When the Techstars reality show on Bloomberg TV gets too intense (What will happen to To Vie For!?!), award-winning producer Wilson Cleveland has a solution for you. His web series Leap Year, presented by Hiscox Insurance, chronicles the personal and professional lives of several employees at a startup called C3D, which is “like Skype with holograms.” The show follows the ups (but mostly downs) of building a startup, with a wry comedic voice and plenty of inside jokes for the tech set. In fact, the show garnered so many Startupland fans that a couple of New York’s better-known tech glitterati make appearances in this season.
Today, Mr. Cleveland and the Leap Year team released an episode featuring none other than Techstars cofounder Dave Tisch, Shelby.TV cofounder Reece Pacheco, Reddit (RDDT) cofounder Alexis Ohanian and Change the Ratio cofounder Rachel Sklar. Quite the star-studded cast.
Mr. Tisch plays himself and introduces a competition, the winner of which will get to go through the Techstars program. Mr. Ohanian offers some unsolicited startup advice: “Follow the crowd. We are all herd animals and one way or another that cute video of the old people trying to figure out their web cam or some cute little piglet running around in galoshes is just Mark Zuckerberg’s way of hunting us down and eating us. Think about it.” Is this some obscure reference to the hive mind?
Ms. Sklar’s hilarious self-referential cameo–including a “Change the Ratio” t-shirt, an unnecessary fist bump and a “Girl power!” declaration–were all pretty spot on.
Poor Mr. Pacheco–who played a lowly bus boy clearning off a table where the main cast was sitting–had no lines whatsoever. Do you think that performance qualifies him for a SAG membership?
You can check out the whole episode below.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Dp3vOIla-Y]
