Meet the latest VC judges joining Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

The Startup Battlefield 200 global pitch competition at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, taking place October 27–29 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, is just weeks away, and the stakes have never been higher.

Twenty founders will pitch their companies on the Disrupt Stage, but only one will walk away with the $100,000 equity-free prize and the coveted Disrupt Cup. Helping to decide the winner is our world-class roster of judges, investors, and operators who know what it takes to build enduring companies.

Today, we’re unveiling the third group of judges who will bring their expertise and tough questions to this year’s competition. And we’re not done yet. Stay tuned for two more batches of judges in the weeks ahead.

Register now to witness the intense “World Series” of pitch competitions and save up to $668 on your pass. Rates rise after September 26.

Check out the Disrupt agenda to see the 10 judges who have already been announced.

Jon Chu is a partner at Khosla Ventures with a passion for machine learning and its impact on enterprise infrastructure, applications, and developer tools. Before joining Khosla Ventures, he built a career in technology as a founder, early employee, and organizational leader across a range of engineering and product roles.

He started as an early engineer at Palantir, helping the company grow from 200 to 1,800 employees. He then founded KoalityCode, which he sold to Docker, where he created and led Docker’s enterprise division. At Opendoor, Jon served as head of product for growth and head of engineering for Core Machine Learning, contributing to the company’s growth to IPO. Most recently, he led international engineering organizations at Facebook in both VR and machine learning.

Eryk Dobrushkin is a partner at Index Ventures, investing from inception to the growth stages in artificial intelligence, infrastructure, and robotics. He is drawn to curious and relentless founders who share his passion for tackling the world’s toughest problems.

Prior to Index, Eryk spent several years at Databricks, where he partnered closely with Ali Ghodsi as his chief of staff. During his tenure, Eryk had a front-row seat in one of the fastest-growing enterprise software companies in history, working across every aspect of the business — from product and engineering to sales and operations. Eryk started his career at the Boston Consulting Group, where he focused primarily on enterprise software and digital health. He holds a B.A. in Applied Math and Economics from Harvard University.