#startup-competition

#startup-competition

Fidji Simo, OpenAI's CEO of Applications, announced the hiring coup in a post on social media platform X Wednesday, saying that Brett Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz are all returning to the AI juggernaut where they worked previously.Simo said on social media that Zoph would report to her, with Metz and Schoenholz reporting to Zoph. Zoph and Metz were officially cofounders of Thinking Machines, while Schoenholz was a member of the "founding team" of researchers and engineers.

Every year, TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield pitch contest draws thousands of applicants. We whittle those applications down to the top 200 contenders, and of them, the top 20 compete on the big stage to become the winner, taking home the Startup Battlefield Cup and a cash prize of $100,000. But the remaining 180 startups all blew us away as well in their respective categories and compete in their own pitch competition.

From October 27 to 29, connect with 10,000+ members of the global startup community for three action-packed days of breakthrough ideas, live startup pitches, hands-on learning, and career-making connections. Time is running out. Pass rates will increase soon. Save up to $444 today. Bring a guest and get 60% off their pass, or rally your team and save up to 30% on group passes.

Winning Startup Battlefield has launched companies like Dropbox, Mint, Vurb, and Cloudflare into the spotlight - and with a $100,000 equity-free prize on the line, the next big name could be born on the Disrupt Stage this October.