Panel discussions are an important and popular part of TechCrunch Disrupt, and this year we asked you to vote for the topics you want to learn the most about. We have already announced the first one and the second groups of winners from our People’s Choice vote-a-thon, and we’re back with a third wave of exciting topics.
If you’re not familiar with them, roundtables are expert-led, 30-minute discussions designed for up to 20 participants who share an interest in a particular topic. The format allows for deeper conversation, questions and answers, and time for attendees to connect and explore opportunities for collaboration.
Of course, if you want to participate in one of these awesome discussions, you will need a pass. Hot Tip: You can save over $1,000 – if you buy your pass to disrupt before prices go up Friday, August 5 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
These five panel discussions represent a wide range of topics, including why having a genuine passion for your industry gives you a competitive edge, how to use flat gains to overcome obstacles, how to evolve products that never existed, how setting a price for competitive advantage and the challenge of raising upfront capital to build unproven technology.
Love what you do: lessons from the economy of passion
Speaker: Robin Astrothe co-founder and CEO of Wehype
During this roundtable, Robin Åström, co-founder and CEO of Wehype, an influencer marketing platform and agency, will lead a discussion on how the passion economy has democratized the ability to earn money. money through creativity – and on a large scale. He will also explain why it is important for startup founders to operate in industries that they are truly and deeply passionate about.
Robin will use his experience to turn his gambling obsession into a competitive advantage. He identified and filled a gap in the gaming influencer market with co-founders he met while playing Counter-Strike as a teenager.
Their love of gaming gave them the extra motivation to overcome challenges, allowing them to grow Wehype into a profitable and fast-growing company working with some of the world’s biggest brands including EA, Microsoft and Ubisoft.
The value of the dish wins
Speaker: Alex Hershamco-founder and CEO of Zencargo
Starting a business can be one of a person’s most fulfilling and rewarding things, but there will always be tough challenges to overcome. By embracing the concept of flat wins – celebrating when you find a solution and returning to where you started after a period of difficulty – within your operations, you can stay on track and overcome the obstacles you face.
During this roundtable, Zencargo’s Alex Hersham will lead a discussion on how flat wins shaped his mindset and created resilience in his mindset as a founder. Hersham’s points of contact will include:
- Defining flat wins and examining the psychology behind them
- Examples of how flat wins have shaped both his career and the success of his business
- How Flat Earnings Can Build Resilience Not Just in Founders, But Entire Companies
- How Flat Earnings Can Generate Value for Your Business
My daughter the cyborg
Speaker: Jeremiah Robisonthe founder and CEO of Cionic
In a world of self-driving cars and reusable rockets, we have the technological capacity to radically change human health. Marrying humans to machines is the next big technological frontier, and for Cionic founder Jeremiah Robison, that mission is driven by his daughter’s mobility issues.
Cionic, a bionic clothing company revolutionizing human augmentation, has created a soft, wearable robot that looks and feels like athletic leggings. It uses AI and Functional Electrical Stimulation to literally move someone’s leg for them.
Participants in this roundtable will learn where to start to innovate at the frontier of humans and machines, how to evolve a product that never existed and discover the future of augmented human mobility.
Pricing for competitive advantage
Speaker: Andy Rookthe founder of Price Theory
Pricing is the most important tool for positioning and growing a startup, yet 85% of companies (even the biggest ones) have sub-optimal pricing strategies.
In this session, we’ll discuss how to approach value-based pricing and answer your questions about how to price a startup for competitive advantage and growth.
Pull versus Funding: The Chicken or the Egg Problem for Tech Startups
Speaker: Thomas RouffiacNatrion’s COO
Amid the funding slowdown, electric vehicle battery component maker Natrion raised an oversubscribed $2 million seed round in a high-risk and highly competitive industry. But this was the company’s third fundraising attempt; they initially struggled to prove to investors that the technology worked when they needed the initial capital to build it first.
In the end, Natrion was able to garner support, not only from investors in the industry, but also from high-profile investors like Mark Cuban. The team learned essential lessons about how – and how not – to walk that tightrope.
How can deep tech startups differentiate themselves, prove their technology with limited resources while securing investors and strategic partners? Natrion COO Thomas Rouffiac will share the hacks they’ve learned and discuss how other R&D-dependent startups can do the same.
TechCrunch Disrupt takes place in person October 18-20 in San Francisco with an online day on October 21. Buy your pass before the end of the preferential rates on Friday, August 5 at 11:59 p.m. PTand you can save over $1,000.
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