Ouch…mEgo Gets Kicked Out Of DEMO Conference
Michael Arrington
31 comments »
Well this was inevitable I guess. mEgo has been booted out of the DEMO conference. The reason? They showed their stuff at TechCrunch40 last week. Our coverage of them is here.
That’s a bit rough on the company, since many of the presenting startups at DEMO are already launched and have tons of press out there about them. In this case, mEgo may have simply been the sacrificial lamb in DEMO’s desire to prove a point.
The worst part about the whole ordeal is that mEgo has been told they won’t get the $18,000 back that they paid to participate in DEMO. mEgo says that while DEMO has the right to kick them out of the conference, they don’t have the right to keep the $18k under the contract.
Frankly, this is probably good news for mEgo, who’ll now get far more attention than they would have if they had actually gotten on stage. But it’s also a warning to other startups: Don’t screw with DEMO - they hit back.
Just an aside - mEgo was one of my personal favorites at TechCrunch40. Make sure to check out the service.
Well but Mego keeps hitting headlines
Well they still have chance to come back.
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Mike, Make Techcrunch40 videos available
Digg this : http://digg.com/tech_news/Requ....._available
Pssst! WordPress “phones home”.
See:
http://comox.textdrive.com/pip.....14904.html
I thought the service might be interesting, but the two women came off as completely drunk and not with it. Their slides had LARGE errors in spelling and grammar as well. I don’t know if anyone took their presentation or service seriously — at least on the chat no one did.
Too bad they didn’t get a shot at DEMO - might have been another chance to get some better press.
I didn’t even get a writeup in as it was just too funny:
http://www.centernetworks.com/.....ertainment
More here:
http://wank.wordpress.com/2007.....hone-home/
that’s a bit harsh, Allen…the drunk comment specifically.
It was a group consensus that believed that, not just me. There was more chuckling and laughing unfortunately during that presentation than any other one - even the one where no one stood at the podium.
I just got an email from Ariel and look forward to chatting with her some more and learning more about mEgo.
Off to NewTeeVee - hope I can meet Om!
I didn’t think they were drunk. I thought they brought some good energy to the stage, regardless of what you thought of the product (which I happened to think was interesting as well).
“I thought the service might be interesting, but the two women came off as completely drunk and not with it.”
Sounds like 2 future customers of BeerCo Software Corporation to me. If mEgo wants development help, at BeerCo, we don’t judge. We can also launch a smear campaign against DEMO until they give you your money back. At least we can try to.
No refund? I’m done with DEMO.
DEMO messed up bad on this one. More importantly, mego is really cool. I just signed up and had a blast making my mego!
I heard the mego presentation was pretty interesting - and from the while i’ve spent on their site, the product looks solid (some mac integration problems, but life goes on).
Demo should be ashamed. Give them their cash back you cheap pricks.
but that’s just one guy’s opinion
in a day and age of law suits someone over at Demo really needs to take a look at their legal standings on this.
This is stupid because which startup is going to shellout that sort of cash for a maybe.
I will never be showing my stuff there if I ever get the budget too that is…
The Mego girls are hottt! Great company too!
Wow. Who runs DEMO? My sister at six years old doesn’t even shut out her friends because they talk to people she doesn’t like.
Way to do business DEMO. And good luck keeping the 18k. I am sure there will be a hoopla if you don’t give it back with all this press now. You look like the bad guy!
I liked them, the were a good bunch and up for a laugh, DEMO, I know personally one company two years old in the line up, I am sure Mike knows who I am talking about.
Give em back their bucks Chris, comes off cheap
Wow that’s gotta suck.
I just wonder though… Mike, the same rules were on for TC40 - you had to launch at the conference right? So if someone had blatantly broken the rules and demo’d at another conference, would you have kicked them?
Getting kicked out is probably punishment enough, keeping their money just gives it serious bite
But i think we all agree here - fair enough to kick em out, but jeez give em their money back.
I loved the mEgo idea and product.
I also thought the girls were just having a great time presenting… so much better than a boring sales pitch.
FYI - I had a good conversation this evening with both founders of mEgo. We will post a review after finishing making tweaks based on user feedback. It turns out that they went on stage right after the “mysterious presenter” which was probably a bit tough on them, they had to get the crowd re-excited after Jason booted the previous startup off-stage. They were open to my feedback and I look forward to a full demo so I can get excited about the product as well.
Nice ad for your conference Mike.
Hold on a minute, everyone participating at DEMO knows the rules and the point of the program. I can’t believe for a moment that mEgo didn’t have a clue about what they were doing. Come on everyone, grow up, business is business. If these women are truly leading their company than they knew better. If they didn’t, then they shouldn’t be in business…no refund for them.
McGee… must disagree with you on this. If Demo had 1/2 half a brain, they would have figured out that the negative PR they are going to get for this far exceeds $18K.
Not smart business
P.S. Really enjoyed using the mEgo service and the 2 founders were actually very credible on stage. The proof is in the pudding: their software is good!
My operatives at DEMO had them booted because TC40 ticked me off!
Get the message people?
Send next year’s invitation early ….
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
@10 Chris R, with the amount of time you spend here and yacking about nothing on your own blog, its painfully obvious that you have no real work to do. Tip: if you’re going to put a picture of yourself on your corporate website, at least try not to look like a serial killer.
is this really news?
first the gossip about Pay per post, now this….
its just getting annoying
This just changes the risk return relationship for companies to attend DEMO. Personally I would much rather show stuff at the TC40 now. Seems more friendly.
Steve