still depend on people, trust, and execution. Khedawala explores how leaders build stronger alignment across teams, spot breakdowns before they grow, and create systems that support accountability and sustainable high performance as organisations scale.
Go deeper at Disrupt 2026
Industry stages show where technology and the startup market are heading. The breakout rooms give you a chance to get closer to the problems and the people solving them.
With limited capacity and first-come, first-served access, these are sessions worth adding to your schedule early.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 takes place October 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Register now to save up to $100 before doors open, plus get 50% off a second ticket for your co-founder, colleague, partner, or peer. Save even more with a group of four or more. Laid off? Grab your $75 Expo+ Pass before they run out.
