It’s time for day two of News Disrupt 2025, which means San Francisco’s Moscone West will be jam-packed with another marathon of speakers, workshops, networking opportunities, and afterparties for attendees. Keep in mind that you can still register for tickets to join the excitement, and since we’re already a day in, you can get a ticket for 50% off the standard walk-up price here.
Refresh yourself on our speaker lineup right here, or dive deeper into each of our stages, events, networking opportunities, and more by following the anchor links below.
Most importantly, have fun out there, and if you want to be a part of the conversation around Disrupt, post your experiences, photos, and recommendations to any and all social platforms and use # NewsDisrupt2025. We’ll be posting some on-the-ground coverage of our own on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok.
Get to know all the major activations of Disrupt:
Expo Hall
Women of Disrupt Breakfast
Networking
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025
Disrupt Stage
AI Stage
Builders Stage
Breakout Stage
Roundtables
StrictlyVC
Pitch Showcase Stage
Disrupt 2025 Side Events
Expo Hall
Our 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Expo Hall remains a hub for startups looking to see and be seen, with more than 300+ participating in what could be their next big break — or your next big investment opportunity. Get a full rundown of our showcasing startups here.
Women of Disrupt Breakfast Reception
We’re continuing the tradition of a morning opportunity for anyone identifying as a female to meet, learn from, and network with colleagues across the wide range of tech startups at Disrupt. The breakfast runs from 8 to 10 a.m. at the Deal Flow Cafe, and operates on a first-come, first-served basis.
Networking
But if you’re not eligible for the breakfast, plenty of other networking opportunities are available through curated meetings on Braindate from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Explore or create 1:1 or small-group sessions to dive deep into a wide range of topics. The Networking Lounge serves as the meeting point for all these sessions and is always buzzing.
If you’re an investor or a founder, then make your way to the Deal Flow Cafe. This exclusive area is designed for investors and founders to talk deals over coffee.
Or, you can randomly bump into the right connection while heading to a session, or bumping into eager startups in the Expo Hall, the heart of Disrupt, just about anywhere else in the venue.
Sessions
Industry-focused stages, interactive roundtables, Q&A breakout sessions — these sessions are meant to spark inspiration and insights.
Disrupt Stage
No Filters: Vinod Khosla on the Future of Tech – Vinod Khosla (Founder, Khosla Ventures)
The Startup Battlefield – Session 3 – Judges include Jon Chu (Partner, Khosla Ventures), Madison Faulkner (Partner, NEA), Ilya Kirnos (Founding Partner and CTO, SignalFire), Miloni Madan Presler (Partner, Institutional Venture Partners), Rinki Sethi (Founding Partner, Lockstep)
What’s Next for Netflix and Streaming Itself – Elizabeth Stone (CTO, Netflix)
From Mirror to What’s Next – Bryn Putnam Returns to Disrupt – Brynn Putnam (Founder, MIRROR, and CEO Board)
Slate’s Auto Electric Truck – See It Here First: Chris Barman (CEO, Slate Auto)
The Startup Battlefield – Session 4 – Leslie Feinzaig (Founder and GP, Graham & Walker VC), Sara Ittelson (Partner, Accel), Doug Pepper (General Partner, ICONIQ)
Storming the Gates: Scaling Consumer AI – Phoebe Gates (Co-Founder, Phia), Sophia Kianni (Co-Founder, Phia)
AI Stage
Betting on the Next Wave: What VCs Want in AI Startups – Steve Jang (founder and managing Partner, Kindred Ventures), Aileen Lee (founder and managing partner, Cowboy Ventures), Jon McNeil (CEO & Co-Founder, DVx Ventures)
Creative Machines and Where AI Meets Imagination – Prateek Dixit (co-founder, Pocket Entertainment), Soyoung Lee (Co-Founder and Head of GTM, TwelveLabs), Nikola Todorovic (co-founder, Wonder Dynamics, an Autodesk company)
AI Meets the Future of Work with Mercer’s Brendan Foody – Brendan Foody (CEO, Mercer)
The Post-Training Revolution: How Reinforcement Learning is Upending the AI Infra Stack – Eric Anderson (Partner, Scale Venture Partners), Kyle Corbitt (Head of OpenPipe Team, CoreWeave)
Why the Next Frontier is Search – Edo Liberty (Founder and Chief Scientist, Pinecone)
From Web Pages to Autonomous Agents – A Conversation on Linking Today’s Web to Tomorrow’s Data Layer: Or Lenchner (CEO Bright Data)
Intelligence in Motion and the Future of Physical AI – Jeff Cardenas (Co-Founder, CEO, Apptronik), Raquel Urtasun (Founder and CEO, Waabi)
Can You Vibe Code Enterprise Software? – Arun Gupta (VP of Developer Experience, JetBrains), Mark Pollack (OSS Contributor, Spring OSS Contributor)
Synthetic Voices and Real Impact – Mati Staniszewski (Co-Founder, ElevenLabs)
AI That Scales: Lessons From the Frontlines – Sanjay Dhawan (Chief Executive Officer, SymphonyAI), Tamara Pattison (SVP, Chief Digital Officer, The Save Mart Companies)
Building Intelligence for Modern Defense – Ethan Thornton (CEO and Founder, Mach Industries)
Driving Intelligence – Alex Kendall (CEO, Wayve)
Builders Stage
How to Nail Product Market Fit – Rajat Bhageria (Founder and CEO, Chef Robotics), Ann Bordetsky (Partner, NEA), Murali Joshi (Partner, ICONIQ)
Designing Products for the AI Age – Andrew Reed (General Partner, Sequoia Capital), Yuhki Yamashita (Chief Product Officer, Figma), Zach Lloyd (CEO and Founder, Warp)
How to Pitch When You’re at the Inception Stage – Wesley Chan (Co-Founder and Managing Partner, FPV Ventures), Charles Hudson (Managing Partner, Precursor Ventures)
Do Startups Still Need Silicon Valley? – Anh-Tho Chuong (CEO and Co-Founder, Lago), David Hall (Managing Partner, Revolution/Rise of the Rest), Tawni Nazario-Cranz (Operating Partner, SignalFire)
Building What’s Next with the Minds Behind Twitter and Meta – Adam Bain (Co-Founder and Managing Partner, 01 Advisors), Dick Costolo (Co-Founder and Managing Partner, 01 Advisors), David Fischer (General Partner, 01 Advisors)
Where VCs Are Placing Their Bets in 2026 – Nina Achadjian (Partner, Index Ventures), Jerry Chen (General Partner, Greylock), Peter Deng (General Partner, Felicis)
Breakout Stage
Agentic AI for Startups: Automate, Adapt, and Accelerate Growth – Anjali Mann (Technical Program Manager, Microsoft), Anmol Rastogi (Head of Product Management, AI and ML – Amazon Business, Amazon)
Leading for Impact: Engineering at the Speed of AI – Andrew Berman (CEO, Runlayer), Dima Dzhulgakov (Co-Founder, Fireworks AI), Suraj Patel (VP Ventures and Corporate Development, MongoDB), Eno Reyes (CTO, Factory)
Rewriting Healthcare Workflows with AI – Zubair Ahsan (Co-Founder and CEO, Max AI), Varun Krishnamurthy (Co-Founder and CEO, Assured Health), Kanyi Maqubela (Managing Partner, Kindred Ventures)
Inside the Family Office Playbook: How the Wealthiest Invest in Startups and Venture Funds – Mariane Bekker (Managing Partner, Founders Bay), Brett Horton (Chief Investment Officer, Paris-Roubaix Group), Daniel Idzkowski (CIO, I.D.I.T. Family Office)
CVC: What’s Different? What’s Their Superpower? – Nicolas Sauvage (President, TDK Ventures)
Startups, Stories, and the Fight for Attention – Jenna Birch (Founder, SISU), Allie Cefalo (Partner, Marketing, Kleiner Perkins), Chantelle Darby (Founder, Darby PR)
Embracing AI for a Better Digital Future – Meghana Dhar (Technology Advisor and Investor), Matt Madrigal (Chief Technology Officer, Pinterest)
Roundtables
Each of these 30-minute sessions is for small groups to work through real-world problems.
The Future of Banking and Fintech: the AI Wave – Nnamdi Okike (Co-Founder and Managing Partner, 645 Ventures)
Scaling Search and AI for Millions: Lessons from Reddit Search – Rachel Miller (Product Manager, Reddit)
Tim Cook Has More Followers Than Apple — Why Founders Need to Be on Camera – Hanieh Sigari (CEO, EllieMD), Uptin Saiidi (Founder and Creator UP10 Media)
From Tokens to Turbines: The New Economics of AI – Caleb Appleton (Partner, Bison Ventures)
Prototyping, Tuning & Scaling GenAI Applications with Open Models – Aishwarya Srinivasan (Head of AI Developer Relations, Fireworks AI)
The Invisible AI Revolution – Brad Cordova (Founder and CPTO, Super.AI), Benjamin Kwon (CEO, Super.AI)
From Tokens to Turbines – The New Economics of AI: Caleb Appleton (Partner, Bison Ventures)
How Smart Brands Are Winning With Creator-Led Videos – Peter Sleiman (Creative Director, UP10 Media), Uptin Saiidi (Founder and Creator UP10 Media)
How to Train Your Model: Taming AI Agents Without Breaking Them [Encore] – Kyla Guru (Head of Model Cyber Safety, Anthropic)
The Winning Formula: Turning Your Business Into a Trusted Scalable Community to Drive Growth – Tasneem Amina (Co-Founder and President, Kindred), Justine Palefsky (Co-Founder and CEO, Kindred)
From Inception to Enterprise: Selling AI Agents that Scale – Allison Baum Gates (General Partner, SemperVirens Venture Capital)
Powering the Future Home: Energy Independence Starts Here – Jenny Zhang (President of North America Residential, Energy Business, EcoFlow)
Prototyping, Tuning & Scaling GenAI Applications with Open Models [encore] – Aishwarya Srinivasan (Head of AI Developer Relations, Fireworks AI)
The Winning Formula: Turning Your Business Into a Trusted, Scalable Community To Drive Growth [encore] – Justine Palefsky (Co-Founder, Kindred), Tasneem Amina (Co-Founder, Kindred)
StrictlyVC
Making its second appearance at Disrupt, this LP session is only for Investor Pass-holders.
Global High-Tech at a Crossroads: Trends, Emerging Technologies, and the Role of Deep-Tech – Dror Bin (CEO Israel Innovation Authority)
The LP Lens: Liquidity, Selection, and the Future of Ventures – Lara Banks (Managing Director and Head of Private Equity, Makena Capital), Kelli Fontaine (Partner, Cendana Capital), Adam Grosher (Director, The J. Paul Getty Trust), Matt Hodan (Partner, Lexington Partners), Michael Kim (Founder and Partner, Cendana Capital)
GP Perspectives on LP Relationships – Kevin Hartz (General Partner, A*)
Pitch Showcase Stage
Witness live on-stage pitches from some of the exhibiting startups from all over the world in the Expo Hall.
9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.: Startup Battlefield 200 Consumer Pitches
11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.: Pavilion Pitch Session — Catalonia
1:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.: Pavilion Pitch Session — Poland
1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.: Startup Battlefield 200 Enterprise Pitches
3:30 p.m. – 4:20 p.m.: Pavilion Pitch Session – SilkRoad
Disrupt 2025 Side Events
Company-hosted Side Events are happening throughout San Francisco this week, extending the Disrupt energy well beyond Moscone West. Here’s what’s happening tonight — panels, parties, and meetups designed to connect founders, investors, and innovators across every corner of tech. Make sure to RSVP your spot to any of these.
You can still join Disrupt
Just two days left to join thousands of founders, investors, operators, and visionaries at Moscone West in San Francisco. Snag your pass at 50% off and be part of the tech event of the year.
