I am very excited to announce a new conference, called the TechCrunch20. This is a joint venture between us (TechCrunch) and Jason Calacanis, who broke the news about this earlier today. The format is simple: Twenty of the hottest new startups will announce and demo their products over a two day period. And they don’t pay a cent to do this. They will be selected to participate based on merit alone.
Many tech conferences today allow startups to pitch and demo their products to their attendees, although there is almost always a hefty fee involved that ranges from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. DEMO, where I am currently, is probably the quintessential example of this model. The entire conference is paid startup demos. There are way too many to digest—60—and it is a well known secret that if you are willing to pay the $15,000+ fee, your startup will really need to suck to be turned down.
While conferences like DEMO are extremely lucrative for the organizers, I’m not sure the startups or attendees attending get much out of it other than a great networking event. There are too many startups for press to give even passing coverage to many of them, and attendees are lost in a sea of pitches that all begin to blur together.
And there is a serious conflict of interest at the conference level. The economics of the event dictate that a certain number of startups must be accepted for a certain fee. Attendees don’t know if they’re really seeing the best startups, or just the best startups that are willing to pay the exorbitant participation fee. A few (or a lot of) duds always make their way in.
Many of the hottest startups over the past couple of years—Digg, YouTube, StumbleUpon and many others—didn’t have the money in the early days to spend on DEMO and other conferences, and so they didn’t participate. We want to give the future YouTube’s a platform to announce those products.
The TechCrunch20 Conference
Jason and I are going to do something a lot different than the pay-to-demo model. The TechCrunch20 conference will be a two day event, held this fall (more details soon), where twenty hot startups will demo their new products—and they don’t pay a dime to do this.
The startups will be invited based on the recommendation of a committee of expert analysts, entrepreneurs and journalists. Twenty companies will be invited, plus a couple of alternates. If a selected startup isn’t ready to launch ten days or so before the event, they’ll be bumped and one of the alternates will take its place.
Jason is the perfect partner for us to work with on this conference. He’s a successful entrepreneur and has held large startup-focused conferences in the past. It is our hope that his experience and our access to new startups will be a winning combination.
More details on the TechCrunch20 conference will be announced soon.
Awesome should be a great thing to attend and cover.
Great news Mike.
Hey, can anybody tell me, if TechCrunch will held a conference in 2009 as well?
Thank you for your help!
Web 3.0 funding starts in the Fall or 2007.
Great idea!
Any chance of doing a UK version once you’ve relaunched TCUK (which I’m hoping will happen soon!)? I think it would really help the ecosystem, and help get press coverage for good UK startups.
Great idea, Mike. The payola model is very flawed.
Sounds great! While you mention not having a high cost for participation for startups, what about attendees? It seems that a number of conferences that I’ve attended, cost was both a good and bad thing.
If it costs too much, it potentially keeps some truly interesting people from coming. If it costs too little, it turns into something to do for people who have nothing better to do.
Nevertheless, should be interesting. Congrats on the new conference.
Randy Stewart
randy@boxbe.com
Michael,
Are you inviting bloggers and podcasters to participate as well? I am always looking to feature new companies and individuals on the Interviews Podcast.
We (Snoozester) would be very interested in participating if at all possible. This sounds like a great idea!
Michael, just like you say that there’s a conflict of interest because these are PAID demos, TechCrunch20 will experience the same. The startups that are likely to be picked will probably be those of the well-connected entrepreneurs who know you or Jason personally (oh, wait, you call it a “committee”). So don’t make it sound like you are catering to the little guy in the garage
Finally, Mike. Great call – we’ll be talking about this one soon
Sounds like a great conference this fall. Interestingly, it is the same model Eric Olson and I use for our TECH cocktail events, as companies do not pay a dime to demo.
Congrats to Mike and Jason – should be exciting and a well put together presentation. I hope I can be a part of it!
Our recently funded startup would definitely also be interested in participating (or at least applying to participate). Have the 20 already been picked or do we still have a chance to “try out”?
Nice One. I always thought the DEMO model was flawed. What will be your definition of startup? Launched this year?
Michael
A major benefit that DEMO provides is it opens doors to companies outside the inbred world of Silicon Valley. My company presented at DEMO and it was worth every dime. We are located in the heartland, and we don’t have any ‘familiar’ names on our Board. The press we received opened doors that have helped to make us a profitable company- the old fashioned way- with revenues. The press I am referring to was mainline- newspapers, radio and TV stations, print and online magazines. We were ignored by your contemporaries as we didnt fit into the latest Web 2.0 craze. That’s ok- you have a right to cover what you wish. But now you propose to create a conference where you control the game from start to finish: who sits on your board, who gets invited, who gets to attend, what bloggers and writers get to review. Too many bloggers write glowing reviews about products that advertise on their blogs, companies founded by their friends or where they sit on the board.
If you are going to succeed, you will have to prove to the rest of us that TechCrunch 20 will in fact be open, honest and fair. You can start by having your readership elect your board which should be diverse and not all related to TechCrunch in some way. This would help make sure that you aren’t the next conference criticized for a conflict of interest.
Great idea! I completely agreed with you (Michael) on the DEMO conference. Will you be charging the attendees?
John
Great idea, Michael!
We certainly fell into this category, too. $0 leaves very little room for payola.
Can’t wait to see what stars you guys dig up…
Don
Smart move. Really smart move.
Congratulations on the launch of your event. The industry needs more venues to promote entrepreneurs and new technology.
While it is true that DEMO charges companies a fee to participate, DEMO does not take any company just because it can pay a fee. We don’t need to. More than 300 companies look to be a part of DEMO — we accept no more than 70. In fact, Guidewire Group meets with more than 1,000 companies a year – at no cost to those companies. It’s true that not all great companies can afford to be at DEMO, so Guidewire Group works with them to help them meet potential investors. NetworkWorld, the producer of DEMO, works with companies on payment terms.
And the media? Their “passing coverage” generated 250,000,000 media impressions, and that number doesn’t include unaudited blog coverage.
As a guest of a number of DEMO events over the past years, you must be finding some value here — you keep coming back. I hope you’re new event continues that tradition of delivering a valuable venue that supports entrepreneurs.
So how will the conference be funded?
Michael,
I too am at DEMO. Can we connect?
David
@MH: User-generated funding
lol
Great news Michael
Congratulations
I like the idea. However, if you limit the conference presenters to 15 companies why don’t you just call it the Sequoia Capital conference?
I think conferences focused on regional deal flow or a specific technology are more effective for networking and finding investors.
Mike…Please include “having a good business model” as part of the criteria.
@permanent hater;
Networking yourself out really isn’t that difficult. Everyone starts at zero on the “friends list” and works their way up. Getting to know cool people is part of being an entrepreneur. Blogs are a big help – If you’re a regular commenter and an interesting person in general, you’re bound to connect to someone. Although, I’d bet the name you choose to put on your comments might hurt ya a little bit
Even so, I’m sure you don’t have to personally know Mike or Jason to get on board. If you’re a cool startup and people are aware of you, word will get out.
This is a good idea… Everyone gets shamed for taking an investment that they “dont need”, but then they also don’t get any coverage from lack of visibility in conferences such as DEMO.
Again, choose wisely… and it’s a great idea.
Hey Michael –
This sounds very exciting! What is the criteria for “launch”? Does it have to be a product that has an open sign-up component? We are working on something that will be available in the next few months, but may not have an open sign-up for a long time…
Thanks,
K.
That is great !!! I just check DEMO….but this sure will be great. Best of luck Mike
While I have attended many conferences, what the benefit for start-ups is dependent on who is at the event. VCs, press, bloggers, potential customers and so forth. I think your conference sounds awesome but Demo is amazing as well. I have been on the pitching end of companies and know first hand how selective they are and competitive it is. I believe the cost incorporates high end production for the demos as well as the high end printing and promotion and signage as well as badges for the start-up’s teams. I think an event with you and Jason behind it will be a wonderful opportunity for companies, but Demo is too.
@Robert Dewey: You raise valid points, but it doesn’t make TechCrunch20 any less biased than DEMO may be. If anything, I prefer to see a startup that can fork $18K (because they really believe in their product) than a Friends-of-Mike gathering.
Indeed this was not the best nickname I could have chosen for myself, but heck, this is what I do for fun while working out of a cafe all day. I do have a real identity out there…
(and I guess this is where Michael pulls out the access_logs…)
haha
I wish we had a UK version of TechCrunch 20- It would have been just in time for our recently funded startup Kwiqq.
Any plans for a UK TC20, Michael?
Great News!
pity i can’t be there, but…at least i can continue read your blog
Amazing idea!
Being TechCrunch followers, We expect live coverage
Youtube is not bad either.
Michael,
We would be pleased to provide an introNetwork for the event – as you said, the conference will be a great networking opportunity. We would love to help you in this first conference.
As you well know we have great experience in these types of conferences and provide great value to the participants and great analytics for the organizers.
Give us a call,
Mark@intronetworks.com
wow! when did this love-fest begin between Arrington and Calacanis? didn’t calacanis say “who the hell is mike arrington” and “i heard you could buy a review on techcrunch” just six months ago?
http://www.crun...otes.com/?p=221
good idea. The reason I don’t demo Tamago at DEMO is cause I think its stupid to pay to demo. Especially at the start-up level. Its like the Angel groups wanting you to pay to pitch.
Love the idea Michael, great move !!
I cross my fingers for our mobile start up to get picked, that is an awesome opportunity that you are giving to us, entrepreneurs, to show case what we believe can be the next killer app.
looking forward to get more info about the application process
good luck!
This is awesome concept. You are addressing atleast one of the two issues for young companies to showcase their ideas.
First is the Issue of having to payup to present at the conference.
The other is a Startups ability to be already in bed with “… a committee of expert analysts, entrepreneurs and journalists.” as you put it.
The problem with “a committee of expert analysts, entrepreneurs and journalists” is that they evaluate technologies and companies not from a “users” or “need” perspective but really as a project at hand. So they are often tired/bored to review small great ideas and get into the trap of reviewing something thats already popular and around the corner for the next DEMO conference with their new fresh round of funding.
So how do you get to focus on the less popular, merely out of the door companies with not much buzz going.
Rahul
That has to be the nicest thing done in SV for entrepreneurs.
* hands you and Jason a karma point
Sounds great you guys. Only the best new startups and no BS. Can’t wait to hear more!
You are the man, Arrington.
Some of you are pretty funny. This is just TechCrunch offline. If your startup wasn’t worth the time to be featured on TechCrunch.com, what makes you think you’re worth the time to be featured on a 20 company panel?
Jason already kind of hinted that it’s going to be a small affair, 250 or so people, which means it’s about 1/4th of people that went to TechCrunch 7. The people attending will be bearing the cost of this demo-con.
This isn’t some magic elixir where shitty websites gets the time of the day. Honestly, if you’re not even able to get blogplay and buzz online, how can you transfer that to be offline? If anything this is just going to be more exclusive kind of hubris party.
Cool… where do we sign up?
I wanna see real startups with actual business models. Some of these startups at DEMO 07 are laughable. Had I known about the 15K fee… I’m not sure I would have come.
Great idea Mike. Though I don’t expect Jason would allow PayPerPost to participate in a million years : )
To tell ya the truth, I don’t think Mike would either
A closet Web 2.0 entrepreneur, aiming to come out of the closet soon, has been chewing on what he believes to be a ‘eureka moment’ idea and business plan of piping hot potential. 15 months of cud so far, with website design and implementaion in embryonic stage. Questions:
1) Better to launch a.s.a.p., or be part of the TechCrunch20 this Fall? A.s.a.p. could mean having first mover advantage.
2) If being a ‘hot new startup’ at TC20 means you’re cracking champagne on the bow of your Web 2.0 ship at the event … then by definition you don’t need a polished (website) product yet. Correct?
3) How best can an entrepreneur, by himself, with thin wallet, put together a presentation that will WoW the judges? Getting a golden ticket to the chocolate factory could make waiting several extra months, a wait well worth waiting for. Right???
I have to chime in on this one. Its an interesting idea, but still flawed for a variety of reasons. The upfront fee, such as that for DEMO is NOT the gating factor for most startups actually. What I can tell you about DEMO model is this: It does work. Sure the figures seem quite daunting at first blush, but just hold on a sec folks. I launched my company there in 2003, paid the fee, got my six minutes, was crowned DemoGod that year, and went on to convert the 6 minutes it into 5 years of unprecedented publicity, valuable connections, peer industry visibility, venture financing, and most importantly, web traffic. All told, probably worth a few million in marketing dollars that we never had to spend.
I went from being a huge skeptic to being probably the only company invited back 3 years in a row with a new killer app each time. Each time I groaned about the pricing model up front, and each time it was the easiest money spent.
In summary you MUST be very well prepared for DEMO in order to leverage your 6 minutes and your DEMO booth of your product over 2 days (yes its more than just six minutes on stage) and convert it to this kind of value. I witnessed several companies show up totally unprepared and fall on their asses on the stage and around the show. Its not for everyone, but for start up pros, its a marketing machine for your newco. The concept is genius, and wildly effective. 6 minutes, in or out. Live or die. It would be a VC’s dream if EVERY startup that they were forced to take a meeting with could cut to the chase in 6 minutes. Trust me, it shapes your thinking for every move you make inside your company from that day on. Call it the “DEMO effect” — just one of those intangibles I mentioned… ping me for more.
Is there room for YASUC (yet another start-up conference)? Sure there is! But I wouldn’t underestimate Chris Shipley nor DEMO for that matter. They pioneered this, and there are several intangibles that they both bring to the conference experience that make it worth attending. Always room for disruptive models, most certainly. It moves the whole industry forward, and this pairing with TechCrunch is a powerful combo for sure! This should be fun to watch. Can I be first company signed on for T20??
MOG wants in! : )
Awesome! I’m looking forward to the details about how to sign up, attend, etc.
Mike, you must have been reading the old Techcrunch UK posts, as this is exactly the same concept that was announced by Sam Sethi & Mike Butcher, albeit it was to be held in the UK. Obviously they weren’t able to see this through with TCUK because you closed them down for proposing to run events that “competed” with other conferences. Guess you’ve had a change of view about the clash with conferences you cover.