Michael Arrington reportedly to launch “CrunchFund” to invest in startups
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Re: Michael Arrington reportedly to launch “CrunchFund” to invest in startups
#2Someone recently wrote that you know you are in a bubble when reporters start their own startups. Maybe that should be revised to be "when reporters start their own venture funds."
(that said, this ain't the same as the last tech bubble, and the issues around Arrington/access/other angels are only going to get more and more complicated.)
Re: Michael Arrington reportedly to launch “CrunchFund” to invest in startups
#3Interesting. I guess each investment includes 10 free TC blog posts for the company ;-)
Re: Michael Arrington reportedly to launch “CrunchFund” to invest in startups
#4but does it have AOL Legal's stamp of approval?
Re: Michael Arrington reportedly to launch “CrunchFund” to invest in startups
#5He's in a good position to do this. Connections and fame aside, he has the perfect avenue to give exposure to the startups he invests in. I think this is critical. Part of the reason why many tech startups "go big" is because they're given broad exposure and are shown in a good light from the beginning. For example, Y Combinator has Hacker News to promote their investments.
I've said before that without HN you probably wouldn't hear about very many YC companies. (I think I said something along the lines of "you simply don't front-page stories about every YC company on Reddit.") Michael Arrington will have TechCrunch to promote his investments and I think he will be able to give them a good chance for success if he promotes them well. You might also say that Arrington has TechCrunch and Hacker News given how easily TC front-pages around here.
Re: Michael Arrington reportedly to launch “CrunchFund” to invest in startups
#6Interesting. I guess each investment includes 10 free TC blog posts for the company ;-)
It's funny because it's unethical. With any luck, he'll get greedy and push the "reporting on companies I invest in" needle so far that it gets too noisey we stop reading (and posting everything he does on HN).
Re: Michael Arrington reportedly to launch “CrunchFund” to invest in startups
#7I'm surprised he didn't do it sooner.
That said it just screams of me too, jumping on the bandwagon to cash in before it's too late
Re: Michael Arrington reportedly to launch “CrunchFund” to invest in startups
#8He's in a good position to do this. Connections and fame aside, he has the perfect avenue to give exposure to the startups he invests in. I think this is critical. Part of the reason why many tech startups "go big" is because they're given broad exposure and are shown in a good light from the beginning. For example, Y Combinator has Hacker News to promote their investments. I've said before that without HN you probab…
not really...the new Techcrunch is putting up a ton more stories...so the TC coverage won't be as useful, since it'll hit the 2nd page within a few hours.
Re: Michael Arrington reportedly to launch “CrunchFund” to invest in startups
#9He's in a good position to do this. Connections and fame aside, he has the perfect avenue to give exposure to the startups he invests in. I think this is critical. Part of the reason why many tech startups "go big" is because they're given broad exposure and are shown in a good light from the beginning. For example, Y Combinator has Hacker News to promote their investments. I've said before that without HN you probab…
Sure but that has conflict of interest all over it, and while Arrington can be as conflicted as he likes...
...a) people don't have to read TC and as the level of conflictedness for that site increases more and more people will stop reading it
...b) the conflict is at odds with Aol's wider aspiration to be a respected media outlet (Arriana Huffington, etc). At some point such 'exposure for self interest' will cross a line even Aol won't go - esp if they don't have some/any upside in the CrunchFund venture.
The worse situation is that you end up with Arrington as an investor and TC can't write about you because Aol decides it really is too much of a conflict. And other outlets won't write about you or they give you shit because they still perceive Arrington as a competitor. Worst of both worlds.
Re: Michael Arrington reportedly to launch “CrunchFund” to invest in startups
#10He's in a good position to do this. Connections and fame aside, he has the perfect avenue to give exposure to the startups he invests in. I think this is critical. Part of the reason why many tech startups "go big" is because they're given broad exposure and are shown in a good light from the beginning. For example, Y Combinator has Hacker News to promote their investments. I've said before that without HN you probab…
not really...the new Techcrunch is putting up a ton more stories...so the TC coverage won't be as useful, since it'll hit the 2nd page within a few hours.
It's true that they have a high volume of stories but those stories are:
1) Shown to a huge number of people. Their traffic, I'm sure, dwarfs HN's traffic.
2) They have an enormous amount of people subscribed via RSS who will be able to read the news at their leisure.
3) Their stories are also shared via Facebook, Google+, Twitter, you name it.
4) TC articles make their way to HN and Reddit as well, providing additional exposure.
The second page of TechCrunch will still provide you with more than enough eye balls.