
If your marketing strategy relies on being at TechCrunch 50 or Demo, you've already failed - jedc
http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/2008/09/if-your-marketi.html
======
webwright
The knee-kerk reaction against this event (and marketing/pr in general) on
News.YC is pretty daft, IMO. There are some (very social) services that
require "critical mass" to be engaging. The spike of TC50 MIGHT just push a
service like that into having a self-sustaining/growing user population.
Example: What Twitter experienced at SXSW.

And for anything inherantly, viral-- an event like this is a big bump... It's
compound interest with a larger initial principal. If you have a viral service
that starts with 2 users and I have a viral service that starts with the 10k
I'll get at TC50 and we both have the same viral co-efficient, who wins?

And for any company that is fundraising, the visibility/credibility provided
by this event is HUGE.

And for any company that is actively looking for partners/bizdev deals, the
visibility/credibility provided by this event is big.

Is the value big enough to be worth shifting your launch date dramatically?
Probably not. But if your launch date is in the neighborhood, trying to get it
done at TC50 (or a similar event) is a low-cost/high-value proposition. Hell,
even DEMO is low cost compared to most other PR/marketing spending you could
do.

~~~
dbreunig
"Example: What Twitter experienced at SXSW."

Twitter wasn't just on display. It served a real function. The audience WAS
the conference goers. You can't really use it as a comparable example in this
case. I seriously doubt a social network aimed at kids will achieve even a
fraction of growth from TC50.

~~~
cellis
I think you're underestimating the power of early-adopters/sneezers. For
instance, lots of people have kids, and their friends have kids...

Whats important here is that the type of people that will pay attention enough
to go to tc50/demo aren't just going to go there and then _not say anything
about it_.

They'll come home, get on their macbooks and start blogging what they saw (
some really nice programmers building a kids network ). Some of their friends
will check out the links, maybe share it on facebook, myspace, or , gosh, in
an email. And so forth...

~~~
dbreunig
How many active users does Twitter have again?

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mattjung
He's made a point. Finding its users is the most important tasks for a
startup. Startup events like TechCrunch 50 or Demo may become a flash in the
pan that cost lots of energy and time to participate.

~~~
jedc
Being one of 50 startups, even at a very highly promoted conference, isn't
exactly what I would relish.

If you know your customers and marketplace (and have a good marketing effort),
an official launch should be irrelevant.

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natrius
I was under the impression that participating in these events is primarily to
help get funding, not to help get users. From that perspective, these events
are clearly valuable to startups.

~~~
KirinDave
Right. It's kinda ridiculous to see people on the east coast basically vomit a
steaming pile about west coast events they only vaguely understand.

And besides, the reason so many startups go out to California is a larger tech
talent pool. California has a lot of universities with excellent tech
programs, very favorable laws and protections for tech workers, and very
reasonable taxes for tech workers.

Incorporate wherever you want, your employees are going to look at the legal
issues with working wherever you are. If your office is in a state that honors
no-compete clauses, many people _simply will not work there_ no matter how
much money you offer them. Likewise, we've all got to pay our own private
income taxes, and I'm not a big fan of New York's local taxes when your income
rises above a certain level.

As far as I can tell, a few notable east coast bloggers are trying to
spearhead a movement to call the East the new West for tech, and by and large
it's failing because the reality is that despite the overhype and stiff
competition, your engineers know they've still got a better shot in the Valley
and surrounding areas than basically anywhere else in the country.

~~~
ceonyc
Actually, I used to work for a VC firm (and I wrote the article), so trust me,
I more than "vaguely understand" how companies get funding, and they're not
through these events. The companies that get funded would have gotten funding
anyway and no one with a great product ever lacked for funding just because
they couldn't get in front of a VC. We never went to these types of events
looking for things to invest in.

BTW... If your bottom line income (i.e. NY local taxes) is what you optimize
for, you're probably not going to want to work for a startup anyway. Try a
bank. I hear they have some nice cubes there.

~~~
KirinDave
> Actually, I used to work for a VC firm (and I wrote the article), so trust
> me, I more than "vaguely understand" how companies get funding, and they're
> not through these events. The companies that get funded would have gotten
> funding anyway and no one with a great product ever lacked for funding just
> because they couldn't get in front of a VC. We never went to these types of
> events looking for things to invest in.

I've worked at a company that secured funding because of connections made at
one of these types of events. So yeah. I guess we're at an impasse, because
your statement is exactly as unsupportable as mine.

> BTW... If your bottom line income (i.e. NY local taxes) is what you optimize
> for, you're probably not going to want to work for a startup anyway. Try a
> bank. I hear they have some nice cubes there.

I've made much more money in startups than I would have staying at a big
company. And believe me, I know. I left a few people at Lockheed Martin (check
out those 3% yearly raises!) and I've rejoined a few people who went to MS,
and I've consistently been better paid, had at least equivalent benefits
(better than LMCO, acceptably comparable to Microsoft) for a majority of the
time.

Good luck with your startup, dawg.

------
dbreunig
The headline says it all. Solve a real problem for a group of people who care
and will be the foundation for your product. (And that group of people should
not be Arrington and Calacanis!)

------
fizx
If your marketing strategy relies on <insert one idea here>, you've already
failed.

~~~
ceonyc
+1

------
johnm
Depends very much on who you're "marketing" to.

I.e., two of the most valuable "markets" are the primary attendees of e.g.
DEMO... investors and press. The next tier can also be a boon: partners.

Another facet that's typically overlooked is the value in really getting clear
on what you're delivering. Trying to get a powerful message about what you're
doing into a 6 minute presentation in front of an audience of heavy-hitters is
worth a lot. It was truly amazing to see so many aimless, jam-packed, and
generally crappy presentations right up against so many really fantastic
presentations.

------
keefe
This article seemed to come to the conclusion that TC50 is not worthwhile and
that working out of the east coast is better and then wrote up a piece
justifying it.

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bigbang
I think events like these give crediblity and opens up conversations with the
investors.

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jlogic77
To have the top 50 companies seems does more of a disservice to the people
named in the top. 50 is just too many! After that it just seems like you lose
the attention, impact and intensity of being on top.

What is the success rate of the companies that have participated in the past?
Does anyone have stats on that?

~~~
ceonyc
You tell me:

<http://www.techcrunch50.com/2007/>

How many of those companies do you recognize after a year...

~~~
jedc
I'd say:

Mint Powerset (though only because of permanent beta) TripIt (awesome!) Flock
(for some, not me) Xobni

And with a decent effort, any of them would have been just as successful
without TC40. (Though TC40 could very well have helped them quite a bit.)

------
mattmaroon
If your getting on HackerNews strategy relies on linkbaiting and TechCrunch
trashing, you've already succeeded.

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jm4
Isn't this something that goes without saying? I'd be surprised if anyone
outside of Hacker News has even heard of TechCrunch, and the only reason
people have heard of it here is because the site is spammed daily with their
lame articles.

I think the average reader here deserves a little more credit than the
original poster has given by submitting an article advising against such an
obviously stupid strategy. How on earth did this make the front page?

------
ivankirigin
includes != relies

~~~
mrtron
I was going to write something very similar.

If your marketing strategy does not involve every high visibility low effort
opportunity you can get your hands on, you have already failed.

How much work does it take to get in the TC50? How much visibility does it
provide?

~~~
ScottWhigham
Wait - you think TC50 is "high visibility low effort"? I completely disagree.

 _"How much work does it take to get in the TC50?"_ A ton - business planning,
networking, product development; it's a lot more than just starting up in some
private beta.

One question not asked is, "How much work is required the four weeks before
TC?" Answer: all of your time.

Another unasked question is, "How much time is required the eight weeks after
TC?" Answer: probably all of them for at least 50% of the employees since you
must follow up and follow through (investors, demos, press, networking,
invitations).

That's not low effort at all, neither pre- or post-event; it's probably 8-12
weeks of your time that you aren't doing product development or other
marketing. I'll agree that it's high visibility, of course, but don't overhype
what it takes to be included and have a successful event.

