As is appropriate for the summertime, there needs to be one giant party where people can simply gather to talk about whatever they want and have a great time. Here in Silicon Valley, that one party has been going on for the past seven years and happened just this past Friday. Held at the always-impressive offices of venture capital firm, August Capital, thanks to the gracious generosity of investor David Hornik, TechCrunch’s annual summer party went off spectacularly and in style.
I’ve been fortunate to attend this August Capital party over the past few years and I must say that each year gets better and better. Recently, over the past 3-4 years, TechCrunch has coincided this event with their mini-conference, the CrunchUp. As I mentioned in a previous post, the CrunchUp usually ties into a specific theme that has taken center stage in the industry–this year happened to focus on Facebook’s platform. So most people would go to the CrunchUp and then drive over to August Capital’s offices on legendary Sand Hill Road for a chance to unwind and have casual conversations with their friends, members from TechCrunch, and meet some new people. And every year the venue is packed!
Once again with gorgeous weather, hundreds of the tech industry’s best and brightest gathered on the deck outside August Capital where they were greeted with flowing drinks, appetizers, and great music. Several companies had also set up areas where they were demoing their product, although I’m not sure if most people probably noticed. Making one of his signature appearances here in the Bay Area, renowned artist, Hugh MacLeod of GapingVoid.com stopped by the party to give away his latest art piece and autograph it for those who wanted it. And in a touching moment and to show the community’s appreciation for hosting the event, Mr. MacLeod gave Mr. Hornik an enlarged printed version of one of his designs–I think the “Now What?!!” drawing is quite appropriate to be hung inside a VC office, don’t you think? I mean, you go and meet with an investor and by having the “Now What?!!” hanging over you, it’s a sign that you probably need to be thinking more long-term instead of short-term. But I digress…
It was amazing to see the draw that TechCrunch’s August Capital party has and each year, more and more people try to come to the event to see the movers and shakers. I, myself, saw some great individuals like Google’s Don Dodge, famous investor, Jeff Clavier, Altimeter Group’s Brian Solis, 50king’s Francisco Dao, Chute founder, Gregarious Narain, 500 Startups & angel investor, Dave McClure, Greylock Partner’s Josh Elman, Andreessen-Horowitz’s EIR Tristan Walker, Shashta Venture’s Jacob Mullins, Postmate’s Ashley Brown, CrunchFund’s (and occasional TechCrunch writer) MG Siegler, Appcelerator’s Spencer Chen, TextPlus’s Heather Meeker, SiliconANGLE’s John Furrier, VentureBeat’s Christina Farr, The Next Web’s Drew Olanoff, All Things D’s Mike Issac, BigOmaha’s Jeff Slobotski, Google’s Chris Hutchins, Huddle’s Andy McLoughlin, NeuAer’s Dave Mathews, Peep Project co-founder, Ben Parr, Teens in Tech & Highland Capital VC, Daniel Brusilovsky, Circa’s co-founder, Matt Galligan, entrepreneur Tammy Camp, The MIX Agency’s Vanessa Camones, and many others.
Man, that was a lot of names to spout off…but that just shows you that there’s quite a few great people that you can meet at great events like this. But now for the photos…
For more photos from TechCrunch’s August Capital party, you can view them in my Flickr photostream here.
Photo Credit: All photos shown here were taken by Kenneth Yeung/Flickr
