TechCrunch names five more judges for Startup Battlefield 200 at Disrupt 2026

In short: TechCrunch announced five more venture capital investors who will judge the Startup Battlefield 200 competition at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.

What happened

TechCrunch said the judging panel for its Startup Battlefield 200 is nearly complete. The event is part of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, which runs October 13 to 15 in San Francisco at Moscone West.

Startup Battlefield 200 is a competition where 200 selected startups, meaning young companies, gather to show their products, meet investors, and try to advance to a live, on-stage pitching round. A pitch is a short presentation, like a job interview for a company, where founders explain what they are building and why it matters.

The five newly named judges are Caleb Appleton from Bison Ventures, Sara Deshpande from Maven Ventures, Aatish Nayak from Kleiner Perkins, Jason Risch from Greylock, and Mark Xu from Index Ventures. TechCrunch said these judges will help decide which startups move forward toward the finals.

TechCrunch also said a later announcement will reveal the final five judges who will evaluate the finalists and pick the winner. The winner is set to receive a $100,000 equity-free prize, meaning the startup gets the money without giving up ownership, plus the Disrupt Cup.

Why it matters

For startups, being chosen and judged at a big event can lead to meetings and attention that are hard to get otherwise, like getting a seat at a crowded restaurant by being on the guest list. For everyone else, these events are often where new products show up first, before they become widely known.

Source: TechCrunch AI