Meet the first series of VCs set to assess Startup Battlefield 200 on Disrupt 2025 | Techcrunch

From Dropbox to CloudFlare, Startup Battlefield -Alumni have re -defined industries. Who wins $ 100,000 this year and the spotlights?

Startup Battlefield 200 Is the crown jewel of Techcrunch disrupt – and this year’s competition promises to be unforgettable. From thousands of applicants, only the Top 20 will rise on stage Storte 2025 (October 27-29, San Francisco) to pitch their vision to panels of Top-Tier VCs for a live audience. Every competition hunts for game-changing impact and we are here for the drama, the breakthroughs and the large reveals.

We are very happy to announce our first wave of jury members to test these startups with rigorous Q&A without bumps. Their frank feedback offers a rare window on how investors of world class include a company-what excites them, as far as they are concerned and why they want to take the next meeting.

Winning Startup Battlefield has launched companies such as Dropbox, Mint, VURB and Cloudflare in the spotlight and with a $ 100,000 stock-free prize on the line, the next big name could be born on the disrupt stage in October.

Don’t miss this Startup-Pitch-off from High-Stakes on a worldwide stage. Learn from emerging founders what is needed to deliver a winning field and hear directly from the investors who assess the contenders. Register now for regular bird savings.

First look: meet the VCs who take the seats of the jury

Here are the first five VCs that are ready to help the startup Battlefield 2025 champion crown – with more top investors who are coming soon.

Philip Clark, investor, Thrive Capital

Philip Clark Is an investor at Thray capitalWhere he collaborates with leading software and hardware companies that are progress in AI and robotics, including Anduril, Cursor, Neuralink, Physical Intelligence and WIZ. He previously invested in Bridgewater. Philip graduated from Stanford with diplomas in computer science and management science and engineering. He continues to advise the Hoover institution on various topics in emerging technologies.

Madison FaulKner, partner, NEA

Madison Faulkner is a partner at NEA Investing in data at an early stage, infrastructure, developer tools, data science and AI, and it also leads the data and the AI platform internally for improved investment decision. During her investment career she worked with startups, including World Labs, Factory, Ceramic, Metabase, Datafal, Delphina, Mindtrip, Fixify and others. Prior to investing, Madison was head of Data Science and Machine Learning at a Startup Growth, Thrasio, head of Data Science at Greycroft, and he led a Data Science team on Facebook focused on the advertising auction and deep learning with Fair. Madison received a BS in Engineering from Stanford and grew up in Colorado that performed in Rodeo’s.

Leslie Feinzaig, founder and general partner, Graham & Walker VC

Leslie Feinzaig is the founder and general partner at Graham & WalkerAn early stage Durffonds supporting extraordinary founders and ideas that break the fungus, whose mission is to change the face of the public markets by supporting a new guard of founders and CEOs. Before the fund was launched, Mrs. Feinzaig was a 2x Startup-Exec with outputs of 8 and 10 digits that started her career under the supervision of HBS professor Clayton Christensen, author of the groundbreaking theory of disruptive innovation.

Ilya Kirnos, Founding Partner & CTO, Signalfire

Ilya Kirnos is the co-founder, managing partner and CTO of ~ $ 3 billion AUM AUM EARLY-STAGE VENTURE FIRM Signalfire. He leads the development of the internal Beacon AI data platform from Signalfire, which he has been building with the team of AI-Promovendi, engineers and data scientists for ten years. Beacon follows more than 660 million employees and 80 million companies to guide the investment of the fund by training high -quality founders and fast -growing companies, and helps its portfolio companies in recruiting recruitment and customer acquisition. As an investor, Ilya focuses on supporting seed to series B companies in Enterprise infrastructure and developer tools. He supports very technical startups in the Portfolio of Signalfire, including Horizon3 (autonomous penesting), OneSignal (reporting infrastructure) and PlanetCale (scalable databases).

Doug Pepper, partner, Iconiq

Doug Pepper is a general partner at Iconiq Growth. He joined Iconiq growth In 2019. Doug helped to lead the investments of Iconiq Growth in Airtable, Guild Education, Reify and others. Before Doug came to Iconiq Growth, Doug was director of Shasta Ventures, a leading venture capital company at an early stage. He was previously a general partner at Interwest Partners for 15 years, where he was the first investor in Marketo and served on the board of directors for 10 years. He started his career at Goldman Sachs and Amazon.com.

Register now to participate in the pitch-off promotion in October

Techcrunch Disrupt 2025 Marks 20 years as a launchpad for technical innovation. The startup landscape has evolved, but disturbing the place where market leaders form the future. From invaluable sessions and game-changing connections to the startup Battlefield, it all happens here in October. Now light your ticket at low rates.