Announcing the Early Stage Pitch-Off judges
TechCrunch Early Stage is coming around the corner fast, April 1 and 2. You still have a chance to pitch your startup on the famous TC stage to an amazing lineup of judges. On April 2, TechCrunch will feature 10 top startups across the globe at the Early Stage Pitch-Off. Companies will garner the attention of press and investors worldwide. Founders — apply here by March 9.
The pitch-off will consist of a five-minute presentation followed by a Q&A with our expert panel of judges. The top three companies will move to a final round, this time with a more in-depth Q&A. The winner will get a feature article on TechCrunch.com, one-year free subscription to Extra Crunch and a free Founder Pass to TechCrunch Disrupt this fall.
We know you’re excited to know who you’ll be pitching to. So without further ado, here are a few of the judges for the Early Stage Pitch-Off:
Lucy Deland — Inspired Capital
Bucky Moore — Kleiner Perkins
Bucky Moore is a partner at Kleiner Perkins focusing on developer-facing software and infrastructure investments. As an early investor, Bucky serves on the boards of some of the most innovative software companies including Netlify, Materialize, CodeSandbox, Opstrace and Stackbit.
Marlon Nichols — MaC Venture Capital
Marlon Nichols is the founding managing partner at MaC Venture Capital (formerly Cross Culture Ventures), which finds entrepreneurs who are building the future for the rest of America. He’s a former Kauffman Fellow and Investment Director at Intel Capital, with an extensive background in technology, private equity, media and entertainment.
Eghosa Omoigui — EchoVC Partners
Neal Sales-Griffin — TechStars
Sarah Smith — Bain Capital
Leah Solivan — Fuel Capital
Stephanie Zhan — Sequoia Capital
Stephanie Zhan is a partner on the early-stage investing team at Sequoia Capital. She loves partnering with companies across consumer and enterprise, starting at the earliest of stages at the Seed and Series A and helping them scale over time. She is on the board of companies including Rec Room, Linear, Middesk, Sunday, and Brud.
Early Stage Day 1 will be filled with must-see panels from the judges above and more:
- How to Build Your Early Team for Future Growth (Sarah Smith, Bain Capital Ventures)
- 10 Things NOT to Do When Starting a Company (Leah Solivan, Fuel Capital)
- Four Things to Think About Before Raising a Series A (Bucky Moore, Kleiner Perkins)
- How to Get An Investor’s Attention (Marlon Nichols, MaC Venture Capital)
And that’s not all. If you snag your ticket to TC Early Stage, you get free access to Extra Crunch! An Extra Crunch membership includes:
- Weekly investor surveys
- Fundraising, growth, monetization and workforce advice from startup experts
- Market analysis
- Late-stage deep dives
- Access to weekly Extra Crunch Live events
- EC Perks Program (save big $$$ on services and products you already use)
- The TechCrunch List
Update: This post has been updated to reflect the accurate spelling and bio for Stephanie Zhan.