A few months back I wanted to start a wiki for the local DC startups so we could have one place for everyone to add and see some of the great companies that are taking root here in the area. At the time it sparked a bit of a talk between a few in the community as to who should be on the list. What would the criteria be for a company to be out on the list and labeled a startup.
So I was very interested when I came across this post from Allen Stern on Centernetworks. He was recently in attendence at Techcrunch50 where some 50 startups pitched there wares to various panels to try to win the coveted prize. In any case, this question about what defines a startup copped up again. Allen noted that
Over my days at the Techcrunch50 conference, several people noted to me that the startups on stage had major funding and the demo pit companies were the real startups.
Interestingly enough, Jeff Wang decided to take a look and see just how much money was behind the Techcrunch finalists. Here is a look at what he found
- 4 companies over $5 million
- 16 companies over $1 million
- 10 companies didn’t report their funding
- Techcrunch50 winner Yammer has funding for parent company Geni over $10 million including $1.5 million from TC50 sponsor Founders Fund (they have spun Yammer into a separate company but it was built under the Geni umbrella)
- the total funding amount of the 42 reporting companies is over $62 million
So after looking at these figures I am a bit confused. First of all, confused even more as to what can be considered a “startup” and secondly, is Techcrunch50 really a showing and competition between true startups ? At this point it seems as though it is simply a dog and pony show for well financed companies who use the platform as a PR tool.
So what do you think, what is a startup and is Techcrunch50 a true startup competition ?
