TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2019
Auto Added by WPeMatico
Get your Startup Alley Exhibitor package plus bonus hotel stay
It’s getting down to the wire for your opportunity to show off your early-stage startup in Startup Alley at TechCrunch Disrupt SF this October 2-4. There’s simply no better way to place your ideas and technology in front of influential change agents that can help you propel your business forward and set the stage for future success. Here are just four of the many reasons you should exhibit in Startup Alley.
1. Awesome exposure to the media
Along with 10,000+ attendees, Disrupt SF will have more than 400 members of the media. We’re talking the big guns — CNBC, Bloomberg, Forbes, Financial Times — alongside TechCrunch writers, scouring the floor looking for stories about fascinating founders, emerging tech trends or maybe even a future unicorn. Scoring media coverage can work wonders for your bottom line — as Luke Heron, CEO of TestCard, learned when he exhibited in Startup Alley:
We got a fantastic writeup in Engadget, which was really valuable. Cash at the beginning of the start-up journey is difficult to come by, and an article from a credible organization can help push things in the right direction.
Last year, TestCard closed a $1.7 million funding round.
2. Beaucoup investor attention
Journalists aren’t the only influencers perusing the tech and talent on display in Startup Alley. Investors are just as eager to find up-and-coming prospects to add to their portfolios. It’s the perfect place to start conversations and develop relationships that lead to big changes. And we’ve got a plethora of investors (both traditional VCs and corporate folk) in the Valley: Sequoia, Verizon Ventures, GV, SoftBank, Naspers, AT&T, Honda Innovations and more. Here’s what David Hall, co-founder of Park & Diamond, had to say about his experience:
Exhibiting in Startup Alley was a game-changer. The chance to have discussions and potentially form relationships with investors was invaluable. It completely changed our trajectory and made it easier to raise funds and jump to the next stage.
Last year, Park & Diamond closed its first round of funding, allowing the company to relocate to New York and make its first key hires.
3. Wild Card shot at the Startup Battlefield competition
Missed out on the Startup Battlefield applications? All exhibitors in Startup Alley get a chance to win one of TWO Wild Card entries to the Startup Battlefield pitch competition. TechCrunch editors will select two standout startups as Wild Card teams that will go on the Main Stage to compete head-to-head in Startup Battlefield for $100,000 equity-free cash, the Disrupt Cup and even more glorious investor and media attention.
4. Free hotel stay for Startup Alley companies who book now
With all of those reasons, it’s hard to top all the value you’ll get from a Startup Alley Exhibitor Package, but we’ll even sweeten the deal and throw in a complimentary 3-night stay at a SF hotel if you book by Wednesday, September 25. All of this opportunity for $1,995 sounds like it’s too good to be true, but if you act now, this can become your reality.
There you have it. What are you waiting for? Buy your Startup Alley Exhibitor Package and strut your stuff at Disrupt San Francisco 2019.
Powered by WPeMatico
Stephen Curry Brings SC30 Inc. to Disrupt SF
Startup founders are hard-pressed to find the right investors — not only to fund their businesses but to help their businesses grow. These days, investors represent a variety of backgrounds and industries — traditional venture capital, Hollywood, even the NBA.
When Golden State Warriors point guard and two-time MVP Stephen Curry isn’t playing basketball, he’s working with his business partner and former college basketball teammate Bryant Barr. Together, Barr and Curry run SC30 Inc., which manages Curry’s investment, media, philanthropy and brand partnership interests.
SC30 Inc.’s third investment came in December 2018, when the fund participated in hotel-booking platform SnapTravel’s $21.2 million Series A round.
Curry’s foray into the tech ecosystem started when he co-founded marketing automation platform Slyce. Since then, Curry has taken a more structured approach to investing through SC30 Inc., where the portfolio has grown to eight investments in companies such as TSM and Palm.
It’s worth noting Curry is not the only baller in the tech investment game. There are his former teammates Andre Igoudala, an investor in Lime and board member of Jumia, and Kevin Durant, an investor in a number of startups through his fund Thirty Five Ventures.
At Disrupt SF 2019, listen as the three-time NBA champion Stephen Curry and SC30 Inc. President Bryant Barr discuss SC30 Inc. investments, featuring SnapTravel CEO Hussein Fazal as he shares how he determined SC30 Inc. would make a good strategic investor. We’ll also talk to Curry about his general investment strategy and overall ambitions in tech.
Disrupt SF runs October 2 – 4 at the Moscone Center in the heart of San Francisco. Passes are available here.
Powered by WPeMatico
Space is the next economic frontier… hear more about it at Disrupt SF
For decades space has been the play place for world powers, but the advent of (relatively) cheap and frequent rocket launches has opened it up for new business opportunities. But it’s still hard as hell, as early adopters of this orbital economy Tess Hatch of Bessemer Ventures, Swarm’s Sara Spangelo and OneWeb’s Adrian Steckel can attest. They’ll be on the Extra Crunch stage at Disrupt SF 2019 on October 3rd at 1:40 PM.
Spangelo and Steckel are in the midst of launching what have been termed “mega-constellations,” collections of hundreds or thousands of satellites offering a coordinated service (in their cases, global connectivity). These efforts are only possible with the new launch economy, and came hot on its heels, showing there’s no reason to wait to put new plans in action.
But such constellations bring their own challenges. Just from an orbital logistics point of view, launching a single satellite so that it enters a unique and predictable trajectory is hard enough; launching a dozen or a hundred at once is more difficult by far. And after launch, how will those satellites be tracked? How will they communicate to the surface and each other? What about the growing risk of collisions?
On top of that are more terrestrial, but no less crucial, questions: What services can be made available from orbit? What’s a reasonable amount to spend on them? How will they compete with and accommodate one another? Whose regulations will they follow?
These latter questions are among those that must also be answered by investors like Hatch, who is familiar with both the technical and capital side of the burgeoning space industry (and of course the technical side of the capital side). Space ventures can be extremely expensive and high-risk, but to get your foot in the door at this stage could be the start of a billion-dollar advantage a couple of years down the line.
If you’re planning on getting involved with the new space economy, or are just curious about it, join us for an extended discussion and Q&A on the 3rd.
Disrupt SF runs October 2 to October 4 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Tickets are available here, and they just happen to be available at a discount today only.
Powered by WPeMatico
24-hour Friday flashback on Disrupt SF passes
We here at TechCrunch love a good flashback, like when Sebastian Thrun’s puppy, Charlie, was in the spotlight during Thrun’s fireside chat at Disrupt SF a few years ago.
Sebastian Thrun (Udacity) at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2017
Since then, the serial entrepreneur and inventor seems to have doubled down on his vision of the future of transportation with his current flying car company, Kitty Hawk Corporation. Thrun is working on bringing two aircraft to market — the one-person Flyer and a two-person autonomous taxi called Cora. He (along with a stellar lineup of startup leaders) will be at Disrupt SF this year to give a behind the scenes look at Kitty Hawk and what the future of flight might look like.
In this same vein, we’re doing our own Flashback Friday by rolling back to early-bird prices for Disrupt SF. For today only, you’ll have the chance to save up to $1,300 on your pass, with even bigger savings when you bring your whole team along for the ride. Need more reasons to attend? We’ll give you five.
The excitement of Disrupt SF begins in just a few short weeks — don’t let this chance to attend the largest startup conference in Silicon Valley pass you by — register today. Who knows, we might even have a chance to see Charlie return to the limelight.
Powered by WPeMatico
Y Combinator’s Michael Seibel, Ali Rowghani to reveal new YC top 100 list, talk startups at Disrupt SF
Y Combinator has become its own economy since its founding in 2005, as the formative seed-stage venture fund has nurtured leading startups across industries. Today, you’ll often see newer YC startups get started by providing services to larger YC companies — and then become the larger companies themselves (Stripe and Gusto are two of the most widely known examples, to date).
With its second Demo Day of the year wrapped up last month, the firm has also launched its largest group of startups ever in 2019.
CEO Michael Seibel will be joining us onstage at Disrupt SF this year, along with Ali Rowghani, the CEO of its Continuity growth fund, to give us a closer look at what’s going on. They’ll be announcing the second-annual list of the top 100 YC companies as part of this, and tell me that while most people can predict Dropbox and Airbnb showing up, many of the other names are going to be surprising.
We’ll be asking them about what it takes to get in to YC in the first place these days, and what it takes to build a company that can make a list like this. Seibel and Rowghani will also be available for an extra-long question-and-answer portion of the talk with attendees as a part of our Extra Crunch-themed stage at the conference.
While the full details of the list will be unveiled on October 2nd, they note that the ranking will be based on valuation, like last year’s: “Why valuation? We have long said that valuation is a poor way to measure a company’s value in the short term. That said, it’s the most commonly available metric to compare companies in the startup world. Other metrics, like revenue, are more often kept private. It’s worth noting that we have a number of very impressive companies who would have made the top 100 list if it were sorted by revenue, token value, rev/employee ratio, or other methods of measuring value. This list does not represent these successes.” They add that it will show the number of jobs each company has created, and the industry sector that it is a part of.
To date, YC says it has backed more than 4,000 founders, who have created more than 2,000 companies that together are worth more than $100 billion. Among the top 100 companies who made the list last year, it says 93 were valued at more than $100 million and had between them created more than 28,000 jobs.
Don’t miss our recent coverage of Demo Day (including our favorites from both days), as well as our discussions with Seibel about the investment theses and trends that it is betting on.
Disrupt SF runs October 2 to October 4 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Tickets are available here.
*Disclosure: I went through YC myself (w07) but have no financial relationship with it today, cap table or otherwise.
Powered by WPeMatico
Pagerduty’s Jennifer Tejada and Box’s Aaron Levie will talk IPOs at TC Disrupt SF
Pagerduty‘s CEO Jennifer Tejada and Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie both guided their companies to successful IPOs, with Box going public in 2015 and Pagerduty listing its stocks only a few months ago. Both of them will join us on the first day of TechCrunch Disrupt SF (October 2) to talk about their experiences in getting their companies to this point and managing the changes that come with being a public company.
It took both companies about 10 years to get to their IPOs. Levie co-founded the content management and file sharing service Box in 2005 and Pagerduty first launched as a basic notification tool for on-call developers in 2009, with Tejada joining as CEO in 2016. Box has already experienced its share of ups and downs in the stock market and Pagerduty’s IPO in April launched its stock right into one of the more volatile markets in recent years.
At Disrupt, though, we’ll focus on what these two CEOs did to get their companies ready to go public and the process of listing a company — and what, in hindsight, they would’ve done differently.
Box’s road, especially, was rather long and winding. It took the company nine months from filing its S-1 to actually IPOing — in part because the reaction to the numbers it disclosed in its S-1 was pretty negative at the time.
Pagerduty, on the other hand, had a more straightforward path, in part thanks to its strong financial position before it filed.
Disrupt SF runs October 2 to October 4 at the Moscone Center in the heart of San Francisco. Tickets are available here.
Powered by WPeMatico
Deadline alert: Only 4 days to save on passes to Disrupt SF 2019
October is right around the corner, and if you want to get the lowest possible price on your passes to Disrupt San Francisco 2019 you have just four days left to make it so. Depending on which pass you buy, you can save up to $1,300, but only if you buy your Disrupt SF pass before the deadline expires at 11:59 p.m. (PST) on September 6.
Some of the tech and investment industry’s greatest leaders, minds and makers will be on hand to share their work, insight and advice. It’s a great opportunity to learn from the people who’ve paved the way. Three full days of programming across four different stages will keep you engaged and inspired. Here’s just one example to pique your interest, and you can check out the full Disrupt agenda here.
Curious about the future of flight? You won’t want to miss our Main Stage interview with Sebastian Thrun, CEO of Kitty Hawk. Thrun’s bona fides are nothing short of impressive. Through X, the Alphabet’s moonshot factory he founded, he helped take self-driving cars from theory to reality. He’s also co-founder and executive chairman of Udacity, the $1 billion online education startup. His current endeavor involves bringing two aircraft — the one-person Flyer and a two-person autonomous taxi called Cora — to market. We can’t wait to hear his take on the future of flight.
Curious about capital? Then head on over to the Extra Crunch Stage to hear John Geiger (John Geiger Company) and Kathryn Petralia (Kabbage) talk about alternative ways founders can raise cash without talking to investors. Say what?!
Curious about Startup Alley? Get a head start on your networking strategy by perusing our directory of startups exhibiting in Startup Alley. Be sure to stop by and meet our TC Top Picks — these 45 outstanding startups represent the best in their respective tech categories.
And of course, you won’t want to miss the Startup Battlefield. It’s a fast-paced pitch-a-thon featuring the very best early-stage startups. Watch them pitch and demo under pressure to a tough panel of expert tech and VC judges. Who will win the day — and the $100,000 prize?
Disrupt San Francisco 2019 takes place on October 2-4 — just one month away. But the early-bird pricing disappears promptly at 11:59 p.m. (PST) on September 6. Buy your discounted tickets now, save a bundle and we’ll see you in San Francisco.
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt San Francisco 2019? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.
Powered by WPeMatico
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is coming to Disrupt SF 2019
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is perhaps best known for his acting across films like “10 Things I Hate About You,” “500 Days of Summer” and “Snowden.” But times weren’t always peachy for Gordon-Levitt as a creative. After leaving the movie business to go to college, he realized the limits of the industry on his potential as a creative. He decided he wanted to take his creativity into his own hands and launched a message board where he’d post films, songs, etc.
But what started as a side hobby has turned into a production company in its own right, using technology to allow dozens of people to collaborate on a creative project. And, more importantly, it gives each contributor fair credit for their work, paying out individual creatives based on how much of their work was featured in the final product.
Obviously, it goes without saying that we’re thrilled to have Joseph Gordon-Levitt join us at TechCrunch Disrupt SF in October.
Far too rarely do we see creatives supported by the platforms where they post their work. With the current media landscape, and the ever-growing dominance of social media, the relationship between platform and creative is strained at best. And more importantly, it incentivizes all the wrong things.
From an interview in VentureBeat:
If what you’re going for is posting on YouTube, or Instagram, or platforms that monetize through the ad model, where they’re really just going for sheer volume and have the ability to manipulate people through ads, virality is the measure of success. And I think this is exactly at the heart of what’s interesting to me about doing [HitRecord]. I think if that is your measure of success, you’re going to undermine a lot of what’s actually meaningful and joyful about creativity. And I’m actually concerned for the human race’s creative spirit, because so much of our collective creativity is now destined for these platforms that are monetized by this sort of attention economy model. And it twists one’s understanding of one’s own creativity, and what the value of being creative is.
At Disrupt SF, we’ll discuss the growth of the HitRecord platform, plans for that fresh $6.4 million in Series A funding and how founders can seize this moment to provide collaborative tools that align creatives with the platforms they’re using.
Disrupt SF runs October 2 to October 4 at the Moscone Center in the heart of San Francisco. Tickets are available here.
Powered by WPeMatico
Marc Benioff will discuss building a socially responsible and successful startup at TechCrunch Disrupt
Salesforce chairman, co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff took a lot of big chances when he launched the company 20 years ago. For starters, his was one of the earliest enterprise SaaS companies, but he wasn’t just developing a company on top of a new platform, he was building one from scratch with social responsibility built-in.
Fast-forward 20 years and that company is wildly successful. In its most recent earnings report, it announced a $4 billion quarter, putting it on a $16 billion run rate, and making it by far the most successful SaaS company ever.
But at the heart of the company’s DNA is a charitable streak, and it’s not something they bolted on after getting successful. Even before the company had a working product, in the earliest planning documents, Salesforce wanted to be a different kind of company. Early on, it designed the 1-1-1 philanthropic model that set aside 1% of Salesforce’s equity, and 1% of its product and 1% of its employees’ time to the community. As the company has grown, that model has serious financial teeth now, and other startups over the years have also adopted the same approach using Salesforce as a model.
In our coverage of Dreamforce, the company’s enormous annual customer conference, in 2016, Benioff outlined his personal philosophy around giving back:
You are at work, and you have great leadership skills. You can isolate yourselves and say I’m going to put those skills to use in a box at work, or you can say I’m going to have an integrated life. The way I look at the world, I’m going to put those skills to work to make the world a better place.
This year Benioff is coming to TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco to discuss with TechCrunch editors how to build a highly successful business, while giving back to the community and the society your business is part of. In fact, he has a book coming out in mid-October called Trailblazer: The Power of Business as the Greatest Platform for Change, in which he writes about how businesses can be a positive social force.
Benioff has received numerous awards over the years for his entrepreneurial and charitable spirit, including Innovator of the Decade from Forbes, one of the World’s 25 Greatest Leaders from Fortune, one of the 10 Best-Performing CEOs from Harvard Business Review, GLAAD, the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative for his work on equality and the Variety Magazine EmPOWerment Award.
It’s worth noting that in 2018, a group of 618 Salesforce employees presented Benioff with a petition protesting the company’s contract with the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). Benioff in public comments stated that the tools were being used in recruitment and management, and not helping to separate families at the border. While Salesforce did not cancel the contract, at the time, co-CEO Keith Block stated that the company would donate $1 million to organizations helping separated families, as well as match any internal employee contributions through its charitable arm, Salesforce.org.
Disrupt SF runs October 2 to October 4 at the Moscone Center in the heart of San Francisco. Tickets are available here.
Did you know Extra Crunch annual members get 20% off all TechCrunch event tickets? Head over here to get your annual pass, and then email extracrunch@techcrunch.com to get your 20% discount. Please note that it can take up to 24 hours to issue the discount code.
Powered by WPeMatico
Slack co-founder Cal Henderson and Spark Capital’s Megan Quinn are coming to Disrupt SF
If there is one company at the top of everyone’s mind this year, it is Slack.
The now-ubiquitous workplace messaging tool began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in June after taking an unusual route to the public markets, known as a direct listing. Slack bypassed the typical IPO process in favor of putting its current stock on the NYSE without doing an additional raise or bringing on underwriter banking partners.
Slack co-founder and chief technology officer Cal Henderson and Slack investor and Spark Capital general partner Megan Quinn will join us onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt SF to give a behind the scenes look at Slack’s banner year, the company’s origin story and what convinced Quinn to participate in the business’s funding round years ago.
Early in his career, Henderson was the technical director of Special Web Projects at Emap, a U.K. media company. Later, he became the head of engineering for Flickr, the photo-sharing tool co-founded by Slack chief Stewart Butterfield. In April 2009, he was reported to be starting a new stealth social gaming company with Butterfield, a project that would ultimately become Slack.
Quinn, for her part, invested in Slack before joining Spark Capital (Updated: 8/16/19 at 3:25 p.m.). Spark became an investor in Slack in 2015, participating in the company’s $160 million Series E at a valuation of $2.8 billion. No small startup at the time, Slack already had 750,000 daily users and backing from Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Social Capital, GV and Kleiner Perkins.
Quinn is a seasoned investor, known for striking deals with Coinbase, Glossier, Rover and Wealthfront, among others. She first entered the venture capital scene in 2012 as an investment partner at Kleiner Perkins (where she first invested in Slack and other early to mid-stage consumer tech startups). Quinn joined Spark Capital in 2015 to make growth-stage investments in companies across the board.
Before trying her hand at VC, she spent seven years in product management and strategic partnership development at Google and one year as the head of product at payments company Square.
Disrupt SF runs October 2 to October 4 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Tickets are available here.
Powered by WPeMatico