TechCrunch’s startups’ web sites suck too

September 8, 2008 By

OK, I just visited the companies Web sites of the finalists for TC50. They mostly suck too. But this time I’m going to put the blame on the conference holders. Why do they suck? Because lots of them are like this one, which just has a form up because they can’t reveal anything about themselves before they get on stage.

This makes me realize that it’s the conference organizer’s fault. They should work with the startups to make sure that the startups’ web presence — when the list goes out — is top rate and reflects well on both the startups and the conference itself.

So, in this first competition between Demo and TC50 both get a failing grade. I don’t think this helps any startup to have such a bad foot forward as first impression. Will everyone revisit this list on Wednesday? I don’t think so. We all have ADD and by Wednesday we’ll be waiting in some line at an Apple store for whatever Steve Jobs announces tomorrow.

That said, TC50′s site is better than Demo’s site because they took the time to explain a little bit about what each company will do and also how they’ll fit into the conference. I’m off to go to TC50, see ya from there if I can get Wifi.


TC50 will be live streamed as well. That’s a win for startups because you can watch along from home. The show starts in a few minutes. Unfortunately Demo’s sessions won’t be live streamed. That’s too bad.

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  • Chris B

    Robert,

    Have you always been a jerk? Wonder who was not able to attend the panel and they had to call you.

  • Anna

    Robert – what would be your advice on launching a startup – would you launch today or wait to launch at Demo or Techcrunch50? Is the media focus worth putting the website on ice for the 6/12 months before the next event or is this industry too changable that if your ready to launch now, you should do it?

  • Anna

    Robert – what would be your advice on launching a startup – would you launch today or wait to launch at Demo or Techcrunch50? Is the media focus worth putting the website on ice for the 6/12 months before the next event or is this industry too changable that if your ready to launch now, you should do it?

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  • ep

    you do realize those are placeholder websites, not the real deal, right?

  • ep

    you do realize those are placeholder websites, not the real deal, right?

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  • http://www.plorf.com/ PLORF – MP3 Search

    This list is filled with a lot of garbage, but there are plenty of good sites on there. Many of the sites require an account to participate so its hard to tell on the surface

  • http://www.plorf.com PLORF – MP3 Search

    This list is filled with a lot of garbage, but there are plenty of good sites on there. Many of the sites require an account to participate so its hard to tell on the surface

  • http://www.companyresume.com/ Justin

    Hi Scoble!

    I just came across your blog and was making my way through the first few posts when I got to this one. I follow TechCrunch closely and am constantly reading up on startups. The reason is because myself and two friends are working on a small website that we hope to launch at the end of this year. We all have regular jobs and work on the site whenever we can. Right now its in a pretty rough beta stage and if all goes well we should be ready to test by the end of the month. We are quite buggy and the layouts on a whole need a lot of work. But if you have time and are interested, please visit us and tell me us your thoughts.

    We are at,

    http://www.companyresume.com

    We appreciate any and all feedback!

    PS: We setup a dummy company to test. Its us! =) So please just search Company Resume on the home page, and that should take you to our company page. Thank you in advance!

  • http://www.companyresume.com Justin

    Hi Scoble!

    I just came across your blog and was making my way through the first few posts when I got to this one. I follow TechCrunch closely and am constantly reading up on startups. The reason is because myself and two friends are working on a small website that we hope to launch at the end of this year. We all have regular jobs and work on the site whenever we can. Right now its in a pretty rough beta stage and if all goes well we should be ready to test by the end of the month. We are quite buggy and the layouts on a whole need a lot of work. But if you have time and are interested, please visit us and tell me us your thoughts.

    We are at,

    http://www.companyresume.com

    We appreciate any and all feedback!

    PS: We setup a dummy company to test. Its us! =) So please just search Company Resume on the home page, and that should take you to our company page. Thank you in advance!

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