After three exhilarating days, 52 start-up presentations, expert panels, working lunch presentations--TechCrunch50 came to a close with a selection of 6 semi finalists. Atmosphir, a 3D immersive create-your-own-game technology, won the 'judges favorite' award; Yammer, now dubbed 'twitter for corporations' won the much coveted TC50 Winner title and a $50,000 prize.
The judges chose Yammer for its "brilliant revenue model"--a corporate-network based announcement application which is free for all unless a corporation wants to own and manage the activity. In essence, users of Yammer can "yammer" with anyone in their business or organization freely, posting tid bits of information. While I can see the potential, I question the longevity of Yammer's competitive advantage. First--I doubt organizations are going to clamor for an application that is likely to result in reduced productivity with all that chitter chatter. Yes- it can work great for project-based interaction--but large corporations have many other options, including upcoming video chats, live forums, etc. Second, it should be a relatively minor tweak for Twitter to add a network-based twitting options to its existing solution and, voila- where will Yammer go then?
Atmosphir, on the other hand, presents a truly compelling differentiation--it allows users anywhere at any time to create their own 3D immersive game environment on a PC or a Mac and soon within a game console. Within minutes, a user can create the game's environment by blocking space on a simple grid and then choosing colors and structures (trees, bridges, castles) to put on it. The environment then morphs from 2D to 3D, it can be adjusted and enhanced using simple menus and object click-and-drop functions and- all that's left to do is to choose a player and place them in the environment. The opportunities are limitless. Imagine users can create not only the game's environment but also their own players; imagine a version for kids; game companies can skin the game to represent their brand; games can be played by one or more players--perhaps live across the network, maybe in a browser some day! It is a super easy to use, visually compelling, clearly differentiated offering.
There were also other favorites. Comments on many of the blogs covering the event demonstrate strong feelings about many other startups: VideoSurf, GoodGuy, DropBox and FitBit to name a few. The fact that there were multiple favorites among both judges and participants is perhaps, more than anything, a testament to the quality of the technology featured at TC50 this year.
Which of the 52 presenting startups (and the dozen or so DemoPit presenters) will become a Silicon-Valley household name in the coming year is yet to be seen--it won't be the technology that will drive success though--it will be the ability to capture users hearts while executing a sound revenue and distribution models that will make or break many of these companies.
For a full coverage of TechCrunch50 and the presenting companies visit www.TechCrunch.com.
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