From the stage to the future: Where are Startup Battlefield’s alumni now? - BERITAJA

Some of the about consequential companies successful tech history didn’t motorboat pinch a splashy fundraising announcement. They started pinch a pitch. Dropbox demoed to a room of skeptics. Cloudflare took the shape earlier about group understood what separator networking meant. Discord was a scrappy crippled developer called Hammer & Chisel. Mint, Trello, Forethought, N26 — each of them passed done the aforesaid crucible: TechCrunch Startup Battlefield.

That’s not a coincidence. Battlefield isn’t conscionable a competition. It’s a launchpad, and the numbers backmost it up. More than 1,700 companies person competed connected the Battlefield stage. Together, they’ve raised $32 cardinal successful full backing and generated complete 250 exits — including acquisitions by Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Salesforce, Twitter, Uber, and Amazon. The Startup Battlefield web runs truthful heavy that alumni person moreover acquired each other: Dropbox acquired chap Startup Battlefield alum DocSend successful 2021. For thousands of founders, it’s go a defining milestone — not conscionable a transportation competition, but the infinitesimal the world started paying attention.

We wanted to show you what happens aft the confetti falls. We checked successful pinch immoderate of our caller alumni, galore of whom person sat down pinch america connected Build Mode: The Founder Survival Guide, TechCrunch’s podcast for founders astatine each stage. Here’s what they’ve been building, successful their ain words.

About Build Mode

Each play goes heavy connected a different section of startup life. Season 1 covered go-to-market. Season 2 — retired now — is each about building your team. And people your calendars: Season 3 drops successful June, tackling the about requested taxable we’ve ever gotten: fundraising.

Subscribe now truthful you don’t miss it.

The champions and runners-up

From subject logistics to Startup Battlefield 2025 champion

Kevin Damoa, laminitis of Glīd — 2025 winner

Kevin Damoa didn’t travel from Sand Hill Road. He came from subject logistics — a inheritance that turned retired to beryllium perfect training for building nether pressure, pinch constrained resources and existent stakes. Damoa’s way to the Startup Battlefield 2025 title is the benignant of root communicative that makes you reconsider wherever the adjacent procreation of awesome founders is really coming from.

→ Listen to Kevin’s Build Mode episode

From the Startup Battlefield shape to the International Space Station

Capella Kerst, laminitis and CEO of geCKo Materials — 2024 runner-up

Capella Kerst didn’t group retired to reinvent adhesion. She group retired to lick a problem that has stumped engineers for decades: How do you make things instrumentality — reliably, repeatedly, and without residue — successful the about utmost environments imaginable? geCKo Materials, spun retired of Stanford, has developed gecko-inspired adhesive exertion pinch applications ranging from manufacturing floors to, rather literally, the International Space Station.

Kerst’s Startup Battlefield infinitesimal was a awesome to the marketplace that the subject was fresh for the world. What’s happened since is impervious that runner-up isn’t a consolation prize — it’s a credential. Hear really she sewage there:

→ Listen to Capella’s Build Mode episode

How Forethought AI recovered product-market fresh — earlier it was obvious

Deon Nicholas, co-founder of Forethought AI — 2018 victor (acquired by Zendesk) 

Few Startup Battlefield stories person a much complete arc than Forethought AI. Deon Nicholas took the shape pinch a condemnation that AI could fundamentally toggle shape customer support — earlier that was an evident bet. Before the word sheets and the headlines, location was a transportation and a thesis. Forethought was precocious acquired by Zendesk — the latest illustration of what the Startup Battlefield shape could group successful motion. His Build Mode section is basal listening, and a cleanable primer for Season 3’s heavy dive connected fundraising.

→ Listen to Deon’s Build Mode episode

Top 20 finalist stories

The threat of fundraising earlier uncovering product-market fit 

David Park, laminitis of Narada

Raising earlier product-market fresh doesn’t velocity things up — it speeds up your mistakes. Park doesn’t sugarcoat the lessons.

→ Listen to David’s Build Mode episode

Using AI to prosecute for compatibility, not conscionable skill

Sarah Lucena, laminitis and CEO of Mappa

Skills get group successful the door. Compatibility determines whether they stay. Lucena is utilizing AI to hole the portion of hiring cipher talks about.

→ Listen to Sarah’s Build Mode episode

These founders competed connected the Startup Battlefield and sat down pinch america connected Build Mode to show their story. All worthy a listen.

Anna Sun of Nowadays and Hala Jalwan and Alessio Tresanti of Rivio — On what happens erstwhile a startup becomes a family business, and the organization that forms about Startup Battlefield. → Listen

Kyle Rudolph and Jon Walburg, co-founders of Alltroo — On why your web is your first go-to-market strategy. → Listen

Jas Schembri-Stothart of Luna and Andre Peart of Untapped Solutions — On reaching the markets everyone other ignores and building for underserved communities without the emblematic maturation playbook. → Listen

The milestone is real

Every procreation of Startup Battlefield alumni adds a caller section to the aforesaid story. But down each 1 of those information points is simply a laminitis who made a stake connected themselves — publicly, successful beforehand of group who were paying attention. The shape matters. The organization lasts. The milestone is real.

Applications for Startup Battlefield 2026 are open. If you’re building thing that deserves a stage, this is yours.

→ Apply now

Know a laminitis who’s fresh for the spotlight? Investors, operators, and chap founders could nominate companies directly.

→ Nominate a founder

Not fresh to use yet? Build Mode is wherever we meet you. Season 2 is unrecorded now. Season 3 — each about fundraising — drops this summer.

→ Subscribe to Build Mode