TechCrunch is turning 20. I’ve somehow been here half that time, and this has been the best job of my life, which is maybe why the time has gone so fast.
Before I dive (quickly!) into the nostalgia that milestone birthdays inevitably bring, I want to pause and explain why this particular anniversary matters so much to me. After working at multiple major media companies earlier in my career (Time Inc., Dow Jones, Reuters), I can say with certainty that there is nothing like the culture here. Contrarian, smart, hilarious, and hard-working. Almost everyone at TC wears multiple hats, as anyone who has worked here will tell you. This isn’t just another media company — it’s a place where people are curious about everything, everyone cares a crazy amount about the brand (and each other), and where challenging conventional wisdom isn’t just encouraged but expected.
The approach has opened doors that might otherwise stay closed. Over the past decade, TechCrunch has had the opportunity to sit down with incredible personalities across every corner of the tech world, from CEOs like Sam Altman and Evan Spiegel to antitrust enforcers like Lina Khan, from venture capitalists like Marc Andreessen and Serena Williams to unlikely guests like Conan O’Brien and Al Gore, and leaders like Finland’s Sanna Marin. We’ve interviewed founders making defense tech, building consumer giants, and selling their software companies for billions of dollars. Collectively, our team has talked with thousands of founders and operators whose impact on our lives is felt daily. From these conversations, we’ve learned — then explained to our readers — how tech, policy, and human ambition intersect to shape the world.
We’ve done this from our homes, from coffee shops, from offices, but also across the world, to the many places TechCrunch has taken us, from Lisbon, London, Berlin, Barcelona, Paris, and Davos to (nearly) the opposite end of the globe: Lagos, Nairobi, Hong Kong, and Hangzhou.
Across these cities, we’ve sat down with founders who became superstars and superstars who became prison inmates. We’ve watched boring technologies take over the world and celebrated technologies that devolved into dumpster fires.
We’ve seen entire industries born, mature, and sometimes wither. We’ve introduced you to two-person startups that became trillion-dollar companies and told you about business innovations that flipped industries upside down — from subscription models to the gig economy to, more recently, AI roll-ups. We’ve reported on breakthroughs that changed everything. We’ve also covered “breakthroughs” that amounted to bupkis.
We continue showing up every single day. In recent weeks, TC has sat down with the prime minister of Greece and with the mayor of San Francisco. We’ve broken stories involving prominent VCs, startup founders, and Big Tech. I’d stack our transportation, startup, cybersecurity, and AI coverage against anyone’s.
These are tough times in media; it’s among a growing number of industries in flux. But to everyone who has gleefully written about the supposed demise of TC, plot twist, we’re still here! Twenty years in, we continue breaking stories that matter, holding power accountable, and giving you a sneak peek at the next big thing before it’s obvious to everyone else. We’re doing it for a growing audience, too.
Michael Arrington, thank you for creating this brand that became so much more than any of us could have imagined. Thanks to every parent company that has supported us and helped us keep doing what we love, including, today, Regent. TC’s ownership has changed over the years, but our mission to find the signal in the noise and tell stories that matter remains the same.
Here’s to the perspective that twenty years gives you, and to twenty more years of asking hard questions, helping readers see around corners, and working with amazing people.
To everyone who has been part of this story — writers, editors, sources, readers, attendees, speakers, critics, and cheerleaders — thank you so much for making TechCrunch what it is, a place for people who believe passionately that tech can make the world better — and who trust us to call it out when it doesn’t. It’s a privilege every day.
