I've always loved DEMO-style conferences (like the one going on in Palm Desert today) where entrepreneurs show off their creations for the first time to an audience of their peers, the press, and investors. In fact, in 1997 I did my first conference called "Meet the Alley" where entrepreneurs did 10 minutes presentations in the "demo-or-die" format (I gotta find the video tapes). We called it "Ready, Set, PITCH!" and it was a huge hit. The New York Times wrote it up... I gotta find that clip too!
Getting a presentation slot at a demo conference can really help launch a company, but the fact is that demo-style conferences have turned into cash cows for big conference companies and the small entrepreneur is now being forced to shell out tens of thousands of dollars to buy their space.
It's wrong on so many levels (as a lot of folks have pointed out).
First, the best companies would never be able to afford that fee. This means the most prommissing companies who need the exposure the most--and who the audience would most want to see--never make it to the stage. When Kevin Rose started digg he was broke--he could NEVER have afforded demo. When I started Weblogs, Inc. with Brian we were really broke (in fact Brian had taken a second mortgage to build the company!)--we could never have afforded demo. I suspect that most of the great and up-and-coming Web 2.0 companies wouldn't have been able to cut that $20,000 check (or $12,000 as the case may be). I don't think a YouTube, TechMeme, Blogger, StumbleUpon, or CastFire could afford the ticket when they were starting up.
Second, even the good companies that make it to the stage have to spend around $20,000 to pay for their six minutes! What a rip-off.
Back in December I was kicking it on Sand Hill road trying to get my groove back after leaving AOL. After a day of meeting with VCs I called my friends Steve Gillmor and Mike Arrington to see if they were up for a steak dinner.
Over dinner Mike and I talked about our equal disdain of the payola model, and I encouraged Mike to start a conference series. I explained to him the things I'd learned about doing conference from back in my Silicon Alley Reporter days. Our biggest conference did $2.6M and cost $600,000 to run--and we never asked anyone to pay to get their speaking slot. Of course, those numbers were during the crazy boom years.
After dinner we went for a long walk and smoked some amazing (NOT) Cuban cigars :-). Mike asked me if I would help with the conference and I figured what the heck--I loved running conferences, I love Mike, and our industry needs a conference that isn't in on the take.
So, it's with great pride that I announce that Mike and I are partnering on a conference series called "The TechCrunch 20." The concept is simple: 20 companies will present over two days to their peers, the press, VCs, and the industry.
All companies will be selected by a committee of expert entrepreneurs, journalists and analysts on THE QUALITY OF THEIR PRODUCT not their ability to write a check.
If two guys in school show us the next digg, stumbleupon, or YouTube they're getting a slot and their going to pay $0 for it.
If the folks over at StumbleUpon, digg, PodShow, or Odeo show us some amazing new product they're planning on launching they get a slot--and they pay us $0 for it.
We really want the audience to get 20 presentations that are just amazing. No duds is the goal. To ensure that we have no duds the selected companies are going to show us their final products and presentations 10 days
before the event, and in the case that their demo is not ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT we are going to replace them (we'll have 2-3 alternates waiting in the wings for this purpose).
How will we make money off the event? Well, frankly we don't need to make too much money, and we think the ticket sales and a couple of top level sponsors (i.e. one law firm, one tech firm, one VC firm, and one accounting firm) will cover things.
The details are being worked out as we speak. Here is what we know so far:
1. It will be in the San Francisco area.
2. We will have around 250 people at the event.
3. 20 companies will present over two days.
4. The event will take place in the fall.
5. We are looking for a location that can fit 250-500 people. We arehoping we can find a a University that would host the event, or an affordable conference center. Any ideas please let me know.
6. We hope to put together an advisory board of people we really respect to suggest companies.
How can you help?
a) We need a great location.
b) We need top level sponsors who believe in giving the little companies a chance to shine.
c) We need suggestions for companies who will want to break big news in the fall.
I can't tell you how excited I am about getting back into the conference business, and I really honored to be doing it with Mike and his team at TechCrunch.
If you want to email the "20 conference" team the email is 20 at techcrunch.com.
all the best,
Jason
Taking the payola out of DEMO-ing: The TechCrunch 20 Conference (or, I'm back in the conference business baby!)
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Reader Comments
(Page 1 of 2)2. Wendy: I think we will be reserving 20% of the seats for press and will give those slots based on the value those journalists bring to the companies presenting (i.e. if someone is from Horse and Hound magazine we might give their slot to someone at GigaOm or PaidContent.org!).
The rest of the seats will be paid.
3. Jason, how about doing an east-coast TechCrunch 20 during the spring, in New Jersey and/or NYC?
It still makes me sad that the prospects of a true Sillicon Alley are dead. Part of me still refuses to believe it.
Posted at 3:32PM on Jan 31st 2007 by Dossy Shiobara
4. Great idea, not only do you get to showcase the top new companies, you get to see them first and invest ;)
A couple of suggestions;
Get a proper online attendance option (streaming video/live updates ala Engadget CES coverage?). Some of us don't go to any conferences as a rule, but we'll pay to be able to attend online.
Can you ban certain buzzwords? There's just something wrong about hearing a grown man say 'blogosphere' with a straight face.
Posted at 4:08PM on Jan 31st 2007 by Adam Cains
5. Awesome, it's about time that we see startups that haven't paid their way into the spotlight.
Posted at 4:12PM on Jan 31st 2007 by Robert Dewey
6. Jason,
How about taking that east coast one, doing it here in Miami in the winter. No one wants to go somewhere cold in the winter. :-)
Or mid to early spring 2008...
Posted at 4:15PM on Jan 31st 2007 by Brian Breslin
7. Hey Jason...
Depending on the type of atmosphere you're looking for, you might consider renting out The Independent at 628 Divisidero in San Fran.
The room holds 550 people, has full sound, lights, security, stage, staff...not to mention full bar. You could even have Herbivore cater the event..they are right across the street.
Its primarilly a concert venue, but it could work for your purposes. I have rented out the venue for a few concerts in the past and I'd be happy to connect you with the manager of the room.
Feel free to email if you want to discuss. -MK
Posted at 4:30PM on Jan 31st 2007 by Mike K.
8. Totally brilliant on so many levels.
Especially considering the people involved.
Maybe this will even be the event which finally brings us fax2.0 machines!
Fingers crossed,
bigbignews.net
Posted at 4:33PM on Jan 31st 2007 by Tyler Crowley
9. I've been bothered by the pay-to-play arrangement that Demo has instituted. It just seemed like a rigged game in some ways. Good luck with the conference.
Posted at 4:33PM on Jan 31st 2007 by Mark Evans
10. Is this a Sequoia Capital event or are you involved separately?
Posted at 5:06PM on Jan 31st 2007 by Niall Kennedy
11. Great idea! Please schedule it with enough notice so those of us on the east coast can make travel arrangements. If you need a digital media expert on your review board, I volunteer.
I don't have any connections at Santa Clara or SFSU, but they might have venues of an appropriate size and may be receptive to collaborating in hosting the event.
12. I have to chime in on this one. Its an interesting idea, but still flawed for a variety of reasons. More on that in another posting. What I can tell you about DEMO model is this: It does work. Sure the figures seem quite daunting at first blush, but just hold on a sec folks. I launched my company there in 2003, paid the fee, got my six minutes, was crowned DemoGod that year, and went on to convert the 6 minutes it into 5 years of unprecedented publicity, valuable connections, peer industry visibility, venture financing, and most importantly, web traffic. All told, probably worth a few million in marketing dollars that we never had to spend.
I went from being a huge skeptic to being probably the only company inviting back 3 years in a row with a new killer app each time. Each time I groaned about the pricing model up front, and each time it was the easiest money spent.
In summary you MUST be very well prepared for DEMO in order to leverage your 6 minutes and your DEMO booth of your product over 2 days (yes its more than just six minutes on stage) and convert it to this kind of value. I witnessed several companies show up totally unprepared and fall on their asses on the stage and around the show. Its not for everyone, but for start up pros, its a marketing machine for your newco.
Posted at 5:52PM on Jan 31st 2007 by R.J. Pittman
13. Sounds great. We've looked into a few of those "launchpad" type things as well, and can't believe that it's the best way to spend upwards of 10K in marketing / advertising dollars.
Our product is second to none in our category, but we get very, very little buzz about. How do we get considered for this event? I'm all ears :)
14. @Jason:
"First, the best companies would never be able to afford that fee. This means the most prommissing companies who need the exposure the most--and who the audience would most want to see--never make it to the stage."
Man thats so true, 18k thats 2x (actually very close to 3)more than I've flippin spent in the last 9 months on our company and we're just about done with beta.
My biggest expense so far was made 2 days ago: 1400.00 to buy a ticket to this years GDC, which will allow me exposure to everyone I need to know in the gaming industry over 5 days.
1400 & 5 days > 18k and 2 days, any day. besides there are monthly events in the SF/SV area (I've gone to STIRR 3 months now its awesome) for networking and seeing new start-ups.
Your right its not start ups who can afford a 18k fee to present its the Broke scrappy start-ups who need a good format. Bootstrapping sucks but paying to play sucks harder.
Grats on sticking up for us little unconnected no names, thats some good karma....
2 recommendations from a small start up perspective:
1. There's going to be some fierce jokeying for those 20 slots, I hope you throw together some kind of online application form for people, email really isnt an optimal format for PR reasons.
2. Could you up the attendance? Maybe like 400-500 people and allocate some space for maybe 1 founder from other start-ups that way it would facilitate networking and founders who arent presenting could learn something by watching the presentations (this is one reason STIRR is great)
Just a few suggestions, great news, grats on doing the right thing.
Posted at 7:25PM on Jan 31st 2007 by Allen Sligar
15. Jason, I think it is a great idea. And coming from Europe I not only second the wish for virtual attendence but als ask for some more useful timeslots so we can join in as well.
As for R.J - sure you had your ways of using the publicity of being the demogod - but there is only one. And there are other ways to leverage this, and to get your kind of contacts - well you can travel to quite some conferences with that money.
I am not dismissing that it works for some people, but it is alwaqys good to have alternatives.
Posted at 7:34PM on Jan 31st 2007 by Nicole Simon
16. Jason,
My gut tells me that neither model is realy flawed. There's a place for both Demo and TC20. Both fine ideas. I think we're all better off now with TC20 since it lowers the bar for small bootstrap web-type startups.
Ps. "Horse and Hound": Great random film reference.
Posted at 7:39PM on Jan 31st 2007 by Tom Fragala
17. Cool...I'm on board. Hell, I'll feed you most of your players.
Although, some of the 2.0 companies out here (I'm at DEMO now) would argue that their money was well spent. I'll be writing about it here.
Posted at 10:56PM on Jan 31st 2007 by Brian Solis
18. By "here," in my previous post, I was referring to: http://bub.blicio.us
Posted at 10:58PM on Jan 31st 2007 by Brian Solis
19. There should be TWO conferences - one on the West Coast and One on the East Coast (New York City)
But instead of not having anyone pay for anything - ask people to pay what they can afford - Most people are honest
Be it: Nothing or One Hunderd or One Grand - Give everyone the opportunity to do it on the honor system
Posted at 12:23AM on Feb 1st 2007 by Search Engines WEB
20. This sounds exactly like www.proto.in an event for indian technological innovations hosted recently!
Posted at 2:31AM on Feb 1st 2007 by Rajiv Dingra
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1. "We will have around 250 people at the event." Is this a handpicked group of folks, or is it going to be relatively open? What about press, industry people?
Btw, I had no idea it was that much money to demo - oy, vey.
Posted at 3:21PM on Jan 31st 2007 by Wendy