david haber JOINS spark capital. “David has a interesting background, which included graduating from Harvard with a BioChem degree. Not a typical degree for a VC firm but we appreciated a different perspective and background than others at Spark,” the firm says on its blog. Mr. Haber previously was a founding associate at Locus Analytics, which he started before he graduated. His new title is VC n00b.
IT’S BEEN A WHILE SINCE WE HAD A HACKATHON! Er, not really. But Game Hack Day is this weekend at General Assembly, sponsored by NYhacker, the “hacker union.” “We’ve got a bunch of Arduinos, AR Drone-copters, great API demos (including open source game frameworks) and more,” says co-organizer John Britton. It’s expected to be as big as Music Hack Day, which produced no fewer than 72 demos.
Related, General Assembly co-founder and serious strategy gamer Brad Hargreaves is hosting a class Thursday on The Business of Gaming–check it out before you hack and you could have a start-up. Or, you can skip the entrepreneurship and get a job at OMGPOP, currently hiring for a game designer with “mad vision.” Okay!
WHUFFIE HIRING; POSITION NOT COMPENSATED IN WHUFFIE. “In the novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom [by Cory Doctorow], usual economic incentives have disappeared: Whuffie has replaced money, providing a motivation for people to do useful and creative things.” The non-profit start-up is based in Argentina and London, but apparently advertising a position in New York. “We are a team of 5 really talented folks (3 full-time and 2 contract), in the middle of Alpha, barreling towards Beta–and we need to build the team fast. Angel-backed.” Interesante! Wonder if investor and Whuffie fan Vamsi Sistla is the angel? (Oops, that was rumor-y. We’ll save it.)
IDEELI launched a travel vertical; WANDERFLY launched “a new business platform for our company through branded pages of curated content, called Wanderlists… [to] become the first travel website to offer curated suggestions from top lifestyle brands,” and MEEBLEMAIL launched stationary for email, with a “library of stylish and unique email stationery designs.”
BNTER retools design; profile pages “now highlight who you’re closest to by graphing whom you’re attributed with the most on Bnter.” FITOCRACY adds Twitter and Facebook integration. NORTH BROOKLYN BREAKFAST CLUB on Friday, NYC STARTUP AND DIM SUM ENTHUSIASTS MEETUP Saturday.
