Tech Watch | InfoWorld Staff » TechCrunch40: Startups gone wild

September 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)

TechCrunch40: Startups gone wild

TAGS: Startups

Competing for not enough money to hire a midlevel developer to help realize their upstart visions, 40 startups will lift their shirts to an audience of VCs and the press at the TechCrunch40 conference today and tomorrow in San Francisco.

Much hyped and boasting concurrent announcements by former startup darlings AOL, Google, and Yahoo, the TechCrunch40 will award $50,000 to one of 40 presenters -- 39 of which were preselected by TechCrunch, the 40th being selected by DemoPit voting of conference attendees.

But the real reward for all participants is buzz -- and with attendance priced at an exorbitantly self-selective $2,000-plus, the chance to pitch their products and visions to a crowd that promises a high VC density.

Michael Arrington (pictured), founder of TechCrunch, wields the kind of startup kingmaker status that he admits has inspired more than one Valley CEO not receiving coverage on his blog to weep. Having bemoaned the need to release some hot air about the Web 2.0 bubble he sees brewing these days, Arrington and company have put together a compelling conference that pits five startups together to present and demo products and receive audience feedback.

The pitch and b*tch/critique sessions are grouped along Web product categories and include search and discovery, mobile and communications, community and collaboration, crowd sourcing, productivity and Web applications, revenue models and analytics, rich media and mashups, and entertainment.

Certainly many VC deals will be discussed at the conference. So too is the likelihood that, drunk on atmosphere and exuberance, more than a few of those will be misguided.

More TechCrunch40 coverage:
• TechCrunch40: Learning from Legends
• Mobile virtualization gets smart
• Google rep glib on enterprise play
• Xobni: Web 2.0 lipstick for MS e-mail pig?

[For a look at enterprise startups recently featured on InfoWorld.com, check out our Month of Enterprise Startups.]

Posted by Jason Snyder on September 17, 2007 09:35 AM

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