iMedia: Venture capital is the lifeblood of a lot of companies in the space. You chaired a panel of ventre capitalists; what's your take on interactive as the industry navigates difficult economic times?
Jason Calacanis: Smart investors double down in the down market. Great companies like Google, Weblogs, Inc. and, in fact, TechCrunch were built in the down market. Anyone can start in a hot market.
iMedia: TC50 showcased only a handful of the top startups out there. As a web entrepreneur, what's your advice on how to get noticed if your company didn't make it into TC50?
Jason Calacanis: Make an amazing product and showcase it at next year's event.
iMedia: In the past year, we've seen a lot of celebrities enter the space and Ashton Kutcher was among those demonstrating at TC50. Is celebrity power on the web -- where it's all about the user -- for real or are we being punked?
Jason Calacanis: It's very real. Hollywood has had a couple of false starts with the internet, but the gap between Hollywood budgets and internet revenues is closing quickly. The line between Hollywood created video content on the web and user generated content is going to blur over the next three years. Hollywood will get more gritty and web-based programs will get more polished. Ashton is balancing those two worlds better than anyone today.
iMedia: Google made some interesting headlines with its ad-supported tool that lets users search newspaper morgues online. Will the long tail be a boon for the struggling newspaper industry?
Jason Calacanis: It's great for users, but I don't think it's a game changer for the newspaper industry. The newspaper industry's problems have more to do with shifting demographics and classifieds than archives. That being said, every step the newspapers take to embrace web-based advertising is a step in the right direction.
iMedia: The TC50 crowd is arguably extremely tech-savvy. What was the device, technology or service that everyone seemed to be using this year, and is it something that's been monetized?
Jason Calacanis: The iPhone 2.0, which is CRUSHING it with the App Store. The App Store will be 10 times more profitable and important for Apple than iTunes, and iTunes is an amazing business.
iMedia: Do you miss blogging?
Jason Calacanis: Not at all. The 6,000 folks who get my email provide much more value to me than the 250,000 who were reading my blog every month. I'm only playing small cafes going forward... I'm done with stadium shows.
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Michael Estrin is deputy editor at iMedia Connection
