TechCrunch Disrupt
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Here’s how you can get a second shot at Startup Battlefield
We’re big believers in second chances here at TechCrunch, and that’s great news for early-stage founders who didn’t apply to compete in the Startup Battlefield during Disrupt 2020 (September 14-18). Your second chance comes in the form of two Wild Card entries to the world’s most legendary startup competition.
Want a shot to go head-to-head with some of the best new startups from around the world? Go buy a Digital Startup Alley Package and exhibit your standout startup to thousands of Disrupt 2020 attendees. TechCrunch editors will designate two outstanding early-stage startups from Digital Startup Alley as Wild Card entries.
You’ll have just a few days to prepare before you join the other Startup Battlefield competitors and deliver a six-minute pitch and demo to a panel of judges — top-name VCs and technologists. You’ll also answer a Q&A after your pitch. If you make it through to round two, you’ll do it all again to a fresh set of experts.
The prize? Massive exposure to media and investors (whether you win or not), glory in the form of the Disrupt Cup and $100,000 in sweet, equity-free cash.
Pro tip: Exhibit in Digital Startup Alley and you’re eligible for a Wild Card slot — even if you applied to Startup Battlefield but didn’t make it into the final cohort. You came so close — don’t pass up your second chance!
Exhibiting in Digital Startup Alley by itself is a win-win proposition. Introduce your tech and talent to thousands of people around the world, expand your network, build partnerships, attract investors, build your customer base and increase your brand recognition.
“I met so many industry experts — manufacturers, marketers, engineers — I even met people interested in investing in my company. Fostering these relationships over the long term will help my company scale and help me grow as an innovator.” — Felicia Jackson, inventor and founder of CPRWrap.
Buy a Digital Startup Alley Package, hang your shingle in Startup Alley and get ready to connect with the influential people who can help you build your business. Believe in second chances — you just might earn a Wild Card entry to Startup Battlefield and take a page out of RecordGram’s playbook. They rode the Wild Card to total victory as Battlefield champs. Go for it!
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt 2020? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.
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Startup Alley exhibitors: Register for VC-led Fundraising & Hiring Best Practices webinar
It’s a classic “last but not least” moment for the all the savvy early-stage startup founders exhibiting in Digital Startup Alley at Disrupt 2020. The final webinar in our three-part interactive series takes place on August 26 at 1 p.m. PT / 4 p.m. ET. Don’t forget to register right here.
Pro tip: You must be a Digital Startup Alley exhibitor to access this webinar (and other Disrupt 2020 events coming soon to the internet near you). Not an exhibitor yet? Buy a Digital Startup Alley Package and the webinar will be the first of many benefits coming your way. More on those in a minute.
Bonus pro tip: Curious about the look and feel of Disrupt 2020? Check out the video of our latest Ask Me Anything session: How TechCrunch turned Disrupt into a virtual event.
Got your pass? Tune in, bring your questions and get ready for a masterclass called Fundraising and Hiring Best Practices. Every startup founder needs to understand how these essential aspects work to mount a successful startup, and we have seasoned experts to guide the way.
The panel, moderated by our own Natasha Mascarenhas, includes Sarah Kunst (Cleo Capital) and Brett Berson (First Round Capital). Learn tips and effective strategies to help you secure funding for your startup. Learn to avoid pitfalls when you begin to hire — getting it right is one of those make or break moments.
Exhibiting in Digital Startup Alley can be one of the smartest investments you’ll ever make. Exhibit and demo your tech and talent to thousands of global Disrupt attendees. Use your custom exhibit page to feature your pitch deck or marketing video and collect leads from people who visit the page.
CrunchMatch, our free AI-powered networking platform, helps you find and connect with people who can help grow your business — investors, potential customers, media and other influencers. It helps them find you, too. Even better, CrunchMatch is live right now. Translation: more time to pitch, demo and schedule 1:1 virtual meetings.
Your exhibitor status also gives you exclusive access to upcoming speed networking and interview sessions with accelerators and founder organizations. Connect with the likes of iFundWomen, Backstage Capital, Techstars, Plug and Play and Global Startup Ecosystem. There’s no telling where one conversation with any of these groups might take you.
Don’t miss out on our Fundraising & Hiring Best Practices webinar on August 26 at 1 p.m. PT / 4 p.m. ET. Already an exhibitor? Register to attend here.
And don’t miss out on the opportunities that come from exhibiting in Startup Alley. Be savvy. Buy a Digital Startup Alley Package, register for the webinar, and do everything in your power to drive your business forward.
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt 2020? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.
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Five real reasons to attend Disrupt 2020 online
Why should you attend Disrupt 2020? We live in unprecedented times and face unprecedented challenges. But unprecedented opportunities are also part of this equation, and now is the time for creative startup minds and makers to go full-tilt disruptive.
We reengineered Disrupt, which takes place September 14-18, into a virtual global tech summit. And we’ve added enhancements to bridge the physical distance of a virtual conference. It’s designed to help you build the connections, skills and knowledge you need to discover, assess and capitalize on those opportunities.
Without further ado: Five reasons why you should attend Disrupt 2020.
1. More days to Disrupt
We expanded Disrupt to span five full days. Now you have more time to experience everything Disrupt offers. Interviews and panel discussions with the leading voices in technology, investing and business speaking from the Disrupt Stage. They’ll cover topics critical to startup success and address COVID-19 — the ginormous elephant in the room. Here’s just a sample of what we have on tap. Check out the growing Disrupt agenda.
- How Things Get Built in the Middle of a Pandemic with Anker CEO Steven Yang (Anker), Kate Whitcomb (Chrysalis Cloud) and Sonny Vu (Alabaster)
- The Black Founder Experience: Tactical Advice for Underrepresented Entrepreneurs with Michael Seibel (Y Combinator), Songe LaRon (Squire) and Reham Fagiri (AptDeco)
- How to Raise Your First Dollars with Alexa von Tobel (Inspired Capital Partners), Hunter Walk (Homebrew) and Ted Wang (Cowboy Ventures)
2. Network for weeks with CrunchMatch
You’ll need an effective tool to help you connect with thousands of Disrupt attendees around the world. CrunchMatch, our free, AI-powered networking platform (think speed dating for techies) is up and running. Simply register for Disrupt and you can start connecting with the right people to build your empire now, weeks ahead of time. Schedule 1:1 video calls to meet new customers, pitch investors, recruit engineers and developers or interview prospective employees.
3. Extra Crunch Stage
Looking for workshops that deliver actionable tips you can apply to your business? Head to the Extra Crunch Stage. Interactive sessions — facilitated by top experts in marketing, business development and investing — cover topics like how to pivot in the face of a crisis, building a sales team and raising money in a tough economy.
4. Pitch Deck Teardown
Want to make a solid first impression with potential investors? You need a pitch deck that accurately reflects your startup’s goals and potential. During the Pitch Deck Teardown sessions, top venture capitalists will critique an early-stage startup’s pitch deck and provide tips to improve it. Want to be considered for the teardown treatment? Submit your pitch deck here.
5. Disrupt delivers
Networking, funding, brand exposure and new ways of thinking are just some of the benefits your peers have gleaned from Disrupt.
“Disrupt has everything early stage founders need, from advice on raising money and how to scale to exposure and brand recognition. Hearing expert panelists and industry leaders helped us think about emerging technologies and new markets we could explore.” — Joel Neidig, founder of SIMBA Chain
“The benefits of going to Disrupt were introducing my product, networking with investors and potential customers and talking to other founders about what it took to get their companies off the ground.” — Felicia Jackson, inventor and founder of CPRWrap
“Disrupt provides terrific insight on trends in different industries like e-grocery, AI and big data.” — Daniel Lloreda, general partner at H20 Capital Innovation
We haven’t even touched on core pillars of every Disrupt — the Startup Battlefield pitch competition with a $100,000 prize and Digital Startup Alley, where you’ll find hundreds of the world’s most innovative young startups around the world.
What opportunities are waiting for you at Disrupt 2020? Buy your pass and get ready to find and create your own.
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt 2020? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.
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Cloudflare’s Michelle Zatlyn to discuss building a company with a bold idea at TechCrunch Disrupt
When you start a company, it can be tempting to keep it simple. You want something that investors and customers can easily understand. While it might be easier to go that route, that is not something that Cloudflare did when it launched a decade ago at TechCrunch Disrupt. Instead, the company decided to go big or go home, and went with the wild idea of building a faster and safer internet. Not too much pressure.
It launched in 2010 with a free product and a paid tier and grew that original notion of delivering speed and security into a suite of products and services. Today, a decade later, Cloudflare is a public company with a market cap of nearly $12 billion.
We are going to talk to company co-founder and chief operating officer Michelle Zatlyn in a one-on-one interview at TechCrunch Disrupt 2020 about what it took to build off that vision as an early stage company. They were going after established giants like Akamai at the time. They needed to build a network of data centers around the world, starting with five on three continents at launch.
None of this could have been easy from an operations perspective. They were offering the bold assertion that they could make the world’s websites faster and safer and do it in a way that didn’t require any additional hardware and software. As an early adherent to the notion of cloud computing, they were giving customers the ability to do things that up until that point were only in reach of the largest internet properties, selling a value proposition that is common today, but was pretty unusual at the time.
We’re going to ask Zatlyn how they built this early product, how they grew the product set and expanded their data center coverage to over 200 around the world and what it took do all that and eventually become a public company.
You can see this session on the Disrupt stage along with all the programming on the Extra Crunch stage, network with CrunchMatch and discover hundreds of early-stage companies in Digital Startup Alley with your Digital Pro Pass purchase for just $345. There are discounts available for students, government and nonprofit employees as well as a great offer for early-stage founders who want to exhibit in Digital Startup Alley. Get your pass today before prices increase!
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Learn how COVID-19 has disrupted the startup world
What early-stage startup founder wouldn’t love to have a crystal ball? Especially now with a pandemic wreaking economic uncertainty across industries in every corner of the world.
We don’t have mystical powers, but we do have the next best thing, and it’s available exclusively to early-stage founders exhibiting in Digital Startup Alley at Disrupt 2020. Sign up today for our interactive webinar, COVID-19’s Impact on the Startup World, scheduled for August 19th at 1pm PT/ 4pm ET.
What does the future of work look like? In what ways will startups need to adapt, and how can they course-correct both during and after COVID-19? These are some of the challenging topics our expert panel will address, and they’ll take questions from the viewing audience, too.
Which brilliant minds will offer their perspective, tips and advice? None other than Nicola Corzine, executive director of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurship Center and Cameron Stanfill, a VC analyst at PitchBook. Jon Shieber, a TechCrunch writer who covers venture capital and private equity investments will moderate the conversation. It’s an interactive webinar, folks, so don’t be shy — bring your questions, comments and ideas to the table.
If you haven’t purchased a Disrupt Digital Startup Alley Package, go grab yours now. You’ll be able to attend this webinar and the next one, too (more on that in a minute). But here’s the most important part — you’ll showcase your tech, talent and products to thousands of Disrupt attendees from around the world. Boost your brand recognition, and connect with potential customers, partners, investors, media and other influencers across the startup ecosystem. You never know who you’ll meet exhibiting in the Alley or where a chance connection might lead.
“Exhibiting in Startup Alley gave our company and technology invaluable exposure to potential customers and partners that we would not have met otherwise. A company that does 15 billion in annual sales thinks our tech is a fit for their ecosystem, and we’re excited to continue building that relationship.” — Joel Neidig, founder of SIMBA Chain.
Now that you’re all set with your Digital Startup Alley exhibitor pass, circle August 26 on your calendar for the final webinar we scheduled for exhibitors’ edification.
August 26 — Fundraising and Hiring Best Practices
Moderated by TC’s Natasha Mascarenhas, panelists Sarah Kunst (Cleo Capital) and Brett Berson (First Round Capital) discuss two essential topics for startup success. Securing funding may feel like the hardest part of growing a startup, but hiring the right people ain’t no walk in the park either. You need to get a handle on both areas, and these folks can help you do just that.
Exhibitors, sign up for the August 19 webinar, COVID-19’s Impact on the Startup World. And to the rest of the early-stage startup founders out there — don’t miss your chance to be an exhibitor at Disrupt 2020 — buy a Disrupt Digital Startup Alley Package today.
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt 2020? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.
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Hear how to scale to $100M ARR at Disrupt 2020
At Disrupt this year TechCrunch is digging into the $100 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) threshold. To help us explore the software revenue milestone, we’re bringing in a number of CEOs that have already reached it: Egnyte’s Vineet Jain, GitLab’s Sid Sijbrandij and Kaltura’s Michal Tsur.
Join us on the Extra Crunch stage to hear this session, along with several other sessions around how founders can navigate the choppy startup waters. You can snag a ticket here.
The modern software world, often called software as a service, or SaaS, operates against a well-defined set of inflection points. These include $1 million ARR, a key moment for startups looking to raise their first Series-defined round of capital; the $10 million ARR mark, at which point the same companies become hard to kill; and $100 million ARR, at which point startups can start to prep for a public offering, or regular, large capital raises from private investors.
It’s that last milestone we want to explore. With three executives from companies that we’ve included in our series on $100 million ARR companies, we’ll dig into what they had to learn the hard way as they grew to material business scale, what went well and what they might be able to share with startups that aspire to a similar level of success.
That we’ll be hosting the conversation during a mini-IPO wave will make it all the more exciting; these three business leaders will certainly have at least one eye on the public markets. And as we’ll have the chat in the shadow of COVID-19, we’ll learn about how the highly valued private companies have had to adapt to a changed economic environment and working setup.
We’ll lean into lessons, learnings and other operational questions with the CEO of Egnyte, an enterprise content and management service provider; the CEO of GitLab, a DevOps company that has long had a distributed-employee model that is incredibly pertinent to the current moment; and the president of Kaltura, a software company that powers online video for other companies.
Since TechCrunch started compiling a list of companies that had either reached $100 million ARR, or were on their way, we’ve collected dozens of firms to the list. The three we’re talking to are among the most interesting. At a minimum, the conversation should be an interesting look into the next set of leaders in the software and startup space. See you there.
You can read our entries from the $100 million ARR series on each firm below:
Disrupt is happening for five action-packed days — September 14-18 — and if you want to partake in this session (or any other session on the Extra Crunch stage), you’ll need to get your Digital Pro Pass for just $345 for a limited time. Or if you are a founder, showcase your startup in Digital Startup Alley for just $445 for you PLUS another member of your team. Get your pass today!
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Find out how TechCrunch is taking Disrupt virtual this Friday
Talk about a pivot. The global pandemic rewrote the rules for in-person events, and it set us on a crash course to transform TechCrunch’s annual three-day Disrupt — a conference that draws more than 10,000 attendees — into a 100% virtual experience. Daunting? You bet. Challenging? Heck yeah.
It’s been quite a process, and we’re guessing you might have a few burning questions about what to expect from a virtual Disrupt 2020 experience. Join us for a special Ask Me Anything session on Friday, August 14 at 12 p.m. PT / 3 p.m. ET for a chat with TechCrunch’s editorial manager, Jordan Crook; director of Operations, Joey Hinson; and director of Marketing, Alexandra Ames.
They’ll discuss the physical-to-virtual transition, how the virtual format works and how you can participate in Disrupt — for the first time — from anywhere around the world. Yes, a virtual Disrupt will look and feel different than a physical one, but the benefits and opportunities remain as numerous, real and viable as ever.
Disrupt 2020 — September 14-18 — spans five full days, giving you more time to meet investors, introduce innovative products to a global market and discover hundreds of new startups in Digital Startup Alley. Connect with tech journalists eager for a great story, build partnerships and brand awareness, schedule 1:1 video meetings and attend speed-networking events. Cheer on international competitors in the Startup Battlefield and interact with some of the most influential people in the startup world.
Got questions about the first-ever online Disrupt? Register today for our AMA session this Friday, August 14 at 12 p.m. PT / 3 p.m. ET and get the answers from the people who made it happen. You can even submit your questions here in advance. Then buy your Disrupt pass, buckle up and tap into a world-class opportunity to keep your business moving in the right direction.
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt 2020? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.
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Digital Startup Alley exhibitors: Tune in tomorrow for free media training
Tomorrow’s a big day for early-stage startup founders preparing to exhibit in Digital Startup Alley at Disrupt 2020. We’re kicking off the first of three exclusive, interactive webinars to help exhibitors make the most of their Startup Alley experience.
Tune in tomorrow, August 12 at 1 p.m. PT/ 4 p.m. ET for The Dos and Don’ts of Working with the Press. Presenting your company to the media is both a skill and an art form. It takes thought and practice — and media training can help you craft a compelling story. Hundreds of journalists from around the world will be on the lookout for compelling stories at Disrupt 2020, and this workshop can help you catch their eye.
Positive media exposure is essential for early-stage startups. It can drop a spotlight on your business, help attract potential customers and jumpstart your funding. Or, as Luke Heron, CEO of TestCard and veteran Startup Alley exhibitor puts it:
“Coverage is the life blood of a startup. 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.”
During tomorrow’s media training, TechCrunch writers and editors Greg Kumparak, Anthony Ha and Ingrid Lunden — experts at interviewing startup founders — will discuss best practices when it comes to talking with the press. You’ll learn what journalists look for and how to avoid pitfalls that could tank an interview.
If you’re still on the fence about exhibiting in Startup Alley, consider this: Disrupt 2020 spans five days and it’s the biggest, longest Disrupt ever. You’ll be able to network with thousands of attendees from around the world. And if you purchase your Disrupt Digital Startup Alley Package today, you can attend tomorrow’s media training.
You’ll also be able to attend two more webinars exclusively for Startup Alley exhibitors later this month. Check ’em out and mark your calendar now!
- August 19 — COVID-19’s Impact on the Startup World with panelists Nicola Corzine, executive director of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurship Center, and Cameron Stanfill, a VC analyst at PitchBook.
- August 26 — Fundraising and Hiring Best Practices with panelists Sarah Kunst of Cleo Capital and Brett Berson of First Round Capital.
Got your Digital Startup Alley Package? Then tune in tomorrow for The Dos and Don’ts of Working with the Press and get ready to make your best possible impression with the press at Disrupt 2020.
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt 2020? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.
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Register for our next pitch-off happening on August 13
Here’s a shout-out to all the early-stage founders attending Disrupt 2020. Don’t forget to register for our next Pitchers & Pitches — on August 13 — and get ready to hone your 60-second pitch to a razor’s edge.
If you’re not in the know, our ongoing Pitchers & Pitches webinar series is a pitch-off-masterclass-mashup. It’s a chance to deliver your best pitch to a panel of experts who will provide invaluable critique to help you craft a more compelling pitch. Better pitches equal more opportunities, amirite?
Anyone can benefit by attending Pitchers & Pitches, but only companies exhibiting in Digital Startup Alley can compete. Want to be eligible to pitch in next week’s event? Buy a Disrupt Digital Startup Alley Package here.
We’ll randomly select five startups to pitch, receive direct feedback and have a shot at taking the top prize. We love prizes…especially the kind that help build a better startup. The winning founders receive a consulting session with cela, a company that connects early-stage startups to accelerators and incubators that can help scale their businesses.
Here’s another great reason to exhibit in Digital Startup Alley. You get exclusive access to our three-part interactive webinar series. Check the dates and topics below:
- August 12: The Dos and Don’ts of Working with the Press
- August 19: COVID-19’s Impact on the Startup World
- August 26: Fundraising and Hiring Best Practices
We’ll announce the pitching lineup — and the specific VC judges those founders need to impress — on August 12. Remember, only startups exhibiting at Disrupt 2020 are eligible to pitch. If you want in on the action, get yourself a Digital Startup Alley Package today.
Register here and join us for the next Pitchers & Pitches on August 13. And hey, even if you don’t compete, you’ll hear loads of good advice on ways to improve your presentation skills and make the most of your 60-second pitch.
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt 2020? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.
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Sign up to attend The Dos and Don’ts of Working with the Press
If you’re exhibiting in Digital Startup Alley during Disrupt 2020 — or you plan to — do not miss this opportunity to sharpen your media skills. The first of our three-part interactive webinar series takes place on August 12th with The Dos and Don’ts of Working with the Press.
Pro tip: Our August webinar series is open only to folks exhibiting at Disrupt 2020. Don’t miss out — buy a Disrupt Digital Startup Alley Package now and gain entry to all three exclusive webinars. Then get ready to introduce your startup to thousands of global Disrupt 2020 attendees. Talk about opportunity knocking.
Media coverage can make or break a startup, especially in the early stages. Sharing your startup story — the journey, the capabilities, the benefits — in a concise, compelling way draws media interest. And positive media coverage attracts the potential customers and investors that can drive your business forward.
Still, no one’s born knowing this essential skill — it takes time and practice to develop. And no one gives better advice on how to talk to tech media than, well, tech media. Join TechCrunch writers and editors Greg Kumparak, Anthony Ha and Ingrid Lunden as they divulge tips and best practices when it comes to talking with the press.
You’ll come away with actionable steps to present yourself and your startup in the best possible light. That’ll come in handy while you exhibit in Digital Startup Alley. Hundreds of tech journalists from around the world will be there searching for great stories to tell. Give them something worth writing about.
And don’t forget — this is just the first of three webinars devoted to helping Digital Startup Alley exhibitors wring every ounce of opportunity out of their time at Disrupt. Be sure to add these two webinars to your calendar:
- August 19 — COVID-19’s Impact on the Startup World with panelists Nicola Corzine, executive director of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurship Center, and Cameron Stanfill, a VC analyst at PitchBook.
- August 26 — Fundraising and Hiring Best Practices with panelists Sarah Kunst of Cleo Capital and Brett Berson of First Round Capital.
Exhibiting in Digital Startup Alley lets you showcase your incredible startup to a global audience. Buy a Disrupt Digital Startup Alley Package, join the first of three exclusive webinars on August 12th, get comfortable talking to the press and learn how to make the best impression possible.
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt 2020? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.
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