If your week was as hellish hectic as ours, you must be in need of a stiff drink. Pour yourself a cocktail and get comfy: here comes this week’s rumor roundup.
Step Away from the Crackberry! In case you missed all the Instagrams, Mayor Bloomberg performed some titillating acts of Startup Theatre on the stage at Gracie Mansion Tuesday night. The crème of tech society, including MakerBot’s Bre Pettis, General Assembly’s Adam Brimer, Yipit founder Vinny Vacanti, Google (GOOGL) trends & insights editor Caroline McCarthy, Sailthru’s Aubrey Sabala, chief digital officer Rachel Sterne Haot and her husband, LiveStream founder Max Haot, gathered on the lawn for canapés and cocktails to celebrate NYC Connects 2012.
To enhance his usual Silicon Alley cheerleading, Mr. Bloomberg opted for props on the podium, like an array of Warby Parker sunglasses and a Seamless delivery guy, who shlepped takeout up on stage. The spotlight was enough to lure Seamless CEO Jonathan Zabusky out of Twitter hiding. Besides one of the guests complaining about a scripted “Hello world” joke that fell short, everyone seemed to eat up the promotional opportunities.
While Mr. Bloomberg and his girlfriend Diana Taylor eagerly examined the new MakerBot Replicator 2 on display, however, another executive was also milling about: Google chairman Eric Schmidt, pecking at his BlackBerry rather than tapping at an Android device. Mr. Schmidt! Haven’t you been warned about this before?
Snoop No More? Earlier this week, we wondered how the $15 million Andreessen Horowitz just ploughed into Rap Genius would affect the startup’s street cred. Marc Andreessen, you see, also happens to have donated (a small fraction) of his billions to Mitt Romney–along with fellow Republicans like race-baiting Scott Brown and the Tea Party’s only hope for the White House, Paul Ryan. And if our Yeezy history lessons and Nikki Minaj’s recent brush with satire have taught us anything, it’s that rappers and Mitt don’t mix.
Signs of a potential rift in-the-making surfaced via Snoop Dog‘s Instagram today when he republished Twitter personality @DragonflyJonez‘s reasons not to vote for Mitt. Good thing for the site’s founders–who appear to have some habits in common with Snoop–that the rapper has a verified account on Rap Genius, but hasn’t actually contributed anything.
Weissman, Party of One After a long week of product launches, Reddit k-holes, and funding news, there is nothing Betabeat likes so much as a 90s Netflix marathon. It looks like Union Square Ventures partner Andy Weissman had the same idea:
Thinking about dipping into Party of Five this weekend, see if it holds up after all these years
— Andrew Weissman (@aweissman) October 5, 2012
Dr. Jack Shephard before he ever crashed into that damn island? Jennifer Love Hewitt before she was relegated to a John Mayer punchline? We’re getting nostalgic already.
Here Comes Baby Ex-Googler and newly minted Yodeler Marissa mayer gave birth to a baby boy on Sunday, September 30th. “Baby boy Bogue born last night. Mom (@marissamayer) and baby are doing great–we couldn’t be more excited!” tweeted her husband Zachary Bogue. But it turns out the baby doesn’t have a name, and instead the Mayer/Brogue couple is doing what any young techie couple would: they’re crowdsourcing for names.
According to an email sent out by the couple, published by Forbes:
Hi All –
Zack and I welcomed BBB (Baby Boy Bogue) into our family last night.
He arrived exactly one week ahead of schedule at 22:22 p.m. on 9/30/12, weighing 8 lbs 14 oz and is 21″ tall. He is now officially BBBB – Big Baby Boy Bogue! We are all very happy and excited. Name TBD – suggestions welcome!
With love and happiness,
Marissa & Zack
We’re guessing “Larry” is completely out of the question.
Stalking 2.0 When Vox Media director of marketing Callie Schweitzer asked Onswipe cofounder Jason Baptiste if his stalker was still around, our ears immediately perked up. Turns out a stranger had been checking into Mr. Baptiste’s apartment and Onswipe HQ on Foursquare and it was starting to get creepy. Luckily, Mr. Baptiste assured us it was “nothing serious.” Besides, Foursquare stalkers are so 2010. The real people to worry about are the creeps who like every single one of your pictures on Instagram. Photos of artisanal meals aren’t that inspiring.
Media Mogul Melee BuzzFeed (BZFD) cofounder Jonah Peretti and Gawker publisher Nick Denton took the kid gloves off this week and engaged in a rather amusing sparring session on Twitter. When Mr. Peretti disingenuously congratulated Mr. Denton on Gawker landing at #101 on Business Insider’s Digital 100 List, Mr. Denton replied with his trademark brand of British-tinged snark: “We’ve always been asked: in your quest for traffic, what would you not do? Buzzfeed has provided the answer. Thanks, @peretti”
[nyo_storify
src=”http://storify.com/JessicaKRoy/denton-peretti-spat”]
Somebody make some popcorn.
Bizzy Dev It looks like one of Betabeat’s “poachables” has gone and gotten herself poached! On her Tumblr, Andrea Hong, a senior manager of business development at AOL, announced that she’ll be joining NewsCred, a New York City startup that wants to reinvent “how and where content is sourced, distributed, published, and paid for,” as the company’s director of content. We hope she enjoys NewsCred’s snazzy new office!
Beef by the Book Just this week we got an official update on the progress of Sheryl Sandberg‘s work-in-progress Lean In, which is proceeding apace on its path toward becoming the women-in-tech equivalent of Bossypants.
But it seems Ms. Sandberg may have a rival in the long-form arena. Intellectual gadfly Evgeny Morozov (whom we last saw stirring the pot with the audacious suggestion that the Internet isn’t always a wondrous freedom-granting elixer, as well as trash-talking TED) is finishing up his own tome, and just recently he hinted arcanely that Facebook’s COO might be in for a very academic diss:
Am I going a bit overboard in this new book using Bernard Williams to bash Sheryl Sandberg? Well, yes. But at least it’s FUN.
— Evgeny Morozov (@evgenymorozov) September 30, 2012
We simply can’t wait to learn how the British moralist relates to Ms. Sandberg, and we long for the arrival of the inevitable New York Review of Books essay hashing all this out.
As always: Overheard a juicy tidbit about impending departures or imminent acquisitions? Dying to dish about startup blunders or frothy financing? Holler at your girls: tips@betabeat.com
