AOL, Yahoo To Launch New Products At TechCrunch40

Make em eligible for the $50K. That way the winner can say they beat two multi billion dollar companies.

Hey! Where is my personal invitation? Don’t you people that we are about to launch SUTU?

http://fakesteveballmer.blogsp.....oming.html

Is there still going to be a big announcement tomorrow? Also, you should give the uncov guys some tickets, Mike.

It’s been 2 minutes and I am still waiting, …. Techcrunch ………. hellooooo …. helloooo!

http://fakesteveballmer.blogsp.....oming.html

Do you know what the products are or if they have already launched in beta?

And honestly, can we have little Ballmer’s comments auto deleted? This is getting ridiculous.

Mike: might want to change the TC20 to TC40 in the toolbar.

this should be an interesting event to follow.

good luck to all, lol - 35 of these will most likely fail.

Lawrence to define failure you must define success -

if success is selling out for millions your probably giving too much credit …to the market and to the ideas …

if success is making a living for the founders - you probably low -

-.rb

i am kinda against the big co’s being involved. not sure why but I am.

Is the event going to be Internet-video streamed? It’d be cool to see the products launched live.

40 products = 1 minute look at each, and never stepping onto that site again.

20 products = 5 minute look at each, and maybe sticking around if you like what you see.

40 products is just too much

hmmm…wonder what will Yahoo launch? Kickstart perhaps

Andrew, you could always host your own conference and set it up any way you want.

So let’s see you already have AOL and Yahoo, with one more “BigCo” coming. So my thoughts jump immediately to Microsoft & Google. Any one else have any guesses?

I bet they will officially launch their new hot jobs facebook app that’s in beta

Do any of these products or the 40 startups have anything to do with having their friends’, family or contacts voice-mails wake them up?

http://www.justin.tv/socialalarmclock

@13…its just that 40 is too damn many. Do you really think 40 of them are out of this world applications? Probably not…at least at 20 there was some competitition. With 40…I can almost guarantee you that we’ll see a few social networks, and a few facebook apps in the list.

The oldies want to steal the heat from the startups.

http://www.imageblox.com

hmm, this is becoming more like the Demo conference

READERS POLL -

If you are a super-hot company, do you think that you

a.) Increase your odds of funding by exposing your company in front of a lot of people which include competitors and tire-kickers investors..

or would you be better off by..

b.) Keeping tight wraps on your deal and selectively showing it to the pick of the litter of investors on hopefully your terms.

?

Answer either wiith A or B and why..

what does AOL have up their sleeves now? Must be some other Video thingie related to Truveo. Or perhaps the next generation magnet?

i wonder only one thing

will company on stage have to give out crunchbase link or can they give out actual direct url to this product.

This is much ado about ARRINGTON. Come on, 40 companies? This has nothing to do with them but more about pumping up Mike’s image in the vallley. This is crap.

@ Andrew #17 (and Dominic #23, for that matter). If you paid to go to the conference and are now upset, I’ll accept your complaint as valid and suggest you try to ask for your money back on the basis of you thought you were buying one product that turned out to be another product.

If you didn’t pay then “wah wah wah wah wah” sums up my thoughts pretty well.

P.S. if it were just the *TC10* you could still probably guarantee social networks, and facebook applications would be represented…

yeah i don’t really like that the big guys are releasing products at this event…especially if they aren’t included in the competition. they should either be in the competition, or not in the event at all.

having them there but not in the competition makes me think of some kind of lame corporate advertising agenda. they will also overshadow the true competitors.

and if aol and yahoo show up, and another biggie, the pot for the winners should be more than $50k. you doubled the size from 20 to 40, so double the prize from $50k to $250k. werd.

I thought going to 40 was a a bit weak, but having the big boys launch their products in the same show takes away the promise of a exclusive spotlight and kind of defeats the spirit of TC20 and what was promised. We all love TC, but this TC20, to TC40, to TC42+ is kind of tarnishing your brand, Michael. This is unless the boys were going to launch regardless, and you were forced into inviting them to keep the press on TC40ish.

A lot of the criticism is big fish/small pond mentality. The cream will rise to the top regardless - and for the first time very small startups will have a very large stage to show their stuff. We now have journalists coming to the event that usually only cover big co stuff. They will no be exposed to some new small co stuff, too. That’s a good thing.

If we’re wrong, we’ll make tweaks for the next one. The key is to evolve this over time into the perfect event for all participants.

Michael,
With all due respect, I think it’s a bit callous to evolve on other’s expense. There are many entrepreneurs who have invested a great deal of time and money in their products. Organizing this event is no doubt a great deed, but you are benefiting from it financially and it servers to make you a stronger force in the industry. You have nothing to lose and so it’s easy to play petri dish. However, to a lot of people who applied were lured with the promise of being the only 20 exclusive companies in front of an influential group of judges and audience. It’s fair to say you are reneging on that. Of course none of the original 20 selected companies are going to be vocal lest antagonizing you, but it wouldn’t surprise me if one of them makes false advertisement claims against you.

Thanks for the input James, but evolving is all I ever promise. And of course we have a lot to lose on the event if it goes badly.

I don’t think any of the companies are going to be suing us for false advertising or anything else, but you never know I guess. What we’re hearing so far is a lot of happiness because we’ve changed the way the industry works. The Web 2.0 conference, for example, has stopped charging for company demos this year. And I believe Demo will eventually have to lower their entrance fees or abandon charging startups for providing all their content.

At the end of the day, we’re giving these companies a stage and a thousand people and a ton of press from bloggers and mainstream media. Not much more I can offer them right now. No one has said they want out, but I would certainly not try to stop them or hold it against them in any way.

Hope you feel better soon.

When I was in high school my best friend was asked to go to the movies by this cute guy that everybody had a crush on. She sold her bicycle so she could buy a new dress. She spent all week figuring out how she should fix her hair and makeup, what she should talk about, etc. etc. She was so excited.

They were supposed to go out Friday night. At school that afternoon, he told her he had invited his older brother’s girlfriend to the movies, because they had just broken up and she was real down, but my friend could still come, too, if she wanted to.

To my surprise, she went. She said she had too much invested and, anyway, at least it was still a chance to spend some time with him and make an impression.

And guess what happened? She caught the eye of the older brother and wound up marrying him. They have five kids.

The moral of the story as it relates to TechCrunch40?
Hell if I know.

Michael - for you to take in nearly $1 million in ticket sales (might be more as I am being conservative) and suggest that it may only be “ok” or that you will “learn for next time” is mind blowing. When you and Jason and Heather sit back on your pile of cash (remember sponsors are probably paying for a majority of the event), i hope you all can agree that it went well. I guess I need to wait for the blogger reports to see.

Sure you give people a 3 minute stage to show off their product, but you take $2500 for a 2 day infomercial. Who else does this? Find me another conference that charges $2500 for 2 days with the only value is of listening to demos and having hammer get down.

It seems like you are already a bit nervous. With all of these addons over the past week, I am not surprised. But its important to own the space so gotta jam everything in. It sure seems like the initial topic of coverage has been forgotten in the demos of aol yahoo and the keynote speaks.

#28 - no false advertisement claims will be made.

Hear Hear..
Techcrunch40+2+….

For those who can afford going to this event or for those who are sent by their company: wannago.com helps people meet and get connected before or at the event. See who might wanna go ( similar interests ).
http://wannago.com/Event/674

See you there,

I suppose it’s inevitable that a geek conference would suffer from feature creep.

My suggestions:
1) Maryam Scoble gives birth on stage
2) A boxing match between Jason Calacanis and Dave Winer with “robust audience participation”
3) A marching band

btw, anyone who needs a respite from the main floor can come see me in the DemoPit, where you can enjoy M&Ms that taste all the better with my company logo on them. You can also potentially win a free hand drawn caricature of yourself.

Details are at http://www.myfridj.com

@dawn
I am sure after sitting in for hours listining to multiple pitches, demos, guest speakers and yahoo, aol, google and everone else’s demo, the audience would want to take a break and listen to yet more demos, instead of catching up with their emails, voicemails or a bite to eat.

Hey look at the bright side, you’ll have a life time supply of M&Ms to remind you of TC40ish.

I’m not concerned, James. Unlike the 40 who have to keep their participation quiet, I was able to send packets to every VC firm that’s listed. I just sent them out on Saturday, and I’m already starting to get responses. TC40+ is on people’s minds, and right now, I’m not having to compete with anybody else for attention.

I’ve even been invited to a dinner or the 20th!

My company couldn’t be one of the 40, because we aren’t actually launching, but the way this has turned out, I think we’ve gotten a better deal. Do the 40 even have a place to meet interested parties for discussion after their few minutes on stage? I’ve got a table for all of Monday, tucked away in another room, away from the noise. I’m already starting to make appointments to meet people there.

Wish I did have a life time supply of M&Ms, James! Sadly, it’s only 10 lbs.

That’s great work, Dawn!

I guess my question is then why did you even need the TC40ish? I am guessing you paid $2500 for a table, what are you gaining, that you wouldn’t otherwise on your own. I did take a look at your site, and you have done a clever work making it look like you are part of TC40, meaning if some of the audience are not paying attention, they may take you as one of the top 40 companies and not just a person who paid for a table.

Also, I thought the paid tables were only for people who applied for tc20, and you had to be launching there ???

We’ll I’ll watch your blog and see how it goes, and I wish you luck.

James, I do clearly say on the site that we are in the DemoPit. People who know about TC40 will understand, and our status makes absolutely no difference to those who don’t know.

Of course, we did apply for TC20 and were one of the chosen 100. At the time I applied, I thought we’d be launching by now, but I ran into a wall with the development. I need people with more cutting-edge abilities than I have access to now. The first person I hire will be a CTO who can put together two solid teams: web and mobile. If you know somebody with proven abilities…

As for your question of what we’re getting out of it… Despite the chaos so far, and concerns I suspect we share, I remain optimistic that the event itself will be well executed. In any case, it will be very interesting to witness and be a part of. Whether it’s a success or a failure for TechCrunch the brand (I do sincerely hope it’s the former), either way, it means great exposure and networking opportunities for those who are going to this, the first one.

What do you mean by you “were one of the chosen 100″? I thought everyone who applied and did not get in, got one of those invitations, but it was FCFS to the first 100 groups.

Finding the CTO is the key, because most of them who are good and business smart are doing their own thing, so good luck with that. It’s already success for TC, financially and brand building in outside world. However, I think in community that TC was started from, they will lose credibility and open up room for others to enter in.

I just meant we were one of the 100 finalists. The 40 were picked from that 100.

TC has definitely taken a hit, given the emails I get. I think because I’m a woman and bluntly outspoken, people are comfortable venting to me. I totally agree that regarding the application and selection process, communication and organization were poor. They bit off more than they could execute well, that’s for sure. I think they underestimated what the response would be and how long it would take to review the applications and do the interviews. There clearly weren’t enough resources in place. But this is the first one, so I’m willing to be forgiving, keep an open mind, and hope that the actual event will go off much more smoothly, as surely they’ve hired professional event planners. All that selection stuff, they couldn’t turn over to somebody else, and yet they still had their regular duties to perform.

As for others entering, that isn’t going to be as easy as it may sound. TechCrunch has a very strong foundational hold on this space and like him or not, Michael Arrington is still the best at writing startup news. The best I’ve read, anyway, by far. Even the others here on TC don’t come close to him. Yes, he can be annoyingly arrogant, but it often takes arrogance to collect good stories.