WithTechCrunch Disrupt 2025less than 4 days away, we’re gearing up for an incredible three-day event packed with interactive sessions at Moscone West in San Francisco. Roundtable sessions return for another year with dynamic conversations led by top founders, investors, and operators — offering you a rare chance to engage directly with experts and attendees in small-group settings.
Don’t miss your chance to pocket ticket savings and participate in these roundtables.Register nowto lock in up to $444 in savings on your pass, plus60% off your guest ticketbefore prices go up at the door. These savings are valid only untilDisrupt doors open on October 27.
Scroll down for the complete lineup of roundtable sessions, spread across three separate rooms during Disrupt 2025. Learn more about each session and the top voices leading them on theDisrupt agenda page.
Future of Construction: The Role of AI and Data in the Field and the Office
AI and data are streamlining workflows both in the field and back office. Learn where investors see the biggest potential for disruption in one of the world’s oldest industries.
From Data to Disruption: Redesigning Startup & VC Ecosystems
A look at how data-driven insights can help redesign startup and VC ecosystems for greater equity, opportunity, and impact.
Real Economy Automation: Vertical Software and Vertical AI
Hear why vertical AI and software are the next wave of opportunity — and what founders should prioritize when building in this space.
Leading a Series A Round in 2025 and Sustaining Momentum
Practical insights on what it takes to raise a Series A in today’s climate — and sustain momentum post-round.
How to Train Your Model: Taming AI Agents Without Breaking Them
Best practices for keeping AI agents powerful and safe. Kyla Guru leads model safety initiatives at Anthropic, ensuring alignment and reliability in frontier systems.
This has an encore. Check agenda for days and times.
Abhi Kumar, lecturer, investor, and adviser, UC Berkeley
A discussion on the commercialization of LEO and what it means for startups and investors. Abhi is an investor and UC Berkeley lecturer focused on space, defense, and frontier tech. He advises early-stage startups in the space economy.
Nnamdi Okike, co-founder and managing partner, 645 Ventures
AI is transforming fintech. This session unpacks where startups can gain a competitive edge and what risks investors are tracking.
The Winning Formula: Turning Your Business into a Trusted, Scalable Community to Drive Growth
Tasneem Amina, co-founder and president, andJustine Palefsky,co-founder and CEO, Kindred
Building trust and community at scale is the new growth engine. The Kindred co-founders share lessons from creating a rapidly scaling community-driven business.
AI Evaluation 101: Addressing Challenges to Real-World AI Applications
How to evaluate and deploy AI safely at scale. Rohit Patel leads teams at Meta focused on evaluating and advancing AI models toward safer real-world applications.
Scaling Search and AI for Millions: Lessons from Reddit Search
This conversation dives into Reddit’s approach to scaling Search and ML systems for millions globally — balancing relevance, safety, and bias mitigation.
IPO Success: Charting the Course from Private to Public
Charly Kevers, CFO, Carta; and Daniel Tay, managing director, Global Capital Markets, Morgan Stanley
Hear what it really takes for startups to successfully navigate the journey from private to public markets.
Building in the Line of Fire: What It Takes to Win in Public Sector AI
Ross Fubini, founder and managing partner, XYZ Venture Capital; andBen Van Roo, co-founder and CEO, Legion Intelligence
Discuss how governments are adopting AI — and what this means for startups and procurement cycles.
Berkeley Connect: Experience the World’s #1 Startup Ecosystem
Siwen Deng, co-founder and chief scientific officer, Evergreen Saponins; and Keith McAleer, chief marketing officer, UC Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology
Explore the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship — a holistic, journey-based approach to teaching and learning, and witness a live pitch from a UC Berkeley SCET-founded company.
Mabel Chan, founder and CEO, Superconnected; and Ella Shukho, flagship accelerator program manager, Global Investment Team, 500 Global
Founders and investors can explore how trust and generosity form the foundation of lasting partnerships in venture capital.
Prototyping, Tuning & Scaling GenAI Applications with Open Models
Aishwarya Srinivasan, head of AI developer relations, Fireworks AI
This session will be an open conversation with builders about what’s working and what’s not when creating generative AI applications powered by open models.
From Inception to Enterprise: Selling AI Agents That Scale
Allison Baum Gates, general partner, SemperVirens Venture Capital
Founders will learn how they can sharpen their go-to-market strategy, target the right buyers, and build scalable enterprise sales engines.
Relentless Progress: Building Products That Never Stall
Papi Menon, VP and chief product officer, Outshift by Cisco
Papi Menon will share how to foster “relentless progress” — balancing speed with discipline, encouraging innovation within large organizations, and keeping teams motivated when working at the edge of what’s next.
Brian Hamacheck,CTO,Gargi Kand, co-founder and CPO, and Nick Khonaysser, CEO, Vently
The next wave of consumer isn’t built on content — it’s rooted in hyper-local connection, where people can share, discover, and belong. This session unpacks how personalization, proximity, and a new social layer are creating connection at scale.
Physical AI: Designing, Funding, and Scaling the Future
This session will explore both the breakthroughs and the persistent challenges of physical AI, from limited data and costly deployments to operating in unpredictable environments.
Brian Sparkes, CEO, Silicon Valley Venture, and host, Silicon Valley Impact; and Itamar Novick, founder and general partner, Recursive Ventures
What makes a startup truly fundable? These two VC experts go inside the mind of a venture capitalist to uncover how investors evaluate opportunities, make decisions, and determine which founders to back.
Brad Cordova, founder and CPTO, and Benjamin Kwon, CEO, SuperAI
Agentic workflows are spreading through sectors most investors overlook, creating new leverage points and destroying old moats. The disruption is invisible until it hits balance sheets. Learn more in this insightful session.
Turning Global Talent into Startup Founders at Scale
Alice Bentinck, co-founder and CEO, Entrepreneurs First
Turning global talent into startup founders at scale, see how Entrepreneurs First repeatedly turns strangers into co-founders at scale.
Building AI-Ready Data Infrastructure with a Lean Team
Michel Tricot will lead a discussion on how early startups can overcome this readiness gap and build AI-ready data infrastructure that goes beyond ingestion and access to generate real context.
Alex Malebranche, head of startups and venture capital, Cloudflare
Mastering and prioritizing mental health for an entrepreneur leads to more effectiveness, creative innovation, and sustainable success in a challenging landscape.
Tim Cook Has More Followers Than Apple — Why Founders Need to Be on Camera
Hanieh Sigari, CEO, EllieMD; and Uptin Saiidi, founder and creator, UP10Media
In 2025, your audience doesn’t want another brand video — they want you. You’ll learn how to turn your ideas, mission, and even everyday moments into videos that drive trust, visibility, and business growth.
This conversation explores how AI is rewriting the startup playbook for commercialization. Caleb Appleton will look at how funding, go-to-market, and defensibility are shifting — from software speed to scientific endurance.
Hear how Gen Z is shaping the future of consumer AI. Industry leaders and innovators will discuss emerging trends, adoption patterns, and the unique ways this generation interacts with AI-powered technologies.
Beyond the Model: Building the Infrastructure of Intelligence
Ben Braverman, co-founder and managing partner, Saga Ventures
Founders, learn how to seize opportunities in the “second-order AI” era — where infrastructure, workflows, and intelligence systems shape the next wave of scalable, defensible startups.
How Smart Brands Are Winning with Creator-Led Videos
Uptin Saiidi, founder and creator, and Peter Sleiman, creative director UP10Media
Uptin breaks down how founders and companies can create videos that actually connect, without big budgets or complicated setups. Whether you’re a startup founder, solo operator, or thought leader, this session will help you think like a creator and communicate like a brand.
Take your seat at these roundtables happening only at Disrupt
The only way to participate in these exclusive roundtable sessions is by registering forTechCrunch Disrupt 2025. Any pass — except the Expo+ Pass — grants you full access to these interactive sessions.Register todayand save up to $444, and get an additional 60% off a second pass before prices rise at the door on October 27.
Source: Techcrunch
