The idea of hiring your “first critical engineer” is getting a serious reality check at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, October 27–29 at San Francisco’s Moscone West.

Join Lauri Moore, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, and David Cramer, co-founder and chief product officer at Sentry, and Zach Lloyd, founder and CEO of Warp, on the Builders Stage for a candid conversation about how developer tools are reshaping early product development.

Moore brings deep expertise in AI, infrastructure, and developer tooling from both the investor and founder perspectives. Cramer, who launched Sentry as an open source side project in 2012 and scaled it into a platform used by over 4 million developers, offers firsthand insights into how the right tools — and hires — can accelerate product velocity without overbuilding. Lloyd, who founded Warp to reinvent the terminal with AI-driven developer experiences, adds the perspective of a founder building for builders at the bleeding edge of coding workflows.

We’ll dig into what today’s founders actually need from their first engineering hires, what AI-enabled tooling can and can’t replace, and how the entire GTM (go-to-market) and product life cycle is adapting to this new dev world. Whether you’re a founder, a CTO, or just curious if code is still king, this panel gets into the messy, tactical details of modern startup building.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 brings together 10,000+ startup founders, VC leaders, and tech innovators to tackle what’s next in tech. Don’t miss your chance to join the conversation — and shape the future — with people who are building it.

Regular Bird pricing ends September 26 at 11:59 p.m. PT — Secure your pass today and save up to $668.

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