The letter reads:

Mr. Shapiro--whoever you are--

I have had a Blackberry for many, many years. I have worked with it here and in EUrope and I have arrived at some very important work arrangements with it.

No one thinks I am behind times except those who want to sell me another device. Your intimation that I may be looked down on because I dno't have an iPhone is hugely irritating and pompous and dumb and plain silly.

May you be faced to work on a land line forever!

Way harsh, dude.

Book learnin' Good news for would-be inhabitants of Mars, who ought to know as much about their future God Emperor as possible: Bloomberg Businessweek writer Ashlee Vance has sold The Iron Man: Elon Musk's Quest to Forge a Fantastic Future to the publisher Ecco. "As we say in Texas, git er done," Mr. Vance concluded on Twitter. But he could perhaps have a bit of competition: AllThingsD's Peter Kafka promptly responded, "But I'm writing MUSKIE: HE WAS NO HUBERT HUMPRHEY."

Emperor’s New Clothes Former Apple exec Ron Johnson’s takeover of the dowdy JCPenney brand was an unmitigated disaster, but at least it helped him in the style department! His Apple regimented wardrobe consisted of a pair of dowdy jeans and a drab, lightweight sweater that looks like it was from the "old" Penney's. Then towards the end of his reign at Penney’s, it looks like he was sporting a cost conscious JF J Ferrar slim fit suit and a Van Huesen tie. Hope he stocked up before his employee discount expired.

S-WHAT? This week, New York introduced us to a notion spawned at (of course) Yale: "SWUG," which stands for Senior Washed-Up Girl. Think of it as an entire ethos that revolves around giving zero fucks. And so it's not surprising the concept would resonate outside its original home: "I might be an adult #SWUG," tweeted PR superstar Brooke Hammerling in response to the piece. Aren't we all, lady.

Meet the Elite "ZOMGGGG!" tweeted Noosphere founder Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry earlier this morning. What could have gotten @PEG so excited?

Our invitation must have gotten lost in the mail.

Bitbusted This week, we all had front-row seats to a bubble inflating and deflated at Internet speed. On Tuesday, things looked so sunny that Business Insider's Steve Kovach tweeted, "Henry just told me Bitcoin is going to $5,000 because 'why not?!?!'" That would be Henry Blodget, whose boosterism has gotten him into trouble before. Well, on Wednesday prices peaked at $266, then promptly crashed. The currency is now somewhere in the neighborhood of $93.00.

Souvenirs Anyone remember his high school Korean? Google Ideas director Jared Cohen, who rode along on Eric Schmidt's trip to North Korea but was overshadowed by Bill Richardson's cravat, needs a little translation. Seems he picked up a piece of art while north of the 38th Parallel, but he can't remember what the damn thing says. Hence, a tweet requesting the crowd drop a little wisdom on him:

Girl gets job Today is the last day of our esteemed editor, Nitasha Tiku, who is heading over to Gawker as a Senior Writer. Please wish her well and enjoy this Vine of our final meal together.

https://twitter.com/nitashatiku/status/322786545469898753

What's wrong with that? (Photo: Wikimedia)

The Chat-rooming Classes Today, seemingly every tech reporter in the business tuned into Jason Calacanis's "This Week in Startups," presumably in the hopes that Mr. Calacanis would tell all re: the allegations of abuse against Michael Arrington. But as familiar names chattered away in the chat room, Mr. Calacanis had little to say beyond comparing himself to Obi Wan. That would make Mr. Arrington Anakin Skywalker, of course; Mr. Calacanis said he taught him how to be powerful in media, and "I regret that."

As for the allegations themselves, Mr. Calacanis was quick to say he wouldn't be commenting on whether they were true, citing his lack of direct knowledge. (He did, however, openly discuss the time that Mr. Arrington called a PR honcho "the c-word," thereby outing someone who'd never mentioned the incident publicly!) [Correction: Mr. Calacanis first mentioned the incident and the PR exec (Brooke Hammerling) by name in the comments of his Facebook post, prompting Ms. Hammerling to confirm the story, also in a Facebook comment.] All in all, it sounds like he (kinda sorta) regrets getting involved. He apparently thought writing a Facebook note wouldn't go very far. "I thought that that would be a place where it just lived there," he said. (Paging Randi Zuckerberg!) "I got a little P.T. Barnum in me and I feel like me commenting on all this stuff actually detracts from it," he added.

The Biggest Failure Silicon Alley fameballer and Vimeo cofounder Jakob Lodwick took to PandoDaily this week to lament his decision to sell his company Connected Ventures, which included CollegeHumor and Vimeo, to media conglomerate IAC in 2006. In the post, called “An acquisition is always a failure,” Mr. Lodwick wrote that selling the company to IAC was “the worst business decision of his life” because although it fattened his bank account, it stifled his ability to work creatively. Getting acquire is like giving up, he argued, which we’re sure delighted his fellow NYC entrepreneurs who are desperately groping for the exit sign.

We suppose you can’t have your cake and eat it too, even if the cake is made of millions of dollars.

Kenny Lerer's Got Ringtones In the midst of a recent phone call with Ken Lerer about Lure Fish Bar, his favorite power lunch spot, our conversation was interrupted by the dulcet sounds of Jim Morrison from his cellphone. Was that “People Are Strange,” we asked? Yes, Mr. Lerer confirmed, revealing that he spends “way too much time” picking out the right ringtones for the important people in his life. That Doors song was for Brian Bedol, Mr. Lerer’s business partner in the media and entertainment company Bedrocket. "If you knew Brian," he said, "'People Are Strange' is the perfect ring tone for him."

Did he have a ringtone for his son Ben, the cofounder of Thrillist? “Oh this is embarrassing,” he replied, admitting that it was Rod Stewart’s “Some Guys Get All the Luck.” “Not bad, huh?” quipped Mr. Lerer the elder.

Brit’s Got Jokes On Monday, Brit + Co. founder Brit Morin announced on her Facebook page that she was expecting a baby with her husband, Path cofounder Dave Morin. Of course, the update was quickly debunked as an April Fool’s Day prank, despite the fact that she posted it towards the end of the day. “For all of you who wished me congratulations on being pregnant, thank you for being a total sucker!” she wrote.

Apparently, along with making Christmas trees out of cheese and turning Mac extension cords into jump ropes, such personal pranks are part of Ms. Morin’s repertoire.

“The trick is to wait until the evening of April Fools when people think all the jokes are over,” she wrote. “I pull this one every single year and still, so many fall for it ;)” Guess she lost all of next year’s suckers by giving away her secret.

PR darling Brooke Hammerling had a subtweet for the ladies pretending to be with child for April Fool’s Day:

https://twitter.com/brooke/status/319229167046623233

Jack Did it All for the Nookie We knew about Jack Dorsey's nose ring, but we had no idea he used to be in Limp Bizkit. Business Insider uncovered an old photo of the Square cofounder that shows him looking quite different than he does when sporting his current hand-sewn jeans look. The black and white portrait has Mr. Dorsey with full-on 90s rave kid hair. Pass the glowstick, bro.

(Photo: Twitter)

Bloggers! They're Just Like Us! Business Insider editor Steve Kovach gets hearts aflutter, apparently. As overheard by fellow editor (so many over there!) Alyson Shontell, a starry eyed PR person compared their meeting with Mr. Kovach to that of a Hollywood star. It's understandable, we constantly confuse Mr. Kovach with Jake Gyllenhaal every time we see him out with the normals.

http://twitter.com/shontelaylay/status/319838156486758400

Do You Startup, Bro? Silicon Valley's fraternity president and Digg founder Kevin Rose was the subject of an ABC News profile this week which reminded us he's still around! The Google Ventures partner revealed what new apps he's circling to potentially fund, including a personal training app called FitStar. He also revealed that the Instagram filter Toaster is named after his adorable dog and detailed what his typical day is like: "Invest in start-ups. Find the next big thing. Meet with entrepreneurs. Drink coffee. Hang out." Sounds like a Bravo show in the making.

Internet Weak On Thursday, the New York collective of the Web’s  hive mind met up for a low key gathering at the Watch What Happens Live prop closet Design Within Reach showroom in SoHo to celebrate the quickly approaching Internet Week. The festival's new director Caroline Waxler welcomed the sharply dressed but older-skewing crowd. iPads were shuffled around to get attendees to sign up and vote  for the 200+ panels that are in contention for just 13 slots to be showcased at the yearly event. (Holding a drink from the open bar and registering on the iPad was difficult, but we managed.)

Anyway, the annoyingly arranged support columns, a seating arrangement dependent on the furniture layout, and the tri-level setup made it hard to pay attention to Vice editors Kelly Bourdet and Brian A. Anderson. After talking for a half hour about all the cool things Vice does (and plentiful mentions of the burgeoning media empire's massive presence at SXSW), they showed off a drone for people to play with. But that wasn’t enough to amuse the partygoers as throngs of them slinked off shortly after the panel ended. Perhaps that was enough Internet for one day.

Ms. Jean (Photo: LinkedIn)

All roads lead to Silicon Alley, or so it seems these days. You have your Wall Street quant to founder to investor route, your hedge fund to VC route and the Goldman Sachs to seed stage variant. There's the standard McKinsey analyst to cofounder path, and then the rarer pivot from real estate sales to serial entrepreneur to co-working impressario. We've watched the leap from TV news producer to founder. What's to stop them when even tech bloggers with big swagging ... talent at picking companies are crossing the table to get to the other side.

One path you don't see very often, however, is public relations to angel investing, which is a trajectory Dorothy Jean, vice president at Brew Media Relations, is choosing to pursue with the launch of Liberty City Ventures. Over macaroons in the Flatiron District last week, Ms. Jean--a familiar, smiling presence in startup circles--told Betabeat the fund has raised an undisclosed sum from private investors and already made a couple of investments.

As we noted in our profile of Brew founder Brooke Hammerling last year, the boutique tech-focused public relations firm attracts clients like Wordpress, One Kings Lane and NetSuite, in part through Ms. Hammerling's sizable network. (Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg came on as a client after he met Ms. Hammerling on a Charity Water trip to Ethiopia; Ms. Hammerling knew Zynga founder Mark Pincus--husband of One Kings Lane founder Alison Pincus--from her dotcom days in the Valley. Indeed, Brew once represented Zynga as well.)

The firm, which is headquartered in Soho, has also served a number of New York City darlings, such as the ever-expanding urban campus General Assembly and GroupMe*, which was acquired by Skype last August.

"Last year, three of our clients actually were acquired, so we've seen a lot of exits lately," said Ms. Jean, who has worked closely with GroupMe, Adaptly and Bluefin Labs. "Being surrounded by so many startup companies, it's hard not to get bit by that passion and want to start something on your own."

Ms. Jean, who has been working in tech PR for eight years, will be a partner at Liberty City Ventures, along with her fiancé Andrew Chang, COO at Condition One, which offers technology for playing immersive video. Prior to joining the startup, Mr. Chang was an associate at TechStars New York, which incubated Condition One as part of its most recent class.

UPDATE: Ms. Jean revealed that Liberty City's other two partners in the fund are Emil K. Woods and Charles Cascarilla, the cofounders of Cedar Hill Capital, an alternative investment firm. The pair are both helping to manage and personally investing in Liberty City. Businessweek describes Cedar Hill as a privately-owned hedge fund founded in 2005. Mr. Woods is an alumnus of SAC Capital Advisors, a group of hedge funds founded by billionaire Steven Cohen. Cedar Hill boasted huge returns in 2007 and 2008 by betting against the subprime market, only to have returns dive the following year. Last month, Mr. Woods donated a $1 million gift to his alma mater, UPenn's Wharton School, to help student entrepreneurs through the Wharton Venture Initiation Program.

Switching gears from PR to investing isn't an unprecedented move, Ms. Jean pointed out as she tore open the wrapper on our dainty bag of pastries. "Look at Margit Wennmachers at Andreessen Horowitz. Not that I'm anywhere near her level, she founded Outcast PR." Ken Lerer of Lerer Ventures also started his career in communications with his firm Robinson Lerer & Montgomery. Somewhere in between the two, of course, he co-founded the Huffington Post.

"We're not raising a full-fledged round," Ms. Jean explained, "because to start we don't want to be limited to the pressure or obligation of allocating a certain amount of funds by a certain amount of time, so we can be pickier and more disciplined." She declined to specify the size of investment beyond the "typical range" for seed stage. Despite that easy smile and girlish laugh, she's seasoned in her craft, cutting off our question with, "That's as far as I'm going with that."

Liberty City Ventures--a name meant to reference New York City, by way of Grand Theft Auto--will focus on local investments in digital media, as well as consumer web and mobile startups. "There's so much more that can be done in the way we consume and distribute content and create it, especially in New York," said Ms. Jean, adding, "I think there are still a lot of traditional industries that can be disrupted by technology." She pointed to BaubleBar, another Brew client. "I think all the middlemen are being cut out and e-commerce is still going like crazy."

Besides those parameters, Ms. Jean said she will gravitate toward startups where her skill set can help her investments. "A lot of early-stage startups shouldn't be paying for communications. They should definitely be dedicating their resources toward building their technology and their product," she explained. "I'm not pushing anyone to be out there and make a noise about themselves before they should, that's not the point, for sure. But I think a lot of good companies do struggle with who they are and what they represent, and going through the exercise of 'How you would describe yourself to other people?' can be really helpful. Not saying that that's going to determine your business model or what you're going to do, but it can certainly help."

Like a typical angel fund, Liberty City's partners will only be devoted to the fund part time. Ms. Jean will continue consulting in PR on the side. In her role at the fund, she said, she will be vetting potential investments. "There's a lot of that kind of more rigorous financial detail that I'm learning and that some of my partners bring to the table. Fortunately, otherwise I would not be able to do this," she acknowledged.

However, she reasoned, her experience at Brew has helped her get a lay of the land. "Brew famously doesn't pitch business because there are so many opportunities that are coming our way. So we've gotten to kind of that habit of vetting companies and trying to pick the right horse," she said. "Being in PR, trying to stay on top news and trends and how I can insert my clients in the news—I'm keeping an eye on everything that's going on. All of that put together helps me feel like I have some sense. Nobody knows for sure what's going to win."

Brew itself as been expanding both here and in its West Coast office. "While we are GUTTED (I say that b/c I'm in Europe and that's what you say) she's leaving, I'm blown away by the team and yes we are indeed growing like a weed," Ms. Hammerling told Betabeat by email, adding, "We are excited to see her rock it."

As for what advice she's gotten from fellow New York angels, Ms. Jean said, "Some are pushing you to be more aggressive. If you're new and early, you can get elbowed out." Others, she said, offered tips on "when it's right to get in the way, when it's right to stay away." For now she's "approaching it as any entrepreneur would. Nobody knows exactly what they're doing when they're starting a company," she added with a laugh.

The email press release factory. (flickr.com/mcaven)

Internet startups are rapidly earning—nay, fortifying—their reputations as engines of the economy, veritable job-growing trees, the answer to the nation's loss of its manufacturing sector and attendant morale. And while it's not exactly true that web startups make jobs rain down from the sky, it is true that startups create jobs with even the most modest success. Raise a seed round, and suddenly you, your cofounder and a lawyer have work. Raise more money and the effect is amplified.

In aggregate, startups have spawned a startup-centric economy that spawns special startup lawyers, startup banks, startup recruiters and startup accountants in addition to throwing work to swag-makers and rappers and filling up coworking spaces. Have you seen General Assembly and WeWork? They're growing like weeds!

And ahem, of course, there are the proliferating tech blogs, and we'd be remiss not to mention our counterparts in the thriving tech public relations sector. Edelman, The Morris + King Company, Small Girls PR, Brooke Hammerling and Brew Media Relations, LaunchSquad, Atomic PR and Sunshine Sachs are just a few firms handling startups here in New York.

Chris Dixon may have implied that you don't really need PR as a startup; we suggest all founders with budgets read his relevant blog post saying as much. But many startups feel a publicist is necessary to help their hyperlocal mobile social app stand out from the crowd, and we and the tips@betabeat email can testify as to how hard startup publicists work. Also, a recent ranking by fees says tech PR's star is on the rise.

"PR firms either specializing in tech or with big tech practices showed major growth in 2011 as tech companies grappled with selling and explaining complicated products to a blizzard of audiences," says the study, performed by PR industry publication O'Dwyers. Edelman saw its fees go up 24.3 percent in 2011, compared to an overall growth of 15.9 percent. Atomic PR and LaunchSquad, both Internet startup-heavy firms, were up 35 percent and 30 percent respectively. Yeah, we learned that from a press release.

Ms. Hammerling at a party held in Larry Ellison's San Francisco home.

“I’m not looking to be a PR firm,” Brooke Hammerling, founder of Brew Media Relations, a boutique agency that represents tech startups, said a few weeks ago from her company’s sunny Soho offices. "When I interviewed for jobs at PR agencies, I was given personality tests," she said. "Seriously, that’s what large agencies do—to see if you’re a dolphin or an owl." Ms. Hammerling, a vivacious blonde with a raspy laugh and doll-like features, called back to the young women sitting in two rows of desks behind iMac monitors. "What was the test called, the Myers-Briggs?" They giggled in the affirmative. At the neckline of her black silk dress, Ms. Hammerling had the ruddy glow of someone unafraid to spend time in the sun.

“They put you in a room and give you a topic to write a press release about and give you 30 minutes and boom you’re judged on that,” she continued. “And that’s not really how I think of PR.” Ms. Hammerling likes to think of Brew’s services as more strategic. Along with the help of her business partner Dena Cook, who is based in Los Angeles, Brew has represented a striking number of recent success stories to emerge from the tech scene, particularly in New York.

In August, Skype acquired GroupMe, a group messaging startup and Brew client. (Josh Kushner, part-owner of Observer Media Group, is an investor in GroupMe through Thrive Capital). In July eBay acquired another Brew client, Zong, a mobile payments startup for $240 million. And in September, General Assembly, the Flatiron co-working space announced a round of venture capital funding from the likes of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, whom Dealbook described as the “the man behind” Goldman Sachs’ Facebook deal.

“We make introductions to them that lead to investment, that lead to partnerships, that lead to customer acquisition,” said Ms. Hammerling. “It goes beyond getting a story in a publication.”

It’s a pity, because she’s pretty good at that too.

“Press is basically free advertising and it’s often better than advertising because your company or product is being promoted by an editorial voice,” said Dan Frommer, a former tech reporter at Forbes and Business Insider, and currently editor of SplatF.com. “So anytime you can get good press that helps in the startup world and helps them find a buyer.”

“I don’t know why I’m telling you this story,” Fred Wilson told The Observer in a recent interview, interrupting his own yarn with a laugh. “I’m not an investor in GroupMe and I wasn’t at South by Southwest.” Mr. Wilson, principal at Union Square Ventures was second-guessing an anecdote about a party at the annual Austin festival.

Brew decided to rent out a burger stand across the street from the convention center and call it the “GroupMe Grill.” It was a bid to win what tech bloggers were calling “the group messaging wars” waging between five startups at the convention all pursuing a similar concept. Over three days Brew gave away 2,500 free grilled cheese sandwiches encrisped with the company logo and 13 kegs of Shiner Bock—in exchange for downloading GroupMe’s new mobile app, of course. GroupMe left Austin with the SXSW Breakout award. The TechCrunch headline? “How GroupMe Won SXSW: Grilled Cheese.” Five months later, Skype acquired GroupMe for $85 million.

Apparently, word-of-mouth traveled across the Atlantic. “We don’t have grilled cheese in London,” Shakhil Khan, an investor and head of special projects at Spotify, a Stockholm-based music startup, said on the phone. “It became very famous that GroupMe were the guys who gave out grilled cheese sandwiches. Ever since then I’m like, 'When are you taking me to grilled cheese sandwiches?'”

At least some of the credit for getting investors to talk about something as prosaic as cheese on bread like it’s Peter Thiel’s Facebook stock goes to Ms. Hammerling.

Skeptics may have questioned the startup’s decision to sign on with Brew so early into the company’s trajectory. “When I heard they hired Brooke for PR, I went, oh no, that’s going to be the GroupMe direction—really big stories that are overblown,” said one source who chose to remain anonymous. “The reality is that they have to prove the concept before you get in the Times.” But as the news of the Skype acquisition exploded on Twitter, venture capitalists like Mark Suster, tech journalists like Mr. Frommer, and social media scensters like Rachel Sklar were congratulating @brooke and @brewpr as much as the startup itself.

That may have a little something to do with Ms. Hammerling’s outsize persona and long-standing clout in tech circles, which traces back to her days a fearless 20-something in the go-go years of Silicon Valley. In fact, a 2009 feature in The New York Times highlighted her technique of “whispering in the ears” of Valley influencers—and tendency to name-drop, although the paper noted that was a function of her impressive network.

“She became that person who everyone knew randomly. Basically it would be like if in seven years all the people I’m friends with were suddenly billionaires,” one source told The Observer. “She’s good at what she does. But her network was organic and it’s really, really powerful now.”

It also has to do with the fact that she might know more about the inner-workings of media than some reporters. “She knows who just got dumped, who had a baby, who’s gay, who’s straight, who got moved off this beat, who’s competing with this writer. You might not be Facebook friends with Nick Bilton, but she is,” said Kate Pokorny, one of Ms. Hammerling’s early employees from the days when Brew was still run out of her apartment on West 10th Street. Mr. Bilton is the lead technology writer for The New York Times's Bits blog.

Power publicists in the fashion and film world have, on occasion, climbed the ranks as industry influencers in their own right. Ms. Hammerling, whose loyalty matches her impetuousness, might be the best contender to become the Peggy Siegal or Lizzie Grubman “before she ran over people,” as one source quipped, of New York’s startup world. It doesn’t hurt that one-time investor in The Spotted Pig, friend of Mario Batali, and ex-girlfriend of REM bassist Mike Mills are not credentials most tech folks can claim.

In the tech industry, the power of perception is nothing new. “Welcome to the new world of public relations, where hot startups and hot venture-capital firms are matched by every-bit-as-hot PR shops,” Fast Company extolled, hyping the behind-the-scenes operators who helped unknowns break through the “extremely noisy” conversation. That was in 1998. But bubblicious valuations and questionable business models aren’t the only carry-overs from the last time around. As the New York tech scene ascends up the ranks of the city’s power elite, so have the connectors behind the curtain.

“It used to be all about representing celebrities and rappers and hot clubs and now it’s about representing really cool startups and hot brands . . . and I guess it doesn’t hurt to have a rapper,” said Andy Morris, co-founder of the PR agency Morris King, which also represents New York startups. “When your client comes in number two on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt, that’s the new rock star.” That may be the weathervane reading inside the bubble, but even Guest of a Guest, where old money last names entitle you to a shutter click, has started covering tech parties.

In Silicon Valley, where the tech industry has no rival, agencies like Outcast, Spark, LaunchSquad, and Atomic tend to dominate as gatekeepers between the press and startups. But none of their New York branches own the space, leaving an opening for Brew.

Journalism professors used to coach cub reporters to treat PR reps like the enemy. They’re what stands between you and the truth. But if the ethics 2.0 lesson that was Michael Arrington’s ouster from AOL was any lesson, the lines are blurring. Between investor and blogger, between ‘source’ and ‘friend’. “When she’s out in the Valley, she stays with [veteran tech journalist] Kara Swisher,” said Curbed’s Lockhart Steele, one of Ms. Hammerling’s best friends. Mr. Frommer noted At a recent mentoring session where Ms. Hammerling explained the ins and outs of getting press to the new class of TechStars, Ms. Hammerling mentioned that she sometimes has coffee at the home of AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka, even if they argue about a story. Every reporter The Observer contacted spoke in admiring tones of how Brew PR didn’t waste their time.

“People are people. They can be friends with whoever they want to,” said Mr. Frommer, noting that Mr. Arrington is friends with investor Ron Conway. “I’m sure he probably gives Ron Conway’s invests a little more attention, but no one’s going to value a friendship more than their professional reputation ... Friends are nice, but I’m number one, so I’m not going to jeopardize.”

Judging by Ms. Hammerling’s willingness to aggressively engage with everyone from reporters to investors on behalf of her employees and clients, she’s not willing to jeopardize those relationships either. “Her ideal state would be to not be upset, but she takes her work very personally, so her work is her life,” said Ms. Pokorny. “If she goes out of her way to take the time to get you all the information that you will ever need, then to write some really horrible, disparaging thing that’s really off message, you’re gonna have to have an explanation for that. A lot of PR people will just accept the explanation the reporter gives ... Brooke will say if you can’t fix it I will go to your editor and then while you’re responding to her, she will go to your editor anyway.”

“AT 24, 25, YOU’RE FEARLESS. I certainly was. Being in the Valley at that point was, I’m guessing, what it was like to be in Hollywood back in the beginning of the film business when you had five movie stars. You had access. Everybody knew one another. You’d be at a social conference or what not and there would be Marc Andreessen or Larry Ellison.”

“There were parties every night for the dotcom world and my ex-boyfriend was best friends with Mark Pincus and Marc Benioff, who was a marketing dude at Oracle at the time,” Ms. Hammerling explained at her office. “They were older. I was the youngster. I was the little girl living on a houseboat in Sausalito and they all just thought it was the funniest thing,” she went on, leaning in.

In the intervening years, all four tech execs have taken their place in the annals of industry lore. Mr. Pincus launched Zynga, a gaming company behind Farmville that has filed one of the most hotly anticipated IPOs after Facebook. In fact, Brew represented Zynga before it launched. “The first story on Zynga was by Brad Stone at the New York Times,” she notes with pride.

Mr. Benioff founded the ubiquitous web software company Salesforce, which currently boasts a market cap of $18.5 billion. In 1999 Mr. Andreessen sold his company, Netscape, to AOL for $4.2 billion, giving the bubble the poster boy it sought. All three men are now billionaires. Mr. Ellison, CEO of Oracle, however, stands alone as the fifth richest man in the world—and Ms. Hammerling’s longtime mentor. Years after they met, NetSuite, a cloud computing company Mr. Ellison founded, become one of Brew’s first clients and one of the few non-startups still on its roster.

“He was a single playboy then and I had no time for it. He knew right away that that was just not the game we were going to play," Ms. Hammerling said of Mr. Ellison. "I was very clear that I thought his demeanor in press was lacking at some point. He was always being described as mercurial. It was less about Oracle and more about Larry. It’s always a problem when this happens. But because I got to know him on a level most hadn’t—but not working with him, and not as a girl thing—I was able to really see a side of him that I was so impressed with. I would tell media about it. They were turning their head like, ‘Really?’ I saw how my personal experiences could change public opinion.”

Of course having a way with everyone from tech tycoons to tech bloggers (not to mention her 11,245 Twitter followers) doesn’t always mean that you can protect your clients, or that your efforts won’t backfire. Ning, a former Facebook client backed by Mr. Andreeseen, is probably most famous for a much-derided Fast Company cover that featured its photogenic CEO Gina Bianchini on the cover in a wife beater. The accompanying feature, lauding the company, which helps individuals create their own social networks, waxed perhaps too poetic about Mr. Andreeseen’s theories about a double viral loop. "Adam Penenberg was doing a story for Fast Company on social and then I talked to him and thought it would be a great for him to see Ning," Ms. Hammerling said. "So we brought him into the Palo Alto office and he lived and breathed the Ning story for a couple days. That’s what really led it to be a cover and then his book."

When asked about the negative response in some circles, Ms. Hammerling protested. "Pushback from who? I certainly wasn’t pushing back," she said with a laugh. "Look it was a great moment in time, Ning was an incredible story. You had a couple of things—you had Marc involved, you had a female CEO. You’ve got to remember, Facebook had 45 people when I started working with Ning. The social networking space was pretty hot, we all wanted to be involved with it. And I was passionate about the idea of people having their own social networks. And Ning."

Disclosure.

ntiku@observer.com

The wizard Martocci casts a spell over Twitter (via Steve Spillman)

When the news broke yesterday evening that Skype acquired hometown start-up GroupMe, New York's digerati took the party to Twitter. Indeed the acquisition and its hefty price tag, which Betabeat's sources pegged between $50 million and $100 million, caused such a stir among a certain swath of tech circles that "GroupMe" even made into a New York City Twitter trending topic last night--albeit below penetrating questions plaguing tweeters such as, "Chris Brown OR Justin Bieber."

The deal was the first major exit for Lerer Ventures, Thrive Capital and BoxGroup's David Tisch, so much of the tweeting action consisted of ebullient pats on the back. But a few notes of skepticism arose from the din. In case you were too busy watching Libyan rebels end a 40-year dictatorship, here's what you missed.

Betaworks co-founder Andy Weissman couldn't help getting a little nostalgic, tweeting out:

"Fact: @jaredhecht and @smart named the original @GroupMe entity after a Disco Biscuits song, which I spelled wrong in our term sheet w/ them"

Followed by the even more humble:

"Other fact: I wouldnt originally take a meeting with @jaredhecht and @smart because, I wrote them, I wasn't "feeling" the product yet."

Lerer Ventures Jordan Cooper decided success was no time for humility, asking:

"@aweissman what Made you change your mind ?? ;)"

To which Mr. Weissman dutifully replied, albeit sans emoticon:

"@jordancooper a little birdy named Jordan"

Bnter's Lauren Leto pulled a pattern out of the M&A landscape, noting:

"the tradition of "any company @mattlanger is part of gets bought" continues."

Brew PR's Brooke Hammerling also noticed a pattern: the companies she represents have been pretty much killing it:

"Amazing to see the inner operations of such amazing teams. 1st, PayPal buys @Zong, now Skype buys @GroupMe. #humbled cc @BrewPR"

Silicon Valley Bank's Shai Goldman saw the deal as a boost for the city's new tech economy:

"GroupMe acq is great for NYC tech scene 1) Founders are now experienced successful entrepreneurs 2) Founders will likely be angel investors"

Although he agonized over how the valuation might sway other starry-eyed local start-ups:

"Groupme $85M acquisition is going to provide a false sense of value to other startups "I'm a 1 year old mobile startup, so I'm worth x"

Poornima Vijayashanker, who left Mint after the company was acquired to launch BizeeBee, concurred:

"@shaig yeah that's very true! hype is an interesting phenomenon. being a startup u have to know what ur worth, when to sell & whom to sell 2"

Lean Start-up Machine founder Trevor Owens wondered whether the acquisition changed venture capitalist Mark Suster's mind about GroupMe's business proposition:

"@msuster what do you think of groupme now?"

Mr. Suster tweeted out that it hadn't:

"@to2 same as I always did. Great product. Well marketed. Group texting on its own not a company"

Mr. Owens wanted to know more:

"@msuster would love to know your thoughts on how/when features can become a business"

But while Mr. Suster promised a blog post on the subject, ff ventures' John Frankel jumped into the fray:

"@to2 Features become a product when they generate revenues. They then become a business when revenues exceed costs. cc @msuster"

Brooklyn techie Jonathan Wegener thoughtfully contemplated his own role in closing the deal:

"I like to think the acquisition happened because I decided to wear my @groupme shirt today."

GroupMe community manager (and friend of Betabeat) Steve Spilllman couldn't help but see the romance:

"What a big day- first the Kardashian wedding and now comes news that groupme is marrying skype."

Meanwhile, David Tisch was more preoccupied with how GroupMe's Pat Nakajima figured into the $50 million plus figure:

"Wondering what the price for @nakajima was in the @groupme deal…"

According to Mr. Nakajima some imposter tweeting under the totally fake Twitter account @PatNakajima, he may have made a killing:

"I got a sweet deal. 47 signed Taylor Swift CDs!"

Entrepreneur and former VC Steve Cheney was already thinking about the road ahead, tweeting just the word "Skype!" followed by:

"Next stop: monetization."

But the GroupMe team were too busy belting their hearts out at karaoke to hear him, at least according to Ms. Hammerling's tweet:

"This is happening. Cc @GroupMe@BrewPR@nakajima@PatNakajima"

Hopefully somebody snuck in Steve Martocci's bottle of Johnnie Walker blue.

Disclosure.

Dear Josh - I run a really successful daily deals site, imagine a Groupon for the aging hipster set. Problem is, a bug in our latest feature release exposed a bunch of user's emails and personal shopping history to everyone. Now we're getting chewed up on the blogs for the privacy breach! What should I do?

What's old is new again. Remember when hipsters were called hippies? Remember "Blue Chip Stamps." Ahh... the summer of 1967...

Your primary problem is not blog mastication (check that up in your Funk & Wagnalls). You have a systems integrity problem and your company is now paying for cut corners in the development process. This is a classic instance of why releases by the big girls (e.g. Oracle, Google and Microsoft) take more time and money to produce. They have the resources to fully document the code, alpha test, beta test and retest before they release. So now that you too are becoming a big girl and need to design and implement back-end procedures that minimize future security breaches.

As for the media relations management I defer to experts Brew Media Relations and the Morris+King Company to weigh in:

Andy Morris: This happens so much that it’s almost formulaic. Even the biggies have survived this kind of thing and I can think of at least one Internet geek God who made it through a pretty serious privacy compromise by taking this approach and not ducking any punch. In the same vein as don’t duck or blink, one should preemptively disclose the security lapse. Too often, companies are paralyzed by indecision about whether or not and what to disclose. Inevitably word gets out—in our age of instantaneous communication—so better to be ahead of it. Inevitably, you will get chewed up in the blogs if people sense that you’re not forthcoming, you’re trying to obfuscate facts or your name is Nick Denton and you’re attached to something like this.

Brooke Hammerling: It doesn’t matter if you're a startup or a big corporation, the apology has to have a human face. A mass email apologizing to, "Dear customer" is just going to make people feel more violated at this moment. Get your team in a room, order some pizza and lock the doors until you figure out how to get the right message across. Don't get defensive, acknowledge the mistake and how seriously you're taking it. Oh, and if it's a consumer business, you better offer offer something more than apology: free samples, discounts or VIP upgrade.

Josh Harris is the founder of JupiterResearch and Pseudo.com and the ceo of The Wired City, a web tv network in New York. Andy Morris is a founding partner at The Morris+King Company. Brooke Hammerling is a founder at Brew Media Relations.

Need some advice? Email Josh at askjoshharris at gmail dot com.