Thank you to everyone who made this year’s San Francisco event what it was — and all 10,000 of you who filled the halls, made the connections, and left with more than you came for. Didn’t make it? The images below offer a glimpse of what you’ve been missing.
Until next year.
Vinod Khosla, telling attendees that he doesn’t buy the argument that powering AI will destroy climate efforts. Geothermal energy is almost here, he said, while fusion remains further out. He also touched on his alignment with President Donald Trump (liberation) and his disagreement (immigration): “All I will say is this administration is not going to last forever,” he said with a smile.
This is Roelof Botha on stage, and this is the crowd that has come to hang on his every word. The Sequoia partner talked about how his firm picks winners and what government ownership could mean for startups, and warned founders not to be cute with the timing, telling them to raise money now if they need money six months from now. Bubbles are bursting.
Glīd Technologies’ Kevin Damoa, winner of this year’s Battlefield competition, with Battlefield lead Isabelle Johannessen. She and TC’s Michael Schick have been working with dozens of startups for months to prepare them for this stage. The hug is earned.
Roy Lee, the founder of Cluely, the app best known for its “cheat everything” mantra, entertains the crowd with his bombshell take on how to win at marketing. “Every day, people are doing crazier things, so to stand out you have to do something even crazier.” (Pictured left, Maxwell Zeff, holding his.)
If former Cleveland Cavaliers Tristan Thompson misses the NBA, he’s not showing it. He’s building a business empire and raising pertinent questions about the league he left behind. When asked about whether players could manipulate Basketball Fun – a web3 platform that turns NBA players into marketable brands – he countered: “It’s the same question we ask about referees. Aren’t they gaming the system?” When moderator Rebecca Bellan pressed whether he meant NBA referees take bribes, Thompson shrugged. “It’s just a question that needs to be asked,” he said.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
27-29 October 2025
Our own Sean O’Kane shares a moment with Wayve co-founder and CEO Alex Kendall. Kendall can also be smiling because his UK-based startup — whose software acts as a “brain for cars” — is in talks to raise a fresh $2 billion from SoftBank and Microsoft at an $8 billion valuation.
Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, founders of AI shopping assistant Phia, dazzled the audience at Disrupt with their enthusiasm for making high-quality, second-hand clothing much easier to find. Gates, daughter of Bill and Melinda Gates, was also athletic when asked by moderator Amanda Silberling what her famous parents have learned from her. Gates said with a laugh: “I hope it’s style! I don’t consider myself that stylish. I just love building in the consumer space, but now I get random emails from my family asking, ‘Should I wear this?’
Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana with TechCrunch’s Kirsten Korosec, raising questions about autonomous vehicles, including whether society will accept deaths caused by self-driving cars. “I think society will,” Mawakana said. “The challenge is to make sure that society has a high enough bar for the security that companies are committed to.”
Kevin Rose talks about the Digg reboot and the future of venture capital (Rose is also a general partner at early-stage venture firm True Ventures). I smile because that’s what you do when someone won’t answer your questions about a buzzy, still-undercover wearable startup. (We’ll have more Sandbar soon.)
Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf delves into questions about building the future of AI, including LeRobot, the Hugging Face project that strives to democratize robotics with affordable hardware, open source tools, and shared datasets.
Final judges Marlon Nichols of MaC VC and Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures during the final stages of our highly competitive Startup Battlefield. Somewhere off-camera, a founder sweats through his pitch deck.
Box’s Aaron Levie in conversation with TC’s Russell Brandom. Levie has graced the Disrupt stage multiple times during TC’s 20 years at the center of the startup ecosystem, and he always brings it.
Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone on the streamer’s expanded responsibilities, from casual viewing to interactive programming (think voting on live shows and games via your phone): “The way we tell stories hasn’t changed,” she told an excited crowd.
TC’s Dominic-Madori Davis talking community building with Campus’s Tade Oyerinde, who reviews the community college, and Teddy Solomon of Fizz, the anonymous social networking app spreading across college campuses and occasionally banned that some might consider a badge of honor.
A wish list: developers needed, contacts offered, offers suggested. We love it when founders lean into old tactics. (Some still work!)
David George, who leads the investment development team at Andreessen Horowitz, came on the show to talk with Julie Bort about what startups should weigh as they look to the public market. It was his birthday, as it turns out. the crowd takes a moment here to celebrate with him.
Here it is San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie discusses his call with President Trump about why not to send the National Guard to the city — a proposal floated by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. “What I told him was what I tell everybody: This is a city on the rise,” Lurie said. “Three days of Disrupt here should prove that.” On whether he made concessions with Trump making the deal, he was definitive. “No, absolutely not. No, ask.”
Many people come from all over the world for programming on how to put together their startups. We covered all the bases on our Builders Stage, which was packed every day, all day.
After the show, TC’s Jessica Barrera, who handled ticketing for 10,000 attendees. It saves our bacon regularly.
For many more photos from the event, visit us Flickr stream.
You can also find full video coverage: here Day 1, Day 2and Day 3.
