When I came into the industry in the 90s, I couldn't afford the $2,000 to $5,000 it cost to attend an industry event … and the DEMO conference was charging tens of thousands of dollars to let you on stage to show you the product — I couldn't afford the $20,000 for that either So I created TechCrunch50 and then rebranded it LAUNCH FESTIVAL and featured free tickets for founders … and made it free and merit based to be on stage. … and I gave a $25,000 prize to the best start-up Today, I'm bringing LAUNCH Festival back as a way to pay it forward to founders starting their careers(@jason)