Disrupt 2025: Day 3 | TechCrunch

Welcome to its third and final day TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 Moscone West in San Francisco! The excitement here is still in full swing, and there is no slowing down.

If you think it’s too late to join, think again- There’s still time to register with a 50% discount And be part of the action. Don’t wait a whole year to be a part D Technology Center of the Year.

Today’s agenda includes some anticipated onstage sessions, spotlighting insights from trailblazers such as Rohit Patel, Director of Meta Superintelligence Labs; Kirsten Green, founding partner of Forerunner; and Tristan Thompson, NBA champion and fintech entrepreneur – among others. Excitement builds throughout the day as we await the long awaited announcement Startup Battlefield 200 Be sure to explore breakthrough innovations in the award-winning expo hall, gain invaluable knowledge from industry leaders in hands-on sessions, and make meaningful connections that can shape your next big move.

Important reminder for today at Disrupt

Register and pick up your scannable badge at the registration desk anytime between 8:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Don’t forget your ticket and government-issued photo ID. The name on your badge/ticket must match the name on your ID. You cannot take a badge for another participant.

Investors Breakfast Fireside Chat: Innovation in the Next Decade – The Next Growth Engines and Funding Models. Location: Deal Flow Cafe (Investor Pass-holders only)

Get ready for an action-packed day — here’s what’s in store for Day 3 of Disrupt 2025.

Today’s session

We’re closing out Disrupt 2025 with a strong lineup of industry leaders hitting the stage. See the full agenda for times and session information.

AI Internship

Film from Ad: Generated with Code: Alejandro Matamala Ortiz (Co-Founder and Chief Design Officer, Runway)

$1M AI Trust Bet: Can We Really Trust an AI Agent to Run Influencer Marketing?: Francis Young (Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Chief AI)

How Google is building for Agentic Cloud: Will Granis (CTO, Google Cloud)

AI in the Dust: Building Faithful Models for the Physical World: Fahad Khan (Senior Director, Product Management, Platform, Blue River Technology, [John Deere]) and Jeff Mills (President and Head of Revenue Operations, iMerit Technologies)

Shaping the AI ​​stack with hugging faces: Thomas Wolff (Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer, Hug Face)

Love, Lies and Algorithms: The Truth About AI About the Heart: Dr. Amanda Gesselman (Research Scientist, Kinsey Institute), Mark Cantor (Head of Product, Tinder), and Eugenia Queda (Founder, Replica)

Smart Streets: How AI is Driving the Future of Transportation: Dave Ferguson (Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Nuro) and Sachin Kansal (Chief Product Officer, Uber Technologies)

In the high-stakes race to innovate AI and national security: Justin Fanelli (Chief Technology Officer, US Department of the Navy), Kathleen Fisher (Director, AI and Cybersecurity Initiative, RAND Corporation), and Chris Morales (Partner, Point72 Ventures)

AI that talks back: Character.AI in the spotlight: Karandeep Anand (CEO, Character.AI)

Builders Stage

Seed money secrets every founder should know: Gabby Cazeau (Partner, Harlem Capital), Marlon Nichols (Co-Founder and Managing General Partner, Mac Venture Capital), Maria Palma (General Partner, Freestyle Capital)

Rethinking Startup Capital Without VC: Eric Alebest (CEO, Chess.com, Louwee Shibata (Founder and Partner – Next Gen, KALDOS Capital), and Gale Wilkinson (Managing Partner, VITALIZE Venture Capital)

Global recruitment is not scary! And should not be paid in crypto: Francois Broger (Chief Executive Officer, PBL)

With Vibe Coding, do early-stage startups still need to hire 10x engineers?: David Kramer (Co-Founder and CPO, Sentry), Jack Lloyd (CEO and Founder, Warp), and Laurie Moore (Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners)

Preparing now for your next level raise: Leela Preston (Head of Growth Equity, Generation Investment Management), Andrea Thomaj (CEO and Co-Founder, Diligent Robotics), Jaya Yang (Partner, IVP)

Advantages and Disadvantages of Hiring AI Agents as Initial Employees: Jasper Carmichael-Jacques (Co-Founder & CEO, Artisan), Sarah Franklin (CEO, Lattice), Caleb Peffer (Co-Founder & CEO, Firecrawl)

Building communities and companies that last: Tade Oyerinde (Founder and Chancellor, Campus) and Teddy Solomon (Co-Founder and CEO, Phys)

The stage is disrupted

Rebuilding cities that make startups: Daniel Lurie (Mayor of San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco)

A Conversation with Investor Extraordinaire: Elad Gill (Gill & Co.)

Survive, Scale, Reinvent: Lessons from Cloud OG: Aaron Levy (Co-Founder and CEO, Box)

Startup Battlefield Alumni Update: Dr. Capella Kirst (CEO & Founder, Geico Materials)

Startup Battlefield Finals: Kirsten Green (Founding Partner, Pioneer, Kevin Hertz (General Partner, A*), Eileen Lee (Founder and Managing Partner, Cowboy Ventures), Kevin Rose (Founder, Digg)

The Next Chapter of Crypto with Solana’s Anatoly Yakovenko: Anatoly Yakovenko (Co-Founder, Solana, and CEO, Solana Labs)

Digg to Deals—Kevin Rose on Reinvention and Investing: Kevin Rose (Founder, Digg)

Cluley’s Roy Lee: Building, Breaking and Betting Big: Roy Lee (Co-Founder & CEO, Cluley)

From the courtside to the code—Tristan Thompson on AI, sports and startups: Tristan Thompson (NBA champion and fintech entrepreneur)

Announcing the winners of the Startup Battlefield 200

Round table session

Participate in this 30-minute collaborative session. Note that Expo+ passes do not grant access to these roundtables.

AI Evaluation 101: Addressing the Challenges of Real-World AI Applications: Rohit Patel (Director, Meta Superintelligence Labs, Meta)

Consumer AI and Gen Z Tech: Piyush Shah (Co-Founder, InMobi)

Scaling search and AI for millions: Lessons from Reddit searches [encore]: Rachel Miller (Product Manager, Reddit)

Relentless Progress: Building Products That Never Stall: Papi Menon (VP and Chief Product Officer, Cisco Outshift)

Raising a Seed Round in San Francisco as an Outsider: Alice Bentinck (CEO and Co-Founder, Entrepreneur First)

Beyond the Model: Building Intelligence Infrastructure: Ben Braverman (Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Saga Ventures)

AI Evaluation 101: Addressing the challenges of real-world AI applications [encore]: Rohit Patel (Director, Meta Superintelligence Labs, Meta)

Expo Hall

The buzz will be at the expo Host 300+ startups From all stages, industries, and regions worldwide. Engage with them and explore the groundbreaking innovations they are thrilled to showcase. Opens at 8:00 am

breakout phase

These 50-minute, pre-saved sessions are meant to provide insight and get answers to your burning questions. Located right next to the Expo Hall and accessible for all types of tickets.

In the age of AI sounds like: Qianwen Chen (CEO, EchoHer), Fay Kallel (Chief Product and Design Officer, Headspace), and Chenxi Wang (General Partner, Rain Capital)

Powering AI: The race to scale gigawatts of new energy: Mike Schroepfer (Founder and Partner, Gigascale Capital) and Garth Sheldon-Coulson (Co-Founder and CEO, Panthalasa)

AI and agents: Shaping how we create, live and connect: Thomas Foley (Revenue Leader, Compozio), Patrick Murphy (CEO and Co-Founder, Maket), Jeremiah Wang (General Partner, Blitzscaling Ventures), and Alix van der Voorm (Founder and CEO, Clix)

Discovery to Disruption: Turning Research into Venture-Backable Companies: Prateek Nimbalkar (CEO, Plaid Semiconductors), Jared O (Co-Founder and CEO, SirenOpt Inc.), Chon Tang (Managing Partner, Berkeley SkyDeck Fund), and Asad Tirmizi (CEO, T-Robotics)

SOSV: Where deep technology is headed (it’s not just AI): Sierra Brooks (Senior Scientist and Analyst, SOSV), Poe Bronson (General Partner, SOSV, and Managing Director, IndieBio SF), Westley Dang (Principal, SOSV), Philip Sander (Investment Analyst, SOSV)

Pitch Showcase stage

Catch quick pitches from exhibitors at the Pitch Showcase Stage located in the Expo Hall.

9:30 am – 12:00 pm: Startup Battlefield 200 health pitch

1:00 p.m – 3:00 pm: Startup Battlefield 200 Policy + Security Pitch

Unparalleled Networking: Where Conversations Breed Innovation

In addition to casually mingling with fellow disruptive attendees, enhance your networking experience with Braindate. You can create or explore topics in the app for deeper conversations and make the right connections to help you reach your goals. Meet in person in the Networking Lounge powered by Braindate for 1:1 or small-group discussions anytime between 9:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Side event

More than 80 company-hosted side events are set to take place across San Francisco this week, amplifying the disruptive excitement. Here’s what’s happening today. To RSVP and for more details, visit Side event page.

Last call for TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 magic — don’t miss the finale

Today is the last day of the conference. Right now, startups are creating breakthrough ideas, connections are spilling across the expo hall, and industry giants are dropping game-changing insights on stage. We really don’t want you to wait another 365 days for next year’s conference. Don’t miss out on energy, innovation and opportunity. Register here Visit Moscone West to get 50% off your pass and get your tickets.