TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: Gamma’s Grant Lee, Engine’s Elia Wallen, and GV’s Crystal Huang on landing your first 1,000 customers

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You’ve built the product. Now you need customers. But when you’re starting from zero, there may be no marketing budget, established brand, or sales team to help you find them. So how do you get the first 1,000 people to take a chance on what you’ve built? At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, Gamma CEO and co-founder Grant Lee, Engine founder and CEO Elia Wallen, and GV (Google Ventures) general partner Crystal Huang will take the Builders Stage for “The Zero-to-1K Playbook: How to Get Your First 1,000 Customers Without a Marketing Budget.” They’ll break down how founders are using community building, product-led growth, founder-led sales, strategic outbound, and word of mouth to find those critical early customers. Still working toward your first 1,000 customers? Secure your Disrupt pass now, save up to $100, and hear how founders are finding early customers when budget, brand, and scale aren’t available yet. Bring a co-founder, colleague, partner, or peer and save 50% on your pass.

你已经做出了产品，现在需要客户。但当你从零开始时，可能没有营销预算、成熟的品牌或销售团队来帮你寻找客户。那么，你该如何让最初的 1,000 人愿意尝试你所构建的东西呢？在 2026 年 TechCrunch Disrupt 大会上，Gamma 首席执行官兼联合创始人 Grant Lee、Engine 创始人兼首席执行官 Elia Wallen 以及 GV (Google Ventures) 普通合伙人 Crystal Huang 将登上“建设者舞台”，共同探讨“从零到一千的剧本：如何在没有营销预算的情况下获得最初的 1,000 名客户”。他们将剖析创始人如何利用社区建设、产品驱动增长、创始人主导的销售、战略性外联和口碑传播来寻找那些至关重要的早期客户。还在为最初的 1,000 名客户而努力吗？立即锁定你的 Disrupt 通行证，最高可节省 100 美元，并了解创始人在缺乏预算、品牌和规模的情况下是如何寻找早期客户的。带上一位联合创始人、同事、合作伙伴或同行，你的通行证还可享受 5 折优惠。

From early users to nearly 100 million Grant Lee knows what it takes to grow well beyond those first customers. Before co-founding Gamma, he was COO of ClearBrain, which was acquired by Amplitude, and CFO of Optimizely. A Stanford-trained engineer with experience in finance and operations, he spent years creating the slide decks that eventually inspired him to rethink how people create and share ideas. Gamma has since grown far beyond presentations. TechCrunch reported in March 2026 that the AI-powered visual communication platform was approaching 100 million users after reaching $100 million in annual recurring revenue in 2025. The company has continued expanding into websites, social content, and AI-generated marketing assets. For an early-stage founder, the interesting part of that story starts well before 100 million users. How do you convince the first people to try a product from a company they’ve never heard of — and turn that early traction into momentum? Get your ticket to Disrupt and hear Lee’s perspective on what it takes to start building a customer base from zero. Save up to $100 on your pass, and get a second pass at 50% off.

从早期用户到近 1 亿用户，Grant Lee 深知如何实现超越最初客户的增长。在联合创立 Gamma 之前，他曾担任 ClearBrain 的首席运营官（该公司后被 Amplitude 收购），并担任过 Optimizely 的首席财务官。作为一名受过斯坦福大学培训、拥有财务和运营经验的工程师，他曾花费数年时间制作幻灯片，这些经历最终启发他重新思考人们如何创作和分享想法。如今，Gamma 的业务早已超越了演示文稿。TechCrunch 在 2026 年 3 月报道称，这家人工智能驱动的视觉交流平台在 2025 年实现 1 亿美元年度经常性收入后，用户数已接近 1 亿。该公司已持续扩展至网站、社交内容和人工智能生成的营销资产领域。对于早期阶段的创始人来说，这个故事中最有趣的部分远在 1 亿用户之前。你如何说服第一批人去尝试一家他们从未听说过的公司的产品，并将这种早期的吸引力转化为持续的动力？购买 Disrupt 大会门票，听听 Lee 关于如何从零开始建立客户群的见解。购买通行证最高可省 100 美元，第二张通行证还可享 5 折优惠。

Building without an established brand Elia Wallen brings another founder journey to the conversation. He started Travelers Haven in 2008 and bootstrapped it into one of the country’s largest corporate housing companies. He raised Engine’s first outside capital in 2019 and later shifted his full attention to the travel platform. Today, Engine has served more than 30,000 businesses and 2 million travelers and is cash-flow positive. Its growth continued in July when Engine acquired Options Travel, a travel management company with more than 30 years in the business, along with its group-flights product, TempoTrip. Wallen’s experience spans the stages early founders are trying to navigate: starting without an established brand, finding customers, building around what those customers need, and scaling from there. If your startup needs customers long before it has a large marketing operation, add this Builders Stage session to your Disrupt agenda. Register now and save up to $100, and get a second at 50% off.

在没有成熟品牌的情况下进行建设，Elia Wallen 为这场对话带来了另一段创始人旅程。他于 2008 年创办了 Travelers Haven，并通过自筹资金将其发展成为全美最大的企业住房公司之一。他在 2019 年为 Engine 筹集了第一笔外部资金，随后将全部精力转向该旅游平台。如今，Engine 已服务超过 30,000 家企业和 200 万名旅客，并实现了现金流为正。其增长在 7 月份持续，当时 Engine 收购了拥有 30 多年行业经验的差旅管理公司 Options Travel，以及其团体航班产品 TempoTrip。Wallen 的经验涵盖了早期创始人试图应对的各个阶段：在没有成熟品牌的情况下起步、寻找客户、围绕客户需求进行构建，并在此基础上实现规模化。如果你的初创公司在拥有庞大的营销业务之前就需要客户，请将这场“建设者舞台”会议加入你的 Disrupt 日程。立即注册，最高可节省 100 美元，第二张门票还可享 5 折优惠。

What does an investor see in early customer traction? Crystal Huang brings the investor’s view. As a general partner at GV, she concentrates on SaaS, infrastructure, and AI, with a particular interest in product- and developer-led adoption strategies. Before GV, she invested at NEA and Notable Capital and began her career in technology M&A at Blackstone。She’ll also be evaluating startups firsthand at Disrupt as one of this year’s Startup Battlefield 200 judges. Huang adds the investor lens: how early-stage companies approach product-led adoption and build momentum before they have the resources of an established business. Want to hear how a founder’s early go-to-market strategy looks from both sides of the table? Secure your Disrupt pass and hear from founders who have built customer bases and an investor who evaluates how companies grow. Save up to $100 on your pass, and get a second of the same pass at 50%.

投资者如何看待早期的客户吸引力？Crystal Huang 带来了投资者的视角。作为 GV 的普通合伙人，她专注于 SaaS、基础设施和人工智能，尤其关注产品驱动和开发者驱动的采用策略。在加入 GV 之前，她曾在 NEA 和 Notable Capital 从事投资工作，并于黑石集团（Blackstone）开启了她的科技并购职业生涯。她还将作为今年 Startup Battlefield 200 的评委之一，在 Disrupt 大会上亲身评估初创公司。Huang 提供了投资者的视角：早期公司如何在拥有成熟企业的资源之前，通过产品驱动的采用策略来建立发展势头。想听听从双方视角来看，创始人的早期市场进入策略是什么样的吗？锁定你的 Disrupt 通行证，听听那些已经建立起客户群的创始人和评估公司如何成长的投资者分享经验。购买通行证最高可省 100 美元，第二张同类通行证可享 5 折优惠。

Make more early-stage connections at Disrupt “The Zero-to-1K Playbook: How to Get Your First 1,000 Customers Without a Marketing Budget” is one of 200+ sessions across six industry stages, roundtables, and breakouts at Disrupt, taking place October 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco. More than 10,000 founders, investors, operators, and tech leaders are expected, along with 250+ speakers and 300+ exhibiting startups. And for founders trying to find customers, investors, partners, or simply other people who understand the zero-to-one grind, the conversations don’t end when the sessions do. Matchmaking, dealmaking, and ad hoc networking give attendees opportunities to make the connections that can move a young company forward. You may not have a big marketing budget yet. At Disrupt, you can hear how founders are finding early customers through strategies that don’t depend on one — and meet thousands of people building, funding, and buying what comes next. Explore your ticket options and lock in up to $100 in savings. Plus, get a second pass at 50% off.

在 Disrupt 大会上建立更多早期联系。“从零到一千的剧本：如何在没有营销预算的情况下获得最初的 1,000 名客户”是 Disrupt 大会 200 多场会议中的一场，这些会议分布在六个行业舞台、圆桌会议和分组讨论中，将于 10 月 13 日至 15 日在旧金山的 Moscone West 举行。预计将有超过 10,000 名创始人、投资者、运营者和科技领袖参加，同时还有 250 多位演讲嘉宾和 300 多家参展初创公司。对于那些试图寻找客户、投资者、合作伙伴，或者仅仅是寻找其他理解“从零到一”艰辛的人的创始人来说，对话并不会随着会议的结束而停止。配对、交易撮合和即兴社交活动为与会者提供了建立联系的机会，这些联系可以推动一家年轻的公司向前发展。你可能还没有庞大的营销预算。在 Disrupt 大会上，你可以了解到创始人是如何通过不依赖预算的策略来寻找早期客户的，并结识成千上万正在构建、投资和购买未来产品的人。探索你的门票选项，锁定最高 100 美元的优惠。此外，购买第二张通行证还可享受 5 折优惠。