Disrupt 2026’s Startup Battlefield 200 has its judging panel, and it’s a list of well-known names from fintech, enterprise software and AI. TechCrunch made the announcement, and the competition takes place October 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco.
A panel of five judges has been assembled for the event: Aditi Maliwal from Upfront Ventures, Michael Palank from MaC Ventures, Nell Daly from Revenge Capital, Grace Ge from Amplify Partners, and Crystal Huang from GV. Each judge arrives with their own particular portfolio and history.
What the judges bring
At Upfront Ventures, Maliwal serves as a general partner focusing on investments made at the pre-seed and seed stages across fintech, enterprise SaaS, AI applications and developer tools. Her portfolio includes Clair, Writer, Arcade and General Translation. Before joining Upfront, she worked at Google and Deutsche Bank, where she led the Series A investment in Chime during her time at a prior firm. Maliwal is Upfront’s first partner based in San Francisco.
At MaC Ventures, Palank serves as a general partner in a venture firm that backs seed-stage consumer and enterprise companies with a culturally driven investment thesis. The firm is majority Black-owned. His focus areas span AI, fintech, healthcare, media, entertainment and aerospace and defense. Before moving into venture capital, he held positions in Hollywood talent representation at William Morris and Overbrook Entertainment, Will Smith’s production company.
Revenge Capital was founded by Daly, who serves as its co-founder and managing partner. The fund is evergreen and sector-agnostic, and it backs overlooked founders across the United States and United Kingdom. Its focus includes:
- Women
- BIPOC
- LGBTQIA+
- Disabled entrepreneurs
- Neurodiverse entrepreneurs
Daly’s work before starting the fund came in the form of psychotherapy, a career she draws directly on for her founder-first investment approach.
At Amplify Partners, Ge partners on investments in AI, developer tools, data infrastructure and modern SaaS, with special attention on the layer between foundation models and enterprise applications. Her portfolio covers Pinecone, Eppo, Vivun, Orb and Avoca. The firm’s wider portfolio includes Datadog, Fastly, Temporal, dbt and Modal. Ge made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Venture Capital.
At GV, Huang serves as a general partner whose work centers on enterprise SaaS, AI infrastructure and fintech, with a special focus on product-led and developer-led go-to-market approaches. Among her portfolio companies are Typeface, Pecan AI, Sardine, Cacheflow, PostHog, Roboflow and Sift. Prior to GV, she held roles as an investor at NEA and GGV Capital and also served in technology mergers and acquisitions at Blackstone.
The pitch competition’s stated goal
The announcement makes clear that judges are not seeking slick presentations or polished demonstrations. Instead, they want founders who are solving real problems with businesses built to last. Each question they pose is crafted to reveal what slides and rehearsed answers conceal: conviction, clarity, execution, and the potential for this company to become the next category leader.
The way something is presented makes a difference. The rivalry has given rise to businesses that have defined whole markets across more than 15 years, and each year a fresh set of founders gets the opportunity to add their own name to that record.
Why these judges matter
A wide range of venture capital is reflected in the judges. Maliwal and Palank come from finance and entertainment. Daly runs a fund that targets founders who have been ignored, including women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled and neurodiverse entrepreneurs. Ge and Huang work at the point where AI meets enterprise software.
The announcement highlights the real-world benefit of observing these judges in action. Anyone hoping to learn how seasoned investors actually assess young companies should look no further than Startup Battlefield, where the process plays out live on the Disrupt Stage.
Ticket details
From October 13-15, Disrupt 2026 convenes at Moscone West in San Francisco, gathering 10,000+ tech leaders, VCs and founders to meet the next wave of breakout startups, connect with the leaders who could change their startup’s course, and watch where the industry is heading.
Save up to $200 on your ticket before rates increase on September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Register here.
This story centers on a judging panel made up of a varied group of people and a contest whose stated aim is to identify companies with staying power instead of merely well-polished presentations. The mix — seasoned venture capitalists paired with a pitch event that claims to care about the real business rather than just the presentation — is what defines this account.
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