Thomas Krane, a managing director at Insight Partners, is set to join the judging panel for Startup Battlefield 2025 at Disrupt. Krane has worked at Insight Partners since 2012, starting as an analyst. His investment expertise includes cybersecurity, DevOps, IT automation, and application software.
Five of his investments have gone public, including Tenable, JFrog, and Darktrace. Charles Hudson, the managing partner and founder of Precursor Ventures, will also be a judge. Precursor Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in the first institutional rounds for promising companies.
Under Hudson’s leadership, Precursor has raised four funds and manages over $250 million. He has backed over 400 companies, including Bobbie Baby and The Athletic, which was sold to The New York Times for $525 million in 2022. Nicolas Sauvage, the president of TDK Ventures, is another addition to the judging panel.
TDK Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of TDK Corporation, where Sauvage leads a $350 million mandate to invest in early-stage startups driving innovation in digital and energy sectors. TDK Ventures has backed 45 startups, including Ascend Elements and Silicon Box.
Star-studded judging panel announced
Katie Stanton, the founder and general partner at Moxxie Ventures, will also be a judge. Stanton has held executive roles at Twitter, Google, Yahoo, and the Obama administration. She sits on the Board of Vivendi and has invested in companies like Airtable and Coinbase.
Santi Subotovsky, a general partner at Emergence, completes the list of new judges. Subotovsky is renowned for leading the firm’s investment in Zoom when it was a little-known startup. He remains on Zoom’s board, with the company now valued at $24 billion.
He also serves on boards for companies like Crunchbase and Zipline. Disrupt 2025 will feature participation from heavyweights like Netflix, ElevenLabs, and Sequoia Capital, delivering insights to fuel startup growth. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Disrupt remains the pivotal launchpad for tech innovation.
The event will bring together over 10,000 startups and VC leaders, transforming Moscone West into the tech epicenter. Tickets for Disrupt 2025 are available now, with significant savings before prices rise. Exhibitors can also book their space before September 5 to put their brand in front of influential tech and VC leaders.
