Startup Battlefield 200 is one of the most intense startup pitch competitions at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, taking place October 13–15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. Founders have six minutes to pitch, but the most revealing moments come when judges ask the tough questions: Can this team execute? Is the market big enough? Why now? What’s defensible?

The judging panel includes five top-tier investors who will evaluate which startups advance. Meet the next wave of VCs: Vaibhav 'Dr.V' Agrawal, co-founder and general partner at ODDBIRD VC, a trained physician with an MBA from Stanford who previously led investments at Lightspeed Venture Partners India.

Anu Bharadwaj, partner at ICONIQ, focuses on enterprise software and AI. She spent 12 years as president and COO of Atlassian, scaling product and enterprise business across Jira and Confluence to billions in annual revenue.

Sho Sho Leigha Ho, partner on General Catalyst’s seed team, invests in early-stage founders and serves as a board observer at Together AI. She joined General Catalyst in 2024 as its youngest partner.

Miloni Madan Presler, partner at IVP, partners with first-time founders building inflection-stage companies in enterprise software, healthcare, and security from Series B through pre-IPO. She holds degrees in Economics and Finance from Johns Hopkins University and speaks four languages.

Aidan Madigan-Curtis, partner at Eclipse Ventures, also joins the panel to help identify tomorrow’s breakout startups competing for the $100,000 prize.