Benchmark Full Partnership Joins Main Stage at Disrupt 2026

What does one of Silicon Valley’s most successful venture firms believe its founders are getting wrong? In TechCrunch disrupts 2026We’re bringing Benchmark’s five general partners together on one stage to find out. Jack Altman, Peter Fenton, Chetan Puttagunta, Everett Randle and Eric Vishria are teaming up for this Main stage session, “What We Believe Now” – the first time the entire current Benchmark partnership appears together on the Disrupt Stage in San Francisco.

Instead of another conversation about where venture capital has been, the focus is on where it’s headed next: where the next generation of startups will come from, what assumptions founders should reconsider, and what opportunities 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 focused early-stage investing. This year, it made one of the biggest changes to its own playbook: raising roughly $2 billion across a $750 million flagship fund and its first $1.25 billion growth fund. The market changed. The reference point changed with him. Now we want to know what the company thinks will happen next.

Sit front and center to learn about the companies of tomorrow at Disrupt. Sign up now to save up to $200 before prices increase on September 25 at 11:59 pm PT. Save an additional 30% on group passes for four or more.

The company has a lot of capital. It’s harder to find conviction.

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

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

There probably won’t be full agreement in the scenario. That’s the point. Listen to this complex discussion between five VC heavyweights on Disrupt Stage. Sign up now to save up to $200 before prices increase on September 25.

Five investors in the Disrupt Stage, very different paths to partnership

BenchmarkThe partnership brings together the expertise of founding companies, supporting enterprise software, investing in cutting-edge technology, and helping companies navigate IPOs and acquisitions.

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

Peter Fenton He brings one of the company’s longest track records. His investments span consumer and enterprise companies, including current AI bets like Sierra, Digits and Sema4.ai. He has served as a director on 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 investment experience across all stages and categories, with investments including 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 himself was CEO of a startup and co-founded RockMelt before its acquisition by Yahoo.

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

Listen to this session live in October and save up to $200 when you sign up before prices go up on September 25.

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

Cerebras is a useful example. Vishria recently told TechCrunch who almost didn’t attend his first meeting with the AI ​​chip startup in 2016. The hardware was outside Benchmark’s comfort zone and what Cerebras wanted to build seemed extraordinarily difficult.

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

That story sums up something important about venture investing. The best opportunity doesn’t always come looking like the consensus winner. Sometimes it challenges the investor’s existing thesis. Sometimes technology comes too soon. Sometimes it is evident that the market does not yet exist. And sometimes knowing when to change your mind is more valuable than being right in the first place. Expect that kind of thinking to emerge in the Disrupt stage.

Register by September 25 to save up to $200 on your pass. Prices will increase later.

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 thinks entrepreneurs are currently misunderstanding. Not because Benchmark is automatically right, but because understanding how sophisticated investors evaluate markets, teams, and opportunities gives founders another way to question their own assumptions.

Investors can compare those frameworks with their own. LoB leaders can see what changes venture firms believe are long-lasting enough to shape the companies they work for and where capital can flow next. For students, aspiring founders, and anyone simply trying to understand where technology is going, it’s a unique opportunity to hear five investors with very different experiences work on their ideas in the same room.

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

Sign up now to save up to $200 before they increase on September 25 at 11:59 pm PT.

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

A lot can change in the world of technology in twelve months. AI capabilities are moving. Markets emerge. The categories disappear. Companies that seemed inevitable suddenly stopped being inevitable, while companies that few people saw made their way. Having a thesis is important. Knowing when to update it is more important.

Join Jack Altman, Peter Fenton, Chetan Puttagunta, Everett Randle and Eric Vishria on 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 from around the world.ix stages, round tables, working groupsstarting battlefield, the Exhibition halland more.

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