If you have been following tech news around the world for the past two weeks, you may have seen a lot of buzz around TC Disrupt in San Francisco.
For those who are not familiar with this event and not geeky enough, Disrupt is an annual event hosted by TechCrunch where they bring the biggest investors and the most disruptive tech start-ups together. Start-ups compete on the stage, presenting their ideas and disruptive technologies. This is undoubtedly one of the main events in Silicon Valley.
Readdle team decided to attend Disrupt 2011 to stay up to date on what is going on in technology bubble. Yes, there is a bubble out there. It's not a secret, but the less we talk about it the better for the industry.
So, I would like to share some thoughts about Silicon Valley, Disrupt and start-ups.
The most obvious fact about Silicon Valley is that if you have a good idea and skills to bring it into a viable project (i.e. a great application) you can easily get investments for your start-up. There is a lot of money out there. But to be clear, investors suffer big time on finding outstanding people and ideas. So if you are entrepreneurial type of person and want to change the world — this is a great time. Warning, you have to be very careful while picking angel investors or VCs, because they are not so angel as they claim.
There were many talented people with great ideas. Generally, the whole industry looks a little bit biased towards social media and entertainment. As a result, Shaker , Israeli start-up, won Disrupt SF 2011. This gave even more discussions and controversiality to the whole TechCrunch drama . Nevertheless, we would like to thank every attendee and participant for the great time at Disrupt.
If you are interested in events like Disrupt, you should probably attend the next one. It is a great place to meet motivated and passionate people. There are 3 ways to spend less money to get in. First, you can make a start-up and participate as a Start-up Alley exhibitor (in this case you will have to pay $2k for 2 tickets). Second, you can take part in Hackaton, which is one day prior to the event, present your "Hack" and get 2 tickets for your team. Third, getting in as a volunteer or a press reported will not cost you anything.
Some one said on stage: "You have to aim ridiculously high and love what you do" to be successful. I totally agree with it, this is what we do at Readdle and this is what everyone should do with his/her life.
