they did manage to raise 12mil for a crappy product with no traction

So, if your target audience is investors, TC is probably the best possible place to be. If you actually want to sell real products, TC is probably not useful. We've been on TC once (alongside some other YC companies), and VentureBeat once (dedicated article), both very nice articles, and we were happy to have the coverage...but our best sales day ever during our first two years was when someone linked to our site in a comment on Slashdot (we've since reached a point where we regularly top that, but we still consider it a really good day when it happens).

I tend to be suspicious of companies and investors that only look to the various mouthpieces of the valley for their news. There's a whole world of business happening every day that TC and the other valley rags have no awareness of. That's OK, of course, as TC has its niche and serves it well. But, if you're not looking outward, you're missing a lot of opportunities.