TechCrunch50: You Want Advertising? We’ll Give You Advertising

Re: TechCrunch50: You Want Advertising? We’ll Give You Adve... by SwellJoe on Friday July 03, 2009 @08:18PM (#686749)

And, of course, the big gaping hole in that argument is that if you can effectively raise money to participate in DEMO, then you don't need DEMO's help with raising money.

I'd be curious to see a breakdown of success vs. failure from DEMO and TC50 launches. I'm betting, even without knowing anything about the selection criteria of either or having ever spent any time at all looking at the companies launching at either, that TC50 produces more success stories.

Hmmm...actually I just checked out the DEMO site...there's an awful lot of old companies "launched" at DEMO (RealNetworks, really!?!?).

So, now I not only can't believe anyone would pay to present at DEMO, I also can't believe anyone would be willing to sit through that kind of crapfest. It's just a bunch of ads. Why would anyone, particularly someone representing millions or billions of dollars, want to sit through a bunch of ads?

I just don't get it, obviously. Pretty swish website they have, though.

Edit: DEMO 09 appears to have had roughly half the participants as DEMO Fall 08. Perhaps the rules changed, or perhaps folks made the connection that it's not the best use of time/effort/money. I dunno.

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Re: TechCrunch50: You Want Advertising? We’ll Give You Adve... by thorax on Saturday July 04, 2009 @12:18AM (#686896)

> And, of course, the big gaping hole in that argument is that if you can effectively raise money to participate in DEMO, then you don't need DEMO's help with raising money.

That sounds a bit like a reflexive argument to my comment.

Conferences aside and all other things being equal-- if you were an investor, would you rather put your money in a team you know can already raise $20,000 if they need it versus someone with unknown skills/means in that area?

Surely it's not a negative. You know the old adage that most investors are happy to invest in companies that don't really need their money.

But of course, just because a company can raise $20k doesn't mean they don't need "real" money-- which is surely why they got the initial funds so they could demo and raise more.

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Re: TechCrunch50: You Want Advertising? We’ll Give You Adve... by SwellJoe on Saturday July 04, 2009 @01:58AM (#686938)

Sure. I think your devil's advocate positions were quite well-reasoned. I'm just returning the favor. A few companies I respect have done DEMO. I don't think they're idiots, just because they wasted $20k on DEMO. Everybody makes mistakes. But, I really don't think I'd be willing to sit through that particular dog and pony show, if I were an investor.

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Re: TechCrunch50: You Want Advertising? We’ll Give You Adve... by jlees on Saturday July 04, 2009 @08:48AM (#687123)

It's not just about raising money for DEMO. A British startup I know launched there as their main market was the US, so overcoming the geographical barrier by throwing money at it really worked out for them. They raised VC investment in the UK after DEMO (but already had enough funding for the launch, clearly).

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