TechCrunch Pump n Dump
Guys, this is an under-informed and reactionary post, which grossly simplifies the situation in a way that is insulting to Dropbox, TechCrunch/AOL, CrunchFund, and the Mailbox/Orchestra team. It's also kind of upsetting that this post is at the top of HN and getting a kind of froth-at-the-mouth reaction that it is.<p>It's well-known and indeed massively controversial[1] that there's a CrunchFund/TechCrunch conflict. Arrington <i>left TechCrunch</i> because of his desire to return to investing about a year ago[2], after the short stint at doing both journalism and investing in parallel. According to CrunchBase, this was coincidentally the same month that CrunchFund invested in Orchestra[3]. Both he and MG returned in October 2012[4], but both have hardly written any TC pieces since then. Why? Probably because they're quite busy with their day jobs running CrunchFund.<p>Additionally, on many posts with CrunchFund conflicts, they have been called out at the end of each article (see <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/30/andreessen-horowitz-adds-jeff-jordan-as-partner-leads-5m-likealittle-series-a/" rel="nofollow">http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/30/andreessen-horowitz-adds-je...</a>). They probably have been a bit lax about that as of late since the CrunchFund guys aren't really involved in TC (compared with the often torrential output of most other staff writers).<p>TechCrunch coverage did probably get Mailbox some users, and CrunchFund as a VC probably did add some value to their company, but the effects and importance of TechCrunch itself are <i>wildly overstated</i>. Probably more important is that the Mailbox/Orchestra team is <i>top notch</i> at making incredible mobile products (Orchestra won one of Apple's Top App award in 2011 <a href="http://blog.orchestra.com/orchestra-is-productivity-app-of-2011-in-the" rel="nofollow">http://blog.orchestra.com/orchestra-is-productivity-app-of-2...</a>), had <i>hundreds of thousands</i> of active users within a very short amount of time (with only a tiny insignificant fraction of those coming from TC), and Dropbox can probably provide a better home for a lot of the Really Hard problems with email at that kind of scale.<p>Like I get why OP seems alarmed, but it's pretty naive to think that TechCrunch matters in any important way to the success or financial outcome of a company. Just read about the "TechCrunch pop"[5]; their users rarely not stay with or give lasting value to a product. If you want to belittle the <i>astounding</i> accomplishments of the Mailbox team, at least don't pick something like TechCrunch to do it over.<p>[1]: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/technology/michael-arrington-techcrunch-blogger-to-invest-in-start-ups.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/technology/michael-arringt...</a><p>[2]: <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/michael-arrington-leaves-techcrunch-134791" rel="nofollow">http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/michael-arrington-leav...</a><p>[3]: <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/orchestra" rel="nofollow">http://www.crunchbase.com/company/orchestra</a><p>[4]: <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/23/getting-the-band-back-together/" rel="nofollow">http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/23/getting-the-band-back-toget...</a><p>[5]: <a href="http://viniciusvacanti.com/2012/11/19/the-depressing-day-after-you-get-techcrunched/" rel="nofollow">http://viniciusvacanti.com/2012/11/19/the-depressing-day-aft...</a>