Crunchies Winners: Twitter Takes Best Startup Of 2010

http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/21/congratulations-crunchies-winners-twitter-takes-best-startup-of-2010/

by EJE • 16 years ago

47 33 16 years ago

techcrunch.com

richcollins2• 16 years ago

Awards for startups seem silly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzPfKI4b-dg#t=4m27s

chrischen2• 16 years ago

Awards in general are silly.

chegra• 16 years ago

I don't think awards should be the end goal, but they do serve a purpose. For instance, most people on here probably wouldn't have heard about Liu Xiaobo, well atleast before he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Having the backing of prestigious award such as Nobel Prize will only bolster his cause; he's in prison. Increase financial and political support is not silly at all.

For scientist, this might mean that they wouldn't have to fight as hard to get funding from people who don't understand their research. The people who don't understand research understand awards, so it can be used as a proxy to make judgement.

ericflo• 16 years ago

Wow. That video was wonderful.

btipling• 16 years ago

I've been feeling down in the dumps all day, depressed about life in general, and I've just discovered thanks to you that watching videos of Richard Feynmann cheer me up. Thank you.

richcollins2• 16 years ago

I have trouble watching them because they always make me feel like I'm wasting my life :-(

kordless2• 16 years ago

"And then all of a sudden some strange phenomenon occurs in a corner."

That give me hope. :)

nhangen2• 16 years ago

Well deserved. If it weren't for PG and YC, I wouldn't know half of what I've learned as a result of stumbling onto Hacker News.

nhangen2• 16 years ago

Why did the title of this thread change since I've left my original comment, which was in regards to PG and YC winning Angels of the Year?

Aaronontheweb• 16 years ago

Doesn't it seem somewhat passe to give the award to someone as well-established as Twitter?

dkasper• 16 years ago

Well Facebook had won it for the past 3 years (which happens to be every other year the Crunchies have existed), so I wouldn't say it's that unexpected.

lenley• 16 years ago

of course ... it's called generating traffic.

jamesteow• 16 years ago

Just as much I guess as giving a Person of the Year award to a guy who's startup hit the mainstream years ago.

locusm• 16 years ago

and second place went to Microsoft

whatusername2• 16 years ago

I hear IBM came third. (At 99 years old they squeaked in). They almost had as much revenue as Apple in 2010. Nintendo (at 123 years old) is no longer a startup and is no longer eligible.

ugh• 16 years ago

Damn you, sir! You sent me on an awesome trip looking around for the oldest companies.

Few are older than a few centuries, most are Japanese (others are European), small and restaurants, hotels or breweries. All are fascinating.

btmorex• 16 years ago

These would have been far more interesting if they focused on newer, less established companies and products. Everyone already knows exactly what Twitter, Facebook, and the iPad are and no one cares if they win awards.

electromagnetic• 16 years ago

What I was thinking when I read the title "Uhh, twitter didn't start in 2010".

A well established company (IE surviving the first 3 years where most companies fail miserably) is not a startup. It may behave as one, it may act as one, but if it doesn't have the massive impending doom of simply being a brand spanking new company, then it's not a start up.

By the logic demonstrated here, I vote for best startup for 2011 to be Apple.

ebaysucks• 16 years ago

Maybe they use AOL's perspective of what a "startup" is.

knowtheory• 16 years ago

One wonders if General Motors qualifies as a startup or product by their definition. They've put out a cool piece of technology (the Volt) even.

nerfhammer• 16 years ago

There were separate categories for "best new startup or product" (winner: Quora) and "best overall product or startup". I personally agree that the best new startup is more interesting and would make a better headline for the announcement.

phlux• 16 years ago

Techcrunch is about fostering and nurturing the growth of Arringtons ego. If he can focus on all the people who really do technology and are already successful, then he can feel like he is important and part of the scene.

Just like how he invited himself to the angelgate meetings and was greeting with a nice helping of "please god, not this fucking guy" yet referred to all of them as his "close friends"

Sure Disrupt is a good platform for startups and tech to launch, but seriously looking at the quality of their hosts, and all the article after article postings on TC that are riddled with mistakes, spelling errors, grammar errors etc, one cant take them too seriously.

It is ego factory, nothing more.

leftnode• 16 years ago

I think it's ironic 37Signals is listed under the Best Enterprise category.

uptown• 16 years ago

Agreed. Context for anyone that may have missed it:

http://twitter.com/#!/dhh/status/27434483292573696

EJE2• 16 years ago

original title was for PG/Y Combinator as "Angel Investor of the Year", but the title was changed...

EJE2• 16 years ago

it changed automatically

haecib• 16 years ago

I really think they need to define 'startup'. I don't think that word means what they think it means...

ddemchuk• 16 years ago

I'm sorry, but WHAT?!?!

1) They are not a startup. They're over 4 years old. They have officially passed the starting phase

2) They have not monetized since graduating into the big boy businesses phase. Riding the coattails of VC's for years with no clear plan to reach profitability is not business

3) They are instable as hell. They crash nearly everyday, with millions of dollars in the bank, hundreds of engineers working for them, and 4 years of development under their belt, and they have a frickin meme because of how instable they are

4) They've stopped innovating. Nothing new has come from twitter in the last 2+ years other than their API. 140 character messages, we get it.

Blatant buzz word fanboyism is still running amok apparently.

fredoliveira• 16 years ago

I'm going to do something I dislike and play devil's advocate. You're not the only one here saying that Twitter is no startup, and while I agree with that assessment to a certain extent, you've pretty much described a startup with your points. A startup is no longer considered being a startup if they become profitable (twitter isn't), is acquired or merges into another entity (twitter hasn't) or becomes public (which twitter hasn't either).

Is twitter a startup? Yes. Would giving the prize to some other company be more interesting? Definitely. These competitions are often not fair, but honestly, who are we to judge?

iam• 16 years ago

Kinect didn't win best device? How disappointing, since it was the only actually novel thing on there.

kordless2• 16 years ago

Wife said to me this morning, "Wait, didn't you sign up for Twitter in like 2007? They're not a startup!"

Crunchies Winners: Twitter Takes Best Startup Of 2010

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