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Today, TechCrunch50. Next? TechCrunch100? 150? 200? Parked Domains Tell AllToday, TechCrunch50. Next? TechCrunch100? 150? 200? Parked Domains Tell All
All it takes is a quick WHOIS search of parked domains to get some idea of where Mike Arrington and Jason Calacanis might take the TechCrunch50 brand once this year's event is over.
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All it takes is a quick WHOIS search of parked domains to get some idea of where Mike Arrington and Jason Calacanis might take the TechCrunch50 brand once this year's event is over.Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to TechCrunch50 or DemoFall 2008. But, in watching the action and coverage from afar, I started to wonder if Mike Arrington and Jason Calacanis might have no choice but to expand the event from TechCrunch50 to TechCrunch100. Then comes the question of where it could end? 150? 200? Though one can't know for sure without asking TechCrunch50 founders Mike or Jason (and right now, it's a bit early to call either one on the West Coast), there are at least some clues in Mike's parked domains.
The first TechCrunch increment (for those of you who remember) was 20. Mike and Jason announced and held TechCrunch20 last year. This year, they're up to 50. At first, I thought the next obvious increment to test was 75. But thinking back to TechCrunch20, I half-wondered if, after coming up with TechCrunch20, they weren't exactly sure what the next increment might be. So, I started by testing TechCrunch25. Then 30. And so on. I tried to go after obvious increments. Under "TechCrunch100," for example, I tested mostly increments of 10 but tried "75" because it seemed pretty obvious. Once I got to 100, I looked into "125" and "150" and found nothing but got a hit on "TechCrunch200" and, surprisingly, "TechCrunch500" (neither "300" or "400" are taken). Perhaps a bit more interesting is that Mike is not the owner of TechCrunch500.com. Someone based in Ottawa, Canada, owns that domain.
Also just as interesting to me were the registration dates. Here's a list.
TechCrunch20 - January 31, 2007 TechCrunch25 - July 31, 2007 TechCrunch30 - July 31, 2007 TechCrunch40 - July 31, 2007 TechCrunch50 - July 31, 2007 TechCrunch60 - August 22, 2007 TechCrunch70 - August 22, 2007 TechCrunch75 - August 22, 2007 TechCrunch80 - August 22, 2007 TechCrunch90 - August 22, 2007 TechCrunch100 - July 31, 2007 TechCrunch200 - August 22, 2007 TechCrunch500 - May 9, 2008 (not owned by Mike Arrington)
TechCrunch20 Event - September 17-18, 2007
As you can see, TechCrunch20 was registered on the same day that Mike Arrington and Jason Calacanis broke the news that they'd be doing an event called TechCrunch20. According to Mike's post about that announcement, they were both at the other big startup event -- DEMO -- at the time. Wrote Mike of the announcement back then:
Twenty of the hottest new startups will announce and demo their products over a two-day period. And they don't pay a cent to do this. They will be selected to participate based on merit alone.....Many tech conferences today allow startups to pitch and demo their products to their attendees, although there is almost always a hefty fee involved that ranges from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. DEMO, where I am currently, is probably the quintessential example of this model. The entire conference is paid startup demos. There are way too many to digest -- 60 -- and it is a well-known secret that if you are willing to pay the $15,000+ fee, your startup will really need to suck to be turned down.
Although Jason Calacanis' original post (entitled "Taking the payola out of DEMO-ing: The TechCrunch 20 Conference (or, I'm back in the conference business baby!") is no longer available from his blog, I found the cached version which says:
Back in December [2006] 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 conferences 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.
So, it isn't hard to imagine what might have happened based on Jason's account. One month ahead of DEMO, Mike and Jason talk about doing an event. But then, it isn't until DEMO itself when the idea really crystallizes, they come up with a brand name, and register the domain (a lot of domains end up getting registered this way... within minutes of the brainstorming).
Later that year, though, in July (several months after the details of TechCrunch20 were published), something (perhaps the traction TechCrunch20 was getting) motivated Mike to go out and park some "bigger domains" from TechCrunch25 to TechCrunch100.
One little detail is that even though the TechCrunch20 event was originally going to feature 20 startups, it ended up including a Demo Pit where 80 more companies (for a total of "TechCrunch100") who didn't make the cut could also demo. Brian Solis' write-up of the development was aptly headlined "TechCrunch20 now TechCrunch100". Wrote Solis:
OK, so not really. However, TechCrunch announced that it was overwhelmed with applications, over 700 to be exact, and the last 100 was extremely difficult to narrow down....While indeed there will be a final selection of 20, which is already in the can but not yet announced, the other 80 companies will have an opportunity to demonstrate their products in the Demo Pit, which is basically a series of cocktail tables staffed by 1 or 2 company representatives.
But then, three weeks after parking the July-set of domains (on August 22), Mike parks a bunch of domains between TechCrunch50 and TechCrunch100 (in increments of 10 as well as #'s 75 and 200) that he didn't originally park.
So, is the road map leading us to TechCrunch200?
Maybe Mike or Jason will see this post and fill in some of the blanks. Perhaps one question they can answer if they do respond is whether they've had a change of their original hearts about how 60 startups (the number of startups at DEMO) was too many startups to "digest" at one event. My sense as the founder of Startup Camp is that it's not. Also, what's that guy in Ottawa doing with "TechCrunch500.com?"
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