Acquisitions have always been an exit. Now they're a playbook.
With OpenAI buying Hiro, Anthropic acquiring Vercept, Google taking the team behind Hume AI, and Databricks pulling in two startups for its security product, the past year has made one thing clear: being acquired is no longer just the end of a long road for founders—it can be part of their early-stage journey.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will tackle this shift head-on with a panel on the Builders Stage featuring three perspectives on how founders should think about M&A optionality before they're even looking to sell.
Aklil Ibssa, Head of Corporate Development and M&A at Coinbase, brings the buyer side. He oversees the company's acquisition strategy and has led more than 14 acquisitions and nearly 50 early- and later-stage investments. Since joining Coinbase's corporate development team early on, he's helped build an M&A program that's among the most active in crypto, with over 40 total completed acquisitions. Ibssa can speak to how strategic buyers evaluate young companies—whether for technology, talent, licenses, product velocity, and more—and can ground the conversation in real deals like Deribit, Liquifi, and Echo.
Lindsey Mignano, founder of Mignano Law Group, brings structural and legal expertise. She represents emerging technology companies, venture-backed startups, and venture firms as outside general counsel. Her practice spans SAFE notes, priced rounds, and bridge financings through buy-side and sell-side acquisitions and acqui-hires. Many of her clients are seed through Series B companies in enterprise SaaS, PaaS, and AI—exactly the companies now facing strategic interest. Mignano can ground the conversation in the realities of cap tables, contracts, and asset sales that determine whether early M&A deals actually reach the finish line.
Karl Alomar, managing partner at M13, adds the operator and investor lens. As COO of DigitalOcean, he helped build the cloud infrastructure company from its first product to roughly $250 million in ARR and an eventual NYSE IPO, with its valuation peaking around $15 billion. As a founder, he's also lived the acquisition cycle: China Export Finance grew to approximately $140 million in revenue before being acquired in 2010, and Clearview Networks was acquired in 2000. This dual experience gives him insight into the core question facing founders: When should they keep building with their team, and when is M&A the right path forward?
Disrupt 2026 runs October 13–15 at San Francisco's Moscone West. Through May 8 at 11:59 p.m. PT, attendees can buy one pass and get 50% off a second pass of the same ticket type.