The 3 Most Interesting Things I learned at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco 2022

Disclosure: I used a text-generated AI to help me write this post. It was an experiment and, unfortunately, I ended up writing 80% of the post on my own.

I just returned from spending three days at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco. If you’re not familiar with it, Disrupt is an annual tech conference where startups and tech companies demo their latest products and services, and investors and journalists listen to pitches from up-and-coming companies.

Having bootstrapped our company to 200M organic downloads and 8-figure EBITDA, I found it necessary and deeply satisfying to immerse myself into the student mentality and learn as much as possible about the state of the industry, economy, new technologies, best practices from other smart founders and investors. Disrupt is the perfect place for that.

So, without further adieu, here are the 3 most interesting things I learned:

Recession or not, but the startup ecosystem is feeling it

We are witnessing the end of a 14 year bull run, as the economy shrinks, so are the startup valuations.

VCs are now more interested in deep tech, infrastructure, and AI-enabled startups. Niko Bonatsos from General Catalyst has mentioned it would be much harder for tech-enabled and geo-specific startups to attract capital. Early stages and series A rounds are still happening at healthy valuations, however, bigger companies at growth stages are experiencing serious challenges. The overall consensus is that we will see a lot of down rounds for growth stage companies within the next couple of years.

But that doesn’t mean the startup world is slowing down. In fact, there’s never been a better time for innovation and new ideas to take root and thrive. According to Niko, GC is at all high-time levels of founder meetings. So if you are creating legitimate innovations through technology you have a high chance of still landing the funding. Being a serial founder, or having a track record, definitely helps.

Generative AI and its application layer get a lot of attention and love from investors. Recent successes of Jasper.ai (speaking of which, I’m using Jasper to write this blog post), DALLE-2 and GPT-3 open a lot of potential use cases at an application layer.

Overall, it feels like the world is back to “normalcy” when it comes to startup valuations. Good ideas, solid technology, and cohesive teams will still get funding. But a lot of people will be hurt during the downturns (think of late investors and employees with their stock options).

Intentionally design your work culture in an asynchronous world

There was a great panel with Allison Barr Allen (Trail Run Capital), Deidre Paknad (co-founder and CEO of WorkBoard) and Adriana Roche (Chief people officer at Mural) discussing the new reality of asynchronous and hybrid work, and how we can build a culture that would propel the business forward. This was of particular interest to me, as I’m witnessing all the challenges in our company to move to an efficient remote culture with a team of 250+.

The main underlying consensus of the panel is that every leader and every company has to be intentional in designing the desired culture.

There are a few practical ways to go about it:

• Start with the intention of how you build moments when your desired culture is exemplified. In other words, create and describe the desired set of behaviors that everyone in the remote environment can perceive as the DNA of the culture.
• Decide on how to make decisions and educate everyone
• Design how to reward desired behaviors
• Tell stories. People remember emotional stories that they can relate to, rather than a set of rules and dry bullet points
• Create systems that provide transparency, direction, and visibility of the progress, in this way greater action could be taken by the team.

Asynchronous work can provide the freedom for team members to do their best work. However, without clear guidelines, it can lead to confusion and lack of alignment. Ultimately, every leader has to create clear frameworks and provide that to the management team, especially if they are first-time managers.

You can start by creating a framework for idea generation and prioritization. That alone will boost involvement, creativity, and better results.

It’s difficult to build expertise and trust through Zoom learning. Many people agree that core teams who are involved in creating innovation have to meet in person and work together.

San Francisco is back! (kind of)

Once a city of the most ambitious builders and dreamers, San Francisco provided unmatched physical proximity and pay it forward culture. The pandemic had a devastating effect on this ecosystem, sending thousands of tech people away from the Bay.

During this trip it felt like the startup industry bouncing back. I hope that San Francisco will once again become a hotbed for innovation and entrepreneurship. One can still feel the same excitement and drive in founders as they pitch their ideas at midnight at a bar, determined to change the world with their product or service.

I’ve made the decision to visit San Francisco more often and spend more time with dreamers and builders. Special thanks to Matthew Panzarino and the TechCrunch crew for a great event.

The 3 Most Interesting Things I learned at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco 2022 was originally published in denzhadanov on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.