Well, they got in on the merits. It certainly wasn't like HP demoing a new product (like we saw at DEMO); it was a company coming out for the first time. It certainly qualifies as a startup in my mind. It may be a $20M company, but still, no one had ever heard of them before. The look of astonishment on the panelists' faces was awesome.
It may very well have been the greatest gambit to create a competitive bidding process for VC investment in history. Seriously. They presented at TC50, and in less than a month, had a VC firm who they had absolutely no prior relationship with wire $25 million to their account. (Sure, they had previously raised $3.5 million, which marked the IP as safe and the revenues as real, but still.)
I get that they are still a startup, but they are a funded startup. It was a great demo, but still it seems like TC50 should be restricted to companies who have yet to do a series A round.
Lots of companies had already raised funds - Clasemovil raised half a million, Clicker has 8 million, lots were self-funded by people with exits under their belt, etc. The only requirement was you had to do your first public release at TC50. The judging criteria were useful demo, attractive, professional, polished design, and useful business, and the first three favor those with funding.
