Disrupt panel
Conway, Sacca, and McClure are interviewed by Arrington about the Angelgate controversy at the Tech Crunch event. Sacca says it was a ‘misunderstanding’ that is ‘worth getting past’. Arrington:
We are not going to have a Jerry Springer moment here?
Sacca responds
Sacca replies to Conway:
I am having a hard time resolving the person I quite literally grew up with in this business, with the person who sent the email to which I am replying. Your anger and personal accusations hurt, and it is clear they are intended to
McClure responds
McClure talks to the BBC about what he says are inaccuracies in Arrington’s post:
I take exception to what Mike has said and the accusations he is throwing around. There are a lot of people working hard and to cast aspersions on what we do is… wrong. Most of these accusations might have fitted the industry 30 years ago but not today, not the last 12-24 months.
Mike is an excellent writer and he throws an awesome conference and this will boost his numbers but I will be concentrating on working 120% to help make my entrepreneurs and the companies I have invested in successful.
Angelgate blog post
Arrington posts about a meeting of angel investors at Bin 38 in San Francisco, who account for ‘nearly 100 percent of early stage start-up deals in Silicon Valley‘. He doesn’t identify the people at the meeting, but says sources give him information on what the meeting is about:
- Complaints about Y Combinator’s growing power, and how to counteract competitiveness in Y Combinator deals
- Complaints about rising deal valuations and they can act as a group to reduce those valuations
- How the group can act together to keep traditional venture capitalists out of deals entirely
- How the group can act together to keep out new angel investors invading the market and driving up valuations.
- More mundane things, like agreeing as a group not to accept convertible notes in deals (an entrepreneur-friendly type of deal).
- One source has also said that there is a wiki of some sort that the group has that explicitly talks about how the group should act as one to keep deal valuations down.
He says the meeting raises serious concerns:
Collusion and price fixing, that’s what. It is absolutely unlawful for competitors to act together to keep other competitors out of the market, or to discuss ways to keep prices under control. And that appears to be exactly what this group is doing. This isn’t minor league stuff. We’re talking about federal crimes and civil prosecutions if in fact that’s what they’re doing.
Facebook Effect interview
Arrington interviews Kirkpatrick, the book’s author and editor of Fortune, about his statement that Facebook could contribute to world peace. Kirkpatrick:
It’s probably played a significant role in pacifying the world
Kirkpatrick also says he thinks it will:
Become seriously subject to regulation and governmental pushback
Carol Bartz interview
Arrington interviews Yahoo CEO Bartz at Disrupt. Bartz:
Listen, Yahoo’s a great company that is very, very strong in content for its users, uses amazing technology to serve up what, increasingly, we think is going to be the web of one…It’s a place where you can just get it together.
She says it has ‘32,000 different variations of the front page module every five minutes’ through content optimization based on what users click on, and people can check their email, social needs, and sports team all on the same page.
Told to ‘f-ck off’
Arrington and Bartz trade banter about expectations for Yahoo’s performance after she joined only recently. She says Apple took seven years to grow its market cap after Jobs rejoined. Arrington starts the exchange:
So how the f-ck are you?
He needles her about not reading TechCrunch. Bartz:
You are involved in a very tiny company, and it probably takes a long time to even convince yourself what to do….So f-ck off.
New York Times interview
Arrington talks about women in tech, holding parties in the early days of TechCrunch, and how Disrupt works like a March Madness bracket:
We’re going to start with 22 Disrupt companies in stage one of the tournament…Eventually, we’ll write a $50,000 check to the winners.
Why women aren’t attracted to the tech industry:
There’s a fascinating company, Zivity, it’s a venture-funded, adult photography community — yes, they put up pictures of naked women online — it was co-founded and is run by a woman, Cyan Banister. She wrote me in response to a post about women who are entrepreneurs, saying, basically, though these are not her exact words, women [stink] as entrepreneurs a lot of the time because they are nurturing and not risk-taking enough by nature. She also said when men roll the dice and take risks, that society doesn’t punish them at all, and it’s in their nature to take stupid risks.
I didn’t respond to that. I didn’t want to jump into that debate. And I guess I still don’t.
Where 2.0 interview
Arrington talks with O’Reilly Media’s founder and CEO about Yahoo and Microsoft taking on Google in search. O’Reilly:
You’d say competition is healthy?
Arrington:
For the whole community.
Steve Ballmer interview
Arrington interviews Ballmer in the TechCrunch office, with Bing, Windows 7, Azure, Mesh, and other products all hitting the market. Ballmer:
It’s good to have a year where you have a lot of things to get excited about
Clarifies Gillmor Gang interview
Arrington explains that he asked Laporte whether the Palm Pre was paid for or free, as Palm had promised TechCrunch and at least one other blogger test units, but hadn’t delivered. He says he was trying to compare the reviews from people who got test units from those who bought the device.
I apologize to you, Leo. I didn’t mean to imply that you were being unethical. I just think that, given the story that’s brewing about favoritism at Palm, it was important to disclose whether you paid for that Pre, and/or got it in advance.
Laporte responds:
Thanks for the post, Mike. Apology accepted. Now that I know what was going on in your mind, I apologize to you.
There seems to be something about the Gillmor Gang that just engenders over the top passion. I’m embarrassed by my overreaction. Peace.
Gillmor Gang interview
Arrington implies on the show that Laporte may have given the Palm Pre a good review as he was one of the few to get a test unit. Laporte:
That’s B.S. and I’m really pissed off that you would imply that this ‘free’ Pre that I’m going to send back in seven days would in any way predispose me [to give it a good review because it’s free] … Screw you. Mike, you are such a troll. Screw you, asshole. I’m not kidding. That’s bullshit. I’m infuriated that you would somehow imply that because I have a review unit that would somehow influence me. Screw you. Fuck you, I’m throwing you all off.
Spat on
0 CommentsArrington is spat on while leaving the DLD Conference in Germany.
TechCrunch is a successful startup in its own right, and I’m proud of what we’ve built over the years… But I can’t say my job is much fun any more.
Death to the embargo
Arrington says tech media are increasingly releasing embargoed stories early, which gains them traffic via Google News and Techmeme, and public relations firms are too desperate to punish them:
As the economy turns south, PR firms are under increasing pressure to perform and justify their monthly retainers which range from $10,000 to $30,000 or more. In short, they have to spam the tech world to get coverage, or lose their jobs.
He says it is a race to the bottom:
We’ve never broken an embargo at TechCrunch. Not once. Today that ends. From now our new policy is to break every embargo.
Omnidrive closed
Omnidrive’s website is replaced with a service called Amnesty Financial Plus. Website:
Approved applicants receive their money in hours!
Receives death threats
0 CommentsArrington begins receiving death threats at his home due to his blogging.
ABC News interview
Arrington talks about Yahoo’s decision to run search ads supplied by Google:
the marketing part of search…and offer that to Google in the hopes that Google will monetize it better than Yahoo has been able to do themselves
TIME 100
Huffington profiles Arrington for the magazine:
[He] is the quintessential blogger: intense, passionate, consumed with his subject, opinionated, sleep-deprived, forward-thinking, easy to irritate and apt to air his grudges in public.
IsMikeArringtonADick.com
0 CommentsThe anonymous website is created.
Davos Question
0 CommentsArrington answers the World Economic Forum’s question, What do you think countries, companies, or individuals should do to make the world a better place in 2008?
There needs to be a way to make the conversation extend to billions instead of thousands…to make that happen you need to engage a broader audience
He says engaging more people would address the lack of grassroots campaigns for issues like climate change and global poverty.
