“‘What?.’ ‘We made it to Disrupt,’ Sarah said calmly. ‘We screamed so hard we woke up the building.'”
After the screaming ended, the Israel-based Shaker ditched Burning Man plans for TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2011 rehearsals in San Francisco, devising a plan that would buy them some time (asking if they could have all 13 founders on stage) and having that plan backfire (we said “Yes.”).
After living through Erick telling them that theirs was one of the “most boring presentations I’ve ever heard” and digesting his impassioned plea, “Take me with you to Shaker, make me feel like I am at the bar! Instead of listing 25 added features, give me one good experience,” the team spent a sleepless night practicing their presentation before being thrown onstage.
“The rest of the story is well documented,” Yonatan says “The music that didn’t work, the computer that froze just as we went on stage, the team in Israel participating inside Shaker dancing on the bar, releasing red hearts to the audience, and of course Mike’s – full of tact – announcement.”
It’s no wonder that instead of attending the after-party as winners, the Shaker team just crashed in their hotel room (photo above).
Says Yonatan,”The guy in the picture is obviously Andy, our head of finance… He is the one holding back every dollar in our company – he couldn’t let go of the cardboard check until he literally went to bed with it.”