Where will the next breakout startup come from? Benchmark’s full partnership weighs in at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

What does one of Silicon Valley’s most successful venture firms think founders are getting wrong? At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, we’re putting all five Benchmark general partners on one stage to find out. Jack Altman, Peter Fenton, Chetan Puttagunta, Everett Randle, and Eric Vishria will come together for the Disrupt Stage session “What We Believe Now.” This is the first time the entire current Benchmark partnership has appeared together on the Disrupt Stage in San Francisco.

Rather than another conversation about where venture capital has been, the focus is on where it goes next: where the next generation of startups will come from, which assumptions founders should reconsider, and which opportunities the partners believe are still hiding in plain sight. And 2026 is an especially interesting year to ask them.

Benchmark has spent decades building a reputation around concentrated early-stage investing. This year, it made one of the biggest changes in its own playbook — raising approximately $2 billion across a $750 million flagship fund and its first $1.25 billion growth fund. The market changed. Benchmark changed with it. Now we want to know what the firm thinks will happen next.

Sit front and center to get tomorrow’s venture insights at Disrupt. Register now to save up to $200 before prices increase on September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Save an additional 30% on group passes for four or more.

Venture has plenty of capital. Conviction is harder to find. 

AI has reshaped the venture market with extraordinary speed. According to the OECD, AI companies captured 61% of global venture capital investment in 2025 — $258.7 billion of $427.1 billion invested overall. Yet that capital was far from evenly distributed: deals worth more than $100 million represented roughly 73% of total AI investment value. That creates a strange environment for founders.

There is huge appetite for technology businesses, alongside growing competition for a relatively small number of companies investors believe can become category leaders. Is the next billion-dollar company another AI application, or is the application layer already overcrowded? Does defensibility sit in models, infrastructure, proprietary data or distribution? Are some of the best businesses being overlooked because everyone is chasing the same themes? And when founders can build products faster than ever, what actually makes one company investable?

There probably won’t be complete agreement onstage. That’s the point. Hear this complex discussion among five VC heavyweights on the Disrupt Stage. Register now to save up to $200 before prices increase on September 25.

Five investors on the Disrupt Stage, very different routes to the partnership

Benchmark’s partnership brings together experience from founding companies, backing enterprise software, investing in frontier technology, and helping businesses navigate IPOs and acquisitions.

Jack Altman joined Benchmark this year after founding Lattice and subsequently building his own venture firm, Alt Capital. Before Altman joined Benchmark, Alt Capital had raised $425 million across its early-stage investing activities. His path gives the discussion an unusually direct founder-to-investor perspective.

Peter Fenton brings one of venture’s longest track records. His investments span consumer and enterprise companies, including current AI bets such as Sierra, Digits, and Sema4.ai. He has served as a director through seven successful IPOs, including Twitter, Elastic, New Relic, Zendesk, and Yelp.

Chetan Puttagunta focuses on early-stage enterprise software and has backed companies such as MongoDB, MuleSoft, Elastic, Modern Treasury, Legora, and Stytch.

Everett Randle brings experience investing across stages and categories, with investments that include Anthropic, SpaceX, Rippling, Flock Safety, Gumloop, and Chainguard.

And Eric Vishria focuses on early-stage infrastructure and enterprise software, with investments including Amplitude, Confluent, Fireworks.ai, and Cerebras Systems. Before becoming an investor, he was a startup CEO, co-founding RockMelt before its acquisition by Yahoo.

Put those perspectives together and Benchmark’s panel session, “What We Believe Now,” becomes less about a single Benchmark thesis and more about how experienced investors disagree, update their assumptions, and decide where conviction is warranted.

Hear this session live in October and save up to $200 when you register before prices rise on September 25.

Sometimes the opportunity hiding in plain sight looks like a bad meeting

Cerebras is a useful example. Vishria recently told TechCrunch that he almost didn’t take his first meeting with the AI chip startup in 2016. Hardware was outside Benchmark’s comfort zone, and what Cerebras wanted to build looked extraordinarily difficult.

By the third slide, he had changed his mind. Benchmark went on to co-lead the company’s $25 million Series A. Ten years later, Cerebras went public, with Benchmark holding a 9.5% stake at the IPO.

That story encapsulates something important about venture investing. The best opportunity does not always arrive looking like the consensus winner. Sometimes it challenges the investor’s existing thesis. Sometimes the technology is too early. Sometimes the market does not obviously exist yet. And sometimes knowing when to change your mind is more valuable than being right from the beginning. Expect that kind of thinking to surface on the Disrupt Stage.

Register before September 25 to save up to $200 on your pass. Prices will increase after.

Founders should come to this Disrupt session prepared to disagree

For founders, there may be no more useful part of the session than hearing what Benchmark believes entrepreneurs are currently misreading. Not because Benchmark is automatically right, but because understanding how sophisticated investors assess markets, teams, and opportunities gives founders another way to challenge their own assumptions.

Investors can compare those frameworks with their own. LoB leaders can see which shifts venture firms believe are durable enough to shape the companies they work for — and where capital may flow next. For students, aspiring founders, and anyone simply trying to understand where technology is heading, it’s a rare opportunity to hear five investors with very different experiences work through their ideas in the same room.

And those ideas matter well beyond the venture industry. Investment decisions are ultimately bets about which technologies, business models, and founders have the potential to shape the next decade.

Register now to save up to $200 before they increase on September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Benchmark has its bets. What are yours? Decide at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

A lot can change in the tech world in 12 months. AI capabilities move. Markets emerge. Categories disappear. Companies that looked inevitable suddenly don’t, while businesses few people were watching break through. Having a thesis matters. Knowing when to update it matters more.

Join Jack Altman, Peter Fenton, Chetan Puttagunta, Everett Randle, and Eric Vishria on the Disrupt Stage and hear what Benchmark believes now — and what might convince them to change their minds next.

Disrupt 2026 returns to San Francisco’s Moscone West from October 13–15, bringing together more than 10,000 founders, investors, operators, and innovators across six stages, roundtables, breakouts, Startup Battlefield, the Expo Hall, and more.

The next great company may already be getting built. Find out where some of Silicon Valley’s most experienced investors are looking for it at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Register now to save up to $200 before prices increase on September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Save an additional 30% if you register with a group of four or more.

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