TechCrunch just revealed the heavy-hitting venture capitalists who'll decide which startup walks away with the $100,000 prize at Startup Battlefield 200. With partners from Khosla Ventures, Index Ventures, GV, and a former Tesla president on the panel, this year's competition is shaping up to be the most competitive yet. Twenty founders will face this world-class jury at Moscone West this October.
The venture capital world's A-listers are packing their bags for San Francisco. TechCrunch just dropped the names of five more judges who'll decide which startup claims the coveted $100,000 equity-free prize at Startup Battlefield 200 this October.
[embedded image: Battlefield 200 judges announcement graphic showing all five new judges]
The lineup reads like a who's who of Silicon Valley power players. Jon Chu from Khosla Ventures brings deep machine learning expertise after stints at Palantir, Docker, and Facebook's VR division. His track record speaks volumes - he helped scale Palantir from 200 to 1,800 employees and sold his own company KoalityCode to Docker before diving into the VC world.
Index Ventures' Eryk Dobrushkin adds serious enterprise software chops to the panel. His front-row seat at Databricks during its explosive growth gives him unique insight into what separates breakout companies from the pack. "He had a front-row seat in one of the fastest-growing enterprise software companies in history," according to his bio from TechCrunch.
The healthcare angle comes from Cathy Friedman at Google Ventures, who's spent nearly four decades in finance, tech, and healthcare. Her focus on adolescent mental health and women's health equity could signal what types of startups might catch her attention during the competition.
Nvidia's Jen Hoskins represents the AI infrastructure boom that's reshaping startup funding. Leading the company's Inception program - which now boasts 29,000+ startup members globally - she's seen firsthand which AI companies actually scale beyond the hype cycle.
But it's Jon McNeill who might be the most intriguing addition. The former Tesla president helped scale the company from $2 billion to $20 billion in revenue in just 18 months. His operational expertise at Tesla and Lyft, plus his current role running venture studio DVx Ventures, means he'll be looking for founders who can actually execute at hypergrowth scale.
