Five New Judges Join TechCrunch Disrupt's Startup Battlefield 200 Competition

Startup Battlefield 200 represents a pivotal career moment for the founders who compete, and simultaneously offers attendees a masterclass in how seasoned investors assess emerging companies. The competition unfolds across three days—October 13–15 at San Francisco's Moscone West—with each selected founder receiving six minutes to pitch. Yet the real substance emerges during the questioning phase, when judges probe the fundamental issues that investors, customers, and prospective employees will eventually raise: Can the team deliver? Is the addressable market substantial? What's the timing advantage? What creates competitive moat? These exchanges prove equally instructive for the hundreds of founders observing from the audience.

To strengthen the judging panel, TechCrunch is introducing five additional top-tier investors to help surface companies positioned to become tomorrow's standout successes. The winning founder will claim a $100,000 prize. More than 10,000 technology professionals, venture capitalists, and founders are expected to attend Disrupt, with early-bird registration offering savings of up to $200 before the rate increase on September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

The Five New Judges

Vaibhav 'Dr.V' Agrawal, Co-Founder and General Partner, ODDBIRD VC

Agrawal established ODDBIRD VC in 2024 as a pre-seed vehicle backing artificial intelligence enterprises focused on reindustrializing Western economies, with particular emphasis on healthcare, biotech, essential supply chains, and tangible automation. A physician by training with an MBBS credential, he also earned an MBA from Stanford. Before founding ODDBIRD, he served as General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners India beginning in 2016, backing nascent companies. His current holdings include Anterior, a healthcare AI firm that secured $64 million in funding from NEA and Sequoia.

Anu Bharadwaj, Partner, ICONIQ Growth

Bharadwaj concentrates on enterprise software and AI investments at ICONIQ Growth. She previously held the position of President and Chief Operating Officer at Atlassian for nearly 12 years, overseeing product, engineering, and enterprise operations spanning Jira, Confluence, and the Atlassian Cloud offering as the organization expanded to billions in yearly revenue. Earlier experience includes leadership positions at Microsoft. She holds a B.Eng. in Computer Science from R.V. College of Engineering.

Sho Sho Leigha Ho, Partner, General Catalyst

Ho operates as a partner within General Catalyst's seed investment team, focusing on early-stage entrepreneurs. She joined General Catalyst in 2024 as its youngest partner and currently serves as board observer at Together AI. Her disclosed investments span Graylark, Autoscience, Standard Kernel, and The Interaction Company of California (Poke), which Cognition acquired in July 2026. She earned an A.B. from Harvard and is based in San Francisco.

Miloni Madan Presler, Partner, IVP

Presler works as a partner at Institutional Venture Partners, collaborating with first-time founders developing inflection-stage technologies in enterprise software, healthcare, and security from Series B through pre-IPO stages. She brings a disciplined growth equity and private equity lens informed by prior roles at Summit Partners and Warburg Pincus. She studied Economics and Finance at Johns Hopkins University and is fluent in four languages.

Aidan Madigan-Curtis, Partner, Eclipse Ventures

Madigan-Curtis invests at Eclipse Ventures across artificial intelligence, IoT, computer vision, and software serving manufacturing, logistics, supply chain, and climate transition sectors. Business Insider recognized her among its 22 Investors to Know in Robotics and Physical AI. She leads Eclipse's Carbon Optimization framework to quantify actual emissions reductions throughout the portfolio. Prior to venture capital, she served as senior executive at Apple, scaling Apple Watch manufacturing from zero to millions of units weekly, then as Vice President and General Manager at Samsara, where she helped propel the company from pre-revenue to surpassing $1 billion in annual recurring revenue. She holds a BA from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford University.

Attend Disrupt 2026 and Watch Startup Battlefield 200

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 convenes October 13–15 in San Francisco, assembling 10,000+ technology professionals, venture investors, and entrepreneurs to encounter the next generation of breakout startups, forge connections with leaders capable of transforming startup trajectories, and witness the industry's direction firsthand. Register before September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT to secure savings of up to $200 on admission. Group registrations receive an additional 30% discount.