We’ve decided to apply to present at TechCrunch20, and I’m sitting here filling out the application. It’s all pretty straightforward until I got to a section called “The Promise.” The description reads:

Presenting companies at the conference will be expected to present first public beta releases of new products or features. If your company is selected to present at TechCrunch20, please summarize what you will commit to launching at the conference. Please add why the TechCrunch20 platform will be important to your business development trajectory.

It’s the middle of May and we’re talking about a conference in September. How to play this one?

We are currently in alpha, meaning that we can author presentations and present them but the product isn’t ready for the world to start banging on it. We’ve been letting a few select people in, but we’re not even at private beta yet. (FYI, the application is coming together nicely and it’s very cool. Lots of different types of people get excited when they see it, which we take as a good sign. Some even offer to invest, which is good too )

Soon we’ll be launching the private beta. (don’t you just love the word “soon”?) So how long will we remain in private beta? Can we commit to launching the public beta in September? Is that too ambitious? Or maybe we’ll be ahead of schedule and want to launch earlier.

Then again, is there such a thing as ahead of schedule in software?

- mike