The big themes of were Virtual Reality, , and “how many startups can we jam pack into a 90 degree warehouse at pier 70?” #TCDisrupt Ronny Turiaf The conference opens to Startup Alley, offering the jostle for position of a prison hallway leading to the cafeteria underlined by the raw enthusiasm of seed funded ideas. Wasn’t planning on attending this year… It all started with supporting This weekend, I headed over to the TechCrunch Hackathon. Did whatever little I could & we had access to all of Crunchbase’s data. Ho-hum. They gave us each tickets for hard work and dedication to our craft. #TCDisrupt my business partner. I just got back from , so I figured I’d selfishly start with the apps that I could have used. Italy last week Travel Apps — AggregatingTraveling Status Updates Into a Mapped Story Esplorio Oxford folks are so smiley. I never knew until today — but I’ll tell you what — their booth had some cheerful motherf*ckers. Speaking of, to give you some flavor of what I once called local. This app does an effective job of aggregating photos from different social networks in a desktop view. Their mobile app is a bit behind the desktop offering, but they have the team to level up. Plus, they spoke of product cycles in weeks and not months and quarters, which is especially refreshing. I mapped my trip to Italy in their app, Oh, how what’s next reminded me of alike ( ). my failures MapShot! — Discover Public Vantage Points Viewspot Where are the most beautiful views in all the land? Here’s how Viewspot defines their offering: They have a talented founding team made up of Innotas Senior Sales Consultant Ankit Gupta & Innotas Solution Consultant Naveed Bagheri, according to LinkedIn & Crunchbase. I will be keeping an eye on their growth and maybe even share my secret list of 1,000 best geo-tagged images ever taken. Enough about me, my travels, the apps I vicariously live through and onto more important things, i.e. that whole Silicon Valley can change the world thing… Social Good — Tech Companies Adopting Public Schools sfciti.org is the chairman of the board. It’s about , but I focused my discussion around their work benefitting public schools; tech companies can “adopt” a local public school. Every adoption or sponsorship through is customized to what the school needs. Cash, mentorship, parks, you name it. They recently official partnerships! Ron Conway tech giving back to the local community sfciti achieved 50+ I’m going to drive leads their way, because why not? — Klout for Social Good Shout.gd Can an app measure the social good I type into the world? I don’t think I’m ready for my entire goodness to be summarized into a number between 0–100 based on the sentiment analysis of my social media updates… but I admire the initiative to highlight those who are doing good. “You’re a 65, you get a free t-shirt,” she said and handed me a shirt that says “How good are you?” And here I am, thinking about the retirement age. Virtual Reality — The Starterkit for Virtual Reality Organic Motion They had a staff member in a cage with an accompanying screen of his avatar dancing around. It reminded me Vince Vaughn being the museum exhibit called in (which also issued in a fun little bit of marketing). For $995, Organic Motion sells a starter kit of the hardware, software and instruction to make your first virtual reality video on your own. The American Business Man “Unfinished Business” free business stock photos There was a bunch of other cool VR tech — like & — but I’m not in the mood to distort my reality any more than it already is, so I’ll cover VR’s up and comer’s on another day. Samsung’s Adventure Time VR River’s stock car racing experience ART. — Accomplished Artists Ready to Paint Your Dreams, Making You Feel Like a Rich Ass Renaissance Man The Commissioned I was sitting in corner on a curb in the warehouse (pier 70 has curbs inside)— catching up on emails because you know I have a to run and I wasn’t even supposed to be here today — and this guy takes my focus off the screen saying, “What does do?” I told him about my business. And he spoke of his. As Mr. Pop Art once said: marketing firm ArtMap “Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.” CEO Melvin Yuan said will have a 20% revenue share with the artists while galleries are traditionally in the 50% range. Seems fair. Will be tracking their progress on getting quality work for quality artists, and may just have to commission a painting of , or whatever . The Commissioned a marketer trying to intercept a soccer ball thrown by a panda to an orca whale Viktoria Kutukova paints next — Automating the Production Artist & Friends ArtoMatix They grow textures. The kill seams. They make patterns almost infinite. Production artistry for video games and Hollywood movies could have a new right hand man. claims they’ve built “the first AI with imagination” and first robot of the video is a very close rendition to Ava from . The founder working the booth spelled it out: Their video Ex Machina “Say you want 100 zombies. Instead of hiring 100 actors. Hire three actors, send us the footage and we’ll turn them into 100 unique zombies.” Because, “Why Not?” — Cannabis Lifestyle Media Destination MerryJane _See this Instagram photo by @snoopdogg * 420,000 likes_instagram.com #MerryJane, by @snoopdogg Launches Sep 21, 2015 at 11:54pm Obviously, Snoop Dogg would launch this at TechCrunch. — Meet My Dog Tinder (Play)Dates for Dogs Is your dog lonely for another dog in the pack? Are you sick of your dog and want to play fetch with other people’s dogs? I kid. Either way, can help. I got the booth version of their founding story: Meet My Dog “Facebook has a complex algorithm to recognize profiles that aren’t humans. They deleted my dog’s profile. So I built .” Meet My Dog — Children’s Legos that Teach How to Code WunderKind There was a timidness on stage, and it wasn’t from a lack of innovation. It was just that the team hadn’t been there, and is just catching on to their building blocks. Kickstarter They are based out of Vienna, and they plan to make the act of building a lego castle also create a computer program. How scary it is to be young! 4 Things I Don’t Like About #TCDisrupt It’s not hard. Never, ever make me type in login credentials to a major social network. I am already logged in on my phone, stop wasting my time. I know you’re hustling. But if you’re here to get users, don’t ruin the aha-on-boarding-moment by asking users to type login credentials of another account immediately when they get in the door. Apps not properly building the Twitter login. I know TechCrunch wants to create that feeling of a sold out show. But there is a golden ratio between temperature and seats. In this heat wave, TechCrunch needs to better consider how to monitor the developers’ armpits; for inhaling out loud, the smell in the warehouse is communal air. Not enough seats. I mean I didn’t pay for a ticket, but some people paid a lot for tickets and their hard earned dollars deserve some authentic San Francisco cuisine. Maybe food trucks, maybe , maybe , just more than a simple sandwich with fluffy bread. Only sandwiches. Molinaris Ethiopian “It’s just too crowded,” IDGN reporter told me while sitting in our Lyft Line. A 2005 Landcuiser. “And there will be all new ones at the booths tomorrow.” I had no one idea they would have new startups pay more tomorrow to recycle out the ones of today ( ). Startup Alley’s Congestion — Blair Hanley Frank #startuplife 4 Things I Like About #TCDisrupt Cold, refreshing, & caffeinated — perfect. Iced Coffee. That was some It was cold and bottle-less. The reduction in bottle usage is admirable. Pro conference tip, TechCrunch should require that all startup booths near the water station give away their branded water bottles. The Water Fountains. good motherf*ckin’ water. OK, enough about cold, cold beverages…. Attendees, sponsors, hackers, speakers, camera men, writers — the excitement, absurdity, reality distortion and that next big idea are all here. Whether it’s zipping through overcrowded aisles on a giant scooter, cameo-ing everywhere, TechCrunch staffers in the middle of the pier where none of the attendees can hear the speaker, or just the possibility meeting someone building something cool, ’s got the energy. 3. The Overall Energy. Cole Fox John McAfee filming on a stage #TCDisrupt Enjoy the day! 4. The Opportunity to Keep the Conversation Going! Until next time, sống ảo. Medium → “ART + marketing” Linkedin → in/ClarkKent Twitter → @DavidSmooke If you’re someone who always says they are killing it, don’t hit the recommend button below. If you’re someone who’s honest with their team about the state of their business, it’d be great to . P.S. talk marketing ⇓ Recommend ⇓
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