We had an incredibly productive meeting last Friday at our Short Pump branch office (ie, Starbucks…LOL, which one?…as Wray pointed out, there are literally FIVE locations within about ONE square mile– TWO in Short Pump Town Center, Lauderdale (our branch office), Barnes and Noble, and Target–that’s not even counting Cox Rd, Gaskins, and Nuckols).

Number one item on our agenda was TechCrunch50 (or rather TechCrunch 53).  Should we accept the demo pit invitation and go in the hole for $5,000?–($3,000 for registration, $1200 for 2 plane tickets, $450 for hotel, $150 for car rental, $100 for meals (that’s underestimating cause it’s me…hell, I’ll eat $100 in San Fran Dim Sum alone), and $100 for shwag)

First off (reading from cue cards ;)), it was an honor to make Second-Team All-American .  Considering this company is only a couple of months old, we couldn’t be more excited about getting a runners-up nod.  It’s like getting external validation (West Coast Tech Gods validation, no less) that we’re on some kind of right track strategically.  More importantly, Wray just shared some recent “stickiness” statistics for August.  People are using ButtonALL.  They are starting to customize.  And they are definitely returning.  Man, if we can just get it into more people’s hands…

So why not just go to TechCrunch50 then?  Look, it might be different in California, but in Virginia, Five Grand is a lot of money for a “garage” startup.  The promotional ROI is difficult to forecast (especially, with the focus of the event being on the 50 debutantes).  As for “venture funding,” honestly, we don’t need it right now for this project, and even if we did…Wray brought up a farcical scenario about our current readiness…

• VC:  “Well, boys, we like your company.  Why don’t we meet up in San Mateo in two weeks?”
• Us: “Uh, could you pay for our plane ticket?”
  n00bie lambs to the slaughter!

When you are a start-up, wise bootstrapping is a must.  Cashflow is king, and all expenses must be prioritized by cashflow potential and probability of immediate financial return.  A tech conference, no matter how sexy, just can’t pass this litmus test, for us, for now.  OK, that’s my final word on TC50* (that is until next year when we make Varsity!)

*Postscript: At the end of the meeting, the guys were giving me a lot of grief over this blog post….Ed’s attempt at edgy, Colbertesque humor on the blog….FAIL!
*Postscript 2: Counterpoint: TechCrunch: What Winning TechCrunch40 Did for Mint.com