And The Winner Of TechCrunch Disrupt Is… Soluto

"The company has previously raised $8 million over two rounds, but has been in beta until now."

This seems idiotic. They should have had a restriction on what kind of startups (i.e. only angel funded or bootstrapped) could win the prize. Except of course, if it was just a giant techcrunch publicity stunt.

Giving $50k to this company is about as disruptive as, well, sliced cheese.

I love this idea and here's why:

Whenever I go to clean a friend's slow computer its not the malware and spyware thats slowing it down - its all the random QuickCam and digital camera softwares, or the TurboTax updater thats running all the time, or whatever else has accumulated over the years.

Traditional AV programs are too rigid - I want it to uninstall the Dell Photo Loader, even if its not a virus by any traditional definition. Crowd-sourcing the watch list in this way seems like an especially elegant solution to the problem.

If they get this right, I'd recommend it to a lot of people.

As far as disruptive technologies go I think saluto, if they deliver on their promise of solving users' computer problems deserves this accolade.

I have always lamented the fact that personal computers users have to double as system administrators to keep their systems running smoothly and the tech industry has been trying to alleviate the pain by moving to web based applications and alternative easier to use devices such as the iPad but if saluto can really deliver it may just give the desktop a second chance at life and that would truly be disruptive!

I was at TC Disrupt this week. A few observations:

1. The Soluto guys and UJam (runners-up) had the most polished, finished products.

2. The Soluto guys were completely at ease, had a good sense of humor, and had answers for every question asked of them. They also had funny, winning accents.

3. The Soluto guys were addressing a very clear pain point and had very strong branding, including the catch-phrases and slogans that accompanied their product "Anti-frustration software" and "Every family has a CTO. We're building this for them!"

4. There seemed to be a strong Israeli contingent at the event that were sold-out for Soluto. They were the only startup all week that always had a cheering section anytime they were mentioned. To the casual observer who doesn't know it's the Israeli contingent cheering, this can look like popular support and start to sway people on the fence. By the end of the conference, they were pretty much the only startup anyone would mention if you asked who they thought was going to win (YMMV).

5. Also, as one HNer pointed out shortly before the winners were announced, Soluto's presentation was the only one to inspire defensive questions from all the judges. Each one of them asked questions about how their business would impact projects and areas they were working in themselves.

How is this disruptive?

Maybe I am missing some trick here? Microsoft has a free tool that does exactly this for free from the horse's mouth: http://fixitcenter.support.microsoft.com/Portal

I'm amazed that Betterment got so much love, it's nothing more than a cynical attempt to convince the unwitting that ETFs and Treasuries are just savings accounts with higher returns. I would think the more appropriate response would be to tip off the SEC to their marketing materials, not give them a runner-up reward.

Their tagline "Anti-frustration software" is brilliant.