Mark Wahlberg speaks at Disrupt 2026.
Slava Blazer for TechCrunch
It’s all embarrassing, right? Well, here’s some good news: there were significant differences between the vibe emissions of the leaders mentioned above and the vibe emissions of the startup founders I met while walking the Disrupt floor.
Generally speaking, the founders I spoke to personally are not even remotely responsible for the big AI models and agents that are causing most of the public’s anxiety. They are not members of the AI technological elite. (Still?) Instead, I would put them in the “craftsmen and craftsmen” class. They use raw resources from the earth (i.e. foundational models) to create what they hope will be interesting new products for people.
I met founders who traveled to San Francisco from all over the country, and of course, while I occasionally heard some eye-roll-worthy marketing pitches, I was also struck by a surprising degree of seriousness, an emphasis on security, and a desire to deliver results for people rather than more dystopian discussions about agents, agents everywhere.
None of them would have AI billboards in downtown San Francisco because their target customers are not the type that works in downtown San Francisco.
And here’s another surprising (well, at least to me) conclusion: almost all of the founders I met were women. You met them in this article and some of those not included here may appear in future coverage. To be clear, I only stopped by the kiosks to see products that interested me, so perhaps the developers over-index the topics that pique my curiosity. Or maybe women are simply at the forefront of whatever AI is about to become.
She’s not a founder, but video creator Angel Wen captured the AI vibes of Disrupt 2026 pretty well: young, serious, ambitious, and saturated with AI development tools. We had a random encounter at a high-tech office chair booth and she shared her Instagram, which is packed with tool demos, tips, and an amazing project on how to get ahead in San Francisco’s AI scene.
Wen didn’t seem aware of the broader public conversation about a possible bursting of the AI bubble, so I pointed him to some podcasts by Chris Hayes, Ezra Klein, and Kara Swisher. The startup founders I interviewed also never addressed any display of outrage on my AI Mood Board. After Disrupt ended, I tracked reactions to emerging public opinion about AI: concerns about data centers, Hugging Face, and the apocalyptic threat of AI.
Your answers? They emphasized the safety of the product, but the responses were remarkably bland. No one acknowledged the depth of public concern and their responses revolved around messages typical of a founder looking to build a business.
I think my most calming AI vibes came from Sit Sense founder Justin Scott. His company makes an “automated medical recliner” that helps reposition patients in the chair to prevent pressure injuries and promote blood flow.
I asked Scott to describe his views on AI. “We don’t actually have an AI angle right now,” he said. “We have a solution and we don’t need to overcomplicate it by adding AI.”
