From left to right: Mr. O'Donnell, Mr. Tisch, and Mr. Penenberg.

New York University's premier tech club, Tech@NYU, is in the midst of its annual Startup Week. This year's series of panels featuring familiar faces from Silicon Alley are all organized under the theme "Hacking as a mentality."

Hence last night's event starring Charlie O'Donnell, partner of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, and David Tisch, the former managing director of Techstars NYC was dubbed, "Hacking the Future."

Moderating the panel, hosted in the auditorium of NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, was NYU professor Adam Penenberg, who also happens to be the editor of PandoDaily.

Despite the future-facing title, most of the talk consisted of the two panelists walking the student-filled audience through the history of their careers. Mr. Penenberg asked what they hated to see demoed. Mr. O'Donnell said that he wasn't comfortable with video because "it asks too much of its user."

When asked how his portfolio companies can get his best attention, Mr. Tisch said, “I tend not to sleep, I'm on Gtalk from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. It's the companies awake at that hour that get a lot of attention. I don't have any distractions at that time.”

But the most educational--and surprising--moment of the evening came when the floor was opened up for questions, and the first person asked about pivoting.

"Paul Graham has this philosophy that's like, 'Keep pivoting until you find an idea,'" Mr. O'Donnell said. "I don't know when that became a thing."

At this, Mr. Tisch shook his head in agreement and said, "I don't think you can pivot after raising money. I think you fail."

Mr. Tisch emphasized the fact that some pivots were were incredibly beneficial, particularly in cases where teams live out their passions. He pointed to the Burbn team using their love of photos to create Instagram, the Turntable.fm boys realizing that their love of music was more interesting than the QR codes of Stickybits, and the founders of Fab harnessing their love of design and shortening Fabulous.

It's a different story, he explained, for founders switching to a new idea they care nothing about. In that case, Mr. Tisch said, "If you're thinking about pivoting, you should think about getting a job. That's a pivot."

Added Mr. O'Donnell: "The one thing that doesn't change in a pivot is you. Maybe you didn't have project management skills or sales skills. Maybe there's something you should've learned to be a better executor. Maybe you couldn't close a deal, maybe you should get a job that would make you better at closing a deal."

Nervous students in the audience who thought they could just pivot on their startup idea until they came up with the next Facebook quickly pivoted to an entirely different train of thought.

 This post has been updated to add additional statements from last night's panel.

Guests mingle on a Long Island City rooftop before demos begin

More than 150 people braved last night’s land hurricane--technically called a derecho--to attend Coalition for Queens’ second Queens Tech Meetup at Hunters Point Plaza in Long Island City.

Unfortunately, the crowd of young professionals was only able to enjoy rooftop views of the Manhattan skyline for a short while before the clouds came rolling in. Thankfully, the demos inside provided plenty of amusement, including a tug-of-war match and a feline photo shoot for mycatandi.com.

Charlie O’Donnell, a partner at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures and the event’s first demonstrator, was astounded by the turnout of the meetup.

“I think I probably went to the fifth or sixth New York Tech Meetup and we were a whopping 30 people,” Mr. O’Donnell told the audience. “Now I look at like five times the amount of people in the room at the second Queens Tech Meetup and it’s really unbelievable.”

Mr. O’Donnell spoke about his outlook on the future of the tech scene in New York and how he sees Queens fitting into it.

“A couple of years from now you’re going to be able to walk across the bridge and go to one of the preeminent engineering and applied sciences school in the country and the only place you can walk to from there is Queens,” Mr. O’Donnell said. “Obviously this is a transportation hub; it’s actually one of the few places that is convenient to get to via the G train.”

Last night’s event also included demonstrations from Skillshare, OKFocus and Aereo.

Leighann Farrelly, community development manager at Skillshare, an online learning marketplace, shared a free lesson in teamwork with the audience through a tug of war match. But she also shared news about Skillshare’s collaboration plans with Coalition for Queens to provide affordable, high-quality tech education in areas such as computer programming, digital marketing and entrepreneurship on CUNY campuses in Queens.

“We’re starting to see people in need of tech skills, and if you go through the traditional education spectrum, they’re super expensive and not that accessible,” Ms. Farrelly explained. “We have the same mission as Coalition for Queens, which is that we need to provide people with more opportunities to be a bigger part of the New York tech scene.”

OKFocus, a full service digital agency run by Ryder Ripps and Jonathan Vingiano that's notorious for PR stunts like that fake Kanye West site, was also in attendance. They demoed a new website called My Cat and I that detects cats in photos. The team explained that the site demonstrates OKFocus’ goal to create concept-driven work that stands out in function and design. Plus, the Internet's affection for cats is well-documented.

Finally, it was Aereo's turn. Nick Sallon, the startup's director of content and business development, and Chris Mckay, Aereo's customer service manager were both on hand to demo the subscription service that enables New York City residents to view locally broadcasted television streamed online. Aereo, introduced by Coalition for Queens founder Jukay Hsu as "a TV platform so disruptive everyone's suing it," recently won a dismissal of injunction brought against it in a lawsuit by 17 broadcasters including ABC, NBC and CBS.

A few months ago, Aereo's CEO Chet Kanojia demoed his service to a packed house at the New York Tech Meetup in Manhattan, eliciting a roar of wild applause.

In Queens, the Aereo team showcased the service’s features and carefully addressed questions from the audience concerning the lawsuit. While they declined to provide much insight on the legal battle, Aereo's representatives told the audience that the startup is considering plans for growth because of its recent lawsuit win. However, they haven't yet decided which cities will be included in its expansion.

We just hope it's not Kansas City, since getting Google Fiber first has undoubtedly spoiled them.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated that Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia was present at the Queens Tech Meetup and demoed the service. Betabeat regrets the error.

via itsasickness.com

A week after we wondered whether Dumbo has hit maximum capacity--cobblestone streets, now in limited supply!--venture capitalists have arrived to big ups the borough.

Will Porteous, general partner at Manhattan-based RRE Ventures, tells peHUB that Brooklyn may just be the best place to launch, pointing out that eight RRE portfolio companies call Brooklyn home. Err, make that "were." Drop.io and Hot Potato were acquired (or acqui-hired, depending on who you ask) by Facebook in 2010, but that still leaves HowAboutWe, MakerBot, Pontiflex, and more for serious street cred.

Brooklyn Bridge Ventures founder Charlie O'Donnell, formerly of First Round Capital, does Mr. Porteous one better, wondering if Facebook will even be able to make devs happy from its stodgy Midtown perch. Estimating that "50 percent of people who work at venture-backed startups live in Brooklyn,” Mr. O'Donnell thinks the exodus has already begun.

So what's all the fuss about? According to peHUB, Mr. Porteous seems particularly taken with Brooklyn's creativity-inducing environs--and the sunbeams--going as far as claiming it's better for humans, basically.

“Software development and entrepreneurship are creative endeavors, and Brooklyn is synonymous with creativity,” says Porteous. More, he notes, “The quality of life is incredibly high in Brooklyn, relative to what it costs to live [in Manhattan]. Certain kinds of basic, human needs are abundantly met over there” including “just the light alone.”

Mr. O'Donnell, meanwhile, pegs it as more to the growing pains of New York tech:

“I was 25 or so” when the scene in New York began taking off again in 2005, explains O’Donnell. “But my peers are now in their early 30s. People are doing the marriage and kids thing, and they’re moving into South Brooklyn, Prospect Park, Cobble Hill, Carol Gardens. [The neighborhoods] are far more affordable [than Manhattan], and they’re places that are conducive to family life, as opposed to [Manhattan], where you’re falling over each other to get your kids into private schools.”

Look, we are all for headlines like "A VC Portfolio Grows In Brooklyn." We moved to Brooklyn five years ago and we're never looking back. Having an office closer to where you live also sounds like nice work, if you can get it. But let's not pretend that Brooklyn is any more preternaturally creative (we hear some very nice books, movies, code, etc. have come out of Manhattan as well), humane, or even immune to rising rents or the excruciating New York pressure of scrambling to get your kid into a good (public) school. As long as we can avoid overselling it, we're good. Otherwise, you know, it's a slippery slope from here to "Portlandia."

via BrooklynBridgeVentures.com

On his blog this morning, New York City tech stalwart Charlie O'Donnell announced the creation of a new seed investment fund called Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. Mr. O'Donnell, who used to bike the 9.2 miles from his home in Bay Ridge to his last job—principal at First Round Capital in Union Square—says his is the first venture capital fund based in Brooklyn and that the borough "has the potential to be the very best place in the world to start a technology business."

Business Insider's sources say Mr. O'Donnell's fund will be $10 million. Betabeat has heard somewhere in the range of $10 million to $20 million and that Quotidian Ventures might be his first big LP, although Mr. O'Donnell would not return earlier calls to confirm. We have reached out to Quotidian and will update the post when we hear back.

For the past two years, Mr. O'Donnell, who founded Path 101, has been working at First Round, first as an entrepreneur-in-residence, and then, in November 2010, as a principal at the fund. On his blog, First Round's managing director Josh Kopelman said his one-year term was extended "after witnessing Charlie’s hustle and energy firsthand." He was particular critical to the firm, says Mr. Kopelman, in expanding its presence in New York as well as sourcing seven deals including GroupMe, which was acquired by Skype.

According to both Mr. O'Donnell and Mr. Kopelman, building his own investment firm has long been a goal.

"In fact, it’s what Henry Blodget told me I should do the first time I met him--back in May of 2007 during a pre-Business Insider lunch at Coffee Shop.  Josh Kopelman said the same thing to me about a year ago and we’ve talked a lot about firm building in my time at First Round."

At Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, the plan is to lead or co-lead seed rounds and helping with recruiting, PR, and product management. When we spoke in July about the tech talent crunch in New York, Mr. O'Donnell said he spent about a third of his time recruiting for First Round portfolio companies.

Another hallmark of his new fund? A Brooklyn state of mind. The Bensohurst native writes:

"Given that many of the companies I work with don’t even have offices yet, and that many of their founders and future employees live in Brooklyn, I won’t be surprised of the majority of the fund winds up being invested in Brooklyn startups.  It’s a great place to build a business--creative, less expensive, flexible, etc.  However, my goal is not to geographically limit the fund but to help create and leverage an ecosystem that connects and attracts talent and knowledge in such a way that people all over the city want to be a part of it.  I want to erase the barrier to attending a Meetup in Brooklyn and make building here a bigger part of everyone’s consideration set.  I’ll fund deals elsewhere for sure, but I hope to convince folks that you won’t want to be elsewhere."

Any doubts about his street cred, just check out the urban brick background to his new website. Or this inspirational video:

Made In Brooklyn from Brooklyn Bridge Ventures on Vimeo.