Jeff Lawson, who co-founded Twilio and scaled it to over $4 billion in revenue with 300,000 customers, is now tackling fusion power as CEO of Inertia. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, he'll discuss this shift in a fireside chat on the Smart Systems Stage, exploring how software expertise translates to deep tech.

In February, Inertia raised a $450 million Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with GV participating. The company opened a 50,000-square-foot headquarters in Livermore, California, and hired leaders from Apple, Corning, and Waymo to build manufacturing capabilities.

Lawson's background includes early product leadership at Amazon Web Services and as founding CTO of StubHub. The session will examine how his experience shapes Inertia's approach to talent, timelines, and fundraising, without assuming software methods directly apply to fusion energy.

Attendees will gain insights into building teams for complex engineering, setting credible milestones, and the relationship between technical progress and commercial potential. The event runs October 13–15 at Moscone West in San Francisco, with registration discounts available before September 25.