TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Panel to Feature Founders and GV Partner on Early Customer Acquisition

Early-stage founders seeking to scale their user base without large marketing budgets will gather at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 for a session dedicated to initial customer acquisition tactics. As reported by TechCrunch Venture , the Builders Stage panel—titled "The Zero-to-1K Playbook: How to Get Your First 1,000 Customers Without a Marketing Budget"—will focus on community building, product-led expansion, founder-led sales, direct outbound outreach, and word-of-mouth growth.

The panel features Grant Lee, co-founder and chief executive officer of visual communication platform Gamma. A Stanford-trained engineer who previously served as chief operating officer of ClearBrain (acquired by Amplitude) and chief financial officer of Optimizely, Lee founded Gamma after years of creating presentation decks. Gamma reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue in 2025 and approached 100 million users in March 2026 as it expanded into websites, social content, and AI-generated marketing collateral.

Joining Lee is Elia Wallen, founder and chief executive officer of business travel platform Engine. Wallen established corporate housing provider Travelers Haven in 2008 as a bootstrapped enterprise before raising Engine's first outside funding round in 2019. Engine is currently cash-flow positive, having served more than 30,000 businesses and 2 million travelers, and expanded in July by acquiring travel management company Options Travel along with its group-flights platform TempoTrip.

Crystal Huang, a general partner at GV (Google Ventures), will provide the venture capital perspective. Huang focuses on SaaS, developer infrastructure, and artificial intelligence, with an emphasis on product-led adoption. Prior to GV, she invested at NEA and Notable Capital and worked in technology M&A at Blackstone. Huang will also serve as a judge for the Startup Battlefield 200 competition during the event.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 takes place October 13–15 at Moscone West in San Francisco, featuring over 200 sessions, 250 speakers, and 300 exhibiting startups across six stages.