I was there when TechCrunch launched. 

Mike and Keith were starting a company. Mike was doing competitive research. I said he should start a blog and share what he was learning. Then people would read his posts and add what they know, and send Mike off in different directions. A lot of people would have looked at me like I was Mother Teresa or a rastafarian, but Mike understood, immediately. 

When he posted an interesting analysis on TechCrunch, I linked to it from scripting.com. I told everyone to subscribe to his feed. He got a prominent location in my blogroll, and then after his site had accumulated a lot of reviews, the outline of them got its own spot in my site directory. I made it my business to see that everyone knew what great work my friend Mike was doing. 

The stuff they were covering turned out to be nothing less than another layer of technology and a whole raft of Silicon Valley startups, the smallest part was the company all this analysis was originally for, and eventually Keith and Mike gave up and TechCrunch got its independence. 

I'm proud of the very small role I played in getting it going. I'd say that I gave the Crunch of Tech its first Kick in the pants. Not that it needed much of a kick because Mike Arrington is that rarest of birds -- a Natural Born Blogger (NBB). 

Hey so Mike you're a rich dude now. You're paying next time we share a meal.  

And congrats to all the others, Heather and the team. Hard work and never giving up, pays off. Mazel tov.