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.

J. Michael Arrington (born March 13, 1970 in Orange, California) is the founder and former co-editor of TechCrunch, a blog covering the Silicon Valley technology start-up communities and the wider technology field in USA and elsewhere. Magazines such as Wired and Forbes have named Arrington one of the most powerful people on the Internet.

In 2008, he was selected by TIME Magazine as one of the most influential people in the world. Wired magazine also included him in a flowchart of "internet blowhards" citing his obsession with "Web 2.0".

Arrington grew up in Huntington Beach, California and Surrey, England, attended the University of California, Berkeley and graduated from Claremont McKenna College with a major in economics. He went on to Stanford Law School and graduated in 1995. He practiced corporate and securities law at O’Melveny & Myers, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Arrington left the practice of law to join Real Names, which failed after raising $100M. Arrington was co-founder of Achex, an internet payments company, which was sold to First Data Corp for US$32 million and is now the back end of Western Union online. "I made enough to buy a Porsche. Not much more," he says.

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.