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TechFold is technology discussion, commentary, reviews, and opinions from well outside the valley. There's no koolaid to drink here, and TechFold is not in SL, or on Twitter.

TC40 Sounds Like a Joke

No offence to all of those who busted their asses to present at TC40 (or the demo pit, or whatever), or to those who worked hard behind the scenes to pull it all together. At the end of the day, though, TC40 sounds more and more like a TC insider-club joke, mainly because the winner - “Mint”:

Mint had ties to TechCrunch (old TC writer working there).;
Mint had two investors on the TC40 voting panel (nice edge).
Mint is a branded version of white label financial app Yodlee with some sketchy, poorly working functionality hastily tacked on top. (see Yodlee MoneyCenter).
Mint had already taken $5M in funding.

So - from a field of hungry startups, TC40 chose the one heavily connected to the panel, with a marginal value proposition, little innovation (their business model is freaking credit card referrals), and little need for $50k. I can see why TechCrunch has a small but vocal crowd of detractors - the choice of Mint as a winner is - from where I’m seated - a credibility hit against Calacanis, Arrington, and TC.