4 ms·

What I Learned from TechCrunch50 - 6 pieces of advice for future presenters

21 points by kitsguy 17y ago

BRadmin 17y ago
Now I want to see a picture of Scoble's business card...
- DannoHung 17y ago
  You know those plastic pictures that change based on the angle you're viewing them at?
dschobel 17y ago
If the rumors are to believe, there won't be any future TC50's. http://venturebeat.com/2009/09/16/tc50-techcrunch50-founders-feud-its-over/ http://venturebeat.com/2009/09/16/tc50-techcrunch50-founders...
- jpwagner 17y ago
  If the puppet is to be believed...
- fallentimes 17y ago
  Techcrunch create rumors and controversy to get links, mentions and pageviews? Never! Maybe there won't be a future TC50, but what about a TC60 or TC100? Haven't they run that gag before?
- dpcan 17y ago
  I think Arrington's favorite publicity stunt is the "argument".
anatoly 17y ago
Is there a greasemonkey script to automatically hide every HN headline with a number in it?
- ScottWhigham 17y ago
  Yes, sir - thanks to my hero, http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Xichekolas http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Xichekolas Check out http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/25039 http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/25039
  - anatoly 17y ago
    Fantastic, thanks!
windsurfer 17y ago
I learned that TechCrunch will spam their RSS feed all day for a week, causing me to unsubscribe :(
- dpcan 17y ago
  I think most people don't unsubscribe. We wait for these TC50 updates all year like it's startup-news Christmas. And we run the ustream video throughout the day too.
joez 17y ago
> "Have your product ready for launch at the end of your presentation. If you’re product is still in powerpoints or “closed beta” or “invitation only”, don’t bother coming to these conferences." Having sat in the TC50 pits, I noticed one major mistake was not giving out free invites to the people in the room (and streaming live)! There were amazing demos that had everyone drooling to try only to get turned off (and away) when they found out there was no free demo. Big examples were CitySourced, http://www.Cocodot.com http://www.Cocodot.com and http://www.perpetually.com http://www.perpetually.com. If CitySourced had given out a free version for the day they launched, they could have had enough downloads at the end of that day to give them the top position in the App Store. Everyone around me took out their iphones, checked out the app store only to see that it costed 2.99 and put away their phone. Cocodot looked absolutely stunning and especially with a lite photoshop app built in for customization. It had us all wanting to try it only to get turned away when there was no free demo. As Jason Calacanis pointed out, probably about 200 people in the room had over 1000 followers on twitter. If they launched a great product, they could have had 200,000 people hear about them via twitter alone. (Maybe a bit of a stretch, but not if you consider the 3000 streaming viewers and some people had 5000 or 10000 followers). In short, if you do a demo day, don't forget to capitalize on the publicity by letting people try it!
- yalurker 17y ago
  Wait, so people were drooling over CitySourced but then weren't willing to pay 3 bucks for it? Something seems very wrong about that.
  - joez 17y ago
    Drooling might have been an over dramatization on my part. But I think there was a #citysourcedcommittee (something like that) started on twitter. I did hear multiple mutters of two ninety ninety around me because they neglected to mention a price on downloading the app. They are trying to build a tribe (in Seth Godin's words). Their application is not very good if only a few are reporting issues and they could have overcome some chicken and egg issues by making it free for a week. I think the real issue might be the fact that these were applications that did not solve an immediate pain and yet wanted an upfront payment. In CitySourced's case, there was no graffiti or potholes in the room for people to report but people wanted to download it and play around. Perpetually required maybe months of caching to see a benefit but wanted a $99 upfront fee. (They've since started offering a trial)

21 points by kitsguy 17y ago

BRadmin 17y ago

Now I want to see a picture of Scoble's business card...

DannoHung 17y ago
You know those plastic pictures that change based on the angle you're viewing them at?

dschobel 17y ago

If the rumors are to believe, there won't be any future TC50's. http://venturebeat.com/2009/09/16/tc50-techcrunch50-founders-feud-its-over/ http://venturebeat.com/2009/09/16/tc50-techcrunch50-founders...

jpwagner 17y ago
If the puppet is to be believed...
fallentimes 17y ago
Techcrunch create rumors and controversy to get links, mentions and pageviews? Never! Maybe there won't be a future TC50, but what about a TC60 or TC100? Haven't they run that gag before?
dpcan 17y ago
I think Arrington's favorite publicity stunt is the "argument".

anatoly 17y ago

Is there a greasemonkey script to automatically hide every HN headline with a number in it?

ScottWhigham 17y ago
Yes, sir - thanks to my hero, http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Xichekolas http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Xichekolas Check out http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/25039 http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/25039
- anatoly 17y ago
  Fantastic, thanks!

windsurfer 17y ago

I learned that TechCrunch will spam their RSS feed all day for a week, causing me to unsubscribe :(

dpcan 17y ago
I think most people don't unsubscribe. We wait for these TC50 updates all year like it's startup-news Christmas. And we run the ustream video throughout the day too.

joez 17y ago

> "Have your product ready for launch at the end of your presentation. If you’re product is still in powerpoints or “closed beta” or “invitation only”, don’t bother coming to these conferences." Having sat in the TC50 pits, I noticed one major mistake was not giving out free invites to the people in the room (and streaming live)! There were amazing demos that had everyone drooling to try only to get turned off (and away) when they found out there was no free demo. Big examples were CitySourced, http://www.Cocodot.com http://www.Cocodot.com and http://www.perpetually.com http://www.perpetually.com. If CitySourced had given out a free version for the day they launched, they could have had enough downloads at the end of that day to give them the top position in the App Store. Everyone around me took out their iphones, checked out the app store only to see that it costed 2.99 and put away their phone. Cocodot looked absolutely stunning and especially with a lite photoshop app built in for customization. It had us all wanting to try it only to get turned away when there was no free demo. As Jason Calacanis pointed out, probably about 200 people in the room had over 1000 followers on twitter. If they launched a great product, they could have had 200,000 people hear about them via twitter alone. (Maybe a bit of a stretch, but not if you consider the 3000 streaming viewers and some people had 5000 or 10000 followers). In short, if you do a demo day, don't forget to capitalize on the publicity by letting people try it!

yalurker 17y ago
Wait, so people were drooling over CitySourced but then weren't willing to pay 3 bucks for it? Something seems very wrong about that.
- joez 17y ago
  Drooling might have been an over dramatization on my part. But I think there was a #citysourcedcommittee (something like that) started on twitter. I did hear multiple mutters of two ninety ninety around me because they neglected to mention a price on downloading the app. They are trying to build a tribe (in Seth Godin's words). Their application is not very good if only a few are reporting issues and they could have overcome some chicken and egg issues by making it free for a week. I think the real issue might be the fact that these were applications that did not solve an immediate pain and yet wanted an upfront payment. In CitySourced's case, there was no graffiti or potholes in the room for people to report but people wanted to download it and play around. Perpetually required maybe months of caching to see a benefit but wanted a $99 upfront fee. (They've since started offering a trial)