Last week in the midst of a downturn in the US economy, TechCrunch50 was held at the San Francisco Design Center Concourse. TechCrunch50 is an event that launches the fifty best start-ups in front of the tech industry’s most influential VCs, corporations and entrepreneurs. At TechCrunch50, early-stage, frequently unfunded companies take centerstage based purely on merit, without regard to their own financial resources. In addition to highlighting the fifty start ups, in a DemoPit at the event other early-stage companies had their first public outing. This year’s event was the biggest ever and tickets priced at $2995 were sold out.
TechCrunch50 featured some major star power this year with Ashton Kutcher becoming the latest celebrity Net entrepreneur. Kutcher, better known as Michael Kelso in That ‘70s Show, and the husband of Demi Moore, was at TechCrunch50 with his business partner Jason Goldberg. Kutcher and Golberg are co-founders of Katalyst Media which already produces the hit shows Punk’d and Beauty and the Geek. Katalyst wants to branch out onto the Web and its first offering is “Blah Blah Blah” a new Web property that is supposed to deliver a unique perspective on popular culture from the vantage point of the Blah Girls (www.blahgirls.com). The Blah Girls are an animated clique of teenagers who enjoy providing their commentary on the latest entertainment themed news and happenings.
“Blah Blah Blah” is one of five original content properties under development in Katalyst’s new digital media division and just a preview of the kind of original content Katalyst plans to create. Katalyst believes that the shift from offline to online entertainment coupled with predicted growth in Internet advertising — projected to hit $147 billion by 2012 — makes the industry ripe for creative content such as “Blah Blah Blah” which lends itself to multiple forms of advertising. Katalyst also expects to bring the Blah Girls and other original content properties to cross-platform applications including mobile, Web, video on demand (VOD) and television broadcast.
Information not entertainment was the focus of another TechCrunch50 presentation from Scott Painter, founder of TrueCar. The goal of TrueCar (www.truecar.com) is to demystify new-car pricing. The site lets consumers know exactly what others actually paid for their cars, in every region across the US. TrueCar not only shows buyers four specific pricing benchmarks — actual dealer cost, factory invoice, average price paid and MSRP or sticker price — but also displays the full range of prices people have actually paid.
The aggregated data is presented in a visually appealing pricing curve that gives guidance well beyond the “average price paid” single number that has become the industry’s status quo. TrueCar clearly shows the buyer what should be considered a good price, a great price and over-priced for the specific car being researched.
Unlike other sources of new-car pricing data that sell leads to dealers, by design TrueCar does not connect buyers with dealers; it’s an independent and unbiased source of pricing guidance that helps consumers walk into a car dealership fully informed. Dealers also can learn how the market is moving. That way they can identify prices that will help them increase volume while maintaining their margins.
Information can be power in many ways. Another company, Fitbit (www.fitbit.com), wants to help people be healthier through the use of its Fitbit Tracker and website. The company’s health and wellness monitoring tools claim to make it easy for anyone to achieve a healthier lifestyle by automatically collecting data about a person’s daily activities and by presenting this data in a motivating and entertaining way. The Fitbit Tracker is an ultra-compact wireless wearable device that automatically tracks and wirelessly uploads data about a person’s activities, such as exercise intensity levels, calories burned, sleep quality, steps and distance. It is as small as a pack of matches and clips securely onto any article of clothing or slips easily into a pocket. The Tracker uses motion sensing technology to precisely capture all physical activity throughout the day and night. It also measures sleep quality to provide a holistic view of a 24-hour period.
At the click of a button, calories, steps and distance are illuminated and displayed on the Tracker. In addition to these numerical measurements, the Tracker also displays a user’s progress toward goals in the form of an avatar that changes as a user advances toward or falls behind the goals.
Data collected by the Fitbit Tracker is wirelessly uploaded to a website where the wearer can see the information and track progress toward personal goals.
The website’s motivational interface encourages users to share progress and lets people create groups made up of friends, family or co-workers to jointly work towards a common goal. On the website, users can also log nutrition, weight and other health information in order to gain a complete picture of their health. The Fitbit Tracker and the Fitbit website will be available by early 2009. The Fitbit Tracker will retail for less than $100; signing up on the Fitbit website is free.
Whether you think these startups are terrific or crazy, the fact is that the entrepreneurs behind these companies took a chance on getting funding for their ideas. They could be the next millionaires in the making. See the other presentations at www.techcrunch50.com and consider whether you have an idea which could be the next big thing.