TechCrunch50
Encyclopedia
TechCrunch50 was a conference held at the Design Center Concourse in San Francisco, California
on September 14-15, 2009, hosted by TechCrunch
and Jason Calacanis
. Its aim was to find the best Web 2.0
start-ups and launch them in front of the industry's most influential venture capitalists, companies and press. TechCrunch50, started as TechCrunch40 Conference in 2007 and ran for three years.
In eight sessions during the two day TechCrunch50 conference, 52 finalists had the opportunity to present their ideas, services and products on-stage in front of an accredited audience and a panel of experts, who commented on the presentations immediately after they were held.. Additionally, 100 early-stage companies presented their services in an exhibition area, the so-called DemoPit. In the weeks before, the 152 presenting companies had been selected from more than 1,000 applicants.
In contrast to existing similar conferences, the TechCrunch50 finalists were not charged a fee, but selected solely based on the quality and potential of their ideas. TechCrunch50 was supported by Sequoia Capital
, Mayfield Fund
, Clearstone Venture Partners
, Charles River Ventures
and Fenwick & West. The entire conference was video-broadcast live on the Internet.
The 2009 conference was the final TechCrunch50 event. In May of 2010, Michael Arrington and Jason Calacanis decided to part ways and will not be hosting the conference in the future.
pitched the concept to Michael Arrington
over dinner in Palo Alto. The two partnered to create a joint-venture to produce the event. The event has featured 140 presenting companies and over 400 "Demo Pit" companies in three years, as well as partners including Sequoia Capital
, Google
, AOL
, Yahoo, and Microsoft
.
Presenting companies included:
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
on September 14-15, 2009, hosted by TechCrunch
TechCrunch
TechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiling of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005....
and Jason Calacanis
Jason Calacanis
Jason McCabe Calacanis is an American Internet entrepreneur and blogger. His first company was part of the dot-com era in New York, and his second venture, Weblogs, Inc., capitalized on the growth of blogs before being sold to AOL....
. Its aim was to find the best Web 2.0
Web 2.0
The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...
start-ups and launch them in front of the industry's most influential venture capitalists, companies and press. TechCrunch50, started as TechCrunch40 Conference in 2007 and ran for three years.
In eight sessions during the two day TechCrunch50 conference, 52 finalists had the opportunity to present their ideas, services and products on-stage in front of an accredited audience and a panel of experts, who commented on the presentations immediately after they were held.. Additionally, 100 early-stage companies presented their services in an exhibition area, the so-called DemoPit. In the weeks before, the 152 presenting companies had been selected from more than 1,000 applicants.
In contrast to existing similar conferences, the TechCrunch50 finalists were not charged a fee, but selected solely based on the quality and potential of their ideas. TechCrunch50 was supported by Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital is a Californian venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital "one of the highest-caliber venture firms", and noted that it is "one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture-capital firms"...
, Mayfield Fund
Mayfield Fund
Mayfield Fund is one of the oldest venture capital firms in the US, focusing on early-stage to growth-stage investments in information technology companies with a focus on enterprise software, Internet consumer & media services, and communications....
, Clearstone Venture Partners
Clearstone Venture Partners
Clearstone Venture Partners is an early stage venture capital firm focused on IT investing with offices in Santa Monica, CA, Palo Alto, CA, and Mumbai, India...
, Charles River Ventures
Charles River Ventures
Charles River Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments in technology and new media companies.The firm, which is based in Waltham, Massachusetts and Menlo Park, California, was founded in 1970 to commercialise research that came out of MIT...
and Fenwick & West. The entire conference was video-broadcast live on the Internet.
The 2009 conference was the final TechCrunch50 event. In May of 2010, Michael Arrington and Jason Calacanis decided to part ways and will not be hosting the conference in the future.
History
TechCrunch50 was created when Jason CalacanisJason Calacanis
Jason McCabe Calacanis is an American Internet entrepreneur and blogger. His first company was part of the dot-com era in New York, and his second venture, Weblogs, Inc., capitalized on the growth of blogs before being sold to AOL....
pitched the concept to Michael Arrington
Michael Arrington
J. Michael Arrington is the founder and former co-editor of TechCrunch, a blog covering the Silicon Valley technology start-up communities and the wider technology field in USA and elsewhere...
over dinner in Palo Alto. The two partnered to create a joint-venture to produce the event. The event has featured 140 presenting companies and over 400 "Demo Pit" companies in three years, as well as partners including Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital is a Californian venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital "one of the highest-caliber venture firms", and noted that it is "one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture-capital firms"...
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
, Yahoo, and Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
.
- 2009 - September 14-15 - Redbeacon was selected the TechCrunch50 winner
- 2008 - September 8-10 - YammerYammerYammer is an enterprise social network service that was launched in September 2008. Unlike Twitter, which is used for broadcasting messages to the public, Yammer is used for private communication within organizations or between organizational members and pre-designated groups, making it an example...
was selected the TechCrunch50 winner - 2007 - September 17-18 - Mint.comMint.comMint.com is a free web-based personal financial management service for the US and Canada created by entrepreneur Aaron Patzer. Mint originally provided account aggregation through a deal with Yodlee, but has since moved to using Intuit for connecting to accounts...
was selected the TechCrunch40 winner
Presenting companies included:
- 5to1.com
- Affective Interfaces
- AnyClip
- BreakThrough
- Chyngle (DemoPit Winner)
- CitySourced
- CLASEMOVIL
- Clicker
- ClientShow
- Clixtr
- Cocodot
- Crowd Fusion
- CrowdFlower
- Dataxu
- FluidHTML
- Glide Health
- Hark!
- HealthyWage
- iMo
- Insttant
- iTwin
- LearnVest
- Lissn
- localbacon
- Metricly
- MOTA Motors
- ODesk (DemoPit Winner)
- Penn & Teller
- Perpetually
- rackup
- Radiusly
- Redbeacon
- RefMob
- Sealtale
- SeatGeekSeatgeekSeatGeek is a website that provides search and price forecasting for consumers purchasing sports, concert, and theater tickets on the secondary ticket market...
- SocialWok (DemoPit Winner)
- Spawn Labs
- Sprowtt Marketplace
- Storysomething
- Stribe
- The Whuffie Bank
- TheSwop.com
- Thoora
- threadsy
- ToonsTunes
- ToyBots Woozees
- Trollim
- Udorse
- Yext
- YourVersion (DemoPit Winner)