What you need to know about TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield

Applications for TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield have begun and will run through September 2021. The event will hold at TC Disrupt and will last from September 21 to 23.

According to TechCrunch’s website, its Startup Battlefield is a world-class preeminent startup competition that focuses on early-stage startups. Each year, 15-30 early-stage startups are selected to pitch to top judges in front of a live audience. Before each event, teams will go through a mini-accelerator for 8 weeks improving their business models and pitches. Each startup will be given six minutes to pitch on stage followed by a round of intense questions and answers with top investors, entrepreneurs, and technologists such as Fred Wilson, Marissa Mayer, Roelof Botha, Roy Conway, amongst others.

Although the event will be virtual, participants will still get the full experience – missing out on nothing. Rachael Wilcox, a creative producer at Volvo describes the virtual experience as being loaded with “excitement, enthusiasm, and possibility of the young founders…,” she added that participants could ask questions through the chat feature.

The Startup Battlefield features other packages such as VIP experience at Disrupt for every team, free exhibition space on the virtual show floor, free subscription to Extra Crunch, complimentary tickets to future TechCrunch events, and access to CrunchMatch networking platform.

TechCrunch hammers on the fact that it takes no fees or equity from startups that compete at the Startup Battlefield. Both application and participation are 100 percent free.

The companies that launched the TC stage include Dropbox, Getaround, Mint, Qwiki, Redbeacon, Soluto, Trello, Tripit, Vurb, and Yammer. TC has had 763 startups participate in the competitions so far.

“TC40 in 2007, tell a strong story: in aggregate, as of March 2020, they have raised $9 billion, while 115 have been acquired or have gone public. TechCruch makes the complete details of past Battlefields and participants available on the Battlefield leaderboard,” TechCruch said on its website.

The TC virtual event will take place both regionally and at TC Disrupt. At the end of the competition, the winner takes home the Disrupt Cup and an equity-free $100,000 check (at SF). All contestants will enjoy immense attention from press and investors, alongside membership in elite ranks or Battlefield alums and Extra Crunch.

TechCrunch wrote on its website: TechCrunch stages the Battlefield a couple times a year, once at each of our Disrupt Conferences in San Francisco and in Startup Battlefield X events in emerging markets. Applications to each Battlefield open three months before the actual event. To be eligible startups must be launching a product to the public for the first time and have little to no prior press exposure. Selection is highly competitive; the acceptance rate ranges from 3 to 6% per event.