The idea of hiring your first critical engineer is getting a serious reality check at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, happening from October 27 to 29 at San Francisco’s Moscone West.
Join Lauri Moore, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, and David Cramer, co-founder and chief product officer at Sentry, and Zach Lloyd, founder and CEO of Warp, on the Builders Stage for a candid conversation about how developer tools are reshaping early product development.
Lauri Moore brings deep expertise in AI, infrastructure, and developer tooling from both the investor and founder perspectives. David Cramer launched Sentry as an open source side project in 2012 and scaled it into a platform used by over 4 million developers, offering firsthand insights into how the right tools and hires can accelerate product velocity without overbuilding. Zach Lloyd, who founded Warp to reinvent the terminal with AI-driven developer experiences, adds the perspective of a founder building for builders at the bleeding edge of coding workflows.
The panel will dig into what today’s founders actually need from their first engineering hires, what AI-enabled tooling can and cannot replace, and how the entire go-to-market and product life cycle is adapting to this new development world. Whether you are a founder, a CTO, or just curious if code is still king, this panel gets into the messy, tactical details of modern startup building.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 brings together over 10,000 startup founders, venture capital leaders, and tech innovators to tackle what is next in technology. Do not miss your chance to join the conversation and shape the future with the people who are building it.
Regular Bird pricing ends on September 26 at 11:59 PM Pacific Time. Secure your pass today to save up to 668 dollars.
The event features more than 250 leaders from companies like Netflix, Box, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital, and Elad Gil, leading over 200 sessions designed to deliver insights that fuel startup growth. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch, offering a chance to learn from the top voices in the industry.