In less than a week, you’ll be sitting on your parents’ couch with a belly full of booze and turkey watching shitty cable TV, because ain’t life grand? To tide you over until that wondrous day, we’re back with another batch of juicy rumors. Happy Friday!
Beer Me Storied New York venture capital firm Lerer Ventures knows its target audience. According to a tweet from Scoutmob cofounder Dave Payne, Lerer is hosting a beer pong tournament for some of the companies it has invested in. “just got invited to a beer pong tourney by one of our venture investors,” tweeted Mr. Payne. “that’s hard core @lererventures. well done.”
Competition at the tournament seems like it will be quite fierce. “hope you’ve been practicing,” responded Northeastern student Scott Edelstein. “i’ve seen@benjlerer win with his eyes closed.”
In fact, here’s proof:
Twitter Tempest There’s no beef like a Twitter beef. Exhibit A: This week’s digital bar brawl between erstwhile TechCrunch writer Paul Carr (now EIC of NSFW Corporation) and current TechCrunch writer Ryan Lawler.
The opening salvo came from Mr. Carr: “This is the dumbest thing I’ve read on TechCrunch all hour,” he tweeted, pointing to a post uncritically touting some stats from Airbnb. Told, “at least it wasn’t a slideshow,” Mr. Carr responded: “it would have been had Airbnb sent a slideshow.” It might’ve stayed there, had Mr. Lawler (the author of the piece) not leapt into the fray and gone nuclear. “I wish I could build a career on my own drunkenness and self loathing,” he rejoined. Oh, dear.
The back and forth that ensued was collected by the parody account @NextTechBlog and given the title of, “Utterly Embarrassing Interpersonal Shit-Show In Front Of Everyone.” And Start-ups: Silicon Valley star Kim Taylor knew her opening when she saw it: “Season 2 of #SiliconValley: Self important tech reporters argue on twitter like 12 year old girls.”
Diwali, D.C. Style LocalResponse founder Nihal Mehta spent some time in Washington D.C. this week. But instead of snapping pics at the Lincoln Memorial or going bar hopping in Adams Morgan like your typical D.C. visitor, Mr. Mehta attended the White House’s official Diwali celebration. “current status: in the @whitehouse eating a samosa after mtg the first hindu congresswoman @tulsigabbard after #diwalipuja w/@joebiden,” Mr. Mehta tweeted. If that doesn’t trigger your FOMO sensibilities, he then followed it up with a photo of Vice President Biden lighting the Diwali Diya. Baller status: unlocked.
Interpersonal Fitness Adventures in Timehop: Seven years ago, Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley gave all his friends pedometers, “in an attempt to make a poor man’s NikeFuel.” No word on whether it worked.
Sadface Tumblr ad man Rick Webb shared the below photo of his green coffee beans –on his Tumblr, natch–depicting a rather deserted-looking Microsoft store. Given that it opened just a few weeks ago, and that the holidays are approaching, shouldn’t it be slightly more crowded? Poor Steve Ballmer. “This would be comical if it wasn’t so sad,” Mr. Webb offered.
Ayndroids Among Us It seems tech world conscience (and 2012 Tech Insurgent!) Anil Dash had quite the interesting conversation recently. “Odd FB exchange with a founder who says 80% of U.S. are worthless & just take,” he tweeted, adding that he “Blocked me when I asked why his homepage doesn’t say that.” Unfortunately, Mr. Dash didn’t reveal the unnamed founder’s identity, other than to clarify it wasn’t a Facebooker and he’d started “a few companies.” Perhaps we’ll just dub this mystery man John Galt, which would surely delight him to no end.
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 We’ve also implemented an anonymous tip box for you covert tipsters out there; you can find it on the top-right corner of our homepage.