THINKNEAR GOING FAR. The pre-launch TechStars grad ThinkNear has closed a round of funding, a source tells Betabeat, and is heading out to... Culiver City! We've heard of Culver City near L.A., but ThinkNear's job listings page, which lists openings for four engineers, plainly says Culiver. Anyone know how much they raised, by the way?

LEARNVEST'S BIG ROUND. "We had not given that to TechCrunch by any means," a slightly harried-sounding PR rep for LearnVest told Betabeat when we called to ask what the heck a content site needs $12 million more dollars for. "Wtf will they do with $19 million,'" a source Gchatted Betabeat. "For a newsletter that says 'don't take cabs every day! Use a 401k!'" Speculation is that LearnVest's long-awaited money manager tool, something with more of the functionality of Mint.com, may be on the horizon. "They were trying to build some tools this time last year, and I think just needed a lot more tech resources," another source said. Well, LearnVest? "In the next month or so LearnVest is going to be making some pretty big announcements," the PR rep told us, and wouldn't say more. Their jobs page is still mostly editorial and sales positions, though, with one opening for a web developer and one for a java coder. 

PAY TO PLAY. Entrepreneurs are getting sick of the "meat-market atmosphere" at pay-to-play events like TechCrunch Disrupt's Startup Alley and the upcoming $990 New York Venture Summit, as well as the $125 to $475 it costs to submit a site or campaign for the Webbys. "This is a pet peeve of mine, a start-up should NOT pay to present," one user wrote to the New York Tech Meetup email list, citing all the free forums where pitches are chosen based on merit and a bit of who you know, i.e. NYTM, the other million tech meetups, the SpeedGeeking pitch event at ReadWriteWeb's 2WAY Summit, the $10 Hatchery events, and on.

MYSTERY SOLVED. That early-stage VC fund seeking 5,000 sq. ft. in Midtown, which we rumor-reported six weeks ago? It's "super-angel/micro-VC firm" ff Venture Capital, where Infochimps's John Frankel just hired Hashable CEO Michael YavonsoldQuigotoAOLfor340million and Harvard Business School Angels organizer David Teten.

SNACKS! Supposedly Mark Zuckerberg was chillin' in the Coding Soundtrack room on Turntable.fm today; Chris Sacca and Dave McClure were also rumored to have stopped by. French start-up Balloonup is visiting and considering a move! Nerd Collider has an office in Midtown! Tumblr is having an Internet Week party tonight, at the Hudson Hotel!