I guess it was impossible to shake off that South by Southwest geek-turned-rock-star fever. On Wednesday night, New York's new-media nerds had no problem taking center stage at a Chinatown karaoke outing.
Case in point: this video of two dudes and an unidentified female rocking out to Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Those guys, in case you don't know 'em, are a pretty big deal. The skinny one who looks like he should be fronting a garage band is Tumblr founder David Karp, and the Jimmy Kimmel lookalike is Silicon Alley Insider reporter Dan Frommer (whose bosses are loving the fact that he got caught singing on camera).
Want backstory? It's really quite a nice peek into the workings of New York's oft-bizarre tech community.
Serial entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, currently at the helm of human-powered search site Mahalo, was in town to keynote at the Search Engine Summit conference. Through Twitter and Facebook, he organized a dinner outing with a few dozen local tech personalities to a restaurant in Chinatown, and afterwards, I think everybody planned on going home and playing with their computers. We're geeks, after all.
But as the stragglers were getting ready to head out, a Dodgeball alert (believe it or not, a fair number of people in the New York tech scene never abandoned the where-you-at Dodgeball service for the more messaging-oriented Twitter) came in from Dealbreaker editor John Carney. He was headed to Mott, a karaoke bar a few blocks away, and wanted some backup singers. Nobody hesitated to join up. (Maybe it was because video blog hotties Julia Allison and Meghan Asha, who are working on a Web show together, were in attendance, and the dudes wanted to impress them.)
Those in the know may recall that Carney had reportedly gone all High Noon on Calacanis when the Santa Monica, Calif.-based tech personality was in town for a charity benefit a few months ago. But Carney and Calacanis appeared to have no hard feelings between them on Wednesday night, and hugged a lot. And then there was Karp and Frommer's stunning karaoke duet. Also seen in the video: Carney (the blond guy in the suit jacket) and Valleywag's Nicholas Carlson poking his face into the camera.
Carlson was unable to achieve his goal of getting Calacanis to belt out some Frank Sinatra. Oh, well. I'm sure there will be a next time.
Peter Kafka at Silicon Alley Insider has started a little guessing game: which anonymous New York tech start-up is getting backed by influential ex-Googler Chris Sacca, who left his job as head of special initiatives to become an angel investor?
On Sunday, Sacca wrote on his blog that he's looking for a "Web geek" for an "edgy little content company" based in Gotham, which "needs its first full-time tech lead."
This is a big deal, because powerful ex-Google executive muscle would mean both great press and deep-pocketed connections for the start-up in question. But naturally, Sacca's not saying what the company is.
But we do know that:
• It's based in New York
• It's a content company that still doesn't have a "Web geek" on board, which knocks out any company that's too "techy" already
• It "already has tons of sweet press, sick and steadily growing traffic, and some very passionate users"
• The job description requires an "understanding of ad serving and optimization," as well as search engine optimization, which gives some hints as to its business model (ad-supported)
• It's "extremely cool, currently being courted for acquisition, and chicks dig it"
• There's no porn or gambling involved
Any guesses?
For the past few weeks, New York's tech scene has been semi-quietly anticipating the Silicon Alley Insider's inaugural "Silicon Alley 100" list for 2007.
Local entrepreneurs and enthusiasts have recently traded plenty of jabs, guesses, and "if I make it to the list, you owe me a drink" bets. Nate Westheimer, founder of start-up BricaBox, even launched a "people's choice" version.
The full list is set to officially go live later Tuesday, but CNET News.com managed to dig it up before its official debut.
In the No. 1 spot? New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, himself an entrepreneur and the 25th wealthiest man in America.
"Michael Bloomberg is so successful and influential, in fact, that he puts most of Wall Street's and Silicon Valley's titans to shame," the Alley Insider's description of the mayor reads. "His raw competence as a manager, leader, and communicator is an inspiration not only to the city's entrepreneurs and business leaders but to millions of other New Yorkers."
Bloomberg is also in the process of guiding New York through a high-profile environmental initiative, which includes replacing all the city's taxis with hybrid vehicles by 2012.
The rest of the Silicon Alley 100 list encompasses an array of young entrepreneurs, high-profile media and finance executives, business journalists, community leaders, high-profile bloggers, venture capitalists, and even a handful of political figures.
Yet suspiciously missing from the list were a handful of media figureheads, like News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch and Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington, both of whom many onlookers expected to see in the top 10. (Huffington's co-founder Ken Lerer was ranked #12.)
Additionally, plenty of buzzed-about start-up founders were also left off: Tumblr's David Karp, for example, or rapper-turned-DanceJam-founder MC Hammer--perhaps as a silent reminder that hype doesn't equal influence. These fledgling start-ups, the Alley 100 insinuates, are going to have to deliver real results first.
Regardless of who you think should or shouldn't be on the list, this New Yorker thinks it's great to see the local technology scene, from emerging start-ups to big media companies' digital initiatives, getting some well-deserved attention.
And here's the rest of the top 10:
• No. 10, former AOL exec and Pilot Group investor Bob Pittman.
• No. 9, Web veteran Esther Dyson. (The next highest-ranked female was Beth Comstock, president of NBC Universal integrated media, at No. 28).
• No. 8, CBS Interactive honcho Quincy Smith.
• No. 7, Gawker Media founder Nick Denton.
• No. 6, Google's president of advertising and commerce, Tim Armstrong.
• No. 5, Meetup and Fotolog co-founder and New York Tech Meetup leader Scott Heiferman.
• No. 4, Greycroft Partners founder and managing director Alan Patricof.
• No. 3, Union Square Ventures managing partner and popular blogger Fred Wilson.
• No. 2, InterActiveCorp mogul Barry Diller.
The Silicon Alley Insider was launched this summer, spearheaded by controversial former stock analyst Henry Blodget and former DoubleClick head Kevin Ryan--neither of whom made an appearance on the list, for obvious reasons.
Disclaimer: This reporter was named an "up-and-comer" by SAI. She's flattered. But, really, it must've been a typo.
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