What happened/is happening this week in New York tech?
COME ONE, COME ALL TO THE HACKER TOWN HALL. Want to hang with hackers outside of a grueling 48-hour hackathon? “We’re trying to do something special with the Hacker Townhall,” organizer Brandon Diamond said in an email blast asking hackers to spread the word. “We want to help hackers get to know the activities and groups available within the city (and to get to know one another, too). Think “activity fair” meets “cocktail party” meets “free beer and pizza.” See?” You can next Thursday at General Assembly. Dress code? “Tremendously casual.” Also, be a hacker or GTFO.
FOUNDERS HAVE EXCELLENT NAMES, START-UP NOT SO MUCH. Personalized news provider XYDO launched this week to much acclaim. Hats off to co-founders Eric Roach and Cameron Brain.
TRASH TALK. New York programmers leapt to defend Stack Overflow, the darling question-and-answer resource for coders, when its net value was questioned by a blogger at Nerdr.com, who alleged that the site makes hackers lazy. “That’s freaking ridiculous, and if you heard that somewhere that’s a very disillusioned developer,” local coder Sara Chipps said on the Twttr. “SO is a godsend.” “That’s baloney,” agreed TweePLayer co-founder Mike Caprio. “You don’t learn anything being stuck on a stupid issue for 8 hours, you just lose time.”
THE OTHER THIS WEEK IN START-UPS. Silicon Alley veteran Jason Calacanis considering filming TWIST, the weekly pod- and videocast from the This Week in Tech empire which covers start-ups, in New York this week. At the Ace Hotel, perhaps.
FUNDINGS. The winos at Lot 18 raised a $10 million Series B for luxury good deals. Meetup-esque peer-to-peer education start-up Skillshare announced its $550,000 angel round (Founder Collective, SV Angel, Collaborative Fund, David Tisch, and Scott Heiferman) (guess we should to learn how to pronounce co-founder Michael Karnjanaprakorn’s name). TechStars baby Shelby.tv doubled the amount its seeking for a seed round to $1 million. Send The Trend raised a cool $3 mil series A.
OPEN POSITIONS: Designer sought at Hunch, where the work is hard but the pizza is hot; back-end developer wanted at Skillshare, which as you now know just raised dollars; front and back-end developers are wanted at lady start-up Birchbox; Chartbeat wants a “community evangelist.” Mini start-up Nerd Collider wants unpaid media interns, and New York Venture Community wants to not pay you to be an organizer. “We are looking to bring on more organizers to grow it,” said NYVC board member Alex Taub. “Great way for someone to break into NY tech scene.”
AND ALSO: NYVC need organizers because we’re ramping up, Mr. Taub said. The group, started by Mark Peter Davis of VC fund DFJ Gotham, is “going to get more active with events… happy hours, speaker series, etc.”
LOOMING DEADLINES: IgniteNYC applications are accepted on a rolling basis, so apply now if you want to talk during Internet Week and get maximum exposure for your Twttr handle. The deadline for the NextNY NYC Tech Mentorship Program at General Assembly is May 11. Education Innovators Showcase applications are due May 15. Applications for the Startup Workaway hackathon in Costa Rica are due Friday.
