A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned on Twitter that I was gearing up for a last minute, 72-hour run at the TechCrunch 50 application. It wasn’t for a client – Katherine and I have been working on  a web app project for a little while now. There was never any intention to run it in stealth mode, but TC50 requires that you stay under wraps, so we’ve been waiting to find out if we made the cut.

As it turns out, we didn’t, which wasn’t entirely unexpected – we’re taking an existing model and applying it in a cool new way but we’re not re-inventing fire or anything. However, we did get an invitation to the Demo Pit.  Not every one of the 1,000+ applicants makes the demo pool – there are only 100 exhibitors in addition to the 50 on-stage TC50 finalists – so we’re pretty happy about that.

We are also completely undecided about going.

Here’s the deal – we’re at the point now where we need to raise seed capital of €20 – 25K minimum in order to:

• Move Project X off of gaffer tape and bailing wire and onto a formal framework
• Develop the distributable modules that mean sales
• Pay for serious hardware when we open for public beta

I’ll be very straight and say: we do not have the $3,000 exhibition fee. We also do not have the €2,500/$3,500 it will cost to get both of us there, hole us up in San Francisco, and rent the kit we’d need on the ground there.

In fact, neither of us has enough money to pay our ESB bills right now, so really – we’re Brokey McBrokeyPants here. Trying to find this money would mean… I don’t even know what. A home equity loan, a bank robbery, or something else fairly serious like that.

On the other hand, I am 100% passionate about this project. More than 50 companies have come through my door in the last two years, and while I’ve been keen on any number of them, not one has made me say “I want a piece of that.” This one did, and if DemoPit is what the project needs, then that’s what we’ll do.

Somehow.

So here’s what I want to know:

• Would you do this?
• If you’ve done DemoPit in previous years, was it worth it?
• Did you raise funds as a direct result?
• What did you get out of it other than cash?

We need to decide fairly quickly because there are a lot of logistics involved in getting two tubby ladies and a fully functioning web app to San Francisco in a mere six weeks.

So advise me please, interpipes. Thank you.