Thank you to everyone who made this year’s San Francisco event a success. We are grateful to the ten thousand of you who filled the halls, made new connections, and left with more than you came with. For those who could not make it, the images below offer a glimpse into what you missed. We look forward to seeing you next year.
Vinod Khosla told attendees that he does not buy the argument that powering AI will doom climate efforts. He stated that geothermal energy is nearly here, while fusion remains further out. He also touched on his alignment with Trump on deregulation and his disagreement on immigration. He said with a grin that the current administration will not last forever.
Roelof Botha is shown on stage with a crowd hanging on his every word. The Sequoia partner discussed how his firm picks winners, what government ownership in startups could mean, and warned founders not to get cute with timing. He advised them to raise money now if they will need it six months from now, noting that bubbles pop.
Kevin Damoa of Glīd Technologies is the winner of this year’s Battlefield competition, pictured with Battlefield chief Isabelle Johannessen. She and TechCrunch’s Michael Schick work with many dozens of startups for months to prepare them for this stage. The hug is earned.
Roy Lee, the founder of the app Cluely, entertained the crowd with his frank take on how to win at marketing. He stated that every day people are doing crazier things, which is why to stand out you have to do something even crazier. He is pictured with Maxwell Zeff, who was holding his own.
If former Cleveland Cavalier Tristan Thompson misses the NBA, he is not showing it. He is building a business empire and raising pointed questions about the league he left behind. When asked if players could manipulate Basketball Fun, a web3 platform that turns NBA players into tradable tokens, he offered a counterpoint about whether referees game the system. When pressed on if he meant referees take bribes, Thompson shrugged and said it was just a question to be asked.
Our own Sean O’Kane shares a moment with Wayve co-founder and CEO Alex Kendall. Kendall may be smiling because his U.K.-based self-driving startup is in talks to raise a fresh two billion dollars from SoftBank and Microsoft at an eight billion dollar valuation.
Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, founders of the AI-powered shopping assistant Phia, dazzled the audience with their enthusiasm for making high-quality secondhand clothing easier to find. Gates, daughter of Bill and Melinda, was sporting when asked what her famous parents have learned from her. She laughed and said she hopes they have learned about style, adding that she now gets random emails from her family asking for fashion advice.
Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana fielded questions about autonomous vehicles with TechCrunch’s Kirsten Korosec. They discussed whether society will accept deaths caused by self-driving cars. Mawakana said she thinks society will, but the challenge is making sure companies are held to a high enough safety bar.
Kevin Rose discussed Digg’s reboot and the future of venture capital. Rose is also a general partner at the early-stage venture firm True Ventures. The author is smiling because that is what you do when someone will not answer your questions about a buzzy, wearable startup that is still in stealth mode.
Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf is shown hydrating between questions about building the future of AI. This includes the LeRobot project, which is trying to democratize robotics with affordable hardware, open-source tools, and shared datasets.
Finals judges Marlon Nichols of MaC VC and Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures are shown during the last stages of the highly competitive Startup Battlefield. Somewhere off-camera, a founder is sweating through their pitch deck.
Aaron Levie of Box was in conversation with TechCrunch’s Russell Brandom. Levie has graced the Disrupt stage numerous times over TechCrunch’s twenty years at the center of the startup ecosystem, and he always brings it.
Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone spoke about the streamer’s expanded remit from simple binge-watching to interactive programming, such as voting on live shows and gaming via your phone. She told a rapt crowd that it has not changed the way they tell stories.
TechCrunch’s Dominic-Madori Davis discussed community building with Tage Oyerinde of Campus, who is rethinking community college, and Teddy Solomon of Fizz, the anonymous social app that is spreading across college campuses and occasionally getting banned, which some view as a badge of honor.
A whiteboard of wants shows developers needed, contacts offered, and deals proposed. We love it when founders lean into old-school tactics, as some still work.
David George, who leads the growth investing team at Andreessen Horowitz, came to the show to talk with Julie Bort about what startups need to weigh as they eye the public market. It was his birthday, and the crowd took a moment to celebrate with him.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie discussed his call with President Trump regarding why not to send the National Guard to the city, a proposal floated by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Lurie said he told the president that San Francisco is a city on the rise, and that three days of Disrupt should prove that. He was definitive that he made no concessions, stating there was no ask.
A lot of people come from around the world for programming about how to put their startups together. We covered all the bases on our Builders Stage, which was packed every day, all day.
Post-show elation is shown from TechCrunch’s Jessica Barrera, who handled ticketing for ten thousand attendees. She saves our bacon routinely.
For many more photos from the event, visit our Flickr stream. You can also find our full video coverage for Day One, Day Two, and Day Three.