Techcrunch40: Conference Review, How did Mint win? and many Thank You's!
Now that the first TechCrunch40 conference is complete, this post will serve as my final conference review and recap. Some of the startups asked me about full, in-depth reviews. I am going to do my best to review each …
Context & Ripple Effects
This closes out CenterNetworks' three-part run on the first-ever TechCrunch40: after the Day 1 recap and top picks and the news that Mint took the $50,000 award, the site now files its full review of every presenting company — a blogger-driven audit of the entire debut cohort rather than just the winner.
First-order effects
- Mint leaves the conference with $50,000, the 'best presenting company' title, and press attention centered on its personal finance application — capital and credibility in one shot before it has shipped to scale.
- The roughly forty non-winning presenters now compete for the same reviewers' attention post-event, since CenterNetworks is committing to full individual reviews of each company.
Second-order effects
- The confirmed standout theme of the show — data aggregation and normalization services like Mint, Cake, TripIt, and Clickable — signals to next year's applicants which categories judges reward, shaping the following cohort's pitches.
- Other conference organizers face pressure from a launch format that pairs stage time with prize money, making cash awards table stakes for competing startup events.
Third-order effects
- If TechCrunch40's first outing holds as a template, launch conferences become a standard go-to-market channel where a single judged demo substitutes for months of early press outreach for consumer startups.
The trend: Demo-day-style launch conferences are emerging as the primary public debut venue for consumer web startups, with judge-awarded prizes doubling as venture-grade validation.