TechPulse 360

Alain Raynaud, CEO, FairSoftware

Have you wondered how your Internet startup could present at TechCrunch50 (TC50), one of the most exclusive Web 2.0 conferences? Well, Mountain View, Calif., startup FairSoftware made it through last September and its CEO Alain Raynaud – and TechPulse360 guest blogger – offered to share with us how he did it in this exclusive behind-the-scene story.

Being one of the TC50 was anything but easy for FairSoftware.

First, because FairSoftware is not a sexy, consumer-oriented Web 2.0 company like the ones featured on TechCrunch. Our main innovation is an 8-page legal agreement that let entrepreneurs create virtual corporations online, bypassing lawyers.

Then the selection process for TC50 was brutal: Over 1,000 companies applied but only 50 get to present.

But we were lucky to select the “early decision” track. While TechCrunch said that the track you pick didn’t matter, the inevitable happened: they were overwhelmed by the number of applicants and couldn’t devote as much time to everyone as they wanted. So the early applicants got a 15 minutes phone interview scheduled for 15 minutes, while later ones only got 10 minutes to pitch.

We had picked a time early in the morning, to make sure the interviewer would be fresh and awake. I can’t imagine how dazed and confused they must have been in the evening, possibly having spoken to more than 20 companies a day. It would be miracle if they actually remember the name of your company, much less any details about the company.

Our first screening interview actually lasted 40 minutes! The interviewer liked and understood our business and found it cool. Our second interview went fine, but not great. We just couldn’t read our interviewer’s mind.

Then came the gamble.

Our team was gathered for dinner in Portland at the eve of O’Reilly’s Open Source Conference in mid-August where we planned to launch our company when I received a notification message from TC50 that we were a “semi-finalist”; meaning we could either get a demo pit slot, or present on-stage.

But TechCrunch rule was very strict. We could not launch anywhere else before our appearance at TC50.

So without knowing for sure if we were going to be selected or not to present at TC50, we decided to cancel our appearance at OSCON. A difficult decision for a cash-strapped startup like ours to throw away all that money.

But that decision paid off. We were eventually considered as one of the “finalist” companies and after a last review by co-host Jason Calacanis himself, we were in!