I’m excited to announce the next three experts for the TechCrunch20 Conference in San Francisco this September. Caterina Fake, MC Hammer and Rajeev Motwani join the previously announced experts. The full Panel of Experts is here, and we will continue to announce new experts every week or so..
The Panel of Experts will assist us in selecting the twenty startups to launch at the conference and will participate at the conference in discussing and judging startups after their presentations. Our goal is to bring together a diverse group of hyper-intelligent and interesting individuals to make the event as exciting as possible.
Also, we’re pleased to announce the addition of the Mayfield Fund as a charter sponsor for TechCrunch20.
Registration for the event is here. Submit your company to launch at TechCrunch20 here. Keep up to date on the conference at the TechCrunch 20 blog.
Caterina Fake
Caterina Fake is an American businesswoman and entrepreneur. She is best known as the co-founder of Flickr, a photo-sharing service that was acquired by Yahoo, and a previous Art Director at Salon.com. She has won many awards, including Business Week’s Best Leaders of 2005, Forbes 2005 eGang, Fast Company’s Fast 50, and Red Herring’s 20 Entrepreneurs under 35 and the Time 100, Time Magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people. She sits on the board of Etsy and advises many startups. At Yahoo! Caterina runs strategy for Brickhouse, known for its Hack Yahoo! program, a stimulus to innovation and creativity.
MC Hammer
MC Hammer is an entrepreneur and American MC who brought rap music to a mass pop audience during the late 1980s and early 1990s, selling millions of copies of his chart topping albums. He is known for his important influence on hip hop culture and music. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Hammer released the patriotic album Active Duty on his own WorldHit label and donated portions of the proceeds to 9/11 charities. MC Hammer has a television show on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Hammer is an advisor to stealth Internet start-up Dance Jam.
Rajeev Motwani
Rajeev Motwani is a professor of computer science at Stanford University, where he also serves as the director of graduate studies. His research interests include: databases and data mining, web search and information retrieval, robotics, and theoretical computer science. He is a co-author of the book, Randomized Algorithms, published by Cambridge University Press. Motwani has received the Arthur P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the National Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, the Bergmann Memorial Award from the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation and an IBM Faculty Award.
I find the MC hammer thing offensive to black tech people. It seems like Mike is saying I found a great tech woman, a fantastic tech indian guy, oh and the best I could do from the black community was a rapper guy. Come on Mike, there are tons of smart insightful black tech people out there. Give one of them a break.
Hammer? While I like the guy’s energy and early music, I really fail to see what he brings to this conference except the feeling that you tried to get Paula Abdul but she was too busy.
If you were looking for an 80s musician with startup experience, why not Thomas Dolby of Beatnik. If you were looking for someone who lost millions of dollars (also true of Hammer) why not some .com Web 1.0 flameout like George Shaheen or that Tuzman guy from the movie Startup.com.
A really brilliant celebrity PR move would have been Will Ferrel and that small landlord.
I found the whole Indian tech guy stereotype offensive as well. There are a ton of Indian rappers out there. Come on Mike, couldnt you have found one of them, and given them a break?
But what about me? Can I PLEASE join my bud M-C Hammerin’ ?! (you all know he’s havin’ my next baby, right?! going to call ‘im Baby M-C of course!)
Betcha’ didn’t know it, but eye jus’ luv this whole webby 2.ohhhhh stuff!
Please. Please. Oh pretty please let me be a judge too!?
ps. Has anyone seen my wig?
velincho,
I know what you mean…surprised to see Rajeev fooling around with social networking stuff. The guy has played a key role in Google’s formation - http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum34/299.htm - he should stick with the ’serious stuff’
not very impressed with the rest on the panel, Hammer might bring a different perspective though
Is this rag on MC Hammer day?
What makes the other panelist who used to be an ‘Art Director’ any more qualified than a Rapper/entrepreneur. Just because the former got lucky w/startup succes, and has a ‘Mena-Trott-lke obsession with becoming well-known’ doesnt make her any more credible than MC Hammer.
Ok..one is employed by an Internet pioneer where an executive proudly distributed a ‘peanut butter manifesto’ dissiing his boss, colleagues and worker bees..puh-leeze.
We need some fresh voices/opinions frm those outside the ‘valley’ especially from people under-represented ‘in-the-valley.’
@ #44: But isn’t the idea to find ideas with long-term potential, rather than fads and/or novelties?
“thats why we pray, we’ve got to pray to get funding today”
Let’s see - we have a panel consisting of six white tech guys who have been variously successful in the tech industry. Three of them are solid - Cuban, Andreesen and Botha are clearly experienced in tech startups and ideas. Winer is on the edge - only moderately successful but with a solid track record. The other two (Scoble and Anderson) are just commentators. Then we have one (one!) woman - who regardless of her background deserves to be there because she brings some diversity. Om Malik is solid - a recent entrepreneur who is having success - kind of like Scoble and Anderson but with experience in this area. Motwani - not sure why an academic background helps here - but for the sake of argument lets say that he adds technological rigor (although Andreesen isn’t a slouch here). MC Hammer brings diversity, an entrepreneurial background that beats that of at least three of the other panelists so far (succeeding then failing still has that succeeding part in it). He is also the only primarily non tech person on the panel. If you can’t see why that’s an advanage then you are very shortsighted. In fact, if you bother to dig into everything he has been doing, he is by no means technologically unsophisticated.
Finally he brings marketing mojo.
But by all means - he should be dropped because after all the TechCrunch20 event was supposed to be just like all the other demo/VC pitch events in the valley - I believe that was the stated goal…
As a former journalist, diversity is key. It leads to better discussions and better decisions. Where are the Asians on this panel?
Most rappers are far better entrepreneurs than the average geek. They have to hustle to make money. They don’t sit around thinking of the next world-changing widget that will let you display your body temperature on your Myspace page, they go out and sell records from the back of cars. They know how to sell. Think a guy who just hacked something up in Python or Lisp knows much about selling something? Possibly, but unlikely.
I don’t see any harm in adding MC Hammer’s presence at the conference. For once, I’m defending TechCrunch. It’s unfair to say “this is just to get diversity.” That’s an awful argument because the same people hammer (sorry for the pun) TechCrunch for not having diversity. Let’s face it, the majority of technology geeks are men and are Caucasian, East Asian, or Indian. That’s reality. Does Major League Baseball go around saying “Man, we just don’t have enough Indians and Chinese guys playing for the Yankees.” No, they don’t. I’m not saying there isn’t any discrimination in the tech world, but let’s have some perspective too.
Kudos to Arrington. You’re a big enough star now that you can get the heavy hitters and the big boys care about what you think.
I like the idea; if our products and services are to reach a mass audience, then it has to be appealing to people who are not particularly seeped in the technology. All of these panels need someone to represent a view from the consumer (albeit in statistically dubious ways).
http://www.swarmski.com
How is inviting Carmen Elektra not a no-brainer here?
(slap up the side of the head) . . . you know who we’re all missing that should be really one of the panelists? . . .
Techcrunch’s own Heather Harde.
Who’d more qualified than her for something like this?
(an’ it probably wouldn’t cost you much more than dinner, Michael)
Judging by the number of comments, MC Hammer was a brilliant PR move…. can’t touch this….
Steve - I am assuming that Heather will be on the panel. And yes, she is very qualified.
IM IN UR CONFERENCE
SINGING MY RAP SONGS
CATERINA FAKE IS CANADIAN, NOT AMERICAN, AS YOU CLAIM.
Maybe you could ask Prince to join and sing the “Purple Rain” at the conference too
This is the lamest thing I’ve seen in a long time.
OMG - imagine when Hammer starts talking and we’re all supposed to sit back and ingest his wisdom.
Won’t happen!
There are so many celebrities that would have done this and way better - who organizes this? The joke is short lasting and i’m certainly not associating my startup with it
see: http://www.socialham.com/2007/05/11/mc-hammer-20/
I guessed at least 3 out of 5 of the first comments would be related to MC Hammer. Try about 70 out of 71. HAha
MC Hammer - He has a show on trinity??? Is that like a televangelist ala Tammy Faye Baker??? Hmm, “his important influence on hip hop culture” is like saying Vanilla Ice had an important influence on hip hop culture.
You boys are so far removed from street cred your making fools of yourselfs propping up MC Hammer…..
MC Hammer still has market appeal… But, Snoop Dogg still has more style…
Yes, Snoop for techcrunch20 in ‘08! He’s got lots of multimedia experience. Doesn’t he have his own label? Am I missing any of the other prereq’s?
C’mon, dude thinks ajax is for cleaning the sink.
Hammer 2.0: Can’t tag this!
I think when MC Hammer starts speaking at a Web 2.0 conference, it might be wise to consider whether it’s Bubble Time. This is not to say that MC Hammer has no qualifications to speak on issues related to entrepreneurship and media, but some of us remember all of the prominent figures (celebrities, athletes, etc.) who got involved with Internet startups during the first bubble.
Dude, MC Hammer? C’mon. That is freakin’ hilarious. Is Vanilla Ice the surprise guest for the conference?
I’m surprised at some of the comments in regards to Hammer. This is a tech news blog if I’m not mistaken. And for people who thrive at breaking tech news, what’s going on within the industry, and start-ups…then we all know that in addition to what Hammer has done with his music, record label, tv show, etc…you all know that as of late he’s been investing quite a significant amount of money in start-ups, right?
As I stated on Valley Wag- there’s definitely several of “us” (African Americans, women, and African American & a Woman) in tech who run successful start-ups, if you would just look outside of Silicon Valley. To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure if silicon valley is to ideal place to look for “exciting” ideas.
Granted, Mc Hammer is a an interesting choice and brilliant pr move. Plus, I am sure the idea of including internet pioneers like Ice T and Snoop Dog was entertained, but, smartly so, TC didn’t want an Imus incident on their hands.
Still, this seems like the tech version of the “old boys” club is at it again.
I didn’t think my startup has a chance at getting selected in TC20.
But if an application means getting on MC Hammer and TBN’s radar, I will try for that aspect alone! (seriously, MC Hammer is a respected voice in the Christian entrepreneurial community)
We can all learn something from Hammer. Get over yourself if you think otherwise. The guy was cutting edge and pushing development of audio technology and using computers before there was the internet, has experienced meteoric professional growth, crashed as defined by some people, and risen from the ashes all while maintaining humility and dignity. He’ll be the first to admit his prior mistakes and is open enough to share them publicly so the rest of us can learn from them. As it relates to business, entertainment/music wasn’t how Hammer got his first taste of high $$ dealings, he was essentially running the Oakland A’s in his teenage years for Walter Haas.
I pity the fool who doesn’t invite Mr T to the next Web 2.0 conference.
Dude. Motwani is superfreaky.