TechTicker’s Sarah Lacy interviewed Jason Calacanis and Michael Arrington about the upcoming TechCrunch50 conference. The first two segments are up. In the first segment, Lacy talks to the two about the origins of the conference and why they are so determined to end payola in tech events.
The conference is back on Sept. 8 and now dubbed TechCrunch50 for the 52 companies debuting at it. (Don’t ask.) It’s being held the same day as Demo this year and tech folks are choosing sides carefully. For a two-year-old conference, TechCrunch certainly has some big-name loyalists. Among its panel of experts are Marissa Mayer of Google, Marc Andreessen of Netscape, Opsware and Ning fame, Mark Cuban, Chad Hurley of YouTube, and some of the Valley’s most powerful investors. Not bad.
Center stage are the startups. Both Calacanis and Arrington are known for rubbing some people the wrong way, but even critics admit these are two guys obsessed with helping fledgling entrepreneurs. They don’t charge companies to present and spend hours with each one, helping founders hone their pitches.
In part two Lacy dives down into one of the trends we’re seeing with this year’s applicants: next generation virtual worlds. This is already big business, and tech advances are letting users do and see more with less bandwidth.
Segments 3-4 will be on TechTicker Friday.
Jason, I’m glad I’m not the only one watch the ‘Maverick’ link 9/11 and Iraq and watch the country club people cheer.
Pointless comment. Please brush up on basic English.
thanks Jason for coming out in support of the startups. you have drawn the line in the sand. not alot of people have the guts to tell it like it is . i hope you guys truly raise the tech bar to new levels through collaboration in constant innovation. now can we all just join hands and ride this “50 year trend” together:)
Merit is Everything!
Arrington looks like a giant.
it’s because Jason is only 4′11. little known fact.
“it’s because Jason is only 4′11. little known fact.”
http://en.wikip...g/wiki/Dwarfism
“The Little People of America (LPA) defines dwarfism as a medical or genetic condition that usually results in an adult height of 4′10″ (147 cm) or shorter.”
He just made it.
that’s lucky.
and McCain thinks he’s 9′11
Wow. nice shirt arrington.
thanks! $15 at costco.
Really nice
“They don’t charge companies to present and spend hours with each one, helping founders hone their pitches.”
The ticket sales alone are well over 6 million dollars. They make it sound like they’re doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. Mike’s a lawyer for christ’s sake.
Great stuff, I cant wait to see parts 3 and 4. I am looking forward more and more to being at the TechCrunch50 next week. I am beyond excited.
We definitely need another Tech conference; and no we don’t need any virtual world, because I can hardly keep up with what’s going on in the real world.
The balls on this guy, (the 4′11), talking about in 2 years there will be no payola conference, as if you control the confererence. So startup who have real revenues and real business models will “always” pay to present a certain conferences let me tell you why.
It seperates the web2.0 soapbox companies which only have a “google adsense” business model from real companies with diverse business models, and paying customers. So Mr 4′11 keep dreaming about the next two years.
Be happy you guys are making a killing from this event, when I talk to VCs from here in Texas, they have no problem attending payola conferences, because they know that only companies with real and diverse business models and most of all “paying customers”, you probably have no idea what that looks like. A paying customers…
I think you’ve completely missed the point of TC50…
They interviewed over 1000 startups for TC50 and picked what they thought were the best of them. That means that the barrier to entry is the quality of your idea rather than how much money you can spend.
(On a more personal note though, I find it interesting that you decide to take a shot at Calacanis’ height… yet leave yourself wide open with your butchering of the English language. Moral of the story? Nobody is perfect, build a bridge and get over it.)
@Chris,
Every enterprise needs to make a profit. Techcrunch50 has carefully reassessed who pays and who benefits.
Techcrunch wants undiscovered talent. Charging talent biases the sample and discourages the best from participating. A funded company that uses these events to introduce their products, why don’t these companies buy PR or advertising? It would be simpler since they don’t need to win a contest.
Helping a promising technology to become more like a company, Techcrunch adds value.
I don’t think you should be so sarcastic.
Chris, you can say what you want, there will always be pay to play conference and there is nothing Jason or Mike can do about that. What they can however continue to do is make a huge profit on these events, provide a platform for companies that dont have the (25k) to present at other conferences.
But the truth is there is nothing that either of them can do to stop pay to play, they can talk but the VC’s that i talk to see no problem with attending these conferences and as long as they continue to support pay to play conference that business will still exists.
Plus i disagree with your notion that charging biases the sample, clearly charging does make it so that “promising” companies with a solid business model who is already “winning” can further grow by being exposed to VC.
More virtual worlds? Instead of trying to change the world (like in the early days of PayPal), these start-ups are creating alternative worlds. Socially, people will start spending more time interacting with virtual avatars than with real people; spending more and more time online instead of with their families and friends. Time is so limited already, now we have to spend time and money to exist in a virtual world? If this is a trend, its a worrying one.
Good stuff guys. Wish I could afford to go to TC50.
I thought Jason had a full time job at Mahalo? Hmm. These posts leading up to these shows are the most self serving “news breaking” items I’ve seen all week.
WOW! You sold out tix at $1,500 per head. Really, who can afford that. If you want to impress people reading your blog post stats of INDIVIDUALS paying their own way and subtract all service providers. Better yet, show these fools smiling at the door with their $1,500 receipts with a signed document that they won’t expense the event.
This is like Comcast running a commercial on Dish Network and pumping their chest how great they are.
The more people read your blog (Techcrunch) the more people see you as another gossip site like Valleywag. Dude, I’m tempted to write a daily blog and bash you on ALL your self serving advertising. This is a joke!
Be careful responding Arrington or I’ll post a pix. Jesus!
Erick launch your own website immediately. You are legit….
the problem i have with the TC50 ‘competition’ is that it compares apple and oranges. how can you elect the ‘best’ project? what are your criteria?
it’s like american idol, comparing 2 great singers, one singing reggae and the second a hard rock song: it just doesn’t make sense.
at least payola has a clear agenda. and how come calacanis’ blog has zero comment? http://www.cala...ow-they-get-ya/ does that mean the guy thinks he’s more important than he really is? probably.
Charles, It’s a TC conference. The comments belong here.
I’m a big fan of Jason but I’m not gonna write a comment on his blog, he wants our eyes to be on the TC conference. I think that’s pretty clear.
John Holmes. I agree $1,500 is a lot of money but Michael & Jason don’t just think like entrepreneurs, they are entrepreneurs. That’s why this model will work and I also think it’s fair if TC promotes its own products.
Maybe not to you but to me it’s strong brand I trust & use on a daily basis.
That ain’t gonna change if they tell me about TC50.
If the TC50 business model would be like Demo, then they might have a problem but not right now.
I won’t go to TC50, but I don’t have to because TC tells us about those companies, about the products, … for free. Be thankful, stop whining or go somewhere else.
Great and affirming stuff about virtual worlds
happy to be early in this arena, and your words help me keep my strong belief in the route we chose with metaLIFE long time ago
Jason is so tiny…..add in the Napoleon complex and you get this whiny little PR freak who cries until everyone gives him attention.
He’s great at PR. Nothing wrong with that.
The only thing I don’t like is Sarah. Maybe that’s personal.
I get annoyed the second I hear her say mmm mmm, which is probably why I didn’t hear 70% of what Mike & JCal said.
I like the “rubbing people the wrong way” comment but it is a little more like “punching people in the head” or “crushing people’s hopes and dreams” either way I always love to hear what Mike and Jason have to say. They deliver it raw which is so rare these days.
This is very interesting
Very interesting!
Great.
http://www.hote...s.suntuubi.com/