Startups

Here’s a peek at what’s happening on day one at Disrupt

Comment

Welcome to the first day of TechCrunch Disrupt! Yeah, baby, we are ready to jump right into a jam-packed day dedicated to the growth and success of the entire early-stage startup ecosystem. Check out our day-one highlights to whet your appetite and then dig in!

Latecomers always welcome: Buy a pass right here.

You’ll find all the day’s programs, stage location and times listed in the Disrupt agenda and in the event app.

Expo Hall & Demo Booths

Head to the expo hall each day to check out early-stage Startup Battlefield 200 exhibitors and sponsor booths.

Investor Reception
Receptions | 12:00 pm 

Meet and network with fellow investors attending TechCrunch Disrupt at this Investor Luncheon OPEN TO INVESTOR TICKET TYPES ONLY.

Live on Stage: TechCrunch’s Equity
TC Plus Stage | 9:05 am

Start your day off right — join Mary Ann Azevedo, Natasha Mascarenhas and Alex Wilhelm at the TechCrunch+ stage for a live recording of Equity, the podcast about the business of startups. They’ll unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines and will wade through the hype to keep you up-to-date on the world of business, tech and VC. Come for the news and analysis, stay for the jokes — and for breakfast!

Winning the War on Ransomware
TC Plus Stage | 11:30 am

Ransomware attacks are escalating at an alarming rate. We’ll hear from experts about what winning the war on ransomware looks like and how startups can play their part — with Brett Callow, threat analyst at Emsisoft, and Katie Moussouris, founder and CEO of Luta Security.

How to Secure Those Hard to Find Hires
TC Plus Stage | 10:50 am

Hiring is not easy, even in the best of times. With a tight tech talent market and an increasingly remote-friendly — and therefore globally competitive — corporate landscape, founders have never had more places to hire from and more competitors to measure up against. So we’re going to talk with Chris Herd (Firstbase), an advocate for remote work, and Emil Yeargin, VP of talent at Gusto, which is not only hiring but also helps other companies manage their staff. And we’ll hear from Janine O’Neill (Sequoia), who knows a thing or two about hiring for startups. We’ll go deep on hiring with a special focus on hard-to-fill roles.

Framing Innovation Through Collaborations Big and Small with AT&T
TC Plus Stage | 2:10 PM
Connectivity isn’t a nice-to-have for innovation. It’s mandatory, and collaboration between AT&T and startups at all stages could push the world forward and provide the framework for innovation. Join this session with AT&T CTO Jeremy Legg and a special guest panelist as they discuss the key elements your startup needs to drive tomorrow’s next connectivity innovation breakthrough.

Marc’s Lore
Disrupt Stage | 10:00 am

Billionaire Marc Lore sold his startup to an everything store, twice. After inking deals with Amazon and Walmart, the Quidsi and Jet.com co-founder has launched Wonder to tackle a common problem — food delivery — in an unconventional way. Get ready for a delicious conversation.

Bankrolling the Blockchain with a16z Crypto
Disrupt Stage | 10:25 am

Venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is the largest and one of the best-known funding sources for web3 startups. Alongside a16z founder Marc Andreessen, general partner Chris Dixon has been integral to the firm’s rise as a giant in the crypto VC world — he was an early investor in startups, including Coinbase, Uniswap and Oculus VR. Hear from Dixon about how a16z crypto is putting its massive $7.6 billion pool of capital to work by backing early-stage web3 companies.

TechCrunch Startup Battlefield presented by Capital Connect by J.P. Morgan
Disrupt Stage | 10:50 am & 2:30 pm

TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.Live 

Making Care Actually Work
Disrupt Stage | 1:40 pm

Cityblock Health has experienced considerable growth on the back of a care model designed to actually meet the recipients of care where they already are — while still satisfying the needs of payers. It appears to be true accessibility in a framework that works with the existing U.S. healthcare infrastructure, but we’ll hear from CEO Toyin Ajayi about the work that remains to be done.

Breaking Into the Healthcare Monolith: Strategies for working with Payors and Providers with InterSystems
Roundtable | 10:30 am 

How do you build a health-tech startup that can achieve high growth? What can startups do to make their technologies more compelling to the biggest players in healthcare: payors and health systems? In this session we will discuss the pain points of getting into healthcare, as well as strategies to open doors to these organizations for pilots and sustainable revenue. You’ll leave this round table discussion with a list of best practices from InterSystems’ 40+ years in the healthcare industry.

Design and Scale Using Behavioral Science
Roundtable | 11:00 am

We are building technology for the future but have forgotten that our users still rely on a brain that hasn’t changed in 40,000 years. To design and scale successful products, learn how to leverage the power of behavioral science, and cater to the ancient decision-maker inside all of us — with Shirin Oreizy, founder and CEO, Next Step.

The CPO-to-CEO Pipeline with Egon Zehnder
Roundtable | 11:00 am

The product function has never been as important as it is today. As we see it continuously evolve and expand in importance, are product leaders poised to develop into the next generation of CEOs? Join a discussion with advisors who offer their expertise in evaluating future CEOs, hearing how other product leaders have made this transition. Additionally, compare notes with others on what this trend, along with the expanding mandate of the product role, could mean for the function.

Why nine out of ten startups fail with Mayfield
Roundtable | 1:00 pm

Two-time entrepreneur Dheeraj Pandey (former co-founder and CEO of Nutanix and current CEO and co-founder of DevRev) will talk about what he learned from founding a company and taking it to a successful IPO, plus the top reasons why startups fail. He will also share his framework around strategy for founders to attain Product Market Fit (PMF).
How to Supercharge Growth, Utilize Cloud, and Reduce Burn with Google Cloud
Breakout Session | 10:00 am

Building and running a startup has become even more daunting and challenging. How can you build fast while also managing your burn in the current investment landscape? Come hear from successful startups as they discuss: – Personal stories and battle scars in the journey to accelerate scale – Managing volatility and the unknown in a changing investment landscape – The importance of metrics and being smart about how and where you build – Solutions for Bootstrap, Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A startups and how you can get support and scale up.
What Happens When We Don’t Have Diverse Voices in the Room to Help Shape the Future? with J.P. Morgan
Breakout Session | 11:00 am

Wemimo Abbey, the diverse co-founder behind Esusu, shares the Inspirational story behind his innovative startup and the challenges he and his co-founder faced along the way. As minorities, they encountered unique challenges, and with the help of J.P. Morgan, the founders overcame them to ultimately reach their goals. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion isn’t just a check in the box, why is it so important? In this session we will discuss the benefits of including minority voices in startups and how to ensure DEI.

That should get your motor running. Now, shift into overdrive and go learn, connect and discover new opportunities to help your business grow! Remember, latecomers can grab a pass and join the fun.

How to Evolve Your Business Through Recurring Revenue with Chargebee
Breakout Session | 1:00 pm

With subscription offerings coming to nearly every vertical from fast food to car manufacturing, it’s clear that subscriptions are more than fad; they’re an evolutionary step every business should consider. Employing an innovative recurring revenue model offers a differentiated customer experience and revenue predictability, thereby increasing business resiliency, which is especially important in uncertain times. Regardless of where you are on your company’s journey, from a startup seeking financing to a late-stage business seeking valuation, your revenue model should be an important part of any business strategy.

More TechCrunch

Zoox, Amazon’s self-driving unit, is bringing its autonomous vehicles to more cities.  The self-driving technology company announced Wednesday plans to begin testing in Austin and Miami this summer. The two…

Zoox to test self-driving cars in Austin and Miami 

Called Stable Audio Open, the generative model takes a text description and outputs a recording up to 47 seconds in length.

Stability AI releases a sound generator

It’s not just instant-delivery startups that are struggling. Oda, the Norway-based online supermarket delivery startup, has confirmed layoffs of 150 jobs as it drastically scales back its expansion ambitions to…

SoftBank-backed grocery startup Oda lays off 150, resets focus on Norway and Sweden

Newsletter platform Substack is introducing the ability for writers to send videos to their subscribers via Chat, its direct messaging feature, the company announced on Wednesday. The rollout of video…

Substack brings video to its Chat feature

Hiya, folks, and welcome to TechCrunch’s inaugural AI newsletter. It’s truly a thrill to type those words — this one’s been long in the making, and we’re excited to finally…

This Week in AI: Ex-OpenAI staff call for safety and transparency

Ms. Rachel isn’t a household name, but if you spend a lot of time with toddlers, she might as well be a rockstar. She’s like Steve from Blues Clues for…

Cameo fumbles on Ms. Rachel fundraiser as fans receive credits instead of videos  

Cartwheel helps animators go from zero to basic movement, so creating a scene or character with elementary motions like taking a step, swatting a fly or sitting down is easier.

Cartwheel generates 3D animations from scratch to power up creators

The new tool, which is set to arrive in Wix’s app builder tool this week, guides users through a chatbot-like interface to understand the goals, intent and aesthetic of their…

Wix’s new tool taps AI to generate smartphone apps

ClickUp Knowledge Management combines a new wiki-like editor and with a new AI system that can also bring in data from Google Drive, Dropbox, Confluence, Figma and other sources.

ClickUp wants to take on Notion and Confluence with its new AI-based Knowledge Base

New York City, home to over 60,000 gig delivery workers, has been cracking down on cheap, uncertified e-bikes that have resulted in battery fires across the city.  Some e-bike providers…

Whizz wants to own the delivery e-bike subscription space, starting with NYC

This is the last major step before Starliner can be certified as an operational crew system, and the first Starliner mission is expected to launch in 2025. 

Boeing’s Starliner astronaut capsule is en route to the ISS 

TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San Francisco is the must-attend event for startup founders aiming to make their mark in the tech world. This year, founders have three exciting ways to…

Three ways founders can shine at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

Google’s newest startup program, announced on Wednesday, aims to bring AI technology to the public sector. The newly launched “Google for Startups AI Academy: American Infrastructure” will offer participants hands-on…

Google’s new startup program focuses on bringing AI to public infrastructure

eBay’s newest AI feature allows sellers to replace image backgrounds with AI-generated backdrops. The tool is now available for iOS users in the U.S., U.K., and Germany. It’ll gradually roll…

eBay debuts AI-powered background tool to enhance product images

If you’re anything like me, you’ve tried every to-do list app and productivity system, only to find yourself giving up sooner than later because sooner than later, managing your productivity…

Hoop uses AI to automatically manage your to-do list

Asana is using its work graph to train LLMs with the goal of creating AI assistants that work alongside human employees in company workflows.

Asana introduces ‘AI teammates’ designed to work alongside human employees

Taloflow, an early stage startup changing the way companies evaluate and select software, has raised $1.3M in a seed round.

Taloflow puts AI to work on software vendor selection to reduce cost and save time

The startup is hoping its durable filters can make metals refining and battery recycling more efficient, too.

SiTration uses silicon wafers to reclaim critical minerals from mining waste

Spun out of Bosch, Dive wants to change how manufacturers use computer simulations by both using modern mathematical approaches and cloud computing.

Dive goes cloud-native for its computational fluid dynamics simulation service

The tension between incumbents and fintechs has existed for decades. But every once in a while, the two groups decide to put their competition aside and work together. In an…

When foes become friends: Capital One partners with fintech giants Stripe, Adyen to prevent fraud

After growing 500% year-over-year in the past year, Understory is now launching a product focused on the renewable energy sector.

Insurance provider Understory gets into renewable energy following $15M Series A

Ashkenazi will start her new role at Google’s parent company on July 31, after 23 years at Eli Lilly.

Alphabet brings on Eli Lilly’s Anat Ashkenazi as CFO

Tobiko aims to reimagine how teams work with data by offering a dbt-compatible data transformation platform.

With $21.8M in funding, Tobiko aims to build a modern data platform

In 1816, French physician René Laennec invented an instrument that allowed doctors to listen to the heart and lungs. That device — a stethoscope — eventually evolved from a simple…

Eko Health scores $41M to detect heart and lung disease earlier and more accurately

The number of satellites on low Earth orbit is poised to explode over the coming years as more mega-constellations come online. This will create new opportunities for bad actors to…

DARPA and Slingshot build system to detect ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ adversary satellites

SAP sees WalkMe’s focus on automating contextual, in-app support as bringing value to its own enterprise customers.

SAP to acquire digital adoption platform WalkMe for $1.5B

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has emerged victorious in India’s 2024 general election, but with a smaller majority compared to 2019. According to post-election analysis by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, CLSA,…

Modi-led coalition’s election win signals policy continuity in India — and spending cuts

Featured Article

A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs

The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the…

21 hours ago
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs

Featured Article

What to expect from WWDC 2024: iOS 18, macOS 15 and so much AI

Apple is hoping to make WWDC 2024 memorable as it finally spells out its generative AI plans.

22 hours ago
What to expect from WWDC 2024: iOS 18, macOS 15 and so much AI

We just announced the breakout session winners last week. Now meet the roundtable sessions that really “rounded” out the competition for this year’s Disrupt 2024 audience choice program. With five…

The votes are in: Meet the Disrupt 2024 audience choice roundtable winners