Thank you to everyone who made this year’s San Francisco event what it was, and to the 10,000 of you who filled the halls, made the connections, and left with more than you came. You couldn’t do it? The images below offer an idea of what you missed.
Until next year.
Vinod Khosla, telling attendees that he doesn’t believe the argument that boosting AI will doom climate efforts. Geothermal energy is almost here, he said, while fusion is even further away. He also addressed his alignment with President Donald Trump (deregulation) and his disagreement (immigration): “The only thing I will say is that this administration will not last forever,” he said with a smile.
That’s Roelof Botha on stage, and that’s the crowd that came to hear his every word. The Sequoia partner talked about how his company picks winners and what government ownership could mean in startups, and warned founders not to get cute with the timing, telling them to raise money now if they’ll need money six months from now. The bubbles burst.
Glīd Technologies’ Kevin Damoa, winner of this year’s Battlefield competition, with Battlefield boss Isabelle Johannessen. She and TC’s Michael Schick work with dozens of startups for months to prepare them for this stage. the hug is earned.
Roy Lee, founder of Cluely, the app best known for its “cheat at everything” mantra, entertains the crowd with his f-bomb-laden take on how to win at marketing. “Every day, people do crazier and crazier things, so to stand out, you have to do something even crazier.” (Pictured on the left, Maxwell Zeff, defending himself.)
If former Cleveland Cavaliers Tristan Thompson misses the NBA, he doesn’t show it. He’s building a business empire and raising specific questions about the league he left behind. When asked if players could manipulate Basketball Fun, a web3 platform that turns NBA players into tradable tokens, he offered a counterpoint: “It’s the same question we ask about referees. Aren’t they gaming the system?” When moderator Rebecca Bellan asked if he was referring to NBA referees taking bribes, Thompson shrugged. “It’s just a question that needs to be asked,” he said.
Technology event
san francisco
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October 13-15, 2026
Our Sean O’Kane shares a moment with Wayve co-founder and CEO Alex Kendall. Kendall may also be smiling because his UK-based self-driving startup, whose software acts as the “brain for cars,” is in talks to raise a fresh $2 billion from SoftBank and Microsoft, at a valuation of $8 billion.
Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, founders of Phia, the AI-powered shopping assistant, dazzled the Disrupt audience with their enthusiasm for making high-quality second-hand clothing much easier to find. Gates, daughter of Bill and Melinda Gates, was also amused when moderator Amanda Silberling asked her what her famous parents had learned from her. Said Gates, laughing: “I wish, style! I don’t even consider myself that stylish; I just like building in the consumer space, but now I get random emails from my family asking me, ‘Should I use this for this?'”
Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana, with TechCrunch’s Kirsten Korosec, answering questions about autonomous vehicles, including whether society will accept deaths caused by autonomous vehicles. “I think society will,” Mawakana said. “The challenge is to ensure that society has a high enough level of security for companies to comply.”
Kevin Rose talks about the Digg reboot and the future of venture capital (Rose is also a general partner at early-stage venture firm True Ventures). I’m smiling because that’s what you do when someone doesn’t answer your questions about a trendy, wearable startup that’s still under wraps. (We will have more on Sandbar soon.)
Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf hydrates between questions about building the future of AI, including as it relates to LeRobot, the Hugging Face project that attempts to democratize robotics with affordable hardware, open source tools, and shared data sets.
Final judges Marlon Nichols of MaC VC and Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures during the final stages of our highly competitive Startup Battlefield. Somewhere off camera, a founder is sweating on his pitch deck.
Box’s Aaron Levie in conversation with TC’s Russell Brandom. Levie has appeared on the Disrupt stage numerous times during TC’s 20 years at the center of the startup ecosystem, and he always delivers.
Elizabeth Stone, Netflix’s chief technology officer, on the streamer’s expanded mandate, from simple binge-watching to interactive programming (think voting on live shows and playing games via your phone): “It hasn’t changed the way we tell stories,” she told a rapt crowd.
TC’s Dominic-Madori Davis talks about community building with Campus’ Tade Oyerinde, who is rethinking community college, and Teddy Solomon of Fizz, the anonymous social app that’s spreading across college campuses and occasionally being banned, which some might see as a badge of honor.
A wish board: developers needed, contacts offered, deals proposed. We love it when founders lean toward old-school tactics. (Some still work!)
David George, who leads Andreessen Horowitz’s growth investing team, came to the show to speak with Julie Bort about what startups should weigh as they look to the public market. Turns out it was his birthday; the crowd takes a moment here to celebrate with him.
here it is San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie discusses his call with President Trump about why not send the National Guard to the city, a proposal put forward by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. “What I told him was what I tell everyone: This is a city on the rise,” Lurie said. “Three days of Disrupt here should prove it.” On whether he made concessions with negotiator Trump, he was blunt. “No, absolutely not. “Don’t ask.”
Many people come from all over the world to program on how to set up their startups. We covered all the bases at our Builders Stage, which was packed every day, all day.
Post-show euphoria from TC’s Jessica Barrera, who handled ticket sales for 10,000 attendees. She routinely saves our bacon.
For many more photos from the event, visit our Flickr stream.
You can also find our full video coverage: here it is Day 1, Day 2and Day 3.
