TechCrunch has just announced the first wave of their 2013 meetups and this year they’re coming with “Pitch Offs” as well.

TechCrunch held a pitch off event in New York City back in February. It was met with huge success. TechCrunch editor John Biggs called the event a “mini Disrupt”. If you’ve ever been to Disrupt in Asia, New York or San Francisco, it’s one of the most highly coveted startup events.

Now TechCrunch has announced meet-ups and pitch offs in Austin, San Diego and Boston.

The first event out of the gate is the Austin meetup on May 30th at the Stage On Sixth where TechCocktail held their pitch-off event during SXSW.

TechCrunch meetups are great. We were able to attend one in North Carolina and one in Atlanta last year. Both had nearly 1000 people through the door which came from every corner of the tech and startup community. There will be a handful of local startups and local startup support organizations, free alcohol and TechCrunch editors and reporters mingling and giving best practices and advice to startups. They even hold office hours.

This year they’re adding the pitch off event as well.

Participants will have 60 seconds to pitch the crowd and the TechCrunch judges. Products must be in private beta or stealth mode and ready to launch at TechCrunch Disrupt SF in September. The top prize at the Austin event is a free TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Alley booth. Of course the TechCrunch judges will also be vetting startups for the TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield stage for their chance at $50,000 and a crown that is almost always synonymous with follow on funding.

So if your startup wants into the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Alley, prepare to attend the Austin event in May!

More on the Austin meetup and pitch off here.

More on TechCrunch Disrupt SF here.

Did you miss everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, don’t miss the next one.