Have you always dreamed about participating in the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt? Great news! We are still accepting applications for the Battlefield at Disrupt NY 2016, but you’re going to have to act incredibly fast, as the deadline to submit your application is today at 9pm PT.
Now is the time to drop whatever else you’re doing, get your keyboard-tapping fingers ready and fill out your application to this illustrious startup competition.
So why should you participate in the Battlefield? For starters, up for grabs is a $50,000 main prize, an immediate injection of funding your company can use for whatever you want. Plus, the winner gets to take home the highly coveted Disrupt Cup and, perhaps more importantly, the attention of the tech community.
That last benefit isn’t just limited to the winners, however, as just participating in the Startup Battlefield can do wonders for a budding startup.
Don’t take just my word for it. Here’s what entrepreneurs from companies that have been through the Battlefield have to say about just how instrumental the competition was in putting them on their path to success, even for those companies that didn’t win.
Boomerang Commerce CEO Guru Hariharan told TechCrunch that the Battlefield was “the birthplace of the company,” and that it really served as “the platform [for the company] to go big.”
Luka CEO and co-founder Eugenia Kuyda said that she and her team “totally loved the [Battlefield] experience,” and that the experience was pivotal for the success of their budding startup.
Finally, DigitalGenius president and chief strategy officer Mikhail Naumov told TechCrunch that “without a doubt, the benefits of the whole experience go way beyond the day of the event. The preparation, relationships, stage-time, and resulted interest became a major inflection point for our company’s growth.”
Additionally, all Battlefield companies receive pitch coaching from TechCrunch to help them perfect their pitch before they present to our top-notch panel of judges. We aren’t quite ready to tell you who those judges will be this year, but the judges of Disrupt NY 2015 give you a taste of what’s to come.
Those judges were John Borthwick (Betaworks), Dennis Crowley (Foursquare), Eric Hippeau (Lerer Hippeau Ventures), Alfred Lin (Sequoia Capital), Rich Miner (Google Ventures), Brian Pokorny (SV Angel) and Alexia Tsotsis (TechCrunch), and the judges of Disrupt NY 2016 are shaping up to be just as stellar.
Since 2007, the 543 Battlefield companies have raised more than $5.7 billion after appearing on the TechCrunch stage, and 69 have exited. Companies like Mint, Yammer, Zenefits, Fitbit, Layar and many others got their start at the Startup Battlefield, and we can’t wait to see the companies that will be joining them at this year’s show.
Will your company be one of them? Not if you don’t apply, so be sure to get your application in today before applications close at 9pm PT tonight.
Disrupt NY 2016 takes place May 9-11 at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in New York City.
If you’re not quite ready for the Battlefield and just want to join in on the fun, tickets to Disrupt are available here.
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