Who is jason Calacanis? Why should we care?

DEMO's fee kinda separates the men from the boys in startup land, no? Who wants to pay attention to a startup that has to worry about the nickel-and-dime issues of an $18,500 check? If you don't have sufficient backing to go to DEMO, then you're not in the same league as the companies that go to DEMO, and probably aren't ready for the kind of VC/media attention it delivers. Meanwhile, wasn't the first TC conference a total failure? Seems the only time anyone pays attention to it is when Arrington/Calcanis pick a fight with Shipley.

puhleeze hoot - if Hewlett & Packard, Jobs & Woz, even Bill Gates had listened to your delcaration that "only well funded companies deserve funding/success" then the valley would implode. You can do a lot with $18,500 and some of the garage start-ups should rather than DEMOing.

He looks good wearing the headset. Probably worth getting used to when the bubble bursts.

Anyway, the TC conference was worthless with failures getting press. Should conferences have more standards than buying Arrington or J-Dawg dinner?

Is this guy an investor in VW or do you just like to promote him and his new business constantly?

He'd be the one giving away the MacBook to his followers if he gets back to the top of Twitterholic. ;)

Jason Calacanis has the bulldog demo locked up!

Best still were the first minutes of Calacanis Nation: complete with crash and following anger:

+ Watch video

So is Mahalo Hawaiian for "This site is a joke"?

@michaellamb: You got it! If I had a dime for each startup that didn't deserve funding, I'd be rich!

McHammer backed startup??? Scrabulus and Poking???

There should be a Deathwatch on VW dedicated entirely to start-ups. We could have a pool, and the winners could get bragging rights.

@franky: Jason Calacanis charges his employees $1000 per webcam crash- but they can afford it, since they are making tens of millions of dollars.

I've watched four competitors take on Demo while I was a producer on the show. Not one of them survived. The reason they went fins up was: generally because they didn't pay attention to production values; They forgot that the companies-- not the producers or on-stage talent are the stars;And. hey didn't deliver long-termvalue to the selected companies and paid audience.
What has made Demo vastly different than the competitors which tried and were unsuccessful in unseating it is the h igh production values of the show, and the attention to detail it support staff gives to each of its selected companies. other elements in Demo's success have been the growth and long-term support of its affiliated community-- which includes entrepreneurs third-party marketing consultants and risk capital providers. Finally, Demo now has its own unique third-party service providers, which works hard to enhance the value of the show to attendees.

As someone who produced Demo shows, I wish competitors well. Their efforts largely reinforce the value and awareness of the brand.

Jim Forbes
retired now amidst avocado green goodness away from Silicon Valley, in Escondido, CA

Ahem why does IDG a billion dollar company need to bleed start ups of 18K per seat?

Jimforbes- I thought the point of DEMO's success was to promote and make companies thrive, not DEMO-competitors survive... I know plenty of companies who demo'd at DEMO and still suck (and Yeah @Fiddler many of them got a lot of funding).

Blue shirts? Aren't those the official uniform of the valley, along with khakis and a smug hipper than thou attitude?

Blue Collar, in Santa Monica? I thought everyone at Mahalo was either millionaires or soon to be rich?

@Blackjack: I think it's pretty much impossible to be "hip" if you're wearing a blue, buttoned shirt with khakis.

God help if me if I ever take a job in the valley and they make me dress like that...

@Duncan: tens or hundreds of millions!!!

Calacanis asking Shipley to jump ship and join him is kind of like Ralph Nader asking Obama to drop his bid and become his VP, except that at one point in his life Ralph Nader was worth a damn.

I wouldn't have minded getting acknowledged for grabbing the video that you used. It's not required, but it would have been a nice gesture.

@michaellamb:
Michael, the point of Demo is to make money. It's not a charitable entity. And "yes" there have been companies at Demo that didn't do well I may have even picked some of them. Demo is very good at picking out new trends and shining a spotlight on them. That's aways been a criteria in company selection. I wish competitors well, the more shows that try to copy the show, the greater the value is to Demo and IDG's brand. Most people aren't even aware of the link between Demo and IDG. TY"he show has always been a sub part of various magazines-- first InfoWorld and Now Network World. At Demo we worked hard to establish our own separate identity and largely the show has beeen wildly successful at this. I hope this makes my point clearer. Life is too short to wish ill of competitors. besides, what goes round really does come round.

thanks for replying to my post.
best wishes,
Jim Forbes

@Aaron Brazell: Since Viddler clips, like most video embeds, automatically link to the original page, a separate credit seems redundant. But good job capturing Calacanis in his natural state!

@Paul Boutin: Are you saying calacanis doesn't pay taxes?