TechCrunch50 2008 Finalists

I hope most of the software professionals around the globe who would want to build a start-up and in a way become an entrepreneur in the process would know about TechCrunch and the coverage they shower on these start-ups. It has become a cult these days in the blogosphere that TechCrunch can make-or-break a start-up. Even though they don't promote any start-ups (some start-ups do sponsor TechCrunch website), it is true that their good review can elevate a new start-up to great heights. For once, a server going down because of heavy traffic is a titillating experience.

Every year they pick the best of the lot. The 50 finalists for this year are below.

Last year's winner was Mint, a great cool website that allows you to manage your personal finances easily all-in-one-place.



Who will be this year? We will know in two more days.

Update: This year's TechCrunch50 winner is Yammer, a Twitter like messaging system aimed at internal corporate communications.

Managing your Money

I've always wondered where most (hmm.. actually all) of the money from my paycheck vanishes. It looks like I'm getting paid, paying bills, debts, & loans - all virtually, expect for few times when I take some cash out to play poker and dine, I don't see much cash.

Do we ever get to see the money in real that we make in a month, like the old days? I remember my dad setting aside a monthly budget in all cash. Oh.. that smell of the new currency notes.. I simply love it. With most of the population catching up on plastic cards (as if that money on those cards were free), it might not be too late to see currencies world-wide in a museum. ;)

When coming to managing this hard earned money, there are very few softwares out there that does this job, not perfect though, but just enough to get by and give us a peek preview of what/where/how we play with our money. Quicken and Bank of America's (BOFA) Portfolio Management are the two that readily pop up on my mind. I have used Quicken before and I'm using BOFA regularly.

Recently, a new kid showed up in this block, named Mint. They call themselves the refreshing money management software. Well, I was fortunate enough to know about this startup thru' TechCrunch blog and I was one of the early beta testers. They won the TechCrunch40 $50,000 award.

They seemed to have nailed the application to give you the right personalization tool to manage and save money (for real!) for users who have no or limited computer knowledge, while excelling in giving a tool for computer geeks like me. I love their interface and their name (and their punch line - refreshing money management -- how true!). I don't want to give a lengthy lecture about what/how they do.. just skim thru' their website and you'll know what I'm taking about.

With identify theft hitting all year highs, most of us may not trust a third party software and give us our financial passwords (and thus our freedom) to them. But, hey, what's life without risk, I've given mine and its good to know that I'm doing more shopping recently, more than I thought of. I also came to know that I could save approximately $35 every month if I opt to make my own coffee instead of gobbling lot of Caramel Macchiatos from Starbucks. Now I know where my money is vanishing!! :)