A billboard for Pebble designed and booked on ADstruc in just 10 days. (Photo: adstruc.com)

ADstruc is a New York-based platform for buying and selling outdoor advertising, kind of like an AdWords for the meatspace. Betabeat named the company one of its 10 Disruptive New York Startups back in early 2011, but we haven't heard much of the company (aside from an unfounded fundraising rumor) in recent months.

However, ADstruc has been busy. The company was behind this crowdfunded billboard in the home district of SOPA sponsor Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), which was coordinated by Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian's company Breadpig. ADstruc also hooked up the infamous Pebble, the highest-grossing Kickstarter project ever, with a big billboard on the 101 in Silicon Valley.

The company has also ventured further into interactive display advertising with projects like this billboard for Bleacher Report, which streamed news about specific sports teams based on tweets from locals.

ADstruc's billboard booking service replaces a paper-and-Excel system used by advertisers and billboard owners. (Photo: adstruc.com)

"Things couldn't be better - we've hit our stride in our industry and are working on some major agency/tech integrations," CEO and cofounder John Laramie told Betabeat in an email. "We are now working with over 800 companies and have national coverage."

ADstruc, headquartered in Soho, is up to 12 employees and is hiring designers.

Not true, says ADstruc's John Laramie. "We raised $1.1m on September 27th 2010, which means we would have had to burn $90,000 a month for a team that was just four people as of a month ago to be officially out of money," he said in an email. "ADstruc isn't even close to spending that much money on a monthly basis. We couldn't be more pleased with how and where we have invested our money and the great results we continue to see." However, Mr. Laramie had promised Betabeat a present. We never got said present. Also, when we asked if this meant ADstruc was not raising a round, Mr. Laramie stopped responding. The company is now up to six people and hiring for three positions.

VISITING DIGNITARIES. ZocDoc had a secret birthday party today for its four-year anniversary, to which press were not invited. The guest speaker was Tom Daschle, the former U.S. senator from South Dakota and Senate Majority Leader who co-authored a book on universal health care and is now working for global law firm DLA Piper.

WOOD CABIN FOR SALE. Angel-faced technohipster Zach Klein of CollegeHumor/Vimeo/Svpply broke up with his girlfriend, Courtney Lewis of Hard Candy Shell, and is moving to California, stomping out the last faint possibility of the "Zach Klein, upstate woodsman" story that every New York media outlet has been frothing to do. So. What happens to the cabin?

BLIND BETS. Two startups which have had extensive Betabeat coverage have raised money, Betabeat has heard. The first, a hardware startup, we heard secondhand. The second, which is not a hardware startup, was extended an offer to join 500Startups. A startup Betabeat has never written about (but we should have) will most likely be bought by Dropbox in the very near future. (Can you tell we're bursting to spill? But we pinky-swore to be patient upon promise of greater rewards. When the time comes we will write articles, glorious articles.)

Let's start with Gilt Groupe, which we've heard is an unpleasant work environment for developers--meaning alternates between being a nightmare and being a snore. Long hours was the top complaint among the ten reviews on GlassDoor, but this one stood out for eloquence:

Similarity to "Devil Wears Prada" attitude of management is shocking - disrespect was shown to assistants on a daily basis; it is often the support staff that are blamed for management's errors

Talk about long hours! - 8-6:30 is expected, and many people do not take breaks or lunch. Work/life balance? There's something else besides "work" called "life"?

Time off was frowned upon - often when someone called in sick, others in the office would gossip about where they were, insinuating that they were on an interview for another job (wonder why?)

Cutthroat atmosphere and "blame game" means that others sometimes try to sabotage their colleagues... no teamwork makes for dismal morale. It wasn't uncommon to see people crying after being publicly disrespected.

No feedback for positive contributions to the company, but bullied, shouted at, and often blamed.

Poor work environment: Manic atmosphere of running around, and due to rapid hiring and little space, people are crammed into an overcrowded work area with little ventilation, often no windows, and an open office area, almost like a factory. To top it off, there aren't enough bathrooms for the number of employees, so the bathroom is often filthy, with trash left on the floor by the end of the day, and in dire need of an upgrade - spaces in between the doors mean you can see people inside of the stalls!

Overall, this was the most abrasive work environment I've seen to date - yes, pay is important, but office culture is what decides how happy you'll be at a company.

Now, how about Aol, whose employees seem to lack the faith:

• "AOL was never the same when Steve Case left the company. The company has been going downhill from that point forward..."
• "not able catch with market speed"
• "No clear strategy to turnaround company. Feels like it's been in a freefall for years with annual layoffs without anything to look forward to."
• "It is frustrating often playing catch-up with our competitors; it seems the culture of innovation is lacking. Management direction changes swiftly, and often without adequate communication or buy-in from the rank-and-file. The employee base is shell-shocked from years of perennial layoffs and there's a definite culture of fear that stifles productive risk-taking and honest criticism."
• "high turnover due to a belief that AOL's best days are behind it."
• "senior leadership is clueless - this is sufficient feedback"

How about Amazon, who we hear is ramping up in New York? No respect for work-life balance, the survey says:

• "Short breaks - We get a half hour for lunch and 2 fifteen minute breaks. It's tough to really take a break in that short amount of time."
• "Work-life balance is a crapshoot, though generally skewed towards the work side; the high turnover is indicative of how stressful life at Amazon can be"
• "Office politics can make life miserable; because Amazon is made up of lots of small teams (two-pizza rule), you need to have a boss that has your back, otherwise you will get screwed"
• "Workload: I'm flabbergasted about this. It's unbelievable. I work pretty darn hard, and yet it's not enough. Emails on Sunday morning. New projects due in 24 hours. Outrageous expectations that require 12 hour work-days. I'm in my 40s... I don't have the energy or desire to devote my life to a company. This is the point in my career where I should be balancing better and enjoying my family more.
• "Micromanaging: This is utterly ridiculous. I consider myself a professional. I'm not an hourly temp worker, I'm an exempt mid-level employee. Two weekends ago I worked the entire weekend, along with my manager. We worked Friday, Saturday and most of the day Sunday on a specific project. Tuesday morning, I had a doctor appointment and came in 90 minutes late (with pre-approval from my manager). Later in the morning, he asked me if I had submitted my request for personal time. I was stunned. Here I worked my entire weekend in the office, but had to use personal time for a doctor appointment? Unbelievable. The micromanaging also includes a good 50 emails a day, a zillion check-ins, constant "constructive criticism", frequent meetings, and a question about everything. I can barely even sneeze without having to vet it through my manager first."

STRIKE IT LIKE IT'S HOT. Adstruc, an older, Boulder, disruptive sort of TechStars startup, is rumored to be running out of money as it comes up on the one-year anniversary of its Series A. Time to raise the stakes! But we're not expecting this team to fall victim to the seed-stage slaughter. Like, just check out their hipsterish new billboard campaign. You are not a clone. You are a beautiful and unique startup.

ANGEL MAKES APIS, LISTS, FORTUNES. AngelList has a man in New York! Coder and former IA Ventures intern Andrew Cove is back in town after spending most of August in San Francisco, and we heard he's already started his duties as Venture Hacker for the crowdsourced funding hub, a rumor supported by the fact that it seems he's been updating AngelList's API and tweeted last week that he's started working out of Dogpatch Labs. He's also just slipped his Twitter handle from @andrewacove to @aac--it's more profesh, y'know? Like getting a new haircut. Looks good on ya, Mr. Cove. Let's do an interview. UPDATE: AngelList dev Joshua Slayton rules the API, Mr. Cove informs us via Twttr.

Let us know how it goes.