I’ve just returned from San Francisco where I attended TechCrunch Disrupt — a conference I had high hopes for, believing it to be the place where founders could meet investors, pitch their vision and get noticed.

What I found

The event was overwhelmingly dominated by founders — many riding the AI wave, many plugging similar concepts, many seeking the same thing; Investors? Very few. Despite bold branding and lofty promises, the ratio of meaningful investor-engagement to founder-attendance seemed disappointingly low.The ticket price was steep for a founder already trying to conserve funds, and the ROI for the cost felt unclear.The city itself — San Francisco — didn’t help. Homelessness visible everywhere, fewer vibrant local shops and restaurants in the areas I visited, and what felt like many VCs having already left the city or scaled back their presence. The hype: Every corner mentioned “AI”, every startup seemed to be doing “the next big thing in AI”. The problem: when everyone says the same thing, differentiation and impact get lost. Networking: As a founder there to meet investors, I found the networking unfocused. Many attendees looked like founders doing founder-things, fewer looked like they had capital to deploy. Value for money: For early-stage or bootstrapped founders, the cost (ticket + travel + accommodation) may not be justified by outcomes seen. A conference experience is influenced by the city itself — if the local ecosystem feels drained (or presents poor conditions for after-hours connection, local business, ambience) it impacts the overall value.

My advice for future attendees:

• If you’re going as a founder with hopes of raising capital, consider buying an investor pass, or positioning yourself as if you were an investor. I suspect that might be the only way you’ll meet someone who can invest.

• Don’t go without a highly targeted plan: know the investors you want to meet, pre-book meetings, refine your pitch, avoid the scattergun approach.

• Think hard about cost versus expected outcome. If your aim is capital or meaningful connections, the expense only makes sense if the conference is tightly aligned to your goal.

• Be aware of the broader context: the local startup ecosystem, city vibe, cost of stay and networking opportunities outside the schedule all matter.

Final thoughts:
TechCrunch Disrupt is a high-profile, well-branded event, but for the founder who’s spending hard-earned money hoping to land investment, it may not deliver what the hype suggests — especially when the investor presence feels limited and the founder crowd is dense. If you go, go prepared, go curated, and manage expectations. Otherwise, treat it as a very expensive learning trip.