I am very happy to announce the first (of many, hopefully) annual Crunchies, a year-end startup competition and award ceremony/party that we are coordinating with three other blog networks – GigaOm, Read/WriteWeb and Venturebeat (click on the links to see their coverage).
More details will be coming soon, but the idea is to let the community decide who to nominate, and who wins, in a number of award categories. And the whole thing will be topped off with a big award ceremony and party in San Francisco. Who are the most compelling startups of the year? We’ll know soon.
There will be sponsors for this event (see the event page for details if you would like to participate). Big thanks to Sun Microsystems Business Analytics for stepping up to be the charter sponsor of the Crunchies.
On a side note, the four participating blogs will be sharing the decision making process and the economics of the event. This is what I love best about blogging – even though we all compete very hard, we recognize that there is a community around what we do, and sometimes it’s important that we band together as part of that community.
Can’t wait to see the details…so far, we’ve applied for a few conference deal-o’s & haven’t made the cut.
For the last one, I wrote in & asked if traffic to the start up was factored into the decision…I never heard back.
However, after I saw the list of presenters, I realized it wasn’t anywhere in the decision making process.
For the Crunchies, are those start ups who’ve been growing fast for a year, but have been around for nearly five years eligible? I can show our LLC paperwork from this year, as it’s the year we formally organized the business.
The Crunchies?? Who came up with that name?
That’s a great idea Michael, it’s one of those “I can’t believe it doesn’t exist already!”
“the four participating blogs will be sharing the decision making process” – are the criteria established yet? is it more business merit, technical merit or both? or something else altogether?
Crunchies is a fantastic name, except Brits will envisage a caramel honeycomb bar encrusted in chocolate.
db
Not sure about the name, fan of the idea. And that font (for the Crunchies logo), Mike, it makes my eyes bleed!
It’s great idea.
Congratulation.
Hey Fred. Long time.
Sounds good Michael!
And agreed about the community aspect too. Will give it a mention over on TechMilk.com for you later today.
Sunny
Good idea to do this, especially this year since the Webby’s have started spamming the living daylights out of everyone who has ever signed up with them. It’s SOOOO annoying to get 10 invites for yet another awards ceremony hosted by the same company with the same judges and costing the same amount of money (if not more)…. it’s like they’re stuck in a different era.
A solution focusing on what the web users want and rewarding innovation over those who pay to submit their site seems like a much better way to go!
Mike: long time because you don’t read email anymore!
Got to agree with Fred, the font has something to be desired
Great another TechCrunch event! There always fun and worth traveling miles for! Though will you be selling tickets?
I bet he got the idea from the Webby Awards.
I mentioned the name “Crunchies” ages ago.
http://www.crun...otes.com/?p=171
March 18th 2006 on crunchnotes.com, that was long enough ago that the name probably came about entirely independently.
Cool that it’s finally happening.
Cute!
http://fakestev...er.blogspot.com
Can a website like FilmCrave.com make the list? Who decides and when will the decision be made. Great idea! I am sure others will follow suit.
Michael, what incredible nerve you have! A day after you deliver the low blow of publishing private emails and trying to stir up a hornets nest for a blog network you talk about community?
I guess you decide which way the wind blows as it suits you. Today friends, tomorrow who knows. The comment yesterday about ethics was dead on. You really do need a serious refresher course…or did they teach that in law school?
How is this different from the TechCrunch40?
When will people get it. It’s all about the business of events. The true financial success story of web 2.0 is the amount of wealth created from hosting events – they’re making bank. $200 for this, $3995 for that, etc. As for the attendees – they’re like school children, “If I don’t have this lunchbox ’cause everybody else does, I must be out of it.” So like lemmings they go to this and that hoping to be “in”. Then there’s the speakers – you see the same ones. How the hell do they have the time to run businesses? That’s another scary indicator of this season – but another time.
Anyway my 2 cents – tired of all the high-priced events in order to enrich the bloggers. (Svase and webguild – definitely exceptions. Good events, very lean pricing)
Lame-o.
Thank god you told me “click on the links to see their coverage”… I have no idea what I would’ve done without that statement.
Aww, you censored me mentioning the mashable awards?
You’re too kind, Mike.
Sounds interesting,
Just waiting on information about how the startups are chosen…
How about having no entrance fee? For us unfunded startups that can’t spare a dime
this is awesome, sounds like there is a lot of bitter people around here.
i just hope sites like Mint are NOT eligible, basically, this should target the little man.
This sounds great! Excellent idea. I have a few questions about particulars. If I win, will the Crunchies fly me to San Francisco by private jet? I do not travel on commercial flights, and, furthermore, I do not go anywhere without my 7 cats. Consequently the jet should be outfitted with white faux-leather sofas, which my kittehs love to play with. Oh, and be sure to include a qualified masseuse in the cabin crew, as well as a sushi chef from the Ginza district of Tokyo. Thank you. Look forward to meeting you all.
Really nice to see all of the blog networks getting together to give back to the startups. We started the ball rolling with a big shared startup holiday party for over 100 startups last year at STIRR: http://blog.sti...nd-2006-wrapup/ and I’d love to see a big end of year event celebration of small startups become more of an institution (big companies shouldn’t have all the fun during the Holidays). Looking forward to what y’all have in store and we’re happy to lend a hand.
Sanford, it would be great to work with Stirr on this event…we’ll be in touch.
Test
Sanford and Sean are amazing.
I want to shout out to my partners here. I make all the money and they come along for the ride. Eat my dust. I don’t care. It’s not about the money.
Does anyone know if the awards will be global or restricted to US-based startups?
Marcos Tanaka, from Brazil
CEO
boo-box – monetize your content in feed readers!
My homepage.