TechCrunch Distrupt San Francisco is next week, September 12th-14th, and the TechCrunch Hackathon is this weekend, starting Saturday and running through Sunday. And for this Disrupt, the field of startups is not only larger, but more marketing and PR savvy, just judging from the number of requests for meeting times this blogger has received.
Frankly, the firm’s offer much promise to, well, disrupt what we do: Americans Elect, CrowdEngineering, Lemon.com, Dome9, Select2gether, WikiOrgCharts, Zendesk, Dap’s Em, LegalNature, and vCita, are just some of the new companies who will hold court at “Startup Alley.”
Startup Alley is a space where startup companies set up tables to present what they do. While I don’t have specific numbers, I can say that Startup Alley has roughtly doubled in size just over the last two years alone, or since TechCrunch Disrupt New York in 2010. That reflects not just the popularity of the event, but also the number of people willing to get out there and start a company.
(The best American Jobs Act? Start a company. And support President Obama’s American Jobs Act!)
And what are some of these companies?
Americans Elect promises the scary ability to “chose a Presidential Candidate via the Internet.” No joke. This is how they describe what they do: “We are an internet start-up intent on holding the nation’s first ever open nomination process for a presidential candidate.”
Now with hackers like the famed and recently declawed LutzSec running about, I’m going to have some questions for the Americans Elect people. Excited to talk with them about what they propose to do.
CrowdEngineering is a “new product will make crowdsourcing accessible to everybody with just
three clicks. And that’s all I know right now. More later.
Lemon.com “is designed to help consumers simplify, organize, and streamline online and offline receipt management and personal finances – removing the hassle around hardcopy and digital paperwork, and squeezing all the valuable information out of receipts for a whole new level of functionality, including the ability to track spending, compile data for tax time, convert figures into expense reports, etc.” according to its outreach reps.
Why Lemon.com for a name? Well, someone got lucky and bought the domain name, so they had to use it in some way, right? Just kidding.
LegalNature “uses cloud computing technology instead of paper copies for legal documents, making it easier for users to manage and edit their documents in one location. In partnership with American Forests, LegalNature also donates money towards tree planting with every purchase.” But the question is, how secure is it? That’s one I’ll ask.
Select2gether is an “interactive social widget that provides users with a real world shopping experience by bringing the social element of live peer feedback that is missing when users shop or browse online.” The website is a bit confusing to the first-time visitor, but I’m interested to learn more about the platform. The first question I have is, does it have a referral program of some kind. I mean if it’s a retail buying widget, is it such that I can put it on my blog, and if so, can I make money using it?
Daps’em says it is “a cool new service to show others your appreciation and build your reputation on iPhone and web. We’re building the ultimate Thank You Economy between people, and the richer you are, the bigger your reputation is.”
Well Daps to that!
Stay tuned for more start up previews, and follow me on Tout.com and Twitter.com.