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Comment by aaronbrethorst | Hacker News Reader

    [Everpix] lost the $50,000 first prize
    [at TechCrunch Disrupt] to Shaker, a
    bizarre kind of Second Life-meets-Facebook
    social network that raised $15 million and
    hasn't been heard from in a year.

A promising, arguably 'disruptive' company lost at a TechCrunch event to a startup backed by Michael Arrington? Color me shocked! Shocked, I say!

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Yeah, I was doing photos at that one. I nearly lost my shit when I heard it won. Mike said there were 'very good reasons' but I never found out what they were.

"backed by Michael Arrington" - what more reason could you want?

it's a real shame Disrupt carries any weight. the awful hype is one thing, but the fact that it screws over genuinely promising companies due to its grotesquely corrupt nature is a real problem

It's a shame that TC carries any weight. Let's stop beating around that bush...

It's a shame that Arrington carries any weight, really thats where it all started.

'very good reasons' == self interest.

This happens routinely at Disrupt. I remember a fabulous startup called Prism Sky Labs (could connect to any network camera with drag and drop software and was quite cool in ambition) lost to Qwiki.

Don't feel too bad for Prism Skylabs, they just raised $15 million.

Pitch competitions are just that - competitions for who has the best pitch - this includes the quality of the pitch itself, and the performance and stage presence of the presenter.

I think the best startup in such competitions rarely is the actual winner.

CrunchFund is actually an investor in Prism Sky Labs (as am I).

I remember those final pitches. It was bizarre that Shaker, some Habbo Hotel-like facebook soc media skin would beat this functional idea, or beat a very good but boring B2B accounting thing which looked like a great idea. Of course the shaker guys also had a totally freaktastic presentation _style_.

careful! comments like this might get you disappeared by the YC positivity-maintenance crew

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