TechCrunch has opened the Audience Choice voting for TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, taking place October 27–29 at Moscone West in San Francisco. After undergoing a rigorous review of the numerous speaking proposals received this year, TechCrunch has narrowed the list to 20 exceptional finalists—10 breakout session proposals and 10 roundtable session proposals.
Public voting is available until May 30 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. Attendees and the general public are encouraged to cast votes for their preferred sessions. Each person may vote for as many sessions as they wish, but voting is limited to once per session.
The five breakout sessions and five roundtable sessions with the most votes will secure a coveted spot in the final agenda for TechCrunch Disrupt 2025. The event is poised to draw some of the brightest minds from across tech, venture, and entrepreneurship communities, highlighting innovations, investment strategies, and emerging technologies.
Breakout Session Finalists include:
1. “How to Get Acquired in Tech (Without Selling Out): M&A Tips for Founders and Builders,” featuring Aklil Ibssa, Head of Corporate Development and M&A at Coinbase.
2. “Agentic AI for Startups: Automate, Adapt, and Accelerate Growth,” presented by Anmol Rastogi, Head of Product, Amazon Business — AI & ML, Amazon.
3. “Automation with Agents: From Work Enablement to Work Completion,” by Chet Kapoor, Chairman and CEO of DataStax.
4. “AI at the Brink: Strategic Playbook for National Security,” delivered by Dan Hendrycks, Executive and Research Director at the Center for AI Safety.
5. “Leading a Series A Round in 2025 and Sustaining Momentum,” by Gabriel Kra, Managing Director at Prelude Ventures.
6. “The Agentic Apocalypse: Securing the Enterprise in the Age of 1 Billion AI Agents,” featuring Jack Hidary, CEO of SandboxAQ, and Jim Breyer, Founder and CEO of Breyer Capital.
7. “Embracing AI for a Better Digital Future,” presented by Matt Madrigal, Chief Technology Officer at Pinterest.
8. “Mining for Millions with GenAI’s 4 Ds: Striking Trust, Delight, and Dividends,” led by Michael Stewart, Managing Partner of M12.
9. “From Data to Agents: Building the AI-Native Enterprise,” headed by Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO at Snowflake.
10. “From Vibes to Velocity: How AI Tools Can Help You Achieve Your Development Goals,” by Tim Rogers, Staff Product Manager for GitHub Copilot.
The Roundtable Session Finalists are:
1. “Future of Space Economy in the Low Earth Orbit,” moderated by Abhijeet Kumar, Tech and Strategy Lead at Archer and Lecturer at UC Berkeley.
2. “From Startup to Scale-Up: A GTM Blueprint,” by Anjai Lal, Head of Strategy and Enablement at Google Cloud.
3. “From Code to Capital: How VCs Spot the Next AI Powerhouses,” a discussion led by Avi Bharadwaj, Investment Director at Intel Capital.
4. “The Winning Formula: Turning Your Business into a Trusted, Scalable Community to Drive Growth,” facilitated by Co-founders Justine Palefsky and Tasneem Amina of Kindred, along with Vlad Loktev, Partner at Index Ventures.
5. “How to Train Your Model: Taming AI Agents Without Breaking Them,” given by Kyla Guru, Head of Model Cyber Policy, and Alex Moix, Investigations Lead for Anthropic’s Safeguards division.
6. “Going a Layer Deeper: Why the Future of AI Investments Lies with Infrastructure and Applications,” hosted by Paul Drews, Managing Partner at Salesforce Ventures.
7. “Scaling Search and AI for Millions: Lessons from Reddit Search,” presented by Rachel Miller, Product Manager at Reddit.
8. “AI Evaluation 101: Addressing Challenges to Real-World AI Applications,” by Rohit Patel, Director of Generative AI at Meta.
9. “From Workarounds to Breakthroughs: How UpLink Lets Users Connect Any App—No Integration Needed,” with Scott Weinert, CTO and Co-founder of Atomic.
10. “Whose Company Is It, Anyway?: What You Lose When You Accept Outside Capital,” presented by Sridhar Vembu, Chief Scientist at Zoho.
Participants are urged to help shape the dynamic and influential program by supporting their favorite session ideas through the Audience Choice voting.
