A Few of my Favorite Things from TechCrunch Disrupt NYC 2015

TechCrunch Disrupt NYC 2015 was a whirlwind of Nyquil, Broadway Shows, deliciously spicy foods and brilliant speakers. While I’m still recovering from my head cold, I was excited to be part of this event.

If you’re not already familiar with TechCrunch Disrupt, it’s a conference that software developers and technology geeks alike look forward to all year long: A convergence of thought leadership, startups, and general awesomeness. You may have seen it featured on HBO’s Silicon Valley (here’s a clip of the episode). The New York City version was a 3 day event featuring speeches from CEOs like Periscope’s Kayvon Beykpour and Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer, a 24-hour “hackathon” and a host of showcases from several impressive startups. Entrepreneurs and companies from all over the world participated in this event in hopes of wowing investors and fellow Disrupt participants.

This year Stickboy® was proud to be representing our client and partner NewsByMe in StartUp Alley. What are some of my favorite takeaways from TechCrunch Disrupt NYC 2015? 

 

Favorite Speakers

There is truly nothing more inspiring than hearing from fellow entrepreneurs who braved criticism and were successful in pursuing their own dreams. It’s always a great motivation to go to events and hear successful business owners speak. Who were my favorites?

• Paula Long, who sold EqualLogic to Dell for $1.4 Billion was by far my favorite speaker among those that presented. Not only was she humble, but her story was awe-inspiring. As a young company, we face many obstacles day-to-day and I was able to relate completely with her. Her best advice for leading her company to compete in her tech space? By being “completely customer-focused.”
• The Winklevoss brothers (yes, those Winklevoss twins) were also great to listen to. They have a cool startup in the bitcoin space and one that I plan to follow closely.
• The CEO of Tinder (a very popular dating app) also had some funny moments in the discussion of his successful app.

Favorite Startups

Talk about a melding of the minds. My favorite part of TechCrunch is walking up and down StartUp Alley. It’s so cool to see what developers are coming up with and there was no shortage of great companies at this year’s event. Here’s my shortlist of favorites:

• NewsByMe: (I’m a little biased here) An app featuring citizen journalism.
• BioBots: 3D printing is becoming very popular! This Startup actually printed a human ear on stage.
• Pangea: Another cool application that was presented on stage offers a solution for bringing together the billions of people worldwide without an internet connection by sending data over the infrastructure used to send voice calls.

I was a little surprised that I didn’t find much on wearables this year, but there was no shortage of creative and inspiring ideas. Overall if you asked me to describe the experience in just a few words, I would have to say it made me feel: humbled, inspired, motivated, challenged and at home.

What about you? Did you get to attend the conference or read up on some of the happenings? What was your favorite part? Let me know by emailing me at [email protected]