The Top Five Videos from TC Disrupt NYC 2012

I had a great time in NYC earlier this week. People have been asking how it was, and I thought about writing up something longer, but it seems as if most of this stuff was covered many times over already, though it’s nearly impossible to find specific video content on AOL properties so I’ve gone and pulled what I think are the most important pieces of video content to share with you, in no particular order:

FRED WILSON in conversation with Mike Arrington, link to video here. As always, there are many little nuggets in this discussion, as  is the case whenever Wilson speaks. While he’s always careful with his language, you can read between the lines at a few points.

HARJ TAGGAR in conversation with Kim-Mai Cutler, link to video here. The folks at Y Combinator continue to grow in influence and also size, and the most interesting piece of this discussion is that Taggar mentions YC has its own internal database for its founders to create and share notes about specific investors, sort of like “The Funded.”

CHI-HUA CHIEN in conversation with David Kirkpatrick, link to video here. This was probably my favorite talk during the conference, one of the most articulate, thoughtful explanations of what the last five years have brought in the consumer web/mobile space and what the next five may bring, as well. If you’re going to watch one video, this is it.

Startup #1: OPEN GARDEN, link to video here. Perhaps the most disruptive idea presented at the conference. The company has built a multi-platform application that allows users to pool their data/wifi resources and create ad-hod mesh networks, bypassing many of the carriers’ own rules. One of the founders also started BitTorrent. This pitch reminded me of what Lucius Fox did at the end of “The Dark Knight.”

Startup #2: GTAR, link to video here. This was a crowd favorite, in many ways. They are building hardware to pair with mobile phones to help teach guitar, but most fascinating is that during the conference, they received private investment plus funds from their Kickstarter campaign. This, to me, embodies what could happen in early-stage funding over the next few years, a hybrid model where the power of venture capital declines while the power of crowd funding increases. This could form new models that blend both of those types of capital.