
Thoughts On TechCrunch Disrupt - kylelibra
http://uncrunched.com/2013/10/29/thoughts-on-techcrunch-disrupt/
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jmduke
_Picking the winner of the battlefield startup competition should be free of
any influence of non-editorial people and judges._

I'd argue it's rather hypocritical of Michael to talk about 'influence' when
his venture capital fund had invested in the previous three Disrupt SF winners
-- for which he was a judge -- prior to their victories.

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dasil003
Fair point, but I care a lot more about an objective assessment of the current
state of the conference than pegging someone as a hypocrite. People who try
too hard to avoid hypocrisy never do anything interesting.

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drinkzima
He also fails to mention that the last 3 TC Disrupt winners in SF have been
Crunchfund companies...

Layer - [http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/11/and-the-winner-of-
techcrunc...](http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/11/and-the-winner-of-techcrunch-
disrupt-sf-2013-is-layer/) YourMechanic -
[http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/12/techcrunch-disrupt-
sf-2012-...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/12/techcrunch-disrupt-
sf-2012-winner/) Shaker [edit, they may only be in the runner-up, Prism
Skylabs] - [http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/14/and-the-winner-of-
techcrunc...](http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/14/and-the-winner-of-techcrunch-
disrupt-is-shaker/)

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julianpye
Many of these conferences are a waste of time for startups attending them and
Europe is especially guilty of this with many media companies jumping on the
bandwagon. Instead of startups being at the center, they simply have become
cheap 'content' that are allowed to pose next to corporate sponsors priding
themselves of 'loving innovation'.

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ChikkaChiChi
Interesting application of what I call the 'Top Gear Effect.'

Top Gear UK is produced for BBC. They aren't beholden to sponsors and
therefore their reviews come across as being less biased than sponsored shows
(so long as the product is not British). Because they have the largest
viewership on the planet, companies continue to give them cars regardless of
the outcome of the review.

If Top Gear US tried doing some of the reviews that UK does, they would lose
sponsorships or even access to entire product lines. This has lead to a
dramatic restructuring of the show that ONLY does reviews when they can be
positive.

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mrflett
I attended the hackathon and was a little disappointed that all the prizes
went basically to teams who rubbed up the sponsors in the right way. Obviously
the sponsors were there to promote themselves but rewards should have been
given to innovation and not just how many api's from the sponsors you can mash
into an app.

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melvinmt
I'm afraid that this is how the $1 million Salesforce hackathon will end up
going to be. Given how 25% of the judging criteria is the "Use of Salesforce
Platform".

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k-mcgrady
I'm not aware of the event but if it is a Salesforce hackathon (i.e. they are
running it) doesn't it make sense you get points for innovative use of their
platform? If they are just a sponsor I can understand frustration.

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devindotcom
I've been to a lot of these (I'm loosely associated with TC these days but
help them out) and while I think Arrington's criticisms are sort of silly
after everything that went down before, I do agree that there's been a lack of
focus on editorial content since the whole thing was doubled down on about 18
months ago. Too many promotional interviews, not enough exploration of culture
and concepts. It's become a convenient platform for moneyed entrepreneurs to
launch, rather than a serious investigation of the people and companies
involved. There's still good stuff, and we get great guests, but I do agree it
needs to be pulled back and made more beholden to editorial — they can sell
that. Right now it's kind of a meat grinder of valley trends and
personalities.

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gcatalfamo
<< Michael, you see, in Europe there are far better ideas and better executors
than those you saw at Disrupt. The problem is that some European countries
fail to understand software and Internet of Things as a potential for not yet
existing value-added products. This is so clear with European VCs that won?t
fund ideas they don't understand. So, what happens to the "far better ideas"
not easily understood from people whose wallets still live in the dotcom
bubble? We have to work at night, and only those nights we have some spare
energy left from our day jobs, which we cannot leave, because we don't have
funding to pay for dinners or rents. Silicon Valley doesn't have better ideas,
it has better investors and resources. How do you plan to "disrupt" that? >>

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Pro_bity
As a side note, this is very tame criticism for Michael Arrington.

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rajesht
I went to the hackathon in SF last year and was very disappointed. I have
decided to never go again.

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clamprecht
"No startup left behind", is what I thought after reading this. A reference to
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Left_Behind_Act](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Left_Behind_Act)

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sanskritabelt
We got the reference, dude.

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jjacobson
There is a distinction between the Startup Battlefield (companies that are
launching) and the Hackathon (apps and hacks made in a constrained time
period). His criticism seems to be leveled at the Battlefield judging.

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dasil003
TC Disrupt is a microcosm of the dilution of the term "disrupt".

