Namita Bhasin

I already bored you all to death with my opinions of nearly every company that presented on days 2 and 3. So this time, I’ll talk about swag.

Swag is not actually stuff we all get. It’s stuff we get if we make it to a company’s table before all the small shirts run out, or the cold sodas are gone. It’s free crap that pretty much only college students or broke entrepreneurs want (works for me, it lessens the competition).

T-shirts

To whomever is in charge of swag creation: please innovate! Your company is doing it, so why isn’t your branded stuff representative of that? I have 11 black shirts. A lot of them have really cool designs, but they do not stand out from the rest simply because of that overpopular background color. Sorry designers, unfortunately everyone thinks it looks cool, just like you do.

Kronomy has a white shirt. Not that long ago, everyone had a white shirt. Now only Kronomy does, so it will stand out at least to me in my vast sea of swag. Whether it will ever see daylight is debatable. But it’s got a head start.

Everyone’s shirts are American Apparel. This is fine; in fact it’s a standard. If your shirt is not American Apparel, you are cheap. Of course since you’re a startup, that’s cool. Everyone knows you’re broke.

Women and shirts need to be taken into consideration. The typical boxy tee is going to make its way straight to the back of the closet, where it may occasionally surface as a nightshirt. Being a small person myself, I usually spring for the largest size they’ve got when smalls aren’t available. An XL goes down past my knees and I could probably fit my roommates in it with me. Perfect for sleeping in. If i wanted to be really nerdy, I could make a dress out of it. I’d never get around to it, though. Also noteworthy: the women at these conferences are (surprisingly) fashionable. Lots of them are Booth Babes, Marketing/PR chicks, whatever. They won’t pick up your large shapeless shirts and actually wear them in public.

I realize there aren’t enough women around to make this much of a consideration, but think about this. If you’ve got something written across the chest, it’s got a much better chance of being noticed on a woman.

Other types of swag

Forget shirts. If you want to stand out, offer something different. It’s got the advantage of being a conversation piece just by virtue of it not being a shirt.

“What’ve you got there?” “Oh, that’s an energy drink from Zong. They do mobile micropayments.”

“Why is Divvy giving out stuffed dogs?” “Why not?” (Correct me if I’m wrong. I’m paraphrasing here).

An idea

How about swag that’s got at least a tangential relationship to your product? For example, I think Zivity should have given out underwear. Lacy underwear. That would stand out.

Good morning everyone. Welcome to day 3 of Techcrunch!

So, the rich media section just ended. First of all, this is definitely a business I’m familiar with (I’ve worked in that area longer than any other). So I think I can say with a little authority that as cool as a lot of this is, I have seen it before and I don’t really understand how it is differentiated. More on those companies later.

I ran to the demopit between sessions and talked to Grooveshark, which is awesome. They’re similar to FF in that they’re a mostly-student company that sprang from research done at school (UF in their case). However, they have much better backing. The university took care of the patent and they’ve got angels, not to mention a neatly figured business model that’s already making multiple streams of revenue.

Next: the gaming session. I missed grockit, which is a learning game of some kind. I hear they have GMAT questions, so maybe I’ll play.

Akoha is a pay-it-forward game that encourages people doing nice things, like giving books to schoolkids or chocolate to couples in love. It’s a nice idea, and since I decided I’d take the starter kit, I just got a gift card for the value of an iPod touch. Pays to be nice, haha. I wonder who I’ll give it to.

Atmosphir is a 3D video game collaborative creation tool. They positioned themselves as the equivalent of Lego. Looks very cool, and if this doesn’t exist yet, then they can do very well because this is something that needs to exist soon. I think my brother would like it, as he makes games in his spare time (see them at Neal.Bhasin.com).

Skipped vertical social networks because I’m rather sick of social networks altogether. Stuff for them, fine; another one OF them, hell no.
I worked the demopit again and learned some really great stuff. I won’t detail them but check out: MaxRoam (cheap international SIM cards; most efficient company I’ve ever seen), Searchme (especially if you have an opinion about Cuil), keibe (social network content monitoring system), 911ICE (great implementation of an emergency contact system, I find this VERY important), and Yahoo Boss (search engine licensing).

Last session: research and recommendations. First is GoodGuide, which is a search engine for products that are green, healthy, socially responsible, whatever. Good solid idea that isn’t messed up by UGC (user generated content); this is very much the kind of content that should be carefully moderated by experts. I’ll use it.

So to wrap up today: these are probably the most interesting posts I’ll have on this blog ever. TechCrunch has been an absolutely amazing time and I’ve loved every minute of it. Met some awesome people and may even get a job (or at least a lead) from someone. Not to mention all the free stuff, haha. And last but not least, Wordpress is my new favorite iPhone app.

In session 2 of TC50 day 2. So far I like Popego, wish I had seen MixTT, don’t get imindi. Apparently the judges don’t either, because they shat all over it (pardon my French).

We’re listening to the finance presentations, which are definitely above my head but look like potentially useful products. More in a few minutes.
ExchangeP: playing stock market, basically. Neat idea in a crowded market, no business model explicitly mentioned. If they do make critical mass, they might help people out for real. I remember this one study about predictive markets being more accurate than real ones for stuff like elections.

Me-trics: now this looks interesting. I think I will give it a shot. Knowing me, of course, it’s not certain how often I would use it after the initial try. But it’s info that’s good to know anyway. Main issues: manual data entry (especially for the useful metrics) and the fact that correlation does not mean causation.
iCharts: cooler than I expected. Simple product with a definite existing need. I agree with Mark Cuban in that I don’t think they will be huge, but solid.

VC panel: is innovation dying in Silicon valley? Personally I feel that innovation of the Web 2.0 sort is. Something new needs to - and will - emerge soon enough. I hope it’s stuff of a more substantial nature.

Pitch problems: entrepreneurs need to be more succint (who hasn’t heard that one before?). They need to focus on reality - recognize and fix mistakes ASAP. The best ideas are not always the best pitches. The best entrepreneurs are good listeners. Storytelling and other credibility-building activities are vital. To VCs: when you find a company you like, try to cause less friction and release money faster (haha, right). The debate arises again as to the success rate of repeat entrepreneurs. The oft-repeated marriage analogy is discussed. VCs explain why they’re so (sometimes overly) cautious - they manage other people’s money.

I like Raj Kapoor. He seems like a fair guy who actually has founders’ interests at heart, or at least in mind.

Most important factors of startups: Engineers who can build and people with vision and people who can execute on vision. Those who take money for non-calendar milestones. People with passion. People who can see and understand what works and not; people who can adapt.

How quick is too quick to say no? It never is; a quick no is showing respect. How do VCs prevent information leaking? They don’t, really. And Arrington doesn’t think they should

Lunch talk, hosted by Navin Chaddha (my neighbor, incidentally): first things first, that entrepreneurs should die of indigestion, not starvation.

Rather than focusing on viral things to acquire users, work on the core product to attract them organically. Theoretically that works, and I’ve done a few things in the past to that effect, but I still don’t think purely organic explosive growth is a realistic expectation. Especially not right now with the sheer volume of stuff on the Internet and the pressure to build and grow faster and faster.

All these guys are really pressing the point of hiring the right people. Right doesn’t mean best, it means most driven and passionate for the company. This means that the perfect resume and experience can not necessarily matter. I really hope this is true. I suppose I shall find out this year. I would love to find a company that makes me feel that way (and reciprocates).

Mobile session: first up is mytopia. They run multiplayer applications natively on many different mobile OSs. This was done quick and cheap with one devloper and one designer. The rest is rather technical but I think the gist of it is solving the problem of cross-platform programming. Write it once, run it on everything.
One of the judges is asking why anyone would be interested in multi-platform capability. I think that’s a slightly unintelligent question. Not everyone in the world has a jesusphone or a crackberry.

BEST DEMO OF TODAY: tonchidot’s sekaicamera. HILARIOUS. YouTube it, I’m sure it was up the second it ended. I hope someone put up the whole presentation. I have no words for this.

Fitbit: first company I’ve seen with hardware. It’s a super-creepy-advanced wifi pedometer. Tracks everything pretty much. Only $99. I would definitely buy this. I think this is going to be the winner.

Language and platform tools: alfabetic is a real-time translation engine/ad network to reach the 70% of Internet users that do not speak English. Judges bring up World Lexicon. Must look into that. I just wish more of these companies would diversify revenue streams. I really don’t think any ad-based model, no matter how good or innovative, is entirely dependable. The world of advertising is generally slow on the whole internet thing. By the time they catch up, users may have eliminated the effectiveness of ads altogether.

I haven’t been to the demopit all day and I’m dying to head out there but this section looks to be a good one. Then I can’t miss tonight’s keynote either (Calacanis and Cuban) so I guess I’ll see who’s still around after 6.

Postbox: desktop email client. I think I would appreciate this greatly - not all my related messages have any common text, and i can’t search for all messages with images. It’s kind of filtering into folders but more customizable and much cooler. What I want to know is how compatible it is with webmail. Does the organization hold? Is there really value to web search within email?

Okay, another wow. Swype, from the creators of T9. Solid team with deep mobile background. It was hyped up before their presentation and definitely did not disappoint. Fitbit may be displaced by a new winner. This is going to be awesome beyond any cell phone screen. Here comes the new way to input text!

Last company today (sorry for the really long post), dropbox. Sync across machines. Nice implementation of obvious usage of the cloud. Unfortunately, their demo didn’t work right off. I will be signing up for the free premium account shortly

Damn. They ran out. Oh well.

Watching Jason Calacanis and Mark Cuban. He’s done a lot more than I had any idea about. And he’s hot, especially for a guy his age. He did everything he did out of stubbornness and contrariness. That’s created the sort of cockiness that’s definitely allowed but still sort of crass. I guess he’s one of the few that can get away with it.

Okay, I think I’m done for today. If you slogged through this whole thing, thanks haha - especially since I typed the whole thing on my iPhone. Will repeat tomorrow!

Today I volunteered to help set up at TC50. First of all, let me say what a damn good deal it was to get a free pass to the entire conference for 4 hours of ‘work.’ Second, what a damn good deal it is to be a student altogether. I definitely have to capitalize on the benefits of free events and swag and help that really only go to students, while I still am one. This stuff goes away once one enters the real world.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for now. Heading to bed to beat the registration rush (and get TC50 backpacks, of course) tomorrow morning. Later fools