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.
But there is a there there. Some apps are useful. People like them. The facebook app users get something they want, and a tiny minority click-through to ads (for facebook apps or other services), and a smaller minority actually spend money.
That makes it dissimilar to a Ponzi scheme: there is input into the system from people outside the pyramid.
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 :)
gibsonf1, i took a shot at one of your previous posts because i thought it was a little off but your site looks alot better. nice job on the improvements... it's coming together.
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........
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.
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.
