Founders hear startup advice everywhere. But at the TechCrunch Founder Summit, the focus shifts to what happened when real people put that advice into practice.
The event lands in Boston in six days, on November 4, backed by Fidelity Private Shares. It pulls together founders, investors, and operators who will walk through the failures, pivots, and decisions that shaped their companies.
Registration remains open. Buying one ticket unlocks a second one free, and group packages knock 30% off. Individual passes can also save up to $100 before the doors open.
**Scaling lessons from Boston to public markets**
Among the headline speakers: Steve Fredette, president and co-founder of Toast. His company grew from a Boston startup into a public one, a trajectory few achieve. Fredette will address a question that haunts successful founders: how to keep reinventing a company after the original plan works.
Scaling introduces its own set of pressures. How do founders maintain innovation? How do they stay connected to the customers who got them there? And how do they adapt as the technology landscape shifts? Fredette’s session targets founders attempting to move beyond early traction.
**The discipline of knowing when to grow**
Premature scaling can drain a startup faster than most founders expect. Kent Bennett, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, will discuss how to recognize genuine product-market fit before spending on growth.
Meanwhile, Rudina Seseri, founder and managing partner at Glasswing Ventures, pushes the conversation further. She’ll examine when founders should accelerate versus when slowing down represents the smarter move. Together, both perspectives frame the growth equation from opposite ends.
**Teams, pitches, and what investors actually watch**
Vineet Edupuganti of Cogent Security will break down how to assemble exceptional teams. Dave Balter of True Ventures and Edisyl will tackle pitch strategy, arguing that a founder’s objective should not be cramming every detail into one meeting. The real goal is making the next meeting inevitable.
Chasing the local angle, Chase Garbarino of HqO will explore what it takes to scale an ambitious company from Boston. And Tina Tosukhowong of TDK Ventures will map the signals investors examine when hunting for future category leaders.
One day, stacked with operators who have built, funded, hired, and sold through difficult conditions. The summit runs November 4 in Boston.
