Where will the next breakout startup come from? Benchmark’s full partnership weighs in at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

Startup Battlefield 200, one of the most significant events at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, brings together some of the top venture capitalists (VCs) to evaluate early-stage startups. From October 13-15 in San Francisco's Moscone West, every participating founder has six minutes to pitch their idea, but the most crucial insights often emerge after the pitches conclude.

These post-pitch discussions involve questions about execution capacity, market size, timing, and defensibility, which are essential for both the contestants and the audience of thousands of founders attending the event.

To strengthen the judging panel, TechCrunch has introduced five prominent investors who will scrutinize the Startup Battlefield contenders. This new group of seasoned VCs aims to identify companies with the potential to become tomorrow's breakthrough success stories. The judges will be present alongside 10,000+ tech leaders at Disrupt, witnessing the competition for a $100,000 prize.

The five new judges and their backgrounds are:

1. Vaibhav 'Dr.V' Agrawal, Co-Founder and General Partner of ODDBIRD VC, a pre-seed fund focusing on AI companies reshaping the West, particularly in health, critical supply chains, and real-world automation. Agrawal, a physician with an MBA from Stanford, previously served as a General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners India.

2. Anu Bharadwaj, Partner at ICONIQ Growth, specializing in enterprise software and AI companies. Prior to joining ICONIQ, she served as President and COO of Atlassian, leading various departments and the cloud platform as the company scaled to billions in annual revenue.

3. Sho Ho, Partner on General Catalyst's seed team, investing in early-stage founders. She currently serves as a board observer at Together AI and has previously invested in companies like Graylark, Autoscience, Standard Kernel, and The Interaction Company of California (acquired by Cognition).

4. Miloni Madan Presler, Partner at IVP, partnering with first-time founders in enterprise software, healthcare, and security from Series B through pre-IPO. With a background in economics and finance from Johns Hopkins University, Presler is proficient in four languages.

5. Aidan Madigan-Curtis, Partner at Eclipse Ventures, investing 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, Madigan-Curtis previously held executive roles at Apple and Samsara before venturing into the tech industry.