Building a startup forces you to decide before you have every answer. When should you scale? How can you be sure you have product‑market fit? What does it take to win enterprise customers? How do you assemble the right team? And when you finally sit down with an investor, how do you craft a pitch that earns a follow‑up conversation? On November 4, the SoWa Power Station in Boston will host TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026, a full‑day event that brings together founders, investors and operators who have grappled with those questions from different angles. Organized by TechCrunch in partnership with Fidelity Private Shares, the summit goes beyond fundraising and AI to examine the realities of finding customers, building teams, refining a pitch, developing founder leadership and scaling companies inside and outside traditional startup hubs. Tickets are currently 25 percent off, and a limited BOGO offer lets you bring a colleague for free.
Boston‑based founders will hear from Steve Fredette, president, co‑founder and director of Toast, on the Impact Stage. Fredette’s talk, “Building a Company That Keeps Reinventing Itself,” will trace Toast’s journey from identifying a customer problem to achieving product‑market fit, winning clients and eventually becoming a public company. He will also discuss how a business can continue to evolve as customer expectations, technology and the market shift, while staying true to the core needs that sparked its creation.
Kent Bennett, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, will lead a session titled “Finding Product Market Fit Before You Scale.” Bennett will help founders evaluate whether customers are truly signaling readiness for growth, offering a counterpoint to the pressure to move faster. He will focus on the signals that matter before adding headcount, increasing spend or accelerating go‑to‑market efforts.
Rudina Seseri, founder and managing partner of Glasswing Ventures, will address the tension between acceleration and restraint in “When to Scale and When to Hit the Brakes.” Seseri will explore how founders can discern the moments that call for rapid growth from those that require discipline, emphasizing that knowing when not to scale can be as consequential as deciding to go all in.
Lior Div, CEO and co‑founder of 7AI, will discuss “Built for AI From Day One.” He will differentiate between adding AI to existing processes and designing a company around AI from the start, encouraging founders to think of AI as a foundational element rather than a mere feature.
Chase Garbarino, CEO and co‑founder of HqO, will present “The Boston Founder Playbook” on the Impact Stage. Garbarino will examine what it means to build and scale a company in Boston, offering insights on talent, customers, capital and community that are especially relevant to founders across New England and the broader East Coast. Paired with Fredette’s Toast story, his session underscores that ambitious companies can thrive in Boston without copying Silicon Valley.
Dave Balter, venture partner at True Ventures and CEO of Edisyl, will lead “Your Pitch Has to Earn the Next Conversation.” He will remind founders that a pitch need not close a deal but must spark a follow‑up discussion, highlighting the distinction between knowing your business and communicating its story. Later in the afternoon, Balter will join Chirag Shah of Define Ventures and Simran Suri of Maveron as a panel judges live pitches during “So You Think You Can Pitch?” on the Build Stage. Attendees will watch startups make their case in a limited time and hear investors’ real‑time reactions, providing a vivid learning experience from both successful and unanswered pitches.
The remainder of the program tackles many of the decisions founders face today. Hunter Worland of NEA will explore why distribution could become a startup’s next competitive advantage. Vineet Edupuganti, co‑founder of … (the article cuts off here).
For the full list of speakers and to register, visit the TechCrunch Founder Summit website.