A year ago sucked. I mean, it was actually great, but it sure seemed to suck at the time. We were getting CrunchFund off the ground and I think everyone thought we were going to do that in full conjunction with Aol — they were and are the largest limited partner of the fund, after all.
Instead all hell broke loose.
You know the story. And this is now the fourth goddamn post on TechCrunch about TechCrunch today. But hey, at least it’s not another Apple story, right? RIGHT?!
Anyway, as you’ve read, both Michael Arrington and myself are coming back to TechCrunch. I’m extremely excited about this. No, things won’t be exactly the same as they were a few years ago. But they never are. They can’t be. They shouldn’t be. It’s about moving forward. That’s exciting.
But wait, I never left in the first place, right? Sort of. I cut a last-minute deal on my way out the door to keep up the Apple beat here and there, but it was never truly thought-through. I wasn’t gone, but I was falling. Like Gandalf chasing the Balrog from underneath Moria to the peak of Zirakzigil, I would eventually die.
And then come back.
So now the plan is to write about whatever I want. Most of the time that will still probably be about Apple — they are the most important tech company on the planet, after all. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was a challenge at times this past year to write a column that had to be about Apple is some capacity — even if it was only in the URL slug a time or two.
But aren’t Michael and I horribly conflicted? Yeah. So? Who isn’t in some way? It should be about transparency, not some weird form of supression.
But, but, but, but we’re financially conflicted! That’s worse! Here’s the thing: I don’t intend to write about our startups on TechCrunch. Neither does Michael. That was never the plan. Quite frankly, as a reader, I hate it when investors pull some of the masturbatory shit about their companies over and over and over again. See: Twitter, everyday. See also, the phrase: “killing it”.
It’s all about trust. You have to trust that I’m writing something because I believe it, not because something you don’t care about needs publicity on TechCrunch. As an investor, that can be a bit of a gray area because you can always fall back on: “well I wouldn’t have invested if I didn’t like the company” — something I use quite often, because it’s true. That’s why we believe it’s best to keep stories written by us specifically about our portfolio companies off of TechCrunch. This site has a huge audience that obviously just isn’t mine — or even just Michael’s anymore. The audiences on our own blogs are ours. That’s the better place for those posts.
I intend to write about a variety of things, probably late at night — just like I used to do. Not all the time, but sometimes. I still do have that day job which is my top priority — CrunchFund is going strong one year in, “killing it,” as it were. And I’ll still maintain my other blogs which are more about spreading interesting content and personal blogging.
That’s the thing, I’m doing this because I love writing about technology. I can’t stop, won’t stop. And I love TechCrunch. It just made sense to fully combine the two once again. To come back.
And yes, I just wrote this entire post and made the ridiculous Gandalf/Balrog reference just to be able to justify that title and image. It’s good to be back.