(Photo: Vyou)

VYou, the NYC-based video question and answer site that raised $3 million back in May 2011, will be shutting down its consumer-facing product next week. The company, which operates from an office in SoHo, sent out an email to users today announcing that they will no longer be able to upload videos starting April 3rd. By April 5th, the site will shut down completely.

VYou cofounder Steve Spurgat told Betabeat by phone that the shutdown was primarily tied to the well of VC cash running dry. "A lot of it was capital related," he admitted. "I think in the end it was just more of a business decision  We had a very dedicated, very active community, but there just weren't enough of them." Mr. Spurgat declined to share user metrics.

Despite the fact that regular users will no longer be able to record and share videos on the site, VYou won't be shutting down completely. The core team of five will continue working on custom integrations for celebrities and media companies "In the end all of our traffic was happening off the site rather than on the site," Mr. Spurgat said, meaning that the majority of VYou's traffic came from VYou products embedded on outside sites.

The company had wrangled a host of big names, like Oprah, Kat Dennings and the cast of Doctor Who, to join up. Recently the site hosted high profile VCs like Adam Ludwin and Dave Tisch (both VYou investors) as part of its "Ask Angel Investors & Venture Capitalists Group." Given this news it's hard not to see the Ask a VC series as a last ditch effort to enlist financiers to spur more interest in the consumer side of the business.

Here's the full text of the email sent out to users:

Dearest VYou Community,

Video answers to life's questions, spread all over the web. VYou was founded on that simple idea and generated millions of videos, from YouTubers falling off of chairs to Martin Luther King III sharing stories about his father.

Now, sadly, this email comes with unfortunate news. VYou is shutting down. Keeping the website running is no longer possible.

Next Wednesday, April 3rd, the website will no longer allow you to record videos. On Friday, the website will come down entirely. You will be able to receive all of your videos at that time (more info here).

Through all the peaks and even the outages, the tight knit VYou community has meant so much to us. The VYou team is still together and working on awesome stuff - this won't be the last you hear from us.

We'll still be around, always. Feel free to email us at hi@vyou.com

Much Love,
The VYou Team

Gallery gurl.

Yesterday night, Vine, the video-clip sharing app Twitter acquired back in October, held its launch party at Marquee. Yes, that Marquee. DJs spun above a lighted sign with the hashtag "#party," and users obliged by Vine-ing the experience.

There was the meta-Vine of people Vine-ing at the Vine launch. And, because no one got the memo, an attempt to do the white man's Harlem Shake. Although our favorite had to be a guest appearance from "Gallery Girl" Chantal Chadwick.

Chantal from "Gallery Girls" at last night's Vine party: vine.co/v/b6Egw5WnxTT

— Rex Sorgatz (@fimoculous) February 22, 2013

"I guess the interesting thing was that it wasn't a tech-heavy crowd," one guest told Betabeat. "This sounds strange to say, but it felt more like a cultural event, almost something you would have witnessed in pre-millennial NYC." Hey, if the bubble fits.

As for Vine itself, by February 19 the app--which hung in the top 10 spot for the first week of its existence--had fallen to number 73 in the rankings of free apps, according to AppData. Maybe everyone needs to up their video game?

(Photo: Instagram via TMZ)

Snoop In Startupland According to TMZ, Snoop Dogg and Suge Knight buried the hatchet at AV Club in Los Angeles this week. And who should take credit for the amicable reunion but Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, who was photographed in the VIP section along with Snoop, Mr. Knight, and venture capitalist and Uber advisor Shervin Pishevar.

.@uber making peace in the LBC: tmz.com/2013/02/22/sno…#sugeANDsnoop cc/@shervin @snoopdogg

— travis kalanick (@travisk) February 22, 2013

Snoop, who's palled around with Sean Parker and Mark Zuckerberg in the past, is slated to appear at SXSW Interactive next month to promote Leap Motion, a hand gesture controller. Hey Mike Judge, you may want to take a gander at our reporter's notebook.

Type-uhoh Brit Morin, founder of Brit + Co. and wife to Path founder Dave Morin, might have run into a little autocorrect problem. "Catch this week's BritList for your daily dose of dishonesty," she tweeted last week.

Dishonesty? Either that's a typo, or Ms. Morin had some sort of come-to-Jesus moment about the real truth behind the perilous world of crafting.

(Photo: Twitter)

Trivial Pursuit Techstars' former managing director, Dave Tisch, may have recently left the incubator, but that doesn't mean he's resting on his laurels. Mr. Tisch Instagrammed a slightly humblebraggy photo showing some spoils from a recent trip to Dave & Busters. "Successful evening dominating trivia," he captioned the photo, which showed hundreds of arcade tickets flowing out of paper cups. The real question is what he brought with those tickets. Our bet's on the 2006-era iPod.

(Photo: Instagram)

Caught with his pants down New York Times technology writer Nick Bilton is really, really excited for both Google Glass and Apple's rumored iWatch. Like, so excited he doesn't even give a f*ck about pants. Can't say he's not dedicated to his craft.

https://twitter.com/nickbilton/status/304666533190332416

FacePlace Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In hits bookstores in March, and feedback is already trickling out. One reviewer? Mark Zuckerberg, who popped into a Facebook conversation and said, "I think 'radically realistic' is a very good description of what you write in this book." We can't say we're entirely surprised "work harder" as a solution to gender inequality would appeal to a workaholic kid billionaire.

Who needs Zuck's support when you've got Ms. Sandberg's infinite self-confidence, though? She recently appeared in the documentary Makers saying, "I always thought I would run a social movement." Well all righty then!

(Update, 2/26/12) Turns out, there's a little more context to that line about running a social movement, beyond what the New York Times quoted Ms. Sandberg as saying. The Grey Lady has issued a correction:

In a video excerpt, which accompanied the article online, she said: “I always thought I would run a social movement, which meant basically work at a nonprofit. I never thought I’d work in the corporate sector.” She did not merely say, “I always thought I would run a social movement.”

Robot rock Who can resist a little hashtag trolling?

#ifihadglass my individuality would serve the collective. Shields lowered, ready to assimilate... #resistanceisfutile twitter.com/smart/status/3…

— Steve Martocci (@smart) February 20, 2013

Baby, baby, baby A social media mystery to ponder, from Twitter biz dev VP Jana Messerschmidt: "Photos of babies on Facebook annoy me, while Vines of babies make my day. Why is this?" We're going to guess it's the cooing noises.

Ms. Glaros. (Photo: NearlyNicole.com)

TechStars NYC has been quiet since August, when managing director David Tisch announced that he would be stepping back from his day-to-day role at the accelerator program. Almost exactly a year ago, we profiled Mr. Tisch's rise to prominence in New York's startup scene largely through his role in building a satellite program for TechStars, which entered the local market just when it could benefit from a little infrastructure.

(Early observers will recall that the first class of TechStars New York was filmed for a reality show, but managed to escape the humorless vitriol directed at Randi Zuckerberg--probably because the TechStars version was for Bloomberg instead of Bravo, and involved about 100 percent fewer toga parties.) Over the past few years, Mr. Tisch has become a prolific angel investor through Box Group, and his name frequently shows up in seed funding rounds for New York companies--TechStars and otherwise. Thus finding a replacement who is as well-versed in the scene might be tricky.

But accelerator season waits for no man. Today, TechStars founder and CEO David Cohen announced an interim replacement for Mr. Tisch. Serial entrepreneur Nicole Glaros, who has been managing director of TechStars in Boulder since 2009, will be moving out East for the spring. With a new figurehead in place, applications are officially opening today for the program that starts April 4. In a blog post, Mr. Cohen, who will also be "partially based" in New York this session, wrote:

Of all of our Managing Directors nationally, Nicole has the most experience with the culture and heart of TechStars and has run five TechStars programs since 2009. She’s been responsible for funding and working with many great companies such as Ubooly, Cloudability, Mobiplug, Orbotix, and dozens more. Once we name a new permanent Managing Director for NYC, Nicole will be on site to train that person alongside her during the program next spring.

In an email to Betabeat, Mr. Cohen said "we think the permanent Managing Director in NYC will be someone from that area." As for the program's criteria, it's the same as it ever was. "We're simply looking for the best founders that we can meaningfully help," he said. "We've funded very diverse things in the past, and we'll continue to go after big ideas. I think our recent Boston class was as good example of that."

In the meantime, Ms. Glaros, who says she "love[s] people, but hates crowds," might want to steel herself for the subway-riding experience:

@leithstevens yes, excited! I'll be a little fish in the worlds biggest ocean. :-)

— Nicole Glaros (@nglaros) November 19, 2012

This post has been updated to include comments from Mr. Cohen. 

High Peaks cofounder Brad Svrluga, whom Sidetour cofounder Mark Webster thinks is handsome. (Photo: VYou)

When we first joined VYou back in its beta phase, it seemed like just another platform for innocuous oversharing, albeit a higher maintenance one: instead of oversharing from bed in your PJs, you had to look rather presentable to record a video of yourself.

But now, as celebrities flock to the video question and answer platform as a new way to connect with fans, VYou is focusing on building out another aspect of its site: video-based knowledge sharing. In the upcoming weeks, VYou will be assembling groups of experts in various areas. Users can ask them questions and get responses directly from the experts.

To inaugurate this upcoming feature, VYou has launched an "Ask Angel Investors & Venture Capitalist" group, featuring a slew of New York bigwigs like Dave Tisch, Adam Ludwin and Alex Taussig.

"This is the first group that we’ve done and it’s the first one that’s really focused on expert knowledge," Steve Spurgat, VYou's CEO, told Betabeat by phone. "In the past we’ve had channels; many of what were formerly channels will become groups. But we’re evolving this even further into the ability for people to define themselves as having a certain level of knowledge or a certain interest and then be able to accept question or answer questions that are around that interest. This group is our first foray into that."

Mr. Spurgat admitted that this Q&A knowledge sharing effort does bear some resemblance to Quora, but that asking and recording answers on video "gives a more intimate view into how people are sharing information." It also lends legitimacy to experts, who users might otherwise assume have assistants run their social media accounts. Of course, just because you're video recording your answer doesn't necessarily keep you from bullshitting.

"Venture capitalists are definitely people that others want to learn from and interact with, but they don’t always feel very accessible," Mr. Spurgat added.

And yes, all of the VCs that VYou got to participate in this group so far are investors in VYou themselves (surprise, surprise).

The folks at VYou were kind enough to allow Betabeat to ask a handful of questions of the investors and we expended a lot of energy controlling ourselves from asking flat out, "Do you ever feel like you're full of shit?" Instead, our questions touched on hardware vs. software startups, vulture capital and portfolio financial metrics. We also asked, "What's a thing that a portfolio company could spend money on that would annoy you?"

Mr. Taussig was unfailingly diplomatic in his response, but when "forced," he replied that "other than gross offenses like private planes," he would have to go with "spending a lot of money on paid advertising before you're ready." Mr. Nova was equally gracious. "Most of the companies we invest in are pretty smart with our money. We typically don't like to see fancy office spaces or furniture or crazy travel and entertainment budgets. But in 20 years of investing I haven't seen a company overspend in these areas." Mr. Tisch said that really excessive founder salaries "don't make sense."

You can watch some of their answers here, or embedded below.

Lights, camera, Tisch! (Photo: Leap Year)

When the Techstars reality show on Bloomberg TV gets too intense (What will happen to To Vie For!?!), award-winning producer Wilson Cleveland has a solution for you. His web series Leap Year, presented by Hiscox Insurance, chronicles the personal and professional lives of several employees at a startup called C3D, which is "like Skype with holograms." The show follows the ups (but mostly downs) of building a startup, with a wry comedic voice and plenty of inside jokes for the tech set. In fact, the show garnered so many Startupland fans that a couple of  New York’s better-known tech glitterati make appearances in this season.

Today, Mr. Cleveland and the Leap Year team released an episode featuring none other than Techstars cofounder Dave Tisch, Shelby.TV cofounder Reece Pacheco, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian and Change the Ratio cofounder Rachel Sklar. Quite the star-studded cast.

Mr. Tisch plays himself and introduces a competition, the winner of which will get to go through the Techstars program. Mr. Ohanian offers some unsolicited startup advice: "Follow the crowd. We are all herd animals and one way or another that cute video of the old people trying to figure out their web cam or some cute little piglet running around in galoshes is just Mark Zuckerberg's way of hunting us down and eating us. Think about it." Is this some obscure reference to the hive mind?

Ms. Sklar's hilarious self-referential cameo--including a "Change the Ratio" t-shirt, an unnecessary fist bump and a "Girl power!" declaration--were all pretty spot on.

Poor Mr. Pacheco--who played a lowly bus boy clearning off a table where the main cast was sitting--had no lines whatsoever. Do you think that performance qualifies him for a SAG membership?

You can check out the whole episode below.

(internetweekny.com)

Unless you've gone off the grid, you probably already know that Internet Week 2012 launches on Monday. But with a dizzying number of events to attend, it's hard to figure out which ones are worth the time, effort and subway fare. Betabeat guest blogger Gary Sharma, something of an events truffle hound, already penned his personal list of recommendations. But consider this Betabeat's official to-do list: blogger tested, Betabeat approved.

The Art of Apps Gallery Opening
Monday, May 14th, 10am-6pm
138 Sullivan St.

Expect a lot of rounded edges and pixel talk at this gallery opening, featuring the designs of tech types like Path's Dave Morin, Jon Slimak of Piictu and Matias Corea of Behance. The exhibit will feature some of the best UI designs for apps on iPhone and iPad.

NYU ITP Spring 2012 Show
Monday, May 14th, 5pm-8pm
721 Broadway, 4th Floor

We write about ITP a lot (see the Listserve, the Descriptive Camera, and Kickstriker for some recent examples), mostly because the majority of projects produced by the students at NYU's interactive telecommunications program are actually really, really cool. ITP will unveil its best projects to the public in a two-day spring show on Monday 5/14 and Tuesday 5/15, and we think it's worth attending if only for the chance to see most of the most nimble young minds in the city at work.

Choosey Netizens Choose GIF: Analyzing an Animated Cultural Lexicon
Tuesday, May 15, 12pm-12:45pm
82 Mercer St.

We are huge fans of animated GIFs. In fact, we would probably devolve into communicating entirely through tiny moving pictures, if we could. Motherboard deputy editor Sean Yeaton will discuss how the GIF became its own cultural phenomenon.

Why Being a Good CEO has Nothing to Do With Being a Woman
Tuesday, May 15, 1pm-1:45pm
82 Mercer St.

If you haven't noticed, all of the full-time staff writers here at Betabeat possess two X chromosomes, so we're never ones to turn down a good panel about our fellow XX in tech. Featuring Birchbox cofounder Hayley Barna and Nestio CEO Caren Maio, in addition to some other talented lady founders, the discussion should offer some helpful advice on leading as a woman in the tech community.

TIME Inc.’s 10 Startups to Watch
Wednesday, May 16, 6:30pm-8:30pm
Top Secret

The list of TIME's 10 startups to watch reads like a week in Betabeat posts: NYC tech scene favs Code Academy, Art.sy, Fab.com and Side Tour are among the honorees. But the event is invite-only so be sure to get on the guest list if you want to attend.

WeWorkLabs Happy Hour
Wednesday, May 16, 5pm-8pm
175 Varick St., 4th Floor

First off: there will be free beer at this event. Plus, you'll get to check out the coworking space of WeWorkLabs, a NYC tech staple that seeks to foster collaboration between up-and-coming entrepreneurs. Check out some of the pitches from WeWorkLabs members and network with other like-minded techies.

hackNY Fundraiser
Wednesday, May 16, 7pm-9pm
foursquare HQ: 568 Broadway, 10th Floor

10gen will be providing drinks for a celebration of the hackNY community, an event to help raise funds "for the future tech innovators of New York City," and keep kids off Wall Street as the slogan goes. We had a pretty great time at the last hackNY fundraiser. But if nothing else, it's a chance to peep Foursquare's sweet office digs.

The Webutante Ball
Wednesday, May 16th, 8pm-11:55pm
Marquee

Don't pretend like you don't want to see the digerati all dolled up. The Webutante Ball is in its 4th year, and it's not really getting any cooler, but there will be lots of drinks. The "prom committee" is packed with NYC tech allstars, like Ben Lerer, Dave Tisch, plus old school fameball Julia Allison.

Walkabout NYC
Friday, May 18th, 1pm-6pm
187 Lafayette St. 6th Floor

If you're a fan of the Roger Mag, or just an interior design nut, you'll probably want to take some time to hit up Walkabout NYC, an open house of startup offices around the city. The lineup includes Betaworks, Gilt Groupe, Tumblr and Facebook, among many others.

Future of Media Panel
Friday, May 18th, 1pm-2pm
20 Cooper Sq. at 5th st. (NYU's journalism HQ)

Oh look, another panel to discuss the future of an industry about which no one has the slightest clue. Yay. But! The lineup is packed with A-list names in both media and tech, including Buzzfeed's Jonah Peretti, Thrillist's Ben Lerer and Jezebel's Jessica Coen. As long as everyone's candid about the real state of things, we think it should prove pretty entertaining.

RETROACTIVE FOUNDING EDITOR. Last week, Betabeat wrote about Saul Hansell's move from AOL/Huffington Post to betaworks. "The founding editor of the Bits blog!" we trumpeted, as per Mr. Hansell's self-description. Oops. "Saul Hansell was not the founding editor of Bits," writes a source at the The New York Times. "He helped create it as a reporter and played no small part in getting it going as the first lead Bits blogger. But he was not the editor. He never was an editor at the Times."

THE GUESSING GAME CONTINUES. Who is @fakedavetisch? "Your guess is close; it's 2 people; it is one of the people on your list of 4, and the other one is missing," writes a local VC. "All the guesses are wrong for @fakedavetisch," said another founder. "It's a significant other of someone in the community." Hmm... new guesses:

Lauren Gilchrist. Because @fakedavetisch has excellent grammar.

Christine Lemke. Significant other, Twitter says similar to @fakedavetisch.

Elisa Cutrin Aller. Because homegirl is funny.

Phineas Barnes. Because we picked up a Twitter follow from this candidate, although that could have been because of the other thing.

Phineas Barnes: The VC's tweets are stylistically similar, and @fakedavetisch tweeted to his #todayskicks app. "But pretty sure Phineas doesn't have a mean bone in his body," one VC countered.

Caren Maio: We got a tip that the Nestio CEO and TechStar could be the brilliant mind behind the snark. "Haha no, I'm not...but please let me know when you find out! I've been trying to figure it out for months," she told Betabeat in an email.

Phoebe Espiritu: The hackstar doth protest too much, wethinks... "Nooo keep @fakedavetisch's identity secret! It would be like unmasking Batman!" she tweeted. Sounds like something @fakedavetisch would say, we countered. "No! I wish! otherwise I'd give myself hugs and hoodies all the time!" she said.

Sarah Tavel: The Bessemer VC just moved out to S.F. One source said she's too much of a straight shooter; another claimed she "wasn't around for TechStars." But we're not so sure...

Or perhaps it's one of the mischief-makers at Betaworks, well-known for their puckish fake Twitters @ArcticTonyPuns, @bw_ac and @hallwaycat. Got a clue? Tell us all you know.

YOUR MONEY OR... YOUR LIFE. It all started with a question that had been bugging us: do investors encourage their investees to buy health insurance? Or is that not lean? Betabeat hit the phones and we found out something fun: health insurance is rarely a requirement in term sheets, but life insurance often is. Some VC firms are more aggressive about it than others--Union Square Ventures seems keen on it, though, as apparently the Shapeways founders had to get policies. Now the question is, how much are they worth?

HOMETOWN LOYALTY. Yay! Foursquare is here to stay! Betabeat has learned that Foursquare's lease on its new office in Soho is currently drafted until 2018--meaning the startup plans to stick around in NYC for a good long time--it's only like, four years old, remember--despite recently opening an apparently very trendy San Francisco office. The deal hasn't been signed yet, as far as we know, but it's really looking like Foursquare got the space despite a last-minute threat from future building mate ZocDoc.

Bloomberg's TechStars finale, which included a cast reunion.

The finale of the TechStars reality show is out, and it's starting to look like Bloomberg took the Davids for a ride. Everyone in TechStars was required to participate--Bloomberg kept referring to the show as a documentary, and the program directors insisted it would be good publicity for everyone. "Tisch and Cohen fought VERY hard to make sure the finale episode was positive," Melanie Moore, one of the first New York session alumni who was uncharitably portrayed, wrote on Hacker News last night when her blog post, "TechStars, Lies and Videotape," hit the front page. "They felt just as disappointed and betrayed by Bloomberg as I."

The show stitched together unrelated scenes and built a narrative that was in places entirely fabricated. It made Ms. Moore look like a ditz, David Tisch look like jerk and Jason Baptiste look like a braggert. But how did it make TechStars look?

From the Hacker News comments:

• "It's nice that the startup founders are defending Techstars, but as a potential applicant, this whole thing does raise red flags for me. Doing a startup is hard enough with your personal emotional ups and downs. To add a reality tv show to that just seems like the worst idea ever. Maybe it's good for media startups to get as much press as possible, good or bad. But this blog post seems to suggest otherwise. If the people running Techstars really got fooled by Bloomberg, then how can I trust these people about giving good startup advice?" -revorad
• "This actually reflects poorly on TechStars that they gave so much access to a media source without proper negotiaion and/or enforcement." -badclient
• "But still, forcing companies to do something or drop out? That is not how an accelerator should treat its companies, like they were your bosses. The only boss a startup should have is its customers, and now TS, due to its poor judgement has done the opposite of what it was meant to do. Not only do they make poor calls, but they also bully founders?" -abbasmehdi

And the worst:

• "I would be shocked if PG allowed a program like this about YC to air." -marcamillion

Ms. Moore and the other Bloomberg stars jumped to the incubator's defense. "Please do not let the show color your opinion of TechStars. I would do the program over in a heartbeat, and made lifelong friends and mentors along the way," she told one potential applicant, who answered: "I'm not. Friends and advisors who have gone through it or are otherwise related to the program have very highly recommended it so we're still full speed ahead on the application. Incidentally, our company is working in technology around video editing."

Says Mr. Tisch, by email: "The show presents only a tiny fraction of what actually happened--under one percent of what was probably filmed was used, and obviously focuses on drama. Our goal was to encourage mentorship and to help others understand the difficulties and challenges of doing a startup and we hope that's the case. But people do have to remember that they're watching TV--a narrated and massively summarized version of events."

With Demo Day coming up tomorrow, ten out of 11 companies is the number to beat. That's ratio of startups from TechStars inaugural class that got funded. But keep in mind not everyone had a killer Demo Day. For some, funding didn't come till a few months down the line. "It's like the SATs," one mentor told Betabeat of Demo Day. "Some people are good at testing, some aren't."

There's a lot riding on tomorrow's event--the funding environment isn't quite as frothy as it was for TechStarsNY 1.0, and the companies are well aware of that, mentors told Betabeat. "It's a more fragile period of time than last Demo Day," said the mentor. "They realize that they gotta be on their game." As such, companies have been pounding out the decks, practicing demos for each other almost every week.

Perhaps it's because the cameras aren't around, or perhaps because TechStars New York is more established, but there’s less ego in this class and fewer type-A personalities. Investors promise that this Demo Day will still have plenty of showmanship and say this season’s TechStars class is fundamentally very solid. Many companies have partnerships; some have revenue. Almost all have raised money or gotten commitments–several New York VCs told us they had invested in at least one of the startups. Two companies won’t even really be raising money, one mentor said, because they don’t need it."

Curious to know who pivoted and who's already closed their round? Check out our cheat sheet, get your game face on for tomorrow and pick your ponies in the comments.

Update: SideTour announced their funding today on TechCrunch, a $1.5 million round led by RRE and Foundry Group. We noted in the slideshow they already had their lead investors locked down, but it seems unlikely now they will try to grow their round tomorrow.