6 Start-Ups Trying to Change the World

At TechCrunch Disrupt, dozens of new tech ventures battled for a $50,000 prize and killer buzz. Here are our picks for the ones to watch.

Qwiki
Headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.
Founded: Oct. 2009
Raised: $1.5 million
TechCrunch Disrupt $50,000 Grand Prize Winner

Qwiki is like Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy come to life: type in a topic — any topic — and you’ll get a narrated, multimedia tour of the subject. Co-founder Doug Imbruce sums it up well: “We think in the future information becomes an experience that you watch,” he says. “Today, everyone is absolutely overwhelmed with information. We need to simplify.”

Imbruce uses Qwiki as his alarm clock, waking up each day to a pleasantly intoned run-through of his e-mail inbox, the weather and upcoming events. (One Startup Battlefield judge dubbed the system “your personal HAL.”) The site’s visual interface is its most obvious breakthrough: “It’s amazing to see a product that’s in beta have so much attention to the product design,” judge and Twitter product head Jason Goldman said. TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington dubbed it “the sexy Ferrari with absolutely no promises of launching.”

That sizzle factor was enough to win the judges over — and the audience. They met the news that Qwiki was the event’s grand prize winner with wild cheering and a tweeting frenzy.

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