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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThe five venture capitalists announced to judge TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield Final at Disrupt 2024 were Navin Chaddha of Mayfield Fund, Chris Farmer of SignalFire, Dayna Grayson of Construct Capital, Ann Miura-Ko of Floodgate, and Hans Tung of Notable Capital. They were scheduled to evaluate the five companies that advanced from the Startup Battlefield 200, with the final set for October 30, 2024. TechCrunch announced the panel on October 17, 2024.
The five judges at a glance
| Judge | Role in October 2024 | Firm | Primary investing lens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Navin Chaddha | Managing Partner | Mayfield Fund | Generative-AI infrastructure, enterprise technology and major technology outcomes |
| Chris Farmer | CEO, Partner and Co-founder | SignalFire | AI-native venture sourcing, developer tools, cybersecurity, health technology and vertical AI software |
| Dayna Grayson | Co-founder and General Partner | Construct Capital | Industrial technology, manufacturing, mobility, logistics and automation |
| Ann Miura-Ko | Co-founding Partner | Floodgate | Inception-stage, marketplace and technically complex startups |
| Hans Tung | Managing Partner | Notable Capital | Consumer internet, e-commerce, fintech and global digital markets |
TechCrunch used “top VCs” as event and headline language; it was not an independent ranking of the venture industry. The roles, firms and focus areas above come from the announcement.
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Read TechCrunch’s October 17, 2024 announcement.
How the Startup Battlefield Final worked
Startup Battlefield 200 was the expanded competition at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, held October 28–30 at Moscone West in San Francisco. TechCrunch’s editorial staff hand-selected 200 companies. Twenty were expected to launch publicly for the first time on the Disrupt stage.
- The 200 selected companies entered the Startup Battlefield program.
- After an initial evaluation, five companies advanced to the final pitch.
- The five finalists were scheduled to pitch again on October 30, 2024.
- The winner was promised a $100,000 equity-free prize.
The announcement does not publish a detailed scorecard, voting method or rule stating that these five VCs selected the original 200 companies. Their announced role was judging the concluding final stage.
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What each judge brought to the panel
Navin Chaddha — Mayfield Fund
Mayfield Managing Partner Navin Chaddha led the firm’s focus on “Cognition-as-a-Service” and generative-AI infrastructure. His earlier experience included founding VXTreme, later associated with Microsoft Windows Media, and investing in cloud-infrastructure company HashiCorp.
TechCrunch reported that Chaddha had led eight U.S. funds and invested in more than 60 companies, including Lyft, Poshmark and SolarCity. The announcement also reported 18 public-company outcomes, 27 acquisitions, 15 Forbes Midas List appearances and investments representing more than $120 billion in equity value. Those are historical figures reported by TechCrunch in 2024, not independently recalculated measures.
That background gave the final a perspective on infrastructure-heavy businesses, enterprise adoption and the scale required to produce large technology outcomes.
Chris Farmer — SignalFire
Chris Farmer was SignalFire’s CEO, partner and co-founder. TechCrunch described SignalFire at the time as a $2.1 billion AI-native early-stage venture firm. Its Beacon platform used the firm’s technology-ecosystem data for investment sourcing, recruiting and go-to-market support; the announcement described it as ranking hundreds of millions of people for talent and hiring purposes.
SignalFire’s stated areas included health and life-sciences technology, developer tools, cybersecurity and vertical AI software. The announcement listed Grammarly, Frame.io, ClassDojo and Stampli among portfolio examples. It also said Farmer had previously worked at Bessemer Venture Partners and General Catalyst and had led or participated in early investments in companies including Coinbase, Discord, Fivetran, Segment, Stripe and Zapier.
Farmer had also launched SignalFire’s AI Lab to connect selected founders with corporate design partners, pilot customers and data providers. His apparent panel contribution was a data-driven view of sourcing, technical products and the practical support an early-stage company needs after investment.
Dayna Grayson — Construct Capital
Dayna Grayson co-founded Construct Capital and served as its general partner. The firm invests in technology changing foundational industries, including manufacturing and mobility. Before Construct, she was a partner at NEA from 2012 to 2020.
TechCrunch identified investments or board roles involving Desktop Metal, Tulip, Onshape, Framebridge, Guideline, Formlabs, Evenly and Neural Magic. Construct’s investments mentioned in the announcement included Copia, Veho, Hadrian, The Rounds and Verve Motion. Grayson co-founded the firm with Rachel Holt.
She began her career in product development at Blackbaud, later worked at North Bridge Venture Partners, earned an engineering degree from the University of Virginia and received an MBA from Harvard Business School. Her experience added a hard-tech and physical-economy perspective: manufacturing constraints, logistics, automation, mobility and the challenge of selling complex products.
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Ann Miura-Ko — Floodgate
Ann Miura-Ko was Floodgate’s co-founding partner and was known for inception-stage investing. Her investments span marketplaces and highly technical companies, including startups assessed before conventional revenue or traction metrics are fully available.
She earned a Ph.D. from Stanford for work involving mathematical modeling of cybersecurity and lectured in engineering there on subjects including blockchain and startup growth. She also co-directed the Stanford Mayfield Fellows Program and was a co-founding member of All Raise. TechCrunch noted appearances on the Forbes Midas List and The New York Times’ list of leading venture capitalists.
That combination of technical training and very early-stage investing likely helped the panel examine an idea’s technical insight, founder-market fit and potential before a young company had extensive operating history. This is an analytical interpretation of her background, not a published judging rule.
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Hans Tung — Notable Capital
Hans Tung was managing partner at Notable Capital. His early-stage investing covered the global digital economy, with particular attention to e-commerce, fintech and companies serving the U.S. market from international or global bases.
The announcement listed Airbnb, Coinbase, Ibotta, Peloton, Poshmark, Quince, StockX and TikTok among his portfolio companies. His experience added a consumer, marketplace and cross-border lens to a panel otherwise weighted toward enterprise, infrastructure and industrial technology.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the panel’s mix mattered
The announcement did not state a formal reason for choosing these five judges. Their firms and portfolios nevertheless covered a notably broad set of questions a startup pitch can raise:
| Panel perspective | Questions it can help illuminate |
|---|---|
| AI infrastructure and enterprise technology | Is the technical foundation defensible, and can large organizations adopt it? |
| Data-driven early-stage investing | Can the team be identified, recruited and supported efficiently as the market develops? |
| Industrial and physical-economy technology | Can the product work in manufacturing, logistics, mobility or other operationally demanding settings? |
| Inception-stage technical judgment | Is the insight compelling before conventional growth metrics exist? |
| Consumer, fintech and global markets | Can the company distribute, scale a marketplace and operate across borders? |
This range is an editorial synthesis of the judges’ documented backgrounds, not an official TechCrunch classification or disclosed scoring rubric.
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Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →What founders could take from the panel
A founder preparing for a panel with this breadth would need to make both the technology and the business legible:
- Explain the technical edge plainly. Show what is difficult to build or reproduce, without hiding the insight behind jargon.
- Show a credible path to distribution. Enterprise sales, marketplace liquidity, consumer acquisition and global expansion create different scaling problems.
- Connect timing to the market. Explain why infrastructure, regulation, customer behavior or technology costs make the opportunity timely.
- Demonstrate founder-market fit. Early-stage investors often have to assess the team before a long operating record exists.
- Address operational complexity. Industrial and logistics businesses must explain deployment, supply chains, manufacturing and reliability—not just software features.
- Link differentiation to economics. A compelling product still needs a believable route to durable margins, retention and expansion.
Important limits on what the announcement establishes
- The event took place in October 2024; the final date and $100,000 equity-free prize were historical announcements, not current offers.
- The source confirms the planned five-person judging panel and competition format, but does not provide a formal scoring rubric or voting procedure.
- It does not identify the five finalists, report the eventual winner or establish exactly who appeared on stage on October 30.
- Portfolio, fund-size, outcome and ranking figures are historical claims presented by TechCrunch and may depend on the firm’s definitions or have changed since publication.
- References to investments such as Stripe, Coinbase, Discord and Zapier should not be read as a claim that Farmer personally owned every investment; the announcement describes his investment history in the context of his venture roles.
The Bottom Line
The Startup Battlefield Final at Disrupt 2024 was judged by Navin Chaddha, Chris Farmer, Dayna Grayson, Ann Miura-Ko and Hans Tung. Together, their backgrounds spanned AI and enterprise infrastructure, data-led early-stage venture, industrial technology, inception-stage technical startups, and global consumer and fintech markets.
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