The Global Pitch Competition for Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch disrupts 2025 in 2025, held from October 27-29, and is just weeks away, with stakes rising to more than ever.
Twenty founders pitch the company at a stage of chaos, but only one person leaves with a $100,000 stock-free prize and a coveted Disrupt Cup. Helping to determine the winner is a world-class roster of judges, investors and operators who know what it takes to build a permanent company.
Today we are presenting a third group of judges that will bring expertise and tough questions to this year's competition. And we're not finished yet. Stay tuned for two more batches of judges in the coming weeks.
Sign up now to witness the intense “World Series” of pitch competitions and save up to $668 on your pass. Prices will increase from September 26th.
Don't struggle any more, meet the next five Battlefield 200 judges
Check out our Agenda of Confusion to see the 10 judges already announced.
Jon Chu, partner at Khosla Ventures
Jon Chu is a partner at Khosla Ventures and is passionate about machine learning and its impact on enterprise infrastructure, applications and developer tools. Before joining Khosla Ventures, he built a technology career as a founder, early employee and organizational leader across a variety of engineering and product roles.
He started as an early engineer at Palantir, helping the company grow from 200 to 1,800 employees. He then founded KoalityCode, sold to Docker, and created and led the enterprise division of Docker. At Opendoor, Jon served as product head of growth and engineering for core machine learning, helping the company grow into an IPO. Recently, he led Facebook's international engineering organization in both VR and machine learning.
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Eryk Dobrushkin, Partners, Index Ventures
Eryk Dobrushkin is a partner at Index Ventures and invests in the growth stages of artificial intelligence, infrastructure and robotics. He is drawn to his curious, unrelenting founder who shares his passion for tackling the world's toughest issues.
Before the index, Eric spent several years at Databricks, where he partnered closely with Ali Ghodsi as his chief of staff. During his tenure, Eric worked across all aspects of his business for one of the fastest growing enterprise software companies in history, from product and engineering to sales and operations. Eric began his career with the Boston Consulting Group, focusing primarily on enterprise software and digital health. He holds a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics and economics from Harvard University.
Kathy Friedman, Executive Venture Partner, GV
Kathy Friedman is an executive with nearly 40 years of experience in finance, technology and healthcare. As GV's executive venture partner, she advises the Life Sciences portfolio and invests in the entire healthcare continuum. Her interests include adolescent mental health, full lifespan of women's health, and a more equitable system for underserved individuals.
Jen Hoskins, Head of Startup Cloud and Partnership, Nvidia
Jen Hoskins leads the Cloud, Partnerships and Go-To-Market for NVIDIA Inception. This is a program that helps startups accelerate technological innovation and business growth at all stages with over 29,000 members worldwide.
Hoskins joined Nvidia for seven years at Microsoft, serving business development and partnership roles across product teams, including Microsoft Outlook, Teams, Graphs and Microsoft. Prior to Microsoft, Hoskins was involved in Cisco marketing and alliance management.
Jon McNeill, co-founder and CEO of DVX Ventures
Jon McNeill is CEO and co-founder of DVX Ventures, a venture studio that has launched 12 companies that address large market opportunities. A visionary entrepreneur, investor and operator, John has founded six companies, created tens of thousands of jobs, and provided nine times the return to investors.
John's operating career includes leadership in some of the world's most transformative companies. As Tesla's president, he expanded the company from $2 billion to $20 billion in revenue in just 18 months, overseeing global sales, delivery and services. He served as COO at Lyft during a critical growth phase, where Jon doubled revenue, increased market share and prepared the company for IPOs.
He currently serves on the committees of General Motors, Lululemon, Asurion, Crossfit, and Stash. In Lululemon, John played a key role in that turnaround, contributing to a five-fold increase in stock prices. He also sits in the Liquid AI Advisory Council.
Catch this live and get important lessons for successful scaling
The ultimate global pitch-off will return from October 27th to 29th. TechCrunch Surpter 2025 brings together over 10,000 startups and VC leaders in Moscone West, San Francisco. Startup Battlefield 200 Live, participate in sessions and make deals to start innovation tomorrow. Protect your tickets with savings of up to $668 before prices rise after September 26th.
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