Unbridled Entrepreneurism

Y Combinator had its semiannual demo day earlier this week, where many of the 63 startups in this batch showed their stuff to investors and press for the first time. It was the largest demo day so far. And they did the same show two days in a row so more people could come. What struck me about the day wasn't that so many companies were launching, or how awesome more than a few of them were. Unlike most events like this, the audience wasn't mostly paying attention to their phone or laptop or tablet. It was more like the audience at a movie theater - quietly watching with their full attention. People like Marc Andreessen, Roelof Botha, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Ron Conway and others there, too. And people didn't flock to them like they usually do. It was all about the new companies. It hasn't always been like this. Just a few years ago when I started TechCrunch new startups launching tended to do it in my living room or back yard during one of the monthly parties at my house. I'm being quite serious - see this old post, for example. That's my living room, and those pictures show companies launching right there. Once the parties got too big we moved to other venues - the last one had 600 people and my house was a wreck afterwards. Someone was coding on top of my washing machine, and a very stoned VC was passed out on my couch because he couldn't find his car keys (turned out they were in his pocket, but we searched my yard with flashlights for an hour).

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/iN67NNZyXrs/

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