TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 in Boston on Nov. 4 to feature speakers from Toast, Bessemer and others

Tech news outlet TechCrunch will hold Founder Summit 2026, a full-day conference for startup founders, on November 4 at SoWa Power Station in Boston, USA. The event is organized in partnership with Fidelity Private Shares, an investment platform, and will bring together founders, investors and operators to discuss the decisions involved in building a new company.

According to the organizers, the program goes beyond fundraising and artificial intelligence. It also covers finding customers, building teams, sharpening a pitch, founder leadership and scaling companies both inside and outside traditional startup hubs. Tickets are currently offered at a 25% discount, and a limited buy-one-get-one deal lets attendees bring a colleague for free.

Main speakers

Steve Fredette, president, co-founder and director of restaurant technology company Toast, will give a session on how a company keeps reinventing itself. Toast is a Boston startup that has grown into a public company.

Kent Bennett, partner at venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners, will lead a session on confirming product-market fit before scaling. Rudina Seseri, founder and managing partner of Glasswing Ventures, will discuss when to scale and when to hit the brakes.

Lior Div, CEO and co-founder of 7AI, will talk about building a company around AI from day one. Chase Garbarino, CEO and co-founder of HqO, will examine building and scaling a company from Boston.

Pitches and the rest of the program

Dave Balter, venture partner at True Ventures and CEO of Edisyl, will speak about a pitch that earns an investor's next conversation. In the afternoon, a live pitch session will see startups present their ideas to an investor judging panel. The judges will be Balter, Chirag Shah of Define Ventures and Simran Suri of Maveron.

The remaining agenda includes NEA's Hunter Worland on distribution as a competitive advantage, Cogent Security CEO Vineet Edupuganti on building teams, and TDK Ventures' Tina Tosukhowong on signals that identify category winners. Fidelity Private Shares speakers Kristen Craft and Evan Schnidman will cover fundraising trends and enterprise relationships. The day ends with a reception.