OMGNATE. We posted about Nate Westheimer selling the first app he ever coded, Ohours, to Hirelite. Ohours was going great! People loved it! And yet Mr. Westheimer was ready to move on to bigger and better Rubylicious things. Although he demurred when we asked what. But the rumormill is suggesting it’s something to do with social gaming. A source tells Betabeat the stealth project is “a partnership with OMGPOP’s Forman,” referring to the infamous Charles, a friend of Mr. Westheimer’s.
And indeed, Mr Westheimer started following OMGPOP projects and developers on Github as early as May, around the time he put Ohours up for sale. OMGPOP, which recently raised $17 million, was hiring for a data engineer–we’re doubtful that Mr. Westheimer, a fairly green coder, has got that job, but maybe he’s helping bring puppies to your iPhone, for example. We pinged Mr. Westheimer to ask more, but he was OMGAFK. Wait! He’s back! But did not confirm or deny a virtual puppy Ohours. “I follow lots of people on Github!” he protested.
VENMO IS HERE. We rumormongered last month that Venmo was Venmo-ving to New York. “We may, will let you know if so,” founder Andrew Kortina told Betabeat. The start-up was not one of the portfolio companies to move in with investor Lerer Ventures, however; coder Shreyans Bhansali is mayor of Venmo at 289 7th Ave. (26th St.) on Foursquare. Ahem, Betabeat welcomes Venmo to New York–let us know about that parking meter thing.
PITCH.FM. All those jokes about pitching investors on Turntable.fm? Charlie O’Donnell is hosting DJ hours there. “Each week at 1:30 on Friday, I’ll be DJing in an open room where people can come by, say hello, ask startup questions, pitch, or just listen to the music. Swing by!”
GRITTED TEETH. Foursquare’s new lists feature potentially put a lot of start-ups out of business, including DreamIt’s just-pivoted-and-things-were-going-so-well Pictour and the long-struggling-but-we-hear-already-pivoted Dinevore and the long-time-awkwardly-competitive Foodspotting.
TAKING THE STAIRS. GroupMe’s long-complicated relationship with elevators–the lift in its first home in Soho trapped a fellow officemate–has manifested as a gossipy Twttr in the vein of the Conde Elevator. So far the account has overheard “Nubile Designer: ‘Photoshopped a dick on my cats last night,'” and “Rage-filled Temp [to hungover co-workers]: I’m learning Rubies on Rails. Gonna change the world.”
BOO Twitter. Twitter finally pushed the last of its users onto the new multimedia version of the Twitter.com client, and some people are still struggling with the change. “TWITTER, Y U NO LET ME GO BACK TO ‘OLD TWITTER?'”
