The fall edition of TechCrunch Disrupt is fast approaching – less than three weeks to go before the conference kicks off on September 27th. As part of the New York event we held an overnight hackathon immediately beforehand, organized by hackers extraordinaire Daniel Raffel and Tarikh Korula, and it was, without a doubt, a smashing success. Over 300 participants built some really incredible projects: one team built a sword-wielding robot (Mr. Stabby as he was affectionately known); another team modified eye tracking software to let you play Mario Brothers with your eyes. One team kept building their idea after the Hackathon ended and has secured a nice chunk of money to turn it into a company.

Naturally, we’ll be doing this again at Disrupt San Francisco. We’ve got some great judges lined up, including Joshua Schachter, moot, and Dean Hovey. Tons of you have been emailing us asking when you could sign up for a slot – and we have good news. Signups are now open!

So if you think you’ve got what it takes, sign up now to compete for a spot on stage at Disrupt! If you have an idea for something cool but need some help on the execution, post it to the Ideas page on the Hackathon wiki and start scheming with your co-conspirators. In addition to providing your team with space to hack, pizza, and caffeine, there will also be a number of workshops where you can learn more about APIs from companies like Groupon, Microsoft/BizSpark, BitTorrent, and Google. These APIs are key when you have less than 24 hours to put something together.

We’ve posted all the information you could ever want on the event page as well as the Hackathon wiki.

Our experimental Hack Day at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York a couple of months ago was wildly successful – more developers than you can shake a stick at showed up, drank redbull and pizza (care of sponsors). A number of projects were featured on stage in front of a live audience of nearly 2,000 people, and tens of thousands more watched on the live stream. And at least one project has become an actual startup and received funding (more on that later).

So we’re going to make this a regular part of TechCrunch Disrupt. For the day and a half before the regular schedule begins on September 27, 300 developers will be admitted to the event to run amok and create something out of nothing. The marathon 24-hour hack will run Saturday to Sunday, September 25th – 26th. After a lightning round of demos and judging Sunday afternoon, the winning teams will present onstage at Disrupt on Wednesday, September 29th. This is a great opportunity to share the spotlight alongside the top startups chosen from Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield.

The event is being organized by Daniel Raffel and Tarikh Korula – the same team of hacker experts that pulled off our New York Disrupt Hack Day. Participants will conceptualize, create and present their projects/apps/hacks in 24hrs. Anything goes as long as it’s created onsite.

Space for the Hackathon is limited to 300 developers. Applications will open September 1 on the Disrupt website and will remain open based on availability. If you’re not a developer/hacker/designer we will be inviting press and fans to come and watch the final demos on the Sunday. You’ll receive a confirmation email as the date approaches.

If you’d like to be notified by email the second applications are being accepted, just type your email in here. We’ll use it once to notify you and then delete the email, promise.

To make it all happen, we’re teaming with Kosmix, SendGrid, Mashery, Alcatel-Lucent, Media Temple and a growing list of others who are sponsoring and sending and sending a team of veteran hackers too. There are lots of ways to support and participate in the Hackathon. Please contact Heather Harde or Jeanne Logozzo to learn more.

API workshops will be hosted on Saturday afternoon by a great line up of companies. They’re optional to attend but full of insights and answers for makers. Workshop hosts include: eBay / Paypal, Yahoo!, Facebook, Google, SimpleGeo, Twitter and Mashery.

Additional details and fine print are on the Disrupt website.

It’s that time. After seeing 20 startups plus two audience choices present at TechCrunch Disrupt, last night, that list was whittled down to five finalists: Betterment, MOVIECLIPS, Publish2, Soluto And UJAM. And now it’s time to announce a winner.

Without further ado, the runner-up is UJAM. And the winner is… Soluto.

The Israeli-based startup offers something that millions of people want — no, need: a way to make their computers run better. One thing that’s interesting about this company versus most of the others in the competition is that they’ve created native software. It monitors your PC to find the things that are likely most annoying to users. For example, it tracks down printing problems, crashy apps, resource hogs — all the good stuff.

That alone is interesting. But more interesting is that it offers up solutions for how you can fix your computer issues. And the data they’re (anonymously) collecting about PC problems should be useful across a range of industries and services.

Quite simply: if Soluto can convince the millions of frustrated PC users to use their software, they could transform the industry. Or, disrupt it.

The company has previously raised $8 million over two rounds, but has been in beta until now.

Other award winners tonight include:

Must-have technology: LiveIntent

Biggest New York disruptor: Betterment

Most promising media concept: LiveMatrix

Congratulations Soluto! And congratulations to all the finalists. Each will undoubtedly prove to be disruptive in their own way.

Soluto will be the first company to get the TechCrunch Disrupt Cup. In the Fall, they will hand it off to the next winner. We look forward to seeing you all in San Francisco in September.

TC Editor Mike Arrington wrote a great post on Hack Day today. I’m a subscriber to the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” school of thought, so I am re-posting here in entirety:

“Techcrunch is hosting a free, open Hack Day, before its Disrupt conference in NYC. Create, build, collaborate and present to an audience of peers and pros. Enjoy free hacker food (this is the pizza capital of the world, right?), meet a diverse group of attendees and hack! This is the city that never sleeps, so burn the midnight oil and build a mashup that blows everyone at the event away. Three winners will have a chance to present onstage to over 2,000 people at the main Disrupt conference on Wednesday. Register Now!.

The TechCrunch Disrupt Hack Day is being organized by Chad Dickerson (who held the first Hack Days at Yahoo, now CTO of Etsy), Daniel Raffel (Yahoo) and Tarikh Korula (Uncommon Projects) and Jonah Brucker-Cohen (Scrapyard Challenge). We expect 200 – 300 attendees at the Hack Day on Saturday and Sunday. The main conference, which starts on Monday, May 24, will draw more than 1,500 attendees.

Where and When
2pm Saturday, May 22 to 2pm Sunday, May 23rd
(Registration begins at 1pm, Saturday, May 22)
570 Washington Street (between Houston and Clarkson Streets)
2nd floor, New York, NY 10014
Schedule of Events and more info

What’s a Hack Day?
Simple — form a team of 1 or more and spend 24 hours building a new software/hardware idea using publicly-available data and APIs. Working code (no matter how rough) is the order of the day — no PowerPoint, Keynote, or slideware. Those who brave the night to build and make their dreams real get 90 seconds to present their work in front of a live audience. A variety of awards will be given. Everyone who builds something is a winner — if you finish something and present you’ll get a ticket to Disrupt (worth $3,000). All the top hackers and projects will be covered by Techcrunch and attending media. This is an awesome opportunity.
Collaborate on Hack Day Wiki

Who’s invited?
There will be a diverse melting pot of artists, designers, students, dreamers, software developers, hobbyists, hardware hackers, and industry thought leaders all looking to turn their ideas into something real! Join them in making something sublime, simple, interesting, useful, silly, or all of the above. Expect some surprises.

What companies will be there?
Etsy, Facebook, Foursquare, Simple Geo, Yahoo and many more companies will have developers on hand to talk about their APIs and help support you in building your projects!

What’s in it for you?
We’re creating a free stage for creative technologists to meet, greet, and build. Maybe you’re looking for the inspiration to build something you keep putting off, or maybe you just want to connect with other technologists in NYC. You might be looking for new career opportunities and want to show off your skills. No matter why you’re attending, there’s something for anyone who cares about building cool things. Bring your ideas and we’ll supply the pizza. Everyone who finishes a project will get into the main Disrupt conference for free.

Sign up! Hack Day promises to be a great time for everyone involved. We’ll provide the audience, hacking peers to inspire you, and the promise of fame. Deliver the hack and all eyes will be on you for a minute and a half. Make it happen!”

The app ecosystem is in a frenzy. It took Apple 28 days to sell one million iPads, the tablet device driven by a richness of applications. In response, Verizon and Google are teaming up to create a competing tablet, which would presumably also offer those little slices of software that can do just about everything. Smaller companies such as Foursquare are following in the footsteps of Facebook by styling themselves as app platforms, too.

And now Intuit, a Disrupt sponsor, is offering an app store of sorts for its own software. In their words: “The Intuit App Center is a single location to find, try, and use small business applications that work with QuickBooks and each other.” They also have a Partner Platform that allows developers to create apps that integrate with Quickbooks, and then sell those apps.

Popular apps include View my Paycheck and Expensify. It doesn’t have quite the ring of a name like “Tap Tap Revenge,” but if business software were ever to become cool and user-friendly, places like Intuit’s App Center are likely catalysts. On-demand infrastructure and open-sourcing of software development can only be a good thing, as anyone who’s ever navigated an expense report can attest. Of course, Intuit’s got a lot of competition here. Salesforce and other SaaS software incumbents also have developer platforms. Feel free to stop by Intuit’s table at Disrupt to learn about how Intuit stacks up. See you there!

We’re going beyond the usual networking at Disrupt.  Attending startups will also have a chance to participate in a “Speed Meeting” session with blue-chip VCs on Tuesday night, May 25th, thanks to a collaboration with Disrupt sponsor Zoosk, an online social dating network. If you’re Disrupt ticket-holder, you can apply to be one of the lucky 40 here. Zoosk will then notify you with your “date card.”  If you’re not a ticket-holder, you can buy a ticket or learn more about exhibiting as a startup here.

Meanwhile, for those already signed up –and anyone else looking to sell themselves to VCs — we gathered some tips from participating VC Jeff Bussgang, a general partner at Flybridge Capital. Jeff just wrote a book called “Mastering the VC Game,” which he says is full of insider tips for startups. Here’s a taste:

Q: Startups have three minutes to pitch you (and other VCs). That’s less than they usually get in your office, but a lot more than they’d get during an elevator pitch. What can they do in this time period to dazzle you?


A: Demonstrate – (1) deep industry knowledge and unique insight; (2) passion and ability to inspire; (3) tangible proof points that what they’re doing is more than just an idea.

Q:What’s the most important thing to know about a startup that people commonly forget to mention, or is there anything unnecessary folks waste time describing?


A: Don’t speak in generalities about things we all already know about (e.g., macro industry trends, digitization of content and media).  Instead, focus on your unique insights and why you have an unfair advantage in pursuing this unique insight.

Q: Okay, wildcard question. There’s a lot of excitement around the iPad. How you seen any services that take advantage of its form factor uniquely?


A: It’s awesome for reading blogs, Twitter and watching videos – all things you can do with other devices but not as elegantly.

What do you get when you mix 200 hackers, coders, developers and hardware geeks, with a whole lot of Red Bull and pizza, then let ferment overnight? We don’t know. But we’re going to find out at Disrupt’s Hack Day. As we announced today, from Saturday evening before the show to Sunday morning (May 22-23), we’ll host a marathon session of hacking for creatives to gather and build. The event is free and whoever completes it gets a free ticket to Disrupt. At least two of the top projects will go on to present onstage at Disrupt, too.

Participants can build whatever they’d like using publicly available APIs from companies such as Facebook (our awesome Hack Day sponsor). A recent Hack Day hosted elsewhere turned out a toaster that printed news headlines on bread before turning it into breakfast. After a judging round on Sunday –after which everyone is released into the daylight to go to bed — the judges’ favorite hacks will present alongside the top startups chosen during Disrupt on Wednesday.  Read more about the timeline and schedule, plus find out how to apply, here.

In addition to the ace team Facebook is assembling, (more details to come), the TechCrunch Hack Day is being organized by four hard core hackers: Chad Dickerson (who held the first Hack Days at Yahoo, now CTO of Etsy), Daniel Raffel (Yahoo) and Tarikh Korula (Uncommon Projects) and Jonah Brucker-Cohen (Scrapyard Challenge). If you’re press and want to attend the Hack Day portion of the event, please contact us. Interested sponsors get in touch here.

For our TechCrunch Disrupt attendees and Silicon Valley caravan, we have secured two discounts on digs during the event. AirBnB, a Y-Combinator funded startup, is disrupting the hotel industry by providing an online marketplace allowing anyone from private residents to commercial properties to rent out their extra space. We’re partnering with them so that you can  use the code DISRUPT100 when booking for an additional $100 off your stay. Check out some of the rooms below or see available rooms here.

Or, stay at the swanky and stylish Standard Hotel under our special group rate by clicking here before May 1 and save $100 or more.  Our current group rate is $255 and rates will continue to go up to $285 before the window closes, so we advise booking soon for the biggest discount. The Standard is a 15-minute walk up Washington Street from our venue.

March 31–Extra early-bird pricing for Disrupt expires tonight. Luckily, we have made purchasing an early-bird ticket and saving $500 an easy decision. Because Disrupt speakers are the gutsy people unafraid to offer an opinion and take disruptive steps in media and technology. They include Boxee CEO Avner Ronen, former CBS Interactive guru Quincy Smith, now at the helm of a new tech investment bank, and Steve Case, the Revolution co-founder who used to run AOL. Check out our speaker roster for more cool people we just announced.

Do you want TV everywhere? Or to know how technologists and financiers see the digital-content market evolving? So do we. That’s why we invited these insiders.

We’re also getting revved up about Startup Battlefield after receiving hundreds of applications. They contain fresh ideas in real-time search and sentiment; finding, sharing and enjoying digital content; disintermediating markets in ingenious ways; cool new hardware, and more.

During a three-day process resembling March Madness blended with “The Apprentice,” successful and active investors like Ben Horowitz and technology insiders like Om Malik will judge and coach startups. As those of you who follow TechCrunch events know, attending is a chance to see tomorrow’s big names, such as Mint.com, which launched at TechCrunch40 in 2007 and was acquired by Intuit for $170m last year.

Hope to see you at Disrupt.

March 23 — Time is running down to be part of the Startup Battlefield at Disrupt. The Battlefield gives you a major launch platform in front of top investors such as Ron Conway, executives like Jack Dorsey and industry press. And lucky for all the innovators out there, we just updated our guidelines to allow folks who have been live for fewer than three months to compete. The deadline is Friday, at 11:59pm PT. Submit your company here.

Here’s an update on what we’re looking for (and sundry practical info):

–Companies that have been live for less than three months, defined as publicly available site or service

–We will heavily weight companies willing to launch for the first time at TC Disrupt

–We consider new products from existing companies. New feature sets and mobile extensions of existing properties are not considered new products

–Companies from around the world are welcome to apply

–There is no charge to apply. Selected companies receive 2 free tickets to attend

If you don’t fit the Startup Battlefield profile but want to exhibit at Disrupt, you can look at our paid exhibitor options.

Boilerplate, in case you haven’t already browsed our Disrupt site: We are planning to pack the empty shell of former Merrill Lynch offices in New York City with the most disruptive, fresh technologies from around the world. The Startup Battlefield is a tournament-style showdown where startups demo products to the Disrupt audience and experts over multiple rounds May 24-26. All entrants get mentoring from expert judges and the winner takes home $50,000 in cash. And you get to come to the event, which is going to be awesome.