Disrupt 2026 Unveils Its Builders Stage Lineup

Prepare to gain unparalleled insights from leading figures in the startup and venture capital landscape, including industry stalwarts like Grant Lee, CEO and co-founder of Gamma; Leah Solivan, founder and general partner at Precedent.vc; and Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google, among others. Through revealing discussions and practical case studies drawn from real-world scenarios, these speakers will deliver actionable strategies on critical areas such as securing funding, talent acquisition, go-to-market execution, leveraging artificial intelligence, and making the crucial operational choices that propel startups towards significant growth.

While launching a startup presents its own set of challenges, cultivating a company capable of sustainable scaling introduces an entirely different level of complexity. The Builders Stage, one of six specialized tracks at Disrupt 2026, is specifically designed to equip founders with the tools to navigate the intricate journey of growth, from successfully raising capital and attracting premier talent to establishing robust go-to-market engines and preparing for the pivotal transition from Seed to Series A funding.

Without further delay, we are pleased to offer you an initial glimpse into the agenda for the Builders Stage, with additional speakers and sessions to be unveiled as the event approaches.

How to Win When You’re Not Building AI

Featuring Shan Shan, Investment Manager, Baillie Gifford, and more speakers to be announced.

While artificial intelligence currently dominates the venture capital landscape, many of the most enduring companies will not be those directly selling AI models or agents. This session is tailored for founders striving to capture attention in a market saturated with AI enthusiasm. Panelists will dissect what truly matters in today's environment: achieving efficient growth, ensuring strong retention, cultivating high-quality revenue, and demonstrating disciplined execution. They will underscore why fundamental business principles, rather than fleeting hype, remain the bedrock for building truly breakout enterprises.

What Happens When OpenAI Ships Your Roadmap

Featuring Michel Tricot, CEO and Co-founder, Airbyt; Rob Toews, Partner, Radical Ventures; and Linda Tong, CEO, Webflow.

A prevalent concern among nearly all AI founders today is the potential for giants like OpenAI or Anthropic to release a product that directly competes with their own offerings. Even robust products risk being reduced to mere features within the ecosystems of larger players. This session will delve into where genuine defensibility can be established and outline the proactive steps founders can take when confronted with competition from rapidly evolving AI powerhouses.

Winning Pre-Seed Without a Product

Featuring Puneet Agarwal, Managing Partner, True Ventures; Austin Clements, Managing Partner, Slauson and Co; and Sandhya Venkatachalam, Founder and Managing Partner, Axiom Partners.

Founders are increasingly expected to contend for capital even before they have a tangible product. At the pre-seed stage, investors are primarily betting on a compelling narrative, unwavering conviction, and a strong founder-market fit. This session will meticulously break down how to cultivate credibility and trust with investors prior to generating revenue, thereby securing that crucial initial check.

From MVP to Billions of Users: How Product Decisions Must Change at Scale

Featuring Robby Stein, VP, Product, Google.

The intuitive decisions that prove successful when developing your initial minimum viable product can become detrimental at the scale of a billion users. In this fireside chat, Robby Stein will share how product decision-making fundamentally transforms when every update has the potential to impact billions. Attendees will learn how teams within one of the world's largest product organizations meticulously balance the imperatives of speed with trust, and innovation with reliability.

Hiring When AI Is a Co-Founder

Featuring Josh Reeves, CEO and Co-founder, Gusto, and more speakers to be announced.

Early-stage companies are no longer just leveraging AI in their operations; they are actively integrating it into their teams as a "co-founder." As AI agents increasingly assume roles in engineering, customer support, and operations, the very definition of an early team is undergoing a profound reevaluation. This session will explore how founders are making critical decisions about what responsibilities humans should retain versus what tasks can be delegated to AI, and how high-growth startups are successfully building hybrid teams without compromising speed, accountability, or cultural cohesion.

M&A Is Now an Early-Stage Strategy

Featuring Karl Alomar, Managing Partner, M13; Aklil Ibssa, Head of Corporate Development and M&A, Coinbase; and Lindsey Mignano, Founder, Mignano Law Group.

The most astute founders today are not solely building with an IPO in mind; they are also strategically considering potential acquisitions from the outset. As exit strategies evolve and capital markets tighten, possessing an early understanding of Mergers & Acquisitions has become a significant competitive advantage. This session will detail how founders can proactively create such opportunities through their product strategy and strategic partnerships. It will also reveal the mechanisms behind achieving substantial startup outcomes, even for smaller companies.

Series A: What Does “Fundable” Mean in 2027?

Featuring Jahanvi Sardana, Partner, Index Ventures; Shailendra Singh, Managing Director, Peak XV; and Janelle Teng Wade, Partner, Bessemer.

Securing Series A funding is becoming increasingly challenging, with venture capitalists adopting more stringent criteria. For founders planning to raise capital within the next one to two years, this session will elucidate what "fundable" will concretely entail by 2027. Hear directly from top investors as they redefine the key metrics, team compositions, and traction indicators that are now paramount, identify outdated fundraising playbooks that no longer work, and explain how companies can effectively differentiate themselves in the upcoming funding cycle.

The 90-Day GTM: Why $0–$10M ARR Is the New Baseline (And How to Actually Get There)

Featuring Ryan Meadows, Chief Revenue Officer, Lovable; Tomasz Tunguz, General Partner and Founder, Theory Ventures; and more speakers to be announced.

The benchmarks for traction have fundamentally shifted. What once required years is now anticipated in mere months, with achieving $0–$10M in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) increasingly becoming the new standard for early-stage companies. This session will analyze how AI-enabled execution, accelerated distribution channels, and evolving investor expectations are compressing go-to-market timelines. It will also provide founders with the tactical levers necessary in the first 90 days to rapidly accelerate revenue generation and achieve swift prominence.

The real Tokenmaxxing: How the Best AI Companies Navigate a Multi-Model World

Featuring Mo Jamma, Partner, Capital G; Zuzanna Stamirowska, CEO and Cofounder, Pathway; and more speakers to be announced.

The frontier of AI is advancing at a pace no single model can keep up with. Consequently, teams building the most successful AI products are increasingly orchestrating across multiple models rather than solely relying on one. This panel will bring together founders and operators at the forefront of this transformation to discuss their strategies for evaluating new models, managing costs and ensuring reliability at scale, and architecting products that can evolve as rapidly as the underlying technology.

PMF Red Flags: How to Tell If You Really Have It

Featuring Rajeev Dham, Partner, Sapphire Ventures; Rahul Vohra, Founder & Head of Superhuman Mail; and more speakers to be announced.

In the current AI hype cycle, signals of product-market fit are becoming easier to simulate and harder to genuinely trust. Founders are mistakenly interpreting initial excitement, sudden spikes in usage, and pilot program successes as indicators of durable traction. This session will precisely delineate what constitutes false product-market fit, how investors and operators distinguish authentic retention from hype-driven adoption, and the definitive signals that indicate whether a company possesses true market pull or merely temporary momentum.

The Zero-to-1K Playbook: How to Get Your First 1,000 Customers Without a Marketing Budget

Featuring Grant Lee, CEO and Co-Founder, Gamma and Leah Solivan, Founder and General Partner, Precedent.vc.

Early customer acquisition is less about marketing expenditure and more about founder-driven distribution and relentless execution. The majority of startups in their zero-to-one phase lack significant budget, established brand recognition, or scale, relying instead on urgency and creative problem-solving. This session will unveil how founders are successfully acquiring their initial customers through strategic community building, product-led growth initiatives, founder-led sales, targeted outbound efforts, and cultivating powerful word-of-mouth momentum.

Yes, It’s Hard to be a Founder: An Honest Conversation

Featuring Nell Daly, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Revenge Capital; David H. Rosmarin, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School; and Jack Withinshaw, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer for Airspeeder.

Building a company is as profoundly demanding psychologically as it is strategically, a reality often understated in typical founder narratives. In this candid discussion, founders and mental performance experts will unpack the hidden costs associated with high-growth environments, ranging from burnout and decision fatigue to the identity strain imposed by sustained pressure. They will also share practical systems, habits, and mental frameworks that enable leaders to endure and perform at an elite level.

So You’ve Got a Hit Product. How Does Your Company Do It Again?

Featuring Filip Kaliszan, CEO and Co-Founder, Verkada; and more speakers to be announced.

Most startups eventually falter because they succeed in building a single exceptional product rather than developing a repeatable, multi-product innovation engine. Join a venture capitalist and two accomplished founders as they reveal the precise operational playbook for effective capital allocation, systematizing internal innovation, and strategically engineering a compounding "Second Act" before the core product's growth trajectory begins to flatten.

Hiring, Compensation and Culture in the Most Competitive Market Ever

Featuring Matt Birnbaum, Founder, Wylder.co; Atli Thorkelsson, VP, Talent Network, Redpoint Ventures; and more speakers to be announced.

Undeniably, the rapid expansion of AI startups has intensified the challenges of hiring and retaining talent across all technology companies. From the fierce competition for AI specialists to the complexities of secondary sales, founders are compelled to fundamentally rethink the human infrastructure of their startups. As hiring practices, incentive structures, and employee expectations rapidly evolve, this session will explore how companies are strategically adapting their compensation models, cultivating their culture, and refining team-building approaches to attract and retain top talent in a dramatically transformed startup ecosystem.

How To Create Viral Growth and Capitalize On It

Featuring Zach Yadegari, Founder, Cal AI.

Startups possess the potential to achieve viral growth almost overnight, yet sustaining that momentum presents an entirely distinct set of challenges. In this fireside chat, Zach Yadegari will recount how Cal AI navigated the complexities of rapid expansion, intense product pressure, and the realities of building in a distribution-driven market. Attendees will gain valuable insights into the lessons learned from transforming initial breakout attention into durable retention and fostering long-term company building.

The High-Conviction Filter: What We Learned from the Battlefield

Featuring Alexa Von Tobel, Inspired Capital, and more speakers to be announced.

What distinguished the standout companies from the rest at Disrupt 2026? In this frank debrief, the esteemed Battlefield judges will dissect the prevailing trends and founder attributes that truly resonated in real time, from shifts in investor expectations to the narratives that proved most compelling this year. The conversation will also delve into the evolution of startup storytelling and explore what transpires after the spotlight fades, including the practicalities of sustaining momentum and navigating the critical 12 months following a major launch, funding round, or a prominent Battlefield appearance.