TechCrunch50, Not So Crunchy
San Francisco, September 14th and 15th, start-ups and tech-centric companies took to the demo-floor and stage amongst their peers, potential investors, and press. This was the first time I attended TechCrunch, and I’m definitely a fan of new and innovative awesome applications for the Internet.
Herein lies the problem with TechCrunch50
Pacing through the demo pit, and checking out the presentations, I left TechCrunch50 after two days of hoping to be floored by incredibly remarkable innovations on the Internet feeling uninspired and fairly disappointed. For the majority, the main tone all presenting companies were singing was “aggregate” and “optimize”. Before I get too deep into this “TC50 was blah” hole, I want to say, I love me some optimization. Making the cluster of sites that are the social web an easier place to navigate and use is a fabulous motive to help others and make things neat. In all honesty, though, these simplification platforms are not innovative online products, outside of their attention to detail when it comes to UI.
TechCrunch50 was blah
It was. There wasn’t a single company presenting at TC50 that is going to change the Internet, or how we use it. There wasn’t a single company presenting anything that was completely new, or in most cases, remotely new. There were new business models, there were new marketing methods, there were new UI’s to old ideas, and there were a load of iPhone apps.
The good with the ugly
The winner of TC50 is a company titled Red Beacon. I actually love these guys, they’re awesome and their online service is done well, but it’s not entirely new.
CitySourced, my personal favorite, is a great civic service as well that leverages familiar features and functions in a way to help your local community, and you must have a look at what they’re doing after they launch.
Some presenting companies did give us a few innovative awesome tid bits; ToyBots, iTwin and SnapPages to name a few.
TechZulu will be posting interviews from the companies that we actually did find most interesting and useful, because we did find quite a few great companies out there leveraging the platforms and pathways we’ve all come to love and grow with on the Internet. Let’s hope that if Arrington and Calacanis feel like it next year, TechCrunchXX will at least include some serious game changers.
