Startups & Funding
Disrupt 2026 panel tackles pre-seed funding without a product
TechCrunch's Disrupt 2026 conference will host a panel on raising pre-seed funding without a product, as AI startups increasingly absorb early-stage capital.
AI startups are pulling in unusually large seed rounds, and that shift is making it harder for other founders to raise money even at the pre-seed stage, before they have a product to show investors. TechCrunch says the trend has left pre-seed founders being held to expectations once reserved for seed-stage companies. At this year’s Disrupt conference, a panel titled “Winning Pre-Seed Without a Product” will address how founders with a compelling idea — but nothing concrete built yet — can still raise money.
The session is part of the Builders Stage, a track at Disrupt focused on operational decisions, fundraising, and go-to-market strategy for founders. Three investors will lead the discussion.
Sandhya Venkatachalam is founder and managing partner of Axiom Partners, an early-stage, $52 million venture fund focused on connecting founders with AI practitioners. She previously worked as a general partner at Khosla Ventures and Social Capital, where she was the first investor in Groq and led investments in GalileoAI, ForethoughtAI, and FirefliesAI — companies that have since been acquired or reached unicorn status.
Puneet Agarwal is managing partner at True Ventures, an early-stage fund that has operated since 2005. He joined the firm in 2008 and has worked there for nearly that whole time, focusing more recently on enterprise infrastructure and applications in the AI era. True Ventures spans 12 funds, with more than 500 companies and 1,050 founders in its portfolio, and more than 60 acquisitions and seven IPOs among its investments.
Austin Clements is managing partner at Slauson & Co., a fund focused on economic inclusion and small-business empowerment; he started an accelerator within the firm around that mission. Clements is also the founding chair of PledgeLA, a partnership with the Annenberg Foundation and the Los Angeles mayor’s office that promotes diversity in tech. Slauson & Co. is an investor in Glīd, winner of Startup Battlefield 2026.
Disrupt 2026 runs October 13–15 at Moscone West in San Francisco.
Why it matters
As AI startups pull in outsized seed rounds, pre-seed founders without a product face a higher bar to raise capital — and the panelists’ track records, from an early bet on Groq to a dozen-fund portfolio with dozens of acquisitions and IPOs, signal what investors now look for at that earliest stage.