We are heads down preparing for the upcoming TechCrunch50 Conference in San Francisco, where we’ll feature fifty newly launched startups and products to an audience of over 1,500 investors, press, entrepreneurs and others who are passionate about startups. Each of the launching startups attend the event for free and do not pay any fees at all to be on stage.
We’ve been spending literally every free moment over the last six weeks interviewing applying startups in person and over the phone to select the final 50 out of over 1,200 applications from 50 or so countries. Last week, our partner Jason Calacanis put together his tips for companies doing those demos and we republished his thoughts here.
Now DEMO, the payola-based competitor to TechCrunch50, is ridiculously claiming that Jason plagiarized a ten year old article they wrote called What the DEMO Gods Know that Smart Entrepreneurs Should Learn. In an email to blogger Alexander Muse, who reprinted Jason’s article, Deb McAlister wrote
From: “Deb McAlister”
Date: August 10, 2008 9:48:06 AM CDT
To: “‘Alexander Muse’”
Subject: VERY familiar advice from Startup BlogThis “advice” on demos is almost a verbatim lift from a piece I wrote over 10 years ago for David Coursey, who was Chris Shipley’s predecessor as host of the DEMO Conference. Our piece was called “What the DEMO Gods Know that Smart Entrepreneurs Should Learn”. David was the host of DEMO when Google and many, many other top products launched there – and he’s my business partner in a new start-up that’s at the seed-round stage.
Our original tips were in a slightly different order (the first tip was the same, we put the taboo about PowerPoint in at #2, etc.), but we covered EVERY one of these points in the written piece (which was on the DEMO web site for three years), in our coaching sessions for DEMO demonstrators, and in articles published in a range of magazines. Of the 2,200 or so words you included in your blog, 1,893 were DIRECTLY lifted from our piece. Am I claiming a copyright violation? Not against your blog. I feel certain you published it with no thought to who owned the source material.
So why write to you on a Sunday morning? Because I wanted you to know that whoever this person is, he’s probably not someone you want to put a lot of faith in if he’s borrowing this heavily from old material. If he plagiarizes old DEMO material while trashing DEMO, can you trust him to honor NDA’s? To keep your embargoed information safe until launch date? Not to share financial information with potential competitors? I think not. Really, just FYI only – I truly enjoy your blog posts, and thought you might want to know the original source of the material that came across this morning.
Deb McAlister-Holland
McAlister will not respond to emails requesting a copy of the original article, and it doesn’t appear to be anywhere on the web today. But her allegations of plagiarism are very serious, as well as her claim that Jason “directly lifted” 1,893 of the 2,200 words in the original article.
These are serious, lawyer-involving allegations and DEMO needs to back up these claims immediately. For his part, Jason says he never heard of the article they referred to. His article is written in a very conversational style that is trademark Calacanis.
What’s really going on here? Demo is simply throwing a ton of rotten spaghetti, hoping that some of it sticks to the wall. Don’t let it distract you from the amazing startups that are preparing to launch. Things will quiet down at Demo soon enough if what we hear is true.
In the meantime, we demand that DEMO provide proof of their allegations of plagiarism or publish a full retraction and apology.
Wow, just wow. DEMO, I really hope you can back this claim up. If you can’t stand competition, then don’t enter into a free market.
Looks like DEMO is saying Deb has no direct or official relationship to DEMO: http://www.texa...-50-plagiarism/ (comments)
Plagiarism is a very very very serious issue. It need to be resolved either way
…and probably something you should handle internally and not air on your blog, no matter how frustrated you are. Good luck w/ the dirty laundry.
Michael:
I have one question for you – do you publish how you made the selection to the founders of companies who did not get selected? Or is it just an Silicon Valley ECHO CHAMBER once more. I am being cynical here as I see a vast majority of the companies (even though they are crap…e.g. sharing music in a diff. format etc.) are based in the silicon valley. Did you know that Atlanta, Denver and other cities are a part of United States and they could also create fantastic startups…
BTW, what is the guarantee that Jason C. and others will keep the application forms confidential?
I hope you respond.
Michel
Michel, we are based in North Carolina and were selected as finalists last year. Our peers came from Silicon Valley to be sure, but also included places as far away as Ireland and Russia. So Michael and Jason have already proved that they would select their newest batch based on their merits.
Igor:
You are an exception rather than the rule. Your product is actually needed in the marketplace. Hats off to you!!
But, overall, TechCrunch is an just a big how wonderful this life is in Silicon Valley and Michael’s company just shows it. BTW, have you checked Mahalo and how crappy the company and the business model is.
Michel
Demo better back their Sh*t up.
if they back it up then what?
Oh BTW, that crapola – Mahalo, who is running that company? I thought ChaCha went ByeBye and Mahalo is going to go Sh–ola…
Come on DEMO. When the top selling Secret came out others tried to claim the fame. The reality is that if the article belonged to you then you should have shared it with TC a long time ago seeing how you are a fond reader. The site is about startups and entrepreneurship. We need as much positive stuff as we can get our hands on to keep us motivated and Jason’s article did just that, even my wife read it and then said good advice, get back to work.
There are just so many conventionally good ideas one can make when producing a tutorial of advise piece.
Eventually, most standard ideas are going repeated again and again if one is producing a ’safe’ article filled with universally agreed upon ideas.
The only time this won’t happen is if something is completely out of left field.
Many of us have read Hundreds or even THOUSANDS of advice articles related to our professions, and that is not counting lectures or interviews we listen to.
It is inevitable that we will repeat and recycle the information in a similar fashion.
Society may have to accept the fact that there can not be any true creativity or uniqueness in this information overload environment we live in
Two points:
1. Recycling ideas or concepts is different from what is being claimed here, which is that Jason lifted the majority of his post word-for-word, a much more serious allegation.
2. The information overload environment we live in has not destroyed true creativity or uniqueness, quite the opposite. If you read a lot of blogs in a particular niche, you do see that most of them recycle the same old tired posts over and over. However, there are some fantastic blogs out there that write truly original and creative thoughts, and those stand out all the more to me.
“Because I wanted you to know that whoever this person is , he’s probably not someone you want to put a lot of faith in if he’s borrowing this heavily from old material.”
LOL, like Deb McAlister-Holland doesn’t know who J.C. is?
Someone needs to confirm officially that DEMO is not affiliated with Deb McAlister-Holland. Otherwise they need to back up her statements. With holding judgement for now….
“To be clear, Deb has had no direct or official relationship with DEMO since 1996. Her comment here represents her own opinion and claims, not that of DEMO.”
That is a comment from DEMO’s Chris Shipley from Muse’s blog post
Ah yeah, but Shipley condones the action implicitly. Further, is comment does nothing to shed light on the discussion, which he morphs into a pitch on DEMO’s value proposition. DEMO is more mature, and a bit more professional, but getting the word out doesn’t require their overpriced/ over-produced show.
My mind has been made up: DEMO is dying, and must resort to underhanded lame tactics as their business model falls apart. You’d think they understand ‘barrier to entry’ as a concept. Adapt or die, layoffs are coming.
We all know that you (Michael Arrington) won’t spend the money on lawyers so you won’t do anything legally to defend yourself should Demo not heed to your demands.
Demo let it go. Why would one need to put themselves in such a position and compromise what their reputation and that of the conference?
The article does not make TC50 more popular than it already is. Nobody is going to TC50 because of those 10 tips. Startups decided long ago to apply for the conference because of the free (or-cover-our-cost)concept behind it.
TC50 is merit based first then they decided to help other deserving but less amazing startups by giving them a chance to pay to show their products. Demo is mostly based on your backers and that 20k (that is not to say it is a good launch pad as well), but if you are a broke team of two in a garage you do not even get to try to apply for Demo.
Keep up. Embrace Freemium.
For the love of God DEMO, please produce the piece you say I plagiarized or take back the comments.
Don’t you mean DEMO God?
Sorry, I couldn’t resist…
The DEMO organization has made no accusation of any kind.
The original comment was raised by a private individual who has had no association with DEMO for more than a dozen years.
You need to address your concerns with her.
The accusations were made in Demo’s name, from a former partner of the event. At the very least, release the document in question.
Ah, the intensity of rivalry. I love it. This is what makes Silicon Valley exciting.
Arrington, give it up. The only thing original about Jason McCabe Calacanis advice is his new middle name. TC50 is DEMO with a different business model.
So what? China and Japan have become huge economies by copying products. Why shouldn’t you?
The accusations were made in Demo’s name, from a former partner of the event.
who last worked it in 1996. “In demo’s name”? Huh? Since I posted on techcrunch does that make me speak for techcrunch in “their name”?
Would not surprise me at all if JC lifted content from someone else. The TechCrunch crew is one of the sleaziest groups in tech.
Memo to DEMO: Specifics please. Assertions without evidence do not create arguments.
“What’s really going on here? Demo is simply throwing a ton of rotten spaghetti, hoping that some of it sticks to the wall.”
How the hell would any of us know?
The onus is on the accuser to prove that the alleged wrongdoing actually took place.
An accusation should mean nothing without some evidence to back it up.
So if you punch me in the face but leave no evidence, I have nothing with which to accuse you of the crime?
If you claim to have been punched in the face but can’t show so much as a bruise, you’ll rightly get laughed out of the police station. (Even a slap will leave a mark.) If you claim to have been plagiarised but can’t produce your original, that’s an equally worthless accusation.
Wow, all these really important people jumping all over each other! Its incredibly exciting, isn’t it?
It’s funny that everyone here is yelling at Demo for airing their grievances over what could be a very serious case of plagiarism when 1) The accusation was made via email and TC decided to publish it for all to see 2) Demo didn’t even send the email, but TC implies they did.
Rather than immediately calling out Demo without any proof either way, Arrington should have acted like a publisher and seriously researched the accusation immediately. Publishers are responsible for what appears on their site regardless of the author, and it really shows the sorry state of the “blogosphere” when a person as visible as Michael Arrington dismisses such a serious claim.
He’s not dismissing it, he’s accepting the word of his partner at face value (and shouldn’t you be able to accept the word of your business partners?) and still asking for proof, right there in the last sentence.
I think he would have handled an accusation like this from NYT or WSJ a lot differently.
the email was published on another blog. and then the author disappeared. Since the document isn’t available anywhere, I have no way to verify Demo’s claims of plagiarism.
“DEMO’s claims of plagiarism” – Chris Shipley just told you – Deb McAlister hasn’t been with DEMO or spoken formally for them in over a decade.
You want to drum up attention for TC50 – we get it. This ain’t the way, sister.
Jon wrote…”You want to drum up attention for TC50 – we get it. This ain’t the way, sister.”
Here is what you meant.
We want to drum up attention for DEMO08 – We get it. This ain’t the way, sister. (and we know, but at DEMO08 we are currently desperate)
Jon, TC50 is getting all the attention because they value startups ( by not extorting $18,500 from startups)
You won’t find me flacking for DEMO. I think it’s ridiculous how much they charge for a presentation. I’m pointing out that this is conveniently timed, and way overblown.
Don’t understand this whole TC50 is FREE and DEMO is payola reference. For one thing, TC50 is going to be making more money off the startups than DEMO.
1 – off the stands at 10K per startup
2 – off the 100 or so semi finalist companies at 3K per day!
We interviewed for TC50 and didn’t get chosen for the top 50. But we are a semi-finalist and have the option of paying $3000 for one day at the DemoPit as per an email I received in my inbox today.
If TC50 is free and startup friendly, you really should let the semi-finalists show their wares for free.
And @Mike, you guys should really stop all this spin on ‘TC50 is free’. Its not really true is it now?
This whole bruhaha (noise) about plagiarizing advice is quite amusing. I think it is all a promotional strategy for DEMO (which i have never heard of until TechCrunch promoted them), reminds me of the accusation from Clinton that Obama plagiarized a speech of his adviser (A speech where he quoted Quotes of Kennedy, Martin Luther and others). Simply put, it is all ridiculous but effective. DEMO has succeed in driving traffic to their site. Good One!
Just an observation: I have not heard of any African American/Black founder of a groundbreaking internet company( From Google to Maholo, Facebook to Friendster). As a Nigerian hoping to “conquer” silicon valley someday, I am just hoping there isn’t any bias.
Thank you
Oo
“These are serious lawyer-involving allegations…”
Priceless. Amazing that Mr. Arrington was an attorney. “Actionable” would have made you sound a little less moronic, Mike.
Besides that, if what Chris said is true, Deb isn’t speaking on behalf of DEMO, so it would appear that this is just another TechCrunch sensationalist story gone awry with the usual gratuitous helping of fact-checking, journalistic restraint, and overall credibility that we’ve come to know so well with regard to Mike Arrington.
By the look of Chris Shipley’s comments above, it appears that DEMO has thrown Deb under the bus…LMAO.
@joe fully concur. Please Deb produce the original and show the world what a sleaze bags Jason C and Arrington truly are.
Mahalo will close shop soon Google has a better version of Mahalo and to be honest Arrington would have panned Mahalo had it not been for his “special friend”. Bottomline TC will not cover Mahalo when it deadpools just as they did with Nick Gonzalez and Keith Teare.
> which was on the DEMO web site for three years
Hmm. Anyone want to dig through the wayback machine?
I wrote the original demo-god howto in 1991.
http://www.scri...orfunprofi.html
The term demo-god originally referred to Scott Love, who was the director of marketing at my first company, Living Videotext. He was truly a demo god, probably still is (he has a new company in the Valley).
Thanks! Your version is a great reference too.
/Printing
I’m a reader of Jason’s blog and articles. The article is 100% Jason.
If it wasn’t for Techcrunch I wouldn’t have known of DEMo’s existence.
It’s not all bad
Smells like Hype, two articles, both with helpful information on how to Demo a product…… what ARE the odds… 1 in 4, 5 maybe? (In reference to J.C and Dave Winer)
Far from plagiarism, and as seen on various other sites Deb which is no longer part of Demo still likes to speak on their behalf.
And change that 1 in 4 to less, found 7 non related articles on how to Demo “How to be a demo-God” or other variations. Sure hope this isn’t just something to create more hype than was already existent for Crunch.
Ok I’m bored, back to work.
all I have to say is where are all my haters!!!
http://www.nodatetonight.com
forget this crap. I am soooo excited about TC50. thanks for student ticket option.
demo?l “nice nice but something wrong” and what is wrong there or maybe not even wrong just not so lovely, not so social?
money money money? and people i mean the”population” don’t like it
no?
lets make it even more complicated, “you start up” you pay for it and the company who rent a stage and buy the sandwich “looks” bad, so you f* yourself and you even pay for it……………………..
From Chris Shipley’s ironic TWITTER, used without permission:
“Must be a very slow news day. Although I’m appalled that even on a slow news day how little fact checking supposedly serious journalists do. about 2 hours ago”
Given the shameless attention whore Jason is, I wouldn’t find it hard to believe that he staged the whole thing to drive traffic to mahalo.
What’s a mahalo?
mahalo is this much talked about, though crappy, “human powered” search engine that Jason feels the need to plug and schill at every moment.
As if Jason needs to copy some lame ten year old article. Ridiculous.
What’s the big deal about those 10 ‘tips’? Google wisely and you’ll get hundreds more valuable ones.
The lunatics have taken over the asylum.
Worth a chuckle
If not for Jason Calacanis, I would never have even heard of DEMO.
“Of the 2,200 or so words you included in your blog, 1,893 were DIRECTLY lifted from our piece.”
They counted 1,893 words. Pretty exact. Someone must’ve put the text in question to a diff program to figure that 1,893 words were taken verbatim.
These are serious allegations and should not be condoned.
An who the F* is Demo? Never herd of ‘em…
I agree with Tom. This didn’t come from DEMO, so unless David Coursey and/or Deb Mcalister are currently contractors for DEMO, I don’t think DEMO owes you guys an apology even if Deb’s accusation is false.
If anything, Ass-ington should apologize for inferring that this is from DEMO and requesting an apology. You guys are bush league with this sort of crap. Grow up.
I’m confused. Why are TechCrunch50 exhibitors being asked to pay $10,000 ? If you’re so benevolent, why not let my company exhibit for free at TC50?
So out of the 1200 companies you screen, the ones you choose get to show off their products for free, and the rest of us get to pay for the privilege of standing on the sidelines?
A lot of these comments sound like they were written by high school aged girls.
Is this what it’s really like out there? Everyone twittering pissy little remarks back and forth?
Seriously it’s like high school.
First off, it does seem quite amusing that Jason is spouting the same common sense message as someone from the first dotcom boom–makes you think that some of the differences people tout about Web 2.0 aren’t all that special…
Secondly, I’d be surprised if Jason hadn’t in some form or another come across that article. He may not remember it exactly but rest assured if he’s as well-read and focused on this business and one would think then he must have come across it or some form of it.
Either way, this is just fodder to get the “ratings” of for Techcrunch 50 and it seems to be working–congrats on the non-story story! And, I thought good PR flacks were dead. Nope. Turns out they are just re-invented.
TC50 and DEMO — seriously, get a room you two. The amount of lusty homosexual energy in this blog post is so thick you can ‘like a virgin’ rosseane barr with it. just do it. get a room and finish yourselves off.
I HIGHLY doubt that Jason has copied anything, his e-mails from his newsletter have all been written in a similar style and this last e-mail about tips for pitching your startup was no different. Deb needs to get proof out and link to this article which is claimed to have been published both in magazines AND on their website. Where? Which magazines? Show us and we’ll compare. Since none of this has happened in a timely fashion I’m calling b/s.
Jason, having someone call you a plagiarist is slander in my mind… something that should be dealt with right away.
War! War! War! I love it. Keep fighting guys. This back and forth is like watching WWE.
Come on. Most of the articles here are ripped of at least in part from more reputable publication. Not to mention TCs made up “inside information”. What makes you think JC did not rip this off too?
Don’t understand this whole TC50 is FREE and DEMO is payola reference. For one thing, TC50 is going to be making more money off the startups than DEMO.
1 – off the stands at 10K a pop
2 – off the 100 or so semi finalist companies at 3K a pop per day!
We interviewed for TC50 and didn’t get chosen for the top 50. But we are a semi-finalist and have the option of paying $3000 for one day at the DemoPit as per an email I received in my inbox today.
If TC50 is free and startup friendly, you really should let the semi-finalists show their wares for free.
And Mike, you guys should really stop all this spin on ‘TC50 is free’. Its not really true is it now?
if not for DEMO, I would have never heard of Jason Calacanis.
Who’s that? The Mahalo spammer?
Deb Mcallister? Sarah Walker was David Coursey’s coordinator. David did write about How to Give a Great Demo, a ten step process, back in his Jan 20 1997 newsletter. I have the original Word document that was emailed to me 11 plus years ago. I kept it as David’s advice still holds true. It’s not rocket science, but it helps to look at tips from an outsider. I don’t see any plagiarism at all. Just two people, 11 years apart, doing a ten step article for very similar events. To me, it seems like the blogger got taken by the email by this Deb McAlister person. As an FYI, Lisa Halliday was David’s senior editor at that time.
You guys need to get over yourselves… Was I the only one who thought the article was basic common knowledge? And you guys are fighting over it? Please…
> [Calacanis lifted] 1,893 of the 2,200 words.
Calacanis has a 1,893 word vocabulary?
I didn’t know that.
Thanks for TechCrunch school. Every day I learn something.
I think the accusation is that Calacanis only has a 307 word vocabulary, as he needed to lift the rest from an old article.
This was the TechCrunch school maths lesson.
Calacanis vocab greater. Me prove, see below:
red, green, blue, car, doggie, meatball.
best jason
“Dave Winer – August 11th, 2008 at 2:17 pm PDT”
“I wrote the original demo-god howto in 1991.”
So what do you think Dave about the issue? Your opinion would help a lot, as long as you are the writer?