When your entire world becomes immersed in startup life, these types of events grow to paramount importance in the minds of entrepreneurs, often to unrealistic

When your entire world becomes immersed in startup life, these types of events grow to paramount importance in the minds of entrepreneurs, often to unrealistic levels. It's the same reason an entrepreneur broke into Arrington's house to get a story, spat in his face, etc. Furthrmore, making yourself deceptively important allows you to charge ~$2k/company, which Arrington is particularly good at. To be fair, several companies that have launched at TC40/50 are rapidly growing. Mint is the first example that comes to mind, and I think DropBox and Xobni as well. For all the companies whose TC press has helped them, I would approximate that more than 99% of successful companies have not relied on TC for press. That's the danger of living in a bubble and I believe why this particular author hypes it up.