TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 has locked in its most tactical programming yet, with the Builders Stage featuring Discord founder Jason Citron, super-investor Elad Gil, and Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen leading sessions on everything from AI hiring to Series A fundraising. The October 27-29 San Francisco conference promises unfiltered advice from founders and VCs who've built billion-dollar companies.
The startup world's most practical conference just got more compelling. TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 has finalized its Builders Stage lineup, and the roster reads like a who's who of founders who've actually built category-defining companies. The three-day San Francisco event at Moscone West promises the kind of tactical advice that makes or breaks early-stage startups.
The star addition is Jason Citron, Discord's founder and former CEO, who will explore community-building strategies alongside Campus founder Tade Oyerinde. Discord's evolution from gaming chat app to global communication platform offers crucial lessons for founders trying to build lasting companies around people, not institutions.
But perhaps the most anticipated session features Elad Gil, the investor who seems to spot unicorns before they're even ideas. Gil wrote seed checks to Perplexity, Character.AI, and Harvey before ChatGPT made AI mainstream. His portfolio reads like the Silicon Valley hall of fame: Airbnb, Coinbase, Figma, Notion, Stripe, and dozens more. According to conference materials, Gil will share insights on what's next for AI investing and startup formation.
Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen brings a different perspective on building in uncertainty. The logistics unicorn raised $2.3 billion and sits at the intersection of global trade and policy, giving Petersen almost prescient economic insights. He famously left his CEO role and returned less than a year later, offering founders a rare glimpse into navigating volatility at scale.
The fundraising track delivers unprecedented access to the minds behind venture capital. A panel featuring former Twitter executives Adam Bain and Dick Costolo, now managing partners at 01 Advisors alongside ex-Meta executive David Fischer, will break down what it really takes to build and fund early-stage startups today.
Navin Chaddha from Mayfield and Charles Hudson from Precursor Ventures will tackle the inception stage challenge – how to pitch when you have nothing but vision and founder story. This resonates as pre-seed and seed rounds become increasingly competitive, with investors demanding more proof points than ever before.
The agenda also addresses modern startup realities like AI integration. A panel titled 'The Pros and Cons of Hiring AI Agents as Early Employees' features executives from Artisan, Lattice, and Firecrawl exploring whether startups should use AI for sales, customer support, and billing automation. Another session questions whether early-stage startups still need 10x engineers in an era of , featuring leaders from Sentry, Bessemer, and Warp.