Five new venture capitalists have joined the judging panel for the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. The event, running from 13 to 15 October at Moscone West in San Francisco, will see 200 selected startups pitch to investors and media. Only a small number of these teams will advance to the live finals to compete for the Disrupt Cup and a $100,000 equity-free prize.
Meet the next wave of Startup Battlefield judges
organisers have announced the full list of 20 judges so far. The final five, who will evaluate the finalists, will be revealed shortly. The new additions bring decades of experience in building companies, backing founders, and identifying transformative ideas.
Caleb Appleton, Partner, Bison Ventures
Appleton invests in physical AI across techbio, robotics, and real-world intelligence. His portfolio includes Cobot, Vivodyne, Passkey, Sleuth, Inner Logic, Cosmon, and Grid Aero. A biomedical engineer by training, he previously invested in frontier technologies at Innovation Endeavors and spent several years as an operator at TuneIn.
Sara Deshpande, General Partner, Maven Ventures
Deshpande focuses on seed-stage companies built around emerging consumer behaviors and trends. She specialises in consumer software spanning digital health and consumer applications of AI. Deshpande joined Maven as its first employee in 2014 and has spent a decade in venture capital. She received her MBA from Stanford, where she now teaches a course on startups and entrepreneurship.
Aatish Nayak, Partner, Kleiner Perkins
Nayak joined Kleiner Perkins as a partner in May 2026, where he focuses on partnering with AI native founders with deep vertical expertise across all domains. Prior to joining Kleiner Perkins, he was the first product manager and vice president of product at Harvey, where he helped build the early product, design, marketing, analytics, and support teams. Before that, he was an early product leader at Scale AI working on data infrastructure for ecommerce, early natural language processing, and autonomous vehicles. He previously worked at Shield AI on the core knowledge stack for robotic defense systems.
Jason Risch, Partner, Greylock
Risch invests in enterprise security, AI and machine learning infrastructure, data platforms, and developer tools. His portfolio includes Onehouse, a cloud-native managed lakehouse platform, and Baseten, an ML model serving toolkit for data science teams. Before joining Greylock, he worked in business operations at Opendoor, as a management consultant at McKinsey’s Bay Area practice, and as a startup builder at the AI Fund. He studied Mathematical and Computational Science at Stanford University.
Mark Xu, Partner, Index Ventures
Xu invests across stages in cybersecurity, infrastructure, and AI. He has backed companies building at the frontier of AI, including Fireworks, Parallel, 7AI, Simile, and Flapping Airplanes. Previously, he worked as a growth investor at Lightspeed, supporting companies including Wiz, Glean, and Grafana. Xu looks for deeply technical founders who combine domain expertise with hustle and an obsession with their customers.
Grab your Disrupt pass and don’t miss Startup Battlefield
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 brings 10,000+ tech leaders, VCs, and founders together to meet the next generation of breakout startups. Attendees can connect with leaders who could change their startup’s trajectory and get a front-row seat to where the industry is headed. The event features six industry stages, roundtables, and breakout sessions.
Register now to save up to $100 before Disrupt doors open. Bring your co-founder, colleague, or peer with a second pass for 50% off. Experience all that Disrupt has to offer together, from the startups and connections shaping what’s next in tech.
What it means
For the founders attending, this panel signals that the competition will be rigorous. These judges have a history of spotting early-stage science and scaling technology businesses. Expect questions that go beyond standard business models to probe technical depth and real-world application.
