Gawker: silicon alley

Laid-off Wall Street techs offered work at Silicon Alley startups

Jackson West — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Buy low, sell high, as they say on Wall Street. And right now, there's a flow tide of technical talent from shuttered financial firms flooding the New York Area available at rock-bottom prices. Fred Wilson at Union Square Ventures says why not take a pay cut and work longer hours at a Web startup? The "quant jocks" Wilson describes could also bank their savings and some unemployment checks and spend six months pitching a business plan — I bet they could convince Wilson to throw some money your way. The entrepreneurial route worked for former finance techie Jeff Bezos, an early adopter who worked at a hedge fund before hedge funds were cool. First Round Capital has a list of jobs in and around New York for those who would rather continue collecting a paycheck. Though the fund did sneak in email startup Xobni, which is on the left coast. "[H]ey, why not consider a move. The weather is better and winter is coming!!!" That said, so is Julia Allison. (Photo by AP/Mary Altaffer)

Silicon Alley 100 a bunch of old white guys

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:21:43 EST

Silicon Alley Insider decided to revive one of Jason Calacanis's oldest traditions and produce a Silicon Alley 100. In doing so, the blog run by disgraced tech stock analyst Henry Blodget just proves the thoroughgoing irrelevance of the exercise. The editors' No. 1 man in New York? Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Some other highlights among the old, the rich and the boring? AOL topper Randy Falco, IAC's Barry Diller and Jupitermedia's Alan Meckler. The closest SAI comes to someone we care about is VC blogger Fred Wilson — a moneyman, not an entrepreneur. As in Calacanis's time, New York is where ideas come to be financed, repackaged, and marketed — not invented.

CBS sets up Wi-Fi in midtown Manhattan

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:05:33 EST

Hey San Francisco, how's the free public Wi-Fi from Google coming? Oh yeah, some of the more leftist among you insist that free Wi-Fi should be a municipal utility. Let me know how that works out for you. In the meantime, over here in New York, one of our Old Media patrons, CBS, was kind enough to hook up all of midtown with free Internet access. We'll let you know how it works on an iPhone. Cheers!

Silicon Alley revealed as dank, smelly, empty space between buildings

Owen Thomas — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 13:51:04 EDT

Scott Heiferman, the organizer of the NY Tech Meetup, has canceled tonight's startup presentations, opting for a meet-and-greet instead. Why? He tells Silicon Alley Insider's Peter Kafka that he didn't want to "risk" the event "with presentations that some would find mediocre." Funny, "mediocre" seems to describe any event featuring a bunch of SoHo-dwelling, West-Chelsea-officed, Union-Square-Ventures-funded, trendy-cocktail-swilling, Prada-wearing, Balthazar-brunching, Valley-wannabe startups. On the bright side, attendees will have more time to knock elbows with Kafka and fellow filthy hack turned blogger Dan Frommer.

Internet People Dine At Balthazar, Talk Trash

Joshua Stein — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 17:37:45 EDT

A summit of angry internet types took place last night; it may have ended in a lasting peace. Not since Yalta have three leaders as large as Lockhart Steele (who is at least technically our boss) and Ben Leventhal from Eater and Abbe Diaz, the Koreshian mercurial leader of PXthis (the forum-land for nightlife, hospitality, and seedy underbellyness) been in the same place at the same time. Diaz, who bears a grudge against Gawker ranking somewhere between Mayweather v. De La Hoya and Red Sox v. Yankees, met the two for a late dinner at Balthazar. Later she triumphantly reported on the evening to her minions.

I only spent a few hours with them so maybe i don't have all the answers you're looking for though. oh and i should mention they said "this whole dinner is off the record" and i responded "i can't make that promise" hahhahahahhaa

We salute that. So what do PXThis readers want to know about Lockhart Steele and Ben Leventhal?

Question from(Dick Johnson @ Apr 19 2007, 10:48 AM) * Are they gay?
Abbe: no i don't think so. actually lockhart-steele did recount a story about a dinner date he had at Gusto. with a GIRL

then again
any boy who doesn't blatantly sweat me i always automatically assume is gay.

Funny, I think Stalin said the same thing to FDR!—Josh

Dinner with Eater

'Onion' Editor Needs Moving Help, Raise

Doree Shafrir — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 12:28:13 EDT

Onion features editor Joe Garden, whom none of us has ever met, sent around an email this morning asking everyone to help him move. We've reproduced it below in the spirit of helping Joe out, and also in the hopes that his bosses maybe give him a raise so he can hire some Israelis next time?

Listen, if you barely know me, and I've never done you any favors, then by all means, delete this message.
But if you know me, like me, and would like me to drive you around somewhere in the future, then hear me out.

I'm moving. Many of you know this by now. Not far away (17th St. Between 7th and 8th) but it requires a van. And friends.

This weekend will mark the third and final load.

Payment will be the conventional beer and pizza, as well as a future (or past) assistance from me with my car.

Anyway, email me by the end of the day.

Joe

Third load? Jesus Christ, man! U-Haul is over on 23rd Street in West Chelsea!

Vending Machine Challenge: Eat 'The Onion'

Emily Gould — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 18:10:37 EDT

Gawker videographer Richard Blakeley recorded the AM New York vs. The Onion competitive eating showdown, in which eaters had to make their way through an entire vending machine full of goodies. Watch it if you like to see people puke, or if you're intrigued by the prospect of catching a glimpse of an utterly random celebrity in the background. Hint: he has lived life bass ackwards.

The World's Worst New Media Resume

Choire — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 11:51:18 EDT

Dorian Benkoil, the former editorial director of Mediabistro, is serving out his last month on the job, whatever that job is. Hey, he lasted like 7 or 8 months longer than the 6 months we predicted! So we thought we'd take a look at his resume and see what he has to offer this beautiful world of new media.

Lead editorial team across multiple platforms toward production of content for direct and ad revenues, marketing/PR, membership and audience development. Oversee complex network of blogs covering multiple industry verticals.

Okay, he supervised some folks running blogs that worked different beats! (Verticals! Hnarf! The worst buzz-word of our time.)

Speak publicly, to the press and on air on digital media and community.

This isn't even English. (Fortunately, he speaks Japanese!)

Optimize traffic through use of Web analytics, search engine optimization and marketing, RSS, e-mail and other PR, marketing and technological techniques.

He checked stats and sent emails!

Increase editorial coverage in key revenue-producing areas. Maximize editorial effectiveness to increase audience and attract quality advertisers.

If that's maximized editorial effectiveness, then we're the Christian Science Monitor. We're not sure this one is even true.

Negotiate editorial and commercial partnerships.

So that's what editorial directors do in the new media world—the job of the business-end folks. In the age of editors who actually do the jobs that publishers used to do, we suppose this makes a sad kind of sense.

Recruit and train staff to assemble peak performance teams.

What is this, Men's Health? Are we climbing Himalayas?

Conceived, oversaw, launched and moderated highly profitable breakfast speakers professional series. Produced concurrent video.

Now, this we did not know! That's a lot of verbs, too! Still, at least here he gets our attention: "highly profitable"! Hey hey! And breakfast! Mmm, breakfast.

Dorian Benkoil's Professional Web Page [Benkoil]

Crash this bash: Silicon Alley Luau

Nick Douglas — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 14:15:10 EDT

Silicon Alley readers, don't feel left out when you read all the Valleywag To-Do posts full of Bay Area events. New York City's version of the Valley is holding real parties. Here's a leaked invite to a luau — go get leied, Silicon Alley!

I received this invite from Kevin Ryan (erstwhile DoubleClick honcho). It seems to be a mass invitation since I was bcc-ed.

My first thoughts:
— A luau? Sounds like they're partying like it's 1999.
— Will [Silicon Alley Reporter founder Jason] Calacanis claim a trademark on 'Silicon Alley' and O'Reilly Ryan? Or maybe he'll attend, coconut bra on the bulldog? I'm betting the former over the latter since he seems to have ceded NYC to [Gawker Media boss] Denton.

——-Original Message——-
From: Kevin Ryan
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 11:09 AM
To: [redacted]
Subject: Silicon Alley Luau

Aloha! To celebrate the start of summer and the ongoing success of the NY tech scene, ShopWiki is throwing its first-ever Silicon Alley Luau on Thursday, June 29 at the ShopWiki headquarters. Your invite is attached. If you have any questions, contact Carlos Prio Odio at [redacted].

I hope to see you there!

Best regards,

Kevin Ryan

—
Kevin P. Ryan
CEO
ShopWiki
134 Fifth Ave, 3rd Floor
New York, NY, 10011

Startup idea #2090: Buy Alleywag.com

Nick Douglas — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 19:07:09 EDT

Blow! Blow! The tech bubble's still not big enough! Enterprising New Yorker Paul Maiorana is selling Alleywag.com, the perfect trademark infringer for Valleywag Startup Idea #2090: A gossip site about New York City's Silicon Alley (home of DoubleClick and iVillage).

Today, Paul pitched the domain to Gawker Media boss Nick Denton and Weblogs, Inc. boss Jason Calacanis (founder of the now-defunct Silicon Alley Reporter). Jason "doesn't do gossip" and Denton's too cheap to buy another domain, so it's yours for the taking — just make an offer to PMaiorana at Gmail.

Silicon Alley [Wikipedia]

The new New York bubble

ndouglas — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 13:51:50 EST

Silicon Alley's feature coverage in this week's NYT Styles section (because it's too fun for the tech section) shows that the Alley is just like the Valley again — with all the requisite bubble signs:

Daily Candy wins "Most jackass self-evaluation" for its $100 million asking price. When the Times calls a 10-times-earnings sale price "a conservative multiple by technology industry standards," someone is either still living in the 90s or already privy to some pretty high-rolling deals.
Everyone's "learning from their mistakes" and "not getting caught in the hype" — and "seeing 37% growth a year."
Uses of "Mr.": 16. Uses of "Ms.": 1.

Alive and Well in Silicon Alley [NYT]

Silicon Alley is edgy

ndouglas — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 13:35:19 EST

Silicon Alley is back, decided the New York Times, and it's edgy. To prove it, the Times opens with the story of a dot-com poetry slam where one schlub fails to impress:

Mr. Robertson faced a barrage of withering questions and eventually slunk offstage to mocking laughter from the audience.

When New Yorkers do tech meetups, they do 'em hardcore.

Alive and Well in Silicon Alley [NYT]