TechCrunch Names Five More VCs to Judge Startup Battlefield 200 at Disrupt 2026
TechCrunch has named five additional venture capitalists to judge Startup Battlefield 200 at Disrupt 2026, set for October 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco. TechCrunch
The September 21 announcement follows 10 judges already disclosed. TechCrunch named the first five on September 10, then the next group on September 16. That September 16 group includes Aditi Maliwal, Michael Palank and Nell Daly. TechCrunch
Two of the newest five are Vaibhav ‘Dr.V’ Agrawal, co-founder and general partner of ODDBIRD VC, and Anu Bharadwaj, partner at ICONIQ Growth focused on enterprise software, or software sold to businesses, and AI companies.
Agrawal brings experience in medicine and early-stage investing. He is a trained physician with an MBBS degree and an MBA from Stanford. He served as General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners India, backing early-stage startups starting in 2016.
In 2024, he founded ODDBIRD VC, a pre-seed fund for very early startups, to back AI companies in health and bio, critical supply chains, and real-world automation. One company named is Anterior, a healthcare AI firm that has raised $64 million from NEA and Sequoia.
The contest covers the top 200 early-stage startups picked for Startup Battlefield 200. TechCrunch Each founder gets six minutes to pitch. All 200 compete for Best in Industry recognition, with 20 picked to pitch live onstage. The winner receives $100,000.
TechCrunch describes Disrupt as the startup epicenter for tech and VC leaders. The 2026 event is expected to draw 10,000 founders, VCs and operators. Registration saves up to $200 before prices rise after September 25, with bundle passes up to 30% off.
The broader context here matters for founders planning those six minutes. With judges focused on pre-seed and growth investing, and on business software, AI, health and industrial automation, clear detail on system design, data access, deployment limits and costs will carry more weight than general claims about models.
In my view, that is a healthy filter. Battlefield has long favored founders who explain a hard problem briefly and handle direct questions. Six minutes is short. It forces tradeoffs. Judges will test if a demo is production-ready, if regulatory hurdles were considered, and if the team can sell and support the product. For attendees, the prize matters, but feedback, introductions and customer talks around the floor often matter more over time, and careful early scrutiny tends to improve technology.
