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The next wave of VCs judging Startup Battlefield at Disrupt 2026
For founders, Startup Battlefield 200 is one of the biggest moments of their careers. For everyone else in the TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 audience, it’s one of the best ways to learn how great companies are actually evaluated by VCs.
This startup pitch competition is as intense as you’d expect. From October 13–15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, every hand-picked founder has six minutes to make their case, but the most revealing moments often come after the presentation ends. That’s when the judges start asking the questions every investor, customer, and future employee will eventually want answered. Can this team execute? Is the market big enough? Why now? What’s defensible? Those conversations are as valuable for the thousands of founders watching from the audience as they are for the companies onstage.
That’s why we’re continuing to build one of the strongest judging panels in Startup Battlefield’s history. Today we’re excited to introduce another group of five top-tier investors who’ll help identify the companies with the potential to become tomorrow’s breakout success stories.
Join the Startup Battlefield contenders and VC judges on the main stage, alongside 10,000+ tech leaders attending Disrupt, and watch the next generation of startups compete for their place in TechCrunch history. Register now to save up to $200 on your pass before prices increase on September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
The next five VCs deciding which Startup Battlefield contenders advance
Without further ado, meet the next batch of investors who will judge which early-stage founder walks away with the $100,000 prize. Get to know these judges, along with the first 10 already announced on the Disrupt agenda.
Vaibhav ‘Dr.V’ Agrawal, Co-Founder and General Partner, ODDBIRD VC
Dr.V is the co-founder and general partner of ODDBIRD VC, a pre-seed fund he founded in 2024 to back AI companies reindustrializing the West — with a focus on health and bio, critical supply chains, and real-world automation. A trained physician with an MBBS degree, Agrawal also holds an MBA from Stanford and previously served as a general partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners India, where he backed early-stage startups beginning in 2016. His current portfolio includes Anterior, a healthcare AI company that has raised $64 million from NEA and Sequoia.
Anu Bharadwaj, Partner, ICONIQ
Anu Bharadwaj is a partner at ICONIQ, where she focuses on enterprise software and AI companies. Before joining ICONIQ, Bharadwaj served as president and COO of Atlassian for nearly 12 years, where she led the product, engineering, and enterprise business across Jira, Confluence, and the Atlassian Cloud platform as the company scaled to billions in annual revenue. She previously held leadership roles at Microsoft and holds a bachelor of engineering in computer science from R.V. College of Engineering.
Sho Sho Leigha Ho, Partner, General Catalyst
Sho Sho Leigha Ho is a partner on General Catalyst‘s seed team, where she invests in early-stage founders. She serves as a board observer at Together AI. She joined General Catalyst in 2024 as its youngest partner. Her public investments include Graylark, Autoscience, Standard Kernel, and The Interaction Company of California (Poke), which Cognition acquired in July 2026. She holds an AB from Harvard and is based in San Francisco.
Miloni Madan Presler, Partner, IVP
Miloni Madan Presler is a partner at IVP (Institutional Venture Partners), where she partners with first-time founders building inflection-stage technology companies in enterprise software, healthcare, and security, from Series B through pre-IPO. She brings a disciplined growth equity and private equity perspective to company building, shaped by earlier roles at Summit Partners and Warburg Pincus. Presler holds a degree in Economics and Finance from Johns Hopkins University and speaks four languages.
Aidan Madigan-Curtis, Partner, Eclipse Ventures
Aidan Madigan-Curtis is a partner at Eclipse Ventures, where she invests in AI, IoT, computer vision, and software solutions for manufacturing, logistics, supply chain, and climate transition. Named one of Business Insider’s 22 Investors to Know in Robotics and Physical AI, she leads Eclipse’s Carbon Optimization framework to track real emissions reductions across the firm’s portfolio. Before venture, Madigan-Curtis was a senior executive at Apple — scaling Apple Watch manufacturing from zero to millions of units per week — and a VP and general manager at Samsara, where she helped grow the company from pre-revenue to over $1 billion in ARR. She holds a BA from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford University.
Grab your Disrupt ticket savings and don’t miss Startup Battlefield 200
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 is happening October 13-15 in San Francisco, bringing 10,000+ tech leaders, VCs, and founders together to meet the next generation of breakout startups, connect with the leaders who could change their startup’s trajectory, and get a front-row seat to where the industry is headed. Save up to $200 on your ticket before rates increase on September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Save an additional 30% when you register as a group.
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JOS GHETTO STORIES
Your Beginning Is Not Your Ending.
Welcome to Jos Ghetto Stories — a new Jos Events series created to tell the stories that are often overlooked, but should never be forgotten.
From the narrow streets of Gangare, Nasarawa, Angwan Rogo, Jenta-Adamu, Congo-Russia, Tudun Wada, Katako, Dadin Kowa, Bukuru and other communities across Jos, there are children growing up surrounded by challenges many of us may never fully understand.
Some wake up without knowing where their next meal will come from.
Some go to school with torn shoes.
Some live in crowded homes, struggle to afford basic needs, or watch their parents battle every day just to keep the family going.
And some are already beginning to believe that because they were born into hardship, hardship is all life has to offer them.
But we are here to tell them something different.
YOU CAN STILL BECOME GREAT.
Your address does not determine your destiny.
The street you grew up on does not decide the height you can reach.
Poverty may be part of your story, but it does not have to be the final chapter.
Look at Jos.
This city has produced and nurtured people who have gone on to make their mark far beyond the streets where their journeys began.
John Obi Mikel and Ogenyi Onazi, Ahmed Musa went from Jos to becoming aome of Nigeria’s most recognisable footballers, they all grew up from the Ghetto streets of Jos and made it in life through football to the point of representing Nigeria at the highest level.
Jeremiah Gyang, M.I Abaga and Ice Prince carried the sound and creativity of Jos into the Nigerian music industry and beyond.
P-Square and 2Baba are among the major names whose stories are connected to Jos.
Saint Obi,Dayo Okeniyi took their journey from Jos into international acting, while filmmakers Dimbo Atiya and Kenneth Gyang, have used film to tell stories that travel far beyond home.
And there are many more whose names may not yet be famous—but whose stories prove that greatness can rise from ordinary beginnings. 
So when we walk through the streets of Jos and meet these children, we are not looking at “ghetto children.”
We are looking at future doctors, engineers, footballers, musicians, filmmakers, entrepreneurs, teachers, leaders, creatives and nation builders.
We are looking at potential.
We are looking at dreams waiting for an opportunity.
Because sometimes, all a child needs is somebody to look them in the eyes and say:
“I believe in you.”
That is what Jos Ghetto Stories is about.
We will tell the stories of the streets.
We will show the struggles.
We will celebrate the talent.
We will listen to the dreams.
And most importantly, we will remind every young person watching that you can become the best version of yourself, regardless of where you started.
Your parents may not have everything.
Your environment may not be perfect.
You may not have the opportunities others have.
But never allow your circumstances to convince you that you cannot become somebody.
The world may see a child from the slum.
We see a future star.
The world may see a difficult beginning.
We see a story waiting to become extraordinary.
This is Jos Ghetto Stories.
Stories from the streets.
Stories of struggle.
Stories of hope.
Stories of talent.
Stories of resilience.
Stories of people who refuse to let their circumstances define them.
Because from the streets of Jos, greatness can rise.
And perhaps, the next great story is the child standing beside you.
JOS EVENTS PRESENTS: JOS GHETTO STORIES.
Your Beginning Is Not Your Ending.
Dream. Believe. Rise.
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