{"id":101389,"date":"2025-10-31T07:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T07:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/31\/scenes-from-techcrunch-disrupt-2025\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T07:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T07:47:13","slug":"scenes-from-techcrunch-disrupt-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/31\/scenes-from-techcrunch-disrupt-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Scenes from TechCrunch Disrupt 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Thanks to everyone who made this year\u2019s San Francisco event<\/a> what it was \u2014 and to the 10,000 of you who filled the halls, made the connections, and left with more than you came with. Couldn\u2019t make it? The images below offer a glimpse into what you missed.<\/p>\n

Until next year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Vinod Khosla, telling attendees he doesn\u2019t buy the argument that powering AI will doom climate efforts. Geothermal energy is nearly here, he said, while fusion remains further out. He also touched on his alignment with President Donald Trump (deregulation) and his disagreement (immigration): \u201cThe only thing I will say is this administration won\u2019t last forever,\u201d he said with a grin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Kimberly White \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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That\u2019s Roelof Botha on the stage, and that\u2019s the crowd that came to hang on his every word. The Sequoia partner talked through how his firm picks winners and what government ownership in startups could mean, and warned founders not to get cute with timing, telling them to raise now if they\u2019ll need money six months from now. Bubbles pop.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Kevin Damoa of Gl\u012bd Technologies, winner of this year\u2019s Battlefield competition, with Battlefield chief Isabelle Johannessen. She and TC\u2019s Michael Schick work with many dozens of startups for months to prepare them for this stage. The hug is earned<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Slava Blazer Photography<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Roy Lee, the founder of Cluely, the app best known for its mantra \u201ccheat at everything,\u201d entertains the crowd with his f-bomb-laden take on how to win at marketing. \u201cEvery day, people are doing crazier and crazier things, which is why to stand out, you have to do something even crazier.\u201d (Pictured left, Maxwell Zeff, holding his own.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Kimberly White \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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If former Cleveland Cavaliers Tristan Thompson misses the NBA, he\u2019s not showing it. He\u2019s building a business empire and raising pointed questions about the league he left behind. When asked about whether players could manipulate Basketball Fun \u2014 a web3 platform that turns NBA players into tradable tokens \u2014 he offered a counterpoint: \u201cIt\u2019s the same question we ask about referees. Are they not gaming the system?\u201d When moderator Rebecca Bellan pressed whether he meant NBA referees take bribes, Thompson shrugged. \u201cIt\u2019s just a question to be asked,\u201d he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 27-29, 2025<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Kimberly White \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Our own Sean O\u2019Kane shares a moment with Wayve co-founder and CEO, Alex Kendall. Kendall may also be smiling because his U.K.-based self-driving startup \u2014 whose software acts as \u201cbrains for cars\u201d \u2014 is in talks to raise a fresh $2 billion from SoftBank and Microsoft at an $8 billion valuation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Slava Blazer Photography<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, founders of the AI-powered shopping assistant Phia, dazzled the audience at Disrupt with their enthusiasm for making high-quality, secondhand clothing a lot easier to find. Gates, daughter of Bill and Melinda Gates, was also sporting when asked by moderator Amanda Silberling what her famous parents have learned from her. Said Gates with a laugh, \u201cHopefully style! I don\u2019t even consider myself that stylish; I just like building in the consumer space, but now I get random emails from my family asking, \u2018Should I wear this to this?\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Kimberly White\/Getty Images for TechCrunch<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana with TechCrunch\u2019s Kirsten Korosec, fielding questions about autonomous vehicles, including whether society will accept deaths caused by self-driving cars. \u201cI think that society will,\u201d Mawakana said. \u201cThe challenge is making sure society has a high enough bar on safety that companies are held to.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Kimberly White\/Getty Images for TechCrunch<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Kevin Rose talking Digg\u2019s reboot and the future of venture capital (Rose is also a general partner at the early-stage venture firm True Ventures). I\u2019m smiling because that\u2019s what you do when someone won\u2019t answer your questions about a buzzy, wearable startup that\u2019s still in stealth. (We\u2019ll have more on Sandbar<\/a> soon.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Kimberly White \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf hydrating between questions about building the future of AI, including as it relates to LeRobot, the Hugging Face project that\u2019s trying to democratize robotics with affordable hardware, open source tools, and shared datasets.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Slava Blazer Photography<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Finals judges Marlon Nichols of MaC VC and Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures during the last stages of our highly competitive Startup Battlefield. Somewhere off-camera, a founder is sweating through their pitch deck.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Kimberly White\/Getty Images for TechCrunch<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Aaron Levie of Box in conversation with TC\u2019s Russell Brandom. Levie has graced the Disrupt stage numerous times over TC\u2019s 20 years at the center of the startup ecosystem, and he always brings it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Kimberly White\/Getty Images for TechCrunch<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone on the streamer\u2019s expanded remit from simple binge-watching to interactive programming (think voting on live shows and gaming via your phone): \u201cIt hasn\u2019t changed the way we tell stories,\u201d she told a rapt crowd.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Kimberly White\/Getty Images for TechCrunch<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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TC\u2019s Dominic-Madori Davis talking community building with Tade Oyerinde of Campus, who\u2019s rethinking community college, and Teddy Solomon of Fizz, the anonymous social app that\u2019s spreading across college campuses and occasionally getting banned, which some might view as a badge of honor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Slava Blazer Photography<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A whiteboard of wants: developers needed, contacts offered, deals proposed. We love it when founders lean into old-school tactics. (Some still work!)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Slava Blazer Photography<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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David George, who leads the growth investing team at Andreessen Horowitz, came to the show to talk with Julie Bort about what startups need to weigh as they\u2019re eyeing the public market. It was his birthday, as it turns out; the crowd takes a moment here to celebrate it with him. <\/strong><\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Slava Blazer Photography<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Here\u2019s<\/strong> San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie discussing his call with President Trump regarding why not to send the National Guard to the city \u2014 a proposal floated by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. \u201cWhat I said to him was what I say to everybody: This is a city on the rise,\u201d Lurie said.<\/strong> \u201cThree days of Disrupt here should prove that.\u201d On whether he made concessions with the deal-making Trump, he was definitive. \u201cNo, absolutely not. No ask.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Kimberly White\/Getty Images for TechCrunch<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A lot of people come from around the world for programming about how to put their startups together. We covered all the bases on our Builders Stage, which was packed every day, all day.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Post-show elation from TC\u2019s Jessica Barrera, who handled ticketing for 10,000 attendees. She saves our bacon routinely.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Slava Blazer Photography<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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For many more photos from the event, visit our Flickr stream<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

You can also find our full video coverage: here is Day 1<\/a>, Day 2<\/a>, and Day 3<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to everyone who made this year\u2019s San Francisco event what it was \u2014 and to the 10,000 of you who filled the halls, made<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[178],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}