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Sep 11
2007

Tim O'Reilly

Tim O'Reilly

Web 2.0 Launchpad Goes Reality Show

I've been meaning to write about the change in the Launchpad event at the Web 2.0 Summit. In previous years, this was a "demo" kind of event in which new companies would show their stuff for the first time. For this year's event, the Launchpad has been revised to have a kind of "reality show" component. Any company, including one that has already been funded and whose products have been announced, can enter. (As John Battelle notes, there's always the next round....) The twist:

  • The Web 2.0 Launch Pad judging panel will be entirely made up of venture capitalists.

  • Launchpad contestants will be competing for five to ten minutes on stage in front of the entire Web 2.0 Summit audience.

  • Each company will be provided feedback on its presentation in real time, by both the VC judges and the audience.

From the little bit of reality TV I've seen, I hope the judges have a sense of humor as well as great insights. We're looking for serious entries, not the famous 1/2 Baked ones, but a touch of fun in the judging can ease the stings of legitimate criticism as well as enliven the audience. It will be interesting to see how well this approach works. At the least, it should be a great opportunity for entrepreneurs in attendance to learn how VCs think, as well as for those presenting, and at best, a chance for the participating companies to show how quickly and how powerfully they can present their story.

Meanwhile, even companies who aren't chosen to present on stage will have a chance to have their company pitch seen by the participating VCs. The VCs are sponsoring the event, so there's no charge to submit your company or product for consideration.

Here are the terms and conditions:

  • All entries are free of charge and are kept strictly confidential, to be reviewed only by Launch Pad staff and VCs.
  • VCs may offer terms to those applicants they deem consistent with their investment approach and requirements, but there is no requirement to do so.
  • VCs can have multiple judges assigned to the review process, but are allowed only one panelist at the Launch Pad presentation.
  • Every VC has the right to review every applicant, but the obligation is to review only one-sixth of them. The applications will be sorted and administered by the Launch Pad producers and delivered to the VC judges.
  • If a term sheet is offered and accepted prior to the event, all parties agree not to announce until Web 2.0 Summit in October.
  • All VCs on the panel are equal - they are sponsors and are on stage on the panel discussing their decisions. No one is more advantaged (weighted) than another.
  • The entire process will be covered under a mutual NDA to protect all parties.
  • All participants agree to appear onstage during the Launch Pad session, to present their company as if pitching for funding.


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    7 Comments

    So who will be the Simon equivalent? :-)

    Search☸Engines WEB said:

    >>>>>Launchpad contestants will be competing for five to ten minutes on stage in front of the entire Web 2.0 Summit audience.
    This will be an entertaining production and the idea is basically a good one - but, there are flaws.

    This type of theatrics is biased towards the easily hooked type of concepts. It does not bore well for those concepts which will ultimately be more helpful in the long term.

    For example, if Tim Berners Lee was promoting the concept of the World Wide Web - would it have taken off in this type of 'wow' 'sexy' instant gratification, capitalistic factored environment.

    Also, the idea of looking at creativity as a Showmanship competition defeats the free nature of creativity.

    The focus will be on instant ROI and of course the WOW factor (which nowadays last less than one year for virtually everything)

    This should not be a competition - it should be a intellectual and creative massage.

    Tim O'Reilly said:

    Search Engines Web --

    While what you worry about is certainly possible, it's not inevitable. And your example of Tim Berners-Lee is given to exactly the wrong guy, because I got Tim's ten minute pitch back in 1992 and was instantly excited. Those of us who were around for the early web were running around giving the most eye-popping demo most people had ever seen. A couple of minutes in, the lights would go on and the "wow's" would start flowing.

    A good pitch is quickly understandable and encapsulates a big idea.

    It's true that sometimes big ideas are hard to get across, but any entrepreneur has to be able to tell a compelling story, to attract talent if not to attract financing. It's part of the job of being a leader.

    Tim O'Reilly said:

    I should add that I have lots of experience on both sides. For example, I've been working the ideas of Web 2.0 for the better part of ten years, and "Web 2.0" was the third or fourth iteration of those ideas. But when it all came together as a meme, it was something that people responded to.

    In a similar way, when we got the right framing for the concepts of oepn source, it took off like wildfire.

    So there's a time when it all comes together, even from a long development process.

    But in any event, when an entrepreneur is looking for funding, they've either got to have a great track record or a compelling pitch, or both.

    So getting critiqued on stage is a really good exercise.

    I remember getting my first venture backed spinout funded. It was the better part of a year of pitches till we got it right. The second was done in two or three weeks. You know who to talk to and you understand how to get the message across.

    "to have a great track record or a compelling pitch, or both."

    Compelling pitches certainly help, but it's dangerous to encourage a culture of fast, ill-documented decision making.

    Web technologies, for instance, couldn't exist without markup languages. I doubt we could have XML today if most decisions about investmements, recruitments, job tickets, ... for GML, SGML, HTML, XHTML had been filtered mainly through good pitches with a 10' scope.

    Tim O'Reilly said:

    Alain --

    You're missing the point. No one's getting funded as a result of a five minute pitch on stage. The company pitches are getting critiqued on stage, and the companies are competing to tell their story to the entire group of conference attendees.

    Any funding that happens is as a result of due diligence outside the context of the event.

    Agreed, due diligence will be conducted (VCs are good at that! I didn't imagine it wouldn't happen).

    My point (or concern) was about the filtering of projects the process seems to entail: if a project can't be presented in the pitch format, it can't qualify for this type of VC funding.

    Btw, the idea is both fun and creative in order to evaluate competing projects who fit the category. The show will certainly be worth attending.

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