Some of the most practical conversations at Disrupt won't take place on the main stages. The breakout sessions are designed for deeper engagement, giving attendees the opportunity to ask burning questions directly to industry leaders. Each 50-minute session blends expert insights with audience Q&A, allowing participants to unpack complex problems, challenge assumptions, and leave with actionable ideas. Due to limited capacity, access is strictly first-come, first-served.
This year's lineup addresses the pressing questions founders and operators are facing today, such as how to build with AI agents, where value accrues as AI shifts from training to inference, and the definition of physical AI. The sessions also explore how to run a more effective fundraiser and how AI is transforming company and team growth strategies.
Discover the sessions and the tech leaders who are shaping these critical conversations in the Disrupt 2026 agenda.
Susan Schofer, Partner and Chief Science Officer at SOSV HAX; and Duncan Turner, General Partner and Managing Director at SOSV HAX, will break down what qualifies as physical AI. They will explain why building in this space requires a different playbook and what investors are currently seeking in companies defining this category.
Steve Androulakis and Sachin Malhotra of Anthropic will demonstrate how they utilize multiple Claude agents in parallel. They will show how to delegate real engineering work, review outputs, recover when errors occur, and integrate agents into daily workflows.
Robbie Goldfarb, Co-founder of Forum AI, will discuss how expert human judgment can become scalable evaluations. Drawing on experience in misinformation and online safety, Goldfarb will explore what is required to build AI systems that people can truly rely on.
Hagay Lupesko, SVP of AI Cloud at Cerebras Systems; and Rudina Seseri, Founder and Managing Partner at Glasswing Ventures, will examine the shift in AI economics from training to inference. They will discuss where defensibility comes from when the model is not the moat, the importance of latency, and implications for infrastructure and startup economics.
Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, CEO and Co-founder of Humane Intelligence; Payal Kadakia, Founder of ClassPass; Cassie Kozyrkov, Founder of Kozyr; and Holly Ransom, CEO of Emergent, will lead a discussion on using AI to make better decisions and move faster. They will examine the importance of human judgment, bias, and the human side of company building.
Speakers to be announced will guide a sponsored session on fundraising, addressing how a successful campaign starts long before the pitch. This interactive session covers investor targeting, relationship building, outreach, maintaining momentum, cap tables, data rooms, and due diligence to help founders run a more organized raise.
Bruce K Lee, CEO and Founder of Keebeck Wealth Management; and Abhi Tiwari, Co-founder and General Partner of Blank Ventures, will explore the shift from entrepreneur to investor. They will discuss why founders should consider post-exit strategies well before an exit actually occurs.
Dr. Brian Cameron, Interim CTO at The Aerospace Corporation; Bosco Lai, CEO of Little Place Labs; and Shawn Sloan, Corporate Fellow for AI at The Aerospace Corporation, will map AI capabilities to space applications. They will show founders where new commercial and government opportunities are opening up in this specialist market.
Dr. Irena King, Founder and CEO of Surgicure Technologies; Dr. Richard Munassi, Accelerator Managing Director and CSO at Tampa Bay Wave; Ashley Paston, Partner at General Catalyst; and Emily Zhen, Principal at HealthQuest Capital, will analyze the mistakes that derail fundraising rounds. This session provides practical lessons and a clearer framework for taking a raise from the initial pitch to closing.
Patrick Burke, Managing Director at Hostinger, will discuss how AI compresses the time between spotting an opportunity and acting on it. Using examples from Hostinger, he will explore how startups can identify underpriced distribution channels, shorten feedback loops, and implement agentic marketing workflows to drive growth.
Ethan Batraski, Partner at Venrock; Ivan Poupyrev, Founder and CEO of Archetype AI; and Ian Rountree, General Partner at Cantos, will explore the execution layer between perception, decision, action, and verification. They will argue that the companies that can reliably close this loop will become the most durable businesses in industrial AI.
Nomi Khedawala, Senior Technical Program Manager at Reddit, will discuss how leaders can build stronger alignment across teams. She will explore methods to spot breakdowns early and create systems that support accountability and sustainable high performance as organizations scale.
The industry stages show where technology and the startup market are heading, while the breakout rooms allow you to get closer to the problems and the people solving them. With limited capacity and first-come, first-served access, these sessions are highly recommended for anyone looking to add value to their Disrupt schedule early.
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