Last year, we hosted 250 start-ups and early-stage companies pitching to nearly 2,000 attendees, including 200 corporate buyers, VCs and angels and more than 150 members of the press.

We’re proud of our irreverent history, and we’re back for v3.0: September 14-15, 2009.

TechCrunch50 is the global competition conference for start-ups.

• We invite any company creating a new product to apply for consideration through June 30.
• We have a rigorous review process to select the 50 best applications to publicly launch their products at the conference, free of charge. Products stay stealth until the conference.
• Finalist companies launch to the public on stage and receive feedback from our panel of industry experts. Our 2007 and 2008 advisors are an important part of our success.
• One company will win $50,000 from the TechCrunch50 organizers. This year, we’ll have an Audience Choice Award and other recognitions too.
• Runners-up are invited to participate in our DemoPit and pitch their product for one day of the conference (3 company attendees for the price of one.) Attendees vote for their favorite DemoPit company to give the last pitch on stage at the conference, Tuesday afternoon.

Get $995 Recession-Buster Tickets through May 31
Don’t let a bad economy get in the way of attending TC50 in 2009.

We’ve slashed our early-bird prices in half from 2008 to $995 through May 31, limit 500. (Prices escalate to $2,995.)

Attendees enjoy an action-packed agenda, including pitches, panels, working breakfasts and lunch sessions, and after parties at the San Francisco Design Center Concourse, with 125,000 square feet of networking space.

Great partners make great conferences
We’re really lucky to have the corporate support of some of the best names in the business. Sequoia Capital, Charles River Ventures and Perkins Coie all returned quickly to support us for the third year in a row. Google, Founders Fund, MySpace, and Microsoft are back for their second year of partnership. Additional partners will be named in the months leading up to the conference.

Come be part of the energy, see you this fall,
–Jason, Heather, Michael & the TechCrunch50 team

TechCrunch50 is hosted by Mike Arrington, TechCrunch and Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo.com and Mahalo Answers.

Photo credit:  Steve Maller Photography