TechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiles of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005.

The website's Technorati rank is 4, and is 4th in the Info/Tech category. As of April 10, 2012 (2012 -04-10)^[update], it has over 1,628,000 RSS feed subscribers as measured by tracking company FeedBurner. On September 28, 2010, at its TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, AOL announced that it would acquire TechCrunch for $25 million.

TechCrunch is now affiliated with several other websites, commonly referred to as The TechCrunch Network. As of July 28, 2008, these include:

The organization held a live event, the TechCrunch50, on September 8–10, 2008 in San Francisco, California and again on September 14–15, 2009; in 2010, the event was canceled. TechCrunch also runs The Europas awards and is a founding host of The Crunchies. Furthermore TechCrunch organises various one day events, ie. TechCrunch London and twice per year the TechCrunch Disrupt event.

Marissa Ann Mayer (born on May 30, 1975) is Vice President of Location and Local Services at Google. She has become one of the public faces of Google, providing a number of press interviews and appearing at events frequently to speak on behalf of the company.

After graduating from Wausau West High School in 1993, Mayer was one of two delegates from Wisconsin selected by the Governor of that state to attend the National Youth Science Camp in West Virginia.

Mayer received her B.S. in symbolic systems, graduating with honors, and M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University. For both degrees, she specialized in artificial intelligence. In 2009, the Illinois Institute of Technology granted Mayer an honoris causa doctorate degree honoring her pathfinding work in the field of search.

Mayer was the first female engineer hired at Google and one of their first 20 employees, joining the company in June 1999. Prior to joining Google, Mayer worked at the UBS research lab (Ubilab) in Zurich, Switzerland, and at SRI International in Menlo Park, California.

Jack Dorsey (born November 19, 1976) is an American software architect and businessman widely known as the creator of Twitter and as the founder and CEO of Square, a mobile payments company. In 2008, he was named to the MIT Technology Review TR35 as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35.

Dorsey grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and by age 13, he had become interested in dispatch routing. Some of the open source software he created in the area of dispatch logistics is still used by many taxi cab companies. He went to high school at Bishop DuBourg High School and attended the Missouri University of Science and Technology before subsequently transferring to New York University, where he first conceived the idea for Twitter.

While working on dispatching as a programmer he later moved to California.

In Oakland in 2000, Dorsey started his company to dispatch couriers, taxis, and emergency services from the Web. His other projects and ideas at this time included networks of medical devices and a "frictionless service market". In July 2000, building on dispatching and inspired in part by LiveJournal and possibly by AOL Instant Messenger, he had the idea for a Web-based realtime status/short message communication service.

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known as one of four co-founders of the social networking site Facebook, of which he is chairman and chief executive.

Zuckerberg was born and raised in a Jewish household in New York state. While still in middle school in his early teens, he took up writing software programs as a hobby, beginning with BASIC, with help from his father. His father then hired a tutor to help his son develop his programming skills further. Zuckerberg's enjoyment in writing programs led him to developing computer games, writing a music player, and setting up a primitive home network he called "ZuckNet." His private tutor calls him a "prodigy." In high school he excelled in classic literature and science, while becoming proficient in four other languages. He was also captain of the school's fencing team.

He later enrolled in Harvard, majoring in computer science and sociology. In his sophomore year he wrote a program called Facemash as a "fun" project, letting students on the college's network vote on other students' photo attractiveness. It was shut down within days, but would become a template for his writing Facebook, a program he launched from his dormitory room. With the help of friends, including roommate Dustin Moskovitz, Facebook went national on other campuses, and they moved to Palo Alto, California. By 2010, the site had an estimated 500 million users worldwide. Zuckerberg and Facebook have since been involved in various legal disputes initiated by others who have claimed a share of the company's profits due to their help in setting it up. Zuckerberg is the largest individual shareholder with 28.4 percent of the common stock and controls 56.9 percent of the voting power. As of 2012^[update], his personal wealth was estimated at more than $19.1 billion, making him one of the world's youngest billionaires. Zuckerberg is one of the 30 richest people on Earth.

Christopher Ashton Kutcher (/ˈkʊtʃər/; born February 7, 1978), best known as Ashton Kutcher, is an American actor, producer, former fashion model, and comedian, known for his portrayal of Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show. He also created, produced and hosted Punk'd, and played lead roles in the Hollywood films Dude, Where's My Car?, Just Married, The Butterfly Effect, The Guardian, and What Happens in Vegas. He is also the producer and co-creator of the supernatural TV show Room 401 and the reality TV show Beauty and the Geek. Kutcher currently co-stars in the hit CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men as the character Walden Schmidt.

Kutcher was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He is the son of Diane (née Finnegan), a Procter & Gamble employee, and Larry M. Kutcher, a factory worker. His father is of Bohemian (Czech) descent and his mother is of Irish, German, and Bohemian ancestry. Kutcher was raised in a conservative Roman Catholic family, with an older sister, Tausha, and a fraternal twin, Michael, who had a heart transplant when the brothers were young children. Kutcher's twin brother also has cerebral palsy and is a spokesperson for the advocacy organization Reaching for the Stars.