Author: abubakar

Founders: Are you ready? TechCrunch Editorial is on the hunt for 200 early-stage founders to feature in Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco this September. To highlight global innovation across multiple sectors, we expanded the Startup Battlefield program and it was a wild success last year. With entrepreneurs from more than 20 countries
Applications are open for the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 by Neesha A. Tambe originally published on TechCrunch

Founders: Are you ready? TechCrunch Editorial is on the hunt for 200 early-stage founders to feature in Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco this September. To highlight global innovation across multiple sectors, we expanded the Startup Battlefield program and it was a wild success last year. With entrepreneurs from more than 20 countries across 25 industries and diverse backgrounds, our inaugural 200 class showcased the best and brightest!

This year stands to be even more competitive. If selected out of the thousands of applications, this elite class of startups will receive full access to the show, exclusive workshops, investor office hours, mentorship, training, perks and free exhibition space on the show floor for all three days. All selected founders will get the opportunity to flash-pitch in front of investors and TechCrunch editors.

Showcasing global founders

Out of the Startup Battlefield 200, 20 companies will be selected as Startup Battlefield Finalists. The finalists will pitch on the Disrupt main stage in front of the entire TC audience, receive private pitch coaching and be featured on TechCrunch. Not to mention, founders will pitch in front of global tier 1 venture firms such as Sequoia, Mayfield, SOSV and more. The winner snags the $100,000 prize and the coveted Disrupt Cup. 

It’s 100% free to apply and participate.

TechCrunch does not require any equity from any contestants or the winner. 

The only way individual companies can exhibit on the show floor at Disrupt is through Startup Battlefield. The only way to be a Startup Battlefield Finalist is to be selected for Startup Battlefield 200! 

You need to apply here before the May 15th deadline and we’ll start notifying people this summer. 

Inside Startup Battlefield Podcast

We’re pulling back the curtain for a backstage look at the Startup Battlefield competition with the Inside Startup Battlefield podcast — a four-episode miniseries that takes you behind the scenes of one of tech’s most anticipated startup competitions. Each episode is a deep dive into a different part of the competition, from the company selection process to crafting a standout pitch to getting to know the winner. Check out the first episode below for a great overview of what we’re looking for and why Startup Battlefield is different from any other startup competition out there!

The final two episodes of Inside Startup Battlefield will drop over the next two Mondays. Be sure to subscribe to any of the other podcasts in the TechCrunch Podcast Network to get these episodes direct in your podcast feed: Found, Equity, The TechCrunch Podcast, Chain Reaction and The TechCrunch Live Podcast.

How to become a part of TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200

The process is simple. Just apply here. Note: Applications are also considered for other pitch-offs throughout the year so apply ASAP to be considered for all TC pitch opportunities. Apply for all of TechCrunch’s events with one application. Apply once and select the events that best suit your startup. Companies that fit our cohort profile should:

Be an early-stage startup.
Have a minimally viable product.
Represent any vertical.
Represent any geography.
Be a game changer in your vertical.
Be bootstrapped or have pre-scale funding (variable by industry).

Apply Now

Applications are open for the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 by Neesha A. Tambe originally published on TechCrunch

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Based in the Netherlands, blossoming agtech startup Source.ag has announced a $23 million Series A funding round to help grow its business, less than a year after its previous, $10 million round. The company assists commercial greenhouse crop growers adjust their growing conditions, optimize their resources and maximize their yields by using state-of-the-art AI models
Source.ag raises $23M to raise the bar on raising crops with AI by Haje Jan Kamps originally published on TechCrunch

Based in the Netherlands, blossoming agtech startup Source.ag has announced a $23 million Series A funding round to help grow its business, less than a year after its previous, $10 million round. The company assists commercial greenhouse crop growers adjust their growing conditions, optimize their resources and maximize their yields by using state-of-the-art AI models to predict how their plants will grow under different conditions. Food production is both energy and water-intensive (“fun” fact: agricultural irrigation uses 70% of water worldwide) and with the global population expected to reach 10 billion by 2050, it strikes me that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to use a bit less water to grow our food. 

The company is taking a bet on greenhouse agriculture being a sustainable, local and climate-resilient food production method that can provide a tailored environment for each specific crop. Source.ag’s technology, then, aims to enable growers to make better-informed decisions about their crops and greenhouses to facilitate more sustainable harvests. 

Source.ag’s seed funding was used primarily for R&D and to develop Source Track, a software platform to assist growers in operating their facilities. It has worked with hundreds of users over thousands of acres of high-tech greenhouses, making it ripe for expansion. The Series A funding, led by Astanor Ventures and including investments from Acre Venture Partners and several of the Netherlands’ leading greenhouse operators, will enable the development of two new products: Source Cultivate and Source Control.

“We will release several new products in the next 24 months, including Source Cultivate, which will give growers unprecedented predictive powers and the ability to leverage AI in finding optimal growing strategies,” explains Rien Kamman, Source.ag’s co-founder and CEO. “In essence, we’re giving growers a crystal ball in which they can see how external factors and strategic decisions will impact the development of their crops, including the associated resource usage, costs and returns. Based on this we support growers finding the growth strategy that is right for them.”

“One of our customers in France already used Source Cultivate to simulate different pruning and climate strategies for its tomato crops, getting instant feedback from our AI how different strategies would impact plant health, yield and profit over the whole season,” Kamman adds. “This enabled the grower to find the perfect growing strategy — tailored to his geographic location, resource prices, facility type and seed genetics.”

The largest global fresh vegetable sectors, for example tomatoes and bell peppers, have been Source.ag’s main focus to date, but its aim is to assist all growers, everywhere, to manage the best harvest possible. 

“Source.ag’s goal is to give growers and farmers similar superpowers for growing their crops. Source.ag will be able to provide real-time advice on how to best grow crops, no matter what you grow or how you grow it,” says Kamman. “It’s mind-boggling that there are 3 billion people that do not have access to sufficient fresh produce.”

To the company’s founder, Source.ag is about the democratization of agricultural knowledge through AI, allowing the cultivation of fresh fruits and vegetables in the most efficient and sustainable way possible. 

“I believe Source.ag is uniquely positioned to ‘bridge the gap’ between the digital world of AI and the real world of plants, growers and farming,” Kamman says. “We have deep experience in building applied AI, and we’ve been able to attract top talent who collaborate closely with the best growers in the world.”

Kamman and his co-founder, Ernst van Bruggen, had been building AI systems for large corporations for many years, but having grown up in the Netherlands — one of the largest fresh fruit and vegetable producers in Europe — the duo felt they would be able to apply their knowledge and skills to help farmers feed the world. They quit their jobs and founded Source.ag in early 2020 to hybridize tech and food.

For Kamman, Source.ag isn’t just a software vendor; he sees it as a long-term partner in a growing operation where the farmers are the heroes. If farming and tech might sound like strange bedfellows, Kamman is keen to point out how both growers and developers practice a craft and through this, they find common ground.

“I’ve found that craftsmen recognize, and easily connect with, other craftsmen — even outside their domain. It’s the love for the profession that is the connector, especially when combined with a humble curiosity in each other’s profession,” Kamman concludes. “It’s amazing to see our developers spend time in the greenhouse with the grower, learning from them firsthand what Source can build to help growers become even more successful.”

Source.ag raises $23M to raise the bar on raising crops with AI by Haje Jan Kamps originally published on TechCrunch

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The Audience Choice results are in, which begs the question, could we BE more excited to share this news? No, we could not. Out of hundreds of applications, we curated 10 breakout sessions and 10 roundtable discussions. Your mission? Vote for the topics you want to see live and in person at TechCrunch Early Stage
Announcing the TechCrunch Early Stage Audience Choice winners by Lauren Simonds originally published on TechCrunch

The Audience Choice results are in, which begs the question, could we BE more excited to share this news? No, we could not. Out of hundreds of applications, we curated 10 breakout sessions and 10 roundtable discussions. Your mission? Vote for the topics you want to see live and in person at TechCrunch Early Stage on April 20 in Boston, Massachusetts. And vote you did — mission accomplished!

Click, save, learn: Buy an early-bird ticket now, and you’ll save $200 on a day jam-packed with quality content.

A bit of background before we announce the 10 presentations that won the hearts, minds and votes of TechCrunch readers.

For the uninitiated, TC Early Stage is our annual founder summit. Workshops, breakouts and roundtables — led by established founders, leading subject-matter experts and VCs — cover core entrepreneurial topics across fundraising, marketing and operations. Check out the agenda!

This daylong event gives aspiring and early startup founders — from the idea stage to Series A — the confidence, skills, information, connections and community they need to take next steps and grow their business.

Meet the TC Early Stage Audience Choice Winners

The Breakout Sessions

Breakout sessions consist of a 20-minute presentation followed by a 20-minute Q&A from an audience of up to 125 founders. Each breakout occurs once during the event.

What Unicorns Know: Prep Your Company for Success by Leveraging Lean at the Earliest Stages

Speaker: Pablo Dominguez, Operating Partner, Insight Partners

Description: The most successful startups have one thing in common: They set themselves up for large-scale operational success at the earliest stages, some before they even have a product. But how can founders look that far ahead, in a turbulent market, and predict their future business model? The answer is Scale, a five-principle Lean framework that helps any company accelerate its ability to grow. Survival of the leanest requires hopeful unicorns to examine, identify and remove waste that impedes the free flow of value to customers — without layoffs or knee-jerk cost-cutting. Dominguez will draw on 25 years of experience as an operator to explain how early-stage startups should leverage Lean principles to set themselves up for success.

Assembling the Perfect Founding Team: Insights and Strategies for Nontechnical Founders

Speaker: George Hantzaras, Director of Engineering, MongoDB

Description: Building a strong founding team is essential for the success of any startup, and finding the right technical co-founder can be a particularly daunting task for nontechnical founders. Hantzaras will explore the importance of assembling a diverse and well-balanced founding team and share best practices for finding and working with the right technical co-founder. He will also address common challenges that nontechnical founders may encounter when building their founding team, and he’ll offer practical strategies to overcome them.

Lack of Community: The Not-so-Secret Enemy of Early-Stage Founders

Speakers: Cait Brumme, CEO, MassChallenge; David Chang, Entrepreneur and Angel investor; Diane Hessan, Founder, C-Space

Description: For early-stage founders focused on building the best product, gathering market data and gaining the finances they need, deliberately seeking out community may seem less important. The more than 4,000 early-stage startups we have launched provide case studies of how intentional community development can sustain founders working to accomplish big things while catapulting their ability to build a business. We’ll provide the opportunity for you to ask your most pressing questions and teach you how to:

Build your startup community from scratch.
Recognize the value of community in each stage of your company’s growth.
Identify key players in your field and attract them into your circle.
Form relationships with people who will provide value beyond what they ask in return.

Extract the Most Value from “Value-Add” Investors

Speaker: Amber Quiñones, Head of Platform and Operations, BBG Ventures

Description: Whether you call it “Platform,” “Portfolio Impact” or any number of clever euphemisms, we live in the age of value-add VCs. Many firms have invested heavily in the Platform function to grow the firm’s network and help their investments succeed. Yet, the wide range of team structures and focuses leaves founders struggling to determine how to engage appropriately with Platform — and about what. Quiñones will demystify this function, clarify how to leverage the various forms of VC Platform and assemble an operational SWAT team to unlock more value from your value-add investors.

Creating a Successful Pilot Program: How to Prove Product Value and Win Your N’th Customer

Speaker: Ned Brody, CEO, Actifai

Description: An excellent pilot program eliminates initial barriers to customer growth, like license costs and change management. Creating an ideal pilot engages customers in the crucial introductory phase that makes success and future partnership possible. It builds confidence and rapport with decision-makers, and it delivers financial proof-of-concept. Brody will describe how to create and deliver a pilot program that grows technology businesses, including:

Designing a “live” value-creating pilot.
Creating pilot timeframes and roadmaps
Minimizing customer tech and change requirements
Creating executive evangelists
Standardizing pilot programs and adapting to unique customer needs
Developing statistically sound results and A/B test design
Building post-pilot rollout terms into contracts
Collecting key growth data and feedback

The Roundtable Discussions

Roundtables feature one person leading a 30-minute interactive conversation with up to 20 founders. Each roundtable occurs twice during the event.

What You Need in a Lead Seed Investor. Spoiler Alert: It’s More Than Money

Speaker: Ishan Sachdev, General Partner, Deciens Capital

Description: When you’re struggling to find your first funding, the best investor is usually anyone willing to write a check. In the friends-and-family and angel stages, companies often don’t have a lead investor. Consequently, many founders don’t know why they need one or what to look for beyond a willingness to invest. But when startups approach their first significant seed round, the choice of a lead investor suddenly becomes top of mind. From negotiating investment terms to providing “platform services,” leads can wield powerful influence over long-term success. Ishan Sachdev, whose venture capital firm exclusively leads seed rounds, will discuss how founders can find the right lead investor for an early funding round — and why investor/founder fit matters.

How Founders Can Prepare for Successful Exits at Any Stage

Speaker: David Jegen, Managing Partner, F-Prime Capital

Description: The vast majority of startup exits occur via acquisition, yet remarkably little content exists to help guide founders through post-acquisition life. David Jegen has experienced 11 different acquisitions from multiple perspectives — as a founder, an investor and a board member. He will break down the different types of startup acquisitions and what leverage startups have and will discuss important points that help maximize success and employee happiness in the long-run.

What’s Your Risk Archetype? How to Turn Risk into Your Startup Superpower

Speaker: Ben Jennings, Chief Revenue Officer, Embroker

Description: Everyone who starts a company takes a risk, but that doesn’t mean that every founder is a risk taker — or even understands their risk tolerance and appetite. Using our Risk Archetype quiz, founders can and have discovered what kind of risk taker they are and how that affects everything about growing a business — from fundraising to building a team to critical decision-making. Founders will leave with a blueprint for turning their specific Risk Archetype into their superpower.

Navigating Entrepreneurship as an Underrepresented Founder

Speaker: Ghalia Aamer, CEO, TalkMaze

Description: This interactive discussion will be geared toward young founders and other underrepresented groups. The goal is to create a sense of community among attendees and support one another to succeed as entrepreneurs. Aamer will facilitate the discussion using guided questions to encourage vulnerability. By sharing her personal experience starting a business as a full-time student and young woman of color, she will create space for others to share their own challenges, which they can address together as a group. Founders will walk away empowered by a set of new connections with like-minded entrepreneurs who can help each other succeed.

How to Leverage PR to Get in Front of Investors

Speaker: Liza Vilnits, Founder and CEO, Beyond Trending

Description: Founders understand the value of PR, but they frequently lack the knowledge to leverage it and execute. How do you properly frame your story so that investors notice you through the press? This session will provide an edtech case study example (from a school teacher to Chelsea Clinton and Serena Williams), plus a “roll-your-sleeves-up” discussion to help founders better craft their stories and understand how to engage media.

TechCrunch Early Stage takes place on April 20, 2023, in Boston, Massachusetts. Don’t miss out on the Audience Choice presentations and so much more. Buy your early-bird ticket for $249 and save $200. We can’t wait to see you in Boston!

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TC Early Stage 2023? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

Announcing the TechCrunch Early Stage Audience Choice winners by Lauren Simonds originally published on TechCrunch

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