The "Captain of Moonshots" is heading to San Francisco. Astro Teller, the visionary leader behind Alphabet's X development lab, will take the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 this October, bringing over a decade of experience building the impossible to the startup community's most influential gathering.
Alphabet's most ambitious bets are about to get their biggest stage yet. Astro Teller, the enigmatic leader who's spent more than a decade turning science fiction into business reality at Google's X development lab, just confirmed his appearance at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025. The October 27-29 conference at Moscone West promises to be the year's most significant gathering of founders, investors, and the minds reshaping technology's future. Teller's addition signals the event's growing influence as the place where breakthrough thinking meets startup ambition. The "Captain of Moonshots" brings a portfolio that reads like a tech visionary's wishlist: Waymo's self-driving revolution, Wing's drone delivery network, and the audacious Loon project that beamed internet from stratospheric balloons before Alphabet shuttered it in 2021. Not every moonshot survives, but that's precisely Teller's philosophy—fail fast to clear the runway for world-changing breakthroughs. His approach comes at a critical moment for the startup ecosystem. As artificial intelligence blurs the line between impossible and inevitable, founders are grappling with how to think beyond incremental improvements toward transformational leaps. Teller's track record offers a masterclass in navigating this territory, having guided X through projects that seemed absurd until they became essential infrastructure. The timing couldn't be more strategic. Silicon Valley's investment landscape has shifted dramatically, with venture capital increasingly flowing toward moonshot-scale AI initiatives rather than incremental SaaS plays. Alphabet's recent quarterly results showed X generating meaningful revenue for the first time, validating Teller's long-term approach to breakthrough innovation. Early registrants can secure passes with savings up to $668 before the September 26 price increase, positioning themselves to hear directly from one of tech's most successful long-term thinkers. Teller's academic background—degrees from Stanford and Carnegie Mellon—combined with his roles as novelist, entrepreneur, and investor, provides a unique lens on innovation that extends far beyond Silicon Valley's typical playbook. His appearance suggests is positioning itself as the premier venue where theoretical breakthrough thinking meets practical startup execution. For founders betting their companies on transformational technologies, Teller's insights on building for impact while embracing intelligent failure could prove invaluable. The startup community will be watching closely as the leader who turned craziest ideas into billion-dollar businesses shares his blueprint for thinking beyond the possible.
