TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 breakout session agenda unveiled

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 arrives at Moscone West in San Francisco, October 13–15, uniting 10,000+ founders, investors, operators, and tech leaders for three days of insight, networking, and forward-looking dialogue. Register now to save up to $100 on your pass, and secure a second ticket at 50% off.

Some of the most actionable discussions won’t happen on the main stages. Disrupt’s breakout sessions are designed for depth, giving you direct access to industry leaders. Each 50-minute session blends expert perspectives with audience Q&A, allowing you to unpack complex challenges, question assumptions, and walk away with actionable strategies. Rooms are limited and fill on a first-come, first-served basis.

This year’s lineup tackles the pressing questions facing founders and operators today: How do you effectively build with AI agents? Where does value accrue as AI shifts from training to inference? What does physical AI truly entail? How can you run a more effective fundraiser? And how is AI transforming company and team growth?

Image Credits:Slava Blazer Photography

Enter the room, get your questions answered, and forge connections that drive your next ecosystem move. Save up to $100 on your pass and 50% on a second. Bring a group of four-plus to maximize savings and insights. If you’ve recently been laid off, get a $75 Expo+ Pass before they sell out.

The complete Disrupt 2026 breakout session agenda

Explore the sessions and tech leaders shaping the Disrupt agenda.

What Is Physical AI, Anyway?

Susan Schofer, Partner and Chief Science Officer, SOSV HAX; and Duncan Turner, General Partner and Managing Director, SOSV HAX

Sponsored by SOSV

AI is moving beyond software into machines that must perceive, reason, and act in unpredictable environments. Schofer and Turner define what qualifies as physical AI, explain why building it requires a distinct strategy, and highlight what investors seek in companies defining this 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

What does an AI-agent workflow look like for those who build AI for a living? Anthropic’s Androulakis and Malhotra demonstrate how they run multiple Claude agents in parallel, delegate real engineering tasks, review outputs, recover from errors, and integrate agents into daily operations.

How to build AI we can trust

Robbie Goldfarb, Co-founder, Forum AI

As AI handles more consequential tasks, accuracy alone is insufficient. Drawing on experience with misinformation, online safety, and foundation-model labs, Goldfarb explores how expert human judgment can scale into evaluations — and what it takes to build AI systems people can truly rely on.

The Inference Economy: Why AI’s Next Trillion Dollars Won’t Look Like Its First

Hagay Lupesko, SVP, AI Cloud, Cerebras Systems; and Rudina Seseri, Founder and Managing Partner, Glasswing Ventures

As frontier models become commoditized, AI economics are shifting from training to inference. This session examines where defensibility lies when the model itself isn’t the moat, why latency is becoming a product feature, and what these changes mean for infrastructure, 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; and Holly Ransom, CEO, Emergent

Sponsored by Signify Business Cash World Elite Mastercard by Wells Fargo

While company-building fundamentals remain constant, tools have evolved. Leaders from AI, data, entrepreneurship, and strategy discuss how founders can leverage AI for faster, better decisions — while recognizing where bias, judgment, and human dynamics 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 guides founders through the process from both sides of the table, covering investor targeting, relationship building, outreach, momentum, cap tables, data rooms, and due diligence. Leave with practical strategies for a more organized and effective raise.

Image Credits:TechCrunch / Slava Blazer Photography

From Founder to Investor: The Next Act – What Happens After You Win?

Bruce K Lee, CEO and Founder, Keebeck Wealth Management; and 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 the transition from raising capital to allocating it — and why founders should consider post-exit strategies long 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; and Shawn Sloan, Corporate Fellow for Artificial Intelligence, The Aerospace Corporation

Sponsored by The Aerospace Corporation

Space may seem niche, but its challenges — huge data streams, autonomous decisions, real-time processing, and complex agent systems — resonate with AI builders. This session maps these capabilities to space applications, revealing new commercial and government opportunities for founders.

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; and Emily Zhen, Principal, HealthQuest Capital

Sponsored by Tampa Bay Wave

Great companies can still run flawed fundraising processes. This session dissects mistakes that derail rounds, from positioning and preparation to investor strategy and execution. Expect practical lessons, real examples, and a clearer framework for taking your next 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 gap between spotting an opportunity and acting on it. Using Hostinger’s examples, Burke explores how startups can identify underpriced distribution channels, shorten the loop between market signals and product launches, experiment faster, and deploy 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; and Ian Rountree, General Partner, Cantos

The real physical AI opportunity lies not in understanding the world, but in acting within it. Builders and investors explore the execution layer between perception, decision, action, and verification — and why companies that can reliably close this loop may become the most durable industrial AI businesses.

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 rely on people, trust, and execution. Khedawala explores how leaders can build stronger team alignment, spot breakdowns early, and create systems that support accountability and sustainable high performance as organizations scale.

Go deeper at Disrupt 2026

Industry stages show where technology and the startup market are heading. The breakout rooms offer closer access to the problems — and the people solving them.

With limited capacity and first-come, first-served access, these are sessions worth adding to your Disrupt 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 sell out.

Image Credits:Kimberly White / Getty Images