SAN FRANCISCO--()--TechCrunch Disrupt SF, the annual forum for the technology industry’s power players to discuss hot-button topics, crowdsource wisdom and launch the year’s most promising startups, officially kicks off today with the highly anticipated Startup Battlefield competition.
The Startup Battlefield, which runs from Monday, September 10, through Wednesday, September 12, provides an opportunity for emerging companies to demo on a worldwide stage, putting them directly in front of the biggest innovators, angel investors, venture capitalists and influencers within the tech community. The winner, who takes home a $50,000 prize and the coveted Disrupt Cup, will be announced at the closing awards ceremony on Wednesday evening at 6:15 p.m.
Startup Battlefield for 2012 includes:
- Alicanto
- BrightContext
- Careticker
- Chronos
- Dispatch, Inc.
- Expect Labs
- Famous
- FITIQUETTE
- Gyft
- Hacker Rank
- ImpulseSave
- INRFOOD
- Kinobi
- Lit Motors
- Livestar
- Maluuba
- Organizer
- Pathmapp
- PayTap
- Prior Knowledge
- Queremos
- Saya Mobile Ltd.
- Social Fortress
- StudyHall
- Tovbot
- Undrip
- YourMechanic Inc.
- Zumper
This year’s finals judging panel includes:
- Michael Arrington, general partner, CrunchFund/founder, TechCrunch
- Roelof Botha, partner, Sequoia Capital
- Chris Dixon, CEO and co-founder, Hunch
- David Lee, managing member, SV Angel
- Marissa Mayer, CEO, Yahoo!
- David Sacks, founder and CEO, Yammer, Inc.
Speakers on-tap to share insights, predictions and lessons learned throughout the week include:
- Michael Abbott, partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
- Jessica Alba, co-founder & president, The Honest Company
- Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, Salesforce.com
- Nathan Blecharczyk, co-founder and technical architect, Airbnb
- Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, New Jersey
- Leah Busque, founder, Taskrabbit.com
- Bill Campbell, chairman of the board, Intuit; board of directors, Apple
- Ron Conway, angel, SV Angel
- Jack Dorsey, co-founder & CEO, Square; co-founder & Chairman, Twitter
- Tim Draper, founder and managing director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
- Reid Hoffman, executive chairman of LinkedIn; partner at Greylock Partners
- Ben Horowitz, co-founder & general partner, Andreessen Horowitz
- Travis Kalanick, founder and CEO, Uber
- Sal Khan, founder and executive director, Khan Academy
- Vinod Khosla, founder, Khosla Ventures
- Joel Klein, CEO Education Division, News Corporation
- Aileen Lee, partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; founder, Cowboy Ventures
- Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO, Box
- Zac Moffatt, digital director, Mitt Romney presidential campaign
- Dave Morin, co-founder and CEO, Path
- Kevin Rose, venture partner, Google Ventures
- Biz Stone, co-founder, Twitter
- Evan Williams, co-founder, board of directors, Twitter
- George Zachary, partner, Charles River Ventures
- John Zimmer, co-founder and COO, Zimride & Lyft
- Mark Zuckerberg, founder, chairman and CEO, Facebook
ABOUT TECHCRUNCH DISRUPT SF 2012
Disrupt SF 2012 (http://techcrunch.com/events/disrupt-sf-2012/) is TechCrunch’s sixth annual conference in San Francisco. The format combines thought leadership discussions with product and startup launches. Morning executive discussions are centered on technology-driven disruptions in many industries, while the afternoons are reserved for the Startup Battlefield, where 30 new companies will launch for the first time on stage. These companies are selected from a pool of more than 1000 applications received from around the world. The winning company will receive a $50,000 grand prize and the Disrupt Cup at the conclusion of the conference. The conference is September 8-12, 2012, at The Concourse Exhibition Center located at 635 Brannan Street (at 8th Street) in San Francisco's downtown SOMA district.




