
Techcrunch's Michael Arrington lures startups into his money pit - transburgh
http://valleywag.com/tech/techcrunch/michael-arrington-lures-startups-into-his-money-pit-286517.php
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bilbo0s
The business practices in the web 2.0 space are becoming less and less
honorable. In addition to this, I was reading recently about companies who
were using Facebook apps to advertise, you guessed it, other Facebook apps. So
funded startups pay these funded startups to advertise to Facebook users, who
then start using the advertised app. Would be perfectly acceptable, only to
date this seems to be the only proven model for generating money from Facebook
apps. This is being described by investment circles in the midwest as a new
age multi level marketing scheme. That is, if the group you are talking to is
gentlemanly. The less gentlemanly circles are calling it a Ponzi scheme.

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pg
This was a huge part, perhaps the majority, of Yahoo's revenue in 1999.

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rms
You mean the $30 CPM banner ads?

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gibsonf1
We made it to the finals of techcrunch20 (100 out of 700 entries) with
streamfocus.com, but we passed on buying the demopit ticket just in case we
didn't make the final 20. (The deal is that if you get into the final 20, they
give you your money back). It seems like a bad value for precious dollars to
be in the pit. Back to coding (demo for tc20 is this Friday at 1PM - wish us
luck :)

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waleedka
Good luck. You have a unique idea, and I hope you make it. Please keep us
posted.

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parker
Sooo... lemme get this straight: I'm going to pay you over a grand of my own
cash to sit in an empty room with a bunch of the other also-rans during the
middle of a conference with an agenda so finely orchestrated that I'm
surprised they haven't budgeted for bathroom breaks. There better be some
seriously sweet sandwiches on offer for lunch........

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aswanson
The tech space 'leaders' are starting to look more and more like the blood
sucking snakes in the record business.

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pg
Even if TC were as bad as Valleywag suggests (which is unlikely considering
VW's tendency to exaggerate), it would still be nothing compared to the record
business.

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aswanson
As a former artist with a demo and a dream, Sir Paul, I concur.

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Leon
That's not what Arrington is doing at all! Why, he's helping the little guy!
Those startups that didn't make it obviously needed help with running their
startups, and here he is - helping them by giving them the opportunity to
learn a valuable lesson on how people will take their money if they aren't
careful. This way, those startups that didn't make the top 20 will be better
prepared for the future!

/sarcasm

This man has little in the way of ethical practices. Even if I were in the top
20 and didn't have to pay, I would be hesitant to work with this man in any
type of situation.

If this is the way he treats the groups that tried to get into the top 20, how
does he treat those actual top 20? Is he presenting only his privileged
investors to the startups who present, reducing real funding competition? What
about any agreements that the startups have signed in the program? Have they
fully checked those out?

When an organizer of an event practices little ethical credibility, the entire
event must come into question.

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nickb
Hate to say it but this "demo pit" feels more like a "loser pit" :(

(please, no offense meant!)

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omouse
Love the image they have. Whoever made it should get a bonus.

