This year’s Disrupt is jam-packed with fantastic panels and talks, as well as an exceptionally stacked Startup Battlefield cohort of startups launching on our stage, investor insights, and a virtual expo hall full of intriguing new goods and services in Startup Alley.
We can’t wait to get started! Literally, so, in subsequent editions of Extra Crunch Live, we’ll give you an early peek at some of the startups you might see at Disrupt.
Typically, the Extra Crunch Live team sits down with founders and the investors that support them to understand how they came to be partners and, ultimately, how businesses may get to “yes” when it comes to fundraising. Those same guests provide live comments to members of the audience who appear on our virtual stage to pitch their products in the second part of the episode.
To be honest, everyone enjoys a good pitching match. As a result, in the forthcoming Startup Alley Edition editions of Extra Crunch Live, the entire program will be a pitch-off. SUA firms will take the stage one at a time, each with exactly 60 seconds to pique our interest in their venture.
But without some professional feedback, it wouldn’t be a proper pitch-off.
I’m thrilled to announce that investors will be joining us on these episodes to share their knowledge and experience with the entrepreneurs as well as the public.
Neil Sequeira, founder of defy.VC, and Stacey Bishop, partner at Scale Venture Partners, will join us on September 1. Sequeira worked as a managing director at General Catalyst before launching Defy. He was a founding member of AOLTW Ventures and worked at TimeWarner Investments before joining GC. Airspace, HonorLock, Novi, and other Defy brands are among the company’s portfolio.
Sequeira has been on the boards of more than 40 companies, so it should come as no surprise that he’ll be able to provide our founders with plenty of useful advice.
Bishop comes to our small pitch-off with more than 20 years of investment experience. She sits on the boards of Abstract, Airspace, Demandbase, Extole, Lever, and other companies. Bishop has also been on the boards of HubSpot, Bizible, and Vitrue, all of which have had successful exits. Bishop is an expert in business applications and will have a lot to say to the businesses in our pitch competition. Extra Crunch Live with defy.VC and Scale Venture Partners is now open for registration.
Ananth is the founder and CEO of Next47, a Siemens AG-backed startup. He has served on multiple boards of directors, where he has assisted in the growth of firms valued at more than $1 billion. Ananth focuses on upcoming deep tech sectors such as AI/ML, vertical SaaS, robots, mobility, and. Verkada, videos, and Markforged are among Ananth’s current interests.
