The TechCrunch40 aftermath

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Megan McCarthy

09/19/07 05:29PM

Filed to: great moments in journalism

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Congratulations to entrepreneur Aaron Patzer, pictured above with an oversized novelty check. His financial-services startup Mint was the big winner in this week's TechCrunch40 conference, bringing home the $50,000 prize for being the "best in show." So, what was the overall view of TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis's big event? This take, sent to us late last night from an out-of-town journalist, explains it better than we could.

I'm drunk. But that's okay, because my editor spiked my TechCrunch piece. "This isn't what we expected at all," he said of the show, having been lured by the big-brain judges and the presumption that Arrington's top-secret reveal would be another iPhone. I suspect the next such blind event will have trouble getting reporters to show up, except the sort such as Wired who make themselves part of the story. These effectively worked for Arrington this week, publishing what he wanted when he wanted. Given the endless EMBARGO EMBARGO EMBARGO rules I couldn't keep straight, it was a relief to have no actual news to break. I forget my point, but see you somewhere else next year.

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Stawker Megan McCarthy 09/20/07 12:46PM

TC40 made two mistakes that chased off the bigpub reporters imho.

#1 - no onsite demo booths for the 40 winners.

#2 - they sent out embargoed information ahead of time, but not the tc40 list.

i can only guess at their motives, but let me try. i have two theories.

a. the kind theory: jason and michael were trying to level the playing field and give livebloggers the same playing field as the nyt. ok, but msm reporters don't get two whole days to work on this one story. it's just not that big. a busy reporter with multiple assignments would skip the show and just report on the winner. mint will probably get some msm coverage now, but techcrunch will be mentioned barely if at all in those stories. the 39 other companies will get goose egg.

b. the unkind theory: jason and michael believed they could stage the equivalent of a steve jobs pony show, but one two days long with 40 products. did anyone actually liveblog the whole thing? more important, did anyone keep reading for that long?

the length plus the lack of access to info outside of the stage presentations were a big a minus. the organizers acted as if they were a big plus. go to google news and you'll see tc40 coverage is down in the weeds of pc magazine and wired news. those deliver 50,000 techie readers for their articles, not a million usa today subscribers who are these companies' desired customers. i expect this to be spun with that tired line "we're influencing the influencers". bullshit. every one of the tc40 would have killed for a direct mention by mossberg or nyt circuits.

bbucy Megan McCarthy 09/19/07 05:51PM

I don't know what Patzer's grinning about. The company probably lost thousands of potential users today because general buzz and the "big win" generated so much interest Mint's servers are jammed.

If it ain't here today, I'll be gone tomorrow.

Trackback Megan McCarthy 09/20/07 02:49PM

Like Dave, I watched Techmeme light up with all things TechCrunch40. Here is what he had to say to kick off his piece: The TC40 conference, which (important caveat) I did not attend, had a big impact on the space I occupy.

anotherhack Megan McCarthy 09/19/07 06:14PM

Even Wired stopped blogging after the first few demos. I saw Chris Anderson posting to Geekdad while Calacanis yakked on. Ok no I didn't, but he should have.