TWiST 14 Review, Mike Arrington, Stop Trying To Be Funny

This Week in Startups was brought to you live at Sequoia Capital with a bit of an understandably different format. The big X factor in this show is the presence of Mike Arrington of TechCrunch fame. While watching live, I was a Mike Arrington hater, he disrupted the flow and Jason seemed a little off quilter. I was even thinking of good post titles all revolving around Mr. Arrington, “Leo was right, SCREW YOU ARRINGTON”, “Mike “No Respect” Arrington” came to mind. I even thought of creating a disruption counter as a nice little visual (for those of you interested 7 in 24 minutes, 1 every 3.4 minutes). However, when not trying to be funny he had some good input. I am particularly happy he brought up CrunchBase, I had overlooked the link at the top of TechCrunch and it has some great information.

The beauty of this interview, while not structure well (it jumps around a bit), Garry is new to the startup business and still learning, so I feel we get a first look into the mind of a new entrepreneur. However, I was hoping to hear these questions asked in the interview:

• How did you get introduced or get the attention of YCombinator?
• Follow up on business model? Garry never answered the monetization question

When editing be consistent show urls, so it is easier for viewers to find (audiblepodcast.com/twist, Ustream, webspy, dnamail, guest site), Jason never seems to remember the Audible url and If it is viewed I think it is easier for viewers to remember. You may want to ask Audible for a url for people that already have an account to show them you are spreading the word (maybe a one month half price promo)

Jason suggests that Garry try his idea (iPhone contest) for Posterous’s next 5 features. Nothing on Posterous Blog yet, we’ll see if he takes his advice.

Tyler’s news delivery is not so good, better stick to insights. I recommended trying Tyler in the news chair in my last review (which fit the segment) but be careful not to exclude your guest in conversation.

One last point, this show was much shorter, just a little over an hour which is understandable.  I am sure Jason’s schedule is filled with TechCrunch50 meetings. However, the one thing I think we learned is 1:01 is too short and 2:25 is too long. I do look forward to next week’s format of Ask Jason and Jason’s Shark Tank, just an FYI each question is taking about 10 -12 minutes and a little longer for Shark tank pitches.

Show Ratings:

Mike Arrington:

Garry Tan:

Tyler:

Jason:

Overall Show:

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